Milngavie Early Years Centre

Juliana has sent us this great post on how to make a very special rocket.

I heard that some of our children are interested in space so I thought we could make a rocket ship! These are the resources that you will need:

Paper(or card),

Scissors,

Glue,

Tin foil,

A stick,

A toilet roll tube,

Sellotape,

Tissue paper. (I didn’t have any tissue paper, so I coloured in white paper yellow, red and orange) . 

Watch Juliana’s video by clicking on the link below

https://video.link/w/ylLLb

I am missing all the boys and girls dearly, and can’t wait to see you all! Hope you have fun making your rocket ship!

Now you have your rocket, why not take a trip into Outer Space with the Story Bots.  They will take you round the solar system and sing you lots of amazing things about the planets and the sun.  Put on your space suit and click the link below to blast off on your Space Adventure.   Don’t forget to count down before you set off – 10, 9, 8 , 7, 6,  5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BLAST OFF!

https://video.link/w/PGKLb

Today Debbie has sent us a lovely video of “My Big Shouting Day” by Rebecca Patterson.  Click the link to access the video

https://youtu.be/SvPBZxGkkYQ

This is a good story – perhaps you have the book at home?  If you do, why not get it out, and after you hear Debbie read it, you could read it to your mum or dad using the pictures to remind you what happens.

I think we have all had days like Bella.  If you have a baby brother or sister, they maybe have days like Bella’s quite a lot.  As we get bigger. and a bit older. we learn to control our feelings , and not let them explode like Bella’s do. It is always a good idea to tell someone if you feel upset – they can help you calm down and feel happy again.  When Bella cuddled with her mummy before she went to bed she felt much better.  If you’re have a “Shouting Day” find your mum or dad and ask for a cuddle.

Happy Wednesday boys and girls, hope you’ve had a lovely week so far. Today I’ve been looking around the house for different things to play with, there’s lots of interesting things but I decided that pasta would be the most interesting thing to explore. We discovered that pasta comes in loads of different shapes and sizes. We found some long thin pasta called spaghetti, some short tube pasta called macaroni and some twirly, whirly pasta called fusilli. Here is a picture of the different pastas we found in the cupboard, can you tell which is the fusilli?

Lachlan wondered how much spaghetti was in the packet and decided to try count, he soon realised there was too much pasta to count so we decided we could count in different ways. We got a ruler and counted how long the spaghetti was and how short the macaroni was.

Then we realised we could thread the macaroni through the spaghetti. I wondered how many macaronis it would take to fill the spaghetti and predicted it would be about 8 or 9. Lachie used his great mental maths skills from measuring to calculate that it would take 7 pieces of macaroni, he was right.

We found the threading quite tricky because some of the macaroni had a little bend in it but we used our careful pinching fingers to thread it through. It was lots of fun. We then decided we could make some lovelypictures with our pasta. Here is Lachie’s:

Here is mine:

Lachie and I would love to see what else you could do or make with pasta or any interesting materials you can find around the house. If you do make something please pop a picture on the learning journey’s for us to see. In the meantime please take care of your Mummy’s, Daddy’s, brothers, sisters and pets until we can see you again. Big hugs, Pam and Lachie xxx

Julie has sent us a great activity – counting using our fingers.  I bet you will enjoy trying this – it sounds really fun!  Here is Julie’s post

Finger counting

Hi boys and girls,
I am missing you all very much but I’m glad you are all staying safe and well at home. I thought you might like to make big hands and fingers which you can colour in and count them we could sing a song about fingers too.
You will need
A big piece of paper or cardboard box
(I used a cereal box)
Coloured pens or pencils

Ask to either draw round your grown ups hands or they could do it themselves if you want big hands or you can draw round your own hands.
Draw in nails on your fingers
Colour the nails
Number the fingers 1-10.

Then you can watch the video and join in our song. It’s called 10 little fingers. I’m sure you will remember it.

https://youtu.be/hcCdVcs1ysU

Have fun and remember to upload your pictures onto your Learning Journey so I can see them.

Big hugs Julie xxx

Good morning everyone.  Hope today is going well.  I’m working in the nursery today and really enjoying the sounds of little people playing.  We have some lovely blog posts today from Elaine and Lisa.  I am definitely going to make Elaine’s  jar and keep it in my kitchen to remind me that some day soon we will all be out seeing one another again, and that I had better keep out of the fridge and biscuit tin or no one will recognise me!

Here is Elaine’s post:

Good morning everyone.  Hope today finds you well.  What a shiny bright, freezing cold day.  It’s Burns’ Day so there is a post on the blog with a couple of wee links to watch, and Rong has sent us a post about what grows in winter.  Today would be a great day to go for a walk or a look around your garden and see if you can spot any signs of spring flowers starting to grow.

