June has arrived!!

I cant quite believe June is here already and the end of term is fast approaching us. It will not be long until our Summer break.

We have been working hard with the children this month to get the Pre-schoolers ready for starting school. The ante- pres have had fun playing outdoors and enjoying the sunny weather.

Transitions

June has brought some exciting times for our  children who are getting ready to move onto school. They were able to visit their classroom and meet their Primary one teacher for the first time. The children were also happy to see their grown ups visit the school and enjoy some lunch in the dinner hall too.

We have been practising for the Moving On Celebration too and have been enjoying singing and dancing to the songs. We can’t wait for the grown ups to see and hope you will enjoy it.

🐞🦖 Group Time 🦖🐞

The children are continuing to take part in group time in the afternoon. They are all making great progress in their listening skills and also their turn taking and confidence skills.

The purple group had fun learning about patterns. We used the coloured animal toys and I gave the children the challenge to replicate my chosen colour animal pattern. The children were required to choose the correct animals from the middle of the table and try their best to copy it. They made great attempts and progress with their patterns and this is something you could try doing at home with them too!

Once children begin to spot patterns they could see them everywhere, not only in the environment, but also in daily routines . Most important of all, children find pattern activities engaging and so they can help to develop positive attitudes and access to mathematics.

 

🪡 Lacing Beads 🪡

At group time, we also had fun threading beads through the coloured strings to make necklaces.

At first some of the children found it tricky to thread the string through the small hole in the beads, however as they persevered with the activity, their confidence grew and they built confidence in themselves.

Threading is a great activity to help children develop fine motor skills, essential for being able to draw, write, do up buttons, tie shoelaces, open lunch boxes and more. Threading also helps to develop eye-hand coordination and concentration skills. Children learn language skills as they name colours too.

 

🚗🚙 Cause and Effect 🚙🚗

In the Construction area the children have been exploring cause and effect. Here you can see the children made a really impressive raised  road for their cars to drive through. The angle in which they made the road allowed them to release their cars and allow them to fall into the basket at the end without having to push them along the track.

Cause and effect play often happens spontaneously when a young child discovers that some action that they initiate has a certain effect. By forming their own investigations, children can more efficiently understand new information. Children begin to develop cause-and-effect thinking skills as early as eight months of age. This thinking,  allows them to gain an understanding about things that happen around them.

 

🔨🥽 Woodwork Skills 🥽🔨

We have been working hard on extending our confidence at the woodwork bench. The children have been practising using the hammer to attach buttons onto wood by carefully putting a nail through the button.

Using a hammer properly has many benefits for children. It develops hand-eye coordination, strengthens their hands which is especially important for writing later on, it teaches them the importance of safety and following rules and it helps to develop their persistence as they learn to master the skill.

Not only does this technique have many benefits for the children but they also had a great time during this learning experience. They particularity enjoyed being trusted to handle the tools.

 

 

Good luck to all the children moving on to primary one, you will all be fabulous and have the best time learning lots of new things.

Wishing you all the happiest of summer holidays and I will see some of you after our summer break.

Lots of Love,

Mrs Andreuccetti

 

 

🌻🌸 🌼 Marvellous May 🌼 🌸 🌻

May has been another busy month for the Purple group.  We have had lots of lovely visits from our parents and carers and have also taken part in lots of fun learning experiences as we are approaching the end of our final term at Nursery.

❤️ Stay and Play ❤️

May marked a really special time for the Children at Cross Arthurlie Nursery. For the first time since the nursery opened, we were allowed the children’s family inside the Nursery. The children were over the moon to show their loved ones around all their favourite areas in the nursery and also had the opportunity to introduce them to their nursery friends too.

The aim of the Stay and Play model is to work with children and families to encourage them to play and learn together to improve attachments, strengthen bonds and children’s overall development.

 

👟🎾 Sports Day 🎾👟

The children had a great time taking part in sports week.

We have had relay races and potted sports on the grassy hill and also had their parents and family spectating to cheer them on.

Cycling  and  scooter fun in the playground and parachute games in the gym hall.

We also had fun learning a dance routine which will be performed by our preschoolers at their Moving On Ceremony.

Finally we had potted sports, football skills and crazy catch in the nursery.

Playing sports can  help children to develop their social skills and help to set them up for positive relationship building for life. Through an event like a sports day children get the chance to show leadership, teamwork and communication skills as they interact and face new challenges.

