We may not be at nursery together but some of the staff would like to share some of our favourite stories and songs with you from our homes.
You might also like to revisit our previous Storytelling Sway.
We hope you enjoy these and we look forward to seeing you all again.
@GlenwoodFC #Glenwoodlearningathome
Young children love to help… we all know this often means a job can take twice as long, so why is it important that we encourage children to help with jobs around the house?
Helping is fun for children! They want to copy what adults do and enjoy spending time with them.
What are children learning as they help with chores? Firstly, a sense of pride in what they have contributed to the family. They are also learning to cooperate and to take responsibility, as well as important skills for life.
Children will be developing their literacy skills – having conversations, listening to instructions, learning and using new words.
Numeracy skills are also used – sorting and matching, counting and measuring are just some of the skills that are important in jobs around the house.
Both large and fine motor skills will be developed along with motor-eye coordination.
There are a few important things to remember if having the children helping is going to be enjoyable for everyone:
So, what jobs can young children help with?
Try and enjoy spending time together with your child whatever you are doing and remember learning is everywhere.
@GlenwoodFC #Glenwoodlearningathome
Children are naturally scientists – their curiosity helps them to understand the world around them. The children at Glenwood love to do their own experiments – developing their skills of scientific inquiry and creativity as they work.
They ask questions and make predictions, follow instructions and make observations, developing skills for learning, life and work.
Here are a few simple experiments and investigations you can try at home…
Click on the link to find out how to Make a Bubble Snake
Here is a reminder of the bubble mix recipe:
1/2 cup of washing up liquid, 1 1/2 cups water & 2 teaspoons of sugar
You could use straws or other tubes to blow bubbles (or anything else with holes…)
Make a Paper Aeroplane (follow the link for instructions)
Which is the best design for flying fast?
Which goes the furthest?
Why don’t you have a competition with your whole family?
Create a Volcanic Eruption
This is a favourite at Glenwood – it can get messy so you might like to do it outside!
First make your volcano – you could use an empty plastic bottle or yoghurt pot and some sand or mud.
Next put some bicarbonate of soda in the volcano (along with some ketchup or food colouring or paint to make the lava red)
Finally pour in some vinegar and watch the eruption!
Lego Boat Challenge
Can you make a boat that floats using Lego?
How many pennies can it hold before it sinks?
Another challenge for the whole family to get involved with!
Build a Bug Hotel
You could create a home for minibeasts in your garden – it can be big and fancy like the one on the RSPB website but a simple one using recycled materials will also attract wildlife.
Don’t forget there are some other science experiments in your Ideas for Home Booklet March 2020
Please Tweet some photos @GlenwoodFC #Glenwoodlearningathome
Can you name any of these shapes?
Can you find these shapes in your house?
Can you find any other shapes in your house?
When doing a scavenger hunt like this you are learning to explore and notice shapes in your environment, to match 2D shapes and to talk about the properties of shapes (How many sides? How many corners? Are they straight, round, curved?). For further challenge you could try to find and name some 3D objects.
Please Tweet us your shape hunt photos
@GlenwoodFC #Glenwoodlearningathome
Being outdoors has many benefits to children’s wellbeing and development. It has a positive impact on mental health as the body increases production of the feel-good hormone serotonin and reduces production of the stress hormone cortisol. Being outdoors provides lots of opportunities for physical activity, which increases muscle strength, stamina and bone density as well as reducing obesity. The NHS recommends that children under 5 years have at least 3 hours of physical activity daily. One final benefit is that spending time outdoors can lead to improved sleep.
At the moment children do not have the option of visiting their local playpark so here are just a few ideas of what you might do together outdoors…
Scavenger Hunts turn any walk into an adventure! Look for signs of spring, shapes, things that are one chosen colour, numbers (in order), make up your own list or download one from online….
Explore nature in the garden Go on a minibeast hunt – look under stones, pots, logs, under plants for creepy crawlies. Use an old plastic container such as a yoghurt pot to put them in if you don’t have a bug box.
Some other ideas can be found on these websites.
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/looking-after-yourself-and-nature
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2020/03/kids-nature-activities-self-isolation/
Gardening Even if you have no seeds to plant, it’s great exercise to help tidy up the garden by weeding and digging over the soil. You might find some minibeasts to investigate as you work.
Don’t forget to plant the sunflower seeds from your Family Learning Bag. You might try growing new plants from fruit and vegetables that you have been eating – apples, potatoes and peppers are good ones to try.
Family Sports Day Everyone likes a bit of competition!
Try some novelty races – ‘egg’ and spoon, balancing a beanbag (or rolled up pair of socks) on your head, penguin waddle (hold a ball between your knees), crab walking, wheelbarrow race, dressing up, shoe box slide (put empty shoe boxes on your feet)…
Make you own assault course – go under, over, along, up, down. Use whatever you have available – garden chairs, tables, slides, planks of wood, old sheets, skipping ropes. Time how long it takes for each person to complete.
Target games – who can get closest to the target? You c
ould use a bucket as a target or make one on the ground. Throw balls, rolled up socks, wellies… Just make sure there is nothing breakable in the way.
Or you could
make some skittles using tin cans or plastic bottles.
We hope you are inspired to have fun in the outdoors and don’t forget to share with us on Twitter @GlenwoodFC #Glenwoodlearningathome
Have you planted your sunflowers seeds yet? Mrs Brown has….. you can see how to do this on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/GlenwoodFC
This song will help you along the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da_LbBewte8
When your seeds have been planted they will begin to grow. After about 3 days the seeds will germinate. This means that the hard shell softens and splits. Roots will begin to grow downwards and a shoot will grow upwards. After about a week the shoot will appear above the soil. Then leaves will start to grow.
