Wednesday 27th September 2023 (2)

Tuesday 26th September 2023 Home Learning

A big welcome back to all our pre-schoolers and a massive welcome to all our new friends. We are looking forward to an awesome year with you all. We hope you are well rested and ready for lots of fun and adventures.

The first few weeks back we have been busy exploring the nursery and meeting new friends… here are some of the exciting things we have been doing.

We enjoy using different kind of vehicles in the construction area… we can even build our own road!

Being outside is lots of fun.

Getting creative in the art area and on the smart board. 

Exploring the water with the sea creatures.

Cooking up a storm in the kitchen and developing my fine motor skills using scissors.

Jumping up and down in muddy puddles!! It looks like great fun!

We have been busy exploring all our favourite areas in the nursery.

 

The children have also been busy making positive new connections with there friends; old and new!

 

 

🥼🥽 Crazy scientists 🥽🥼

 

The children have been enjoying the lovely sunny weather and having lots of chats about ice-cream and ice lollies!

We decided to try a science experiment to make ice-cream using 2 different methods but using the same ingredients.

We even got to try the ice-cream once it was made.

Here is a link for you to try this at home!

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/stem-activities/ice-cream-bag

🍓 🍌 🍭 Smoothie ice lollies  🍭🍌🍓

The children used their fine motor skills to help cut up the fruit to make our smoothies. We used strawberries, raspberries and bananas. We added some natural yoghurt, milk and honey to make a delicious smoothie mixture. The children then carefully poured the mixture into small individual cups and added a lollypop stick. We popped them in the freezer and enjoyed them for snack when they were frozen.

 

MANDARIN

We have been lucky to have a teacher come into the nursery to teach us all some words in Mandarin. The children have really enjoyed listening and learning the  songs.

Good Luck in Primary One!

Some of our friends in the green group are moving onto primary one in August. We would like to wish them the best of luck as they embark on their new adventure in primary one! We will miss you all very much! ♡

 Have a fantastic summer break and make lots of amazing memories to  cherish with your friends and family!

 

🇬🇧👑 Coronation 👑 🇬🇧

May saw us celebrating the Coronation of King Charles. The children enjoyed taking part in some royal activities, creating our very own ‘BUGINGHAM PALACE’ to enable some of our little creatures in the garden to have a safe space to live and explore.

They used their construction skills to make a thrown and designed a crown to role play being the king or queen. We even had some royal guards too!💂‍♂️

🐛 Caterpillars and Butterflies 🦋

We have been exploring the life cycles of different creatures. The children have been lucky enough to watch our 5 tiny caterpillars grow into big caterpillars and then go into their cocoons and become beautiful butterflies. 🦋

The children enjoyed watching the butterflies being  released into our community garden.

 

🎾 SPORTS DAY 🏃‍♀️

Lots of fun was had  on our recent sports day. We hope you all enjoyed coming to watch the children demonstrate all the  skills that we have been learning. I’m sure you will agree that they all did FANTASTIC! It was a huge bonus that the sun ☀ was shining for us all.

🏅Certificates all round🏅

 

 

 

 We hope you all had a lovely Easter break and made lots of lovely memories with your loved ones. ♡ 

We have been really busy catching up and playing with our friends. I think we have all missed each other over the holidays.

 

🐸  TAKING CARE OF LIVING THINGS  🐸

We were extremely lucky to have been gifted some frog spawn before the Easter holidays. The children were all very excited and intrigued by it. We have made a little pond in our community garden, where our frog spawn have now hatched into tadpoles. The children have been caring for them really well. This has given us the opportunity to learn and explore about living things and what we need to do to care for them.

🚲 🛑 BEEP BEEP DAY AT NURSERY 🛑 🚲

We celebrated Beep Beep Day at nursery. The children had lots of fun and learned all about being safe as a driver on the road and keeping safe as a pedestrian when crossing the road.

 

 🌸 Marvellous March 🌸

 

March has brought us lots of fun at Cross Arthurlie Nursery for the green group. We have had fun outdoors in the snow, enjoyed the book fayre and had fun with our grown up’s when they came to visit us.

 

📙 World Book Day 📙

 

At the start of March we celebrated World Book Day. The children were able to dress up as a character from their favourite book and the teachers dressed up too!

The children had great fun throughout the day dressing up and were all talking to each other, showing off their costumes. At nurture time, we drew our favourite characters from our favourite stories too.

World Book Day has  benefits such as increased vocabulary, heightened empathy, and improved concentration, making reading vital for children. But it also provides an opportunity for many children to own their first book, which is something special in itself.

 

🌏  The Solar System  ☀

 

Recently we have been learning all about the solar system and their different sizes and properties. In order to make the planets more relatable, Miss Allison has been doing a lot of work with the children in the creative area.

