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Buongiorno!

COMING UP…

*Our final blether of the week is on Teams today at 2pm for the Green and Purple Groups*

*Next Monday 25th is Burns Day so maybe we could all have an excuse to wear something a bit special and find some tartan*

*You may wish to join the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch coming up on 29th January. We are joining in at the hub too! Details on signing up below*

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/?sourcecode=BWMITH0230&channel=paidsearch&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1dbX18Oo7gIV8mDmCh0q4wd5EAAYASABEgI3n_D_BwE

Today’s suggestions for learning and play continue with the food theme.

A.

C.

D.

Test your memory and vocabulary with this matching pairs game:

https://www.seeandeat.org/memory-game/

Or look here for videos, games and activity ideas:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/food

E.

Popcorn Family Fun. Have a cinema night. Make numbered tickets for the ‘customers’. Cook popcorn. Count the pops as it cooks – this will soon become impossible. Scoop the popcorn into different small containers to see what the capacity of each is. Do any surprise you? Decide which one to use as your official scoop. Ask each customer how many scoops of popcorn they want and count the scoops into a bowl to serve.

F.  There are lots of counting songs with a food focus. Which ones do you know? Can you join in? Some of the songs involve counting forwards and others counting backwards. Why don’t you try counting forwards and backwards and see how far you can go? Start small, perhaps counting back from 3 then extend the number range as appropriate. One way to extend the number range is by the adult and child saying alternate numbers.

G.  Where do foods come from? Do they grow in the ground? Do they grow on trees/bushes?

What countries of the world do these foods come from, how far away are these countries? Maybe use a map and Google to find out these answers.

How do foods get delivered to our shops/supermarkets? How are they packaged? What type of vehicles or used do they come by boat, air or by road?

We would love to learn what you have discovered maybe in a video or a drawing.

H.

Have you ever tried painting with food!? Food comes in all different sizes,shapes and textures which can make some interesting patterns, why not explore this by using broccoli as a painting brush or rolling with a corn on the cob? What shapes does it make? What pattern does it leave?

Potato printing is also a fun way to explore pattern and shape. Carefully cut out a shape or create your own pattern to print with! You could try a square, heart,diamond,rectangle…

I. A few days ago we thought about Eric Carle, the author and illustrator of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Here are some more ideas inspired by the caterpillar’s munching!

1 Golden Delicious Apple

1 Green Pear
1 Granny Smith Apple
2 Kiwis
1 Strawberry
6 Raisins

Start out by slicing each piece of fruit using a knife.

Then cut the ends to fit & match up.

Line them up on a plate.

Place on the strawberry for the head.

Cut a small piece from a apple to make the eyes & antennas (break a toothpick in half to attach).

Cut the raisins in half & pressed them together for feet.

And finally…. Another soup-er  simple recipe from Mrs Nugent!

#sharesomesoup

Carrot & cheddar soup with toast soldiers

Ingredients

*   25g butter<https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/butter-glossary>
*   1 small onion<https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/onion-glossary> , roughly chopped
*   500g carrots<https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/carrots-glossary> , chopped
*   1 medium potato , (about 140g/5oz peeled weight), chopped
*   1.2l chicken or vegetable stock
*   100g mature cheddar<https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/cheddar-glossary> , grated
*   150ml milk<https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/milk-glossary>

To serve

*   toast soldiers

Method

*   STEP 1

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a low heat and tip in the onion, carrots and potato. Fry gently for about 10 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the onion is soft and the vegetables are glistening.

*   STEP 2

Pour in the stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and partially cover the pan. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.

*   STEP 3

Whizz the mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth (a blender will give a smoother texture), then add the cheese and whizz again. Return the soup to the pan, pour in the milk, then reheat gently and taste for seasoning. Serve the soup with buttered toast soldiers.

Guten Morgen!

We really enjoyed chatting to some of you yesterday and we are looking forward to seeing others from the Pink + Red groups on Teams today at 1pm.