🐣 April in Cross Arthurlie Nursery 🐣

 

The children returned in high spirits after the Easter holidays and were excited to share how many Easter eggs they all received! Some of the children went on holiday and for days out with their families and have loved sharing this with the other children and staff.

This month the Children have been exploring the indoor sandpit which had previously been used for water play. They have been really enjoying the texture of the sand and have been having fun filling and emptying and also making shapes and patterns with their fingers. This is a really lovely sensory medium for the children to explore.  Some key skills that sand play enhances include: fine motor skills, hand & eye coordination, creativity and children’s sensory skills.

🌸🌿🌼 Outdoor Fun 🌸🌿🌼

All of the children have been really enjoying the lovely weather we have been having recently and have been spending more time outdoors in the sunshine. They have been busy planting different plants and seeds and also taking part in more physical activities such as an obstacle course they created.

Whilst the children are outdoors they are developing their physical fitness through jumping and running which is helping their bone density and improving their coordination, strength and gross motor skills.

 

 

🟣 🟩🔺Shape and Pattern🔺🟩🟣

We have been continuing to learn about shape and patterns and the children have been trying really hard to remember all the names for the different shapes and their properties.

Learning about patterns and connections will help the children to make their own predictions and form logical connections. It’s an important foundation for later mathematical thinking and reasoning.

 

🛕🧱 Block Area 🧱🛕

The block area is always one of the popular areas for the Children to play and create. Recently the children have enjoyed using the bigger wooden blocks to create bigger structures such as ‘Castles’, ‘Jails’ and ‘Dens’.

The children are developing their fine and gross motor skills to lift and construct the blocks into their desired positions whilst giving them an understanding of balance and construction.

Block play helps the children learn to take turns and share materials, it also allows for them to develop new friendships, become self-reliant and increase their attention span whilst cooperating with others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

🎈🎂 Birthday time 🎂🎈

 

One of our children celebrated their 4th birthday during their week at Nursery and all the children sang happy birthday to him which he was very pleased about.

Lots of our children have been celebrating birthdays recently and it is lovely to hear restrictions have allowed for them to have lots of fun parties with their friends.

 

 

 

🔩🪛Woodwork 🪛🔩

The children have started to explore the woodwork bench within nursery and have really enjoyed putting on their safety goggles on and practising their concentration skills.

The children were firstly able to identify and select different screws that would fit into their screw board and then move on to practise their fine motor skills.

They were able to hold the screw in place and then use their other hand to turn the screwdriver to screw the screws into place. This is a great way of developing the children’s hand eye co-ordination and their patience too.

 

 

👟🎾 Sports Week Practise 🎾👟

We have been having lots of fun, using our Monday gym slot time, to practise for our up and coming sports week. The children have been trying out some different activities that will be included in the sports week, which include jumping, throwing, hopping and balancing.

The children are really looking forward to having their grown ups come along to the playground to watch them all take part.

 

 

🌸 Marvellous March 🌸

March has been a very busy month for the children in the Purple group! The children had lots of fun throughout the month and have been extending their learning and development throughout lots of different learning experiences.

✍🏼 Drawing ✍🏼

The children continue to practise their pen/pencil control during their time in nursery. They are extending their  pincer grip and their ability to draw more detailed drawing and precise images.

 

 

📖 World Book Day 📖

World Book Day was part of our marvellous March fun. The children really enjoyed dressing up as characters from their favourite books and taking part in lots of fun book inspired activities throughout the day at nursery. Some children from the primary school even came to our nursery to read us some stories too!

 

 

🎂Cross Arthurlie Nursery turns ONE!🎂

 

Can you believe Cross Arthurlie Nursery has been open a full year?

We had lots of fun all day long and the little ones loved showing off their own teddy from home, which they brought to the Teddy bears picnic in Nursery.

The children enjoyed decorating cakes and dancing and even had some special visitors from the School and Carlibar and Arthurlie Nursery, where some of our children attended Nursery before Cross Arthurlie Nursery opened.

 

 

 

🧸Goldilocks and the three Bears 🧸

After celebrating the Nursery’s first birthday, when the children brought their own teddy’s  for the teddy bear’s picnic, the children were keen to make a Goldilocks and the three bears cottage.