Firstly the children took part in some messy paper mache, carefully using flour, water and newspaper strips to coat the different sized balloons. Thank you to the families who donated newspapers to us.

When the balloons hardened the children were able to burst the balloons and painted them the different colours to match the planets.

Teaching children about outer space nurtures their natural sense of curiosity and wonder. Many children are fascinated by the vastness of the universe, and introducing conversations about things like the planets and solar system will engage and nurture their inquisitive minds. This activity helped the children’s fine motor skills and concentration skills too.

 

  🚙 🚚 🚙 🚚     Nurture time  🚚 🚙 🚚 🚙

 

Recently at nurture time we have been exploring patterns by using colourful vehicles.

The children were also gifted a book each for World Book Day , which we enjoyed reading together too.

 

⚽  Gym Hall   ⚽

 

We continue to use our gym hall and have been working on our throwing and catching, pick up /put down, ball skills and circle games too.

Throwing, catching and kicking balls is good for muscle development, hand-eye coordination as well as fitness and gross motor skills. We have been working on developing the children’s ability to follow instructions and multi task during the pick up/ put down game. The children did a great job at hopping / running and  skipping whilst being asked to pick up different items and put down others.

When children practise ball skills, they’ll notice their skills improving. This helps children understand that they can learn and get better at something if they try. And this builds self-esteem and confidence.

 

 

The children have been learning about some of the different festivals that have been happening during the month of February.

Valentines Day ♥ 

The children enjoyed exploring the coloured rice during a sensory experience. They used there fine motor skills, filling and emptying the bowls and cups. They also enjoyed threading the red lids onto the pipe cleaners to make bracelets.

Some of the children took part in a valentines creative activity using the paint to make love heart prints to take home to their loved ones.

 

LOVE IS IN THE AIR ♥

Some children exchanged gifts with their friends!

Chinese New Year 

The Year of the Rabbit 🐰 

The children had so much fun taking part in some dragon dancing. Some of the children made the dragon heads from boxes that they decorated with lovely bright colours. They used material to create the body of the dragon and then danced around to some Chinese music.

We worked on our numeracy skills during an interactive number game on the promethean board. They took it in turns to order the numbers to make up the dragons body, they used their problem solving skills when the starting number was higher than 0 or 1.

They had lots of fun mark making during an experience creating Chinese symbols. We learned that they have different symbols to represent their letters, words and numbers. The children enjoyed learning and trying to paint the symbols for the first letter in their name. They also learned the symbol for Rabbit.

Some of the children were lucky enough to be joined by their family at our Book bug sessions. They had lots of fun singing and joining in with all the actions.

 

Gymnastics 🤸‍♂️  🤸‍♀️

The children have been learning lots of new skills during our sessions at the gym hall. This block they have been learning some Gymnastics skills – balancing, jumping, forward rolls, sausage rolls and some hopping.

⭕ Shapes🔺 

The children have been showing an interest in shapes. They have had lots of fun exploring shapes during an interactive shape game on the promethean board. We have also been practicing drawing and identifying shapes during group time.

🎄🎅🏼 Festive December 🎅🏼🎄

 

Its been a busy couple of Months at Cross Arthurlie Nursery!

December, seen lots of lovely festive activities and crafts for our children to take part in. Family members to our nursery garden and also a visit from a special man dressed in red popped in to say hello too and gave us all a special gift.

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas lunch and Christmas jumper day during December and even the teachers took part! We also took part in role play using the Nativity costumes that were available to the children throughout the month of December. Here the children had the freedom to take on the role of different characters and make up there own versions of the Nativity story.

 

 

 

🎁 The Christmas Market 🎁

It was so lovely to see lots of family faces attend the Christmas market with  us. The children have been working hard, making lots of lovely Christmas crafts for their families. They also got a chance to play games and drink hot chocolate with their families and sang their Christmas songs too.  I hope you all had a great time.

 

🤖 Beebots 🤖

Technology is a big part of the Curriculum and the children had great fun working on their coding skills with the Beebots. They were able to  use the tablet to enter coding directions, in order to direct the Beebot to the desired shape.

Beebots are not only the perfect tool for teaching the children sequencing, estimation and problem-solving. They also help the children to engage in open-ended problems which require the use of decomposition, modelling and algorithms to get to their desired destination.  During this activity the Beebots helped develop the children’s understanding of directional language and shape knowledge too.  I was so impressed at how quickly the children figured out how to move the Beebot via the tablet, our children really are the future!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              ⭐️ January 2023 ⭐️

 

 Peg Boards

 

At group time the children in the green group really enjoyed exploring the foam peg boards  and pegs. They were able to create patterns and designs with the different coloured pegs. Some of the children then realised they could attach the pegs one on top of the other to make tall structures. The children made really impressive creations and worked together as team to build a really tall tower.

