Category Archives: Special Event

Eid Mubarak 🎇

Today the children have had lots of fun making different Eid decorations! We have enjoyed drawing our own decorations…

Making special playdough cakes…

 

And some children even enjoyed sewing decorations too!

We even learned a little about what Eid means from Mr Tumble himself…

Eid is the Islamic festival that marks the end of Ramadan and the period of fasting. ‘Eid Mubarak’ is used by Muslims all over the world as a greeting at this special time.

Thank you to the parents who have handed in gifts or shared their time to explain about this occasion. We really value the knowledge you share with us.

If you are celebrating Eid we hope you have a lovely weekend sharing gifts, eating tasty food and making memories with your family, friends and community.

Eid Mubarak from all of us here at Cart Mill Family Centre 🤩 ☀️

Celebrating world book day we went on a literacy adventure to Busby library


Today at Cart Mill family centre, we took an exciting trip to Busby library. It was quite a long walk but the children really enjoyed talking about the sights we saw along the way. We noticed some signs of spring, snow drops and the beginnings of daffodils starting to poke through the soil. We also spotted a boat a cat and we waved at a lady who was sat at her window. When we got to the library, we met Peter the librarian who very kindly let us choose some interesting books to explore together. We also got to select some books to take back for our friends at nursery. Peter read us a special story called Oi Goat especially for world book day with lots of laugh out loud rhymes which we loved! We remembered that we have a sister book Oi Frog back at the nursery.


On the way home, we stopped on the bridge to look for the ducks but unfortunately they weren’t there this time . We got back to Cart Mill just in time for our lunch which was just as well as all that walking had made us extra hungry! Later, we handed the books from the library out to our friends to have a look at. What a busy fun day we had today at nursery. Maybe you could visit a different library over the weekend and let us know what it was like.

 

World Book Day 2023

Happy World Book Day!

The boys and girls were invited to wear their jammies and bring in their favourite bedtime stories for World Book Day.

The children enjoyed showing the books to their friends and explaining to everyone what happens in the story.

We have enjoyed lots of stories throughout the day….

We have even used our fairy house as inspiration to write our own fairytales.


“My fairy got stuck in the roof. We need to use magic to help her.”

”I’m drawing an elf and a fairy like Ben and Holly.”

Some of the children from Carolside Primary very kindly shared a story with us as well. We heard about Kevin the Koala and Hairy McLairy from Donaldson’s Dairy. The children loved hearing the stories, thank you to P6 at Carolside!

Then we watched some of the stories from the World Book Day website. Please follow the link below if you would like to watch the stories or find more information.

Events

Keep Scotland Beautiful

At Cart Mill we have entered into the Keep Scotland Beautiful Pocket Garden competition. So, today the children got busy planting a variety of different seeds, bulbs and cuttings.

We started by gathering our tools, pots, seed trays, compost and watering  can.

Before we opened the seed packet we had a guess at the size, shape and colour of the seeds, with some great guesses” I think they are small” “ I think they are pink”  “ I think they are round” and I think that some of the boys and girls have done this before.


After making a hole with our finger we planted the “tiny” seeds and we filled the watering can because we know that plants need the “sun and water” to grow.

Next we went on to plant some daffodil bulbs, this time we used a bigger pot and had a go at lining them up from smallest to biggest.

We planted two pots of daffodils and decided to try an experiment by placing one pot in the greenhouse and the other outside. We want to see if there will be any differences, maybe one will grow bigger than the other!

Finally we potted the cuttings we were kindly given by Ben’s Mum and gave them to Derek to brighten up the studio.

A lovely addition to our Family Centre, thank you!

Here is a link to the competition if you would like to find out more about what we are doing in the garden- https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/1570993/opp-pocket-garden-comp-guide-2023-final-211222.pdf

 

Learning some Makaton at snack time

For learning languages week we have been learning some Makaton at the snack table.

Some of the children recognised Mr Tumble. We discussed that Mr Tumble uses Makaton to communicate. This means he is using his hand to talk. We as discovered that some adults and children might use makaton if they have a hearing loss of if they find it difficult to talk.

We looked at the signs and Fiona help demonstrate them.

The children enjoyed putting it into practice.

Here are some of the signs we have been learning at snack time.

“Hello”

“Eat”

“Drink”

“More”

“Thank you”

 

Big Garden Birdwatch

This week we have been preparing for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. We discussed why birds might come into the garden. “It’s for seeds, we have some in my garden”. We then decided to to make our own bird feeders and hang them up on a branch.

