Monday

Think Equal – This week we are continuing to explore the first book of the Think Equal programme  entitled Me, My self and I. This story encourages a positive sense of attitude, developing self worth and self esteem and recognises/values similarities/differences between themselves and others.  We have been exploring the ‘WOW’ words relating to this story which are Self, Same and Different. We have engaged in activities relating to the story including drawing a picture of ourselves on a jigsaw shaped piece of paper then collating all the jigsaw pieces to create one big picture. This symbolises that we all fit together to create a whole! If any person is missing from the puzzle it wouldn’t be complete showing we are all special parts of our groups.

Today some our children enjoyed exploring in the mud pit using descriptive language to describe the mud e.g.  “It’s sticky” “It’s squelchy” “It’s soft and runny”.  The sand was also explored by some children by experimenting with different resources develop our mark making skills.

Tuesday

Today we gathered together with SIMOA to discuss keeping safe during our community walk to the harbour.  We discussed how to keep ourselves safe – “By holding hands” “By stopping, looking and listening when crossing the road”. All children then listened to the Ziggy and the lollipop road safety story.                                                                   Some children enjoyed exploring a variety of autumnal themed natural resources at the art area before creating a variety of paintings and models.

Wednesday

Water play was popular with several children today. They experimented by pouring and filling  a variety of different shaped/sized vessels whilst also developing their measuring skills, sense of volume and exploring the force of  water when being poured etc.  The element of force was also being explored in our brick area by a few children during which they built a variety of different angled ramps to experiment how fast/slow the cars rolled down. Lots of mark making was explored by almost all children today on the new smart board creating lots of discussion/use of language to share their work/ideas with their peers.

Thursday

Today as part of our garden renovation/tidy some children helped dig up the rotten ‘balance’ logs which weren’t safe. Some of the other children helped sweep, and tidy other areas of the garden.  Almost all children demonstrated their turn taking skills whilst developing their gross motor skills on our climbing cubes. Some children used words of encouragement to those that were a bit unsure!

Friday

Today some children created a bus using an old unit. They experimented/explored different ways of making the bus move. They decided tying a rope to the end was the best way of moving the bus! “Can I get on your bus?” “How many people can get on?”
A few children helped the grown ups dig the big stones out the mud pit and through children’s voice almost all children voted on what they would like the new mud pit and mud kitchen  to look like! A few children represented/shared their ideas through role play in the dolls house developing language and turn taking skills. Some children enjoyed using a variety of media to mark make sharing their ideas with others developing their writing/mark making skills.

Monday

Today, several children engaged in a variety of role play experiences, including creating menus, serving tea in the home corner, and pretending to be different animals. Through play, they were developing their communication and language skills, taking turns, sharing ideas, and using their imagination. We also introduced the Sign-a-Long signs for eat and drink, and the children enjoyed practising these with their friends.

Tuesday

Wednesday

As part of our room restructuring following the nursery renovations, we moved the sand area outdoors. This sparked a great deal of interest, with many children exploring the sand using a variety of tools, containers and mark-making materials. Children were developing their curiosity, creativity and problem-solving skills as they investigated and experimented with different resources. Some children also enjoyed creating large-scale artwork on paper placed on the floor, using a range of materials and media. Through this experience, they were sharing ideas, expressing their thoughts and feelings, and turn taking.

Thursday

Today many of our children enjoyed creating a variety of models outdoors using loose parts. One group worked together to design and build a slide, developing their problem-solving, design, communication and turn-taking skills. The fantasy cube was also well used, with several children using it as a car for an imaginary holiday to Spain. Through discussion and shared decision-making, the children decided what they would need to pack, helping to develop their language, imagination, planning skills while extending their role-play experience.

Friday

Today, some children used their creativity and imagination to create birthday cakes using playdough and a variety of loose parts/materials, sharing ideas and talking about celebrations as they played. This experience supported the development of their fine motor skills, communication and imaginative thinking. The block area was also busy, with children demonstrating their matching and pattern-making skills while constructing a variety of models. They worked together to build and explore their ideas, developing their problem-solving,  and creativity. Outdoors, bats and balls were a popular choice. Through active play, children were developing their hand-eye coordination, gross motor skills and concentration whilst also also practising sharing resources, taking turns and cooperating with their peers.

Please click on this link to access our Nursery Improvement Plan and Quality and Standards report 2025/26

Nursery Improvement Work

This week in Ferryport has been very different with the nursery being decanted to a new location for the duration of the Summer.

The first couple of days consisted of staff, and our AM session children, contributing suggestions on where furniture etc should be placed. On Wednesday our ‘wrap around’ care children joined us.

All the children have enjoyed exploring the new nursery space and the activities/experiences available. The playground has proved a popular choice with some children exploring the playground games, some exploring balls and a range of sports equipment. One child found a pile of leaves which then became a game of how high we can throw the leaves, how far would they float etc.

