Hello everyone, we hope you have been enjoying some of the sunny weather outdoors! Maybe you spotted a few birds. Mrs Toman was birdwatching in her garden this Saturday. Take a look…
Each day this week we are giving you a few titbits and challenges linked to a different bird, in the run up to the RSPB Big Garden Watch:
Monday’s Bird is Clever Crow:
At Busby School & Nursery, we often see Crows in our playground and on the rooftops. They like to fly down for crumbs the children drop at playtime… Crows are not fussy eaters.
Have fun, and look out for Clever Crow outside!Hi everyone! At the end of January there is a special event taking place. You can watch this video for a little introduction:
I wonder if you have seen any birds from your window or when out on a walk recently. In Winter it can be easier to spot them because there are less leaves on the trees to hide them, and they are often out searching for food in the cold. If you are able to feed them then that is even better. Perhaps like me you noticed some bird footprints in the snow recently:
Every January, the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) holds a Big Garden Bird Watch. It has been doing this for 42 years.
It asks us to watch the birds outside our window for one hour and record the number of different birds we see on a chart like this:
The results are counted and they help to work out which birds in our country are doing well and which ones might need a bit of help.
If you would like to take part, you can find out more at this link:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/
It’s a great way of practising your counting skills, as well as learning about Science & Nature!
Even if you don’t do the Bird Watch, you can still have loads of fun watching birds and working out what they all are. This video I took in Pollok Park this week shows how close you can sometimes get to them…
In the run up to the Big Garden Bird Watch we will be posting some fun facts about different birds and how you can spot them, as well as activities linked to our feathered friends.
Keep your eye on the blog and Google Classrooms!
This week the Green and Blue group have been very excited about Guy Fawkes night which has inspired the children to make a range of beautiful art work.
We dipped string in to paint and moved it across the paper to create a firework effect.
The children were developing their fine motor skills while using the PVA glue to create firework patterns. The colourful glitter made the pictures shine bright just like the fireworks we saw on November 5th!
Look at our finished display!
We used food colouring to make a variety of vibrant water beads. We really enjoyed the sensory aspect of this activity as well as pouring and filling them in the water tray.
Our focus in maths has been pattern. The Green and Blues created repeating patterns using the paint and stampers.
We were also taking turns at maths games on the board to finish the sequence.
We read ‘Meg and Mog’ and ‘I think my Mum is a Witch’, inspiring us to use our imaginations and create our own spooky stories.
Working collaboratively with our peers we successfully made Pumpkin Soup. We carefully deseeded the pumpkin, using our fine motor skills to chop the pumpkin and other vegetables.
We developed our problem solving skills as we measured and weighed the ingredients.
The children then had the opportunity to taste their creation. ‘This soup is amazing’- R
We created our own potions using play dough and a variety of other resources, we retold the spells from the book developing our language skills.
We developed our fine motor, sensory and number recognition skills as we matched and counted spiders 🕷 and snakes 🐍 using tweezers in a variety of different experiences.
Over the past few weeks the children in the Green and Blue group have enjoyed learning all about shape and numbers. Have a look at all the fun experiences we took part in while developing our early numeracy skills.
The children sorted and identified shapes whilst taking part in “tap tap” and transient art activities, they then used these shapes to make objects.
They have also used a variety of media to make shapes, including paint printing and mark making in shaving foam.
Blue and Green group took part in number activities and displayed confidence when counting out and matching corresponding numbers with picture cards.
As Summer turns to Autumn the children have been learning about what is growing and changing with the seasons. The Yellow and Pink groups have been exploring Autumn through song and role play, making leaf prints, counting conkers and acorns, and chopping apples and plums from the trees to find their seeds. We have been talking about harvesting and where different foods come from:
”Carrots and potatoes grow in the ground.” “Apples and pears on trees.”
“That’s wheat… it gets made into Weetabix!”
Autumn role play corner in the Katrine Room.
