Christmas has well and truly hit Mauchline ECC.

We have had another busy week learning about what Christmas means to us and the world around us. All children were invited to the dress rehearsal of the nativity “whoops a Daisy”  by the school children and WOW what a show the parents are in for a big treat. It was lovely to see how much previous children have gained in confidence and a good chance for our preschool children to see what is to come.

Afterwards we took the opportunity to explore the school and stopped for a visit to the music room where we took part in a few ring games in preparation for our party next week (THURSDAY 19th DECEMBER).

This week we invited parents/carers from the GREEN, RED & BLUE groups to stay for a xmas themed play and stay. Staff took the opportunity to update PLP’s and prepare new targets for term 2. Children were encouraged to make a xmas craft with their person to take home and share with the family.

In the rest of the playroom we are continuing to prepare for Xmas with a wrapping station, Xmas shop and role playing with the costumes from our concert.

We listened to the Xmas story from a book, on the promethean board and used props to role play.

CfE – RME, SOC, LIT, HWB, TCH

Outdoors children experimented with craft materials to create masterpieces. Shaving foam allowed fine motor skills and writing practise. Puffy dough allowed painting and experimenting with change of texture. Children also explored SNOBALL which creates snow and using shapes to decorate the Xmas trees helps with hand eye coordination.

CfE – RME, SCN, LIT, HWB, SOC

DATES FOR NEXT WEEK

Tuesday- YELLOW play and stay

Thursday – Xmas party

Have a festive weekend and only 12 sleeps till SANTA 🎅.

Lynnette x

Welcome back everyone hope you all had a good October break.

Welcome to Teri our new senior lead who joins us covering Cara’s post. Christine has now returned to her own place of work and we thank her for her support during this transitional time.

INDOORS
During the recent inservice day Staff looked at the ECC environment and have changed a few things to further develop our learning.

Our focus this week has been continuing to explore nursery rhymes and incorporate technology into our play.

CfE Literacy, HWB, Technology

OUTDOORS
Children have been exploring  filling and emptying using rice crispies and shaving foam. They were extending and using mathematical language.

Children were talking a lot about the weather and the environmental changes.

CfE Literacy, Numeracy, HWB, Science

NEXT WEEK

We invite the children to dress up for Halloween on Thursday 31st October, we have a fun day planned with messy activities in the afternoon so please bring normal clothes to change into before lunch to allow costumes to remain clean.

Friday 1st November we will be celebrating DIWALI information will be on learning journals.

Please note woodland Wednesday starts on Wednesday 30th October, information on learning journals. Any queries see Beth our outdoor champion.

Have a good weekend, Lynnette x

We have had a very busy week this week leading up to the OCTOBER break.

Thank you to all the parent/careers who made it to our first STAY/PLAY  of this academic year. We have more planned throughout the year so keep and eye on the newsletter and blog for details.

INDOORS

This  week we have been exploring words that rhyme. Demonstrating positive listening skills which indicated good concentration skills for a period of time. Some were able to identify words that rhymed with little support, evidencing awareness and knowledge of rhyme. We have been using the Promethean board to further develop our knowledge of nursery rhymes where we have had to select the nursery rhyme of  choice and select the correct order of words.

*LITERACY

ｇｅｒｍｂｕｓｔｅｒｓ! 🦠

As part of our health and well-being, we explored the nhs germ buster video and discussed the importance of hand washing. We then washed our hands following handy Andy’s 👋 hand washing routine, before returning to play.  We encourage you  to wash your hands before and after play, after the toilet, before snack and lunch and whenever you sneeze or cough and also if you ever touch animals. This helps protect you and your peers!

𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕 𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙 𝕕𝕒𝕪 2024

Thursday, we explored world mental health day and discussed as a group various emotions and feelings they may experience throughout the day. Within the ECC they have the opportunity to explore emotions through the colour monster story daily and are able to identify and match feelings with colours.
As part of world mental health day, you have been provided with a challenge to complete at home of creating your own colour monster. Instructions are attached and if possible can it be returned when completed alongside the children’s evaluation on the front page 😃

*HEALTH & WELLBEING

OUTDOORS

We continued exploring concept of filling and empty using sand/water extending our vocabulary by using some mathematical terminology.
We explored our creativeness through foam using hand eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Children explore the changes in the environment collecting leaves and learning more about the season AUTUMN.

*NUMERACY, STEM, EXPRESSIVE

REMINDER ECC CLOSED FOR OCTOBER BREAK FOLLOWED BY INSERVICE DAY SO CHILDREN RETURN ON

TUESDAY 22ND OCTOBER.

Have a great holiday,

Lynnette x

INDOORS

This week we continued to explore space, where we used construction materials to create our own Alien.  A few children have went one step further and designed and named their own Alien. Some children are now able to name most of the planets in the solar system.

In the creative area we finished our 3D planets and displayed them for all to see.

At gym, we were developing strength and technique when controlling the ball. We discussed the importance of working as a team and ensured all players were involved in the game. We started with a warm up of tree tig before exploring the basketballs.

OUTDOORS
We worked together to make the most amazing Gaming room ever. This involved team work, collaboration, imagination and problem solving. With the help of the adult a roof was created and almost all of the children were able to explore and use their imagination once it was complete.

 

           

On Wednesday the first group of parents/carers joined Beth at the fire pit to toast marshmallows to symbolise the end of woodland Wednesday for our pre school children. There are another 2 Wednesdays planned, sign up sheets are in the entrance corridor.

Last week concluded our learning together sessions we hope those that were able to attend were able to sample a little of what children are learning in these key areas.

