Responsible Citizens – Page 50 – Hecklegirth Nursery

Milly and Timmy Come to Play

We hope you like the latest visitors to our Nursery. The children loved meeting Milly and Timmy who were very patient and allowed us to stroke and feed them. We hope you enjoy some of our comments and photos of our latest visitors.

Sarah They’re really cute. They’re littler than a tiny star and they’re not pretend.

Nairn I’m going to take my bike and work on the farm and when it’s dark and the lambs run away, I’m going to bring them back to the farm.

Poppy They were both looking right at me. They’re so cute.

Ellie One had a sore knee. I hope it gets better.

Summer We fed the little lambs and one tried to go to sleep.

Niamh I liked patting them. They felt soft.

Out and About in the Community

As we have been learning about our community and the people who work in it, we recently paid visits to our local sorting office and police station.

On Red Nose Day local fire officers visited Nursery and we had great fun trying out the hose on the fire appliance, as well as learning how to stay safe. The firefighters joined in the fun, borrowing silly hats for Red Nose Day.

The children enjoyed this taster of the world of work and several hope to be postal workers, firefighters or police officers in the future although our discussions have revealed that many also have dreams of becoming a princess or a pirate.

Growing Families

Growing Families is a joint Family Learning and Nursery project about vegetables and how to grow them. To get started we are going to be reading “Oliver’s Vegetables”, making food mats and growing cress. All parents/carers are invited to come and listen to the story with their child, help him/her to make a placemat and decorate a pot to grow cress on Wednesday 16^th March.

Please add your name to the list on the Family Learning notice board to join in the fun. We look forward to as many families as possible taking part. Thanks go, as always, to Eileen Johnstone, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, for organising this activity.

Visit to Primary 4

This week we were invited to visit Primary 4 to see their work on Annan. In Nursery we have been learning about our local community so it was interesting to see what the older children had found out. The boys and girls in Primary 4 looked after us very well and told us all about their newspapers and wonderful displays. Nursery children were good listeners and showed great confidence in the wider school environment. Thank you very much to Miss Cameron and Primary 4 for making us feel so welcome.

Thank You

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the children and their families for raising the magnificent sum of £359 for Marie Curie. We greatly appreciate your sponsorship of the care of daffodil bulbs the children had planted. A nurse from Marie Curie visited us in Nursery yesterday to talk to the children about how the money will be used and she was very grateful for our efforts. Well done to all the children who looked after their bulbs. You really are growing up to be responsible citizens and effective contributors.

“Gung Hay Fat Choy”

With the arrival of Chinese New Year, the sounds of “Gung Hay Fat Choy” (“Happy New Year”) have been heard round Nursery as we learn about the traditions, celebrations and story of this special time for Chinese people. Our Chinese feast consisted of noodles, rice, prawn crackers and various sauces for dipping. Great fun was had by all, trying to use chopsticks – who would have thought that snack could be such fun?

Our own Chinese restaurant in the role play area has been very popular and dancing to Chinese music has provided a wonderful calm among the excitement. Some of the children’s ideas about life in China have been delightful: there may not be “purple houses made from butterflies, sparkles and stars with fairies at the bottom” in China, as one child suggested, but what an imaginative picture she painted.

“Gung Hay Fat Choy” to families and friends from all the children and staff at Hecklegirth Nursery.

Stan the Star Celebrates Burn’s Day

Our favourite little teddy, Stan the Star, loves visiting the children at home and everyone seems to be very kind to him when he comes to stay. He has had some busy times lately, including a holiday to Blackpool with Dylan.

To celebrate Burn’s Day, the children had fun at home with their families designing a Scottish outfit for Stan the Star. As you can see from the photos, there were some great ideas. The children are very proud of their efforts and demonstrated great talking skills when describing their designs to the rest of the children.

Click on the photos to get a closer view.

Our “Tartan Party” Preparations

As Burn’s Day approaches, we are learning about Robert Burns and Scottish culture. The children have been amazed to learn that Robert Burns has visited Annan and some may even be dragging you to the local chip shop to see the plaque on the wall that tells us this.

To prepare for our Burn’s celebrations, or as one of the children called it “Our Tartan Party”, we have been learning “Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff the Bus” and “Three Craws” which we will perform next week. The afternoon children will celebrate on Tuesday with P1, P2 and P3/2. The morning children will have their celebration on Wednesday with P4 and P5. If possible, it would be great if the children could wear a little tartan to help us all join in the spirit of the event.

Along with oatcakes, cheese and Irn Bru the children thought that some shortbread would be a tasty addition to our “Burn’s Supper”. Miss Wilson has spoken to the kind ladies in the kitchen and they will be making some for us. However, we are also baking shortbread ourselves: as you can see from the photos, some of the children are demonstrating very good skills. Mrs. Lindsay, Mrs. Hamilton and Miss Wilson were lucky enough to be chosen as “tasters” and they were very impressed with our baking.

Nursery Welcomes Some Special Visitors

On our return to Nursery this week, we all enjoyed a very exciting, “hands-on” visit by Zoolab.

A cockroach called Larry, Maurice the millipede and best friends, Oscar and Daisy the snails were among our visitors. We learned some amazing facts about the lifestyles of these animals and the children were particularly impressed by the fact that snails have more teeth than sharks and Larry the cockroach will actually eat smelly socks.

Many of the children also enjoyed the opportunity to stroke and hold these animals, which was a memorable experience. We have captured some of their impressions in photos and comments below. Click on the photos to get a closer view.

Zak: “The spider was good ‘cause it nearly chased that bug”.

Poppy: “Oscar’s kiss feels cold”. (snail)

Jannat: “He’s tickly”. (cockroach)

Remo: “Oh! Oh! it feels really really slimy”.(snail)

Aidan: “I liked the snake ‘cause it’s slinky”.

Dylan: “It’s a bit scribbly”. (cockroach on his hand)

Sarah: “What number’s his legs? It looks like a lot.” (the millipede)

Phoebe: “I loved the snake. It felt soft”.

Operation Christmas Child

Nursery and Primary 1 worked together recently to fill boxes for the Operation Christmas Child appeal.

Children and staff were all touched by Mrs. Jardine’s visit when she told us about delivering the boxes to children who have so little compared to us. Her photos, stories and DVD seemed to have a genuine impact on the children.

One of our Mums, Mrs. Simpson, kindly organised our box filling day which was great fun with Nursery, Primary 1 and parents all working together. As well as Mrs. Simpson’s gifts, we had generous contributions from other families which made our efforts particularly impressive.

The most exciting part of this activity for the children seemed to be loading the boxes into the van, ready to be sent on their way. Everyone helped to carry the boxes outside and the children all blew a kiss into the van to wish “Merry Christmas” to the children receiving the boxes.

We would like to thank all those who helped to make this a very worthwhile experience for the children.