I can’t wait to see my seeds begin to grow into little shoots. Over the coming weeks we will find out what happens once the shoots get a bit bigger.
Perhaps you can keep a diary of the progress- take a photo or draw a picture every few days to record the changes.
Please remember to tweet your photos of planting and the progress of your sunflower.
@GlenwoodFC #Glenwoodlearningathome
A little bit messy but great fun…
You will need: plain flour, washing up liquid, water, food colouring, bowls, spoons, paint brushes
Measure out 1 cup each of flour, water and washing up liquid and mix until smooth – try not to make too many bubbles.
Split the paint between small bowls and add food colouring.
Your paint is ready to use!
Have you spotted any rainbows in your street?
Here is Mrs Husbands!
Although it may be tempting to forget about routines and structures at this time, it can help children to feel safe during periods of uncertainty when there is some structure and routine. Ideas for supporting this include-
In nursery, we use visuals to support children with routines and making choices and these can easily be adapted for the home. Why not draw some different images onto small cards and use to create sequence charts, choice boards, daily schedules or a weekly activity plan. Doing this together with your child will help them to develop an understanding of the choices available and the plans you have in place.
2 or 3 (or more) part sequence boards can help your child understand routines and help them see when they will be doing something.
Choice cards can be used to help your child make decisions and give them control of what they can do. Forced choices are when you present options which you have selected but your child gets the final say. For example, an apple or some grapes….. but not a biscuit! Drawing, hearing a story or playing with lego…. but no option of electronics!
This school timetable can easily be adapted to create your own weekly schedule.
If you can only do one thing to benefit your child while they are not in nursery, it is read a story a day. This can be a new story each day or you can revisit the same old favourite every day for a week…it doesn’t matter as long as you spend some time together and share the experience. Books are not just for bedtime- they can be read anywhere and anytime. And you don’t even need a book- why not make up stories together?
You can visit our stoytelling sway to hear stories read by the Glenwood team –
https://sway.office.com/owYdSVGZFjBJJ2qA?ref=Link
Similarly, sharing songs and rhymes also supports literacy development. Why not visit the Bookbug website for ideas-
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/songs-and-rhymes
Alternatively, why not try the BBC radio website for nursery rhymes (rather than YouTube)-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-songs-index/zhwdgwx
Health and wellbeing is so important. This includes both physical health and mental wellbeing.
Why not start each day with some physical exercise, suitable for all the family.
https://www.thebodycoach.com/blog/pe-with-joe-1254.html
Alternatively, perhaps some Cosmic Yoga may be more for you… we know this is a real favourite with our children in nursery.
https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga
Gonoodle is another favourite.
Children may benefit from this Social Story to help them understand the current situation regarding Covid19.
Child-Friendly-Explanation-of-Coronavirus
At a time when we are all experiencing uncertain times, positive mental health has never been so important.
East Renfrewshire Council has developed a guide, Healthier Minds, to promote the mental wellbeing of our children and young people. This resources aims to help you find the information you need to develop children and young people’s talents and abilities in a way that will support them to meet life’s common challenges, develop their resilience, and have healthier minds as a result.
Following the Scottish Government decision to close schools and nurseries, we have plans in place to make sure our pupils have every opportunity to continue their education regardless of the circumstances we may face.
We know that these are very challenging times for all of our families and we would like to begin by sending our care, thoughts and best wishes to all of our families and the wider community.
We understand that many of our families will find themselves in very difficult and worrying circumstances over the coming weeks and months and do not want, in any way, to add to these emotions through creating any anxiety about learning activities that ‘must be done’ each day. With this in mind, the learning activities that we will be facilitating will be shared with an understanding that some of our children/ families will not be in a position to complete these activities each day. We also acknowledge that spending time with your child in whatever ways are best suited to your family and to meet your child’s interests and stage of development will be most beneficial.
We have developed Home Learning Bags for each child to take home and a Home Learning booklet.
ideas for home booklet March 2020
We will regularly update our website and Twitter with tips, games, challenges and ideas of ways you can support your child at home including links to educational websites.
As we approach World Book Day we have developed a Storytelling Sway which features some of our staff team sharing their favourite stories for you and your child to enjoy at home. We hope you enjoy it!
We recently welcomed Chris Duke, the author of Lucy’s Blue Day, to Glenwood. The book is written to help children understand their emotions, and to encourage mental health awareness. Thank you to the parents who were able to join us for the sessions and thank you to Chris for his visit.
After a stormy weekend, we have been using the water from puddles as we play and learn outdoors. We are transporting using lots of different containers, exploring the flow of water using the gutters, pouring and catching the water and having lots of fun splashing in the puddles!
We have been creating bird feeders and spotting the different feathered visitors who come to our garden as part of RSPB Birdwatch.
We have been learning about the impact of plastic on the environment. We carried out a survey on our lunch packaging and produced a graph to show the types of packaging used in our lunch boxes. Many of us have reusable wraps, tubs and flasks…. can we do more to reduce our waste?
We recently enjoyed a visit to St Ninian’s High School to take part in a sports event led by the sports leaders and the active schools co-ordinator. We played lots of games with the senior pupils and had a great time!
We are learning to use a range of digital resources to support our learning in literacy and maths.
Using programming as we learn about direction using the code-a-pillar.
Using the word wands as we explore shapes, numbers and words.
We have been enjoying some yoga sessions in nursery.
We recently introduced the children to using clay and we have a lovely clay working area.
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