In the meantime we will leave you with some ideas for learning and play which have been inspired by what you have been sharing with us on Teams. Food is the theme for today and tomorrow.

A.

Cooking is an essential life skill. Helping out from an early age, improves not only the fine motor skills, but also social skills. Children can also learn about making healthy choices from the very beginning.

Another great bonus is that you can practise together many new and useful words, and easily turn cooking into a sensory or maths activity.

• Start small, really small. Children don’t have to make an entire recipe with you to reap the benefit from being in the kitchen together. …
• Encourage play…
• Make recipes YOU want to eat. …
• Make up songs for simple tasks. …
• Feel comfortable with the recipe. …
• Be VERY prepared!

Make a plan to prepare a cold dish, a hot meal or do some baking together this week. We’d love to see the process as well as the finished result on our Team!  *Suggested recipe to follow at the end of this post*

B.

Making bread is fun and Mr Miller sometimes makes his own using a bread machine…it smells amazing! Have you tried making bread before?  Why don’t you see if you can!  Many different countries around the world have their own types of bread, try and see how many types of bread there are i.e. Brioche is from France, Ciabatta is from Italy, Naan is from India and Jewish people eat Challah.

Miss Paterson’s quick flatbreads involve mixing plain yoghurt and self-raising flour with a sprinkle of salt and a splash of olive oil. Knead and roll into small flatbreads before cooking in oven/under grill/dry pan or griddle.

Do you have a favourite bread you make or eat at home? Does it have a special name? In my house we sometimes have chleb which is bread or bulki which are rolls or obwarzanki which are bagels.

Mrs Rafique has made a special video for you on our Team to show her bread recipe and amazing skills!

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/hedgehog-rollshttps://kidsactivitiesblog.com/46496/making-bread-with-kids/

C. Flour is a main ingredient in breads using different types of grain. Find out more about flour here. What type of grain do we use most? Which machine harvests or collects the grain? How many grains do you think we need for one cup of flour? 10? 100? 1,000,000?! Share any new words you learned by watching this video.

D.

You could mix some flour and water to make ‘glue’ then sprinkle on seeds and grains to create a picture. Poppy/sesame/flax seeds, lentils, peppercorns and split peas or ground spices will all work.

E.

F.

G.

1.

3.

4.

Goedemorgen!

We are excited to be able to chat with some of you today at 11am and 1pm and hope you are also looking forward to it. The scheduled meetings should be visible on Teams and easy to access. If you have any issues please post a comment in the feed and we will do everything we can to help you.

Today we thought we would explore themes of art and artists a little further, encouraging close observation, evaluation and recognition of skills. 

A.

Artists don’t just make flat 2D pictures, they sometimes create with 3D objects too, like the model caterpillars some of you made yesterday.

Why don’t you become a jewellery artist today? Use beads if you have them and if not some kind of pasta tube like penne, macaroni or rigatoni. You could use buttons, card or cut shorter pieces of drinking straws or paper roll. You could paint or decorate your pieces before stringing them together with wool, thread or string to create a unique necklace.

Discuss the colours shapes and overall design. It can be good to have a plan but remember it’s okay to change and adjust as you go!

B.

Piet Mondrian made pictures and decorated buildings, famously using black lines to make rectangles and squares. Can you find some squares and rectangles around the house? Remember, they both have 4 sides and 4 corners but a rectangle has 2 long and 2 short sides whereas a square’s sides are all the same length.

Why don’t you draw, paint, collage or build something inspired by Mondrian?

C. 

D.

If you don’t have ready mixed paints at home, or if you want to try a more sensory experience, why don’t you make your own?

Use a range of powders – hot chocolate, gravy, spices, salt – from the kitchen and mix with small quantities of water. How do they smell? What texture do they have? Can you paint with them using some of the methods we suggested yesterday? We would love to hear how you get on with this investigation!

E.

