This week it has been quiet in the nursery but that has not stopped us having fun and forming positive relationships by showing more understanding about sharing and taking turns in our play. We made playdough which involved us measuring out amounts , mixing things together and making sausages for each other which turned out great , we are learning about different food groups within the nursery! Some helped put together a short movie of the process of the cress seeds growing which helped develop our digital technology skills , we even tried some , it was delicious!
All children were taking turns using the musical instruments to create their own music and some played twinkle twinkle on the xylophone.
Some of us were exploring the painting table , experimenting by mixing up a variety of liquid paints to create new colours.
‘I am going to paint a rainbow’
‘I need purple for my rainbow’
They represented their ideas using art and design by describing their pictures and learning to take turns.
Outdoors some children explored their imagination and creativity with some adult support they created a ‘dinosaur home’ with a variety of materials such as leaves , stones , twigs and a big wooden log. They were able to test out their own strengths and describe weight.
‘To heavy’
‘Would you like some help’?
Another child took the opportunity to help , great team work as they recognised their achievement’s through communication.
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We took SIMOA on a walk to the beach to explore the area and understand our safety rules.
Today some children were exploring mark making at the drawing table. Whilst conversing with our peers we were developing our language skills. Some of the children demonstrated their sorting/ matching skills by sorting the pens into one pot and putting the coloured pencils into another pot. Some of us helped make playdough discussing quantities and textures “That’s too much flour!” “It’s sticky!”
Outdoors, using our gross motor skills and hand/eye coordination, we explored a variety of ball skills e.g. kicking, throwing, catching and rolling.
We will be having a visit from the ‘Childsmile lady’ in November so in preparation for this, today, we discussed how to help keep our teeth healthy by brushing our teeth after snack. We each found our own toothbrush, in the rack with our unique picture on it, before having a go at brushing our teeth.
Tuesday
Today some of our children created a bakers shop at the dough table. Whilst discussing the job of a baker they made a variety of cakes and sausage rolls. We added some coins to the bakers shop so the children can explore money and its purpose. A few of our children chose to explore various types of print in our story corner including their PLJ’s and floor books. This created lots of discussion and development of vocabulary and language skills. Outdoors today lots of our children explored our new bikes developing gross motor, and turn taking skills.
Wednesday
Some our children explored a variety of collage materials at our gluing area today, sharing ideas, representing their ideas using a variety of materials whilst exploring different textures and using a variety of descriptive language. SIMOA the elephant (Safety, Inspect, Monitor, Observe, Act) introduced road safety to all our children today creating lots of discussion on how we can keep ourselves safe. The water tray was very popular today using a variety of different shaped, sized vessels to explore volume and force. This created the use of a variety of mathematical language.
Thursday
Lots of role play both indoors and outdoors today with the dolls house and the dinosaurs. Children arranging furniture and figures to replicate scenarios from home, creating a ‘dinosaur land’ using vegetation and logs from the garden – representing, and sharing, their ideas through imaginative play whilst developing their sharing/turn taking and language skills using a wide and varied range of vocabulary. Using a variety of containers some children added water to the tuff tray in the garden. They then explored/experimented how big a splash they could make! Some children discovered they could see their reflection in the water creating lots of discussion and experimentation by seeing what else they could see in the reflections e.g. clouds etc.
Friday
Today some of our children recreated patterns using picture cards, to copy the patterns using the small wooden blocks, developing our colour recognition, pattern making and matching skills. Following on from lots of talk about foods and shops this week we are creating a new learning wall all about ‘food’ in which we will explore our favourite foods, where foods come from etc. Some children have been showing lots of interest in the musical instruments – learning the different names and exploring the different sounds they make.
We are still enjoying exploring our new temporary environment with children sharing ideas of where to put things etc. Today we also ventured into the surrounding playing fields exploring the trim trail and a variety of outdoor activities e.g. balls, cones and space hoppers- developing our sharing/turn taking, gross/fine motor skills as well as sharing ideas of different games to play.
Lego was popular today with a variety of models being created by representing/sharing ideas whilst designing and problem solving.
