Milngavie Early Years Centre

Lisa’s caterpillars are now pupating- their bodies are going through a huge transformation inside their cocoons.  They are still pretty active and move about a lot.  Lisa sent these videos to show them moving.  She has moved them from their wee feeding jar  to stand them upright in the Chrysalis Station. She then put this into the butterfly garden net, so that when they hatch out they will have room to stretch their wings.  Thank you, Lisa- we are really enjoying watching your caterpillars develop!  Now we have to wait and see what happens next! Click the link below to see them in their feeding jar!

 8CC6A0F8-9E89-4592-9A2F-1A34DDC9EE34

Safely inside the butterfly garden!

Good morning! Today is the start of another week in lock down, but it is also one week closer to the end of it! The weather has been kind to us and we have been able to top up our sunshine vitamin- Vitamin D!   Vitamin D is important – it boosts our immune systems and helps our bodies absorb calcium, which strengthens our bones. It is also thought to help us fight depression.  All are great reasons to get outside in the garden, or for a walk and enjoy the sunshine!

Caroline found this interesting post on 3 Stages of Pandemic Response- it shows how we cope with it initially, in Survival mode, then begin to get to grips with it in Acceptance mode and then finally begin to see the positives of the situation in Growth.  This really helped me to think about it more rationally and made me realise my initial panic and worries were completely natural.  I still have the odd day where I’m surviving, but acceptance and growth are now attainable.  Thank you for this Caroline, and all the intense, behind the scenes work you are doing for us! 

As a staff team, we are very aware of the stresses that lockdown brings.  We want to support our nursery community as best we can, and also support each other.  We have been doing a lot of reading for professional development and our staff focus has been on Well Being- an essential in our job and the bed rock of being able to learn effectively, adapt to new situations and cope.  We apply this to ourselves too and have been keeping in touch with each other and supporting our colleagues through our staff What’s App group. We communicate daily on this and share ideas.  We also share some crazy stuff which gives us all something to laugh about!  We share our family news and post photos!  It really keeps our team spirit alive.  Julie and Angela have just got new kittens and they are so adorable. Seeing videos of these gorgeous wee creatures makes our day!

Angela’s new wee boy- Pebbles! ❤

Julie’s new wee girl- Penny!❤

Pebbles and Penny are brother and sister! ❤

We have also also been having Zoom meetings.  These are great and it’s so good to see everyone! It’s also introduced us to the technology which we can use in future to hold virtual staff meetings- we have always struggled with these in the past, because we work different days and shifts. We might have to ditch the alcoholic beverages though! 🤔

Zoomers! 🤣

Caroline, Lynn and myself would like to publicly thank all our fabulous staff team for the way they are helping support our nursery community, and each other, during a really tough time. We are really lucky to work with such creative, talented and caring people and can’t thank them enough for all the things they are doing- from working at Clober with our keyworkers’ children, to overcoming the horror of seeing themselves on video to bring our children stories and activities to try at home, to supporting each other on our darker days and providing each other with fun, laughter and love every single day! They are truly exceptional and they make our nursery a great place for our wee people, but also the best place to work, bar none!  A HUGE THANK YOU to each and every one!

Our garden is very beautiful just now. There are flowers blooming, blossom on trees and the pond has lots of tadpoles.  When I took some out to try to video them for you, I noticed that we have both frog and newt tadpoles! This is quite exciting as newts are quite rare! The frog tadpoles are starting to have big round bodies and wiggly tails and the newts are longer and thinner with wiggly tails. Baby newts are called efts and baby frogs are called froglets.  Ours are still at the tadpole stage.  Have a wee look!

C2D20D6D-3CFE-46CC-8035-8A3D04EA7334

Lisa has sent me photos of her caterpillars.  They have become much bigger and this week they climbed to the top of their wee jar and have turned into  chrysalides. They do this by making a wee bag for themselves which they hang up and go inside. They are now in a stage where they are called pupae.

Still caterpillars- building their wee sleeping bags!

The pupae are now inside their wee bags.