Play a tricky ‘barrier game’ to develop language and communication. You and your child should sit (ideally) opposite one another but with a barrier between you so you can hear but not see what the other is doing. You should both have exactly the same materials e.g. paper, pens, paint.

Decide who is leading and who is following. It may be beneficial for the adult to lead the first time to model the game. The leader starts to make marks on their page and describes to the follower step-by-step and they then follow. They can ask questions to clarify. This should continue until the leader has completed their image/model at which point you show one another and compare similarities and differences.

E.G.

A: Draw a big circle, taking up most of the page with a yellow pen

A: Now take a black pen and draw two small circles next to each other

B: Where on the page should the two small circles be?

A: In the middle of the big yellow circle

A: Now draw a small black dot in each of the small black circles

A: Use your red pen and draw a shape like an upside down rainbow under the two black circles

B. How big should it be?

A. It should fit inside the big yellow circle but it should be wider than the two black circles.

F. If you have your learning book at home why don’t you do a special drawing in there today? Ask your adult to write something about it with you.

G. Why don’t you make a special piece of art for someone you love and miss. Maybe you could take a photo and send it to them or talk to them about it on a call? Perhaps you could add it to that box of special things you might be saving up to give them when you next meet?

H.

Go on an art hunt around the house. Look for your own art as well as images and models your parents may own. Create a table in advance, using categories of your choice, then record what you find with simple tally marks.

Good morning!

Welcome to another week of play and learning ideas. We are delighted at the abundance of curiosity, imagination and kindness on our Team and look forward to seeing some of you there today.

You will have noted in the newsletter (e-mailed to you on Friday) that we plan to trial a live interaction this week with our Braidbar Nursery Blethers. We hope to see as many of you there as possible but, remember, if you can’t join at your group’s allocated time then you are welcome to join in with another scheduled session.

This week you can also expect a phone call from a member of the team to find out how you are getting on so please do answer if you see an unknown number displayed; it may well be one of us.

To start an active and playful week, we take our inspiration from some famous artists.

A.

Do you know who an ‘artist’ is and what they do? Can you name any famous artists?  Do you know what tools artists use? Maybe you have some paintings, photos or sculptures in your house. Look closely at images and objects in your house and talk about them. Think about the shape, colour, line or form. Describe what you see. Do you like them? Why (not)? Are there any that inspire you to create something similar? We would love to see your images and sculptures on our Team. Remember – you are all artists every time you draw, paint, tear, twist, stick, join or make something new.

B. Now imagine we are going to visit an art gallery with Mrs Harris.  This video will show paintings by very famous artists from all over the world. Most of these paintings were painted a long time ago but people still like to look at them today. Sometimes they hang up in places called Art Galleries and people queue up for hours just to look at them. The music that is playing is called classical music, again this music was written a long time ago and sounds quite different from a lot of the music we hear today. I wonder if you will like it?

Look closely. What colours do you see? How many faces are there in each painting? Are there any animals? Which do you like/dislike?

C. Most of the artists in the video above would have used brushes to paint but look at this dance painting!

There are many different ways you can use paint, indoors and out:

• Splat painting
• Sponge painting
• Roller painting
• String painting
• Thumb printing/hand printing
• Fruit painting
• Masher/utensil painting
• Salt/Glue painting
• Create brushes from nature’s bounty

D.

Jackson Pollock was an artist famous for his splatter paintings! He worked differently from other artists because he put the canvas (or paper) on the floor and walked around it, dripping and splashing the paint all over it. He used his whole body, flicking his arms and hands about to make the splatters. Painting like this is loads of fun but a bit messy so you would need to ask your adult to put down some newspapers or old paper to protect the floor or you could do it outdoors. Use squeezy bottles, water pistols or turkey basters to squirt coloured water onto huge pieces of wallpaper or old bedsheets on the ground or taped to an outside wall. Indoors and on a smaller scale try drizzling paint straight out of the tubes onto paper to make your random patterns. You could put some paint in a tray and roll ball/s around – once you are happy with your design take the balls out and lay some white paper over the paint. When you remove the paper from the tray you will have your very own Pollock! You could also experiment with different items like spoons, forks or sticks as well as paintbrushes to get a similar effect with a little less mess!