Tuesday
Today some of the children were experimenting in the water tray with the papettes “How far can we squirt the water?” “My waters going further than yours!” “Let’s see if we can hit the whale.” Exploring the force of water whilst developing use of language.
We explored another/different area of the outdoors today whilst developing our turn taking skills on the see saw and experimenting with our balancing skills and developing our gross motor skills.
Wednesday
Today a few children explored different kinds of forces whilst experimenting with the tyres -How far will it go? Will it reach the fence? How fast will it go? Developing our estimation skills and use of mathematical language. At the work bench some children shared ideas whilst planning/designing what kind of model they were going to build developing turn taking, problem solving skills and demonstrating their knowledge of how to keep themselves safe whilst wearing safety goggles to protect their eyes, holding/using the tools correctly and safely.
Thursday
Today all the children went on an adventure to the local estate. “We’re going on a bear hunt!” “I wonder where we’re going?” “What are we going to see?” “Is it far?” Whilst developing our questioning skills we explored and became more familiar with the local area. The children used a variety of vocabulary/language to describe their adventure on their return to nursery. Some of the children used a variety of resources/materials to represent their ideas, developing problem solving, designing, language and creative skills.
We have had a busy start to our week with lots of role play in the garden using our small world dinosaurs 🦖 they showed how to care for them by feeding them & using their voice to create the different sounds of the dinosaurs. Some of the children have been playing cards developing their memory skills as well as speed when they were playing snap.
Tuesday
Today we have had lots of creating with our junk modelling & some elaborate structures created. The children will then use the models in their play which today was used as many different props. At snack we had some fantastic helpers to chop our fruit developing fine motor skills as well good life skills.
Wednesday
Some children were using the fire engine to role play they then used ropes for their own fire & rescue operation. They spent quite some time negotiating how they were developing the role play. Some children explored a new number matching game.
Thursday
Today some of the children performed singing & dancing with each performance receiving the thumbs up from the audience there was a wide variety in performances for us all to enjoy. The blocks have been popular today using them to build engines & exploring using our voice to create characters in the role play.
Friday
Today was our first day at Newport nursery. The children helped to set up the room which was very exciting as they explored both indoors & the garden. We are looking forward to exploring our new surroundings further next week.
Today our writing table was very popular with several children creating cards, pictures, books, ‘writing’ using a variety of media✏️🖍️🖊️✍️. A few of our children also enjoyed exploring/experimenting with the paper punch using it to add holes to their pictures, books etc as well as exploring how it works, and how many pieces of paper it can punch holes into at once, creating opportunities to develop their use of mathematical language. The garden was also popular today with some children helping to re-pot a variety of plant cuttings and seeds which we hope to use for a venture in the near future……watch this space! Whilst doing this we developed our knowledge of plants and what they need to grow 🌞💦.
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Tuesday
In- Service Day – Nursery closed to children
Wednesday
Today our fantasy cube was used in a variety of ways during role/imaginative play e.g “I’m driving my car!”🚗 “We’re going to Dundee in the bus” 🚌“This is our police car”🚓. Children sharing/representing their ideas through role/imaginative play whilst developing their knowledge and understanding of the world around them. Our table top games 🧩were popular today with some of our children developing our turn taking, fine motor and hand/eye coordination.👋👀
Thursday
Today some of our children demonstrated being respectful and responsible by tidying up 🧹the area they had been playing in leaving it nice and tidy for the next person. Some children took responsibility for making sure our nursery garden was safe to play in by completing our daily check list📋. Almost all our children participated in our sports day – developing turn taking skills, gross/fine motor skills and celebrating success. We were joined by lots of parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, carers, childminders etc who came to cheer our children on resulting in a successful sports day enjoyed by all.🏃🏃♀️🏅