The children painted an autumn frieze after looking at art by David Hockney, Gustav Klimt and Andy Goldsworthy. They wanted to make bats and fairies to add to the forest and glued on real leaves.
They later designed Autumn fairies using wooden pegs and leaves.
Chopping apples and plums, using hammer & nails to create squash hedgehogs, and designing leaf people.
Using leaves to copy a repeating pattern and create designs.
This week the children wanted to make a Safari Park for wild animals. They were fascinated to read the brochure from Blair Drummond Safari Park and tried drawing their own maps of it.
They also modelled a cave for the bears using Mod Roc with balloons, powder paint and water.
In Numeracy we have been learning about pattern. At Together Time the children identified, described and matched different animal patterns. They practised their aim and number identification with this Beanbag number game. Watch them in action!
If you would like to sing our Autumn Song with your child, here are the words (the tune is The Farmer’s in his Den). Have fun!
Autumn time is here, autumn time is here,
It’s getting very chilly now, ‘cos autumn time is here.
The leaves are falling down, the leaves are falling down,
Yellow, red and gold and brown, the leaves are falling down.
The animals gather food, the animals gather food,
Nuts and seeds and juicy fruits, the animals gather food.
The farmers gather crops, the farmers gather crops,
Peas and beans and broccoli, and we can eat them up.
The Purple Group have settled back into Nursery life really well. We have been establishing old and new friendships, following routines and learning lots of exciting things.
We have been spending a lot of time outdoors, accessing all aspects of the curriculum.
We love getting our wet suits on and exploring in the rain.
We have been exploring symmetry through a variety of different experiences. The children created butterflies and used transient art to develop their awareness of symmetry in their local environment.
Making tea in the water tray stimulated our senses. We have enjoyed taking part in a lot of different sensory activities across the playroom and outdoors.
The Red Group have been having plenty of Outdoor Action recently, experimenting with herbs in their Mud Kitchen, and practicing their throwing, catching, balancing and other physical skills.
Using a rope and recycled bottles of water, the Reds investigated forces, weights and volume. They tested their problem-solving skills as they used a pulley to hoist up the water.
“This is the Machine Maker.”
Watch the children creating a conveyer belt process with the tubes and bark pieces, using teamwork and imagination.
Indoors the children have been exploring Numeracy using autumnal natural objects, and in Literacy they have been really enjoying the story of The Disgusting Sandwich, using Hanen techniques and exploring the meaning of descriptive words.
Technology
We have been exploring technology using the Beebots, sending them in different directions.
We have also used the App pictured below on our iPads to work out how to say words and phrases in different languages.
In Arran Building, the Pink and Yellow group children have been showing great curiosity about sea creatures, so we’ve been learning more about Ocean Worlds in various ways :
“We need to make some seaweed for it.”
“That’s a whale shark. It’s the biggest fish.”
“Look, I’ve caught two anchovies.”
”I caught a number 3.”
“I saw jellyfish floating in the water on my holiday.“
”They’re soft, yellow and red” “They have tentacles“ ”This one’s a baby”
“Look what it’s doing. It’s making a current….a whirlpool.”
The Red Group are currently based in the Lomond Room in Arran building. They have been eagerly exploring the characters in the exciting story of Supertato and have been role playing his adventures and daring rescues.
In Early Science experiments, the children tried different ways to free the peas from inside the frozen ice, adding salt, hot water and using various tools.
The Red Group have also been studying different vegetables and talking about how and where they grow. Then they made their own vegetable characters using different resources and re-enacted some of the key story scenes from Supertato.
“My favourite bit is when Supertato runs!”
“They put him in the jelly…”
“He wanted to kill the vegetable market…”
At group times the Red Group have been enjoying songs with actions, story-telling and talking about their feelings.
Outdoors they have been busy catching rain, puddle splashing and investigating forces with ropes (after reading the story of the Invisible String.)
Mixing powder paint with rain and experimenting with colour.
Using gloop to play and experiment with colour and shape.
