After our Christmas singing visit to Lydiafield, we were delighted to be invited for a return visit to chat to the ladies and gentlemen who live there. This little group of children made us feel very proud as they chatted and played games with some of the residents. It was lovely to see smiles all round from young and old. Thank you to the staff and residents of Lydiafield for making us feel so welcome. We are looking forward to our next visit.
Having visited the Music Department at Annan Academy several times and had exciting visits in Nursery from a Science teacher and STEM Ambassadors, we were delighted to be able to arrange a visit by some of the Raindrop Room to the Technical Department at Annan Academy towards the end of last term. This was a fantastic opportunity for our children to experience model making at a whole new level and to learn how to safely use tools that we do not normally provide in Nursery.
Mr. Paul Johnston, Principal Teacher of Technical Education, and several of his senior pupils modelled how to use a range of tools then showed great patience to help our children make spinning tops. Each child used a ruler to mark the centre of their wood and donned safety goggles as the senior pupils made a hole in it for them. Mr. Johnston and his pupils showed great patience to teach our children how to hold the wood safely and supported them to use the electric sander. We were so proud of our children who showed super listening skills and concentration to be able to use the sander safely.
Once the spinning tops were complete, the children enjoyed using the coloured pencils to decorate their tops and some were even supported to sharpen the pencils with Mr. Johnston’s tools.
This was a fantastic opportunity for our children, experiencing learning in Numeracy and Mathematics, Technologies and Health and Wellbeing and we greatly appreciate the kindness and patience of Mr. Johnston and his pupils on this visit. Thank you also for the off cuts of wood which are being put to good use in Nursery. We have loved our visits to Annan Academy and hope that we can continue to learn from you in the future.
Outdoor play is always very popular with our children, regardless of weather, and most are enthusiastic to experience any outdoor activities on offer. Here you can get a taste of a typical winter’s day when the children in the Raindrop Room enjoyed marshmallows by the fire and created sculptures from stones. We think that they produced some super artwork and everyone looks to be enjoying the campfire as always.
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Having already spread a little Christmas happiness with their singing at the Old Parish Friendship Club, some children also made a visit to Lydiafield towards the end of term to sing a few Christmas songs and chat to the residents. We were made to feel so welcome and the smiles and tapping feet told us that the children had a great impact on the residents. We felt very proud of their behaviour and confidence in a new situation. Thank you so much to everyone at Lydiafield for a delicious snack and a warm welcome. We hope that you all have a good Christmas.
This week we were very lucky to be invited back for a visit by the ladies and gentlemen of the Friendship Club in the Old Parish Church hall. As we had thoroughly enjoyed our previous visit, we were keen to make a return trip to entertain everyone with a selection of our Christmas songs. This group of children showed great confidence in an unfamiliar situation and did a super job of providing entertainment to those enjoying a Christmas lunch. It was wonderful to see young and old chatting together and we hope that those at the Friendship Club enjoyed their little visitors. The children were also very interested in the nativity scene outside the church so we spent a little time there talking about it. Thank you to everyone at the Friendship Club for your warm welcome and of course for the delicious snack. We hope to see you again in the future.
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Our children have become increasingly independent in the preparation of their own snack and are developing so many skills in this area. Recently they were able to make their own choices of topping for a mini pizza which was such a fun learning activity and provided a very tasty, warm snack on a chilly day. As you can imagine, the smell in Nursery was delicious and everybody was very keen to take part in the snack preparation.
Those in the Raindrop Room enjoyed taking part in Yvonne and Louise’s information and taster session just as much as those in the Rainbow Room last week. We were delighted that parents, grandparents and childminders were able to join us and everyone appreciated the suggestions and the opportunity to taste different foods.
A few more comments included:
“Very informative, great to see the kids trying different foods. The banana ice-cream was really good. Some very useful tips”.
“Explained all the foods, colours and about textures, very tasty”.
“Good to see the kids try different stuff and some of the stuff was nice”.
“Very informative and useful information and great for the children to try things they maybe wouldn’t try at home”.
Thank you so much to Yvonne and Louise for their time and super advice. Children, staff and our families all thoroughly enjoyed your sessions.
Making soup has been a popular activity in the Raindrop Room lately and this little group showed great skills and safety awareness to prepare all the vegetables for a delicious big pan of soup, just perfect for a frosty day. Everything always tastes good when you make it yourself and the children seemed to enjoy the results of their hard work.
Children are often intrigued by the minibeasts they see outdoors as part of their play and finding a worm can arouse great curiosity. Some of the children in the Rainbow Room talked about where worms live and how we could find them. They wondered how many might live in their garden so decided to do a little survey. As you can see, they were enthusiastic to do lots of digging to find worms and developed their Maths skills by measuring them to find the shortest and longest and then counted them each day to record on a graph. What great little investigative scientists they were and it was great to see how gentle all the children were with the worms that they found.
“Wear What You Want Day” on Friday raised a generous sum of £260 for Children In Need while providing the children with the opportunity to come to Nursery in a wide range of outfits. Don’t they all just look great?
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