Friday
Today there was lots of house building in our brick corner🧱 with some children sharing their ideas💡 with others whilst problem solving, discussing who was going to build what part of the house, and what the different rooms were going to be! They then discussed, and decided what furniture they needed before utilising the furniture out of the house corner to furnish their ‘brick’ house. 🏠 A few children also demonstrated their knowledge of fractions by creating a circle using the 4 arch shaped bricks to create a whole circle “Look it’s a circle!”⭕️ Outside today we enjoyed a story in the sunshine before choosing our favourite songs/rhymes to sing together developing our listening and turn taking skills.👂🎶
Today there was a lot of discussion using a wide and varied range of vocabulary, including some mathematical language, to share ideas, design and build a variety of different vehicles using the Lego. “Mines got 4 wheels!” “ Mines got 2 wheels and it can go really fast” “I’ll put another bit on the front to make it go faster” 🚗🚎🚚The writing table was popular today with some children making their own story books “My story books all about myself!” 📚demonstrating that they can use writing in a variety of contexts. Outdoors today some of our children decided to make/create their own drum kits by sourcing a variety of different vessels then exploring the different sounds they made. “This is a loud one!” “I’m going to hit it hard!” “This one’s quieter”🥁
Tuesday
We had lots of discussion re magnets and what different materials/objects magnets would, and would not, stick to! We looked out the magnetic fishing 🎣 game which created further discussion whilst developing our turn taking skills. Some of the children demonstrated their engineering skills by designing, problem solving and sharing ideas whilst building a racing track 🏁using the building blocks. They then used our estimation skills to predict which cars🚗🚙would go the fastest. There was lots of energetic play outdoors today developing our gross motor skills by running, jumping, pedalling etc.
Wednesday
Today the whales🐋 were creating interest in the water tray creating discussions about sizes, how fast they swim , what they eat etc. Size also featured in the sand tray where several children used a variety of different shaped/sized containers to build sandcastles🏰 creating use of mathematical and descriptive language. Our interest in jewellery making continued at the beach🏖️ today with some children looking for treasure e.g. sea glass, shells, flowers to design and create bracelets.🐚🌸
Thursday
Some of the children helped give the garden a bit of a makeover. After a discussion with the children, and taking on board some of their ideas💡, we decided firstly to move the mud kitchen🧑🍳. Most of the children were involved in helping clear🧹 the new area and move💪 the mud kitchen to its new home. They demonstrated fantastic team work & negotiating skills whilst doing this! Look out for further developments in our nursery garden!
Jigsaws🧩 were a popular choice today with children working well together using problem solving skills to complete the jigsaws. The brick area 🧱was busy today with some children planning and building Bluey’s house🏠 using negotiating skills to decide which part each child was going to build.
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Friday
Today we explored a variety of different Easter themed activities throughout the nursery🐣. Whilst using/developing our fine motor, drawing, cutting and writing skills some made Easter chick masks, some chose to create their own Easter cards and we had an Easter story in the garden whilst enjoying a little Easter chocolate treat😉🐥🥚. Some children created their own treasure hunt in the garden by ‘writing’ a list of objects they were to find and using their organisation skills to determine who was to look for which object.
Today the sun was shining🌞 and we enjoyed exploring lots of different activities outdoors including creating music with a variety of instruments- learning their names, how to hold/play them and listening to the different sounds they made🥁🪇. We explored different techniques of how to cover our models with paint. We tried different ways and decided we enjoyed experimenting with straws to blow the paint 🎨🖌️. Indoors our writing/drawing table was very busy today with lots of children representing their ideas on paper using as variety of media. Some children expressed an interest in writing their names as well as other familiar words e.g. Mum and Dad.
