Former pupil, Lewis, returned to visit us on Friday to talk to the morning children about playing the accordion. Again he entertained us wonderfully with his talents and this time he brought his silver medal from the Burns’ competition to show everyone. As you can see, Lewis encouraged a few children to try out the accordion for size. Maybe one day some of them will learn to play an instrument and be able to come back to Nursery to show us their skills?
Huge thanks to Lewis for showing us your skills and congratulations on winning a silver medal for your singing performance. We all thoroughly enjoyed listening to you.
We had a lovely end to our week with a visit from Lewis who is a former pupil of Hecklegirth. It’s a few years since he was a pupil in our Nursery but it’s always great to welcome him back.
After our recent work on Scotland, Lewis came to talk to us about the playing the accordion and to give us a tune or two. It certainly seems a tricky instrument to master but Lewis has been practising for a few years and he entertained us well. As the Nursery children have been learning about Robert Burns, Lewis was also kind enough to give us a beautiful rendition of the Burns’ song he will sing in a competition at the week-end.
To close our musical afternoon, the children sang their Scottish songs for Lewis who proclaimed, “There’s no doubt that Hecklegirth’s got talent”.
Lewis is certainly a talented young man and we wish him well for his Burns’ competition. We look forward to hearing how it went when he visits next week to perform to the morning children. Thank you Lewis for being a super visitor – we enjoyed your performance very much.
As well as learning about Chinese New Year, this week we have begun an exciting project to design a mural for our garden wall as the current one is looking a little faded. As a local artist, Rory’s Mum has very kindly agreed to help the children plan a design reflecting their ideas. After an initial discussion with the children this week, she and Rory’s Dad will work with staff and the children to make a scrapbook of their ideas. She will then create a design for the garden wall based on the children’s ideas.
Jana uses lots of different tools to paint.
It was so exciting for the children to meet a real artist and talk about where her ideas come from and what tools she uses to paint.
We loved all the pictures that she collects to help her – a row of pandas, a flowery dress, a child playing in the sea, a laughing dog, one huge eye and a road full of bikes. We hope that the children will be able to bring in pictures of things they like, to contribute to our scrapbook. It might be drawings, cuttings from newspapers or magazines, photos, pieces of ribbon or material, even a photos of a pattern on their Mum’s skirt – simply anything that they like.
This is a very exciting project for us and we are delighted that Jana is willing to help us with it. We greatly appreciate the time and effort that she will be putting in to help us with this plan and look forward to lots of ideas from our children and their families. This design will be in the Nursery garden for a long time so it is important that everyone has a say in how it looks.
What a wonderful week we have had with the various activities to celebrate our learning about Scotland. As well as learning about the fiddle and Rory’s Dad’s super storytelling, we enjoyed our Burn’s celebration on Tuesday with Primary 1 and Primary 2/1 followed by a great day on Friday when we were part of the whole school celebration.
We appreciate everyone making a super effort to provide the children with ‘a touch o’ tartan’ on both days. It certainly added to the occasion and they all looked wonderful. We hope that you enjoyed hearing the children sing on Friday and that you were able to take the opportunity to have a look at their work on display. It was great to see so many families join in our celebration with a coffee and a taste of the shortbread made by the children. Thank you for everyone’s support and lovely comments.
Here is a taster of our week in photos. You can see a fuller outline and photos of our learning about Scotland in our ‘Thinking Books’ which are in the book area in Nursery.
Shortbread, Irn Bru, oatcakes and cheese – tasty!
Nessie would love these houses designed at home.
Some of our designs for Nessie’s home.
Our own wee piper!
Some of the models made at home.
A touch o’ tartan for our celebrations.
How big is the Nessie we made with P1 and P2/1?
P1’s monster drawings and writing look good beside our tartan.
As promised, Mrs. Roberts came back to talk to the morning children about the fiddle. Like the afternoon children, they enjoyed singing along while Mrs. Roberts played and as you can see from the photos, some of them enjoyed the opportunity to try out the little fiddle.
If you click on the link below and turn up your volume, you can hear the children enjoying a good old singalong.
Rory’s Daddy came in to tell us the stories he had written using Scottish dialect. We heard about a little girl called Rosa who wanted to be a barber and enjoyed the story of a ‘moose’ who went to the moon. Rory’s Mummy was also able to explain the story in Polish to some of the children.
As a thank you we sang them the Scottish songs we have been learning which they seemed to enjoy. We would like to thank Rory’s family for a wonderful storytelling visit.
As part of our learning about Scottish culture, the afternoon children were invited to Primary 2/1’s classroom last week to learn about the fiddle. Mrs. Roberts told us about the different parts of it and how the sound comes out of it. She played us several Scottish tunes and then gave us a big surprise when she played a tune that we know. We all joined in with “Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff a Bus” then we managed to record it and listen back on to our singing on the computer which was great fun. If you turn up your volume and click on the link below you can hear the children singing along to Mrs. Roberts playing the fiddle.
Mrs. Roberts even helped some children hold the little fiddle and they were able to make some sounds with it. Maybe one day they will be able to play like Mrs. Roberts.
Thank you so much to Mrs. Roberts as well as Miss Cameron and Primary 2/1. We really enjoyed our visit to your classroom. Hopefully the morning children will be able to enjoy this experience with Primary 1 later in the week.
Two recent visits by Pam Fraser, the Financial Education Officer, have encouraged the children to think about money and what we need it for. They learned about all the different coins and enjoyed a story called “Mrs. Pirate”.
Some interesting conversations developed about what the children would buy if they had money to spend. Those of simple tastes dreamt of lots of sweets while others thought carefully and planned a quad bike, a paddling pool or a Lego castle. After Pam had gone, the helpful children even came up with suggestions for Mrs. Carruthers to spend her birthday money on. The idea of “more stickers for Nursery” and “a new scooter for our garden” did not seem so appealing for her birthday but she liked the suggestions of a “cosy scarf to keep you warm in winter”, “big earrings like you like” and “a very beautiful dress”.
As you can see from the photos below, the children thoroughly enjoyed the coin rubbing activity and were amazed when they produced pictures of the different coins as if by magic. Thank you Pam for helping us learn in a fun way.
We would like to remind you that, as part of building an awareness of Scottish language and culture, we will celebrate Burn’s Day on Tuesday 24th January. This will take the form of some fun games and a small “Burn’s Supper”.
It would add to the occasion if the children were able to wear something tartan but please don’t worry if your child does not have anything as this is a fun, informal event. We are looking forward to Primary 1 joining us in the morning and Primary 2/1 in our afternoon celebration.
Next Friday will provide the opportunity for families to come in to hear us sing our Scottish songs and see some of the work that all the Early Years classes have been doing as part of our Scottish celebrations. Details are in Miss Wilson’s recent newsletter. We look forward to a busy and fun week.
Already we have had our first full week of the new term and, as always, we’ve had lots of fun in our learning. The ice cave has been very busy: furry rugs and sleeping bags, maps, hot water bottles and flasks seem to produce lots of imaginative role play. In the garden Jack, Finlay and their team have been making lots of plans to build a tunnel to the Forth Road Bridge. They were having problems with their maps tearing outdoors but they seem to have resolved the problem so good progress is being made. We’ve produced a wall display of winter collages and paintings and have been scientists testing raincoats for teddies and finding out about what happens to ice in different temperatures. We even had a visit from a lady who was teaching us about money.
Our new children have done so well settling in to our busy Nursery and are beginning to follow the rules and routines. We hope that they continue to grow in confidence and have lots of fun in Nursery. As you can see here, some of them are looking very settled.
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