Today’s post is inspired by a traditional tale – The Magic Porridge Pot.
Read/listen to the story together. Talk about it. Who was in the story? What happened? Did you have a favourite part? What would you have done if you were in the town? If you had a magic pot, what would it be able to do?
Why don’t you become an author illustrator and create your own story about a magic pot/car/house/unicorn…?
Do you know any other stories where porridge features? Why don’t you look through your books and try to find and read Goldilocks and the Three Bears?
Did you notice that the old lady’s words made a rhyme? Did you hear the rhyming words? pot, hot, lot… Words rhyme when they have the same sound pattern at the END of the word. Try to spot rhyming words in other stories this week.
Have you eaten porridge before? Why don’t you make some in the next few days? Think about what you could add to your porridge to make it extra tasty. Talk about healthy and less healthy choices. Find some ingredients that your child can chop, mash, sprinkle or grate to develop their fine motor skills. Why not record your favourite toppings by writing them down or drawing pictures?
Use porridge oats to do some simple baking, measuring out the ingredients together and using the five senses to describe taste, smell and texture. Here are some ideas:
Porridge and other foods give us energy to move. Try to play in the garden today or find other ways to be physically active. Have a go at Jaime’s ‘porridge pose’!
Provide your child with a range of bowls/jugs/spoons and a few ‘ingredients’ such as water, dried beans or oats. Allow them to explore capacity, dissolving and mixing and to use their imaginations! Or take the play outside and add some muddy puddles into the mix!
Having created some new routines together and a safe and happy space to play, today has brought a little unexpected change for all.
Here are some things you may wish to look at to help you and your child talk about this and share their feelings.
Many of us have been using the Colour Monster’s story to explore feelings and how we manage them. We are able to recognise situations which trigger sadness, anger etc. in ourselves and we have shared lots of ideas about what we can do when we feel a certain way.
Why not talk about or draw what makes you sad/happy/afraid etc. and discuss good ways to share those feelings? Maybe you could collect your pictures in different jars.
Encourage your child to share any worries using stories such as The Huge Bag of Worries or Ruby’s Worry.
https://youtu.be/8QwEOSBjOt8
In the few weeks since our return we have seen some lovely friendships blossom. Instructions on how to access our Nursery MS Team to connect with one another will soon follow but for now why don’t you make a plan with your child to connect with their friends somehow? Perhaps via a video call or by making something that they can take a photograph of and share. Maybe they can set a joint building/drawing/painting/music challenge that they can then share the results of once complete.
Look back at our blog (especially end of March till end of June) for some ideas. Remember that a little boredom and self-guided play are wonderful sparks for creativity so you need not always be providing ‘activities’ for your child.
Session 2020-21 has got off to an active, friendly, fun and safe start in nursery.
The team is delighted to be back in our playroom and other spaces and reconnecting with returning children or meeting those who have just joined us.
Thank you for supporting us while we put in place and evaluate new procedures as we strive to strike a balance between ensuring everyone’s safety and creating exciting and challenging experiences which allow the children to thrive in our care.
In the coming weeks and months we will share many of these experiences with you along with information and links of interest. We will do this mainly through a weekly ‘Nursery News’ which families will receive digitally.
We look forward to working together with you this year.
Did you hear the thunder and see the lightning this morning? The change in weather marks a change for us as today is the last day of the school and nursery year. From tomorrow we will be on holiday for a few weeks. In that time we encourage you to return to the blog and try anything new or repeat activities you really enjoyed. Mostly we hope that you will have lots of opportunities for outdoor play and exploration with plenty of stories thrown in for good measure.
Over the course of the holidays the nursery team will be taking a break from our Microsoft team and will not be making any new posts nor responding to others. I’m sure you will understand this. Please remember all official information regarding our return to nursery and contingency plans will continue to be shared via e-mail, Twitter, ERC website and a special section on our own Braidbar website.
We have loved connecting with you on our virtual nursery as well as spending time with some of you in the hub, on P1 visits or at farewell parties. We look forward to welcoming more of you back safely in August.
For now we wish you a lovely, safe summer holiday.
Good luck to those funny, caring, talented and unique children moving onto P1.
For our returners, we’ll see you soon!