Tuesday
Today one of our children created his own game outdoors using chalk to mark make the shapes/spaces 👣⭕️needed for the game. He then explained the rules to his peers and encouraged his peers to join in, altering his use of language to encourage some who were reluctant to join in! At the beach🏖️ today we explored different ways of moving our bodies e.g. climbing🧗 and rolling- using a variety of vocabulary to describe the texture/feeling of the different surfaces they were climbing/rolling on “It feels soft!” “It’s furry!” “This bit’s a bit spikey!” “This rocks very hard 🪨!” We also observed the clouds describing the different shapes we could see!☁️
Wednesday
Today several of our children were sharing/representing their ideas through role/imaginative using the dinosaurs, building blocks. A wide range of vocabulary was used whilst role playing/discussing the different types of dinosaurs🦖🦕 i.e. size, what they ate, their names etc. Using a variety of different sized/shaped bricks a castle was designed and built “The Queen👸 and the Princess🫅 will live in the castle🏰 and we’ve built a bedroom for them to sleep in!” the children explained. One of our children designed, and created, a power station using the Lego and explained “The power puts electricity on in our houses💡 but if we had a power cut nothing would work!” Showing they have an understanding of electricity and the importance of electricity in our daily lives.⚡️
Thursday
Today we explored a variety of different ring games during our gym session today💃🕺. Developing our turn taking, listening and gross motor skills. There were several conversations regarding fractions e.g wholes, halves, quarters etc. at the snack table with some children using knives to cut fruits into pieces🍴. Outside we explored the puddles looking at reflection , experimenting with different objects to see if they floated or sunk in the puddles. We also added some washing up liquid to the puddles to see what would happen when we jumped in the puddles. 💦
Friday
Today in Ferryport some children were representing their ideas in the sand tray “We’re building a city!”🏙️ “There’s a volcano there too!”🌋 This created lots of discussion about volcanoes erupting. We then developed our use of technology to search on the computer 💻 to see if we could find any live web cam footage of a volcano erupting. 🌋We found one which is erupting in Miami at the moment! Our woodwork bench was popular today with some children experimenting with different materials to design, and create, their own hammers 🔨using a variety of tools. We enjoyed a visit from one of our Mums who did a yoga session with our children. We did some stretching exercises before exploring several yoga poses including ‘downward dog’ ‘cow/dog’ ‘warrior’ ‘butterfly’ ‘tree’ ‘triangle’ ‘frog’ amongst others. 🦮🐈🦋🐸🌳
Today the computers and I-pads were very popular with several children exploring different apps/games on different devices. Developing their knowledge of technology, sharing/taking turns and supporting one another when needed. A variety of media was being explored at the drawing/writing table and used to mark make, writing shopping lists, writing stories about, and drawing pictures, of their pets 🐕🐇🐈, some of which they requested to be added to our learning wall about pets.
Tuesday
Today there was lots of creativity at the art/craft table with binoculars, bridges, hovercrafts, tracks amongst other things being created using a variety of junk modelling materials. We used our designing, problem solving skills whilst sharing ideas. Some of our children noticed and commented on the bulbs, flowers, shoots appearing our nursery garden creating discussions about the different flowers, their names, how they grow, what colour they’re going to be and what they need to grow 🌞💦. It was birthday time at the dough table today with birthday cakes being made and decorated. Lots of mathematical discussion re size of the cakes, how many candles they were going to put on the cakes and how many people were coming to the birthday party🎂
Wednesday
Lots of designing, problem solving and sharing of ideas with the Lego today with a variety of houses and cars being created🚗🏠. The story corner was popular with several children choosing, and asking for stories to be read developing our awareness of books📚 and expressing our likes and dislikes re our favourite stories etc. We enjoyed a bracing visit o the beach today with some children exploring the rock pools, some exploring the landscape discussing different objects, places they can see🏰🏗️. A few children searched the beach for shells🐚 and interesting stones creating lots of discussion using a wide range of vocabulary and mathematical language.
Thursday
We had our weekly visit to the primary school for our gym session today. Following our interest in pets we talked about our different pets and how they move. We then explored different ways of moving our bodies in ways to replicate the way our pets move e.g. slithering, wriggling, jumping, walking, running🐕🐇🐈🐛🪱🐍🐓 etc. We explored some gym apparatus learning how to use it safely and developing our turn taking skills. Some of the children shared/ represented their ideas by using the bricks to build a house🏠, planning where the bedrooms were and using the shop as their kitchen area. Lots of discussion and listening to each others ideas. One of the keyboards on our ‘tinker’ table was being used as a radio with one of our children pretending they were on the radio creating their own music🎶
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Friday
Continuing with our interest in pets some of our children researched answers to questions they had regarding their pets by using Google on the computer. With some adult support they copied and pasted the information they were looking for then printed it using the photocopier- developing our knowledge and use of technology.🧑💻🖱️. They then added their information to our learning wall. Today we also visited the Community Gardens where we listened to some interesting information about mini beasts🐛🐞🕷️🐌🪱🐝 and listened to a variety of mini beats related stories before helping collect wood, cones etc to create a woodpile next to the pond for the mini beasts in the garden. We also had to opportunity to plant beans some of which we brought back to nursery so we can watch them grow🌱🪴.
