Thank you to those who attended our Grandparent’s Pop in and Play. It was lovely to have our special visitors in to play! Intergenerational work in early years involves creating opportunities for young children and older adults to interact, build relationships, and engage in shared experiences, benefitting both generations by fostering empathy and communication skills in children and leading to improved well-being for all involved. Here are some wonderful pictures.

This week in the sewing area we have been busy making our very own puppets based on characters from ‘The Gingerbread Man’ story. The children drew their characters on foam and then cut them out themselves, before sewing things on to them. They used buttons for eyes, wool for hair and used the thread to make a smiley mouth. Some children took these home and others kept them to use in our puppet show which one of the children suggested we have.

The children decorated our homemade theatre using pens, glitter and sequins and then it was time to start our show! The children had great fun acting out the story and were able to recall the events from the book. They took on the roles of different characters and used different tones when talking as the characters. Some children also made up their own stories and acted these out too!

This week in the literacy area the children have been exploring letters of the alphabet.They continued to match their upper case letters and their case lower case letters (big letters to baby letters). The children also went on a letter hunt around the playroom and the garden and made positive attempts within their mark making to replicate the letters that they found developing their letter formation.

This week in the creative area we have been using the emotion mirrors to talk about and draw how we feel. The children have spoken about what makes them feel happy, sad, excited, angry, nervous, worried and sleepy. We have been looking at the details on our faces and how they change when our emotions change. 

ML – I’m happy when I get peace and quiet.

FM – I get sad when I miss mummy, daddy and my sister.

NF – I get surprised about going on holidays and when it’s my birthday. 

JW – I’m excited that Mrs Howie is in today. 

OC – I get happy when my friends come to my birthday party. 

This week in our outdoor area we have embraced the very wet weather and made use of the learning opportunities rain brings! Even in the wet weather our children like to explore our outdoor area. The children have also been designing and creating at our woodwork bench in our outdoor classroom and you can see some of their wonderful creations below! 

This week in the literacy area the children have continued to show an interest in space. The children were excited to discover that their ladies and Mr McIntosh had taken a trip to the moon and brought back some special moon dust for them to explore. The children engaged in a sensory exploration of the materials they used their fingers and brushes to create their marks. The children attempted to replicate upper and lower case letters, shapes, patterns, and numbers and some of  learners were able to differentiate between the letters and numbers and even match the ‘mummy letters’ with the ‘baby’ letters.

RS “ That’s a picture of Miss Queenan on the moon”

AS “ I’m making a big circle”

FC “I’m making an ‘F’ for Finlay”

This week in the sewing area the children wanted to make their own bracelets for themselves and their friends. They concentrated and persevered as they worked to thread the beads onto the string. We are also beginning to learn to tie knots as we secured our bracelets on to our wrists.

The children have also been working on their independent sewing skills as they made collages with the shapes. They chose which shapes and buttons to sew on to the foam and created their own pictures to take home.

In our small world area this week the children have been further developing their measuring, designing and building skills. The children explored with small world and magnetic tiles, using the magnets to make creations to extend their play. Small world naturally encourages the creation of stories. Adding magnetic tiles allows children to build settings which will inspire deeper narratives. The children were experimenting with building stable structures using magnetic tiles and then spent time figuring out how these interact with the small world characters! 

In our creative area this week the children have been spray water painting with spray bottles containing diluted paint. This is a fun, messy and engaging art activity which they sprayed on to boxes, almost as a target practice! This activity promotes fine motor skill development, hand-eye coordination, creativity, and colour exploration and as you can imagine the children thoroughly enjoyed it! 

We are working towards our Green Flag Award at the Family Centre. This is an internationally recognised achievement for schools and nurseries committed to Learning for Sustainability. Flags can be seen flying outside our schools all over Scotland. We hope to have one flying outside ours in the not too distant future! This week we have been out helping the community and helping to Keep Scotland Beautiful by litter picking in our local area! The children really enjoy going out and doing their bit and there was lots of discussion around how this protects our local wildlife too!

In the outdoor area this week the children have been building and creating their own obstacle courses! Obstacle courses are great for enhancing gross motor skills like balance, coordination and strength and also fosters cognitive skills like problem solving and following instructions. It also promotes social skills such as cooperation and communication as they all work together!

This week we were extremely lucky to have had a visit from Ash from Zoo Lab. Ash bought along some of her fascinating pets with her which the children got to touch and hold.

Zoo Lab amaze, educate and inspire through their ethical and engaging animal encounters. They educate audiences about animals and the natural world.

We met Seamus the giant snail. We found out that a snail is a cousin to the octopus because they both have tentacles. He can also grow to be as big as a football!