Through peg play, children learn basic maths skills such as matching and sorting by making patterns and placing pegs in a sequence. Children will also learn other skills such as counting how many pegs are on the board. This builds a foundation for future maths skills that can be built upon later in life. Peg play also helps children learn colours and counting, improve fine motor skills, and enjoy experimental play.

                   ⭐️ January 2023 ⭐️

 

👩🏻‍⚕️ Rhyme of the Week 👩🏻‍⚕️

 

‘ Miss Polly had a Dolly who was sick ‘ was one of our rhymes this month. In the literacy area, Miss. Allison has  been supporting the children to reenact the rhyme by using props. The children have been taking turns becoming the different characters and have also explored the different rhyming words too.

Rhyming helps children learn about words, sounds and language formation. Hearing and using rhyme, rhythm and repetition helps children develop early literacy skills. The repetition of words, ideas and skills is important for early brain development, as it creates secure foundations for early learning.

 

 

 

1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣ Numeracy Jigsaw 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣

At group time we have been brushing up on our numeracy knowledge. As a group we managed to complete the Jigsaw from numbers 1 – 20 and find the matching parts. We also managed to touch count the corresponding items to represent our numbers. Once we matched up all the jigsaw pieces we then sorted them in sequence order from smallest to largest.

Puzzles are an opportunity for young children to explore key early maths concepts, including shapes, sizes, and how and where one puzzle piece fits with another to make the completed picture. This type of maths involves spatial reasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  🎆 November Blog 2022 🎆

The children have been very busy during their time in nursery  this month. They have been busy learning and getting ready for Christmas with practising their singing and making Christmas crafts.

 

👨🏻‍🚒🚒🧯People who help us🧯🚒👨🏻‍🚒

We were lucky to have a special firefighter visitor come and talk to the children all about his job and keeping safe. A parent spoke to us about saving cats when they get stuck in trees and putting out fires . He let us hear what it sounds like to hear a smoke alarm going off when it detects fire and we all had to cover our ears! Mr Flemming was allowed to try on the special firefighter uniform and said it was very heavy. Some of the children took turns  trying on the helmet and gloves and everyone got a special firefighter sticker. The children really enjoyed the visit and all listened to our intently.

 

 

Children In Need

Everyone was allowed to wear Pyjamas to nursery to celebrate Pudsey and Children in need. The children were all so excited when they arrived at Nursery and had a ball playing with their friends and making Pudsey ear masks. Some of the teachers even wore their Pajamas to nursery too which the children found hilarious.

🎄🎅🏼 Christmas Market Preparations 🎅🏼🎄

I hope you have all managed to get your name down to come to the nursery Christmas market if you are available. The children have been very busy creating lots of gorgeous crafts for you to purchase. They have also been getting messy in the art area making some lovely Christmas cards for you to buy also. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with the children’s efforts. We have also been practising some festive songs to sing to you when you attend. Hopefully see you there!

 

Ring Games

We have been lucky to have more opportunities to be able to play ring games and practise our nursery rhymes during the day. The children have loved taking part and learning some new songs like ‘Oh once there was a Princess’ , ‘B-I-N-G-O’ and ‘The Farmer wants a wife’.

Nursery activities such as ring games help children build their social skills. These fun yet engaging games encourage learning in a structured setting. Good communication, language, and literacy skills are all developed at a young age and directly correlate with positive outcomes later on in education.  They promote social skills and help children build relationships as well as improving their confidence and self-esteem.

 

 

🟢🔺 🔶 Shape Snap 🔶 🔺🟢

 

The green group and some others had fun learning how to play snap with the shape cards. It took us a wee while but they definitely got the hang of the game the more we played. Not only was this developing the children’s awareness of shape, it also allowed the children to see differences in similar objects, which is an essential skills for learning to recognise letters, numbers and shapes. This game also helps to improve the children’s motor skills and quickens their reflexes. It  encourages hand-eye coordination, and can improve maths and strategic thinking skills in children too.

If you have any picture cards in the house, try to play a game of snap with your little one, as it has many benefits for them.

 

🐞 Numeracy Ladybirds 🐞

Some of the green group had a fabulous time playing the Ladybird game on the Promethean board. The children were required to select the matching number to the corresponding number of dots on the lady bird from numbers 1-5. The children were getting so many turns correct and each time they did, they celebrated by doing a happy dance all together. It just goes to show Numeracy games really can be fun too! Next steps will be to try  numbers 1-10 and see if they get as many correct.