Tag Archives: gardening

Sciences, Social Studies

Our Strawberry Patch

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by Mrs Wilson

The strawberry plants that we planted in April have finished producing fruit so we have been very busy caring for our strawberry patch.

We have been weeding out some grass that has grown there and cutting off leaves that have turned brown.

We noticed that lots of runners have grown from our strawberry plants and we have been learning how to plant these using compost, pots, trowels, dibbers and watering cans, so that we can grow new strawberry plants.

 

One of the children thought it would be a good idea to make a new sign for our strawberry patch so we used some old wood and acrylic paint to make a new one. 

We have also been developing our awareness of how we can care for the environment by reusing and recycling different items.  We made our own plant food by cutting up banana skins, left over from snack,  into small pieces and adding them to old bottles filled with water.  After a few days, the banana water will be ready to use as plant food to help our strawberry runners to grow.  

   

 

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing

Beetroot

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by Mrs Wilson

The children and adults have been learning about planting, growing and harvesting a variety of different vegetables and fruit with help and support from Goody Foody. Towards the end of August we began to harvest our beetroots and the children have been exploring them in their play experiences.

The children have been learning how to prepare the beetroot for cooking, using brushes and water to clean them and joining in with a rhyme as an adult used a sharp knife to cut off the bottom and cut the leaves off the top.

     

Chop, chop, choppity-chop,

Cut off the bottom, and cut off the top.

What there is left, we put in the pot.

Chop, chop, choppity-chop.

 When the beetroots were cooked the children had the opportunity to have a go at tasting them.

“I like this beetroot.  Can I have some more?”

 The children were very interested to observe that the beetroot cooking water had changed colour.

“It looks a bit like purple now.  The beetroot has changed the water.”

The cooking water was used to investigate what would happen if some white cotton material was soaked in it.

“It’s not white anymore.  The beetroot colour is all over the material.”

The children developed their mark making skills using the cooking water to paint with.

The beetroot leaves were also used, along with some nasturtium flowers and leaves grown in the garden, to try the Japanese art of Hapa-Zome (leaf-dye).

     

“You need to hit really hard with the hammer to squash the leaves.”

 

- Achievement, Health and Wellbeing

Glenwood Family Centre- Time Capsule

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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

     

   

   

 

Social Studies

Eco – Wormery

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The Orchard bubble had a great experience creating a wormery. They were involved in every step of the process. We started off by watching a video instructing us on how to start creating a wormery. It provided us with information on the benefits of having a wormery. The first thing we started doing was drilling lots of holes in our box which took quite a number of days. The children thought this was: ‘Hard work.’

After we had finished drilling the holes in the box it was then time to add our compost into the box to start creating a nice home for our worms. The children were developing their gross motor skills by helping to pour the heavy bag of compost into the box. The children thought that: “The worms are really going to love their new home.”

Miss Maclean had ordered special composting worms from the internet and they had arrived. The children couldn’t believe that you could order worms from the internet. We sat down at group time and looked at the worms and Miss Maclean explained why we needed to use composting worms. The children had even remembered that: “The wormery helps us recycle” and “they will help make compost.”

  

Now that the worms are in their new home the children love to care and look after them everyday. “We spray the worms to give them a drink.” “We need to give them our food waste.” The Orchard bubble are attached to their worms and want them moved into the next room we move to.

“Miss Maclean can we look at the worms again.”

Expressive Arts, Sciences, Uncategorized

Remote Learning- Sunflowers and other plants

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Mrs Brown writes-
I have been keeping a close watch on my sunflowers since I planted my seeds and I am delighted with how much they are growing. I had to replant them into bigger plant pots and I have now planted them in a sunny part of my garden near a wall for protection from the wind. Every few weeks I measure their height. In the beginning I  used a ruler to measure their height but now they have grown a bit taller I need to use a measuring tape. I  record their height on a growth chart.
Perhaps you have been measuring the height of your sunflowers. Are they taller than Mrs Brown’s? We would love to see how tall they have grown.
While in my garden I  got a bit annoyed because I spotted some weeds growing. Then I remembered weeds are just wild flowers growing in the wrong place and I recalled the fun I had as a child with wild flowers …..

Buttercups As a child I loved picking buttercups and holding them under the chin of friends and families. If you could see yellow under their chin it meant they liked butter. Why not try it to see if your family like butter.

Daisies Everyone loves making daisy chains. Not only are they very pretty, making daisy chains is great for hand eye co-ordination and fine motor skills.

Dandelions Although dandelions make me a bit cross when they grow on my lawn, they really are fascinating. You can see their life cycle over a short period of time as they change from yellow flowers to dandelion clocks with their fairy-like seeds. As a child  I liked to pick the yellow flowers and flick their heads off, saying, “Mary, Queen of Scots, got her head chopped off!” (although we all know what they say about picking dandelions…) I also recall counting “one o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock…..“ as I blew the seeds into the air and watched them fly away in the wind, ready to find a new place to grow.

I love this transient art idea ‘borrowed’ from Carlibar nursery, for making a dande lion picture. Why not try making a picture with items you find in your garden.

Health and Wellbeing

Remote Learning- The Great Outdoors

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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 could 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