We had a great time making the three different sized beds and setting up our home corner to look like the bear’s cottage. The children enjoyed getting creative with the paint to make the beds and also partaking in sensory play with Porridge in the tuff tray.  We had lots of discussions about size and which bed/ chair/ bowl belongs to which bear. This is helping to improve the children’s understanding of quantity, size and amounts.

 

🧑🏼‍🔬 Science Week 🧪

As part of Science Week the children enjoyed several different science themed experiments throughout the nursery both indoors and outdoors.

Here the children are experimenting with food colouring and investigating if different coloured food colouring would turn the white rose petals red, blue or green.

The children really loved pretending to be scientists with their goggles and aprons on and were ever so careful measuring the food colouring and water to go into the test tubes. They even kept on top of assessing the flowers ever day to see if there was any changes to the flowers.

The blue flowers definitely worked the best and we created blue roses!

 

 

🔢 Numeracy 🔢

We have been placing a focus on numeracy at our group time slot recently.

Here we were enjoying one of our new wooden numeracy resources, where the children took turns to find the missing numbers, count the correct number of discs and find the corresponding colour of the shape also.

The children are showing great improvement in their concentration and listening skills at group time.

Well done everyone!

 

 

🀽 We have also been learning how to play Dominoes and are continuing to learn the skill of reading the wooden Dominoes and counting the dots to see what number they represent.

 

 

The children’s numeracy knowledge has also been extended through number jigsaws at group time too. The children worked as a team to find the matching jigsaw pieces and completed the game successfully.

Well done!

 

 

 

🌿 Cress Heads 🌿

Continuing on from the Science week , the children took part in the cress heads experiment.

Here the children were extending their development in turn-taking, patience and listening skills. The children were also increasing their numeracy knowledge by counting  the correct number of cotton balls to put in their cups and also the correct amount of  syringes of water to put in their cups.

I took photos of the children’s faces too, to put on the front of their cups, once the seeds start to grow the children will look like they are growing some lovely green hair!

The children are also all dressed in red here as it was Red Nose Day!

 

February Fun at Cross Arthurlie

 

February has been filled with lots of fun,  friendships  and fabulous learning for the  Purple group!

Chinese New Year

 

The children celebrated Chinese New Year within the Nursery by making Chinese lanterns, chicken noodle soup and developing their numeracy skills with the Promethean board,  Chinese dragon activity. The children are continuing to work on their turn taking skills within the nursery and are becoming more patient whilst waiting their turn. Their knowledge of numbers 1-5 have also been strengthened whilst completing this task.

Well done Purples!

 

 

Back to Front Day

The children had a great time wearing their clothes back to front to raise some money for the Nursery! Thankfully nobody put their shoes on back to front, or there may have been a few accidents!

 

Painting

 

Painting is always available to the children daily in the nursery. They love to get creative in the art area and messy too! Some of the children prefer to use their hands for painting and we support the children’s choice to explore different medias to further their creativity.

We continue to prompt the children to put on their own aprons when they enter the arts and crafts area, they are aware of the guidelines and often help each other put on their aprons too. I love to see the children helping each other and develop their friendships throughout their play and learning during their time in Nursery.

 

 

Planting in the Garden

Some of the purple group were involved in completing some planting in the Nursery garden. We made a herb window box, filled with strawberries, rosemary, mint and thyme. The children are learning about caring for plants and remembering to water them in order for them to grow. They loved getting their hands dirty and patting down the soil. Hopefully our plants survive the cold weather and by summer time will be blooming beautifully!

 

 

Ice & Outdoors

 

February has brought us some very cold weather indeed, but the cold weather never puts the littles ones off playing outdoors! The muddy puddles in the garden are always popular choice and put to good use once the children have their wellies and puddle suits on.  The children particularly enjoyed exploring and breaking the frozen ice on top of the muddy puddles and sinks in the mud kitchen. We watched throughout the day as the ice melted and disappeared, as the temperature changed throughout their time at nursery that day.

 

Gym Hall Fun

 

Monday mornings is our allocated time or Gym Hall fun where Mr. Flemming plans a lesson, using his coaching expertise to develop the children’s gross motor skills.  The children love their time in the gym hall and are continually  developing  several skills such as jumping, climbing, balancing and crawling.

It is lovely to see the children’s abilities progress from week to week and their confidence grow whilst completing the different physical activities. They are learning to follow instructions whilst being outwith their daily environment of the playroom. At the end of each session we participate in a circle game which the children get very excited about!

