Happy Easter from all at Keir Hardie Nursery! We had a fun filled day with lots of dancing, treats and an Easter egg hunt. We also took part in our Easter bonnet parade and a huge thank you to parents for helping to create some fabulous bonnets.  After watching a short clip on the smartboard about celebrating Easter all the children were eager to make their own chocolate nest cake. We all made our own nest cake; lots of turn taking, mixing and carefully scooping the mixture into cake cases with some mini eggs to finish. We enjoyed them for snack and took one home to have another time. The anticipated egg hunt was the most exciting part, together we went out to the playground and seen that the Easter Bunny had visited and left some yummy Easter Eggs.

Hope you all have a lovely break and we look forward to seeing you back after the Easter holidays.

Stay and Play Success  

Thanks to all of you who participated in our first Stay and Play session – Build It.  It was a great success and we know the children loved working and learning with you throughout the day.Our next Stay and Play session will be on Friday 28^th April. We are keeping the theme and activities a surprise until nearer the time but wanted to give you the date as far in advance as possible.              

Easter Celebrations    

We will be having an Easter celebration and egg hunt with the children on  Thursday 30^th March.   You are invited to design and make an Easter bonnet with your child at home and it can be worn by your child to nursery on this day. We will organise an Easter bonnet parade to recognise and showcase the children’s efforts.  Please remember that nursery closes for the Easter holidays on Friday 31^st March and doesn’t reopen until Tuesday 18^th April.      Hope you all have a lovely break!

Children Starting School In August                                                                         

We have arranged for Instant Images to come in and take photographs of the children dressed in graduation caps and gowns on Tuesday 23^rd May.  ALL graduating children will be photographed and it will be up to you whether you decide to purchase. We DO NOT use the gowns and caps during our graduation ceremony so this will be the only opportunity for you to get this style of picture.       Our graduation ceremony for ALL children leaving nursery for school is provisionally pencilled in the diary for the morning of *Monday 26^th June and specific times and details will be provided nearer the time.    * We will endeavour to stick to this date but please be aware that it could change to reflect the needs of the school. *

 Planning and Learning Context                                                        

Our learning context and story Mr Wolf’s Pancakes will remain our focus in the nursery up until the Easter break.   When we return in April the book we will be introducing to the children is  Titch by Pat Hutchins. We’ll be using it explore measure and look at growth and change.  If possible we’d like to have photos of the children as babies and as toddlers so if you’re happy to provide us with these, your child’s keyworker will collect them from you during the first week back after the Easter break.  Keep an eye out on our planning wall changing and remember the coloured pens are attached to the display to allow you to record any activity or resource suggestions you have.

What a fantastic day at Keir Hardie Nursery! Our very first ‘Stay and Play Day’ with our ‘Build It’ theme was a huge success. Everyone had the opportunity to join your child at play and spend time with them in the nursery exploring, discovering and learning together.

This included;

• Mega Block City – work together to build tall towers and long bridges as we create a Mega Block city.

• Castle Construction– help to build a castle fit for a price or princess using recyclable materials.
• Town Planner– help us create a new town by drawing a building or vehicle to add to our tiny town wall.
• Humpty’s Wall (Outdoors)– help to build a new wall for Humpty Dumpty using large Lego bricks.
• Build a Bridge (Outdoors)– using wooden blocks and planks.
• Gears and Cogs– can you fit them together to make them turn.

Big thank you to all our parents and grandparents who attended, a day like today would not be achievable if it wasn’t for your continued support.  It was a pleasure to see you all working together and these are precious moments that you can cherish forever.

An ‘Evaluation’ sheet will be handed to you by your child’s key worker. We look forward to hearing your thoughts, feelings and ideas for the future.

The Nursery Staff Team

A  huge warm welcome to Mrs Landels who will be working in the nursery on a temporary basis from now until June 2017.  She is the keyworker for the Bumble Bee group but is looking forward to getting to know all of your wonderful children.

Children who will be 5 years between 1 March 2017 and 28 February 2018 should be registered for education week beginning the 16th to the 20th January. If you live in the catchment area for Keir Hardie Memorial Primary School please come to school Monday- Friday between 1.30pm-3.00pm. Bring your child’s birth certificate and proof of address. (Council tax bill/copy of missives or let agreement. The First Stop Shop will give copies of your Council Tax bill if you do not have one)

On Wednesday the 14th of December we are having raising money for charity by wearing our Christmas jumpers to nursery. All the boys and girls are invited to wear their Christmas jumper or anything Christmas themed on Wednesday. Please do not go to any expense.

What an exciting day at Keir Hardie Nursery Class.  We are developing our outdoor area and we contacted Amey Roads to find out if they could assist in any way. Findlay Robertson the Media and Communications Manager agreed to donate some life size road signs which are child friendly and road cones for our construction area outside to enhance the children’s learning environment. Today Amey roads delivered our resources and brought along some vehicles for everyone to see. They brought along a gritter and an emergency breakdown truck. Before heading out, all the children listened to a talk about keeping safe around the vehicles and the work that the men do on the roads; gritting the roads when ice or snow is forecast and helping people who have broken down on the motorway.

Big thank you to Findlay and his team for providing these fantastic resources and we really appreciate the time he has put in to organise a visit to the nursery, we can’t wait to put them to good use. Today was a unique opportunity for the children and we all really enjoyed it!

During assembly some of the boys and girls received some certificates from Mrs Greer for their achievements in nursery.

Callum McDowall- For his fantastic contributions during community literacy and numeracy activities.

Lewis Reid- For taking his jacket and shoes off in the cloakroom and coming into welcome time confidently with a smile on his face.

Charley Jarvie- For fantastic behaviour in nursery and following our golden rules.

All the nursery are very proud of you!

Nursery Concert

This year our Nursery concert will take place on the morning of Thursday 8th December. 

Both Morning and Afternoon children come together to put on our fantastic show. The afternoon children will therefore have their nursery session that morning.

On the day of the Nursery concert children attending the morning session at nursery should come in at their usual time. Children who attend the afternoon session should be brought to the nursery between 9.00am and 9.15am to get them changed into their costumes.

Christmas Party

Our Christmas Party will take place on the morning of the 22nd December.

Once again our session will take place in the morning and we welcome both morning and afternoon to attend our party. The afternoon children will therefore have their nursery session that morning as Santa will be making a visit to all the boys and girls together at 11am.

What a fantastic day supporting Children in Need 2016. We had a fun filled spotty themed day to raise money for this charity. All the nursery boys and girls were encouraged to wear spots and join in with our spotty themed activities throughout the session. We had a great time making some yummy biscuits for our snack and enjoyed showing off all our home made spotty t-shirts and official Pudsey merchandise. Big thank you for all your donations for this years Children in Need.