Category Archives: Special Event

Moving on up!!

June 23, 2023 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

It’s a day of mixed emotions today at Cart Mill as our fabulous Class of 2023 head off towards their new adventures in Primary One and some of our younger children prepare to embark on their new journeys at other nurseries.

Looking back over the last year it has been fantastic to see our children grow, develop their confidence and independence, embrace new opportunities and see wonderful new relationships form. We thought we’d share a few of our favourite adventures with you!

Our Cart Mill children are so talented. It has been amazing to see them share this with their friends and encourage and support one another through reading stories, riding our balance bikes, leading a gymnastics class and having a go at knitting!

“Teamwork makes the dreamwork” as some of our children like to say! They’ve certainly achieved this through teaching each other how to make playdough, looking after our babies and each other at Cart Mill A&E, helping each other to climb a tree at forest school, and taking time to chat and share a cheers at snack time.

We’re sure you’ll agree it’s been a such a busy, fun-filled year it has been so far and we’re so excited for the wonderful adventures that lie ahead,

Family really is at the heart of everything we do at Cart Mill and we feel honoured to have made such amazing memories with you and are so proud of our fabulous children.

We don’t like to say goodbye, so it’s a good luck, have fun and please come back and visit us soon! To our children returning in August, we look forward to new adventures and finally to our children we are lucky enough to hold on to for a little longer, we look forward to seeing you next week for more fun filled adventures!

Makaton, Special Event

Cart Mill Celebrations – Class of 2023

June 13, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

It was a very exciting day at Cart Mill today as we celebrated our pre-school tie ceremony.
We have been working hard to learn all our songs. We sang “hello everyone” to welcome everyone who came to watch.
We then sang “ if you are happy and you know it” we gave it a little twist and changed the lyrics to add in a little dance and blow a kiss.

Next we sang two songs using Makaton sign language that we had learned. “I can sing a rainbow” and “here comes the sun”

Next was our show stopper song that all the children love to sing loud and proud “ we are going to a new school” and we finished off with a firm nursery classic “twinkle twinkle”.
Then we were individually presented with our new school tie. As our name was called, we read out what we wanted to be when we were older. We had a few budding scientists and police in our group.
Once the tie ceremony presentation was over we made our way through to the noisy quiet room for treats and juice.
There was pictures of us on the wall from when we started until now to see how we had grown. We had also each drew a self portrait.
It was a lovely day and I for one was very proud of each and every one of our pre-school children.
Here is a small selection of pictures of our day. A huge thank you to every who attended.

We hope school is ready for you all. Well done everyone.

Article 28- You have the right to education.

Digital Technology, Special Event

What do you love about Cart Mill?

May 17, 2023 Val MacLean Leave a comment

The children wanted to share what they love most about Cart Mill.

Special Event

The life cycle of a butterfly 🦋

May 16, 2023 Ms Partridge Leave a comment

Today we had a very exciting delivery in our nursery! The children were very excited to see what was inside the special box. It’s time to learn about… the life cycle of a butterfly 🦋

First we had a little look at our new caterpillar friends, which sparked some interesting and thought provoking questions.

“It’s like a teeny wee baby worm. Is it a caterpillar?”

“Why does it have a web around it?”

We talked about all the different stages the caterpillar goes through…

“They go into a cocoon first. That helps them get all cosy and grow big and strong”

“When they hang upside down, that’s when they are a chrysalis. They’re nearly ready to pop out then!”

The children showed great curiosity, and came up with some interesting suggestions on what we thought might happen next, using the pictures as clues.

“Maybe the big box is for when they’re butterflies. Because they will need lots of space”

“They might want some snacks too”

“What do butterflies eat?”

Seeing how living things grow and develop over time with proper care in our very own playrooms is a great opportunity for our children to explore and develop life skills. We are so excited to learn how to take care of our new creatures, and watch them transform into beautiful butterflies 🦋

Expressive Arts, Special Event

Eid Mubarak 🎇

April 21, 2023 Ms Partridge Leave a comment

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 🤩 ☀️

Literacy, Special Event

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

March 6, 2023 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

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.

Outdoor Learning, Special Event

Keep Scotland Beautiful

February 16, 2023 User deactivated Leave a comment

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

Literacy, Makaton, Modern Languages, Snack, Special Event

Learning some Makaton at snack time

February 1, 2023 Mrs MacRae Leave a comment

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”

Digital Technology, Literacy, Outdoor Learning, Special Event

Big Garden Birdwatch

January 27, 2023 Miss Keith Leave a comment

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!