 

 

Puzzle Time

Jigsaws are one of the children’s favourite activities to do in Nursery. They especially enjoyed our new rocket puzzle, which has lots of pieces to match together. I was so impressed at how well the purple group worked as a team to complete the puzzle and how their problem solving skills are developing every day.

Well done Purples!

 

Froebelian Occupations

Miss Ramsay has started completing learning experiences with the children based  on the theorist Friedrich Frobel. His studies have a focus on children’s abilities to work independently and strengthen their fine motor skills and hand muscles. All the experiences work under an umbrella effect, which are all interlinked.

The children have been involved in learning about how to thread a plastic needle with wool and create pictures by threading wool through the holes of woven fabric.

Wooden slat work has also been a favorite for the children, where the children place wooden sticks on a black background to create different images. Their creativity and imagination is encouraged whilst completing this task.

Paper perforating, was also heavily enjoyed by the children. Here they were able to create little images by using a tooth pick to prick through the paper onto a foam background. This exercise is helping develop the children’s pincer grip, which is helping get the children ready for holding a pencil when they begin hand writing.

 

 

 

 

January Blog – Purple  Group

 

Literacy

 

The children have settled back into the nursery rhythm and routine very well after their Winter break.

We have been learning about the letters of the alphabet and the different sounds they make. The children have been working hard to try and identify the letters in their own name and explore the sounds within each others names too.

 

 

Exploring Shapes

 

The children in the purple group have also been learning about 2D and 3D shapes.

The following images show the children exploring coloured pebble shapes and how they can be used to create and represent different pictures. They each choose a card and then worked within a group environment to create their chosen pictures. The children patiently waited their turn to choose their shape from the box, helping to improve their patience and turn taking skills.

 

 

2D Shapes

 

The focus on shapes continued throughout the month of January. Here the children are sorting and matching triangles, rectangles, diamonds and hexagons. They each managed to sort and identify specific shapes and then create patterns and images from them.

The children’s knowledge of the names of different shapes are improving all the time. They even managed to complete the activity cards too.

 

 

 

Promethean Board

The shape theme threaded through to all areas of the nursery. We worked together on the digital technology  available in the playroom, helping develop the children’s problem solving and critical thinking. We also explored mirror images and symmetry too and the children managed to solve the puzzles on the screen to find the missing halves of the images.

 

 

Creative Area & Playdoh

Numeracy

We explored shapes into the Art area too. We introduced mathematics and numeracy by following the Playdoh recipe. The children took turns at using the measuring resources to follow the correct measurements and amounts required to make the perfect mixture. The children’s gross motor skills are being developed by mixing the ingredients together. They had fun rolling and cutting with the different shape cutters, increasing their knowledge of identifying shapes .

 

 

       

 

 

December Blog

Story of the Week

The boys and girls in the Purple group have been focusing on the story ‘ Stick man’ for their story of the week. They helped to draw and colour in a sign for our display in the Nursery and they were very good at trying to stay within the lines. They loved listening to the story of stick man and all the places Stick man went throughout the story.

Black Line Drawings

The Children have also been drawing  a self portrait in their special journals. They were able to produce a drawing that they thought looked like them. The children are  beginning to add detail to their drawings and spend time talking about the different features of a body.  They have all  been working really hard  their pencil grip and how they mark make.

 

Wriggly Nativity

The boys and girls have been hard at work for the whole month of December, rehearsing for their performance of A Wriggly Nativity. They have all been practising their dancing and singing and all the rehearsals paid off. They performed the show on the big stage and were all brilliant. Well done everyone, we are all very proud of you!

 

Jigsaw

We have also had fun trying to solve the tractor jigsaw puzzle. They worked as a team to create the finished picture. The boys and girls have been learning about patience and turn taking and managed to let everyone have a turn at trying to get a piece of the puzzle to fit. They were very pleased with themselves and with the finished result.

Healthy Eating

Some of the children wanted to learn more about food and were curious about the large food books we have in the nursery. We spoke about the different food groups and what types of foods are good or bad for people to eat. The children knew lots of sugar wasn’t good for a healthy diet however its okay for a treat!

Drawing – Group time

Some of the children love to draw so  at group time we focused on giving all the children an opportunity to draw and they really enjoyed themselves. They are working on their pincer grip and pen control and they are finding out which hand they feel most comfortable using.

