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November/December newsletter

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        Biscuit and blether

We would love if you could join us in the quiet room for a biscuit and a blether! It is a great way to get to know other parents and staff and it would be lovely to hear some of your ideas and opinions in relation to learning experiences for the children and how we can develop our monthly biscuit and blether group.

 
Groups

Group Name Keyworker
 

Blue

  

Lisa/Rebecca
 

Yellow

  

Beth/Rebecca
 

Green

 

Lynnette/Rebecca

Jen will be Keyworker for the purple group in January

 

 

 
 Keeping in touch

Learning journals- If you require your log in reset please speak to your child’s key worker.

Twitter- @MauchlineC

Please scan the QR code to access blog

Online Learning Journals
Woodland Wednesday

The preschool children have started their visits to the woods on a Wednesday morning with our Outdoor Champion Beth. Key groups will take turns each week to keep the groups small. This will allow for quality learning to take place. Keep an eye out for further information in relation to key dates and information.
Fresh Air Friday

Our fresh air Fridays are now up and running they began on November 1st. We will be exploring the local community through exploration walks. This will happen every 2nd Friday. Keep an eye out for dates for your child’s group to participate.
November/December Key Dates and Information

                                                                                                     

Biscuit and Blether

Wednesday 13th November and Wednesday 18th December 1.45-2.45pm.

Christmas Fayre

Friday 29th November 5.00pm.  

Christmas lunch               

Wednesday 4th December 11.30am.

Christmas concert                             

Friday 6th December 9.30am

P1 nativity dress rehearsal- pre-schoolers to attend accompanied by ECC staff

Tuesday 10th December 9.30-.10.30am.

Stay and Play Sessions

Green Group – Monday 9th December (9.15 – 10.15am)

Blue Group – Thursday 12th December (9.15 -10.15am)

Yellow Group – Tuesday 17th December (9.15- 10.15am)

A visit from the pantomime- pre-schoolers to attend accompanied by ECC staff

Wednesday 18th December 9.30am.

School and parents church service

Thursday 19th December 9.30am.

School closes Friday 20th at 2.30pm ECC doors will be open from 2.15pm if you wish to collect your child early.

The ECC will be closed for the Christams Holidays from 20th Decemebr-6th January 2025.

 

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Absence

If your child is absent from the Centre, please call and let us know. Please can we ask that you share a reason for their absence if possible. This is very helpful to the Centre as it allows us to fully implement Infection Control procedures and report any outbreaks of illness to the relevant teams if children are unwell.

 

 

 

 

Our Aim

Is to provide a safe, welcoming and nurturing learning community where everyone is included and respected.
Mauchline Early Childhood Centre

Newsletter

November/December 2024
Our Vision

Is to create a learning community where every child is inspired, supported and motivated to work hard and try to achieve the very best they can.
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ꫝꪖꪶꪶꪮ᭙ꫀꫀꪀ ᒿᦲᒿᔰ

This week we have had so much fun exploring Halloween 🕸🍭 The children enjoyed multiple sensory experiences including gloop, pasta, coloured rice and spooky spider water 🕷🎃  Sensory play encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity. On Thursday children had the opportunity to dress up for our Halloween party. Well done to all children for their fantastic costumes and what a great time we had 🕺 We enjoyed some dancing, games, dooking for apples and also had a special snack that was kindly donated by the parent council.

On Wednesday our first group of children visited the woods for Woodland Wednesday🍃 We discussed the importance of keeping ourselves safe when in the community and explored potential hazards that we may come across when in the woods/outdoor environment. As this was our first visit to the woods our aim was to highlight the routine of the morning and all children were able to show an awareness of assessing risk. All children appeared to have a great morning and enjoyed their first adventure to the woods 🪵

Today (Friday 1st Nov) we explored a little about the festival of light “Diwali”. The word Diwali means ‘rows of lighted lamps’. Diwali is known as the ‘festival of lights’ because houses, shops and public places are decorated with small oil lamps called ‘diyas’. We watched on the promethean board how to make lanterns and what they represent and then practised our cutting skills by making our own. The children explored the light by shining a torch through it when displayed on the wall 🔦🔥

We hope you all have a lovely weekend and take care 💫 x

Week ending 25th October 2024

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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

 

Week ending 11th October 2024

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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

Week beginning 30.09.24

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We have been doing lots of reading since starting back and Jen has been focusing on reading to the children to help them focus on exploring an author of the month. As well as this, we have been reading different stories to help the children develop their literacy skills by exploring what an author and illustrator do. The children have also been encouraged to listen for a short period of time to help develop their attention and listening skills.

The children have been exploring some autumn themes in the nursery. In the creative area with Beth the children have been mark making using some real leaves. They have been printing the patterns onto paper and they have loved using different resources like paint brushes and rollers. The children have also been playing with the autumn sensory tray. They have been exploring some animals associated with autumn.

