Milngavie Early Years Centre

We are all back after a weekend of Easter Egg Hunts and an awful lot of chocolate, and next week we will be on holiday again!!!!!  All the clocks in Nursery are at the wrong time and a lot of us find this confusing!

Today, Tuesday – the Blue and Orange groups went to gym with Maureen, Lauren and Elisabeth.  Lynn is on a First Aid Course this week.  We had a visit from our friend Elina this morning.  Elina normally works in Clober and Colquhoun Park Nurseries and we were very happy as Elina stayed to play with us all morning.

Elina in her Easter jumper

PC John is making a return visit to Nursery today to see our afternoon children.  Lauren is very excited about this as she managed to miss him last week! She has been wearing a police hat all morning in anticipation!

There was great excitement in Nursery today when PC John, our Community Police Officer came to Nursery to tell us about his job and warn us about Stranger Danger.   He told us about the numbers you need to know to phone the police for help – we all knew 999 but not all of us were aware of 101.

The children were very interested in his uniform and John talked about all the things he carries about with him to help him with his job. He showed us his radio phone – it has a special red button that he can press if he is in danger to call all the other policemen in the area to help him.  He phoned a friend -PC Cairns and we all said hello to him

He showed us his baton -none of us knew what it was! Lara thought it looked quite like a bicycle pump. John explained that it was used to control or frighten baddies.  Lucas asked him where his gun was and John told us that only Special Policemen in Scotland carry guns.  Max told John that the Police in the airport are allowed to carry guns.  John was impressed that Max had noticed this.

John also showed us his handcuffs -we all knew what these were. John said there were two kinds – one with chains between and others with a bar in between the cuffs.   He asked the children what they felt like – they said “They’re not comfy”  and “Too tight! John told us they were to keep both the bad guys and other people safe.

PC John then talked to us about Stranger Danger.  May knew that strangers were people that you didn’t know.  Max thought that Dragons were strangers.  John taught us that if a stranger approached us we should Run, Yell and Tell.  We are going to discuss this further with the children next week and practise!

Ava asked John why the police sometimes have dogs.  John explained that policedogs are trained to be able to find people, and also sometimes to find drugs and explosives.  Struan asked if the police help to find lost dogs – John said that sometimes they do.

John finished his visit by inspecting our police station – Lucas showed him around and told him what everything was for.  We are not sure why, but John ended up being arrested by PC Lucas and put in the Nursery Jail.  He was let out early for good behaviour!

Many thanks to PC John for a really informative and exciting visit.  He is coming back next Tuesday afternoon to talk to our afternoon children too.

If you would like any information about the police here is their link.

http://police scotland

Amber brought in 3 lovely wee birds to join the eggs on our Easter tree.  They definitely add a touch of class!  Someone thoughtfully added a Santa and a Christmas bauble yesterday – these were removed in case we confused our Christian Festivals!! The birds are gorgeous though! Thanks Amber!

 This morning, in the garden we found a frog.  It was hiding under a piece of wood.  Maureen – who is very brave with amphibians – lifted it into a bucket so we could look at it close up.  It was quite a beautiful frog but no one felt like kissing it!

We are on the look out for more and we are being very careful where we walk because frogs have got amazing camouflage and they are quite easy to stand on.

Lauren has contacted the Community Police, who are sending an officer into Nursery, both am and pm, to talk to the children about all the things that the police do to keep Milngavie, and the people who live here, safe.

We are thinking about good questions to ask the police, and the members of staff who like a man in uniform have been digging out their lipstick!  They just might be severely disappointed as the officer might just be a policewoman!  😉

We had great fun with the new bikes up at the pitch, where there is lots of space to ride about without crashing into anyone!

What an amazingly beautiful weekend we’ve had!  We’ve got a busy but short week as we get ready for Easter Weekend!

On Monday we are cycling in the playground – we have been given two lovely pedal bikes as a result of Lynn and Maureen going on the Play on Pedals course.  We used them on Friday and it was amazing how many confident wee cyclists we have.  We are hoping to build on this, this week and encourage children who do not yet have the confidence to give it a go!  Before long we will be setting up our human pyramid, synchronised cycling team with Maureen and Lynn on the top!  Our learning focus this week is on numbers before and after.  This is quite a tricky concept for some of our wee ones and we are trying number card games and number washing lines to help build the vocabulary and the concept.

Tuesday is gym day for the Yellow, Red and Green morning groups.  We are hopefully going to make some peasmeal bannocks this week and also some easter nest cakes.

On Wednesday we will be baking and hopefully planting in the garden.  Lynn is attending an Early Years Learning Community this afternoon.

On Thursday we are getting ready for our Easter Weekend and making some cards/finishing our baking.  Lauren is at University this afternoon.  Our Parent Focus Group is meeting in the staffroom at 3.30 to discuss the creation of a meeting/parents room. Please come along, give your ideas and have a cup of tea or coffee!

Friday and Monday- nursery is closed for the Easter Break!  Happy holiday everyone!

In the interests of involving our parents and children in the important decision making for Nursery we are sending out a questionnaire and word circle sheet.  We would be so grateful if you would fill it in and send it back to us.  It does not require you to put your name on it so this means you can be as honest as you like!! 🙂

We realise we send home a lot of requests for opinions etc, but this one will help us consider and plan our ethos and purpose,which we will translate into aims.  Aims shape the direction we take, going forward, and fuel our aspirations for our nursery.  If you let us know what you feel is important, this can be an integral part of deciding the direction the nursery will take in the future.

Many thanks from your Nursery Staff Team.