Inside there was cooking in the home corner whilst looking after the pets. Some children enjoyed bouncing on the space hoppers, exploring the crash mats and trying their hand at shooting basket balls. The art/craft table proved popular with some children sharing ideas and using a variety of media. A few of our children enjoyed representing their ideas on the white board.

Monday

Due to renovation works starting in the nursery next week the children have been helping to pack up nursery resources ready to be decanted for our move to Tayport Primary for the summer. Continuing on the children’s interest in nature some children helped plant some wild flowers in the nursery garden to hopefully encourage more wildlife into our garden.

.

Tuesday

There has been a lot of interest again in water play today. Children exploring volume, capacity and force. A few children asked for bubbles and estimated how much soap we would need to add to the water to make bubbles. Some children organise and lead hide and seek in the garden developing counting, turn taking skills.

Wednesday

Lots of discussion about how big our pea plants were getting and how long the pea pods were. We picked some of the  pea pods so all the children could taste them We then created a tally mark sheet to tell us who liked/disliked the peas. This created some use of mathematical language.

Thursday

Today some children were planning, designing and creating a variety of models using the bricks developing problem solving skills whilst sharing their ideas and representing their ideas. A few children made good use of descriptive language to explain their models to their peers. The writing table was busy today with children using a variety of material to mark make and share their ideas.

Friday

Today the majority of  our children chose to engage in a variety of outdoor play including cooking in the mud kitchen, watering plants, role/imaginative play in the playhouse by making it into an ice cream shop  “Who wants ice cream? “ “What’s your favourite?” , developing turn taking and gross motor skills whilst exploring the bikes, scooters etc.  A few children took the opportunity of indoors being quieter to explore a variety of books in our story corner.
Today was also a bit of an emotional day for all in nursery, as we said good bye to some of our term time children who will be starting school in August. We wish them well on the next exciting stage of their education ✏️📕🏫

Monday

Potion making continues to be popular with some children.  Lots of imagination and creativity with the natural resources used to create the potions🧪. Children sharing ideas and using mathematical language in their play. A few children have noticed our pea plants in the garden now have flowers on them- we are excited to see what happens next! 🫛

Tuesday

Table top games were popular with a few children today developing turn taking and counting skills. Following a discussion we decided to have a change around in our garden. Some children provided ideas on where the different equipment could go and where they would like the equipment to go. The children helped create a wish list of new resources for the garden.📋

Wednesday

Today we were demonstrating our independence skills and hand/eye coordination at the snack table by spreading our own crackers and cutting up our own fruit🍎🔪. There has been some interest by some children in time/watches today so some children, with some adult support, designed and created their own watches using a variety of different art/craft, collage materials⌚️⏱️.

Thursday

There was great excitement in our nursery garden today when a frog was found in our outdoor building block shed. It was carefully rescued and rehomed in a nearby garden pond🐸. After talking about magic wands a few children decided to design and create their own magic wands creating a discussion about size, shape and colour -developing use of mathematical language in their play. 🪄

Friday

Today some children came to nursery dressed in football themed clothes. This created lots of interest and several children sharing ideas e.g “Can we make blue playdough?” “Can we make Scotland head bands?” (Other colours/nationality’s were available!) .                                    We enjoyed a special football themed lunch today ⚽️. There was some imaginative role play today with children creating their own superhero characters and designing their own costumes. Lots of exploring in the mud pit today with lots of descriptive language being used!

🎉🎉 We now have a final total amount of money raised from our recent sponsored nursery rhyme time! A huge amount of £610 was raised which is absolutely fantastic. Thank you again to everyone who supported this event. Your continued support is very much appreciated🎉🎉

Monday 8th June

The writing table has been very popular with some of the children experimenting at the writing table using the ruler & pens. The interest in using rulers continued to underline writing as well as measuring letters & drawings. In the garden our dinosaurs 🦖 all had to attend the dino hospital, they were treated to a bath before their full medical check.

Tuesday 9th June

Today the interest still continues with caring for animals, they role played taking care of  them taking by using different utensils to look over them. There was some very creative illnesses with some very unusual cures. We have been loving our beautiful butterflies 🦋 grow in nursery, but today we set them free into our garden.

Wednesday 10th June

The children who are off to school visited & met their buddies today, they played in the playground as well as line up when the school bell rings. Back In nursery they are engaging in lots of school role played dressing up in school uniforms & being teacher. In the garden we have been exploring forces using cable reels & ropes. Lots of negotiating and team work were required.

Thursday 11th June

Bubbles in the garden has still been very popular as well as continuing to explore forces with the balls. In the the nursery block play has been busy with. A variety of structures has been built using different sizes, measuring tapes were added to see who had the tallest tower.

