We were lucky to have another visit from Cycling Without Age last week. Gordon, Stevie & Jenny visited the campus with two trishaw bikes. This experience was enjoyed by not only the children but also the staff 😃.
All posts by Miss Skinner
Local Outings
During the Easter holidays the children have had opportunities to go on local outings and visit different places in the community. Bay Court care home kindly invited us down to visit them and the children and staff enjoyed joining in with some Easter fun games and exploring the new care home facility with the staff and residents. When the nicer weather came along some of the children went down to Aubrey to throw stones in the water and visit the park, while another group went on an emergency services hunt around Largs.
Home Learning Packs
We have added  lots of new home learning packs for Health & Wellbeing, Literacy & Numeracy. These are available on the trolleys in the main corridor. There are sign in/out sheets on each trolley,  if you take a pack to add your child’s name to the list. Please return packs when you are ready. We also have our Lending Library available, books can be signed out and returned in the wicker basket. We also have book reviews available that you can take home and your child can mark make a picture from the story or tell you what they liked/disliked about the story.
We will be launching our SHANARRI Well-being bags that incorporate the different well-being characters.
For more information about learning packs please see here:
Colour Coding Packs
We will be launching some ‘Colour Coding Learning Packs’ soon in partnership with the speech and language team. Colour Coding is an approach to help children to tune into speech sounds and understand where they are made in the mouth.
Little Bags of Love
Julie and Shannon have created some more bereavement bags for our families. The aim of the bag is to offer support, ideas, resources and strategies to help families coping with grief and supporting children through change and loss. If any of our families would like these please speak to a member of staff.
For more information see:
Cameron Centre
The children visited the Knit and Knatters at the Cameron Centre for some Easter fun. Knit and Knatters kindly knit us gloves and hats every year, which is most appreciated. The children were delighted to see that they knitted us some Easter bunnies, which are now on display in the playroom.
Rag Bag Donations
Thank you to all our families for donating to our Rag Bag collection.
TAC PAC
In celebrating Neurodiversity week , we wanted to share with you some of relaxation techniques that we have to support children’s self regulation and the need for sensory input.
TAC PAC uses the sense of touch and music in equal measures.
TAC PAC music is composed to reflect the texture of each of the massage objects.
TAC PAC builds joint attention and communication skills.
TAC PAC can be used in a nursery setting and at home.
TAC PAC is carried out in the same consistent manner and follows the same routines each time.
We have seen benefits such as children using different sounds, giving eye contact, being very relaxed.
Some children like to talk and name the textures. Following on from TAC PAC we also use our sensory room for all children and we offer calm massages. The children are introduced to the concept of respect, they are asked if they would like a massage. They get to choose whether they would like the rollers or spoons etc. The children use songs and calm voices to support their friends, then ask them if they feel calm or happy.  If you would like more information on this approach please refer to Tacpac.co.uk. There are also videos available on youtube for story massage and TAC PAC .
This is a lovely way to engage and share a special quiet time with your child .
*Music has been muted
Neurodiversity Week
Celebration week of Neurodiversity-
For neurodivergent people every day spaces can feel supportive or overwhelming. Lighting,noise, clutter, smells,pace of the day, routine- all of these shape how safe,calm and included we feel.
Today we are focusing on how small environmental changes can make a big difference.
Within our sensory room we offer a calm space with various textures, lighting, music,and cosy spaces. All children have access to this room with an adult. We keep the numbers low to offer a calm space and we ask the children to take off there shoes to allow them to feel some of the textures on their feet.
We use resources such as our breathing buddy teddies, our massage rollers and our emotions poppers and mirrors.
We have recently purchased a projector to also allows for images to be projected on to the ceiling or walls.
This environment supports children to explore with their senses and experience calm regulation.
Being small can also come with big emotions and it is important to be able to read these emotions and reassure children.
Some of our other sensory resources  can also be headphones , chew necklaces or the weighted back packs/blankets.
These resources allow children to feel included, regulated and safe.
Please follow Nest Ayrshire on facebook to find out more fantastic information.
Potato Planting with Donald
Donald Skinner from Fairlie Growers carried out 4 potato planting sessions for our children and families. Donald worked with the community to provide us with potatoes, soil, and planting bags. Donald took the time to share and demonstrate how to plant the potatoes and offered support throughout the sessions. Families then took their bags home to continue growing at home. We had a busy week with 40 families coming to the sessions. Thank You 😃
