Glenwood Family Centre- Time Capsule

June 25, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

We chose to mark the end of our first session in the new building with a Time Capsule, positioned at the front entrance and within the heart of the community in Eastwood Park, signifying our place in the heart of the community. We marked the spot with a toadstool, which came from the garden of the old building from a wooded area known as Toadstool Tales.

This letter was placed inside the Time Capsule-

Glenwood Nursery School opened officially on 4th October, 1976 in a purpose built building on Woodfarm Road, with a capacity of 80 children in the morning and 80 in the afternoon. The first entry in the log book dated 10th November 1976 states, “ the waiting list opened on 13th September, and mothers have been enquiring daily ever since. Even at that numbers are slow to rise. At this moment we have 50 morning and 26 afternoon children. At this date we have one Head Teacher, one Assistant Teacher and five Nursery Nurses.”

The first head teacher was Mrs Elizabeth Anderson (became McDowell). She was succeeded briefly by Mrs Robertson, acting head teacher, in January 1990 before Mrs Karin Gilhooly took on the role on 3rd September, 1990. Mrs Gilhooly retired in June 2013 and I, Lorraine Brown, was appointed permanently in October 2013.

In 2015 Glenwood Nursery School became Glenwood Family Centre and we began operating throughout the year. Soon after, Scottish Government plans were announced for every child to receive 1140 hours of early learning and childcare by 2020 and so, to meet the increased demand, a new centre was planned due to open in August 2020. The new building was to be sited close to the old building. This was a much more prominent site, in the heart of Eastwood Park.

Unfortunately the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in 2020 resulted in the country going into lockdown and the opening of the building was delayed. The new building finally opened during a second lockdown at the start of 2021. We welcomed the first of our children on 1st February 2021, opening only to children whose parents were key workers or vulnerable children who were attending the Hub provision. The first children to step through our doors were Lewis and Cameron Wilkinson. On 22nd February 2021 we fully opened for all children. Our role at February 2021 was 141 children, with a head teacher, a principal teacher, a teacher, a depute head of centre, a senior child development officer, 16 child development officers (including 4 part time), 5 part time early years play workers, 2 business support assistants and 2 janitor/ cleaners.

The new centre has a capacity of 180 children at any one time, with children attending various patterns across the week to meet the needs of the families. Our opening hours are 8am-6pm every week day except public holidays and in-service days.

We hope that upon opening this Time Capsule, you will experience some of the thrill of learning about the past and the history of Glenwood. We have had an eventful journey recently due to coronavirus however the spirit of Glenwood is strong and we hope this continues long into the future.

Love and Best Wishes

Mrs Lorraine Brown

Head Teacher

25th June, 2021

Health and Wellbeing

Fun Friends

June 24, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

Going to school is a big transition and children feel that. From May as children’s awareness of their move to school increases we see slight changes in the children. We often hear individuals saying to their friends or adults “I’m going to miss you when I go to school”. Some of our younger children protest “I’m going to school too”. We see some children become a little more anxious and look for more reassurance, or return to play they had previously moved on from.

At this time children also begin to explore their identity through their friendships and sometimes excluding others and we often hear disagreements about who is allowed to join in or who is in a friendship group. Recently some children made this sign:

As adults we seek to encourage children to be aware of how it feels to be excluded; and challenge children to think how and why we should include others. Parents this is a time when children will soak up the way you interact with others and your values both conscious and unconscious ones.

At Glenwood we use the Fun Friends approach with all children. You may already be familiar with this but I am putting links to previous blogs and a sways to provide more fun ideas to support wellbeing.

F is for Feelings

We talk to children about their own feelings and others “I can see that you thought that was funny and it made you laugh but look, your friends not laughing he got a fright. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Glenwood/2020/05/21/remote-learning-fun-friends-have-feelings/

R is for Relaxing and Self-Regulation

Learning calm ourselves when we are scared, angry or in a disagreement is an important skill and it involves stopping a moment and breathing slowly. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Glenwood/2020/05/28/remote-learning-relax/

I is for ‘I can do it.’

We teach children to think positively “I can’t do it yet, but I can try hard. We call positive thoughts green as they help us go and negative thoughts red as they make us stop. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Glenwood/2020/06/04/remote-learning-fun-friends-i-can-do-it/

E is for Encourage

We celebrate success and encourage on the journey “you are concentrating really hard” or “I can see you are doing your very best” https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Glenwood/2020/06/11/remote-learning-fun-friends-encourage/

N is for Nurture

We are wired for positive connection. Love can be ‘all we need’. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Glenwood/2020/06/18/remote-learning-fun-friends-nurture/

D is for don’t forget to be Brave.

