Monday

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.

Friday

Monday

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.

Monday

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.👂🎶

Monday

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.

Monday

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. 🦮🐈🦋🐸🌳

Monday

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🎶

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🌱🪴.

Monday

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.

Monday

“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!”

Monday

Today we had the opportunity to listen to a story entitled ‘What is recycling?’ on the smart board. Our recycling game was very popular with the majority of children sorting the pictures of rubbish into the correct recycling box.  A few children created a picture of a bin lorry, full of recycled rubbish, using the magnetic shapes to represent their ideas using a variety of resources.🚛
Some ochildren built surf boards in the brick corner, choosing the bricks carefully to replicate the shape of a surf board. and shared their ideas with others whilst demonstrating how to surf 🏄‍♂️ creating lots of discussion whilst developing vocabulary/use of language.

Tuesday

Today we had a group discussion about recycling. We discussed the different coloured recycling bins and what items go into each different coloured bin. We then discussed what happens to the rubbish once it’s been put in the bin lorry and where it goes from there. The children offered their opinions as to where the rubbish goes  and what happens to it – “It goes into a field!” “It gets made into new tins” “It gets made into new paper!” Some children used  an I-pad for inspiration to represent / share their ideas using the paints. Outdoors today we experimented with the hoops how much force was needed to roll the big hoops and the little hoops- Did the big hoops need as much force as the little hoops? Which hoops went further? A few children made and served dinner in the mud kitchen taking on the role of Mum and Dad. “ Here’s your lunch-it’s jambalaya!” Using a wide range of vocabulary during their role play, and to describe the ingredients of lunch.

Wednesday

Today some children explored colour mixing using the paint pens and the liquid paint. They commented on the different textures “It’s runny” “It’s too thick we need to add more water.” A discussion arose about symmetry which resulted in a few children experimenting and creating butterfly pictures. At snack some children discussed how we could recycle the yogurt pots and what we could do with our fruit peelings! At the beach today the majority of the children continued with the recycling theme by being responsible citizens and using the litter pickers to source, and pick up litter to keep our beaches safe for the wildlife. “It’s not safe for the fish” “The birds might eat it and get sick”.

Thursday

Today some of our children built a campfire and an office using various shaped/sized bricks. Whilst engaging in role/imaginative play the children developed their knowledge of the world of work and also the materials needed to make a campfire. There was lots of creativity, experimenting and problem solving with the magna blocks building lots of 2D and 3D models. Today we also had a time tabled stay and play session during which parents were invited to spend time with their child in nursery to see the types of activities/play their child is engages in during their time at nursery. It also gives parents the opportunity to have quality interactions with their child, take part and enjoy the importance of play.

Friday

This morning, some of us have been creating different colours using our hands to become leaves. 🍂 Which lead to discussing what changes we’ve noticed in our environment. A couple of us have developed our creativity skills selecting different materials to create hedgehogs. 🦔  In the music area there was a discussion of our favourite songs 🕷️If you’re happy and you know it was introduced in signalong  🎶 “I’m writing a song and you read it”. Using jugs pouring at different heights one has been exploring the fall of the water, using sensory to explore through splashes.  💦

Monday

We have been exploring a variety of table top games developing our counting, number recognition and turn taking skills. There has been lots of creativity at the art/craft table using a selection of different coloured, textured materials including paints, fabrics, papers to explore creating pictures, wrapping objects, cutting and glueing – developing hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills whilst sharing/representing their ideas.

Tuesday

Some children created pictures outdoors representing their ideas using lots of different found objects from the garden e.g  sticks, stones, leaves, cones etc.  A few children were pretending to be police officers engaging in role/ imaginative play demonstrating their knowledge of jobs people do. Music has been popular in nursery with several children exploring a variety of different musical instruments experimenting with the different sounds, learning the names and how to hold/play the instruments. Some children also engaged in a Kodaly group time reinforcing rhythmic concepts whilst clapping, singing and marching.

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Wednesday

Today some of the children took photos on the I-Pad then used the photos to create their own ‘Chatterpix’ by following both verbal and on screen instructions. Their creations were then shared with their families on See Saw.- developing our knowledge and understanding of technology and explore how we can use them to share information. During our weekly visit to the shore we adhered to our shore charter rules to keep ourselves safe. Some children experimented using different sized and shaped stones/pebbles to see which ones went the furthest the big ones or the small ones and which ones made the biggest splash! We explored making shapes on the shore using our bodies. We developed our language skills, and knowledge of our local environment,  by discussing what we were doing/seeing whilst at the shore.

Thursday

Today during our gym session the majority of children explored a variety of different gym equipment developing strength, balance, co-ordination through climbing, jumping, balancing, running and sharing space. In nursery several children were experimenting with the powder paints by mixing colours, exploring different consistencies then demonstrating responsibilty by tidying up when finished. Our mud kitchen was very busy outdoors with lots of experimenting using a variety of natural materials that were found/collected in our nursery garden. Developing our language skills and sharing our ideas with one another whilst engaging in role/imaginative play.

Friday

Today all children practised our listening skills whilst listening to, and discussing , a social story called ‘What To Do In A Fire Drill.’  All children then practised doing a fire drill “It’s very noisy” “We need to get out.”  All the children did really well 😀. Some of the children designed and created their own bracelets, developing hand/eye co ordination, by choosing which  shape/size of beads they wanted to use – developing our shape recognition and awareness of size. Some children noticed a bush in the garden had some berries on it which prompted a discussion about what was safe to eat in the garden. The children concluded the berries were for the birds🐦‍⬛to eat and not the children! Whilst developing our use of mathematical language a few children used/developed their counting skills to count the steps, whilst chalking numbers 0-11 up one side of the steps and 0-11 down the other side thus further developing our number recognition/awareness.                                                                                                            During todays Bookbug session some children took turns to chose todays story and some other children offered suggestions of their favourite songs and rhymes – developing turn taking skills whilst listening to ‘children’s voice’.

For those of you on holiday now we hope you have a great time and we look forward to hearing all about your holidays when you return to nursery.  Everyone else we hope you have  a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday 😃.

The Ferryport Team 😊