Thank you for your warm wishes and kind words in recent days and for your continued support.
We were delighted to see so many of our preschool children joining us for farewell celebrations on Tuesday and Wednesday. We hope you enjoyed seeing some friends again and returning to the playroom one last time.
#LOTS OF PARTY PHOTOS AND VIDEOS ARE NOW ON OUR MICROSOFT TEAM. YOU WILL ALSO SEE A LINK TO A LITTLE GIFT FROM US TO YOU, A FAREWELL VIDEO# 🌈❤️💜💙💛🧡💚💙
If you didn’t go to the parties, can you recognise some of your friends? Were they in the same group as you at nursery? Did you used to play together? What do you like about them?
When we return to nursery in August the children in the photos won’t come back with us. They are moving onto school. That will be a big change for them but a change for all of us too. We will miss them but it means we can invite some new children to come and play with us in nursery. That will be another change. There may also be some familiar things that will have to be a little bit different when we come back but the main things are that the same adults will be in nursery to play with you and care for you and that we will still have our amazing playroom, Little Garden and Secret Garden to explore. Change can lead to a range of emotions. Join the Colour Monster to explore and name different feelings:
You may have forgotten what nursery looks like so here are a few photos to remind you.
ANOTHER REMINDER THAT YOU CAN COME TO COLLECT ANY PERSONAL ITEMS LEFT IN NURSERY: TODAY, 9AM-3PM, FROM THE SCHOOL’S MAIN ENTRANCE.
LEAVERS, WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING SOME OF YOU TODAY AT 12:30-1:30PM OR 2-3PM, AS PER YOUR INVITATION.
We had wonderful time at our farewell celebrations yesterday, with every child reminding us exactly what we have missed about them in our time apart. How they had grown too! We will share photos and video clips on Thursday and Friday.
Today’s post is inspired by the party atmosphere!
Plan a little ‘party’ you would like to have in your garden when it is safe to do so. Write/draw the names/faces of a few people you would like to come.
2. Invite them by calling on the phone or sending a text or email. Tell them what you miss about them. Maybe you could take a nice photo and send that too.
3. Where will everyone sit? People from different households shouldn’t be too close to one another. Can an adult use a measuring tape or other equipment for you to measure 2 metres? How many steps is that? Can you walk it and count? Does your adult take the same number of steps? Why is that?
4. What homemade decorations could you create?
5. Why not practise some of these socially distanced games with your family? Which ones did you like? Which ones could you play with others?
Social Distancing Games for Kids
Football
This can be played outside or in the school hall with players always staying two metres apart from one another.
Be sure to minimise manual contact with the ball. Ideally, everyone should only be able to kick the ball, even if they’re the goal keeper.
Make the focus on passing and handling skills by setting up zones for each player to stay inside. You could also make courses with cones for pupils to dribble the ball through.
Charades
This social distancing game for kids is great for groups of all ages. Children take it in turns to act out book or film characters, scenes and words for their friends to guess.
You could use props and costumes, but make sure that they’re cleaned before and after use. Make sure everyone is washing their hands regularly too.
Scavenger Hunt
Get children to search for a list of items in the school building or outside in the grounds.
The items could be natural materials, which they can then use to create a collage.
Here’s another idea: why not get them to photograph the items with a camera or tablet, then use them to make a display or artwork?
Bingo
Use a random number generator to play a game of bingo. Children will love learning the amusing calls – two little ducks anyone? – and inventing some of their own.
Footgolf
Footgolf combines the skill and accuracy of golf with the fun of football.
Not sure how to play this social distancing game for kids? Children use their feet to kick a ball into a target such as a hula hoop.
You could set a course of ‘holes’ around the playground or field and keep a tally of how many kicks it takes each child to get around the course.
Challenge older children to use a tennis ball, while keeping younger children interested with a football or large sponge ball.
Hide and Seek
Add a social distancing twist to this fun activity. Children find a place to hide, show only a hand or foot, and another child takes a photograph of the scene.
Afterwards, have a competition to see who can spot the person hiding in the photograph.
Sports Day
Recreate sports day with your children. Set up activity stations for children to enjoy. You could include:
Balance beam
Skipping
Jumps over a hurdle
Football goal practice
Squats
Lunges
Set a time challenge before moving onto the next station.
