This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The focus for Nurturing Early Readers is promoting children’s emotional literacy skills.

  The children will be exploring different characters, setting and problems within the story discussing how caring, sharing, fairness, equality and love make us feel.

The children have been very busy in the nursery learning around the context of The 3 Little Pigs.  They have been reading the story as well as watching the “True story of the three little pigs” on the interactive smart board.  The children have also been re-enacting the story using puppets and dressing up as the different characters from the story.

Within the art area children have been creating representations of the story by making life size paintings of the different characters.  There has been lots of discussions on how they would feel if they were one of the three little pigs while also discussing how the big bad wolf might have felt.

Within the home corner  children have been creating a hospital where the three little pigs are being looked after. The children have been taking turns caring for each other and showing an awareness of each others feelings by listening to conversations on how there houses were blown down by the big bad wolf.

Children have have been creating new homes for the 3 little pigs using a variety of materials including bricks, paper, sticks, twigs, clay and play dough exploring the different patterns and shapes in each build.  They have been developing problem solving skills by experimenting through “huffing and puffing” to find out which house is the weakest and which one is the strongest in keeping the little pigs safe.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

These two links will provide information on how we will begin to promote Book Week Scotland within the centre, day to day info will be given direct from your child’s key person.

Book Week Scotland Home Link  copies of this document will be given out week beginning the 23rd November 2015 for you to complete at home over the course of the week with your child.

Book Week Scotland within Shotts Family Learning Centre

The children have taking part opportunities to go walks in the local environment to stimulate their senses.  They have been listening out for different sounds, identifying smells and using their sense of touch to explore.

Using a blindfold to restrict their sense of sight, the children have been developing their sense of touch, smell and taste as they participated in a fruit tasting activity. By feeling and touching a variety of textures, the children have been using descriptive language to talk about what they could taste, feel and smell.

The children have also had opportunities to develop their understanding of how their senses can support their learning within baking and cooking experiences while they were, tasting, smelling, touching and preparing the foods . This has also allowed  the children to develop their understanding of numbers and understand that they represent quantities when counting out the ingredients. The little chefs have been making a variety of foods such as pizza, macaroni cheese, healthy hearty soups, cookies, biscuits and even turned their hands to milkshakes, fruit smoothies and hot chocolate.

Children have also been exploring the workbench and building blocks area, where they have shown a keen interest in making towers and castles. The children have been using mathematical language, “the last number I have counted..” and are developing their understanding that numbers represent quantities when counting out how many blocks they will need to make their castles.

The children used a range of different senses whilst exploring with the play dough, gloop and marbling ink. The children added spices like ginger, cinnamon and chocolate powder to the play dough to stimulate their sense of smell correctly identifying the different spices etc. within the play dough, informing the practitioner  “it smells like chocolate” .  They also explored their sense of touch as they described the play dough being “soft”. The children also used descriptive language to described the gloop as being “slimy”.  The children also used their sense of sight asthey described the paint as “bright and colourful”.

Forest School

The children, both morning and afternoon, have completed a five week block of Forest School sessions with a Family Learning session ending the block. The children have been learning skills for life within these outdoor learning sessions. These skills include fishing, tree identification, bug hunting and den building just to name a few experiences that were on offer. Due to the winter weather fast approaching Forest School will recommence nearer February 2016 when a new group of children will be invited to participate in Forest School sessions.

Both Nicola and Susan would like to thank both the children, parents and grandparents who participated in the  day to day organising of their children and for participating in the family learning sessions.

 The children within the early level playroom have been using their senses to explore the seasonal changes taking place around them.  The children have taken part in a variety of  learning opportunities that promotes their awareness  of  how their sense of touch, sight, smell, hearing and taste enriches their learning and development.

The children have been having lots of fun exploring their chosen book during nurturing early readers.  They have been finding out more about the different characters, setting and problems within the story.

In consultation with the children we decided that we were ready to introduce tools to the woodwork bench.  We had a thorough chat about potential risks and dangers and together came up with a few simple rules to keep ourselves and each other safe whilst using them. The children are now demonstrating an awareness of these safety rules and can often be heard reminding each other of them.  

By exploring their local environment, the children have been talking about how to be safe when crossing the road. On a recent visit to the Co op, the children had to use their eyes and ears to look and listen, making judgements on whether or not it was safe to cross the road. This was also a great opportunity for discussion about people who help us to cross the road such as mums, dads and the local lollipop lady. The children also had the chance to use the pedestrian crossing waiting for the red man to turn green and the cars to stop., before safely crossing the road.

Children have been thinking about safety around their home environment and recreating this within the role play area while using a range of equipment and resources including knives, tin openers and graters etc.  They have participated in lots of discussions about risks present to them in their everyday lives and demonstrated this during their play.  A number of children have chosen some hands on experience within the real kitchen while making porridge, pasta and sandwiches. 

Within the outdoor learning environment the children have had many opportunites to manage and access risk, from using the climbing frame and resources appropriately to preparing themselves to use the balance and pedal bikes. Children are becoming more aware of the importance of keeping themselves and their friends safe. The outdoor café, mud kitchen and water zone have been very popular with children experimenting with more natural resources to count, compare sizes and measure their ingredient’s, using stones, water, mud , mint leafs and flowers. Some very delicious foods were created !!