Learning outdoors

The children in the Rainbow Room have been utilising the outdoor learning environments to deepen their curiosity and creativity skills. From finding the creepiest of crawlies under the stones to watching the “wee” tadpoles with wonder in the dipping pond within Shotts Nature Park and then wow they found the real Humpty Dumpty’s wall.

They have been learning how to care for their strawberry patch by ensuring that the plants are given water daily, before setting off into the mud kitchen to create some wonderful new recepies.

The children are demonstrating increasing skill on the balance bikes and are choosing daily to access this resource. Watch out for the next post to see their first Play on Pedals Family Learning session.

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What’s on week beginning the 22nd May 2017

Monday 22nd May 2017

Lynn will be in the early level playroom today.

Rainbow Room family play on pedals session 9 am – 9.30 am, with Susan, Kirsty and Amanda.

Rainbow Room children attending the forest this afternoon with Lynn, Amanda and Kirsty.

Tuesday 23rd May 2017

Lynn will be in the Rainbow Room today.

Bob Duncan Additional Support Needs Manager will be in the nursery today.

Isabel will be attending a session on Resilience at Chatlerhault Park, 11am – 1 pm

Early Level Curriculum Open Evening 6 pm till 7.30 pm for all parents returning and new families joining the centre in August 2017.  Can all afternoon children be collected at 3.30 pm today to enable the staff to set up for the event.  Thankyou.

Wednesday 24th May 2017

Lynn will be in the early level playroom today.

Yvonne from the ELCAT team will be in the centre this afternoon.

Gemma speech and language therapist is on holiday today.

Thursday 25th May 2017

Nurturing Nature Forest school family session with Nicola and Taylor 8.50 am and 1 pm.

Solihull Understanding your Child with Jen and Debbie at 1.30 pm.

Siobhan will be attending the Shotts Cluster Group this afternoon.

Friday 25th May 2017 & Monday 26th May 2017

Public holiday no service.

And so the learning continues

The arrival of the fairy folk has certainly inspired the children to develop their creativity skills as they planned and designed their fairy house, smurf and army barracks “as the fairies needed soldiers to protect them.”

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Two of the parents who recently completed the Nurturing Nature Forest School sessions have planned to enhance the outdoor learning by designing some pieces of furniture.  Watch this space or pop into the garden to see how the areas are developing.

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Bookbug what a giggle………..

Over the course of the week the children have celebrated Bookbug Big Giggle week by taking part in various reading opportunities in and around their local community.  Parents also took the opportunity to join in the children’s 3 Read to Nurturing Early Readers group, before setting of with their child to the local library.

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The story which gave the some of the children the biggest giggle was The Dinosaur that pooped a planet by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Pointer.

 

We welcomed senior pupils from Calderhead High School and pupils from Dykehead Primary School who spent time reading with the children in the nursery.  It was lovely to see the Primary 6 pupils most of whom had attended the nursery in the past and were able to confidently share their experience of being a nursery child.  The pupils were a credit to the school, who will all make excellent buddies to our children leaving in June.

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Residents from Rosehall Care Home enjoyed their visit from Bookbug too, where the children shared a few of their favourite stories.

We hope that Bookbug Big Giggle has demonstrated that books can be enjoyed anywhere at anytime.

Nurturing Nature Forest School Group 2

The second group of our Nurturing Nature family sessions has commenced, we  have begun by exploring  variety of different areas within the Nature Park, participated in some pond dipping and fishing with many a tadpole and fish being caught.

This week we discovered the Fairy woods and the Learning Circle where we went on a Bear Hunt, bug hunt , and butterfly hunt !!!

Next week the families will have the opportunity to explore creativity and use their imagination to create some Forest friends or possibly some bug hotels or fairy houses ??? .

The fairies have arrived

It all began when a little green clay glitter mushroom arrived in the nursery garden, no one knew how it got there as it certainly hadn’t grown like a flower.  Each day the children visited the spot to see if anything else changed.  Soon there were chimes on the trees, ribbons billowing in the wind. The children decided to make some small houses from recycled junk and coloured shape jewels.  They left them under the trees to find out if they would attract fairy folk or indeed smurfs. Then a letter arrived and so the fairy garden began to be created, as each day something mystical attracted a new fairy to the garden.  Why not have a look in the garden yourself.

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Elsewhere in the nursery the children have been learning about the different times within their day and what they liked about those times.  They haven spoke about the activities they attended on certain days and whether those were attended in the morning, afternoon or after dinner.  Some of the children set themselves a challenge to see how quickly it took them to complete the shape sorter game and recorded this in a chart.  A few of the children decided that they would create their own clocks, can you see how well their number formation is?  Have a look at the times within our day display in the playroom.

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The Ladybird Group Play on Pedals family learning session was extremely well attended, with children proudly demonstrating their growing balancing and pedaling skills.  There was even some younger siblings confidently joining in.

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What’s on week beginning 15th May 2017

 

Monday 15th May 2017

Siobhan is on annual leave today

Tuesday 18th May 2017

Afternoon children visiting Rosehall Care Home, to share a few favourite traditional stories.

Wednesday 19th May 2017

Siobhan attending Calderhead Cluster Numeracy Group 3.15 pm

Thursday 20th May 2017

Nurturing Nature Forest School with Nicola 8.45 am and 1 pm

Solihull Understanding your Child programme with Jen and Debbie 1.30 pm

Susan attending Boardmaker Training in the afternoon

Friday 21st May 2017

Isabel attending Boardmaker training in the morning

Dykehead Primary Transition Visit 1.15 pm for all the children

Lynn & Lorraine attending official opening of Allanton Primary Garden

Nurturing Nature Family Learning Forest School Celebration

After a very successful fully attended four week programme, a celebration was had within the forest. Both the children and adults had the opportunity to revisit and consolidate their learning within this session and learn the new skill of making a safe fire , using the kettle kelly some sticks and plenty of marshmallows !!! After some tea , coffee , hot chocolate and tasty treats  it was definitely time for a well deserved rest on the hammocks. Each family was then presented with a certificate of participation which I am sure you are all very proud of.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who participated  each week, come rain or shine,  for an enjoyable and successful Nurturing Nature Forst School programme and I hope that you all continue to use the Nature Park for many more adventures !!

 

We have been learning…….

We are continuing to investigate the properties of 2D shapes in our play.  You may of heard some of the new songs or joined in with your child as they check for familiar shapes at home.

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The children eagerly joined Mary from ABC music for a fun filled and motivating session where they were introduced to a variety of new instruments.

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What’s on week beginning 8th May 2017

Monday 8th May 2017

Lynn will be in the early level playroom today

Amanda occupational therapist will be in the centre this morning

Tuesday 9th May 2017

Lynn will be in the Rainbow Room today

Wednesday 10th May 2017

Lynn will be in the Rainbow Room today

Gemma speech and language therapist will be in the nursery today

Yvonne, ELCAT will be in the nursery this afternoon

Thursday 11th May 2017

Lynn will be in the early level playroom today

Nurturing Nature Forest School session with Nicola and Taylor this afternoon

Solihull Understanding your Child parent/carer session with Jen and Debbie this afternoon

Friday 12th May 2017

Lynn will be in the early level playroom today

8.50 am and 1 .10 pm Ladybird Play on Pedals Family Learning session with Susan and Siobhan

Dykehead Primary Transition Event 11 am

Natalie Oral Health Educator from Childsmile will be in the nursery this afternoon