Facing new experiences and people requires bravery. Children can practice being confident in new situations or saying they don’t like something. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Glenwood/?s=Fun+friends

S stay happy and stay safe

Children learn best when they are happy and safe. They love having Fun. Also they can learn safety messages when presented in fun ways.

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy and English, Numeracy and Mathematics, Sciences

Playdough and loose parts play

June 22, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

The orchard bubble have been busy!

The orchard bubble has shown a great interest in making playdough over the last few weeks. The children have taken responsibility for their own learning by coming up with different ideas of how they want to create their playdough from colours and texture. “I want blue.”

“I want pink.”

The children had shown an interest in loose parts and wanted to include this in their playdough experience. By incorporating loose parts with playdough the children are developing their fine motor skills. They use a variety of movements such as pressing, rolling and stretching. This will help to strengthen the muscles in their hand which in turn will help them with their writing skills.

“I want to use leaves.”

“Oooohhh feathers.”

The children showed ownership over their creations and seemed to enjoy the fact that they could start again when one model was finished. They did show interest in taking them home so our next steps will be trying to create models with loose parts and clay.

“Can we take them home?”

- Pupils, Health and Wellbeing

Children’s Voice

June 21, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

Listening to children’s voices.

At the end of April, after every bubble had spent three weeks in each playroom every child was invited to share their thoughts. We used photographs of the playrooms to help us to talk about our likes and dislikes.

The children said they enjoyed moving around all the rooms and shared their ideas to make each room better. Some children felt that the garden in Playzone 2 was too small.

“I don’t like the garden”

“I didn’t like this because it wasn’t too big.”

We were able to begin using the side garden from Playzone 1 and expand the outdoor area for Playzone 2.

Some children missed the tyre swing from the old building so we added one to Playzone 1.

“I miss the tyre swing.”

“We should put some swings in the back yard.”

In Playzone 3 we added dolls to the home corner.

“Can we have babies in this room?”

“I would like to play with babies here.”

To help us look at some of the areas more closely we used Tuff Cams to share our thoughts.

“This art area is not so good. We need more things for sticky pictures.”

“People need to put things away in the right place, we need signs to tell them”.

The children suggested new resources and helped to organise and label them.

This has led to lots of new opportunities for leading their own learning.

As we continue to settle into our new building we can’t wait to hear more of the children’s ideas and suggestions to develop our learning environment.

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy and English, Numeracy and Mathematics

Musicality benefits

June 16, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

From a very young age children benefit in all areas of their development when taking part in musicality sessions.

Literacy

Helps children understand the meaning and the sound of words.
Helps develop their listening skills (loud, quiet)
Rhyming
Syllables (clapping out)
Helps them predict
Imagination
Conversation
Follow instruction

Maths

Counting beats
Number song
Recognition of numbers
Recognition of Shapes And their names
Rhythm pattern

Gross and fine motor motor skills

Jumping, hopping, skipping and dancing.
Helps them develop and control their body movements.
Better control at manipulating objects (instruments)
Helps strengthen their muscles.
Moving the instruments in all different directions(up downside to side, front back)

Social and emotional skills

Interaction with other children.
Introduction to different kinds of music and cultural differences awareness.
Increasing confidence in performing
Sharing resources.

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing

Ballet

June 16, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

In Ballet the children are learning how to control their bodies through balance, good posture, listening skills, following instructions and rhythm, also finding their own space, cooperating with others and taking part in a performance.

We started of with the basic movements of dance and Ballet such as Feet Positions ——- first position (happy feet ) , parallel ——- (feet together ) and Second (feet apart).

Arm Positions ——- Bras Bas (first position of the arms ) Gateway (out in front ) Second(arms out wide ).

Moves within Ballet such as —- point lift, point close, springs in first, plies “which we called make a diamond,”

And at the end of every performance we learned who to do a bow and a courtesy.

We put it altogether and made a dance and chose music.

Ballet is an art form created by the movement of the human body. It is theatrical – performed on a stage to an audience utilising costumes, scenic design and lighting. It can tell a story or express a thought, concept or emotion. Ballet dance can be magical and exciting.