Outdoors, the children have shown an interest with filling and emptying. The children have enjoyed using different containers to transport the water.  Next week we will focus on the language that can be used to describe the containers. By filling and emptying the containers the children were developing their hand eye coordination by focusing on not spilling the water.

Some of the children have been practicing their leadership roles by helping staff to carry out very important jobs. Some children helped Beth to take the recycling box along to the school which helps to save the environment through recycling. With me, some children have been selected to be my snack helper which they have done so well. They have helped me put out the plates, cups and water. They have also helped me clean the table. We have been learning about the pink spray and how we need to wait a little while for the germs to go away.
Happy Friday everyone😊 see you back on Monday for some more fun!👍🏻
Rebecca Thornton

Week beginning 23rd September

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This week we have started our snack post box. The children have enjoyed getting creative with Beth in the creative area and have designed their own snack box. The children have posted their names in the snack box today to help show staff that they want snack. Even if the children don’t want snack they can still post their name. This allows children the freedom over more decisions that affect them. This is promoting responsibility and leadership😀👍🏻

This week we have also started our tooth brushing routine. The children have been learning the importance of brushing their teeth. It helps to keep our teeth and gums healthy and strong. We have been listening to a song on YouTube about the technique to brush and how long we brush for. The children have also been learning to recognise their own personal belongings by recognising their own photos on their toothbrushes. Why don’t you ask your child what is on their pictures☺️🦷🪥

The children have been busy outside learning different key skills. They have been developing their literacy and numeracy skills by looking for their initial letter or letters in their name and they have been encouraged to say the different shapes they see. This is helping them recognise both shapes and letters in their environment by encouraging them to focus on recognition. The children outdoors have also been interested in filling and emptying which is great for developing their hand eye coordination and fine motor control. This is helping the children develop their understanding of the
mathematical concept of volume.
We have had some spiders brought into the nursery.🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️The children have been working on the rhyme of the month which is incy wincy spider. We have loved to see the creations some of you have done at home. This is great imaginative skills, problem solving skills and creativity. Well done when the rhyme of the month changes it would be lovely to see even more creations🕷️😁
Have a lovely weekend everyone we will see you all again on Monday😁
Rebecca Thornton

Week commencing 17.09.24

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Week commencing 17.09.24

🄸🄽🄳🄾🄾🅁🅂

Indoors this week, children have been exploring numbers through song and rhyme including five current buns and 1,2,3,4,5 🐠 They have also been exploring numbers through a matching game where the children were required to match the number of pegs to the number card 🔢 We are beginning to exploring shape and children have the opportunity to explore shape throughout the learning environment including the promethean board and games. Some children are beginning to demonstrate an interest in vehicles and have been exploring various methods of transport including fire engines and trucks 🛻

 

🄾🅄🅃🄳🄾🄾🅁🅂

Outdoors this week, children have been exploring turn taking and sharing through use of the bikes and scooters. We have also been developing our understanding of how to explore resources effectively and how take care of our property and materials. Through exploring the physical activities, children are beginning to discuss road safety and what we need do to keep ourselves safe when in the community including the use of traffic lights. Children are continuing to explore construction materials when outdoors and are enjoying expressing their imaginative skills through creativity in play. We have also been exploring pouring and filling in the water tray using various sizes and shapes of containers. 💧

ꜱᴇᴘᴛᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ᴡᴇᴇᴋᴇɴᴅ ☀️

We hope you all have a lovely September weekend and will see you back at the centre on Tuesday 24th of September.

Week commencing 09.09.24

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Week commencing 09.09.24

𝐼𝓃𝒹𝑜𝑜𝓇𝓈

This week we are continuing to explore dinosaurs within the ECC and have been using construction materials to design and create our own 🦕 We have been incorporating size and discussing big and small as well as investigating the various colours and body parts of multiple dinosaurs 🦕.  Some children have enjoyed creating collage dinosaurs when in the creative area. They used a variety of collage materials provided and enjoyed designing their own interpretation of a dinosaur. Children are continuing to explore collage materials during play and have open ended resources available including loose parts and different varieties of equipment.

𝒪𝓊𝓉𝒹𝑜𝑜𝓇𝓈

Outdoors this week we have been exploring bugs further and have enjoyed using investigative equipment to look closely at insects in our garden. Children developed their ICT skills through use of the iPad to further investigate and research facts and information relevant to our findings 🐜 🐛 Some children expressed their creativity through designing and creating  their own bug houses using various construction materials and loose part resources  🏡

We also visited the gym for the first time this week 🏃‍♂️ As some children have never been to gym, we discussed the importance of keeping safe as well as the gym routine and expectations. We then enjoyed a warm up activity before taking part in some rings games incorporating turn taking and peer support before a cool down of some stretches. Our gym session will be every Tuesday if you can please provide gym shoes in your child’s bag 😃

We hope you have a lovely weekend and take care ✨

 

Lisa x