We guessed what snails might like to have for their dinner…

“Lettuce” – RU

“Leaves!” – MF

“Even an octopus has tentacles!” – AC

“Snails don’t have hands!” – CS

“Does he have friends?” – JW (He doesn’t as he lives by himself)

We found out that snails drink through their skin and that when they eat red peppers their poo is red! They also have more teeth than any other animal in the animal kingdom and have between 10,000 and 20,000 teeth on their tongue! He also has two noses…so he can smell two different things at the same time!

We met Squib the Snow Leopard gecko. We found out that Squib comes from the desert where there is lots of sand! Squib had a bumpy back and a smooth tummy. His bumpy back helps him from not getting hurt by the sand. We also found out that he can be hunted by predators and when he does he can drop off his tail! It will eventually grow back!

“Does he change colour?” AC

“He’s very soft” – CC

“His ears look like stars!” – MS

We found out that Squib’s ears go right through to each other with a hole. This is in case sand gets in. We also found out that he likes to eat crickets and cockroaches for his dinner.

“How fast can he run?” – SG (He can run up to 3mph!)

“He’s spinning around!” – TO

We met Hagrid the cockroach! He was a Madagascan Hissing Cockroach. We learned that he has a brain in both his head and his bottom! He could also survive almost anything and live in a freezer for up to 5 years! There are only four things Hagrid wouldn’t eat…glass, metal, plastic and stone.

Hagrid hisses “Like a snake” – AL

We also met Luna a 6 year old tarantula. She came all the way from the Island of Honduras. She can live for around 25 years! Whereas male tarantulas might only live until they are 5. We learned that the hair on her legs are actually her ears! She had eaten her dinner last night so was feeling pretty lazy! She had eaten one cricket.

We learned that Luna likes to catch her food with her front legs before injecting it with her fangs and then making a bug soup! Yummy!

“Does she make a spiders web? – CS

She doesn’t climb in case she falls. She makes a rug of spider silk which she lays her eggs on and then gathers it up and hangs it nearby where she watches her eggs and looks after them!

We learned that the biggest tarantula in the world is a Goliath Bird Eater which can grow to the size of a dinner plate!!

We met Dobbie the tree frog! He had big sticky toes for climbing. We found out that Dobbie wasn’t very good at swimming as he didn’t have webbed feet. Dobbie breathes through his skin, whereas “we breathe through our mouths” – AC

“What does he eat?” AF

We learned that Dobbie can change from green to brown depending on which part of the tree he is on and that he loves to eat three crickets for this dinner. Another fun fact that we learned was how Dobbie uses his eyes to push his food down into his throat to help swallow what he is eating!! Dobbie’s croak sounded like a dog barking!

“I have the same power as a frog does! I can climb the walls…unless they are slippy!” CS

Next we met Harry and Dumbledore the gerbils. They come all the way from the desert!

“They are so nice together” CC

“What is his colour? What is his tongue like?” – AF

Harry and Dumbledore both like peanuts as well as all the food we like to eat such as fruit, veg, scrambled egg and roast chicken! They have a life expectancy of between 3-5 years which is the longest of small mammals. They use their tails to help them balance. They can also drop their tails off and run away from a predator, however, it won’t grow back. They live in big families in the wild and love to take care of each other!

Next we met Ronald who was a Giant African Chocolate Millipede! Ronald doesn’t have good eyesight so he uses his antenna to find his way around. He only had six legs when he was born and now he has over 300! His skeleton is on his back which he can shed and then grow a new one!

Finally we met Flickwick who was a stick insect! He had brown and white markings and came all the way from the Philippines!

This week the children have been reading The Smeds and The Smoos. They decided to  make a batch of blue playdough, a batch of red playdough and then got creative with some loose parts, making their very own Smeds and Smoos. Some of the children even made some of their own aliens “mine’s called wiggly tickly wiggly” AY

“RAAAAAR its a scary one” KN 

“It’s horshey, look at the sticking out eyes!” ZA

Later the  children noticed that as the playdough mixed together they made purple playdough! Just like the Smed Smoo baby in the story. Soon we had a whole family of Smeds, Smoos and Smedsmoos! 

We then decided to make pink milk like the Smeds drink in the story. We made gloopy pink milk and had a Smeds tea party. 

“It’s all stiff now feel it!” AC 

“It’s sticky, if it was in your mouth it would be so yuck!”

“We need to make it stickier…we need to add more flour!”

“It looks like medicine” YK

“Glom pom ice cream is yucky for us but yummy for them”  AK

“I am making a baby, it turns purple cause Bill and Janet are blue and red and make a purple baby”  AM

“A Smed is red and a Smoo is blue” FM

“You need to add more water because it is not sticky yet” AC

“They didn’t give the baby a name. Smed rhymes with red and blue rhymes with Smoo” GM

“Bill is blue and he needs a red tongue” BH

“I am making a blue Smoo” LS

In the creative area we have been exploring colours through colour mixing. We have been exploring primary colours and mixing them to make a variety of shades. We have also been creating our own paint by crushing chalk, mixing the chalk colours and adding water. The children have been enjoying the process of this. 