Health and Wellbeing

Risky Play

June 11, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

What is Risky Play and Why is it Important?

Children need to be kept safe from potential harm and hazards at all times, but they also need to explore and take risks. Risky play is exciting, challenging, fun, it pushes limits and there is every chance of physical injury. We don’t want children’s lives to be in danger, or any serious injury to be likely. That’s why with any new piece of equipment we carry out a risk assessment. This allows us to assess whether the risk of a resource or activity outweighs the benefit. Is something guaranteed to be seriously dangerous? Well, then it’s probably not ok. But if there is a low chance of bumps, grazes, or cuts? Maybe that’s alright.

The Experience of risky play is an important part of children’s learning. It develops the child’s self-confidence, resilience, promotes problem solving and trust in their own judgements as adults. Children have the right to make decisions and take risks through their play. In having these opportunities, children will be able to maximise their enjoyment of the environment whilst removing obvious risk. The ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’ states in article 31: ‘All Children have the right to relax and play and to join in a wide range of activities.’

In our Centre we encourage children to manage their own risk in everyday play situations both indoors and out.

Climbing a high tree

Rope swinging

Whittling wood

Balancing

Using tools at the woodwork bench, saws, hammer and drills
Playing in the stream to build a dam
Building fires
Running fast, chasing each other.

It’s easy to say things like: “Be Careful,” and if you listen to yourself on how many times a day you say it with your child you will be amazed. What we are actually doing is telling children to stop and it’s for our benefit because we don’t want our children to get hurt. If instead we ask: –

Do you feel safe?
Can you see anything that could hurt you or be in the way?
What can I do to help you to be safe?
Where can you put your hand next?

This helps the child to focus on the environment around them. With time and Space, the child will revisit this experience, remember what they did before and build on that knowledge.

Sciences

Superb Science

June 7, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

Over the past few weeks we have been carrying out a number of different experiments using water and food colouring. Using our observation skills we are beginning to recognise simple cause and effect. We have been developing our ability to ask relevant questions and making predictions about what will happen next.

We used different concentrations of food colouring to see what flower would change colour first.

“How fast will it go?”

“Is mine going to change colour?”

We also made our own lava lamps!

“Look at my bubbles, my bubbles are moving.”

We made a rainbow water walk.

“The colour is getting sucked up like a straw.”

“They have mixed together.”

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing

Wonderful Weaving!

June 4, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

We’ve been having lots of fun being creative and exploring how to use different materials to learn how to weave. The children enjoyed choosing from a variety of colours and textures of ribbon, paper, card and wool. Weaving is a fantastic activity for young children to try and offers many benefits such as developing fine motor skills and hand eye coordination, as well as developing concentration and providing a physical experience of the spatial concepts of over and under. It is also an ideal experience to help strengthen the muscles in both hands as the dominant and non-dominant hands are used at the same time. Here are some of the different types of weaving that we tried:

Fence Weaving

“I like all the different colours of the ribbon.”

Table Top Weaving

“You need to go over and under and over and under all the way to the end.”

“I’m lifting the wool up so the ribbon can go under”

Paper Weaving

“This is quite tricky.”

Large Needle Weaving

“

“I need to push this through and catch it at the other side.”

Individual Loom Weaving

“I like the gold ribbon best. It’s so shiny.”

Small Needle Weaving

“I’m getting good at this now. I’m just going to pull the needle.”

Health and Wellbeing

Sports Day 2021

June 3, 2021 Mrs Husbands Leave a comment

The children participated and enjoyed our Sports Day on the 25th May. Kerry Comerford, our Active Sports Coordinator, set up a number of activities and sports for us to try – inluding bowling, curling and gymnastics. The children were running, hurling, balancing and jumping. After the activities the children enjoyed ice lollies.

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WOODWORK

June 2, 2021 User deactivated Leave a comment

At Glenwood our children enjoy daily opportunities to engage in woodwork.

This involves experimenting and tinkering with the possibilities of the materials and tools, which helps to build our children’s confidence and develop their creativity and imagination.

“I want to use the hammer.”

Observations of the children show high levels of engagement and perseverance with challenging tasks.

“The saw is a bit tricky.”

Design is part of the woodwork process, defining the task and planning how to proceed.

“I’m making a helicopter car. I need 4 wheels so it can drive and a window at the front. The helicopter blades are going to sit on top so it can lift off into the sky.”