We welcomed back everyone to nursery this week, the children were straight back to exploring and investigating. The block area has been very busy with some spectacular structures being created. They used the blocks to develop their role play and encouraged others to join their play. We have started to learn our Scottish poem and have been talking about Rabbie Burns.
Tuesday
Some of the children have chosen to help decorate our beautiful light house that is in our front hall for you to admire. Over several trips to the beach the children collected sea glass and shells, Mrs Wright drew the light house with the children decorating the light house.
Wednesday
The children have been interested in role playing shops and cafes. They have created lots of different shops for their play. As this has been popular with most of the children we have started a new learning wall. This will provide lots of learning opportunities and we are excited to see this interest develops.
Thursday
The children have been excited with the colder weather this week where we have been exploring the properties of water changing to ice over night. We have explored how it feels and looks, as well as investigating with magnifying glasses and tools.
Friday
We started the day off with wake up shake up as most of the children came in very cold but full of energy. The weather is still very cold and some of the children were looking forward to investigating some of the experiments they had set out in the garden the previous day. In the nursery some beautiful art work has been created using a variety of media. Our learning wall is beginning to develop with lots of role playing of cafes in the sand tray and block area. Lots of exploring with letters and using the smart board to develop their writing skills.
“Book Week Scotland”📖. This week we will enjoy a variety of activities related to “Book Week Scotland” starting today with a discussion. Children were invited to bring their favourite books to nursery to share with others.📚 Today we had lots of discussion about the weather “It’s freezing!” “It’s frosty!” “Why is it all white?” Developing use of language and questioning. We left some water in a variety of different sized/shaped containers to see what happens to the water over night! 🥶- developing our experimental/investigation skills as to how water can change from one form to another❄️
Tuesday
Today some children were experimenting in the water tray by adding different coloured paint🎨 to see what happens when the paints mix together. Good use of mathematical language whilst pouring/filling/mixing. The children were exited to find yesterdays containers with water in had frozen🧊 causing lots of excitement and discussion “What’s happened?” “It’s like glass!” “We can smash it!” “It’s so cold!”.
Wednesday
Today all our children engaged in a ‘Meet The Author’ session on the smart board . They listened to a song and story by the author Tom Fletcher. The title of the story was called “There’s A Monster In Your Book!” . During our visit to the beach today we had discussions about the weather after finding patches of snow “It’s all white!, “ The grass is hard!” “It sounds crunchy when we walk on it! ❄️The children commented that the tide was quite far out creating questions as to whether the tide was coming in or going out!🌊 Developing our awareness of our local environment.
Thursday
Today in gym we developed our shape, colour recognition🔺🔵🟨, listening skills👂and following instructions whilst joining in with a variety of games. All children then explored a variety of different gym equipment developing turn taking skills, gross and fine motor skills as well as hand/eye coordination🏃♀️🤸♀️. As part of our Book Week 📚Scotland 🏴activities all children then joined the Primary One class to listen to a story read by the Primary One teacher who used props to tell the story of ‘The Gingerbread Man’.
Friday
Today whilst exploring the musical instruments the children created their our own nursery band 🪇🥁including a band leader. We listened to the different sounds and experimented by playing them fast, slow, quietly and loudly. The band then marched around the nursery singing and playing their instruments. The art/craft area was very popular with several children displaying their creativity and representing their ideas using a variety of media/resources. “Look at my hat” “This is Mamas house” “It’s a present for my Mum!”
Tuesday
Friday
