This week the children have been celebrating St Andrew’s Day. Many children came into the centre wearing either tartan or blue and they all made Scotland flags with masking tape and blue paint. They finishes their celebrations by dancing to some tradition Scottish music.
Click on the link below to watch some of our dancing.
we have been learning about clothes we wear to keep us warm during winter, and have been practicing putting them on and off independently. 
This week we have seen some Christmas festivities coming into the nursery and enjoyed going down to see the tree, then helped to decorate our 2-3 room tree.
Painting Bread
This week the children have been painting bread using a mixture of milk and food colouring. They then toasted the colourful bread to then eat it at snack. One child enjoyed it so much he told us that he was going to “tell mummy” about it when he got home. Some children could name and recognise the couloirs they were using. Everybody got experience mark making using unusual materials.
This week in the Willow room we have been looking at Van Gogh’s painting called “Starry Night”. We talked about what we could see in the painting and many of the children could identify the stars and the moon. One child even spotted “the wee houses” at the bottom. The children took this exploration even further by finger painting on the windows, using the same colours of the painting, to recreate what they have studying. Finger painting is a great way build up the children muscles which will help them to mark make and write in the future.
Week beginning 1st November 2021
This week we have been talking lots about fire works and colours while making bonfire/firework paintings, we have also talked about how to keep safe around fire. We have also planted spring daffodils bulbs for next year and look forwards to seeing them grow.
29th October Halloween Party
We had lots of fun at our halloween party with lots of games and treats. We danced to spooky music, playing musical bumps, douked for apples and joined in with halloween crafts ….
Week beginning 22/10/21
This week in the willow room the children have been exploring lots of halloween and Autumn crafts, and have created an autumn display to show all there hard work. The children have also been exploring pumpkins as loose parts and have enjoyed collecting and transporting them. We also made pumpkin soup and the children had the opportunity to help cut all the ingredients, and mix them in the pot to cook then enjoyed a healthy bowl of pumpkin soup for snack.
our Autumn crafts …
making pumpkin soup …
exploring pumpkins…
Week beginning 4/10/21
This week the children have been exploring autumnal objects to deepen their understanding of the new season and what changes it brings to nature. We have been for a walk in our local woodlands to study the change in the trees and to collect leaves for future exploration.
(click on the link above to watch our playing)
The children have also been exploring mini pumpkins.
(please click the above link to see us exploring pumpkins)
We also explored autumn colours at the play dough table. The children mixed the colours together to create and added different embellishments to the dough.
Week beginning: 27/09/21
We have enjoyed exploring messy painting with autumn colours 
IMG_5638We have been learning new rhymes with the song bag and have been taking turns to choose from the bag.
After splashing in the puddles outside and noticing boot prints we decided to make our own wellie boot print group painting to explore mark making.
Week beginning 20/09/21
The children have returned after the long September weekend ready to learn and play.
This week we have been expressing ourselves through music. The children have been dancing to familiar Disney songs and pop music in the garden.
They have also been dancing to instruction songs such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and “Elephants have Wrinkles”.
Week Beginning: 13/09/21
This week the children have continued to investigate their sense of smell. They have explored this by mixing a combining dry and wet ingredients which had different smells, I.e spices and floral shower gel.
The children continued to explore different types of water play. This time they were splashing in the puddles and using tubes and pipes to poor water from one level to another.
Staff have also been supporting the children to play alongside one another peacefully and for those who are ready, to play with one another. The children completed puzzles together and built towers, amongst lots of other activities.
Week beginning: 6/09/21
This week we have been investigating our sense of smell. We have been playing with fragrant coffee beans; filling and emptying tubs and small world tractors. We have also been playing with play dough scented with cinnamon and ginger. In the water tray the children have also been experiencing the scents of sliced up lemons (and some children even tasted them!)
The children have also been exploring their emotions to help them better understand how they are feeling. We have placed emotion cards on our mirror for the children to mimic the facial expressions associated with ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’ and ‘sleepy’.
We have also been working on our ability to play alongside one another peacefully. We encouraged this by making a large piece of art together which has been displayed on our playroom wall.
Hello to all of the Stars, Moons, Rainbows and Sunshines.
We are so happy to welcome you to Whatriggs Early Childhood Centre, whether you are a returning child and family, or joining us for the first time.
The key staff who will be working in this playroom are:
You can learn a little more about these staff members by looking at our “Staff Team” tab or looking through the champion role tab on our main blog page. (click here to go back to the main blog page)
Please check back soon to see any photos/videos or comments on what your child has been learning about and exploring during their time in the Willow Playroom.