Eric, our master builder and his apprentice, Émile, have been busy again this week taking their exercise in the garden! This week they are exercising their woodworking skills- building us a wee stage with a blackboard back- which we can use for role play, wee concerts and even for group lessons outside on the blackboard.  It is beginning to really take shape and is going to be a fantastic addition to our outdoor classroom! We can never thank Éric enough for the full time job he puts in for the benefit of our school and Nursery! His creative talents really know no bounds!

Here are 3 photos of the work in progress!

There is lots of space to grow climbing plants now.

Wooden rails make the area safer and tidier.

The blackboard is now in place, ready to paint.

Blue the Elephant has been out and about on the back of Lynn’s bike again- I wonder if you can find him in the pictures? You need to look really closely!

Where is that wee elephant hiding?

Can you see him in this photo?

Where could he be now?

I wonder if the signpost gives you a clue where Blue went today?

Blue is in the picture, but look for 4 other animals Lynn spotted in this field!

Thanks Lynn and Blue for sharing your adventures with us!!! ❤️

Four weeks in and we are missing you all terribly.  Our staff team have been looking at, and discussing all the Home Learning posts that you, our wonderful parents, have been putting on to your children’s Learning Journals, and have to tell you how impressed we are with what every single one of you are doing.

The variety of learning happening in our community just now is truly amazing!  Lots and lots of brilliant physical activity- of utmost importance to our wee ones’ development- yoga sessions, PE sessions, walking, cycling, running, scooting and even rollerblading!  The fittest, healthiest parents, after this has all ended, are going to be the ones with little children!  At least this lockdown has happened at a time of year when the weather makes it easy to be in the garden or go for walks, and this spring seems particularly spectacular and beautiful.  Perhaps it is because we, and our children, have time to notice nature this year.

All our children are having very different experiences and this is great.  What is really important is that they are finding learning fun.  All children are physical learners – they need to do things to understand the “hows”, “whys” and “whats” in their world.  Our children are learning amazing things – from how to look after birds of prey, to how the galaxy works and stars were created, to riding a bike, to baking cakes, painting pictures, creating models and sculptures, role playing, finding out about fire engines, dancing, singing new songs, camping, gardening, trying science experiments and even learning about politics!  Our learning journals show all these things happening and more besides!!  All these interests reflect all the different wee personalities that we have in our nursery and also the amazing people we are going to have running our country in years to come.  This lockdown may actually give our community a generation of children who have had a unique experience of family-time, which builds self-esteem and confidence and forges real understanding of each other.

It is not, of course, always idyllic.  Many parents are juggling working at home, with supporting their children.  It is stressful and tiring and tempers can easily become frayed.  Being a parent is really tough and this is an extremely worrying time for many families for many serious reasons.  In the face of all this- we have to tell you that YOU are doing a brilliant job.  Do not worry if you do not have the time or energy to explore every aspect of the curriculum with your child.  There will be plenty of time for that when we return to school and nursery.  Don’t feel you have to “teach” them every day.  Involving them in household jobs, keeping them feeling safe, secure and very loved are the top priorities.  Take time to look after yourself too!  Much easier said than done at the moment – but still important!  Never feel alone – if you would like a chat or a Facetime with staff, just let us know.  We are still here for you and we’re not going anywhere soon!

Our suggestions and activities are completely optional.  Please do not feel any pressure. THANKS TO ALL OUR PARENTS AND CHILDREN FOR DOING SUCH AN AMAZING JOB AT STAYING SAFE AND LEARNING AT HOME!

Hope you are getting ready for a really special Easter weekend of fun with your family.  It’s really hard when you cannot get the whole family together for special celebrations.  Grannies and grandpas are missing wee ones so much and Easter is traditionally a real family time. I am using FaceTime and Zoom to see my grandchildren- it is lovely, but I am so looking forward to being able to cuddle them again! We are having Easter lunch with the whole family on Zoom this year wearing Compulsory Easter bonnets and bringing our home made Easter egg for a family competition! Lockdown has made us much more aware of Easter this year and also made us aware of how precious we are to one another.  I hope it is the same for your family and that you have an extra-special Easter!