E.

Do you know that our favourite story books have lots of beautiful colourful illustrations in them and these are done by artists?

You may know of this man, his name is Eric Carle.  He is famous for books like ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. Perhaps you could make your own colourful caterpillar art?

https://eric-carle.com/

F.

Wassily Kandinsky used lots of geometric shapes in his art. How many shapes can you name? Can you go on a shape hunt around your house, identifying circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. Are there any other shape you can describe and name? Recently some of us were talking about hexagons in nursery. Maybe you could photograph some of the shapes you find and share with us.

You might want to create a shape drawing or collage where you think carefully about each individual shape, what they will represent and how they will fit together.

Maybe you would like to play a shape game online:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/early-years/shape-monsters

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns

G. Join Katie as she adventures into some famous paintings.

Why don’t you try to create your own Starry Night images using pencils, pens and chalks and squiggly lines. Or you could create a loose parts art pictures with gems, coloured stones, or collage materials.

H.  A little trickier to find varied natural materials outdoor in winter but why not try some transient art – inside or out?

Coloured bottle tops, costume jewellery, textile scraps, corks or Lego blocks are all great materials to choose from.

Ohayo gozaimusu!

**Please join us for a whole school assembly at 2pm today if you can. Link on Teams**

Today is Friday; the last day of our nursery week. We do hope the blog posts and Teams videos and comments have helped you continue to feel part of our nursery community and have inspired play and learning at home. We have really enjoyed welcoming some new children to our nursery this week and look forward to meeting you properly soon.

The team has ‘met’ to evaluate this week and is already planning experiences for next week. If there is anything specific we can support you with, please remember to get in touch by phoning the school office or e-mailing and one of us will be in touch. You should receive our newsletter reminding you of these details and providing further information on planned phone calls and live ‘blethers’ on our Team.

To end the week, and mindful of a weekend to be spent mainly indoors at home, we propose a look at routine, chores and household appliances.

A.

Practise maths concepts of sorting, grouping and organising by sorting the laundry, going through a mixed up box of toys or by clearing out the cutlery tray and returning everything to its place. Perhaps you could count how many items are in each group. Maybe you could count back as you return each one to its place, reaching zero as you finish.

B.

Help to prepare a simple meal or snack. Develop fine motor control by spreading, cutting, slicing or mixing. Can you cut some things into two equal parts? Cut them in half?

C.  

Do you help grown-ups do the chores? Chores are when you do helpful things like, set the table for dinner, make your bed, tidy all your toys away, help hang up the washing on a clothes dryer/empty the machine. Maybe some of you like to dust or use the hoover. These are just some of the things you could try to do if you aren’t already helping.  Go on give it a try!

Sorting the clean laundry from the dryer is fun…. you could match socks into pairs … how many is in a pair again…? I wonder if you can recognise whose clothes are coming out… are the adult’s things a lot bigger? Can you spot your own things? Could you sort them into piles for each person in your family? Maybe there is a laundry basket you could help fill. You could be a delivery driver and deliver each person’s clothes to their bedroom!

This link takes you to a 5 minute clean up song. There is a timer so you can see how many things you can pick up before the song finishes. You can tidy up a LOT in 5 minutes! See if you can tidy a whole room before the timer goes at the end.. Then WOW look around and see what a difference you have made.

D. Which household appliances can you name? What jobs to they do to make life a bit easier?

How many can you identify in this clip? Can you match the object with the household appliance? You may need to pause for thinking time as the video is quite fast.

Why don’t you find some of these around your house? Which room are they in? Which ones make a noise? Or light up?

