Milngavie Early Years Centre

On Wednesday 23rd we are having a dressing up day in Nursery.  We are asking for donations for our PTA Summer Evening Fayre hampers.  Anything that you can think of that you would like to receive as a special treat – biscuits, shortbread, jams, crisps, chutneys, special tea or coffee, bottle of wine, candle etc – would all be very gratefully received.

Our PTA do an amazing job of fundraising for the school.  The money they raise makes our school a very special and exciting place to be.  Their hampers are always wonderful and we are hoping to get lots of goodies to make them absolutely awesome this year.

If your wee one would like to dress up on Wednesday, we are going to have a specially fun day in Nursery.  We have our pirate adventure day for Primary 1 and Pre-school children anyway so there will probably be quite a few pirates!!

Please bring any donations on Wednesday and we will have a big box ready to put them in!  THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!

The sun is shining and we have a busy week ahead of us in Nursery.  Today Susan is coming in with Mr Snappy and Friends for another super music session.

On Wednesday our Pirates on the Joint Active Learning Project with Primary 1 will be setting sail for the next desert island adventure.

On Friday we have our Nursery Trip to Calderglen Park in East Kilbride.  We are keeping everything crossed for another beautiful day of sunhats and sunscreen.  Please remember to pack a picnic lunch for eating at the park. It’s going to be amazing.

Sunday 20th May is our next Family Gardening Day in our orchard and garden.  If you have never been to one, please think about coming along.  It is great fun and there are jobs suitable for almost all age groups.  We have an amazing outdoor learning space at Milngavie Primary and ELC, but it needs maintained to keep it safe and beautiful.  On Sunday we are hoping to get the garden back to a safe, usable condition with solid steps and handrails.  Our orchard is really looking good – we are going to have a great crop of blueberries and strawberries this year and the wee fruit trees now have their leaves on and some might even flower.  We have tea, coffee and home baking to sustain our lovely volunteers, and it is a good opportunity to catch up with other families and friends from school in a nice relaxed setting.  Please come along and help- we’d love to see you there!

Wednesday has become Pirate Day in Nursery for our Pre-school children.  They are working on an Active learning project with the 2 current Primary 1 Classes and the theme this year is Pirates.

Yesterday we set the scene for the children.  We are four pirate crews whose ships have all sunk in a storm and we are marooned on a desert island (our orchard and garden).  We thought a lot about how we might live on an island without running water and electricity and had in depth discussions about how we would go to the toilet and where we might sleep.  Over the next 4 weeks we are going to try 4 different activities – a maths/technology one – using beebots to navigate round a treasure island and reach the treasure- a literacy/expressive arts one- making up and performing our own pirate stories- a problem solving one – making a shelter out of materials we find in the orchard and raising the pirate flag with ropes and pulleys, and a delicious Healthy one – finding fruits hidden round the garden to make fabulous fruity kebabs.

Nursery and Primary children work together in their teams and get to know, or meet up again with, each other.

This week we met our crew mates and wrote and signed the Pirates Code – the rules we will abide by every Wednesday.  The children had great ideas and it was really lovely to see the wonderful handwriting and reading skills the children learn in Primary 1 coming to the fore.  Everyone was really excited – we decided that if we had any pirate hats or eyepatches etc, that we could wear them on a Wednesday to make the day even more piratey.

Here are the fantastic Pirate Codes written by both morning and afternoon crews – aren’t they brilliant?

I am so sorry – I thought I had published this last week, but just found it in my drafts!! Very important news!! On Friday 13th April our lovely Elisabeth gave birth to Patrick Rory Taylor.  He was 8lbs 11ozs and as you can see from the photos, is a very beautiful boy!  Both mum and baby are well!  Elisabeth – a real action woman- has taken her maternity leave not only to have this gorgeous boy, but to start her own Etsy business- Wee Baba – beautiful silicone jewellery that babies can teeth on safely.  It is really funky and well worth checking out on Etsy.co.uk. or Facebook.  We are hoping to have a visit from Elisabeth on Thursday to meet wee Patrick in person.

One of our lovely mums was telling staff about the school her eldest son attends, where they struggle to have extra clothes for accidents etc.  If you have any boys and girls pants, socks, trainers, gym shoes or wellies your child has grown out of, of any size at all, please would you consider donating them to our appeal.  The news on the radio this morning about the increased use of food banks shows just how much some families in our country really struggle to make ends meet.  This also applies to clothing children for school.

We are going to put a box in the hall for any donations that are handed in.  Many thanks.

Last week Primary 4 came over to tell us about the Big Pedal – 2 weeks of encouraging us all to cycle and scoot to school and work- I have been sent this letter explaining the what’s, where’s and why’s.  There are prizes to be won!