Friday 12th June

Today we started the day with some wake up shake up moving our bodies to the music. We then listened to different styles of music with Jazz music being very unpopular with all the children. Our learning wall continues with the interest being explored. We had a mini scavenger hunt in the garden to see what visits our garden.

Monday 1st June

Our leaning wall is still developing with lots of interest in butterflies 🦋 and birds in the garden. Some children have been using the binoculars to bird watch, whilst others have been using the computer to research different species of butterflies. We continue to watch our tadpoles and the butterflies in the the room grow.

Tuesday 2nd June

The sun has been shining today ☀️ & we have been making the most of it exploring with water, we have been using different object for floating & sinking. We have also been having fun with bubbles using hoola hoops to create giant bubbles, which were swirling with beautiful rainbow colours. At the art area there has been mask making where they created some beautiful masks. They spent time cutting gluing & measuring before adding a variety of designs.

Wednesday 3rd June

The children who are off to school after the summer holidays went for their weekly transition to the school where they all took part in a Kodaly session in the hall before heading to the class room. Back in the nursery potion making is still very popular with some exotic dishes being made.

Thursday 4th June

In the garden today the children experienced all different weathers in one day. We continue to promote independence in nursery by supporting them to asses the weather & select the appropriate clothing. In the afternoon we listened to the thunder and chatted about clouds 🌧️ & weather patterns. We watched a programme on the smart board about butterflies then some of the children role played & danced as they fluttered around the room.

Friday 5th June

We started of our day straight into the garden, there has been lots of role playing ice cream 🍦shops, some of the children extended their interest in this by making their own cones. They selected a variety of materials to make the creation,  & a selection of different flavours were on offer. We celebrated a birthday today in the garden eating cake then we had a bit of a dance in the garden.

The total so far of the nursery rhyme time is £460 which will allow us to buy some fantastic resources for the nursery.

Thank you for your ongoing support in Ferryport Nursery.

Monday

Today some of the children have been engaging in a variety of role/imaginative play “I’m driving my car, I’m going to the shops in Dundee” resulting in lots of conversation about what they were going to buy at the shops. Some of the children helped clean up the digging/mud pit outside removing stones/boulders and objects giving us more space to dig. We found a variety of different mini beasts  when moving the rocks “There’s a long worm” observed one child, “Look a snake!” said another spotting a centipede. Inside nursery a few children were using our spoon puppets to retell the story of The Three Little pigs.

Tuesday

Today some our children were demonstrating their cooking skills in the mud kitchen. On the menu today was soup and cake. Children were developing language skills whilst discussing ingredients, methods etc. The digging pit was again busy today with a few children looking for mini beasts and a few children exploring the different textures of the dry and wet mud creating lots of discussion including some mathematical language. Some children represented their ideas using the magnetic shapes to plan, design and create a variety of structures including houses, traps and towers.

Wednesday

Today our pre school children started their transition visits to school where they joined other children from the community who are starting school in  August. Ferryport EYO’s held a short Book Bug session with all the children before all the children visited the classroom to explore a variety of different activities. Back at nursery there was a lot of creativity at the painting table with a variety of pictures being created including frogs, butterflies and rainbows. Lots of discussion re colours and experimenting with colour mixing. Outdoors some children enjoyed competing with one another as to how many objects i.e. balls, bean bags and frizzbees they could throw into the basketball net creating lots of predictions and competitiveness.

Thursday

Today some of our children helped feed our tadpoles which created lots of discussion using descriptive and predictive language as to when they would grow legs, turn into frogs etc. A few of the children were taking turns at ‘being the teacher’ using the pictures in the storybooks to retell the story to others. Outside a few children made up their own band using various instruments whilst marching around the nursery garden. Lots of children exploring different ways of using our bodies to move around e.g. on stilts, climbing, balancing etc developing hand/eye and gross motor skills.

Friday

Today a few of the children were exploring shapes at the art/craft table and creating a variety of pictures using the shapes and developing our shape awareness and recognition.. The willow den in the garden has been creating a lot of interest with some children exploring the inside and using mathematical language to describe the den. Our PEEP session today was entitled ‘Food For Life’ we talked about different foods, likes/dislikes and healthy/unhealthy foods. The consensus was that a little bit of everything is ok in moderation.

Monday 30th March

Today in the nursery it was full of excitement as it is coming up for Easter , children were busy both indoors and outdoors enjoying the sunshine. In the art area a variety of materials were introduced for children to explore to create their own Easter egg in a size of their choice. Some painted , some used feathers and jewels then some used the coloured pens with lots of different designs. Some children were in the home corner using the medical bag to ‘check if they were ill’ showing our caring side through role play.
A few children were choosing quiet time by reading stories among themselves or asking the ladies to read.
Before lunch there was story time with all the children together and some songs.

