Author: Ania Brown

A very big thank you to Ruby’s mum who helped us run the library today! We really appreciate your help and can’t wait to have you back next week!

If you would like to help us with the weekly library, please speak to Ania or Vicky for all of the information.

See you soon!

Last week, we had lots of conversations about Valentine’s Day and what it means to love somebody…

L: “It’s when you get married, it means you love the other person.”
P: “I love my friend, so I’m going to hug her.”
K: “It’s when you give kisses.”
A: “I love you!”

Some of the boys and girls have shared that love means giving each other love hearts. We talked about the shape, colour and different sizes of heart. We wanted to make our own love hearts for our mummies and daddies to show them how much we loved them! We decided to make them a little bit differently… So we used paint and a salad spinner!

E: “Do you need to spin it very fast?”
A: “Faster, faster!”
L: “I think the colours will mix together.”
L: “I wonder what will happen if we add glitter to the paint.”

Dear parents, carers and families!

We need you!

We are looking for helpers to run our weekly library! All we would ask of you would be your lovely presence and supervision of home link bags.

If you would be able to help, please let Vicky or Ania know the suitable slots:

Wednesday morning:

8.40-9.10 and/or 11.35-11.55

Wednesday afternoon:

12.30-12.50 and/or 2.45-3.05

 

As you might have seen on our display in the cloakroom, we have been busy exploring portraits. We have been talking about the features of our faces noticing that we all look different!

P: “A has got brown eyes and I’ve got blue eyes.”
L: “A has got longer hair than mine. C has shorter hair, but that’s because he’s a boy.”
L: “My top is a different colour!”

Some of the boys and girls had a great idea – why don’t we take some photos of our faces and make them into puppets?! So we did! With the use of a camera, we carefully took portrait photos and printed them off to make them into puppets. Before we knew it, the boys and girls were making puppets using lots of different materials – photographs, lolly sticks, paper, material, wool, googly eyes, feathers… The ideas had no end!

While hard at work, one of the children said:

“Can we make the Three Little Pigs puppets?” – now, that is a brilliant idea! So we did! We worked very hard and showed super teamwork in exchanging ideas and sharing materials. One thing led to another and… We now have our own puppet theatre! We had already performed lots of different shows, we even wrote our own story to act out! We still have lots more ideas to come, so you are more than welcome to join us!

C: “I’ll be a pig!”
A: “Big Bag Wolf!”
A: “Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!”
P: “This is a show about a princess who lived in a castle.”
J: “But you need to buy a ticket!”
A: “That’s the end. Come back tomorrow for another show!”

You might have noticed a few new faces in our Early Learning and Childcare class…

We would like to say a very warm welcome to our three new members of staff:

– Clare McGarry, our new Support Worker                 – Stacey Gaughan, our new Support Worker and     – Laura Carmichael, our modern apprentice.
Welcome!

We are also very happy to announce that Vicky Armour, our Early Learning and Childcare Officer who worked at the beginning of the week, will now be with us full time! 

How exciting to have lots of new members of staff! We are so happy to have you in our team!

 

This year, Rabbie Burns’ Day falls on Saturday the 25th of January, but because we don’t come to nursery on a Saturday… We decided to celebrate his day on Friday! Before trying traditional haggis, neeps and tatties, we discussed who Rabbie Burns was and why he was so important to the people of Scotland. We learned a few Scottish songs, too!

M: “I know Three Craws!”
C: “I know Ally Bally!”
E: “He was a farmer!”
O: “He wrote songs for girls.”

Well done, boys and girls! We also sang “You cannae shove yer granny aff a bus” and “I went to my Auntie Sarah’s.” We also found out that if Rabbie Burns was still alive, he would have been 261 years old on the 25th January 2020! WOW!

During the celebration we joined in some highland dancing and we even tossed our own caber! The boys and girls showed really strong muscles as well as great risk assessment when tossing the caber in a safe direction – well done!

Happy Rabbie Burns’ Night, everyone! We hope you enjoy your haggis, neeps and tatties!

The boys and girls have been extremely busy baking delicious food in our social zone. Some of the children suggested that we could bake bread and pizzas.. Well, of course we can!

We searched for recipes in our cooking book and together wrote a list of the ingredients:
– flour
– sugar
– salt
– oil
– yeast
– warm water

For our pizzas we decided to have these ingredients:
– ham
– sauce
– chicken
– cheese

P: “I like a lot of cheese on my pizza!”
C: “I have bread with my sandwiches!”
K: “I sometimes have a pizza for dinner. I like ham and cheese on it.”
B: “Sure you make toast with bread?”
E: “I like baking!”
P: “I help my mummy bake and cook at home!”

First, we mixed all of the ingredients together to make bread. When the dough was ready, we let it rest and prove – that way it grew in size! We used some of the dough for our pizzas, too before putting it into the oven to bake. The nursery smelled lovely!

The boys and girls have shown great skills by following the instructions in the recipe, measuring out the right amount of ingredients as well as working together and sharing materials. Well done, our bakers! Hmmm, maybe we should think about having our own version of the “Great British Bake Off”…?

 

We have been exploring the story of “Three little pigs” over past few days. It has sparked good conversations about houses, what they are built out of and what shapes they might be. We decided to make our own houses for the three pigs!

M: “It’s a square!”
K: “The house is square and the roof could be triangle.”
P: “I saw a circle room where my granny lives!”
E: “Three little pigs had three houses, sure they did?!”
L: “The first house was straw, we need straw!”

We decided to build a straw house! First, we put up a structure of a house – we decided that is should be a square house with a triangle roof. The boys and girls all worked super hard together to make sure the house is sturdy so the wolf can’t blow it down! We then made the walls using big massive pieces of paper and straw! Our story will continue over the next few weeks, so look out for more houses!

N: “I like the three pigs.”
H: “I’d like to live in a brick house cause it’s safe and strong.”
P: “We could make the wolf’s footprints with paint!”
A: “The straw isn’t very strong.”