In the water we have been exploring the senses of smell, sound and sight. We have been adding various food elements and the children have been using descriptive language to describe what the smell, see and hear. We have made fizzy oranges, orange and nectarine water and, mint and cucumber water, made perfumes from different herbs and essences.

“Its melting in the bubbles.”

“Its fizzy.”

“I can hear it bubbling.”

“I’m making orange juice specially for you.”

“It smells nice”

“We have to crush it so its not lumpy paint.”

“It’s changing to paint, I can see it.”

“If I put blue and red together it turns purple.

“It smells nice.”

Outdoors the children have been continuing their interest in exploring forces. Last week we used balls and created ramps and tunnels to observe speed and direction. This week we created a zip line to further investigate motion and direction, observing how gravity works to pull objects down. We were also discussing how the weight of the object changed the speed with the children making predictions as to who would be the fastest.

“Mine would win the race” ZB

“This is faster” AA
“Mine got stuck maybe it’s too heavy” AP

This week in the literacy area the children have been continuing to explore stories. We have had a special “spark” around the wonderful story ‘The Smeds and the Smoos’. The children have been talking about their likes and dislikes of different stories as well as creating their own special stories. The children have also been continuing to create fact files, learning about different animals and then writing down some of the wonderful facts they have found researching on our ipads and within non fiction books!

In the discovery area this week the children have been exploring with our intelino trains. These are our programmable robotic trains. The children can start by learning to code the trains with action snaps on the tracks as well as using digital technology to control their speed, direction, stops and custom commands. These trains build a strong foundation in STEM, introducing the children to basic programming concepts and helping them progressively learn to code.

As you can see the children were incredibly engaged and eager to learn!

In our creative area this week some of the children have been exploring and finding patterns within our environment. The children took the iPads and went around the playrooms taking pictures of any patterns they could find. There were lots of discussions around the type of patterns they found, for example, if they were spotty or stripey!

The children have also been exploring measurement. They have been using non-standard units of measure to measure their heads to then make crowns!

This week in the literacy area we have been learning and sharing lots of interesting facts about different animals. We used non-fiction books and the iPads to do our research, and then made our own fact files about what we had learned. The children enjoyed drawing a picture of their chosen animal and assigned meaning to their writing. It was so interesting finding out lots of new information about our favourite animals, some things were surprising!

RF – “A crab has 10 legs, crabs live on the rocks”

JM – “ I want to see an enormous whale, like the humpback whale”

B – “That’s an octopus”

JM – “The water comes out the blowhole, I think they can breathe out of it”

SBW – “Males are boys, monkeys live in trees”

RF – “These look like our teeth but they’re so big and long”

IH – “I think they eat little fish, I’m going to draw them”

This week in the malleable area we have been exploring a different kind of playdoh called cloud dough. This is made from one cup of cornflour mixed with half a cup of hair conditioner. We used 3 different scents of conditioner, raspberry, apple and coconut. This dough is a softer texture and smells amazing. 

“It’s squishy squashy”

“I like the pink raspberry”

“I’ve mixed the smells together it smells like dinosaur poo”

“Green apple smells best”

“It’s so soft”

“It’s soft like clouds”

This sensory experience is easy to do at home but we would definitely recommend it’s in a tray or basin!

This week the children in the small world area have been expanding on their previous knowledge of habitats for different animals. Our discussions have focused on the different enclosures we see in the zoo. 

“Penguins live in the cold and snow” – A.M

“It looks like a snow waterfall” – E.B

“These can be under water steps, for the animals so if they want to step out of the water its easier for them to get out” – M.S

In the block area the children have been focusing on their gross motor skills and problem solving skills to design and create structures. They have created castles, a station for the paw patrollers and larger zoo enclosures. The children have been sorting the animals into “little, smaller and bigger” ones.

“We need to make this before the bad guys come” – L.S

“I’ve been to a castle in Glasgow with big sides and canons” – L.S 

“This is the smallest animal… a mouse… and this one is big, its an elephant” – M.McC

“The animals won’t escape, here’s their door to get in and out” -B.F

In the malleable area this week the children have been helping to make playdoh, measuring out the ingredients, choosing the colour and a fragrance to enhance their sensory experience. 

The main interest has been baking and decorating cupcakes so we added cake cases and a variety of decorations. To extend their learning we introduced a set of scales so they could experience weighing and measuring.

As we didn’t have any candles for birthday cakes, we found cocktail sticks which then sparked another thread of learning, children creating a ‘blue cheetah’ and hedgehogs. 

In the creative and water area we have been experimenting with bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to see a chemical reaction happen. The children were using excellent descriptive language to describe sight, sound and smell of the reaction. Through this experiment we explored environments of volcanoes and the sea. 

This week the children have been practising using scissors and have been exploring the best way to hold them to cut the paper. Some children cut the scrap paper into smaller pieces and others practised cutting out some shapes.