Outside the children were exploring the water in the tuff tray , using the hula hoop to create a massive bubble , then soap was added for more effect. Some children used the water to wash the dinosaurs. The bikes were out where children showed off their skills , also a lot of climbing on the cubes and risk assessing if we can jump off without support

.

Tuesday 31st March.

Today some children took a walk to the beach in the sunshine , we had a new friend with us , at base camp we went over the safety rules to help her to ensure she was safe. We noticed the rock pools had some water in them so there was splashing going on and testing how deep it was by measuring it to our wellies. Some children were throwing stones into the water , there was a choice of big or small ones and we tested how big our splashes were. There was amazing colours of stones that we saw.
The few that were back at the nursery were all outdoors enjoying the sunshine , climbing , running and playing hide and seek.

There a lot of songs and stories throughout the day. Some children were exploring the different icons on the iPad to take photos or record voices.
In the afternoon the children were at the games table to create patterns with the small blocks , or matching up the coloured bears in sizes and colours.

We have started to take an interest in bugs , nature , and cycles. Some books were put on display to spark ideas.

Wednesday 1st of April.

Today Mrs P had kindly brought in some tadpoles for us to look at and the cycle as they grow. We used the binoculars and magnifying glasses to look into the tank. Some were out in the garden spotting bees or wasps , a bee even came into the nursery and we set it free! We hid a lot of ‘eggs’ in the garden with a number line for all the children to take part in , it was a fun way to practice our counting and mark making as we had to tick off how many we found , at the end there was a prize chick! This went on all day for some children as they kept hiding the eggs themselves in different places.

Some children were checking on our plants in the garden and giving them a little water.

Some children enjoyed being indoors drawing , writing , building with the blocks.

Thursday 2nd April.

This morning we spent it in the gym hall at the school burning off our energy , Miss H had done a small Easter Kodaly session. We ‘hatched’ out of an egg as we warmed up , we played ‘egg egg hatch’ in stead of duck duck goose , we picked up the rules very quickly , learned to wait our turn , run round in circles , and got everyone involved. Miss H put out coloured eggs in the corners of the room and again followed instructions , involving someone shouting a colour and running to that colour!

Back at nursery there was arts and crafts going on , some children were making kites , butterflies & insects! It was a struggle trying to fly the kites with no wind but it was fun running around to see how how high they could fly.

To end the day , we enjoyed a lovely picnic in the garden with some fruit & milk!
What a fun filled term 3!
Happy Easter everyone! 🐝🎉

Monday

Children are showing lots of interest in outdoors at the moment, especially nature/bees. We have had a few bees 🐝 ‘visiting’ the nursery both inside and out! We have also been noticing the new bulbs/plants growing in the garden. Some children have been exploring pattern making using the polydron by designing and creating a variety structures and some children were inventing their own games also using the polydron encouraging the sharing of ideas and turn taking skills.

Tuesday

Today we used some real flowers as inspiration for our painting. This created lots of discussion about colour shape and size.
Some children enjoyed exploring shaving foam outdoors  exploring mark making and using a variety of descriptive language to explain the feeling of the shaving foam. Some children then added some of the dinosaurs to the shaving foam engaging in a variety of role/imaginative play.  .
Group 1 enjoyed a very windy visit to the beach today.  A few children were mesmerised by the waves watching them crash to the shore. This also created discussion about the size of the waves and the speed they were crashing to the shore.

Wednesday

Today some children used a variety of mark making materials✍️🖍️✏️ at the drawing/writing table today to share/express their ideas and thoughts. Our three bears🧸🧸🧸 were being used well in nursery to retell the Goldilocks story by some children. A few children have been exploring the woodwork bench , experimenting with different sized/shaped pieces of wood to create models. They were using a variety of mathematical language whilst creating their models and using the different tools. A few children found different kinds of bees🐝 in the garden creating lots of discussion about size and colour.

Thursday

All children participated well during our gym session today, exploring a variety of different gym equipment, whilst developing our gross motor skills and hand/eye coordination . A few children demonstrated their sorting skills using the paint game. All the children celebrated one of our children’s 4th Birthday by sharing some yummy cup cakes and singing Happy Birthday.
We are checking the  beans we planted everyday to check if they are growing yet and to see if they need watered!

Friday

Today was our “Celebration of Success’ 🎉 session at PEEP.  All the children and parent/carers who have attended this block of PEEP sessions received a certificate whilst chatting over coffee and cakes☕️🧁.
Some children planted some more beans outdoors discussing what they need to help them grow 🌞💦🫘. A few children asked to make playdough following the recipe and measuring the ingredients⚖️. This created good use of  some mathematical, and descriptive language. Some children,whilst developing their gross motor and turn taking skills, explored different ways of getting on and off the climbing cubes whilst others experimented how fast the different bikes and scooters went discussing which was the fates and which was the slowest! 🚲🛴.