As we’re starting to wind down for the Summer holidays we have been having more child led activities such as; the children choosing their favourite music they would like to dance to.

We have also been talking about our families, who lives with us and pets. The children having busy drawing and painting their family.

To end a lovely week the children have been practicing some comic yoga 🧘‍♀️🧘.

Have a great weekend 😀

As we have had a shorter week there is less to add to our weekly blog.
The children have been making full use of the weather and utilising our garden for outdoor learning.
Painting with squirty bottles onto the large vertical sheet provided children with an alternative art experience. They had to consider the best way to do this, preventing themselves from getting painted and watching the paint run down the material. We talked about the time it would take to dry in the sunshine. 🌞🌞🌞🌞

Together times are important for collaboration and working together and we have been participating in games to develop this. Ring games after lunch are always a positive experience, developing team work, relationships and physical capabilities.

Finally for this week, some of the children have been discussing emotions through the use of our colour monsters and drawing pictures of how they feel. These have been added to our wall above the children’s pegs for them to see. The colour monsters are very good. For discussing what makes us feel a certain way and we promote the acceptance of all emotions, supporting the children in understanding these.

The children have been making their own hand prints for outdoors to measure the plants with. They are learning to measure them in hands🤲 and feet🦶.

A fire engine came to visit the school so the children were exploring what they could see on it. They mentioned a hose, ladders, the colours on it, the siren and what you would need a fire engine for🚒🧯🔥.

Expressing ourselves through sensory play, the children were using shaving foam as a way to encourage language and communication amongst the group. Some children were talking about what they were doing and some liked to write/mark make what they were making/writing🪒.

Reading with puppets🦊🐍🦉🐭

The Gruffalo story sack was a great experience for the children to recite their puppets lines from the book. The children developed their turn taking skills waiting for their opportunities to talk and when to listen. This encouraged good language from the children to predict what might happen next, recite what happened previously and reflecting on what they liked/disliked📚

The smartest giant in town🧦👞👔🩲

We used shredded paper in the tuff tray and the children had all the clothing from the book to stuff/fill etc. We read to story together which 15/17 children all voted a thumbs up for enjoying it. A few children recognised that some of the words rhymed, such as dog/bog, house/mouse, socks/fox and town/gown/crown👑🥼🏘️.

Exploring snow🥶🌨️⛄️

The children were so excited to have snow and luckily this morning the nursery garden didn’t have much sun so there was plenty of snow still lying around. The children had snowball fights with each other as well as staff and some of the children found some fox prints from the smartest giant in town story and where they thought the fox might live🦊.

WORLD BOOK WEEK📚

This week it has been all about books, reading and talking about our learning. The children have had lots and lots of visitors throughout the centre from home to read stories to us. We had parents, grandparents, siblings and we even had a translator in too to read a book in polish👍🏽
The pre-school children went a visit to the school to listen to a story from a primary 1 teacher along with her class.

WORLD BOOK DAY📚

This year we decided to do a pyjama day this year. This was the cosiest day for both children and staff and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Everyone should have been given their book tokens – if you haven’t received one please ask a staff member on the door.

Due to the centre being quieter on Monday we went a walk to the park altogether. We were exploring the different climbing frames, slides, spinning seats and the favourite was the swings. This encouraged the children gross motor skills especially on the wobbly bridge with support from an adult.

The children were exploring 2D and 3D shapes this month within the room planning. The children use various shapes to create houses, cones, towers and even scorpions.

Exploring the construction area, the children were role playing working on a building site. They used cones and tape to cordon off the area as unsafe while the building work was in place. They worked cooperatively together taking turns of tools and various roles when working on the site encouraging lots language and communication.

This week we had stay and play session with our parents, this allowed the parents and children to share an hour together in the nursery setting the engage in different activities that the children do throughout their time in the centre👩‍👧👩‍👧👨‍👨‍👧‍👧👩‍👧‍👦👨‍👦‍👦

Throughout this month we have been focusing on shapes. What can we see around us? What can we use these for? The children have been collecting items of different shapes stating what shape they are and what we use them for. The children found items throughout the garden to use to create an obstacle course

The children were creating a human body listing all the body parts and e en dressed them using the appropriate clothing👚👖🧦🥾

Using the gym hall we had a disco. We had the LED lights on and music to sing and dance to. The children noticed that their shadows were different to usual ones. The said they would see more than one and that they were different colours 🔴🔵🟢🟣

As we approach the last full week of the summer, the children have been engaged in lots of experiences alongside their friends. We have  made the most of the nicer weather when it appeared. ☀️
Exploring the sand and water, looking at how it flows and moves through different media.

The children have developed climbing and balancing by working together to design obstacle courses.

There has been a variety of Role Play, recreating real life situations and utilising the various loose parts. We have also experienced some talented singers this week. 🥳😉
What a time we have had!

We are learning about the Queen in the lead up to the Jubilee. The children recognised that she wears a crown so wanted to make their own crowns. They added some “jewels” as “that’s what the Queen would have too”.

We have been exploring our performing arts skills by using our outdoor stage. The children have been very creative with this and been putting on shows for the staff and children to come and watch involving some singing and dancing and even some acting.

We have been using many loose parts around the room and incorporating them into our play. We have been working on our team building skills working together to help build bridges and buildings. We managed to get it so high👍🏽

The children had great fun visiting P1 this week, they took part in some fun activities and met some of the primary 1 teachers😊

Understanding mathematical language, the children could identify the biggest, smallest and middle sized shapes.

Exploring our own caterpillars tubs, we have been noticing since getting the, that they have been growing so much. Some of us thought they were fat, spikey, long, bigger. “It looks like spiders webs” “I can see lots of jobbies” “They’re getting bigger”

Using tools around the garden to find bugs, insects and anything else living. We have been learning about the different species of bugs and where the live. We have been finding many in wet places  underneath things like logs 🐜🐛

Using our counting skills though 1-1 correspondence, we have been head counting our peers at welcome time. Some of us can count to above 20!!

After our search, we were lucky and were able to find some bugs. We found slugs, ladybirds and wild caterpillars.