Milngavie Early Years Centre

This week in nursery we are going to be learning about Fire Safety.  We are going to be watching a vintage film on you tube of Frances the Firefly – an unfortunate insect who burns down her whole community by playing with matches.  We are also going to be looking at fire exits, smoke alarms, and other fire safety equipment in the school and the nursery and practising Stop Drop and Roll.

Tuesday is Forest School Day for 2 groups of children – fingers crossed for a dry day.

Wednesday is our Enjoy-A-Ball day and on Friday we have Susan and Snappy Sounds visiting for more musical fun.

We had a great Halloween last week and the entertainer made all the children (and adults) laugh a lot.  Many thanks to the PTA for the special mask kits they gave us for all our children.  If your wee one has not brought one home, please speak to any member of staff and we’ll organise one.

Looking forward to another fun filled week!!

Judit visited nursery on Monday and we began working on our Spanish Rainbow Song – it is amazing how good some of our children are at colours in Spanish!

One of our parents asked for the words of the Spanish Rainbow Song to practise at home.  Here they are and also the link to the youtube song.  We are hoping to be good enough at this song to be able to sing it to you at our Christmas concert!

UN ARCO IRIS

un arco iris se formó,

porque llovió y el sol salió

rojo, amarillo, verde y azul, violeta y naranja también.

Rojo como el tomate – rojo                                          Amarillo como el sol- Amarillo

Red -like the tomato’s red                                          Yellow like the sun so yellow

Rojo como el tomate – rojo                                           Amarillo como el sol- Amarillo

Verde como los arboles- verde                                     Azul como el mar y el cielo-azul

green like the trees so green                                        Blue like the sky so blue

Verde como los arboles- verde                                      Azul como el mar y el cielo-azul

Violeta como una flor violeta                                          Naranja como una calabaza

Purple like a flower purple                                             Orange like a pumpkin orange

Violeta- como una flor violeta                                        Naranja como una calabaza

un arco iris se formó,

porque llovió y el sol salió

rojo, amarillo, verde y azul, violeta y naranja también.

On Tuesday Nursery was a super-exciting place to be- fabulous costumes and a wonderful magic show.  Our lovely PTA gave all the nursery children a special Halloween Mask kit to take home.  Please tell us if your child didn’t get one.    Here are some of the day’s snapshots!

On Friday Susan came to nursery with a lovely, musical Halloween experience for us.  She brought Room on the Broom – by Julia Donaldson and some amazing music written for the animation of the book.  It was really spooky and atmospheric.  We also heard the story written in Scots.  We had good fun with the language – “Aye!” said the witch, and WHEECH, they were gone!”  We learned that a paddock was a frog, a besom was a broom and a dug was a dog!  We chose instruments and played them in a spooky way – what a great lesson.   Thank you Susan!

It’s Monday again and we have a really fun packed week at nursery.  On Monday the morning forest school morning group are off to the woods – its a beautiful morning to be out and about and our wee adventurers are hoping to catch sight of a fairy or two.  Judit is coming to nursery to teach us some more Spanish words.

On Tuesday we are celebrating Halloween-we are having Gary Dunn, a magician in to entertain us.  Tickets cost £3.50 and children that do not normally come on a Tuesday can come to the show, if you can come to the show with them.

Wednesday is Enjoy-A-Ball day!

This week, believe it or not, we are starting to learn some songs for Christmas.  We are going to take groups of children to Bield house in December to sing to our Senior Citizens and we are also having a performance of our songs at the Christmas Fayre on Friday 1st December so we need to be word perfect!!

Many thanks to everyone who came along to the Gardening day yesterday.  The garden has been cleared up and the compost from our compost bins put on our growing beds.  The willow tunnel has been completely woven in, and the garden really tidied up.  The orchard beds were also weeded – a huge amount of work was done. Thanks again to Anne Madsen for being our project manager, Katie Risk for the lovely soup and baking and all the hard working volunteers!! Your halos are shining very brightly!!

Next Tuesday is Halloween.  Children are welcome to come to Nursery in costumes if they wish.  Nothing too gory or superscary please – the staff scare really easily!

This year we are having a special Halloween treat with a performance by Gary Dunn, an excellent children’s magician.

Primary 1 and Nursery are both invited to this and the cost of the ticket is £3.50.   Please could you send the money for the ticket in a sealed envelope to school, or to nursery.

If your child does not normally attend Nursery on a Tuesday, they can still come along for the show – if you come along too and watch it with them.

The morning show will start at 10.10am in the Infant Gym.  We hope everyone will be able to come along and join the fun!

Good morning – can’t believe how quickly last week flew in – I hope you had a great break.

This week Maureen and Angela are on a First Aid Course on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so Annabel and Pam are covering their mornings and lunch.  Dionne has a day in college on Monday.

Forest Kindergarten will not start again till next week, when some afternoon group children will be heading for the woods too, with Lynn and I.

Wednesday is our Enjoy-A-Ball session day with Chris.

On Friday Susan will be bringing Mr Snappy and her instruments for another fun musical experience.  She has asked us to think of musical things we could investigate this term and I think we might be learning about what an orchestra is and who is in it, though we might get some other ideas from the children this week.

Last Friday our staff attended an in-service day training course at Lenzie Meadow Primary, with the outdoor play guru – Claire Warden.  It was a really good course – looking at Risk Assessment.  Sounds boring, but it was anything but!  We discussed the changing experience of childhood – the risks we took as children as opposed to what we will allow children to do today. The perceived risks, broadcast by social media and the effect this has on parental concern about children’s independence.  It really gave us a chance to think about the way we risk assess and we now have the relevant forms to include the children in assessing things they want to try outdoors. We are really looking forward to trying this out.

This morning Maureen, who is our outdoor lady this month, has helped the children to create a garage and carwash complex in the corner of the playground.  Look how clean our bikes and cars look!! Amazing.  There are petrol pumps and a ramp to look under your car and the brushes to drive through.  The quality of the play has been wonderful with lots of chat about filling the car up with diesel or petrol and lots of vehicle vocabulary being well used.  It is nice to report that, despite the queues that built up, there was absolutely no road rage at all!

This morning Judit came to nursery with a lovely activity for practising our colours in Spanish.  We used celery, which is kind of rainbow shaped, to print all the different colours on a big rainbow.  We said the colour each time we printed – so we got loads of practice!!  We are going to put the beautiful Spanish Rainbow up on the wall in the Discovery Room- it’s looking gorgeous.

Judit also gave us a link to a rainbow song on youtube.  We are going to learn it in nursery too, but if you are looking for a great sing-a-long song for a car journey in the October Week here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaQrsdnGB48

October is seemingly the favourite month for headlice!  Please check your child’s head for any signs of eggs or head lice.  If you are not sure what you are looking for there are lots of helpful, and itch inducing, videos on You Tube.

The local chemist can advise on the best treatment, should you find any signs.  Headlice particularly love little children, with tender wee scalps, so it is really important to keep a look out for them.  They spread through contact with others so nurseries and schools are always good places for them.  We will only get rid of all of them if we are all vigilant!

Thanks for your help with this.