It’s also good fun to include some competitions such as a sack race, silly walk race, backward walking race or forward rolls race!
Design a Game
Children will love designing their own games to play as well. Give clear instructions about social distancing and encourage children to be creative. It will be good fun playing the games too.
6. Help to do some jobs to tidy up the garden; weeding, sweeping, tidying your toys…
7. Stop to notice how the plants have grown and changed. I do this very often and take lots of photos to remind me of the differences. I also like spotting little creatures. How many insects can you find in 5 minutes? Can you take photos of what you see or maybe record it in a pictogram with little drawings?
8. Last week I spotted a ladybird!
Here is a story about a ladybird that you may know:
The staff team is very excited to be welcoming two groups of leavers today for some fun and a chance to reconnect with one another before moving on.
ANOTHER REMINDER THAT YOU CAN COME TO COLLECT ANY PERSONAL ITEMS LEFT IN NURSERY TODAY AND TOMORROW, 9AM-3PM FROM THE SCHOOL’S MAIN ENTRANCE.
LEAVERS, WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING SOME OF YOU TODAY AT 12:30-1:30PM OR 2-3PM, AS PER YOUR INVITATION. WE’LL SEE THE REST OF YOU TOMORROW!
Today’s post continues to invite you to explore some of Froebel’s Occupations and engage with the types of learning experiences on offer at nursery.
Painting. Even if you don’t have any ready-mixed paints or water colour blocks at home your child can still develop their painting skills: Use food coloring in water; mix different powders such as chocolate milk, spices, old eye shadow with water; collect mud from different parts of the garden, compare and mix paints from the various soils and sands; paint with water on dry ground… Discuss, line, shape, colour together.
2. Cutting paper
3. Drawing. Try to provide your child with a range of mark-making tools such as pens, pencils, pastels, chalk and crayons. Especially for those just beginning to develop fine motor skills a strong grip, some coloring pencils can be hard and lead to frustration as your child cannot draw or write with ease. Consider buying softer pencils or a crayon-pencil hybrid which should help.
4. Peas+sticks. Buy some dried peas and re-hydrate them before draining. Use the peas as ‘connectors’ and create structures using them and toothpicks. Teach your child to place the pea on a hard surface before inserting the toothpick and this should lead to fewer little injuries.
5. Outdoor play and nature. In the last few weeks we have shared many ways for your child to connect with and understand the natural world around them. Here are a few more.
This is our last Monday (and last week) of the session 2019-2020. Although the last term did not turn out as we had planned, we are looking forward to welcoming back some of the children this week for farewell celebrations as they will be starting school after the summer break.
For those of you who are returning after the summer we have been making plans to welcome you – and some new friends – back to a fun and safe environment. Please keep checking e-mails for details.
PLEASE COME TO THE SCHOOL’S MAIN ENTRANCE TO PICK UP YOUR CHILD’S PERSONAL ITEMS MONDAY – WEDNESDAY, 9AM-3PM. WE HAVE AMASSED A GREAT AMOUNT OF CLOTHING AND OTHER ITEMS, MUCH OF IT LABELLED, AND WOULD LIKE TO RETURN IT TO YOU BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS.
Today’s blog is inspired by some of Froebel’s gifts and occupations. As well as being underpinned by Scottish Government guidance and the latest child development theory, our nursery practice also uses the Froebelian Principles to guide our practice. You can find out more about Friedrich Froebel’s principles here: https://www.friedrichfroebel.com/elements.html
Here are today’s suggestions, based on Froebel’s gifts and occupations:
Block play
Use blocks of different shapes (or any other loose parts that lend themselves to construction) and allow your child to explore form and shape. They may discuss how two cubes equal a cuboid or they may note the same about two triangular prisms when they fit them together. Support them with language that will help them to describe the features of each shape.
2. Clay play is one of Froebel’s occupations. Arguably messier and more difficult to manipulate that play dough but good for developing strength and fine motor muscles. It also allows children to explore how to join materials in different ways and connect with natural materials. Once a model has been made in clay and dried it can be further decorated as wished and kept, unlike playdough.