E. Have you ever helped an adult use your washing machine? Do you know what it does? Or how it works?

It is big and noisy and has lots of different buttons and has to be used safely.

The next time your laundry basket is full of dirty washing ask a grown up if you can help put the washing on. Look! Listen! Think!

Do the clothes need to be sorted first? Where do you put them in the machine? How do the buttons work? Are there any letters, numbers or symbols on the machine? What is the water doing? How long does it take? What happens next?!

F.

What makes these appliances work or powers them? Do you know?  It is something called electricity!  You must always keep yourself safe when using them never use them yourselves, always have your Mummy/Daddy or an adult to help (supervise) you.

Maybe you could see if you can use some equipment to make something this weekend, some nice fruit smoothies, homemade bread or just a nice cup of coffee for you mummy or daddy…I’m sure they would like that! Mrs Miller likes making smoothies at home and Miss Gaff too. These are nice recipes you could try:

https://kristineskitchenblog.com/21-healthy-breakfast-smoothie-recipes/

G. This is a listening, thinking and guessing game. The adults shares the clues and you have to guess which item they are describing. Maybe you could ask questions to find out more information. Look at the pictures to check if your guess was correct!

H. Do you have any pets at home? What do they need humans to do to look after them? Can you help with some of those jobs today? Maybe you could look online or in a book to find out more about your animal.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/my-pet-and-me

I.   

Parents are often very busy working and looking after you. They can be very tired but they also need time to do things they like. Your parents might not play the same games as you but they will have their favourite things to do. Why don’t you find out something that your parent really likes to do and try it together? Maybe they know about cars and can show you under the bonnet, or perhaps there is a special place they have visited that they can show you in photos or a video. Maybe they are really good at drawing and could show you or perhaps you could go on a short run with them if that is something they like doing. Why don’t you draw a picture of your adult doing their special thing or share a photo of you doing it together?

J. Being busy and active helps us to feel good about ourselves. Having some things that we do every day – a routine – also helps most of us. Recently we have had to change or routines or maybe we have lost them altogether. Why don’t you take some time to agree a plan for things your child will do each day, either independently or with your help. This will help now but also for their return to nursery.

https://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/chore%20charts%204-10%20pdf/Things%20To%20do%20without%20list.pdf

K.

This amazing pot is on Mrs Nugent’s wish list! She is researching at the moment to find out if it’s a good thing to buy .
When you research you find out all the facts about something and if your research is on an item you can find out if it’s right for you .
Here are some of the things Mrs Nugent found out that this pot can do:
1. It can cook food really slowly only using a small amount of heat
2. It can cook food really fast using steam to make it cook faster
3. It can make yogurt
Did you know that you can make yogurt at home ?
Can you think about why you would need to cook food really slowly?
Do you think it’s a good idea to have a pot that can do so many different things?
Maybe you can do some research ( find out different facts ) about an appliance at home or design one of your own!

Dzień dobry!

We loved the learning and play you shared with us yesterday on our Team. Thank you! We have especially enjoyed seeing your responses to Curiosity Corner.

Today’s post is all about toys again, asking you to investigate how they work,  forces and moving parts.

A.

Miss Hardie loves jigsaws, do you? Some jigsaws are small with only a few pieces and others are so big they don’t fit on a table and you have to complete them on the floor!

Before Christmas some of us were spending a lot of time doing jigsaws. Our favourite was one of a pirate ship because the big picture has lots of funny little things happening in it like clothes hanging on a washing line and pirates falling into the sea! It was a hard jigsaw to complete and it took a lot of time but we worked out a few things we could do to make it easier.

Why don’t you get out your favourite jigsaw? Try these things to help you complete it all by yourself.

-look carefully at the colour as well as the piece’s shape when matching

-if the piece has a straight edge then it goes on the outside of the jigsaw

-if you don’t know where a piece goes, put it down and try another one

Let us know on Teams how you get on. If that jigsaw was too easy, try another one with more pieces!!