The children have also been choosing and discussing their favourite books. We read two different stories and talked about our favourite part of the stories, the characters and how they felt, and what parts of the story we didn’t like. We then voted for our favourite story out of the two and counted which one was the winner!

In the sewing area this week some of our children have been working on their fine motor skills. Loom bands have several benefits alongside building on fine motor skills including building on attention and concentration skills as well as confidence and perceptual skills. Some of our children have also been making designs on geo boards, to help with very early stages of sewing, and other children have been making colourful patterns with the loom bands whilst making bracelets. At other times in the sewing area the children have been making and creating their own designs. Some of these include; a love heart cushion, a teddy bear and a bunny rabbit!

We have been very busy in our outdoor area this week! We have been continuing to practise our ball skills, working on our gross motor skills and hand eye coordination. The children have also been experimenting with patterns using loose parts. Some of our children have thoroughly enjoyed creating their own water slide in the rain!

Towards the end of the week we have been using our large loose parts to create our very own ‘marble run’! This helps with fostering the children’s creativity, problem solving  and critical thinking as they invent and modify their designs! It also helps promote social skills such as communication and cooperation through collaborative building and negotiation.  

The children have been interested in minibeasts. They have been creating habitats and making bug houses. They also made ant nests in sand, developing fine motor skills. We have been reading interesting non-fiction books too. Numeracy and mathematical skills are being developed through play by counting legs, comparing sizes and matching insects. There has been a lot of conversations and information sharing.

SS “It makes a big hole, now it can be covered up.”

GM “Spiders are arachnids, they buzz to think they get dinner.”

CE “The scorpion stings with his tail.”

JG “I can see everything with the magnifying glass, they get bigger.”

This week within the construction and small world area the children have shown an interest in a range of different animals and have been exploring the environments in which they live, what they eat, and what else they might need to keep them healthy and happy. The children worked collaboratively to build a zoo and various enclosures and considered carefully which animals could live together and which cannot. Within this we used sparkle words of, “carnivore”, “herbivore”, and “omnivore”. The children considered different environments as they utilised materials to create different terrains such as water and ice and were keen to exercise their mark making skills as they wrote different signs for inside their zoo.

EB “ Polar bears like to live beside frozen water”

ES “I’m making gates for the zoo so the animals don’t run away”

MS “Bats live in caves, i’m going to build it with a roof so the light doesn’t get in”

MM “ I’m making a house for the piggies, you can’t blow it over cos its made of blocks”

SC “Monkeys live up a tree in the jungle, they like to be beside plants”

The children have been working collaboratively to wrap parcels for the postman to post. They have been using their problem solving skills to work out how much paper they will need to wrap the presents and whether it will fit in the post box or not. Some of the children were able to recognise familiar 2D shapes when describing the shapes of the boxes. Some children were also able to share their door number and home address. 

“I live in scotland” JMc

“Mines is a square” AR

“My name of my street is 30 C**** Road” S

“I live at number 5 Newton Mearns” AL

“It’s just a little box” RK

“I don’t know what my address is” NF

“I had a rectangle box and a square box” JMc

“I lived at London then I lived at Tuesday” ZB

“It’s number 3” JMc

“I think it’s big enough” RG

“It’s not the same size its too small, do we need to cut a rectangle or a square, it’s for someone who is 4, it’s Maidenhill that’s my street…it’s a present for my mummy” ZK

“We need more sellotape” FM

“It’s some broken toys” MS

In the home corner the children have been continuing to discuss their own personal, daily routines. We spoke about how we may all have a different routine and some children related this to the days of the week. The children had a go at sequencing their day using the pictures and used language associated with time, such as “morning”, “night”, and “o’ clock.”

Lots of the children’s role play has reflected their routines at home as they have made each other breakfast and dinner, got dressed for the day and pretended to get ready for bed.

In our sewing area this week the children have been making cushions! The children have been creating their own designs on paper before cutting out their material and sewing them together. Some are being used at home as a cushion for their teddies!

Sewing in the early years develops essential fine motor skills and hand eye coordination, foster creativity and imagination, enhances patience and focus and boosts self confidence as children complete their projects!  Here are some of the creations below!

The children have been expressing an interest in minibeasts and today we explored how we could help free them from the ice. There was lots of conversations about how ice is made, what it feels like and we even had a go at painting some of the ice. We learnt how water can change from a liquid to a solid and back to  liquid again and used lots of  different methods to help melt the ice like adding warm water and metal spoons to free the bugs. 

“It’s so cold and a bit sticky I like it” SW

“We don’t get ice when its hot because it needs the cold” JW

“Look its melting, it’s going” 

The children have been exploring their senses using herbs and flowers  to create their own perfumes and potions. We have investigated the different herbs and mint was voted the most popular “it smells yummy like toothpaste” JW.  They have demonstrated excellent turn taking and cooperation whilst sharing all the resources and ingredients and some children are starting to explore measurement in their play looking at capacity and using descriptive language. 