The importance of woodwork cannot be underestimated!

Look at all the skills our children are learning –

Hand eye coordination
Fine motor development
Problem-solving
Creative thinking
Imagination
Independence
Respect
Understanding of the world around them
Language development

The foundations for STEM!

- Achievement, - Pupils, Expressive Arts, parents, Technologies

Terrific Triangles

May 4, 2021 Mrs Brown Leave a comment

Working with Starcatchers, we developed a creative project on triangles. Children and parents brought lots of lovely triangles from home (thank you).

Child: “The triangles are all different sizes. Oh, Look at them, they are all my favourite. I made some at home, here they are.”

Then …….

…we made more at Glenwood using lots of different materials to decorate.

…we cut slots into our triangles. We tried scissors and then saws.

…we found we could make 3D shapes by connecting them together and we could make lots of different shapes.

…we took some outside and made a traffic jam with lots of cars.

…we were thinking about our community and neighbours and being ‘intergenerational’. So we made some into bunting and delivered it to our friends with a card. We wrote:

“We are thinking of you and hope our triangles make you happy”.

Parent: “I really liked the idea of the triangles and having something to work with my child at home and bring in. It made me feel more connected to the nursery at this time when we can’t come in”.

Literacy and English, Numeracy and Mathematics, Technologies

INFORMATION COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY

May 4, 2021 Mrs Brown Leave a comment

Through play opportunities children can experience a range of resources that support their ICT knowledge and understanding.

CHOOSING ICT TOYS

In Glenwood, the children can choose ICT from a choosing book. The children chose a voice recordable game which supports children’s numeracy and literacy skills.

TORCHES

During their learning the children were interested in the shapes and patterns made by the light and shadows outdoors in the sunshine. To re-create shadows indoors light from a torch was projected onto a hanging sheet. The children used their bodies and open-ended resources to explore shadows, identify shapes or people from behind the sheet.

BEE-BOT

The children programmed a small robot to move forward, backwards, left and right movements to move around the floor. A programmable toy can support literacy and numeracy skills.

REMOTE CONTROL TOYS

Using remote-control toys children learn about cause-and-effect. As they play as they work out which buttons make the car go in each direction. The children set up an obstacle course with ramps to drive up and down, or tunnels for them to drive through. This is a great way to develop a child’s hand-eye co-ordination. Some of our remote control toys are operated by the iPad.

INTERACTIVE BOARD

An interactive smart board allows images from a computer screen to be displayed onto a classroom board where the children can interact with the images directly on the screen using a tool or even a finger.

IPADS/TABLETS

Ipads are available as part of the nursery’s continuous provision and children are encouraged to use them to record their achievements and share it with others using the ipads.

IMAGINARY PLAY

During their imaginary role-play children are provided with old ICT equipment. Children are observed in the home corner using the ICT in real life situations i.e. an office, a train or even a trip to space.

EXPLORING ICT AND HOW IT WORKS

Taking apart old pieces of everyday ICT equipment to look at what is inside and how it works is a popular activity. Children explore the inside of old clocks, computer boards, telephones and CD players.

Sciences

Runner Beans

April 26, 2021 Mrs Husbands Leave a comment

The children have been very interested to learn about planting and growing runner bean seeds for our new family centre. By placing a runner bean seed in a zip lock bag with some wet cotton wool and sticking this on to the window, the children were able to observe the seeds germinate as the roots and shoots started to grow.

“I can see the roots going down and the shoots going up.”

“They are going to be so tall.”

“The roots are getting really long now.”

After about 10 days the children filled some small plant pots with soil and carefully planted a seedling in each one and then watered them all.

“I will give them some water. They need water so they can grow.”

The children took responsibility for checking that the soil in the pots was not too dry and made sure each plant had enough water to help it grow.

“The beans need a little drink of water. I touched the soil with my finger and it felt dry.”

To prepare for planting the runner beans outdoors a handheld drill was used to drill drainage holes in planters, the planters were filled with soil and canes were added to provide support.

“I’m turning the handle round and round. I can see little bits of plastic at the bottom.”

To help carefully remove the plant from the pot without damaging it, the children learned about gently rolling and squeezing the pot with their fingers and hands. They were very interested to see how the roots had grown inside the pot.

“Look at all the roots. There are so many.”

When the children had finished planting all the runner bean plants they chose a sunny spot to put them in the garden and gave them a big drink of water.

