July 2021 – Colquhoun Park Early Years Centre

July 26, 2021July 26, 2021

STEM in the Early Years

What is STEM and how do we support it in the early years?

At Colquhoun Park EYC we understand the importance on igniting children’s natural interests, by ensuring we give them plenty of opportunity to experience, explore and experiment.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics based activities (STEM) give children the opportunity to work collaboratively building on communication, problem solving, critical thinking, hypothesis and much, much more. By creating opportunity in the early years for children to build these skills we supporting our future scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians to lead the way in innovations.

Some examples of how we incorporate STEM into our learning

VOLCANOS – we mixed together baking soda, washing up liquid, food colouring (optional) then adding vinegar we were able to create and volcanic eruption!

Skittle experiment – We were able to use hypothesis to guess what we thought might happen when water was added. We then put our thoughts to the test, finding out what the result would be!

WATER TURBINE – using water and gravity to power a ‘turbine’. It turned itself as the water flowed through.

FORCES – we added washing up liquid and water to our tarpaulin, the mixture of ingredients, combined with a flat surface and a hill made a great combination for some FABULOUS slipping and sliding… we all had great fun testing this experiment out!

July 21, 2021July 21, 2021

Keeping Safe in the Sun

It is a running joke in Glasgow that any temperature over 20oC is considered ‘TAPS AFF’ weather!

Over the past week we have had the pleasure of enjoying some of the warmest days of the year, with temperatures soaring to 25oC and above.

As tempting as it may be in this glorious weather to take our ‘taps aff’ not having the correct clothing or sun protection can be extremely damaging, not only for our skin but also our health.

Signs of heat st roke/exhaustion

Here are some top tips for keeping yourself and your families safe in the sun!

Keep children out of the sun between 11am-3pm
Babies under six months should never be left in direct sunlight
Let children play in the shade instead
If your setting has little shade, put up tents, gazebos or awnings to allow for play in the shade
Children should wear brimmed hats and loose long-sleeved clothing
If splashing or paddling, children should wear longer-sleeved UV-protective swimwear. Or oversized T-shirts also provide good coverage
Use a high factor sunscreen (30 plus or 50 plus) applied every four hours — remember to put cream on necks, ears, feet, etc
You can ask parents to provide sunscreen, labelled with their child’s name and kept in their day bag or drawer
You don’t have to record the application of sunscreen unless it is a specially medicated suncream in which case you record as normal
Children need Vitamin D which you get from the sun but sun protection takes priority so you still need to apply suncream
Don’t forget to lead by example and wear a hat and suncream yourself

Applying Sunscreen Hack – No more tears!!

Tips for staying safe in the sun – Cbeebies

Minions sun safety video

George the Sun Safe Superstar!

July 15, 2021July 26, 2021

Exploring our Community

We are so lucky to have such wonderful spaces accessible to us throughout our community explore. One of our favourite places to go is the forest…. Can you guess where we are?!

“There is a growing body of research that shows that young children’s access to nature and outdoor play is positively associated with improved self-esteem, physical health, development of language skills and disposition to learning.” My World Outdoors