Monday

Today sees the start of Book Week Scotland. Today, from the choice of 3 books, all our children had the opportunity to vote for their favourite book which was then read at story time. All children were then encouraged to share their thoughts on the story 👍👎🤔.  Climbing and jumping activities both indoors and outdoors were popular with several children today. Some children demonstrating awareness of safety by risk assessing the bricks before climbing/jumping off them. Some children also demonstrating good turn taking skills. Samoa the elephant joined some children in the brick corner to make sure they were staying safe. 🐘

Tuesday

Today some of our children enjoyed exploring the mud kitchen. Some explored the different utensils experimenting with them by tapping to hear the different sounds they made. Others created ‘lunch’ using various pots, plates etc  to mix and pour.  Monetary themed games have been popular today developing children’s monetary awareness and creating lots of discussion/language around different coins etc.

Wednesday

Today some children asked if they could have some music on to dance to. They selected a cd before operating the cd player successfully- developing our use of technology. We had a visit from Janice, from the Community Gardens, to establish a willow den in our nursery garden. The children will be able to help weave the willow to create the finished den once the willow is growing and established. Some children created a dinosaur land in the tuff tray in the garden developing their role/imaginative play whilst also developing turn taking/sharing and language skills.

Thursday

Today the majority of our children enjoyed helping to create, experiment with, and explore a ‘light box’ using torches and coloured cellophane. Some children then used the box to represent, and share their ideas through role/imaginative play.  Having read/explored the storybook Dig Dig Dinosaurs some children joined in a dinsaur hunt/dig in our nursery garden. We found some dinosaur eggs which we then had to think about/ experiment with on how to reveal the dinosaur fossils/skeletons inside.

Friday

Today we were enjoying exploring different technologies and how they work/ how they can help us. Continuing with our focus on Book Week Scotland we had a visit from some Primary 7, children from Tayport Primary, to read us The Gruffalo and The Gruffalos Child story. We had a discussion as to which on e we liked/disliked and gave our reasons why!

Monday

Today there was lots of discussion, designing and building in the brick corner. “It’s a stage!” “We’re going to dance!” “I’m going to sing!” “I like jumping off!”. Children sharing and represent their ideas in different ways. 💃🏻🎤We had a lovely visit from Louise, from Childsmile Smile, who brought her friend Twinkle the unicorn to show us how to clean our teeth properly. We then all had the chance to clean Twinkles teeth. 🦷🪥.

Tuesday

Some children were engaging in role play in the water tray using a variety of  animals including frogs, star fish and crabs. Developing use of language to describe the different animals demonstrating their awareness/knowledge of different creatures and how they live. In preparation for our upcoming fire drill we listened to a social story on what to do in a fire drill. This created a lot of questions whilst developing our understanding of how to keep ourselves safe in the event of a fire.

Wednesday

Today the majority of our children chose to come for snack. Independently following hand washing and snack routines. We are enjoying being able to choose what we want for snack including a variety of healthy snacks. Some children were experimenting with a variety of large and small construction resources to build towers creating lots of discussion using mathematical language whilst developing our estimation, sharing, designing and building skills.

Thursday

Today some of children retold the story of The Three Little Pigs using  a variety of props e.g. the reading pod as the little pigs house, the pictures in the book to retell the story and the spoon puppets as the characters. The children also took on the roles of the different characters in the story choosing, and exploring how they can use their voices, movement and expression through role play and drama.  Whilst being creative with the playdough some our children explored a variety of counting, matching opportunities developing there maths and numeracy skills.

Friday

Today some of our children joined Mrs Wright and Miss Higgins for Book Bug at the school. We had stories (A Squash and a Squeeze) and songs before heading back to nursery for snack and fun.

Back in nursery we had some songs too, Humpty Dumpty, Wheels on the Bus and Wind the Bobbin up – hot favourites at the moment!

Later we were playing in the water tray. Lots of role play with the marine animals, which carried on to the table top games area and our safari animals. Building habitats and creating stories.

“Oh no! My giraffe has only one leg!”

“And you’ve lost your baby giraffe!”

” My fish doesn’t like to swim much!”

Another busy week finished at Ferryport Nursery!

N.B  Friday 14th November nursery is closed to children for in service training.

See you all next week,

The Nursery Team

Monday

All of the children have returned to nursery after our October holiday.  The learning wall is still of particular interest with the children, we have added some new resources  to prompt curiosity & prompt  conversations about food. There has been lots of role play in our house corner with the babies being fed some interesting combinations of food.

Tuesday

Today we have been exploring forces by using magnetics 🧲 some creative structures were created.  SIMO is very much embedded within the children & some of the have been revisiting our nursery charter. We have new resources at the play dough table helping them to keep developing their fine motor skills through play.

Wednesday

The children have been very creative using the Lego to build, some children role played firemen which they then extended out into the garden as the play became more energetic. The small building blocks were being used to develop patters & building towers. Sound has been explored using a variety of instruments whilst others chose to use scarfs to dance to the music being created

Thursday

Some of the children were dancing to music that was on the smart board, they decided to build a stage with blocks to showcase to their peers. The play changed to building the blocks higher to allow them to jump from. All of the children supported & encouraged each other when jumping. Great teamwork building, then tidying them away.

Friday

We have been celebrating Halloween in nursery today singing lots of songs & listening to spooky stories. We used the Lycra to stretch & bounce our colour monsters. We used the pumpkins to explore senses where the children had the opportunity to dig through the pumpkin. Some of the children didn’t like the smell or feel of it.

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.

We took SIMOA on a walk to the beach  to explore the area and understand our safety rules.

Monday

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.

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. 🦮🐈🦋🐸🌳