Successful Learners – Page 74 – Hecklegirth Nursery

Our Castle

As the children seemed to be continually asking for the castle and knights to be brought out, we thought that we should make our own castle. The children all did a great job of printing the bricks to make the castle walls. They even made the door and the bird cage that some afternoon children wanted. Now the children would like some extra decoration on the walls so thank you to those who are bringing in all the foil, sweetie papers, pompoms etc to make this into a special castle. As you can see they have been busy sticking it on and the castle is beginning to change each Nursery session.

Some of the boys decided at the end of term that they would also like a cannon outside their castle “to keep the baddies out” so Finlay drew the design and explained how cannons work. This week some of the design team have been up to Primary 6 to borrow their construction materials to help us build our cannon. This is still work in progress but Miss Kerr and a small team of morning children are working hard on this project. Jack had a great idea and brought his tools from home to help so hopefully our castle should soon have its own cannon.

Thanks must go to those parents who are supporting us and the children by sending in materials. We all appreciate your efforts.

Happy Hunting

At the end of term we were learning to identify letters and numbers. We talked about what we use them for and where we see them. We decided to be detectives and look round the school for letters, numbers and pictures. It was great fun finding them everywhere and sometimes the children were able to find signs that we hadn’t even thought of. We learned that a “P” and a “1” together means “Primary 1” where lots of us will go next year. Lee found the school motto, “Aim High”, up very high on the wall and Layton worked out that the numbers on a poster must be a phone number because they had a picture of a phone beside them. Learning was literally round every corner.

Arcimboldo Art

Arcimboldo is not an easy name to trip off your tongue when you’re three or four years old but our children tried very hard to say the name of the famous artist as we learned a little about his work.

We made the long journey upstairs in school so that we could see his works of art on the interactive whiteboard. “Summer” and “Autumn” were of particular interest as we have been learning about Autumn. The children were certainly amused by his use of food in these portraits and many commented on what they saw.

Caleb: I like the “Summer” one best ‘cause it’s very juicy.

Eleanor: They’re all summery and fruity and vegetabley.

Jaylin: I like them. It’s funny.

McKenzie: I like the ears on the “Autumn” one.

Zak: I like the grapes very much.

Back in Nursery, we decided to make our own portraits using food which was great fun. We hope you like these examples from our display.

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Let’s Go Fly a Kite

We enjoyed a story called “Someone Bigger” where everyone got pulled up in the air by a kite. We closed our eyes and listened to music to help us make magic pictures in our heads of what we might see if we were pulled up in the air by a kite.

Corey I would see a bird that was racing me like a butterfly and then could float back down.

Jack V. I saw a boat sinking to the bottom with a giant splash. The big boat bowed and rolled over the oil derrick. The derrick gets oil from under the ocean.

Caleb I saw a big helicopter going to the helicopter house.

Rohan I held on really tight and went up, up into the sky.

Murray I saw my barley field that got baled.

Struan I saw my Mummy gardening at my Granny’s. I saw the moon – it was shaped like a star.

Evan I saw Autumn. I saw leaves and trees and giants.

Sam L. I went to America and saw sea monsters – so many of them and they were angry and I fighted them.

Jack T. I saw dinosaurs with people on.

Autumn Apples

As some children brought apples to add to our Autumn display, we decided to make apple crumble. A simple apple crumble can provide so much learning: the importance of hygiene and safety in the kitchen, fine motor control, counting and chopping skills and the effect of heat on the apples. Most of all, it’s great fun and the children have certainly been excited to take something home that they could eat.

Spoon the biscuit crumbs on the cooked apples.

Autumn Has Arrived

As Summer slowly fades away, we have been learning about the signs of Autumn. We have enjoyed a variety of activities in Nursery and have spent time with our families, collecting things in nature which tell us that Autumn is here.

The children have been excited to show us their finds and most have shown confidence to sit in the Star Seat to talk to everyone about their Autumn “treasure”. We loved one little boy’s description of “going adventuring” to find chestnuts and brambles.

Here are some of the children’s thoughts on how we know it’s Autumn:

Lee: the leaves change colour

Katie: it’s windy and a bit sunny.

Rhiannon: the weather gets dull.

Jaylin: leaves curl and go brown.

Struan: the leaves are red, yellow and orange.

Ryan: leaves fall on the ground.

Mya: flowers go and it’s windy.

Turn up the volume and click below to hear our voices .

Autumn 1 Autumn 3 Autumn 2

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, We Love You

As we were so good at helping Miss Young to tell the story of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”, she invited our teddies in to Nursery to try out the cave where Honey, her teddy, was living. The teddies all seemed excited to try out the cave although some needed a little encouragement so we were very brave and went in to the dark cave with them.

Everyone showed good listening and talking skills as each person talked about why their teddy was so special. We thought you might like to hear some of their comments and see some of the very special bears who visited us.

Caleb He’s a boy teddy. He’s wearing a jumper so he doesn’t get cold.

Lee My teddy’s name is Ashleigh. He’s a boy. He always wears his jumper. He feels nice and soft.

Reece He’s got a black nose the same as his fur and tail.

Jordy He likes bouncing on the trampoline with me when it’s sunny. He’s called Daddy Bear. He can bounce very high.

Mya It’s Ruby the teddy. I sleep with him quiet at night in my bunk bed. He’s got nice eyes and a pink tongue.

Sam L. I bought him at Tesco when I was a baby. I cuddle him at night. He disappears when I cuddle him.

Finlay He’s called John Wayne. He usually likes running and jumping out the window but not if it’s wet outside. He likes jumping on the bed.

Miley I bought him from a shop. His name’s Red Ted. I cuddle him lots of times and I have lots of teddies in a bag.

Ryan It’s a boy. He’s a special agent. He helps people when they don’t know what to do.

Mischa He’s called Jake. He’s old. It shrinked when I was wee.

We love our teddies.

What a happy teddy he looks.

The teddies loved visiting Honey’s cave.

Is that a Santa teddy?

Nana gave me it.

My Granny knitted Clarence’s suit.

The House That Hecklegirth Built

At the end of last session the children and their parents held a secret (and very rainy) sponsored walk which resulted in us being presented with a beautiful weather vane and bench for the Nursery garden, as well as a very generous cheque to spend on equipment.

We decided to use this money to buy a playhouse and there was great excitement when it arrived this week. There was no shortage of volunteers to help when Miss Kerr and Miss Boyd set about the task of building our new house. They did have a few teething problems with their apprentices who were keen to carry off doors, walls and even those fiddly screws to different parts of the garden but once the rules of the workplace had been established, we saw some good teamwork by the morning children and they were delighted with their efforts. By the time the children arrived for the afternoon session, the building team had constructed a fantastic playhouse.

Thank you so much again to all those who contributed to provide us with these super additions to our outdoor play area. We hope you are happy with how we have spent your generous donation.

It’s amazing the games you can play with a big box.

Confident Individuals

After less than two weeks in Nursery, most children are growing in confidence in their new environment. We are establishing the rules and the children are developing into confident and happy Nursery pupils, as you can see from the pictures below. Later in the week we will send home a note of the Nursery rules and how we are teaching the children the days of the week, to help keep you informed of our current focus.

We feel sure that you are all very proud of the way your children have settled so well in to Nursery in such a short space of time because we certainly are.

Welcome to Miss Young

Miss Young, our student teacher, has been enjoying getting to know our children this week and the children have had good fun learning about shape and colour with her. So far, they have been making pictures using shapes in different colours and have had great fun with a jumping and colour matching game in the garden. We hope Miss Young enjoys her placement with us and look forward to her activities in the next few weeks.

Click on the photos to make them bigger.