B.

Magnetic force. If you have some magnets, sellotape or blu tac a magnet to a toy car’s roof, see if you can make it move by using another magnet. Can you PUSH or PULL it along? Does it go FAST or SLOW ? What allows the car to move along, is it its wheels? Do the wheels move? Which way do they move, is it round in a circle?

C.

More magnets! Create a fishing pole by attaching a piece of string to a stick / wooden spoon and tying a magnet on the end. Have your child ‘fish’ for nuts and bolts and other items or place paper clips on paper fish so your child can go “fishing.”

D.

Can you show us your favourite toy? Can you describe it to us? Where did you get it? Why is it your favourite? Can you draw a picture of it?  I wonder how it works…

E.

Mark making using your favourite washable toy to create a footprint / wheel trail etc.
* Dip your dinosaur/doll/car wheels in paint and see if you can make a lovely pattern
* I wonder how many different patterns you can make using different toys/colours
* Can you help an adult wash your toys when you are finished?

F.

Sort your toys. Can you sort your toys from largest to smallest? And then smallest to largest? Oldest to newest?
Can you sort the toys into different groups maybe by colour (green, red, pink…) Or by type (cars, soft toys, wooden…) ?

G.

Many of you know and love the Toy Story movies. Can you create your very own toy story? With an adult’s help why don’t you write and illustrate your own story about your favourite toys or maybe some from your imagination? Think about who, where, when, what and why. Maybe you could use some of our recent learning about feelings do describe how the characters feel at different point in your story.  We would love to read your stories – or have you read them to us – on our Team.

H. As the weather allows, why don’t you check on your outdoor toys? Does anything need cleaned or repaired? Can you bring out a toy that’s been in the shed for a while or do you need to wait a little longer until winter passes? Why don’t you plan three outdoor things you would like to do at the weekend, either in the garden or at the park?

I.

Do you know what a yo-yo is? Have you ever played with one? They can be quite tricky to master!

When you let go of the yo-yo, gravity pulls it down doesn’t it? It is also forced to rotate(go round) because the string is fastened to your finger and also wound around the yo–yo’s axle, a bit like a wheel on a car.

Bonjour!

It has been wonderful to see more of you sharing photos and ideas on our Team.

Today’s (and tomorrow’s) blog post is all about toys – how they move and what makes them go. We are sure you’ll have plenty to say about this topic!

A.

Push and Pull. Create a giant Venn diagram, or two intersecting circles. Label one circle “push,” the other circle “pull” and the area where the circles intersect “both.” Collect some of your moving toys together.  Discuss what action you do to make them move – push/pull/both – then place them accordingly in the appropriate area of the Venn diagram. Look at the diagram at the end. What comments can you make about the types of toys you have? Do you have more push or pull? How many of each?

B.

Drop! Splat! Take a piece of paper or cover a table with some. Get pom poms or cotton wool, pop it in some paint and see from how high you can drop from onto the paper! If you drop from a different height does that change the size or shape of the splat? Why might that be..? This is a great starting point for children to understand forces and the effect of gravity on different items!

C.

Why don’t you make paper aeroplanes and have family challenges? What makes a difference to the height/distance of your plane’s flight?

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Paper-Airplane

D.

Domino Chain reactions! There are so many benefits to building domino chains! Coordination, patience, creativity, design skill… Building domino chain reactions is a fabulous team building activity which we sometimes enjoy in nursery, especially with the large dominoes. You don’t have to use dominoes; you can also use Lego/books/building blocks or cards.

Here are some videos of this in action!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB4DeDMFmJQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMRCOiWxyc

https://frugalfun4boys.com/domino-challenge-cards/

E.

Join Milo to find out about his experiment. This is something lots of you know a lot about already as we see it in your indoor and outdoor play.

Use a pile of books of different heights, a piece of card and a toy car to experiment with forces. Predict the outcome. How fast will the car go? Does it whoosh or zoom faster or slower depending on how many books you add to the pile? Count the books too!

