Catrine Early Childhood Centre
An East Ayrshire Council site
In Bubble A today we have had lots of fun enjoying Children in Need Day. We started off the day listening to an audio storybook about Pudsey before going on to make spotty pictures, ice and decorate Pudsey biscuits, practicing our fine motor skills with the pom poms and dancing games both indoors and outdoors.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can do so at bbcchildreninnedd.co.uk as we can not accept donations this year. Hope everyone has a great weekend ♥
This month the value we will be exploring will be fairness. We would like to find out what the children think fairness means and also what parents/carers think 🤔
We will be emphasising fairness to the children in their play throughout the day and encouraging their understanding of this value within our shared vision here in Catrine ECC and the primary school. The children will be bringing a sheet home that encourages their ideas and also any adult comments and thoughts.
Here is one I made today, lots of lovely comments and markings from the children as well as my own comment, if you could please bring this back to the ECC where the sheet can be placed in a tray at the door at drop off and pick up times. Thank you, we appreciate your support 💕
“Live so when your children think of fairness, caring and integrity, they think of you.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
From next week the children will have the opportunity to learn about how their bodies are private to them and that there are ways to keep themselves safe. With the friendly help of the NSPCC dinosaur called Pantasaurus, the children will learn in an age appropriate approach, how to stay safe from abuse. We have lots of fun activities that we do, like designing our own pair of pants as well as watching the Pantasaurus video. The children have plenty of opportunity for discussion to reinforce their learning. There is lots of information available on the website for parents/carers who would like to reinforce this at home.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/
You can access the Pantasaurus song in the link below. Grown ups beware – this song is very catchy!
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?
Within the ECC we will be discussing who we can trust and who we can talk to about our worries.
Parents/Carers any questions? I will be at the door each day at pick up and drop off times, feel free to ask ♥
In group B the children had been interested in learning about the farm and they started to ask about the various foods that we can get from a farm or grow. They have really enjoyed the opportunity to explore a range of fruits and vegetables, discuss how it was grown and why these are healthy.
Exploring foods in the tuft spot.
Using the foods in our home corner for role play
We then took turns practicing our cutting skills, ensuring that we were staying safe using the safety knives before adding the vegetables to our witches cauldron to make spooky spells
I would really love to hear your feedback in regards to how you feel health and wellbeing is promoted within the ECC, thank you for a few minutes of your time ♥
Soon we shall be creating our new ‘Healthy’ character and looking at what health means to us in early years. What I would love to know is what it means to you, how would you define the term and what is of most importance in your family? There will be a board outside for you to leave your ideas – this would be very helpful. I will also be creating a survey soon and it will be accessible through GLOW. The children come up with fantastic ideas in their floor books and we’d love to hear some of the grown ups ideas too.
“the foundation for achieving a person’s realistic potential: enabling them to become all that they are capable of becoming”
We are going to explore our danger box this week, in small circle times the children will have the opportunity to discuss dangerous objects or substances that they may find in their home setting or whilst out in the community. We shall talk about why these could be dangerous and what to do if they come across any of these objects 💕
This could be discussed at home and the dangers could be reinforced. Keep an eye on our Health and Wellbeing board for updates and children’s comments.
Today the staff brought in some games from home, the children enjoyed playing hungry hippos, crocodile dentist, operation, twister, poopyhead and dominoes. There was lots of laughs and it was a great opportunity to develop listening and turn taking skills as well as communication and numeracy skills. I hope everyone enjoys the October break, What games could you play at home? and we will see you all soon 💕
A huge well done to Lukas and his family who climbed the Black Craig Hill to raise money for the charity, Bliss. You have raised a generous amount for the charity and what an achievement!👏
I love the superhero masks!
When you are waiting and are first in line at drop off or pick up time please feel free to listen to the children’s comments recorded and displayed on our Health and Wellbeing board. The children will be encouraged to leave their comments about what they have been learning in regards to their Health and Wellbeing. There will be a sanitiser available, please sanitise hands before pressing, thank you 😊
Group A have been out in the community this week on their walk in the search for natural objects.
They used a clipboard with a checklist to help them on their search, they found worms, a snail, a spider, flowers and leaves🌸
The children and the staff enjoy the opportunity to get out into the community in the afternoons. This week Group B had fun going out a walk down the farm road, it was a lovely day.
The children discussed the marks that the tractor had made in the field.
We found some brambles, picked them and explored the texture, colour and smell.
We have been discussing strangers and safer strangers with Safe Sandra this week. How do we know who a safer stranger is? Is it someone who wears a uniform or whose job it is to help us? What should we do if a stranger approaches us? The children have had some very good answers and are starting to show a better understanding of ‘safer strangers’. Keep an eye on our health and wellbeing board for updates on our learning 💕
Here at Catrine ECC we encourage the children to celebrate their achievements and success. We discuss and recognise achievement and what this means. We have started using our tree to recognise daily achievements such as, following the golden rules, being kind and respectful and eating all our lunch. We would now love to hear what the children have been achieving at home. Have they been getting dressed on their own? Have they been sleeping in their own beds all night? Please let us know about home achievements, we can display these within the ECC. Please bring in any pictures, certificates or any comments from home for us to see 💕
We have been discussing how we could be a ‘bucket filler’, that makes someone feel happy and what things might make you a ‘bucket dipper’, that may make someone feel sad. We have been looking at the story Fill a Bucket by Carol McCloud and have been sharing our ideas 😀
Below is a link to the story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggxG0zpPlR8
We have had such fun out in greenspace this week,whether the sun is shining or the rain is pouring! 💦
Hope everyone has a great weekend, see you all on Monday 🤗
We had a lovely little surprise today when Janet found this little creature wandering in the corridor.
We rescued him, put him into a box and enjoyed exploring what he may be on the promethean board. We think he may be a common lizard 🤔. We took a walk in the afternoon and found a safe spot in a wooded area to release him. He looked happy to be back outdoors 💕
Everyone in the ECC has been busy this week designing and naming their own superheroes, the children voted for their favourite today. Well done to April, your character Safe Sandra is the winner!!! She is going to help us learn all about how we stay safe 💕
The children in Group A this week have been so busy making wonderful creations using a variety of materials, their display is looking fantastic!
The children in group B have been painting super pictures of our worry monster and the tiger from the story ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’. Their display is looking great too!
Well done everyone, hope you have an awesome weekend ♥
Number Catch Game with Active Apple Man
Really simple game that you can play with 2 players or just one.
You will need;
2 players
( you could take turns with what number you choose to throw and even talk about for ex; “Is 5 a bigger number than 3?”)
1 player
You could try different tricks with the ball, experiment and have fun. This is a great opportunity to not only get some exercise but to focus on numeral recognition, counting skills, listening skills and turn-taking.
Have Fun ♥
