Category Archives: Social Subjects

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

June 15, 2021 Mrs MacLeod Leave a comment

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, Fun, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Imaginary Play, Literacy, Natural World, Outdoor Learning, Science, Social Subjects

Where did we come from…?

May 19, 2021 Mrs MacLeod Leave a comment

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!

Community, Eco Learning, Fine motor skills, Fun, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Health & Wellbeing, Natural World, Outdoor Learning, Science, Social Subjects

The Joys of Spring

May 5, 2021 Mrs MacLeod Leave a comment

We had a lovely morning exploring the joys of spring in nearby Busby Church gardens. The children loved the freedom of the outdoors and they went on a Colour Hunt, finding blossom, daffodils, dandelions, stones, and bugs under logs. They were very excited to discover and study wood lice, slugs, worms, centipedes and bees, and they took great care to look after the nature around them. We also had fun trying out different viewpoints – including lying down and upside down…

“We found bugs and snails.” “Wood louse is brown.”

The children found “pink blossom”, “brown tree stumps”, “a green tree”, “white stones”, “yellow daffodil heads”, “blue sky” and “purple pansies” on their Colour Hunt.
We have also started to look at the life cycles of various creatures, including frogs, and match them to their habitats.
“Worm lives in the ground!” “Bird in the nest.”

Here is a video of some tadpoles that Mrs MacLeod was lucky to see in a small pond last weekend. What other new life have you seen growing this Spring? Let us know!

Health & Wellbeing, Learning at home, Literacy, Music and Dance, Social Subjects, Technology & Construction, Videos with ELCC Staff

All Around the World 🌍

February 5, 2021 Mrs MacLeod Leave a comment

Bonjour! Here you can watch Mrs Small and her friend Mr Fox (Monsieur Renard 🦊) as they welcome you to Languages Week and go on a French colour hunt.

Now why not find a favourite toy to sing and dance along with Mrs Marshall. 🇫🇷 This French song is called “Je peux sauter”, which in English means “I can jump!”
You can jump, clap, turn and walk with your toy or do it yourself!

And Mrs Branco reminds us how to sing our French Song about how we are feeling.
Would you like to join in with Pierre?
Comment ça va aujourd’hui?

Here are the words to help you sing along:

“Bonjour tout le monde comment ça va?
Bonjour tout le monde comment ça va?
Bonjour tout le monde comment ça va?
Comment ça va aujourd’hui?

Tres bien merci comment ça va?
Tres bien merci comment ça va?
Tres bien merci comment ça va?
Comment ca va aujourd’hui?

In Google Classrooms you can enjoy hearing Mrs Ahmed read The Hungry Caterpillar for you in Urdu, a language which is spoken by many people all over the world.

And Mrs Boyd has also been offering some fantastic Gaelic lessons in Google Classrooms. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Gaelic is a Scottish language which is still often spoken in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Here is a taster:
“Hello and Failte gu Gaelic! Welcome to Gaelic. Join me, Murdo the teddy bear and Seamus the seal in learning Gaelic. Here we will learn how to say welcome, introduce ourselves and even sing a Gaelic song. Have fun learning Gaelic!”

Do you or any of your family speak or know any other languages? Another fun way to explore languages is to try out the Hello Atlas App. It is free to download and allows you to explore how to say “Hello” and a few other simple phrases in all sorts of languages, choosing from a map of the world.

Creative Arts, Eco Learning, Fine motor skills, Learning at home, Natural World, Sensory Play, Social Subjects, Videos with ELCC Staff

Let’s Get Crafty!

February 3, 2021 Mrs MacLeod Leave a comment

Here are a few ideas of fun ways to get creative, using some household objects you may have lying around:

PASTA ART with Miss Hampton
“Today I felt creative, so I thought I’d share my idea to see if any of you wanted to be a creative designer. All you need is pasta! I have attached some of my creations, plus a masterpiece I found online, to inspire your creative juices. There are lots of ways you can be creative with your pasta. I used a glue and some colouring pens to make a flower, but don’t worry if you don’t have these things because the great thing about not using glue is that you can make something different every time by rearranging the pasta into different patterns or shapes.”

Make a flower, a boat, a face… whatever you can think of!

PRINTING with STRING and FOIL with Mrs MacLeod
☀️ 🌤 🌦 🌧 🌨 ❄️ ☃️
“We’ve had all sorts of weather recently – rain, snow, ice, frost, sleet, sunshine and rain. Today I tried printing some weather pictures with different objects. Perhaps you would like to try printing patterns too. These are some items you could use to print with: corks, fruit or vegetables cut in half (ask an adult to help cut), string, old cardboard, tin foil, cotton buds – plus some paint.

Watch these quick videos if you’d like to see how to try foil printing and string printing.

You can use the same technique, wrapping string around a square of card then painting it blue to print rain next to your sunshine. You might also use a cork, dipped in white paint, or cotton wool balls or buds to print snow falling.