IMPORTANT DATES AHEAD

Thursday 13th June (next week) is our graduation, invitations have been sent out and information displayed in the entrance hall and learning journals.

Friday 14th June (next week) rescheduled potted sports

WEATHER PERMITTING at 1.45pm

again information in the entrance hall and learning journals.

SHOULD WE HAVE TO CANCEL THERE WILL BE NO RESCHEDULED DATE.

hope you all have a fab weekend

Lynnette x

INDOORS

This week we have started to explore the life cycle of ladybirds. This was taken from children taking about ladybirds in their gardens.

Following on from last week we have continued to explore vehicles using “click” resources to make “monster trucks”. Children required to do lots of trial and error to fix the pieces the way they wanted.

We have also been using the Bee-Bots to build on our knowledge of using directions forwards, backwards, left and right.

Curricular areas : HWB, LIT, MNU, TECHNOLOGY, SCN.

OUTDOORS

With the nice weather, the children have been exploring the plant life cycle and getting our ECC garden ready for summer/Halloween harvest. We planted pumpkins, tomatoes and strawberries. This will be a continuous process over the next few weeks/months as we watch our plants change and understand how to look after them.

We have also been exploring the community garden. As part of our outdoor learning, we are currently learning how to look after plants. The children explored the community garden and also the school grounds. We then worked together to collect soil and planted some flowers.

Almost all children have been enjoying the construction area outdoors using their imagination to make things they use in a house. Developing gross motor skills when moving the tyres around and showing signs of lots of perseverance as it was a little tricky at times as they are heavy.

Curricular area: HWB, LIT, MNU, SCIENCE, SOCIAL STUDIES.

REMEMBER ECC IS CLOSED MONDAY 6th MAY 2024.

Have a great weekend.

Lynnette x

A short week this week due to school holidays and in-service day. However, there has been lots of learning taking place.

Outdoors 

Our Mud kitchen has changed into a cafe where experimenting and exploring has been happening making their own recipes.

Looking at architectural buildings using the iPad has been popular in the construction area looking at different shapes and styles.

Using small world to retell and role play familiar stories. Moving on to sequence familiar stories then making their own.

Indoors

We celebrated Valentine’s Day and made creative masterpieces to share with our loved ones.

As it is Chinese New Year, we explored the celebration on the promethean board, made a visual display and role played with Chinese crockery and chopsticks.

Continued using blocks to build houses and  introduced smaller blocks increasing concentration and creativity with challenge to draw their constructions.

Creatively we continued exploring the cycle of the butterfly incorporating shape and number.

CFE areas : Literacy, Science, Technology, RME, Health & well-being, Numeracy.

Hope you have a lovely weekend

Lynnette x

Week beginning 8th January 2024

We are beginning to explore Scotland in the ECC.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿We have watched some videos of highland dancing and began to copy the moves, we discussed the type of clothing dancers wear and where they might perform, leading us to discussion of Edinburgh Castle🏰.

Children have been using a small world castle to role play using their imagination and a selection of Scottish, tartan dress up clothes to support increasing knowledge of their own country.

Building our own Scottish castles🏰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿  in our Scottish highlands imaginative area working on gross motor and team work skills.

Leading up to Robert Burns day we will be exploring Scottish songs and rhymes and learning a Scottish poem “The wee rid motor”, a copy of the words have been put on learning journals.

Creatively children have been exploring the saltire flag of Scotland using craft materials. Whilst learning all about Scotland the country we live in, we used our imagination and creativity skills and created her own Scotland flag 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 with the playdough.

Outdoors we have been exploring the Scottish weather which this week has been frost and ice. Children have been experimenting how to extract ice from the equipment and then see how small they can make it. Conversation led to discussion where we may find ice and interest has led to mountains. We will continue to explore  more about Scottish mountains and our weather through play.

We will be learning more about Scotland over the next few weeks.

CfE areas – science, technology, expressive arts, literacy,  numeracy, RME, social studies, health & wellbeing.

Please check learning journals for our latest newsletters and dates for up and coming personal plans meetings.

Hope you have a lovely weekend, Lynnette x

This week we are continuing to learn about our bodies but not just our bones but what we can do with our bodies and what they look like.

In the outdoor water tray we’ve been exploring and discussing how blood travels around our body.  We’ve learned new vocabulary such as “arteries, veins and organs”.  The children gained an understanding of how the heart pumps blood through the veins and arteries around our body and to the main organs.  The children proved to be extremely knowledgeable and created their own veins and arteries using pipes to transport blood to different areas of the body.🫀

Indoors we used the mirror to look at the colour of our eyes and length of our hair as some children were curious about different colours of eyes.

 

Gym Tuesday 🤸‍♀️

Some children enjoyed participating in exercises involving balance and co-ordination. We briefly discussed the purpose of our muscles and used the iPad to research information and fact’s relating. Did you know the human body has over 600 muscles?👀 🦵💪

Woodland Wednesday🌳

We began exploring the local woodland area and took part in risk assessing and decision making. As a group they showed great listening skills and practiced Safe Sam, Healthy Hamble and Responsible Racoon from our SHANARRI indicators.

We made skeleton hands using pasta, our own hand prints and glue.🦴

As part of world science day, the children participated in paint splatting and observed what gravity does to the paint 🎨

We discussed our five senses before closing our eyes and smelling/touching what was inside the jars. 🍊 🍃🌾😖These included orange peels, lavender, mint leaves and vinegar 🤭

Hope to see you there 😜

Lynnette x