Successful Learners – Page 75 – Hecklegirth Nursery

First Days

What a delightful start we have had to our year, getting to know our new children and their families, as well as welcoming back the familiar, smiling faces. The children are beginning to settle in to the Nursery routine and, as the coming weeks unfold, they should grow in confidence in their new environment. If your child takes a little while to feel comfortable, please give them time to take things at their pace: we, as adults, cope with change in different ways and at different rates and children are exactly the same. If you have any concerns about your child, please speak to staff who can offer you advice based on their experiences.

Most children have had fun and been adventurous in trying out a variety of activities. Once we have blog permission slips returned, we will be able to put photos here to encourage children to show their families and friends at home. In the meantime, we thought you might like to see a few of the first drawings the children have produced this week.

Click on the photos to make them bigger.

Visit to the Romans

Today we all had great fun visiting Primary 4 who showed us their work on the Romans. The life size figures of Roman soldiers were particularly impressive and we really enjoyed trying out the computer games that Primary 4 had designed. We saw mosaics and amphitheatre models and heard stories about life as a Roman soldier, amongst other things.

Primary 4 were so enthusiastic at sharing their learning with Nursery children, making sure that they explained things to them in a way that they would understand. Thank you very much to Miss Cameron and everyone in Primary 4 for making us feel so welcome. We always love our visits to your classroom.

What can we do in the playground?

We had fun this week playing in the school playground. Lots of us liked the big snakes and ladders game on the ground and were shouting out the numbers as we jumped on them. Gabi noticed that they were “very huge numbers” and Sarah said, “It’s a good job we like huge numbers ’cause they can be tricky”.

A few tried out the benches when they got a bit tired and some simply enjoyed running in the huge space. A small group of children even stood by the fence and watched the tents being erected for the pipe band championships. All in all, everyone agreed that the big playground is a great place to be.

Learning Circus Skills

Although we have been having great fun with our own circus area in Nursery, the morning children had a real life experience of the circus this week when we were invited to visit the big top which was in the field next to us. Several of the circus acts welcomed us and kindly took lots of time and patience to teach us a few basic skills. Peppa Pig even made an appearance and joined in a dance with everyone as they waited their turn to try out the juggling clubs and hoops. The acrobat’s trampoline was also a great attraction as the children all tried to bounce as high as the circus girl. It was a fantastic experience for the children to meet real circus performers and we thank them for spending so much time with us. The children are continuing to practise their skills in Hecklegirth Circus.

We learned to spin the hoops on our arms.

More Maryport Adventures

As promised, Stan the Star took the afternoon children to Maryport for a visit last week. Unfortunately the weather was not so kind to us this time so we didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy the adventure park. Poor Stan the Star had to poke his little nose out of the bag to see what was happening as he might have been blown away by the wind and rain if he had ventured out.

However, we were very lucky to arrive just as a fishing boat was landing its catch and everyone had close-up view of a variety of fish before they were sent off to be sold. Poor Miss Kerr had smelly hands after holding the different types of fish so that we could get a closer look. She didn’t even mind the big wriggly prawns that some of us found a little scary so thank you Miss Kerr for being so brave. We were also amazed how closely the seagulls came to us as they tried to clear the nets of little bits of star fish left behind and the fishermen waving to us, as they left the harbour to go out on the choppy sea, made our day.

The aquarium, as previously, was a fantastic experience and the children were particularly excited to touch and hold the rays, star fish and crabs. Again, Stan the Star had some nervous moments as he was dangled over the ray pool but he survived the ordeal, despite one or two of the baby sharks coming to have a close look at him.

We would like to thank all the parents who helped us on our trips: without your support they would not have been possible. We also feel very proud of our children who behaved so well on both occasions. Stan the Star is resting and hopes to have quiet week in Nursery but he just never knows what’s round the corner.

All the fish were packed in boxes of ice.

Stan the Star has a taste of everyone’s lunch.

Stan and the big starfish come face to face.

Stan the Star has fun in Maryport

Stan the Star gets a bit of help climbing the nets.

On top of the pirate ship admiring the view.

This week the morning children took Stan the Star to visit The Lake District Coast Aquarium at Maryport for an end of term treat. The journey seemed to pass surprisingly quickly and everyone was excited when we arrived at the harbour. Stan the Star had a great time in the aquarium although he was a little worried when he was dangled over the ray pool for a better look. To touch star fish, anemones and rays was quite an experience for everyone although watching the octopus devour his lunch of live crab was perhaps the most memorable event.

During a walk round the harbour to see the boats and the lighthouse, some children met the coastguard who showed them his van and boat and our visit to the adventure playground completed Stan the Star’s day out. As you can see from the photos, Stan was certainly given a real adventure by everyone: he seemed to try out all the equipment as he was passed from child to child. He had no chance to sleep on the way home as he tried to spend time with as many children as possible but there were a few who did succumb to the Land of Nod after a hectic day.

A big ‘thank you’ must go to all the Mums and Dads who came with us to make our outing a safe and happy day. We are delighted to say that the lady in the café commented that we were very well behaved which made us feel very proud of everyone. Unfortunately our photos in the aquarium are too dark to show here but we have a taster of our day above. Stan the Star is resting up and hopes to go back to Maryport next week with the afternoon boys and girls.

Miss Wilson’s speedy snails

When Miss Wilson spotted two very big snails in her garden she just knew Nursery would love to see them. Only a day earlier, a group of afternoon children had met Miss Wilson on a mission to find out which is the slowest creature in the world. They had been watching our caterpillars in Nursery and thought they moved very slowly so wanted to find out the answer to this very tricky question.

To help us in our investigation, Miss Wilson brought us the snails in a big tub with lots of leaves. We soon discovered that they were not as slow as we had thought because they kept climbing out of the tub, much to everyone’s amusement. Poor Miss Kerr and Miss Boyd had to keep catching them and putting them back in the tub before the super snails crawled along our drawing table and into our pen tubs. We thought they were so amazing that we took our snails to visit Primary 1 and 2 as well so they really did have a great adventure at Hecklegirth School.

Miss Wilson has now taken her beautiful and very speedy snails back to her garden: we thought it might be a bit tricky finding them on Monday if we left them for the week-end.

Keep an eye on them boys or they’ll be off again.

Staying Safe

PC Leggat paid us a visit this week to talk about staying safe on the roads and “stranger danger”. Everyone already knew him from our visit to the police station so the children were very confident to talk about their ideas. We had a very interesting discussion about what a stranger is and how we know if someone is a stranger. The children demonstrated super thinking skills and most had good strategies of what to do if they got separated from their parents or a stranger approached them. Thank you, as always, to PC Leggat who has helped the children feel that police officers are friendly and helpful.

Pictures from home

Thank you to all those parents who worked with their children to make beautiful pictures as a home activity. It’s wonderful to see all the different ideas that can be used to transform a bare tree in to a Spring picture. The discussions that these pictures generated in Nursery are as valuable as the creative use of materials so thanks go to the children and their families for contributing to such a valuable learning activity. We hope you enjoy a selection of the pictures below.

Please click on a photo for a closer look at the detail that the children have put into these wonderful pictures.

Looking after ourselves

We all love visitors in Nursery and this week we had two visitors who talked to us about looking after ourselves. The school nurse and the oral health officer were very impressed with the children’s knowledge and we had great fun trying to clean a monkey’s teeth. It can be tricky getting in to the corners with that big brush but the monkey seemed quite pleased with our efforts.