F.  Do you have a slide in your garden? You could try sending some toys down the slide. Not just ones with wheels! Do HEAVY or BIG toys go faster or slower? What about soft and light toys like teddies or pieces of material? Do they move quickly down the slide? Do some items get stuck if the slide is a bit wet? What about the cars with wheels, does the rain stop them?

G.

Why don’t you design a new toy? Perhaps you could build it with Lego, Duplo or other construction materials. Or you could use some boxes and other items due to be recycled. Think about how you are going to join all the different parts together and how your toy might move. Will it make sounds too? What could you add to allow your toy to make different noises?

H.

I wonder if your favourite toys would like to join you for some lunch… Maybe you could read them your favourite story. Or make a menu of what you are going to eat. How many spaces do you have at the picnic? How many plates, cutlery etc will you need? Who’s going to wash and tidy up afterwards?

Remember to look on our Team to see what your friends are up to and to see videos from Miss Campbell today 🙂 

Hola!

It was great to see some of you logging onto our Team yesterday, despite the technical issues affecting the whole system. Please do connect with us there as and when you can.

Today’s blog post focuses on recognising and managing different feelings.

How do you feel just now? How did you feel when you first woke up this morning? Have you felt more that one feeling today?

This is normal as different things happen during the day and our feelings change in response. It is good to name our feelings – happy, sad, angry, upset, worried – and to learn ways to manage them.

Sometimes visualising our feelings can help us to do this. Here are some different ways to think about what feelings look like.

A. The Colour Monster

Do you remember this story? Do you recognise any of these feelings? When do you feel happy/sad etc? Who can help you when you feel sad or angry? Why don’t you talk about this with your grown-up and draw or write some of the things that help you feel better when you are angry or sad?

B. Mirror, mirror

This song might help you name and discuss a wider range of feelings:

C.

How do you think the deer is feeling? Do you ever feel like that?

What can you do when you feel lonely or bored?

What can you do to feel better when you are sad about missing loved ones?

Why don’t you…?

• Call them to chat
• Send them a funny photo or video
• Make something you can send to them or keep in a special box, adding to it as and when,  that you can give them the next time you meet them
• Think about yesterday’s story on our Team (The Same but Different Too) and draw a picture or make a list of what is the same and different about people in your family

D.

Having spent some time thinking about this, how many different feelings can you name now? Perhaps you could write them down on small pieces of paper and sort them into two groups – emotions that you like to feel and ones that are trickier to manage. Why not keep the tricky ones in a jar and refer to them every once in a while, practising strategies that will help you cope when you meet these more challenging feelings such as anger, frustration or sadness? This will make it easier for you to take charge of your emotions.

E. 

Maybe you could make a basic chart and map out your feelings at different points in the day today and across the week. You could draw simple pictures or name and write the feelings. When you look back at it, it will hopefully demonstrate that we all feel a range of emotions and that’s okay. It might let you spot a pattern of feeling a certain way at the same point in the day or around a certain activity. Noticing and discussing this might help you make small positive changes to your routine.

F.

Outdoor play and exercise are both excellent ways to help us feel content, happy, challenged and foster self-esteem. Here are lots of ideas:

50 Ways to Play in the Rain!

10+ Outdoor Ideas for Rainy Days

100+ Outdoor Winter Activities for Kids

Hello!

Please follow the Sway presentation (below) which will detail how we aim to support you at home in the coming weeks via remote learning experiences.

Once you’ve done that we invite you to look at today’s suggested play and learning, all about holidays and celebrations.

Playing and Learning at Home

Braidbar Nursery: Working with you

Go to this Sway

Holidays and Celebrations

A. In this clip Olaf wants to find out about family traditions at “That time of year”.

What is a tradition? What traditions do you have in your family? When do you follow them? Birthdays? Christmas? Eid?