“Look Ive made it full to the top” SD

“It smells yucky I don’t like it, I like the smell of chocolate” QCI

“ look it looks pretty” YK

As part of the Play on Pedals initiative the children have been practicing their cycling skills with Miss Shannon & Miss Carroll. They have been developing their gross motor and balance skills.

This week in the malleable area the children have extended their interest in making cakes with the playdough and opened their own cake shop. The children showed great  creativity using loose parts to decorate their cakes and add different toppings and flavours. The children worked collaboratively and assumed different roles of shop keeper and customer and extended their play as they made their own money to use within their imaginative play. The children made positive attempts to represent elements of money and included  elements of imagery, numerals, and writing within your mark making. The children were able to use the terminology of currency within their play using pounds, pence, and dollars.

BB “ Im making cry baby cakes, they are three dollars”

Freya “ I need your pounds, I’ve only got a twenty, here’s your five pounds, see you tomorrow”

Sc “ I use five p to dry my hair at the swimming”

EB “I need to cost it now so people know what to pay”

In the sewing area, the children have been developing their fine motor skills through weaving.They created their own weaving boards and resources  and created different patterns and colours through their weaving. 

The children also enjoyed a visit to see the their friends at Crookfur Cottages. They enjoyed chatting with them and sharing some of their favourite songs 🙂

The children have  continued to develop their oral storytelling skills in the literacy area.  They have been proudly  creating their own fantastic stories about fairies, dinosaurs and unicorns.  We have been retelling their stories through drama.  Listening and talking skills are being strengthened as they co-operate with others. As some of our friends will be moving onto school after the summer, we have been creating self-portraits and reflecting on our favourite things to do in the Family Centre

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The children have been adding more detail to their creations through use of loose parts. The children have been adding measurements and numeracy to the planning of their building and using mathematical language to describe size.

This week the children have been learning how to use some of the woodwork tools safely. They focused on using a hammer and began by putting on their safety glasses independently. The children held the nails in place on the wood, which supported the development of their fine motor skills.

Using their hand–eye coordination and gross motor skills, they carefully hammered the nails into the wood. Some children noticed that their nails had bent during the process and used problem-solving skills to work out how to straighten them before continuing.

In the garden the children have been working collaboratively with their peers to create dens using the loose parts. The children have also been displaying great imagination and creativity in the outdoor sandpit as they created roads for the Monster trucks.

We have all had a wonderful week, playing in the sunshine and celebrating our pre-school children’s graduation from nursery. The children sang beautifully as they performed their favourite songs for our guests and they were so proud to receive their school ties. A huge thanks to all those who turned out to support the children. We hope those involved enjoyed the occasion as much as we did! Here are some wonderful photos of our pre-schoolers’ below!

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A.A. Milne

This week we have had our sports week! We have been so incredibly lucky with the weather and the children have thoroughly enjoyed their sports day sessions throughout the week.

The children spent time going around the different stations…we had football, obstacle courses, hurdles, space hopper races, target practice and a potato and spoon race. After there was time for a few flat races! A huge thank you to all of our parent/grandparents and carers for your participation and encouragement!

Here are a few snaps of the sessions throughout the week!

This week in the block area we have been beginning to plan and design our models. This is to support children with adding more detail into their buildings and to encourage mark making throughout the playroom. We have had various models including “Bridge BaBa”, “Castles with a Gate”, “Flat House” and “The Sweet Shop.”

Outdoors this week there has been lots of conversation about upcoming holidays. The children spoke about different holidays they have been on and how they travelled there. Some children had exciting stories about the aeroplanes they have been on, so we decided to make our very own! Using large loose parts the children worked collaboratively to create an aeroplane. They each took turns being the pilot taking us to different lands, whilst other children role played the air hosts bringing yummy snacks and drinks, and lastly some children provided entertainment by standing at the front of the plane and singing their favourite songs! 

“We serve chocolate sandwiches, chocolate milk and chocolate cookies on this plane!” IY

“We are going to babyland – there is just loads of babies there” – FF

“I’m going to sing ABBA, they are my favourite” AY

There has been a lot of storytelling, music and reading in our literacy area this week.  The children have been creating their own stories and drawing story maps. They have been telling imaginative stories about fairies, tigers and T Rexs, learning to share their ideas with others. The children have been mark making in many different ways and developing their fine motor and concentration skills as they role play and use scissors. We have been discussing the festival of Eid Al Adha and learning about the importance of animals during this festival.

In our outdoor classroom this week we have been large scale painting. The children have been painting with plants and leaves that they have found in our outdoors which has been enhancing their creativity, engagement with nature and helps promote fine motor skills and a connection with the environment. Large scale painting also encourages gross motor skills and provides opportunity for self expression and communication.