“The beans are really tall. They have lots of leaves.”

Further information about growing runner beans can be found on the following website: https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-runner-beans/

Health and Wellbeing

Obstacle Courses

April 1, 2021 Mrs Husbands Leave a comment

The children in the Orchard Bubble have been having a great time in the nursery with our obstacle course equipment. We have been learning to work together as a team and use everyone’s ideas to create the courses. We have also been learning about how to risk assess for ourselves.

The children decided to add to the obstacle course and make one where they have to use their gross motor skills to hop and jump.

Then the children wanted to use the big blocks inside to create a big obstacle course together.

When we create and use obstacle courses we are not just developing our gross motor skills but also learning to share, take turns and cooperate with each other.

Literacy and English, Numeracy and Mathematics

How big is a dinosaur?

March 19, 2021 Mrs Husbands Leave a comment

Many of the children have been enjoying playing with the new dinosaurs. We had lots of questions so we watched some videos on Tig Tag Junior. We learned about how they became extinct.

“When a big space rock made some dust it made the place go dark. Then without sunlight the plants died. Then without plants the plant-eating dinosaurs died. Then all the meat-eaters died. Then they all started to die. Extinct.”

“What size was a T-Rex?”

We used books to research and discovered that a Tyrannosaurus rex was 12 metres long. Would it fit in our playroom? Let’s find out by measuring…

Our playroom is 10 metres long – “T-rex’s head would be next door!” Which dinosaur is smallest? We researched on the iPad. Compsognathus was 60cm long and 40cm tall.

Let’s put them in order…

Numeracy and Mathematics, Technologies, Uncategorized

Technology Toys

March 15, 2021 Mrs Husbands Leave a comment

We have had great fun learning how to use a variety of our digital toys.

We have been developing our use of directional language using our Code-a-pillars and Sphero.

“When you put the body bits on it goes left and right.”

“I made it go forwards then turn around.”

“The green one goes forward.”

We use an App on the iPad to make Sphero…

It took great teamwork and problem solving skills to build an obstacle course and pathways for the Wonder Bug. We had to work together to find the best way to help Wonder Bug travel from one end of the room to the other.

“We need a ramp for it to go up.”

“It will need to balance on top.”

“If we add a corner, it will need to turn the corner.”

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World Book Day 2021

March 4, 2021 Mrs Husbands Leave a comment

This year we couldn’t invite parents in to nursery to read stories so we invited them to read to us remotely! Some were able to join us live for a Google Meet and some shared videos of themselves reading with us. A huge “Thank you!” to all our storytellers.

Zachary’s mum read a story about dinosaurs.

Sorley’s grandad read a story about pirates.

We heard a Supertato story from Sam’s mum.

…and a Kipper story with a very bright torch.

Luke’s mum told us the story of The Tiger Who Came to Tea – which was written before Mrs Husbands was born!

Evie’s mum read another of our favourite stories Whatever Next

There was a tired unicorn in Lacey’s mum’s story.

Everyone joined in shouting “There’s a shark in the park!” with Alistair’s dad.

Mrs Brown used puppets to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

All the children will receive a World Book Day voucher to spend – find out more in this fun song… how many stories to you recognise?

You might like to listen to Lydia Monks read What the Ladybird Heard in a video she recorded for World Book Day.

Sharing books and stories together is a valuable learning experience for your child. This document gives some advice on ways to get the most out of reading together.

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Chocolate Playdough for Fairtrade Fortnight

February 24, 2021 Mrs Husbands Leave a comment

We made some chocolate playdough in nursery today. It smelt delicious – but we knew we couldn’t eat it! Here is how we made it…

First we measured our ingredients and put them in the bowl: 2 cups plain flour, 1 cup salt, half a cup of cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons oil, 4 teaspoons cream of tartar and 2 cups water.

Then we stirred it until it was smooth – “It looks like chocolate icing!”

We cooked ours in the microwave – stir every minute until it is cooked.

Fairtrade Fortnight began on 22nd February and our cocoa powder had a Fairtrade logo on it. Fairtrade means the farmers get paid a ‘fair price’ for the crop. Can you find any logos on anything in your house?

Find out more about Fairtrade bananas with Pablo Super Banana in this video: https://vimeo.com/153120034

Why not try this quiz with your family on the Fairtrade website? How much do you know about Chocolate?