Milngavie Early Years Centre

Elisabeth, Eileen and Julie have worked hard with the children this week to create a cave for our bears.  They have encouraged the children to paint the walls of the cave and to draw some lovely bear pictures to display.  They have used lots of browns and greens and natural materials and made a lovely relaxing reading area.  We are enjoying looking at bears this week and will be making bear sandwiches for snack later in the week.

Maureen has created the 3 Bears Cottage in our imaginative area this week and the children are really enjoying being Goldilocks.  The story of Goldilocks allows us to explore the vocabulary of size -part of our early maths concepts.  It also explores the three-ness of three – useful for little ones learning to count.  The morality of the story is also important – learning about other people’s property and thinking about whether we should go into houses uninvited, eat the food, vandalise the furniture and sleep in beds that aren’t our own!  We have a fun follow up book called “Beware of the Bears” where the bears decide to retaliate and invade what they think is Goldilocks house! A great read and a good laugh!

We have also been learning this song –

When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears

When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears, oh what did her blue eyes see?

A bowl that was huge, a bowl that was small, a bowl that was tiny and that was all,

She counted them 1, 2, 3.

When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears, oh what did her blue eyes see?

A chair that was huge, a chair that was small, a chair that was tiny and that was all,

She counted them 1,2,3.

When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears, oh what did her blue eyes see?

A bed that was huge, a bed that was small, a bed that was tiny and that was all,

She counted them 1,2,3.

When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears, oh what did her blue eyes see?

A bear that was huge, a bear that was small a bear that was tiny and that was all,

They growled at her GRRRR, GRRRR, GRRRR!

Wow – look at the amazing ships that Robyn, Cate and Anna built in nursery yesterday morning.  Future marine engineers perhaps!

Lynn is looking for Nutella jars – she thinks they would make great paint pots for nursery.  We would be very grateful if you would recycle them in our direction.  They are so much better than our old plastic ones as you can see the lovely colours of the paints through them!

Yippee it’s Monday!  Time to play!

Photos on Tuesday – morning group 10am and afternoonies 1.30pm.  No gym this week because we are having our photos done!

Bears are still to the fore this week and there is a distinct possibility that the 3 Bears cottage might be appearing in the house corner this week!

We are enjoying sharing our nursery rhymes and will be practising these this week too.  We are hoping to have a sponsored nursery rhyme event in September to help us raise funds to subsidise our Halloween Party as our entertainer is always a major expense.  This year we have booked Gary Dunn, who has been highly recommended to us – his cost for 2 shows is £300.

The Orchard had its first work day on Sunday and is now covered in rubbish that we unearthed and trees that we trimmed back.  We are hoping to have the rubbish removed this week!

Apologies – still don’t have the times for the group photos on Tues but promise these will be posted on the blog and up on the notice board on Monday morning.

On Friday morning -before the miserable rain – Valerie was sitting with a wee group of children at a table outside as they worked on a very tricky puzzle of a big scary shark with its mouth open.  The children were amazed by its rows of teeth.  Valerie wondered if it cleaned its teeth.

 “It would need a toothbrush this big!” said one of our wee puzzlers.

The children reckoned that really, in real life sharks don’t clean their teeth.  This took the conversation down the route of thinking about how the shark’s breath would smell.  Their was a lot of laughing and Yuck! noises.  “It’d be really disgusting and smelly!” said Eden.  “It would be fishy and smell of poo!” said Amelia.  Hilarity ensued- the word “poo” has this effect every time its uttered in nursery.  It is amazing the thoughts and conversation that come out of doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Every second Friday is Music Day, and our lovely music specialist, Susan, brings Mr Snappy and his friends, and all her instruments to Milngavie Nursery.  Susan is funded by our PTA to come  and share sunshine, singing and her sparkly personality with us.  In today’s lesson we practised playing slow and fast rhythms on tambourines and bells and we learned that you can tap or shake a tambourine.  Mr Snappy, Susan’s crocodile assistant always brings something special for us to look at in his wee blue backpack.  Today it was a picture of the Olympic Rings.  Lots of the children had watched different events and we talked about what we had seen.  Susan used a cycling race to teach the children the difference between a slow and a fast rhythm and we had great fun racing round the playroom /velodrome playing bells slow and fast.  She gave us all imaginary medals and we played the way we might feel as we got up on the podium to receive our medals.  Susan had her friend Kip the Kangaroo with her and introduced her to one of our newest wee recruits, Rosie – who has just come all the way from Australia.  Susan asked one group what they thought made Kangaroos able to jump so high and Lauren – a very smart cookie in our afternoon group- said – “Their boingy legs!”  A brilliant answer.  We had a great time and learned a lot!  If you would like to know more about Susan and Snappy Sounds have a look on her Snappy Sounds Facebook Page.   We love her Snappy Sounds!

Our new recruits and nursery veterans have settled incredibly quickly this year.  On the first day we had very few tears and it was just lovely to have everyone back and welcome our new wee ones and their families.

Old friends caught up with each other – here are our Emilies having a chat while creating another couple of masterpieces!

We love painting!

It was very cloudy!

A little group of children were discussing the weather with Maureen around a table outside.  They made up a new weather rhyme – “Clouds, clouds go away – come again another day!”  Oliver and Zach were rumoured to be keeping the sun under their pillows, but that might just have been a story!

Despite the clouds we enjoyed playing outside.

 We received this email from EDC and were asked to pass it on to parents

In-Car Safety Clinics

Driving with children in the car without making sure they are properly restrained in a correctly-fitted child seat or seatbelt – even on the shortest of journeys – could have very serious consequences.

It is a sad fact that across the UK, more than seven out of ten seats are either incorrectly fitted or unsuitable for the car or the child. This means that many babies and children could be at serious risk of injury.  Many of these injuries can be prevented if children travel in infant carriers, child seats or high-back boosters that are suitable for their height/weight and are securely fitted in the car.

Seat belts on their own are less effective for children because they are primarily designed for adults.  In a collision, a child can slip out of their seatbelt and an ill-fitting belt could even cause injuries.

As part of the Good Egg In Car Safety Campaign, East Dunbartonshire Council will be hosting two local In-Car Safety Clinics.  Clinic details are as follows:

Date:               Monday 15 August                                      Wednesday 21 September

Time:              11am – 4pm                                                  11am – 4pm

Venue:           Sainsbury’s                                                   Tesco

6 Shamrock Street                                       7 Gavin’s Mill Road

Kirkintilloch                                                   Milngavie

G66 1RA                                                       G62 6NB

As well as being able to find out the latest information regarding child car seat legislation, you can have any child car seats checked by an accredited car seat fitter to ensure that they are securely installed.  All services are available free-of-charge.  There is no requirement to pre-book.  Just pop along on the day!

For more information about child car seats, please visit www.goodeggcarsafety.com.  For any employees who do not have computer access, could a copy of this email please be placed on the nearest staff notice board.

Thank you.

Maryanne Clark

Traffic Officer