Dear Parents/Carers,

Get set….we’re taking part in Sustrans Big Pedal 2018, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two wheels for their journey to school/nursery.

The challenge runs from 23^rdApril-4^thMay, is free to enter and we would love everyone to be involved.

On each day of the challenge schools compete to see who can record the greatest number of pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school. Our best 5 days will determine our final position in the challenge. We’ll be competing against other schools right across the UK, and if we clock up the most bike and scooter journeys we’ll win!

Why we’re taking part

It’s a great way to get more of our pupils travelling to school on their bikes and scooters. We will be competing to become one of the UK’s top schools for two-wheeled journeys and will be in with a chance to win prizes including bike and scooter stunt shows and fantastic cycle and scooter storage.

Cycle, scoot and snap to win family prizes

You and your family can also win prizes during Sustrans Big Pedal. Simply post a photo of you and your child cycling or scooting to school on social media during the challenge using #BigPedalWin. To be in with a chance of winning follow Sustrans on Instagram instagram.com/sustrans, Twitter twitter.com/sustrans or Facebook facebook.com/Sustrans.  Be sure to check the terms and conditions found on the Big Pedal website prior to entering the competition.

Fundraising Day

On Friday 4^th May we’d love our pupils to be involved in a fundraising day by dressing as a cyclist for a donation of £1 per family. This gives every child the chance to be involved in the Big Pedal even if they don’t scoot or cycle to school.

What’s next?

All you need to do is encourage your child/ren to cycle or scoot to school every day during the event, and join them on their way – parent and sibling journeys count too!

For more information about the event go to www.bigpedal.org.uk

Follow Sustrans on social media (instagram.com/sustrans, twitter.com/sustrans facebook.com/Sustrans.)

Enjoy the ride!

Happy Monday!  Wasn’t Saturday just the best!?  If only today was as nice.  We are all ready for a fun packed week in nursery though, whatever the weather.  Today we have Judit coming in to teach us some Spanish with great activities designed to consolidate our Spanish vocabulary.  Maureen is going to be planting sunflowers this morning – we have been asked to take part in Milngavie in Bloom’s sunflower competition so we thought we’d get a head start and put our pots in the polytunnel!

We are looking at Spring and growth this week and learning about all the different parts of a plant.  We will be watching our seeds very carefully to see how a plant develops.

Our Forest Kindergarteners will be looking at Spring in the forest on Tuesday- it looks as if it might be showery so wellies are an absolute necessity!

Lynn is at an outdoor learning course today, and I am going to a course on Sun Safety on Thursday afternoon.  I am really hoping that I will need to use it in the next few months!

We have been planning our Pirate Adventure with the children and Primary 1 teachers and are looking forward to setting sail, on Wednesday 2nd May.  If your pre-school child does not attend on a Wednesday and you would like them to take part, please speak to me and we will arrange for this.  We will be having 2 sessions- 1 morning and 1 afternoon, with the 2 Primary 1 classes.  More details of the things we will be doing later!

Many thanks to Suzanne and everyone else who brought in boxes – the children have had great fun with different bits of packaging and it has been amazing to see the different creative responses to the same materials that they have had.

This week we have been out looking for signs of Spring in the orchard.  We found leaf buds on all our fruit trees and our fruit bushes are looking really healthy, despite the awful winter.  We planted some lettuces, radish and spring onions in the raised beds in the polytunnel and watered the primula plants, fuschia bushes and strawberries.  Watering is great fun – we just sometimes need a wee reminder that we don’t water people – just plants! We did a great job and are looking forward to watching our vegetables grow!

Evelyn – from Milngavie in Bloom helped supervise the watering

If you are looking for something worthwhile to do, this Sunday afternoon, why not come along to our Gardening Day.  Between 1 and 3.45pm we are going to be tidying up the ravages of winter in our garden and getting it ready for Spring and planting.  There are jobs suitable for all ages and Anne Madsen, our fabulous garden guru, will be there to direct us to where the help is needed.

There will be a BBQ at 3.45 for everyone who has helped.  Katie Risk is very kindly doing the food.  It is a really nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon and really helps the school/nursery provide a  wonderful outdoor learning environment for our children.

Despite all our best efforts – CCTV, shed alarm and new big padlock, the vandals have once again attacked our lovely wee play house.  This time they smashed the door off its hinges and put in one of the windows.  The police came to inspect the damage and have advised us to take everything out of the playhouse and to remove the door- making it less cosy for the horrible people who damaged it.  They are going to make it a regular part of their weekend beat.

The CCTV might yet reveal who did this and we going to have a proper look at it today.  Yesterday, one of our wee morning boys spent the whole morning investigating the crime and being a detective.  This just goes to show that everything in life provides learning opportunities!