This week in the malleable area the children have been exploring fractions! The children have been sharing out play doh with their friends with some being able to identify and split their playdoh into halves and quarters. 

Over the last couple of weeks, especially with all the lovely weather, the children have been doing lots of planting in our garden. Planting offers numerous benefits for our children, encompassing physical, cognitive and emotional development. The children have been working on their fine motor skills, learning and asking lots of questions about nature and fostering a sense of responsibility. Here are a few quotes when the children were asked what the plants need to grow!

“It’s perfect now, it needs some water.” RM

“It needs rain and a bit of sun every day and water. It needs some seeds to grow, it needs everything that a flower needs.” KM

“It needs water and seeds and sun.” MB

“A seed you water them and keep looking after them. They need sun and rain.” L.B

“Water and a seed it grows to a flower and the sun.” CG

“You plant seeds and water them and cover them in soil they turn into a flower. That’s the leaves and that’s the flowers.” RM

“Leaves, bud, flower and soil. Water and even the sun.” GM

“Leaves , petals and the flowers. Seeds they grow and you water them and they grow in a sunny place.” PG

“Petals and the pollen and the stem and leaves and the flowers. It will drown if too much water.” MM

This week our pre school parents were invited to be our guests at a special transition tea for two! This was to allow families moving onto the same schools to meet and mingle, whilst enjoying a little afternoon tea! A member of staff from feeder schools were invited to come along and have afternoon tea with the children too. Here are some pictures of the lovely events!

This week in the malleable area we have been looking at the ocean again! We have been exploring pollution in the ocean and how we can look after the environment and the animals that live in the ocean. 

We have also been exploring our senses by cutting up different fruits to make a citrus soup. We were able to cut up lemons, limes and oranges. We spoke about how we can safely cut up these fruits and were able to demonstrate that to our friends.

The children have been taking part in a 15 min morning exercise routine every morning this week. The children have been trying out different exercises helping to develop their gross motor, balancing and coordination skills.
After the exercise we spoke about how we were feeling, how our heart rate goes faster when we take part in exercise and how it helps us to stay healthy!

This week we have had some of our wonderful P6 digital leaders come and join us from the school. The children have been exploring some of our digital technology and have had the help of the P6’s to show them what to do, and to play and discover alongside them!  The children have been using both the Sphero Cars and our Intellino Trains.

In the literacy area this week we have been exploring different stories to help us understand the different parts. We explored characters of different stories, where they are set, what happens in them and what the children like and dislike about a story.

We have been developing our recall skills and creative skills to generate our own stories.

“I like the pink pig best because he’s pink.” M.L

“The rat was unkind and stole all the food from the other animals.” F.F

“”He was at school.” K.M

“The koala does the right thing.” M.K

“I like when he went in the echo cave.” B.S

This week in the malleable area the children expressed interest in the beach!  We were able to explore what creatures lived in the ocean and we discussed our own personal experiences of visiting the beach. We spoke about searching for crabs and different fish, how we created sand castles with our loved ones and had ice cream! We also used the play dough to make our own ice creams, our favourite flavours were chocolate and strawberry!

To celebrate “World Bee Day” on Tuesday we looked at a beehive and how bees make honey. The children were able to explore the “beehive” and were working on their numeracy and maths skills while counting their scoops. During these experiences we worked on our imaginative skills, fine and gross motor skills and hand eye coordination.

Last week some children had the idea of making different figures at the junk modelling area. They used some of the boxes to create robots, people and their favourite characters from books or movies. We continued this spark this week and have been thinking more about how we can use the resources for different purposes. The children talked about using buttons for eyes, sticks for arms and legs, wool for hair, and considered what size of materials would be best for different body parts. Some children then decided to make a dolls house for their people using the large cardboard boxes. Once again the children have demonstrated great imagination and creativity as they lead their own learning.

In our small world area the children have been experimenting with dinosaur habitats. They have been using different materials and have spoken and researched about how dinosaurs may have lived all those years ago. The children then enjoyed taking part in some chemical reactions of ‘volcanoes’. These experiments help our children with their hands on learning, develop their vocabulary and foster their curiosity. The children also had lots of discussion around chemical reactions.

The children have been very busy in the literacy area this week. We have been exploring familiar stories through props and sensory stories to developing recall skills. Some of the stories we have explored are A Squash and A Squeeze, Peace at Last and The Three Little Pigs. 

We have also been beginning to explore some initial sounds. We have been doing listening activities for spotting the odd sound out, matching objects with the same initial sounds,  and identifying initial sounds in our names, 

The children have also taken part in a Gaelic Bookbug Session. We were so impressed at the children’s participation and involvement in this session as they explored Gaelic language and learned some new gaelic words and numbers. A huge thank you to Ishbel for leading the Gaelic bookbug.