It is Friday! In nursery, every second Friday, we have a visit from an amazingly talented lady called Susan Tighe.  Susan brings Mr Snappy, Daisy the Dinosaur and many other friends, along with percussion instruments and music,  and we have brilliant musical sessions, full of fun, activity and wonderful music.  Susan has a very long connection with our nursery- her children came to our nursery and for many years now, she has been our music specialist- a very important part of our team!!! This week she contacted me to say she could send me a video for the children.  It very appropriately arrived this morning-so it will be on the Facebook Page. I know our wee ones will love seeing her!

🐣🌈🐣All the members of our staff team would like to wish all our Nursery families a very happy Easter! Stay very safe and have lots of fun!!!! Sending out love to each and everyone!  🐣🌈🐣

Yesterday Lynn and Blue went for a ride round Milngavie looking for signs of Spring!!! Can you guess where they went from the pictures and clues!!!?

Beautiful Spring flowers- where is Blue today?

More signs of spring- where is Blue and Lynn’s bike now?

Lynn and Blue played Pooh Sticks on this bridge? What is the river called?

Finally having a rest, but the question is- where are we? There is a place with lots of sand nearby!

If you know where Lynn and Blue have been today, please post us back- either in your learning journal or on our Facebook page!  Hope you are having lots of fun today!  

Continue Reading →

Have a look at this link – Julia Donaldson has made some of her stories “corona virus compliant! “.   They are great!  Axel Scheffler has also published a children’s book on Covid 19 which you can download for free at http://Nosy Crow.com

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2020/apr/04/gruffalo-axel-scheffler-and-julia-donaldsons-coronavirus-cartoons?fbclid=IwAR3pC5wECRCbGVubHhHxPKVP2UBx-XzUfrE9yHRzZW1_

I visited the nursery garden to check on the tadpoles to find that most of the jelly like eggs had disappeared from the surface of the pond.  They have really changed a lot this week and some of them are really wiggly!  Click the link below to have a look!

All our spring flowers at the front door are looking lovely!

Eric has been busy in the orchard and has cleared all the weeds from the blueberry bed- a really tough and unpleasant job.

The blueberry bushes!

We would be really grateful if you might plant some seeds in pots at home for us, which we could put in our garden when they are big enough and after lockdown is over.   Sunflowers and nasturtiums would be great, but we would love any flowers at all!  Herbs too, would be great! We hope it will be a really colourful place to come back to, full of butterflies and bees!  The fruit trees are getting ready to flower! Spring has definitely arrived! 😀👍

Good morning! A wee bit of news from our nursery garden and orchard- Spring is coming!! The frogs eggs have changed a little- instead of little black dots on the middle, there are things that look like tiny black sausages.  I wonder what they’ll look like next week!!!

Our fruit trees in the orchard still look very much like wee sticks. I’m going to put a story on The Milngavie Early Learning Centre Facebook page, which  shows what might happen to our trees over the next few months!!
We have been putting some videos of staff singing, dancing and reading good stories on our Facebook page because our blog and Learning Journals don’t have the capacity for posting large files.  If there is anyone who has no access to Facebook and would like us to put links on the blog, we might be able to put these on YouTube and then supply the links. Please let us know if you would be happier with this! I know that Facebook is not for everyone!

We hope that everyone is keeping safe and healthy and is finding enough to fill their own and their children’s time.   At least the better weather has allowed people with gardens to get outside, and walks and bike rides are so much nicer when the sun shines!

At nursery, at this time of year, we always learn lots about the changing seasons and the coming of Spring. We learn about the life cycles of frogs and plants. Lisa has bought a butterfly farm for her daughters and they are watching their very hungry wee caterpillars development with great interest. She highly recommends this to other parents!  They are available from www.insectlore.co.uk.  When the butterflies hatch they can be released into your garden.  There is no better way to teach the lifecycle of a butterfly than actually seeing it happen.

Here are some of Lisa’s photos! Thanks so much Lisa! 

Here are the latest pictures of our frogspawn and the wee stick like trees in our orchard!  Continue Reading →