Maybe eating special foods, wearing fancy clothes or travelling to a certain place is one of your family traditions. Maybe there is something that you watch or sing together. Perhaps you did some of these things recently if you celebrated Christmas.

Talk about some cherished family times, maybe looking at photos or draw a picture of special times and traditions.

There are, no doubt, traditions you have missed this year. Why not write down special things you hope to do with friends and family this year? Write each one on a small piece of paper and keep in a jar. As restrictions hopefully ease, you can dip into the jar and choose something nice to do with loved ones.

B. What foods did you eat over the holidays, did you try anything new? Brussels’s Sprouts or cabbage?  🙂 Did you cook anything new with a grown-up?

• Make a list of things you and your siblings liked/didn’t like
• Maybe you can plan a few meals for next week or look for new recipes, using ingredients you like
• Sort foods into categories i.e. fruit/veg/cakes/drinks/treats. How many can you come up with in each group?
• Help to prepare lunch today

The BBC GoodFood website generates lots of recipe ideas if you enter a single ingredient:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/

C.

We will be making soup in the hub on Friday 15th January. We are going to enjoy it as part of our lunch .

D. Favourite holiday songs

Put on or sing your favourite holiday or celebration songs . Move your body to the music . Add in instruments ( this can be anything at home that makes a sound ) and encourage your child to express themselves.

Here is one of our nursery favourites:

E.

Holidays are about coming together and appreciating what we have! We all celebrate different holidays/festivals depending on our religion or where we live!

• Diwali
• Hanukkah
• Eid
• Chinese New Year

F.

On New Year’s Eve lots of people set off fireworks at midnight ( Maybe you were all in bed. It was very late!) The fireworks were very noisy but the colours were beautiful. Did you and your family celebrate? Can you have a talk with a grown up about the fun you had that night. Did you see any fireworks?

Look and listen. Describe what you see and hear using as many interesting words as you can.

G.

December was the last month of the year 2020. We are now in a new year – 2021 – with January the first month of the year. Many adults make plans or set goals in January. A goal is something you can’t do yet but you would like to practise and learn and be able to do in the future. Why don’t you draw or write down a few goals with your adult? What would you like to learn to do this year?

• Ride a bike?
• Write your name?
• Get dressed in the morning by yourself?
• Count to 20?
• Learn the names of some garden birds or plants?
• Make a new friend?

Keep your list on the fridge or somewhere visible and celebrate when you achieve one of your goals! We would love to see your progress.

H. Did you play in the snow and ice during the holidays? The weather may have changed for now but here is an idea for an indoor snowman that can help with number recognition and counting.

I.

Some marks appeared in the frost and snow today. Can you make some marks in ‘snow’?

In a tray, have a layer of flour (or salt/sugar/oats etc) and then use your fingers or simple kitchen utensils to make some marks. Can you draw specific shapes? Or maybe you can write some letters or numbers?

J. Sadly we won’t be together at nursery for some time but it always helps to remember the good times together. Can you remember some of the special things we did and visitors we had just before the holidays?

Some of you wore fancy clothes to nursery then. Can you draw a Christmas jumper ? What makes it different to a jumper we wear every day ? Do you have one? Can you describe it ?  What colours are in yours ? Is there a pattern?

Why don’t you pick some special clothes to wear for the rest of the week? Maybe you could choose an adult’s clothes too and send us some photos on our Team. I’m sure that would make us all smile 🙂

Tomorrow’s post will focus a little more on feelings and mental and physical wellbeing. In the meantime, we hope to see you over on our Team where stories and other videos await!

The whole team would like to share our hopes for a happier year with all of our families and friends of Braidbar Nursery.

We may not be together in the playroom and gardens yet but the team looks forward to supporting you and your child in any way we can. To that end we will be returning to daily use of this blog and our Microsoft Team from January 11th. The school app, nursery newsletter and e-mails will also provide further communications.

Please remember, we are with you.