Last week we put out a questionnaire via Group Call, asking for your opinions on the online learning provision our nursery is posting and looking for suggestions about what would make it more relevant to your child.  All staff are posting activities and videos to the blog and we hope you have been enjoying them- it would be lovely to have some feedback on things that you particularly like.  Many thanks to parents who have already commented or sent in their questionnaires.  Here is the link to our survey,  in case anyone missed it.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKR0h8B6yEexHrp31jr3mYChUNVVPMFQ4NEtNUFVCTDc5V1BYRkhUVDkyQy4u

If you have not visited the Parents Club site yet, it contains lots of good information on coping with the Covid restrictions and has lots of other interesting articles for parents.

https://www.parentclub.scot/

Eileen has asked me to include a good link to podcasts by Claire Warden, who is an expert on outdoor play.  She introduced Virtual Nature School during the first lockdown and there are lots of interesting and useful articles in her podcasts, including the best ways to keep children warm, parental well being etc. These podcasts are made for parents, though our staff have been listening too.  Claire Warden is always informative and has a positive and interesting view on outdoor learning which is quite inspirational.  The link for this is:

https://www.virtualnatureschool.org/pages/podcast

Eileen has also sent a fun activity that takes a while, for your wee one to try at home – Pom Pom Monsters!

Here is Eileen’s video:

https://video.link/w/gFiKb

It would be great to see any monsters that you make at home!  You can always upload photos to your child’s learning journal!

Rong has been out in her garden and made some lovely discoveries.  Poking up through the frozen earth are some amazing plants. I? wonder if you have seen these growing anywhere?  Have a look – they are one of the ways that we know that Spring is on its way!

Discover What is Growing in Winter

It is cold and icy outside, but there are still plants growing. When you go out to take a walk with mummy and daddy, see if  you can see these plants in the park or gardens? Can you name them? They are very popular and some of them will bloom very soon!

These are snowdrops. They have got flower buds already although they are covered by frost.

These are bluebells. They bloom around April.

These are daffodils. There are hundreds of varieties

.
These are the picture taken in my garden. I like to see how fast they can grow so I put some
measures beside them and record their growth. You can do it too.

You can mark a piece of wood and put it into the soil beside the plant and check how fast it can grow.
Or you can tie a piece of wool or ribbon or even a rubber band on a stick to measure their growth. I used chopsticks.
Show everyone what you can see in the parks or gardens by sending us your photos. Let everyone know how fast your plants are growing too.

Robert Burns was born 262 years ago today.  He died 225 years ago when he was 37.  We remember him today for all the amazing Scottish poems and songs he wrote, which are still heard today all over the world.  We celebrate his birthday with his favourite dinner – haggis and usually we have Burns Suppers – parties where people get together and say his poems and sing his songs.  This year because of Covid, lots of Burns Suppers will be held on Zoom.  Maybe your family are going to have a special haggis dinner tonight?  If you do, why not sing Auld Lang Syne, or even a Scottish song like Three Craws, or Ally Bally Bee. Wear something tartan and have fun!  If you take any photos of yourself or your family having a Burns Supper, ask mum or dad to upload them to your learning journal.

I don’t think Robert Burns would really have had a birthday cake like this- but its fun to think he might!

Here is a wee film about his life. Click the link to watch!  Happy Burns’ Day everyone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxIBqpryG0

Here is a funny wee advert for wine gums to give you a laugh at some Scottish things and help you feel the Scottishness of the day!  Look out for the dancing bagpipes!

https://video.link/w/2IfKb

Juliana sent this lovely film of flag making for Burns day.  If you make a flag you could put it on your table on Monday to celebrate Robert Burns’ birthday.

Here’s what I used to make the flag

https://video.link/w/lMnJb

Juliana also sent us a great story.  Are you sitting comfortably -click the link below and we’ll begin!

https://video.link/w/r5oJb

Elaine J has sent us a lovely painting activity for our blog, using wintry colours.  I think I’ll be trying this one myself!

Hi everyone, I hope that you are all well. I am really missing all the boys and girls that I usually see on Thursdays and Fridays in
 Nursery! Following on from Eileen’s activity to take a walk in the dark beforebedtime, I thought that you might like to create a picture  the night sky. 

There was a very famous artist called Van Gogh and this is one of his paintings  called “The Starry Night” – I wonder how we
 could make a painting like this?

I thought we could use different shades of blue and white and have fun swirling paint around foil which should give your painting a real winter feel.  Just remember painting on foil is easy and fun but it can tear easily so we need to be gentle.

What you will need:-
Newspaper or plastic table cover.
Tin foil.
Blue, white and yellow paint (You will need something to put the paint on – I used a paper plate but you could use a lid or shallow tub.)
Cotton buds and/or small brushes. (Cotton buds are good for encouraging a lighter touch)
Cutting board    (just wrap the foil around the board) or piece of card to attach foil to provide a solid surface to paint on.

 I started by attaching foil to some recycled card.

I put small amounts of paint onto my plate.

I started to swirl some paint onto the foil. I mixed the white and blue paint to make a lighter shade of blue. I used yellow and white
paint for the stars and moon and as my blue paint was still wet, it turned the yellow paint green !

This was my finished painting !  If you make a painting of the night sky, then we would love to see a photo of it on the learning journals.
Take care everyone !
Elaine J x