Today was the turn of Clarkston to take part in the Big Clean Up and Cart Mill were very keen to take part. We all popped our hi-vis vests on and went out with litter pickers and bin bags to clear up round Cart Mill. We were really sad to see so much litter spoiling our lovely area so we got very busy picking it up. After a morning of litter picking we had filled two bin bags!
Article 24: I have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Please find information on the HENRY programme starting soon in Busby Parish Church.
Please note Cart Mill chat will be coming out on Monday instead of tonight. We hope you all have a lovely weekend and we will see you all next week.
Please find attached this week’s Cart Mill Chat. Apologies that it has not been emailed out due to technical issues. We will make sure a copy is sent on Tuesday.
Have a lovely weekend.
This week we have taken two groups to the forest to experience learning in the wild! Forest School is a fabulous experience that we run for our pre-school children which has many benefits for them. Over the past couple of days we have seen the children flourish in their new environment. As it was our introductory week, we spoke about hazards and risks and how we were going to keep safe. We set some boundaries, they were far away so we had lots of space to explore but we could always be seen by an adult!
We looked at trees that might be good to climb and then we climbed! We squelched in the mud, a lot, some of us even lost our wellies in the muddy mess!
We explored nature, there were lots of plants to look at and one in particular we could smell. Wild garlic! It was everywhere, so we felt very hungry. We stopped for some snack before going to find more to explore.
Then we went to look at the horses in the field next door. They were munching on their grass so didn’t want to come and see us.
Before we knew it, it was time to go back to Cart Mill but we can’t wait to get out again next week.
We love gardening in Cart Mill and the weather never stops us getting out to see what we have growing in our garden. As it has been a little cold recently, we took a trip into the greenhouse to see if any of our seeds had popped up through the soil and they had! We checked that everything had enough water to drink and looked to see if any of the plant pots needed turned round – did you know that plants grow towards the light so sometimes they can look a little squint when they start to grow?
With everything looking okay, we thought we would test out our sense of smell. We have some herbs growing in the greenhouse at the moment so we each got to pick a small leaf and rub it around in our fingers. Then we had to take a big, deep sniff and guess what we could smell – it was mint! It was just like toothpaste.
We then moved outside to see what was growing in the planters. We have some lovely spring flowers growing but we suddenly spotted some big green leaves – is it cabbage?
No, on closer inspection, we discovered it was rhubarb. We wondered if there was anywhere we could use some rhubarb – I know, we could give it to Gail and she could help us make some rhubarb muffins! So, we decided to pick some – but not too much, to hand in to the baking area. It was quite hard to pull but we tugged and we twisted and CRACK, out the stalk of rhubarb came. After thinking about it, we decided that two stalks would be enough.
By now it was raining quite heavily so we thought we better go inside. Although, we had one last use for our rhubarb, an umbrella!
Gardening with children has so many benefits, which is why we are so fond of promoting it at Cart Mill. Benefits include: improving your mood, gardening reduces stresses and improves your overall mood; it is a great form of exercise, gardening is physical and can keep children active; understanding nature, gardening allows children to get close to worms, bees, flowers etc; stimulate senses, gardening helps us use all our senses; gardening can promote healthier eating, children also get an understanding of where food comes from and how it looks in its natural form; it is cheap, gardening is a great way to learn together with very little cost, even if you don’t have outdoor space, you can grow tomatoes or peppers from seed at your window; It is fun! The most important part of gardening, you can explore, investigate and see thing happen – sometimes you just need to be a little patient!
Apologies, but due to a technical error, we are unable to send out Cart Mill chat in the usual way today. We hope to have this rectified by Monday morning but in the meantime, here it it!
Cart Mil Chat
Dear Parent/Carer
What an exciting week we have had with science opportunities using the rainy weather as a provocation. Junk modelling is continuing to be incredibly popular linking to space – look out for our Cart Mill robot!
Maternity Leave
Today we said goodbye to two of our colleagues as they finish for their well-earned maternity leave. Sarah-Jane, our senior child development officer and Lorraine, our early years playworker both finished today to have a few restful weeks before their new bundles of joy arrive! The children made beautiful cards and even suggested names for the new arrivals.
Spring Crafts – Family Event
We are looking forward to our Family Spring Craft event taking place from 18 – 22 March. This will be a wonderful opportunity to come in and spend some time with your child making spring creations.
Junk Modelling
We are still looking for your junk! The children love creating models from boxes and cartons. They especially love sticking lots of small boxes together to construct amazing creations so if you have anything destined for the recycle bin, send it in to us! Please remember to wash all cartons before dropping them off.
Care Inspectorate
Please see attached questionnaire from Care Inspectorate. We appreciate your feedback as it helps us to improve and make sure we are getting it right for our families.
https://forms.office.com/e/yHiAjyFuEu
Planning Interests
We have displayed children’s interests at our reception area on our planning sheets, we would love for you to have a read and add on any interests from home. Post-it notes have been supplied for you to let us know what you are doing. We will then look for opportunities to continue this learning within our provision.
Many thanks for your continued support,
The Cart Mill Team
Today we said goodbye to two of our colleagues as they finish for their well earned maternity leave. Sarah-Jane, our senior child development officer and Lorraine, our early years playworker both finished today to have a few restful weeks before their new bundles of joy arrive! The children made beautiful cards and even suggested names for the new arrivals.
These included Spiderman, Baby Spiderman, Rainbow, Kelsie, Forever Baby and Teddy Bear. I wonder which of these fabulous names Sarah-Jane and Lorraine will pick!
After giving over lots of lovely gifts, we sang songs and said goodbye but thankfully it is not forever. We cannot wait for the babies (and their mummy’s) to visit us at Cart Mill.
Christmas is certainly in full swing at Cart Mill. Just when we thought we couldn’t fit anymore in to our calendar, we had a visit from Clydebuilt Puppet Theatre in to do not one but two shows of The Gingerbread Man!
We all loved it. We laughed, shouted, squealed and sat so well. Bet you’re thinking oh no you didn’t, but OH YES WE DID!!!!
Tomorrow, it is Christmas lunch in the centre then later this week we are starting some Christmas baking and lots of rehearsing for the Cart Mill Christmas Concert. We also have Colette coming in for some Christmas dancing next week, pyjama/movie day and hopefully a visitor from the North Pole! 🎅
We will all be exhausted by Christmas!
The children wanted to share what they love most about Cart Mill.
