Milngavie Early Years Centre

The firefighters from Milngavie Firestation brought their Fire Engine to nursery on Friday!

We were allowed to go inside the cab and look at all the stuff the firefighters take with them to a fire.

We all had a shot of skooshing water from a hose! It was great fun

You can fit lots of wee people in the back of a fire engine!

The firefighters also spoke to the children about fire safety in the home, and told them to talk to their mum’s and dad’s about how their family would get out of the house, if there ever was a fire.  They also showed us a smoke alarm and asked the children to make sure their smoke alarms in their houses worked well by testing them regularly.  It was a really great finish to our fire safety awareness project.  A very big THANK YOU to all the firefighters at Milngavie Firestation who do such a good job keeping our community safe.

On Friday we had an exciting day in nursery.  We had a campfire in the orchard and had sausages and marshmallows for snack which we cooked on the fire.  As we have been discussing fire safety for the past two weeks, we made very strict rules about how close we could go to the fire and marked out the boundaries so everyone knew how close they could go.  We also made big long sticks with forks on the end so we could cook our food safely without getting burned.   We enjoyed the colours of the fire and the warmth and smell of it.  We could see how the wood burned and turned black and how the fire heated up our sausages – often turning them black too!  Experiencing a real fire is definitely the best way to teach children about the benefits and dangers of fire.  It is a real sensory experience and makes the learning real in a way that no amount of fire safety videos ever could.

It  was nice to get out into the orchard to play and it was interesting watching what the children chose to do.  Lots went exploring – it’s a lovely big area with lots of new places to look at.  Others enjoyed climbing on the piece of tree beside the picnic benches.  Another wee group went running – round and round and round the football pitch perimeter.  The Daily Mile would be no problem to this group!

We tried this again in the afternoon, but a deluge of rain diluted our ketchup and made the sausages soggy!  We had to give in and go inside again!  The joys of the unpredictable Scottish weather!

This afternoon Lynn, Kirsten and Kate took a little band of forest explorers to Barloch Moor for an afternoon of woodland fun.  We went via the ducks and swans at Tannoch Loch as the path into the woods was being resurfaced by the council.  It was a great day to be out and about.  We found some “bubble eggs” under a rock.  We decided we would look up what they might be when we got back to the nursery.  We drew maps, we explored and we found what might just be a fairy tree – we didn’t see fairies but it was also home to a few spiders.  Next week we are going to build a story tent and see what happens!

Forest Kindergarten is fab!!!!!

We are holding an Open Evening next Thursday night between 6pm and 7pm, for parents to have a look around the nursery and see the way we deliver our curriculum through play.  The staff will be on hand to talk about the day to day work of our nursery and there will be a slide show of activities relating to the Early Stage curriculum.

We are hoping to invite along prospective parents  and would be very grateful if you could pass on an invitation to  anyone you know with wee ones who might be considering Milngavie ELC.

It is not a parents consultation evening, so staff will not be able to share confidential information about your child.  If you are ever concerned about your child or want to have a chat about your child’s progress, staff are always more than happy to make time for this – just let us know and we can arrange an appointment with your child’s key worker.

It would be lovely to see you next Thursday and show you how the nursery works.

We are at the start of another exciting and busy week in nursery – this week we continue learning about fire emergencies and learn how to dial 999 to report a fire.  It would be really helpful if you could teach your child their address.  We will be doing this in nursery too, but back up from home would be really helpful.

Tuesday is forest school day – fingers crossed for a dry day!

On Wednesday we have another session of Enjoy-a-Ball.

We will be looking at all the equipment and signs around our nursery and school which relate to fire safety and talking to children about fire drills.  On Friday we are going to have a campfire in the garden and we are also having a visit from firefighters from the Fire Station at Milngavie.

Friday is also a bit of a sad day in Nursery as it is the day we say goodbye to Annabel- she starts her new job at Holy Family next Monday.  We know that she is going to do really well in her new job and wish her all the very best in the future.  We are all going to miss her.

Julie is at an Early Years Health event on Thursday so Annabel will be taking the green morning group on Thurs.

We have started practising our Christmas songs – they will be having their first airing at The PTA Christmas Fayre on Friday 1st December!  I’ll put a songsheet on the blog later today so you can practise at home if you like!!

We are looking forward to lots of outdoor fun in the garden this week – please dress your wee darling warmly!!!!

Our bulbs for the bulb competition have arrived – if you have ordered one, please take it from the hall.

Last week Dexter came in to tell us that he had decided he wanted to be a DJ.  He told all the children the tunes he would play and suggested to Angela that we could hold a special Christmas Disco in a big hall and sell tickets for everyone in the nursery to come.  There has to be loud music and flashing lights and party games.  There has to be food – which according to Dexter – you get from the Silver Lidl, where they also give you money!!!  You need to buy a ticket and Dexter decided, after some discussion, that we could give some of the money to charity.  This is a kind thing to do at Christmas.

We love Dexter’s ideas and have decided to make our Christmas Party a really special event this year and hold it in The Fraser Centre (in the middle of the precinct, beside the playpark) on Thursday 21^st December from 6.00pm to 7.30pm.  The children are going to plan the games and the food and DJ Dex is going to help Angela’s lovely husband  Alan with the music and flashing lights on the Disco!  He is also planning to dance and take the money in, so he’s going to be very busy.

If your child would like to come, the fun starts at 6pm.  This is event is for nursery children only and will be our Nursery Christmas Party, so we unfortunately can’t invite siblings along.  A special man in red will be visiting our party and parents are welcome to come back at 7pm to see him giving out presents to our boys and girls.

The tickets will cost £2.50 with donations going to a charity chosen by the children next week.  We’ll let you know what they choose.

The baby of our team, Mrs Annabel Stewart, is moving job!  She has got a job in Holy Family ELC, Kirkintilloch – a lot nearer to home. We are all sorry that she is leaving – she has been a great member of our team!

Our green afternoon group will have Mrs Eileen Canning as their keyworker from 20th November onwards, as Annabel takes up her new position at Holy Family ELC then.  The children already know Eileen as she currently works with us on a Wednesday and Thursday.

We would like to wish Annabel all the very best in her new job and hope that she will keep in touch with us!

We have a really great magnetic resource that our children really love.  They love it so much that we think some might have had a wee “borrow” of some.  If you come across any at home and wonder what it is, and where it came from, we would be so grateful if you could return it to us.  It is really expensive and we can’t afford to replace it at the moment.  There is absolutely no shame at all at “borrowing” from nursery.  Our children do not see it as wrong and it is natural to want to keep what you really like.  We would really like it back again though so all the children can enjoy it.

Maureen, one of our outdoor ladies this week, decided to put out a variety of objects out for the children to explore in the garden.  There were a couple of very large pools of water on the cover of the boat and Maureen wondered if the children would notice them.  She put buckets, string, scissors and sellotape out and positioned them near the boat.  It wasn’t long before some of the children spotted them and began a conversation about what could be done.  They decided it was ‘Power Water’ – Ellis thought it gave you superhero powers.  Then the conversation turned to how to get the Power Water out.   In the end, string was tied to the buckets which allowed the children to reach the water with them.  They tried to use the biggest bucket but it was too heavy to pull up, so they set about emptying it with the wee yellow one.  ‘Look it’s peeing!” said Archie.  There was clearly a hole in the bucket.  Undeterred the boys decided that this was actually a design feature- the yellow bucket would fill the black bucket and the black bucket would overflow- emptying they Power Water onto the ground.  Great teamwork and problem solving Ellis and Archie!