3. Weaving. Use paper, wool, string, ribbon, grass…
4. Sewing. In nursery we use large plastic needles.
5. Paper folding or origami. Lots of the children love making fans in nursery. Start with something simple then progress is your child shows interest.
Tomorrow’s blog post will explore five further areas inspires by Froebel’s occupations.
This is the end of the penultimate week before the summer holiday. Next week there will continue to be daily posts until Friday 26th June when they will cease for the summer. In that time you may, of course, scroll back and access all previous posts.
Our Microsoft Team will also cease to be monitored daily and at some point in the holidays we will say farewell to our funny, talented and kind friends who are moving onto P1 as we remove their access.
For those of you who are returning in August, you should look out for a presentation next week that will outline some of the changes to the environment and procedures that will be in place then. You will also receive further information regarding your child’s attendance days/times.
Here are today’s learning ideas:
Find a story about pirates, mermaids or a factual book about the sea and read together. Talk about the different parts of the book.
2. Draw a map of a treasure island or another imaginary place. Try to add as many details as you can. You may want to use cold tea and coffee granules to age it so it looks old.
3. Use Lego, loose parts or clean packaging from the recycling bin to build your own ship or boat. Which materials are waterproof? Which materials will allow your vessel to float? Can you investigate?
4. Do you have play sand at home? Either where it stands or in a flat tray make marks and write some messages. Can you form some letter? Numbers? Write your name? Use your fingers or a pirates ‘sword’ (stick/wooden spoon etc).
5. Develop language as you explore some treasure! Parents, collect lots of interesting shiny and other items that may be new to your child. Place them in a treasure tray or chest and investigate and talk about them together.
6. Draw your own pirate! Add as many details as you can to their face, body and clothes. Give your pirate an animal companion and a cool name!
8. What sound does PIRATE begin with? Can you think of other words starting with the ‘p’ sound? Why don’t you draw some of them and even try to write the words if you wish?
9. Listen to and join in with this number boat song. Focus on putting numbers in sequence. Write numbers 0-10 on sticky notes or use cards from a game you own. Place them in order going forwards. Go beyond 10 if you can. Now think about going backwards. For this you may find it easier to start with a smaller number then extend the number range as your child gains confidence.
Lots of us in nursery – adults too – are fascinated by living things. Some of you have recently seen caterpillars develop into butterflies and grown your own strawberries! Today’s post is inspired by more living things – flowers!
Look in your garden or go for a walk. Can you spot flowers in every colour of the rainbow? Can you take photos of them? Which colour were there most/fewest of? Which did you like best? I have lots of different flowers in my garden but here are two I really liked on my walk last night. Do you like them too?
With an adult’s permission and without destroying the plant, you could remove some flowers and other parts of the plant to try the following:
2. Get a clean plastic tub and place some flowers and other natural items in it. Fill with water then freeze. Remove and enjoy a frozen flower picture. Then make predictions about how long it will take to melt. Use a watch, clock or timer to measure this. Was your estimate close?
3. Lay some flowers between two sheets of paper then place this ‘flower sandwich’ between two heavy books or other items. Leave for a few days at least then open up and see what has happened. Maybe you could frame your pressed flower picture.
4. Explore the different parts of a plant – root, stalk/stem, leaves, petals – by looking at real plants. Maybe you could look at more than one little plant (parents, unwanted weeds are good to pull up for this) and sort all the different parts.
5. Make some petal play dough:
6. Buy some white carnations or chrysanthemums. Cut the ends off the stems and place in water dyed with food colouring. Talk about how plants need water and that this travels up the stem. Make predictions about what might happen. Leave for a few days and make daily observations.
7. Practise some estimating and counting. In the garden or park, find a grassy area with a few flowers popping through. Throw down a hoop or another kind of ‘frame’. Estimate how many daises/dandelions etc are within the frame then count to check.
8. Make some floral images using different art techniques. Some people will be marking Fathers’ Day on Sunday. Maybe you could make something for your dad or another special person in your family.
9. Find a story or a factual book about plants and flowers and read it together. When you are looking at your book can you spot….the front cover? The back cover? The spine? The blurb? The author/illustrator names?
10. Do you know how seeds grow into plants? Watch and listen for facts and new words.
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