It will come as no surprise that our outdoor area has been really busy this week! The children have been enjoying being outside in the sunshine! The children have been making their own giant marble runs in the garden, fostering their creativity, problem solving skills and fine motor abilities. These also help encourage spatial awareness and engineering concepts! Many of our children thoroughly enjoyed this hand on building and exploration!

This week in the sewing area the children have been expressing a range of ideas through their textile creations. The children have explored making 2D textile pieces through stitching and the fabric pens and have created their own streets and interpreted  their mark making through their sewing. They also explored making 3D textile makes and created unicorns, hearts, and gummy bears.

JW “This is my street, thats my house, that’s Scotland, thats Japan”

“ I’m making a road to go to Miss Queenan’s tall house”

“I’m calling my gummy bear Marshmallow”

AA “I’m making a unicorn toy- it’s got magic powers it can make bunnies and frogs jump”

This week at the water tray the children have been exploring directional forces and velocity through using different lengths of tubing. The children explored pouring water from different heights and changing the direction of the flow of water by adding addition tubing to their structures to successfully fill their containers.

KM “ It goes so fast when i’m up high”

TE “ I need to add another bit to reach the tea pot”

In snack this week we had a look at the Floorbook and it sparked discussion on foods that are healthy for us and how we can make good choices. We are using our discussion as a starting point to plan things we can cook/bake, thinking about healthy options. 

“Fish is healthy for us” SS

“Some food is allergic for people. My dad is allergic to milk” FC

“When I eat nuts I get unwell so none of those. I like dates! Apple!” WS

“Vegetables are healthy for us” ML

“My mummy looks after children’s teeth. If you eat lots of sweeties it’s not good for your teeth” IM

“Maybe we could make smoothies” AY

We have been developing our storytelling skills by creating lots of imaginative and inventive stories and retelling them through drama and puppets.  There has been a lot of mark-making too, writing scripts and creating our own books. The children have been exploring the musical instruments and some created their own song about lunchtime!

After consultation with the children on what they wanted to focus on in the malleable area it was decided that we would look at ‘Space and the solar system’, the children have been exploring moon sand and looking at capacity using terms such as ‘full’, ‘half full’ and ‘empty’. We have also been creating paper mâché planets and we are keen to create the planets in our solar system. We have been able to recognise the names of planets and the need for the moon and sun.

This week the children have been busy working together to make lots of different models using the recycled materials. We added lots of new resources to the area and these have sparked the children’s imagination! The children have worked together to make their models, demonstrating good communication and collaboration skills. It has been lovely to see so much creativity and hear about everybody’s creations!
At the end of the week lots of children worked together to make a new friend for nursery. The children named her Sand Laura and we made her a body, arms, and a face.

OM – “I’m making a pirate ship, they’re the big barrels”

BS – “This is a boat, this is the dining table”

AK – “This is when you stop you need to pull it”

FW – “This is a special box for my special friend”

AK – It’s a superhero station, this is the lasers, me and G made it together and we’re going to play with it at my house”

The children were keen to have their own restaurant/café beside the mud kitchen. They have created their own poster, menus, opening and closing times and were involved in the whole set up process. They had an invite only list that included children, staff and catering staff. Today was the opening day and we had MMc explain to everyone where the idea of the café came from and its name. PG and MMc had the important role of cutting the ribbon. It has been a successful opening day and the children have played out many roles, including customers, waiters and chefs. 

 MMc – The café is called At the Edge of the Woods…it’s from my book 

CC – I’m making soup.

QCI – I want ice cream, I eat all of it.

L- Can I be a chef? 

RMCL – I’m going to mix this in here.

IM – I’m making ice cream. 

JW – Can I have chicken goujons? 

OH – What are you making?

LG – We’re making your favourite meal in the universe.

BF – I’m making shortbread.

This week in the sewing area, inspired by their time spent outside in the garden, the children have explored sewing with natural materials. The children  helped to gather materials for their transient art and explored creating their marks on leaves with their stitching and added additional details with the addition of fabric embellishment. Whilst making their creations we discussed the different parts of the plant and how the seasons might affect them. We did some extra research using the ipads to explore different insects that might live on our plants and also explored some similarities between ourselves and leaves, looking at the finer details such as the veins on the leaves.

AA “ Leaves are green in summer”

      “I have veins like the leaves”

SC “ I’ve picked all the colours that leaves are”

AM “ It smells like summer”

JK “ I see all the spider babies”

The children are beginning to look at money and currency. The children started by sorting the money by size, shape and colour. The children counted the bundles of money but couldn’t count the multiple values of the coins. Some of the children also read the numbers on the coins to sort them, this resulted in some children finding out that there were some euro coins hidden in the money! They identified that they were the same shape and colour as the UK one pence and five pence.

