After enjoying our morning at the Botanic Garden we demolished our picnic lunch. Thank you to all our helpers who embraced the joy and excitement of the whole experience supporting the children in this adventure.

We then embarked on another adventure walking through the woods beside the Laid Burn to Cockshaugh Park. The children used their risk assessment skills to protect themselves and others as they demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of potential risks. They built confidence as they used their gross motor skills accepting new challenges and celebrated their success.

Olivia shared how she assessed a new tricky challenge which she was unable to complete.

“I just climbed back down again. I’m going to try again next time.”

An excellent example of growth mindset and self assessing risk. Well done!

“It looked really hard! I climbed all the way to the top and held on with two hands!”

Carter acknowledge the challenge he conquered and celebrated his accomplishment.

“Unstructured play improves learning and social and physical development. Providing a variety of play options, improved play access and fewer restrictions can encourage children to engage in physical activity with peers in line with their imaginations.” www.playscotland.org

The children had the opportunity to consolidate their learning about butterflies with a visit to the Butterfly House at St Andrews Botanic Garden.

” I saw a stripey caterpillar it was that size (holding hands wide) !!! It turns into a cocoon and then a butterfly.” Ruby confidently demonstrated her knowledge.

There was great excitement as we followed the ‘Gruffalo Trail’ searching for clues on a walk through the woods. The trail ended with the challenge of building a den for the Gruffalo. Working together the children and families used their STEM skills.

” A caterpillar was so big! Nanna came. It was good – she said it was fun! Nanna liked the Gruffalo and I liked it too!” An excited Gracie S shared her highlights of the day.

We extended a familiar experience of engaging with a story and developed our learning during a transition visit to Primary 1. Mrs MacPherson read ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne and we shared the experience with the P1/2 class. We tasted different fruits from the story.

This was a relaxing way to become more familiar with our new class environment and get to know our future classmates and our new teacher. We built confidence turn taking answering questions and sharing our thoughts about the story.

The children extended their literacy experience of ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad’ by  Vivien French. We prepared and tasted the different fruits from the story discussing the different textures and flavours building our vocabulary.

 After reading ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad’ we made our own fruit salad for snack.

” If you use a knife you have to be careful not to cut your finger.” Explained Sofia.

“The apple is very hard to cut!” Exclaimed Jack.

“This is very easy to cut because it is soft!” Sam described cutting the kiwi fruit.

We recorded our experiences in our ‘Stories and Rhymes ‘ learning book. Please come and share and discuss the learning with your child.

We saw lots of happy faces in the lunch hall as the children starting school in August had the opportunity to experience a lunch with the support of a family member assisted and guided by their buddy. Mrs Coggins the Headteacher was able to answer any questions parents had about the routines.

The catering staff were lovely and supportive of the children as they collected their meals. Afterwards the children showed their appreciation with thank you pictures.

The children starting Primary 1 in August have continued to build their relationships with the Primary 6 buddies and visited the playground. They are building confidence as they experience more independence in the playground and interact with the other school children enjoying a piece of fruit for snack and sharing games.

” I played ‘Hide and Seek’. ”  Shared an excited Maisie. “Me too.” Joined in Rory.

“We all played ‘Hide and Seek’ – I played it with my buddy Sophie!” Jack added.

“We played ‘Tig ‘ and ‘Duck,Duck,Goose’ with the buddies and my brother Josh and his friends!” Gracie shared happily about the experience.

Thank you to all the families who helped to celebrate Bookbug Week. The children enjoyed bringing a special friend from home to share the experience. They were delighted to receive a special rainbow pencil from Bookbug to use at home to draw pictures inspired by the stories they enjoy.

Bookbug will resume in August please invite families you know in the community all are welcome to attend.

Over the holidays you can access the Bookbug App the children love to lead their own sessions singing to siblings, teddies and extended family.

After checking EVERY day and watching for changes the children were excited to release the butterflies.

” They popped out of the cocoon. They fly outside.” Shared Frankie.

“They had sugar and water (to eat)…they had wetness in their wings.”

Maisie explained why they didn’t fly straight away. We extended our learning using fiction and non-fiction books and information from the internet.

 “We put them on the flowers.” Gracie W.

 “They had nectar on the flowers. Bumblebees eat it too.” Maisie shared her knowledge about nature.

“They look pretty. They might die if you are not careful because the wings are not strong. ” Ivy explained why we need to be gentle.

We planned our summer trip to visit the Butterfly House at St Andrews Botanic Gardens to extend our learning experience.

After consultation with the nursery families a four week PEEP block has been arranged to take place on Fridays this term. To give more families the opportunity to attend we will hold two of the sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Our PEEP sessions will recommence again this term on

Friday 31^st May 2019 from 9.10 a.m. to 10.10 a.m.

Our first topic will be

Becoming a good listener

Aim- to increase awareness of good listening skills 

Each week we will agree as a group the topic to be explored at the following session.

PEEP activities are for you and your child to participate in together.

Below are the session dates and times we are planning to hold this term;

Friday 31^st May 2019 from 9.10 a.m. to 10.10 a.m.

Friday 7^th June 2019 from 9.10 a.m. to 10.10 a.m.

Friday 14^th June 2019 from 1.00 p.m. to 2.00 p.m.

Friday 21^st June 2019 from 1.00 p.m. to 2.00 p.m.

We have a flexible approach so please come to as many as you are able.

If you have any questions please speak to the nursery team

The children are currently interested in finding caterpillars in the garden. We are developing this interest with the arrival of caterpillars in the nursery. The children are hoping to follow the life cycle and watch as a caterpillar changes in the pupa stage into a chrysalis and then into a butterfly.

Ivy used the display as a stimulus to create this thoughtful painting of a butterfly which is displayed on our learning wall.

“I am making a butterfly. I saw it in the caterpillar story book.”

Please join the children and share the learning wall as they discover more about how things grow in the environment.

“How long does it take a tadpole to turn into a frog?” Maisie wondered.

“Why are caterpillars lots of colours?” Asked Jack.