Milngavie Early Years Centre

Happy Monday.  The countdown to the end of term is underway-13 days working days till the holidays!!  We are busy this week practising our graduation songs and rehearsing for Sports Day.

On Tuesday afternoon our pre-school children who are going to Milngavie are visiting school for their final induction day.

We are also going down to play in the infant playground at play time to familiarise our wee ones with playtime, and also spend some time in the school’s active learning zone.

Friday 15th June is Nursery Sports Day.  (Fingers crossed for a lovely day!)  The morning sports starts at 11am and the afternoon one starts at 3.10pm.  Our all day children will be taking part in the afternoon sports.  Everyone is welcome to come along and cheer on their wee sports star.  Nursery Sports takes place in the Nursery Playground, beside the nursery.

We have sent out a group call to all nursery parents, but just in case you haven’t received it:

Due to unforeseen circumstances we need to change the day of our Graduation from  Friday 22nd June to Wednesday 20th June in the morning. We send our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you. The time of the graduation will be 11 o’clock in the infant gym. Once again we send our apologies for any inconvenience.

The day is here. The treasure is hidden, the tug of war rope ready, and most importantly- the pirate feast is prepared!   Our Joint Active Learning Project is finishing today with a piratey flourish.

if your wee one is up for donning an eyepatch, or dressing up or even just bringing along their cutlass that would be great.  Absolutely no pressure though- landlubbers are also welcome.

Our ante-Pre’s are joining us for lots of pirate fun today and the forecast is looking good.  Completely Piratetastic!!!!!

On Friday 22nd June we are having a special celebration to mark the time that our pre-schoolers have spent with us at Milngavie Early Learning Centre, and to send them off to school with our love and best wishes, and lots of happy memories of nursery.

We share a few of our favourite songs and then all our pre-school children are presented with their leaving certificate and school tie (if their new school has a tie!)  It’s a lovely occasion- but bring hankies!! The staff usually need them!

Doors open at 11.05am and we will start our wee ceremony at 11.15am.  Everyone is welcome to come along to watch.

We are into our last month of our last term and our big pre-school children are practising their graduation songs.  The weather is lovely and we are enjoying lots of outdoor learning in the orchard – we have planted potatoes, spring onions, radishes and lots of lettuce and we are watering it (and each other) and watching it grow.

This week is going to be busy and fun.  On Tuesday afternoon, both Milngavie Primary and Craigdhu Primary are holding induction days for our pre-schoolers.

On Wednesday we are having a big Pirate Party, both  morning and afternoon to finish off our Active Learning Project with P1.  All pre-schoolers are invited and our wee ones who come in on Wednesday will be joining us too for lots of Pirate fun and games including a treasure hunt, tug of war and Pirate feast.

On Thursday and Friday we will be having a wee practice for Sports Day, which is next Friday at 11am and 3.10pm.  Our full day children will be going to the afternoon sports.

If your child does not normally come to nursery on a Friday and you would like them to take part in the sports- they would be very welcome to come along to our morning sports session- just let us know they’re coming.

All spectators are very welcome – there is also a mums’ and dads’ race which gran’s, grandpa’s, auntie’s and uncles are very welcome to join in too!

Our nursery sports day is on Friday 15th June.  The morning sports starts at 11am and the afternoon sports starts 3.10pm.  Our full time children will be going to the afternoon sports.

If your child does not normally come to nursery on a Friday and you would like them to take part in the sports- they would be very welcome to come along to our morning sports session.

The sports are held in the nursery playground.  You are very welcome to come along and watch.  There are also  mums’ and dads’ races so there’s still time to dig out the running shoes and start training!!!  The cups and medals have been bought, we are all in training – all we need now is a lovely day on the 15th June.

This morning we had a very special treat – The 3Sixty Bicycle Stunt Team paid the school a visit and we were invited too!!!  Our school had been the best in East Dunbartonshire for cycling and scooting to school during the  The Big Pedal- the recent Sustrans cycling challenge.  Thanks to everyone who took part in this- what an amazing achievement.  Thanks too, to Ruairi and Tamiya for coming over to nursery twice a day, for the complete fortnight, to record our participants.

The guys were absolutely amazing – they talked to the children about the practising required for all their stunts and gave advice as to how to train safely.  All the children were very impressed by the incredible things the guys could do on their bikes.  We are hoping that none of our children try any of them in the nursery playground this afternoon!!!!!!

We have some brilliant photos which are refusing to up load right now – will try them again later!

This month we are looking at our feelings and how we can manage them.  We found this amazing book on line and have been reading it with the children.  It explains really simply how we feel when we are happy and how we can make others happy too, and also how we feel when we are sad, and the impact what we do can have on others.  It is lovely and the children have responded really well to it.  We have had lots of chat from it and lots of bucket filling. Judit also told us about another book – The Colour Monster – which helps us describe our feelings using colours.  It arrived this morning.  We are looking forward to exploring this with the children with the children later!  Understanding how we are feeling and being able to talk about it is very important in helping us manage our emotions.  We are having fun learning how.

It’s the start of another fun packed week at Milngavie Early Learning Centre.  We have come in this morning to a garden which is being transformed for us by an amazingly hard working team of volunteers.  Old wood has been pulled out and frogs re-homed in the orchard.  Tons of wood, rocks and stones have been moved and a cage buttress has been built to support the upper level of our garden.  All our furniture has been cleaned and the garden is ready to use, with the bits still being worked on taped off.  A huge thank you to all the families that came along to help – everyone worked extra hard!!!

On Monday we are going to plant potatoes in the Nursery garden plot.  We also have some sunflowers to plant and our vegetables to thin out in the polytunnel.  We are learning a lot about how plants grow and how we look after them;.

On Wednesday we are having a dressing up day and collecting Hamper items for the School Summer Evening Fayre.  If you have anything to donate we would be very grateful and will put a box in the hall.  We also have our Pirate Active Learning Project with Primary 1.

On Wednesday evening we are having our Parents consultation evening in Nursery.  If you don’t yet have an appointment time and would like to come along and speak to your child’s keyworker, please sign up on the back of the nursery front door.  Our parents meetings are strictly limited to 10 minutes – please be aware that if you feel you need more time, you can see your keyworker any time – just ask Valerie for an appointment.  On parents night, please don’t think we are being rude, sticking to our timescale- it is just important that we see everyone and don’t keep people waiting.

Thursday is an in service day and Friday and Monday are holidays.  HAPPY BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND EVERYONE!! Have a lovely break!  See you on Tuesday!

The sun shone- it wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cold.  The buses worked and took us there and back without breaking down.  Everyone had great fun and we all thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Calderglen Zoo and Country Park.  Thanks to all the mums, dads and grans, grandpas and nanas that came with us.  It was wonderful.