Category Archives: Literacy

Creative Arts, Eco Learning, Fine motor skills, Fun, Gardening, Imaginary Play, Life Skills, Literacy, Numeracy & Mathematics, Outdoor Learning, Technology & Construction

September Learning Adventures

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Interactive Storytelling
Inviting children to take part in a story increases their engagement and stimulates their imaginations. It also leads to retellings, which further increases understanding and language development.

The Tiger who came to Tea: Here the children participated in the Tiger’s tea party as the story was read to them. They were excited to make their own props and recreate the story themselves.

Through Commotion in the Ocean, the children were inspired to draw many ocean scenes and to create their own puppets, which they then used to take on roles in the storytelling.

Different Ways to Sort
In Numeracy we have been focusing on sorting and matching. Here are a few different ways the children have tried sorting, matching and categorising:

Sorting by length

Sorting superheroes & Matching 3D shapes to their outlines

 Matching dots to written numerals

Sorting by colour & Matching pieces
At home you could now try asking your child to sort out the cutlery or their sock drawer…
Technology
The children have been cool with tools and concentrating hard, as they learn how to  use a hammer and nails safely, and create wooden hedgehogs and other creatures.

 

From Little Acorns…
We’ve been looking at autumn treasures in a Treasure Box and talking about the changes that happen outside in Autumn.
The children have identified acorns, conkers and pine cones and have been learning how trees shed their seeds at this time of year. They know that “Squirrels eat acorns”, but we also thought about what would happen to the acorns that squirrel forgot.. We looked at a tiny plant grown from an acorn, and together we planted this tiny oak tree in the Eco Garden and watered it.


Maybe one day it will grow into a Great Oak…

Creative Arts, Fine motor skills, Fun, Literacy, Mark Making, Outdoor Learning

Imagination Stations

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Great creativity and imagination have been flourishing in Busby Nursery, in artwork, literacy and small world play.
After reading “The Very Hungry Worry Monsters” by Greening Rosie, several of the children were inspired to depict Worry Monsters in their own way. Some chose to use the whiteboard, others chose pens and paper, and others independently constructed models using tissue paper and tape.


Outdoor Art on a big canvas has also been a very popular choice, with the children using their gross motor skills to paint.

Later on, some recycled old packaging provided a great canvas for the children to paint on. They mixed up their own powder paints, then used brushes on sticks to create their giant floor painting.

Creative with Clay: the children experimented with clay, water and different tools. They showed great concentration to mould, shape, and decorate. They also mixed some impromptu clay paint and used it to make handprints…


“I made a little pot with shells on it.”
“I’m making a dinosaur!”
“It feels squelchy…”

Sensory World in a Tuff Tray

“The giant lives in the sunflower. We can put this stone here for a door.”
“I’m making snow with this chalk.”
“This is the bog and the hippo’s eating the mud.”
“It feels all squelchy. It’s like chocolate.”
“This feels so soft.”

Adventures in a Tepee



Den building, design, problem-solving and imaginative play:
“We can make a garden for it. We can use this for a fence.”
“I can put the pegs back on. It goes here.”

Chilling and making sweet music together…

Eco Learning, Fine motor skills, Food & Cookery, Fun, Literacy, Natural World, Outdoor Learning, Science

Where things Grow…

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After digging up the potatoes from our nursery garden recently, the children were interested to touch, smell and dissect other kinds of vegetables and fruit, and we talked about where they grow and what they are used for.

“It’s a potato!”
“That’s a sweet potato… It’s orange inside.”
“They grow on a plant…”
“Under the ground.”
“Apples on a tree.”
We also spotted some ripe plums growing on a tree in our new nursery garden.

The children suggested shaking the tree to get the plums at the very top…. and it worked!

We then dissected the fruit and veg to investigate inside, and smelt the lemons, oranges and onions. The plums tasted great!
“That’s a seed inside.”
“It has a stone (plum)”.

Later some children made fantastic fruit/veg people and creatures, using old fruit, potatoes, cocktail sticks, pens, buttons, felt, pipe cleaners and wool. They showed great concentration and fine motor skills whilst creating their own characters, and gave them names.

“He’s called Stumpy. Can I take him home? I put eyes and a face on.”
”Look, I’ve made a spider.”
“This is Lemon Shark!”

Eco Learning, Group Blue, Group Green, Group Pink, Group Purple, Group Red, Group Yellow, Literacy, Natural World, Outdoor Learning, Science, Social Subjects

Bugs Glorious Bugs

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There has been much excitement among all the nursery groups over looking at various live insects and mini-beasts these past weeks. The children have shown a huge interest in learning about them and caring for them:
– On trips to Busby church gardens we have found wood lice, worms, millipedes, slugs and beetles under damp logs and studied them with magnifiers. We looked up more about them in books too.


– In our nursery garden the children have prepared their Bug Hotel and have been excited to observe a few visitors, like spiders.


Spider books and spider crafts: “What’s this one called?”

– The children have also been studying four snails in the outdoor classroom. We found that snails love to eat basil and that they each have four antennae, two for seeing, and two for smelling and feeling.


The children were fascinated to watch the snails come out of their shells and observe how they move and eat, and the trails they leave. They gave the snails names too.
“This one is called Rainbow Drop.”
“This is Daisy.”
“Let’s feed them. They like to eat this”
“Look, they’re kissing!”
“They have slime under them.”

– And we have also all been following the journey of our nursery caterpillars with great excitement:

The children watched them journey through their life cycle, turning from caterpillars to chrysalides and then last week to beautiful tortoiseshell butterflies.

They were so excited to release our butterflies into the wild. Suggestions for names of the butterflies were also very interesting.  Toby, Neeva and Pixie were a few of the favourites.
It’s been so good to watch the children loving and appreciating nature.

