Milngavie Early Years Centre

Our final session of Enjoy-A-Ball is on the 6th December, but we have the option of continuing it again after Christmas.  Please could you tell us whether you feel this is worthwhile.  We feel the children really enjoy the sessions and get a lot from them, but feel the decision should lie with parents.    The cost would be the same per session as it is just now.

Its Monday morning AGAIN – time seems to speed up the nearer we get to Christmas!

Judit is with us this morning to do some Spanish words – we are making props for our Spanish colour song.

Tuesday is Forest Schools Day – its going to be cold, so if your child is going – please put lots of layers on!

Wednesday is Enjoy-A-Ball.  On Thursday Julie is going to a course on Resilience and Adverse Childhood Experiences.  Kate will be covering the Green Group.

On Friday we are getting the Nursery ready for the PTA Christmas Fayre.  Nursery is playing host to Santa’s Grotto and The Bottle Stall and a lovely winter café which serves hot chocolate.  We are hoping that as many nursery children as possible will bring their mum’s and dad’s to the Fayre, and will be able to join in a performance of our Christmas songs between 6.30 and 7pm.

This week we are learning about the story of the First Christmas and why it is so important to Christians.  We are also posting the letters we wrote to Santa inviting him to our party- these were great!  One group tried to bribe Santa to come with the promise of “lots of chocolate cookies and BRUSSEL SPROUTS!”  We are sure he won’t be able to resist.

Tuesday was a really wet day – particularly the afternoon!  It didn’t deter the intrepid Forest Kindergarten squad from their weekly trip to the woods.

The afternoon children enjoyed a lovely picnic under a big green tarpaulin – pom bears taste so much better in the rain!  We had taken along a couple of camping stools for the adults and we all had a good laugh at Eileen and Kirsten sinking into the mud. We listened to the story ‘Stick Man’ by Julia Donaldson – a great story at the best of times, but particularly suitable for this time of year.  After the story we all went on a soggy stick hunt to see if we could find sticks to make our own stick man.  We checked up on the bubble eggs- “They’re still there!” was the verdict.  We did a lot of squelching in mud – it was like walking in a chocolate puddle!  The woods were very beautiful – raindrops hung on the branches and the colour of the beech trees was amazing.  We collected lots of beech leaves to take back to nursery.  Who says you can’t have fun in the rain!!!?

Now they are careering around on motor vehicles!  Whatever next?

Many thanks to all the parents and prospective parents (and grandparents) who came along to our Open Evening Last night.

It was really nice to be able to talk without wee distractions and we really hope you had a chance to have a look at the types of activities we provide to encourage children to explore the Early Level curriculum.

It was lovely to welcome new parents and show families who just moved to the area, what we can offer.

Many thanks for coming along and showing interest and support.  We really appreciate your feedback, and being able to chat with parents always gives us new ideas to improve our practice and plan more fun learning for our children.

We are having a dress up day tomorrow – we are hoping to get donations of bottles for the bottle stall for the PTA Christmas Fayre.  The bottle stall is going to be in the nursery building, along with Santa’s Grotto and a Hot Chocolate Tea Room.

Dressing up and bringing a bottle are, of course, optional- we will be having fun whatever we are wearing!

If you ordered a bulb to grow at home as part of the Calder’s Bulb Competition, please, please collect it this week.  If we are left with any, we will grow them on in nursery and enter them in the competition as a nursery entry.  With so many green fingered children attending our centre, I am very confident that we are going to win!!!!!

If you are going to buy outdoor gear for your wee one -check out the Aldi website – they have salopettes, waterproof gloves and jackets for good prices.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/search?text=childrens%20ski%20gloves

The gloves would be ideal for our forest school adventures!

Happy wet Monday!  We’ve got a really nice busy week planned in nursery this week.  We have a visitor to nursery today- Melissa Kernan, a nursing student based at Milngavie Clinic, is spending the day with us to see what our children do in nursery.  Dionne, our apprentice is at college.  Today we are going to make our party plan for our Christmas Disco with the children at grouptime.  Judit is coming in this morning to do Spanish- we are making resources for a Spanish song we are learning.

Tomorrow is Forest Kindergarten day for  two groups of children.  The forecast is for rain, so we will be building shelters in the woods and making bird feeders and bug hotels.  All our pre-school children will have a chance to go on Forest Kindergarten , throughout the year.

On Wednesday we have a session of Enjoy-a-ball with Magic Mark!  In the afternoon Lynn is going on an Outdoor Learning course.

On Thursday we are going to read the Christmas Story and talk about all the people in the story.

Thursday evening is our open evening between 6 and 7pm.  If you would like to know a wee bit more about our Early Level Curriculum and how we deliver it in nursery, please come along for a look around and a chat with staff.  If you know anyone with children who might come to Milngavie, and who would be interested in a look around, please extend our invitation!!!

On Friday- Susan is visiting with Mr Snappy and her instruments for Snappy Sounds!

Wow – what a busy week!