The birds might need a drink as it’s been very cold and all the puddles are icy, so we made the birds their own drinking bowl “Let’s put sticks near it so they can stand on them”.

We then did some research by looking at some of the information sent to us by the RSPB which showed us lots of pictures of the birds that might visit our garden.  “ I have seen some of these birds, that’s a magpie”.

It was very exciting watching for the birds. Some were far away so we used our binoculars. Then we could see some birds sitting in the trees and on top of the houses. We then thought about where else we could see the birds so we went for a bird watch walk.

We collected our bird watch recording sheet and set off.  I will hide in the trees like a bird watcher and see if the birds come near me we have to be very quiet 🤫. Look I saw a blackbird let’s mark it on the sheet .

We managed to spot magpies, blackbirds, crows and blue tits. We all had a turn of recording the bird we had seen on our RSPB sheet, it was great fun!

The children are continuing to watch for birds in our garden and are independently recording them in our nature corner.
If you would like to join in this weekend the RSPB ask that you record the birds that visit your garden within 1 hour and then you can upload your results at rspb.org.uk/Birdwatch using the code BH35.

Everyone has worked very hard recording the information and have had great fun developing their skills of mark making, data collection, fine motor skills, health and well being and lots more. Happy bird watching everyone!

Chinese Dragons!

With the start of Chinese New Year being yesterday the children wanted to make dragon masks. The dragon is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology. The dragon is a symbol of power, strength and good luck! The children watched some clips of the dragons dancing in the streets and were very impressed with the size and how colourful they are. We had a chat about why the dragon is significant in China.

We had a look at a colourful dragon and got started making our own dragon masks. The children wanted to use lots of coloured tissue paper to look like the ‘dragons hair’. First we had to cut the paper into strips!

We used paper plates for our masks. We added lots of colour using pens. Some children wanted to draw faces and some just drew patterns.

We used glue to stick on lots of coloured paper.  Some children thought it would be good to add coloured feathers to their dragons!

”Mine has a fluffy beard!”

”My dragon has spiky hair with lots of colours in it!”

“I’m making a rainbow dragon!”

”My dragon is loud and dancing!”

Once the children had designed their amazing dragons we stuck lollipop sticks on the back to make masks.

We had great fun dancing around the studio and listening to music pretending to be Chinese Dragons!  I think you will agree the children at Cartmill have been very creative today and enjoyed learning about Chinese culture.

Cart Mill Christmas Concert

We had a very busy day today, hosting two fabulous Christmas concerts. Both started off with a welcoming hot chocolate, complete with cream and marshmallows and what else, but a mince pie 🥧.

This gave parents the chance to chat and catch up with each other before our first indoor concert since 2019.

It was so nice to have such a busy centre, filled with the chat of families.

The children have been practising their songs all month and the hard work and rehearsals paid off as they were magnificent.

The staff have worked so hard with everyone and our families were treated to the Christmas favourites, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and of course Jingle Bells, as well as a few other songs.

Once the children had finished, we decided it was so good, we would sing it all again but this time we decided the grown ups should join in too!
Thank you all for joining us for our concerts today, we loved having you back in the centre and hope you agree with us that our Cart Mill children are super talented!
For anyone who finished up with us today, please have a wonderful break with the people you love and we will see you next year.

Santa visits Cart Mill!

Today at Cart Mill we got to wear our pyjamas to nursery! All the children loved showing off their cosy warm pyjamas.

We watched a short video of Santa outside Cart Mill which got the children very excited! Some of the children heard bells ringing and spotted Santa in our garden! He had arrived at nursery to see us all!

The children went in groups to see Santa and they all got a gift and their photo taken! Santa was so happy to meet such lovely, polite children!

After the excitement of seeing Santa we had some chilled time and got comfy with cushions and blankets on the rug and watched some Christmas Mickey Mouse!

We then had plenty of energy for some Christmas dancing! We copied the elves on the board and made up our own unique dance moves!

What a great fun day we all had, getting in the festive spirit. We are all so excited to share our wonderful singing with you at our concert tomorrow.

Bookbug around the Christmas tree 🎄🎄🎄

Today Bookbug joined us around the Christmas tree for some festive songs and stories.

We passed Bookbug and toy Santa round the circle so all our friends could have a hug and a squeeze 👍


We bounced Bookbug and Santa as high as we could and that made us all giggle!

We had a special request for the story ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ which made us all very excited 😁

We wished all our friends a ‘Merry Christmas’ which may or may not have been a practice for next week 🤫

When it comes I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in 2023 🥰