As we explore loose parts we are developing curiosity, fine motor skills and mathematical skills.
Loose parts
All posts by Mrs Brown
preparing snack
We are developing fine motor skills as we chop, spread and peel snack.
How does your garden grow!
Our garden looks fantastic after a summer of sunshine and showers!
It’s good to be back!
We are loving being back and learning both indoors and out!
Road closure
Robslee Road is closed possibly until 20th September, due to essential Scottish Water works and this may affect your journey to Glenwood. See attached for full details.
Building works
In order to meet the needs of our families by 2020 when early learning and childcare entitlement for all children will almost double, a new much larger building is planned for Glenwood. The new site is adjacent to our current centre in Eastwood Park. Building work begins approximately 8th July. This is an exciting time for us and we look forward to working with the builders to involve the children as much as possible in the work. Their will be windows on the fencing around the site for us to view the progress.
Naturally there will be some disruption while this work is taking place. There will be construction traffic near our centre and a number of restricted areas. All construction vehicles will enter the site through Eastwood Park and will minimise entry during peak times. Parking at the allotments will be reduced as this area will be cordoned off.
In order to minimise the impact of this work for the coming year we suggest considering alternative ways to travel to nursery instead of the car where possible. There will be an number of identified safe pedestrian routes through the park and if you can consider walking or cycling to nursery or even part of the way, this will ease congestion. There are some alternatives to parking at the allotments including Eastwood Park, the pavilion, Woodfarm Road or even Rouken Glen Park and walking the fairly short distance from there.
Click here for a plan of the site.
Glenwood Contractor Site and Compound
Greenbank Gardens Wheelbarrow Competition
We have created a garden in a wheelbarrow as part of the Greenbank Gardens wheelbarrow competition. The theme was children’s books. Our children voted to select Rumble in the Jungle as the theme for our garden and they have been working all week to plant the garden. They added animals and wrote labels for the wheelbarrow. It looks fantastic!
Family Fun Bags
This week we have been using papier mâché and balloons to make models. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to do this for this week’s Family Fun Bags. Each bag contains the items needed to create papier mâché, a balloon, googly eyes and 3 colours of powder paint. Colours can be mixed to create different colours.
Sports Day
We had a really successful sports day on Friday. Kerry Comerford, active sports co-ordinator, and the primary 7 sports leaders from OLM primary organised the event.
Eid Mubarak
Eid Mubarak to all our Muslim families. We have been learning about Ramadan and Eid festivities and shared a story Aleena brought into nursery. Some of our children told us about how they celebrated Eid last Wednesday with their families.
“I went to the Mosque and I got presents. I got a microphone.” Ayla.
“It wasn’t a good Eid because it was raining. We had to watch for puddles when we were getting our photos taken.” Zara.
“I got my hands painted with Mendhi”. Zainab.
“So did I.” Azan.
Community Engagement
This year we have developed particularly strong community links with Asda, Newton Mearns. Leigh Hamilton regularly engages with us and supports our children’s learning through a range of experiences including baking, creative, planting and gardening.
ECO day
Last Saturday we had a very successful ECO day. Staff, families and friends all mucked in to ensure our garden looks its best. Bark and stones were spread in Toadstool Tales, a bottle top mosaic was produced, the sand pit filled, vegetable plots weeded, cable drums painted, flowers planted, strimming and power washing carried out and many more jobs. A huge thank you to everyone who helped. 
Care Inspectorate
All services providing early learning and childcare in Scotland must be registered with the Care Inspectorate and are regularly monitored and awarded grades. Inspections are unannounced. We recently had an inspection and we are delighted to share with you the inspection report. Please take some time to read this.
www.careinspectorate.com/berengCareservices/html/reports/getPdfBlob.php?id=302598
Glenwood Family Centre were inspected in two aspects, Quality of care and support and Quality of staffing and we were graded excellent for both.
I am sure you will recognise that the commitment and professionalism of the staff team are a real strength of our centre and we strive to continue to maintain excellent standards in ensuring the highest quality care and support for all our learners.
British Science Week
We have been celebrating British Science Week. Have you been taking part in our daily science challenges? Each day this week we have been displaying a challenge on our plasma screen (in the corridor) and sharing this on Twitter for you and your child to carry out at home. Why not take a photo or send a tweet to let us know how you have got on.
Our Family Fun Bags this week contain the items needed to carry out Friday’s challenge. We had a great time trying this out this week!
We have been experimenting with a Balloon Rocket. The children followed the instructions had a countdown.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … 🚀🚀🚀#BritishScienceWeek pic.twitter.com/Pbxix0Uivg— GlenwoodFamilyCentre (@GlenwoodFC) March 13, 2019
Block play
Our block play area is so popular and versatile. We use the blocks in so many ways. We have opportunities for risky play as we climb and create slides. 
Recently we have been very interested in performing so we created a stage. We have been dancing, singing and playing instruments while the audience watch us perform. 
We even used the large planks as guitars!
Building inspired by buildings!
We have been using images of famous buildings and landmarks around the world to build using the small blocks. Can you recognise the places we have built?
We are having a picnic!
We love to have pretend picnics in the quiet room… so we decided to have a real one! We wrote invitations to invite our friends and we had lots of preparations to do. 
We made bunting to decorate the room.
We planned our menu. 
Once we decided what we wanted to eat we made shopping lists and will be visiting the shops to purchase what we need.
We can’t wait to have our picnic!
Patterns
We have been creating repeating patterns. 
Fairtrade
Our Children’s Committee met recently to discuss what we can do for Fairtrade Fortnight. They created a mind map of ideas.
The children decided to use some Fairtrade ingredients to bake banana cup cakes. We followed a recipe and we had lots of measuring and weighing to do.
The cup cakes tasted yummy! We thought it would be a great idea to sell the ingredients in our Family Fun Bags to allow everyone the chance to make Fairtrade banana cup cakes at home.
Come and Join Us
We are starting monthly sessions of Bookbug and Musicality (Literacy through music) for parents and their Glenwood children. Please come along and join us. Let us know if you can manage to allow us to organise the children.
- Monday 18th February 2.00pm- 2.30pm- Musicality
- Thursday 21st February 10.00am- 10.30am- Musicality
- Monday 4th March 2.00pm- 2.30pm- Bookbug
- Thursday 7th March 10.00am- 10.30am- Bookbug
- Monday 18th March 2.00pm- 2.30pm- Musicality
- Thursday 21st March- 10.00am- 10.30am- Musicality
- Monday 15th April 2.00pm- 2.30pm- Bookbug
- Thursday 18th April 10.00am- 10.30am- Bookbug
- Monday 29th April 2.00pm- 2.30pm- Musicality
- Thursday 2nd May 10.00am- 10.30am- Musicality
- Monday 13th May 2.00pm- 2.30pm- Bookbug
- Thursday 16th May 10.00am- 10.30am- Bookbug