November as been a busy month!

Story of the week

In the Purple Group we have been reading the story  The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson.

We made paper dolls each and had fun colouring them all in!

Exploring Shapes

During group time the children have been exploring shapes and making pictures with shapes.

 

It was really fun sorting all of the hexagons into a really long line. We counted them all too, there were 31 altogether.

The children were matching the shapes, talking about their properties and naming them.

Imaginative Play

In the imaginative world the children decided they would like to set up a shop. They drew pictures to vote for what we should sell in the shop and decided on a toy shop.

It was very exciting welcoming the first customers and showing them around the shop.

The children decided where the toys would go and organised them into groups in baskets.

It was important to make a sign for the shop and make price labels.

We had to count all the money in the till to make sure that it was all there.  Looking at all of the different coins was interesting, they are different shapes, colours and sizes.  We will continue to learn about money and recognising different coins through the shop role play and the Christmas market.

 

Children in Need

We had lots of fun raising money for Children in Need within the Nursery. The children showcased some crazy hair styles and donated money and were also able to buy some toys from the toy sale within the Primary school.

 

Nativity Rehearsals 

Nativity rehearsals have been well under way to get the children ready for their Nativity performance next month. They are learning all the dance moves and words to the songs and are doing really well. We will continue to practise to make sure you enjoy the final performance, which will be getting filmed for your viewing online.

 

Christmas market preparations 

The children have been very busy creating and making lots of lovely Christmas items to sell at our up and coming Christmas market. They are very excited about selling them to their grown ups in December. We look forward to seeing you there hopefully!

 

 

These are our Christmas tree decorations for you to buy at our Fayre. We made these from Lollipop sticks and painted them with green paint and glitter!

 

 

The boys and girls have been making Christmas salt dough  tree decorations too.  They baked them in the oven and then decorated them with paint and glitter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a look to see what the children have been up too in nursery so far this term.  As they have been settling back into nursery and getting to know new friends  there has been a huge amount of learning going on as well as lots of fun and laughter.

 

Getting their groove on! The children really enjoy dancing and following a routine with music.

Learning about turn taking games is great fun and a brilliant way to build positive relationships.

Imaginative Play

Through play the children are learning to express and communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play.

   

Using the magnifying glasses to look really closely at the autumn leaves, conquers and cones.

   

   

Interacting with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversations are just some of the skills that the children are developing when in the construction area.

Developing good hand eye coordination using the tools in the construction area as well as learning important life skills. The children have been interested in learning about the different jobs you can have that might use similar tools.

 

Outdoor Play

There are so many different learning opportunities in the outdoor space for the children to access.  They can be making music in the sensory area or developing their numeracy skills when making potions in the kitchen.

  

   

   

Helping to plant Spring bulbs in the nursery garden, we are hoping for lovely bright colours in the Spring time.

 

Getting Creative 

When making something in the arts and crafts area the children are making choices about the materials they want to use, developing fine motor skills and problem solving when it doesn’t look as they had imagined.

   

   

   

 

 

 

Pumpkins and ghosts for snack for Halloween!

 

Cooking has been a really lovely addition to the nursery this year. Whilst still keeping to our COVID guidelines, we have been able to introduce the children to baking and cooking, helping them develop important skills such as knife control, mixing and measuring.

Heath and Wellbeing 

 

In the gym hall the children have been learning to move their body, use and share spaces, listen to and follow instructions and hold shapes and balances.

 

 

Happy Halloween 

It has been a busy few weeks settling back into nursery. The children have been reuniting with old friends and getting to know new faces.

The children have been exploring both inside and outside nursery learning spaces.

Using loose parts to create pictures and patterns.

Lots of fun making potions in the mud kitchen.     

Helping to make snack for the other children in the nursery and learning about healthy food has been really popular.

In the construction area the children use their imagination to build a variety of models.

Retelling the story of the 3 little pigs was lots of fun in the construction area.                   

Water play is always a hit in the nursery garden especially as we have had some great weather so far.

We understand that seeing the nursery space without the children is not the same as seeing your child playing and learning. We are working to get all permissions updated through the parent portal and as soon as we can we will share all that has been going on through twitter and our blogs. It is important that we keep in line with the GDPR guidelines before sharing photographs of children.