Creative Arts, Fine motor skills, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Literacy, Science

Fishy Letters

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The children have been loving fishing for letters using magnetic rods, and were delighted to find letters they know.
“Look I found a M for my Mum.”
“I found a T for my name.”
“That’s a S for snake.”
“Look , it picked up this coin too!”

They also wanted to make more rods and design their own fish using painting, printing and collage, adding their initial letter on the back and a paper clip to attract the magnet.

Creative Arts, Fine motor skills, Fun, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Imaginary Play, Literacy, Natural World, Outdoor Learning, Science, Social Subjects

Where did we come from…?

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Some of the children were talking about the extinction of the dinosaurs and asking when the Ice Age and humans came. One of our children also wrote a fantastic story called “Dinosaur Skeleton Bones.” So we have been studying a bit about Evolution, using The Story of Life book in the Story Box, along with lots of props and books to explore.

“These are chimpanzees. They turned into cavemen.”
“Dinosaurs evolved into alligators.”
“We came from that…” (pointing at small furry mammals in book)
“Some creatures came out of the water… This one flies.”

Re-enacting the moment when a meteorite hit Planet Earth.

We also tried making bones, fossils, skulls and footprints using clay with tools, toy dinosaurs and some fossil moulds:
“That one’s an ammonite. What is this one called?”


We buried them in sand and pretended to be Archaelogists and Paleontologists, digging with brushes and other tools.

“I found a bone!”      “Look! A T-Rex footprint!”

To dig up this Ice Age man and Sabre-toothed Cat, the children worked out the quickest way to melt the ice. They tried warm water, salt, chisels and saws… They were then fascinated to study and name all the different body parts, take them apart, and put them together.


“Is this his heart?” “That’s a brain!” “More salt- that’s working.”





Painting our clay volcano and fossils
“I made a  handprint fossil and a shell one.”

Later we tried an outdoor science experiment – we built a volcano using sand and water and then created a volcanic  eruption by mixing vinegar with bicarbonate of soda.

Watch our eruption!

Fine motor skills, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Health & Wellbeing, Imaginary Play, Literacy, Mark Making, Outdoor Learning, Science, Technology & Construction

May Days and Creative Ways

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The children have been using all kinds of exciting creativity in their play. Great minds at work!

Planting our herb garden and creative cup stacking. “Tah dah!”


Young Scientists in the Making:
“Scientists work really hard.”  “Can I be a scientist?

Helicopter Stories:
In Helicopter Stories, the children make up their own stories and are then each given the “stage” to act out their story, with friends taking part as various actors. It is great for building self confidence, esteem, focus, and talking and listening skills. We have had some wonderful stories, including “The Rhino and the Fight”, “The Orange Dog”, “The Magical Unicorn Food” and “The Red Racing Car.”


Some of the children wanted to create their own puppet show too. Great acting and storytelling skills were on display!

The children wanted to turn an old cardboard box into a den and had lots of great ideas about how to design, decorate and upholster it:


And for Mrs McInnes’s special birthday this week, they carefully designed her cards and created a very special cake:


“Happy Birthday, Mrs McInnes!”

 

Creative Arts, Eco Learning, Fine motor skills, Gardening, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Imaginary Play, Literacy, Natural World, Numeracy & Mathematics, Outdoor Learning, Science, Sensory Play, Technology & Construction

Science Adventures: Space and Planting

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The Wonders of Space

The children in Pink and Yellow groups have recently showed an interest in learning about Space, so they have been designing rockets and reading the story of Little Moon in the Story Box to find out more about planets and black holes…


Exploring the Story Box and experimenting with different sphere shapes


Rocket Number Games and Play Dough Aliens


Creating Rocket Designs and Junk Modelling

We also tried making some paper mâché planets by mixing up a paste of water and flour, dipping in newspaper strips and tissue paper, then wrapping them around balloons.

“I think that one looks like our planet – Earth.”
“This one looks like Mars and that one is the sun.”
“Rover is on Mars.”
“Craters are on the moon.”
Earth has “more water” than land.
“That’s a gas giant!”

The children also began some other experiments with balloons and discovered static electricity when they found they could rub the balloons and make them stick to the walls.

Planting and Growing

Mrs McInnes has been showing the children how to plant grass seeds to make Grass Heads, and they have been learning what a plant needs to grow.

We have been carefully watering the plants for 2 weeks and look how quickly the grassy hair grew!


Time for a hair cut!

Some other outdoor fun in the sun!


 

Gardening, Group Blue, Group Purple, Group Red, Health & Wellbeing, Imaginary Play, Literacy, Mark Making, Outdoor Learning, Science

Fun in the Sun

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The children in the Purple, Blue, Green and Red groups have settled well back into nursery. We have been taking advantage of the lovely weather with lots of exciting outdoor learning experiences such as pouring/ filling in water tray, painting, planting, reading and developing our gross motor skills on the bikes.

Creative Arts, Culture & Traditions, Fine motor skills, Food & Cookery, Fun, Learning at home, Literacy, Numeracy & Mathematics, Videos with ELCC Staff

Warm Pancakes and Warm Hands… 🥞🧤

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There’s still lots going on for you in Google Classrooms.
This week Miss Lawson has posted a second Virtual Nursery, where you can choose from a variety of fun learning experiences, including stories and cutting out newspaper letters.

In addition there are some recipes and demonstrations from your Key Workers on making pancakes this Shrove Tuesday:

And for more fun making things, if you want to keep your fingers toasty in cold weather, in Google Classrooms you can also watch Mrs Toman‘s Skills Academy video on how to create Hand Warmers using  some old socks and rice,