This week in the literacy area the children have been exploring storytelling through the medium of song. The children have shown their creativity and imagination through their lyrics and demonstrated excellent phonological awareness through generation of rhyme and awareness of syllables whilst creating their rhythm. The children even explored putting their words to music with the help of Miss Goldie and her keyboard. The children explored sheet music and made positive attempts to replicate the notes within their mark making.

Examples of some of the children’s lyrics:

MW “ Baby break my heart, freak alone, baby let’s riot,

Let’s go in the zone and riot with my baby pirate,

Here we go, man I’m going, let’s fire up, pie it up”

FC “Oh Mr Block, Mr clock, I want to eat some strawberry jam,

Mr Clock,Mr Clock, put a fire and then we’ll have a fire party”

OH “ Jam and the monkey went oh! In the water, and he jumped over his house….Jam and the monkey jumped over the light, jam and the monkey jumped over his friends”

MW “ I want to write some songs for baby Hallie to help her sleep”

SC “ It’s a fast song”

MM “ They are notes, I do piano lessons  and I’m learning Mary had a little lamb”

CC “It’s a song that gives people broken hearts”

In the block and small world areas this week, children have continued to build many different types of vehicles such as boats, cars and trains.  This has been developing their collaborative skills and language skills.  Their buildings have become increasingly more complex with lots of details. There has been lots of imaginative storytelling in small world that supports developing friendships. The children have been regularly risk assessing our area to check that it is safe for play.

This week outdoors the children have been playing lots of different games. We have practised our throwing, catching and hitting a ball with a bat during ball games. One of our favourites has been basketball where the children formed their own teams and competed against each other. We have also enjoyed playing giant snakes and ladders out in the sunshine. We are learning to subitise and count, and also take turns with each other as we learn the rules of the game. 

At the end of the week we were extremely lucky to have had a visit from Gillian who works at the University of Strathclyde as a Senior Technician in the department of Biomedical Engineering!

Gillian brought in two different types of hands – a myoelectric hand and a body power hand. The children were learning about muscles in the forearms and the nerves from the brain which send signals to the hand to create movement.

The myoelectric hand is multi-functional and the children worked together problem solving to coordinate movement, opening and closing the fingers to grip and place a ball into a container. There was lots of discussion around directional movement.

Gillian also brought in a prosthetic foot which gave the children a chance to dismantle and reattach the foot to a leg.

There was also a body and brace and splints, where the children discussed weight and how they support bones and the spine.

Thank you so much Gillian!

This week many children have been talking and building different types of transport such as trains, F1 cars and camper vans. This has led to lots of mark making, creating maps and signs for the vehicles. We have also engaged imaginatively with the volcano that we made, creating lots of narrative about lava monsters and developing new vocabulary such as ‘extinct’. We are beginning to explore a sense of belonging, discussing houses, cities and structures within our community. 

This week we had a visit from our wonderful friends from Crookfur Cottages! The weather was glorious so we had a Bookbug session in the garden with them! Irene then taught the children a poem about a mouse! Our lovely friends then spent a bit of time on the playroom floor engaging in reading, drawing and wonderful conversations with many of the children before enjoying a spot of afternoon tea in the lunch hall. We look forward to seeing them all again soon!

This week we had our final Mini Masterchef class! We were making pizza vegetable faces! Please find some photos below…

This week in the literacy area the children have been going on lots of hunts! They started with letter hunts at the literacy area which then expanded into treasure hunts throughout the room! The children have been creating their own treasure maps, working on their mark making skills and have been searching for some golden eggs!

“We’re doing the treasure hunt. We need a treasure map.” J.G

“I want to find the golden eggs, are they big ones?” F.F

“Oh wait, we have to go this way.” J.R

“Now we have to go over here.” J.G

“Look, I have found a feather. It might be a clue.” J.G.

“Now we have to jump.” S.C

“Look Miss Goldie, I’ve found lots of clues here.” J.G

“If you touch the egg it’s magic.” J.R

“I don’t think I’m good at maps cause I didn’t find it.” F.F

“It’s in where we make playdough.” J.G

“Mines is a different F. Not that one. That’s in J’s name. I’m going to find a B now.” F.W

“Now you can see them properly.” M. Mc

“Wow, look it’s magic.” M.S

This week in the garden we have been enjoying the lovely sunshine!. The children have been continuing to work on their gross motor skills as they used big arm movements to paint on the bubble wrap and paper using the rollers and paintbrushes. It was also great fun to pop the bubble wrap afterwards, using the small muscles in our fingers.

We have also been exploring what shadows are and where they come from. It was great to see the children’s problem solving skills as they figured out the best way to position the toys in the sun to create a shadow. They then had a go at drawing around the shadows, concentrating to form the shape of the animals. Some children then coloured these in or added more details to their drawings.
We can’t wait for hopefully some more sunshine next week!

This week the children have been exploring their senses, we have been focusing on smelling and touching different fruits and vegetables. We have been using our fine and gross motor skills to grate carrots and turnips in preparation for creating our dinosaur habitats!