We have had lots of visitors in our nursery this week.

Some very helpful P6 children came to help us check our jigsaws and puzzles, to see if there were any missing pieces. Everyone had fun completing them and it was lovely to see all the children playing together,  talking about their ideas and working together to problem solve.

We also had visitors from Child Smile, including Doogen the Dog. He was talking to the children about how important it is that they brush their teeth carefully and try to drink water instead of juice, to help look after their teeth.

Mrs Martin, who retired in December, also came to see us this week and she very kindly brought us flowers donated by Tesco. She gave them to the children and they asked if they could use them to make perfume, so they collected water in tubs and started mixing in the petals. Mrs Martin had a lovely welcome from the children and before she left they all played’ Lava’, which they always used to play with her.

The children created a Snakes and Ladders game outside using chalks. They practised turn taking and following the rules together, which was lots of fun. They were very creative and even started to add in extra areas to extend their game.

We have also enjoyed all the different types of weather this week, from beautiful sunshine to hail and snow. Everyone had fun making snow angels and sledging today.

We hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday and look forward to welcoming everyone back to nursery on Monday 18th April.

The children have been making the most of the lovely weather this week and have especially loved playing their favourite games outside, such as ‘The Farmer’s in His Den’. They have been practising taking turns and making sure that everyone is included in the games. The children also decided to bring the climbing frame into the garden and enjoyed experimenting by extending it and creating balancing walkways. The water trays were also in the garden this week. The children have been practising filling jugs, carrying them carefully and then pouring, trying not to spill. They have also been problem solving how to transport water from one tray to another using pipes.

PE is now in the PE Hall again, which the children are really enjoying. They have been developing skills such as walking on tiptoes, running, throwing, catching and bouncing balls. The PE equipment was also used for the children to experiment with different ways to move under, over and around.

We now have a new  information board for families at the ELC entrance, along with an ipad showing pictures of what the children have been doing in nursery each day. We hope this helps families to be able to see more of their child’s experience in nursery until we can have families coming in more and for our Stay and Play sessions. The information board will also tell you about your child’s day and share any updates and planned events. Please feel free to leave a comment on the back of the board or to give feedback to a member of staff.

This week the children have started their Recycling project and have been preparing the recycling tubs to sort  items into. Everyone has been helping to sort through our toys and games to see what we can keep and what needs to be recycled. The children also brought home battery boxes, so that old batteries can be brought in to be recycled. These activities are helping the children to understand how we can all think carefully about why we recycle and how we can do this at home and in nursery.

It has been another busy week in the nursery garden with the children preparing the containers and beds ready for planting flowers and vegetables. They have enjoyed using the new gardening tools to  dig the weeds out and turn the soil to prepare the ground.

We have already started planting inside and this week the children planted Sunflower seeds. The children all decorated their own greenhouses, then added soil and a seed to them. They are now on our windowsills where they will get lots of sun and the children can watch them grow as they care for them. The children have also been making Sunflowers this week which they have displayed by the nursery entrance, so that all the families can see them at drop off and pick up. They also learned that the Sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine.

Some of the children have been investigating how to build a bridge this week.  They have been using their problem-solving skills and team work to use the blocks to make a long bridge., which was much admired by everyone. When it accidentally fell down they had fun  singing ‘London Bridge is falling down’.

We are continuing to encourage the children to develop their independence through our nursery routines, such as our self-service snack routine. Some of the children are  also enjoying helping to prepare the snack and lay the table.

For Red Nose Day today the children enjoyed listening to and joining in with ‘have a laugh stories’. There were lots of giggles and funny ideas they all shared together.

This week the children have been talking about the different seasons, how they change and which season we are now in. They have been discussing all the different signs of Spring, such as buds appearing on trees, plants growing in the ground, baby lambs, birds returning to Scotland and new chicks being born. We have been walking around the school grounds looking at all the new signs of Spring.

We now have a new weather chart to help us talk about changes in the weather. The children take it in turns to update the chart each day as the weather changes.

The children have also been making bird feeders to take home and for our nursery garden. They made a feed mixture with lard, cheese, raisins, apples and oats which they mixed together and then moulded onto pinecones. Some of the children also wanted to make bird feeders by stuffing the mixture into toilet rolls and using sticks to hang them from branches.

The children leading their learning is a crucial element to our ethos in nursery and our children have great ideas, which they enjoy developing together. Some of the children decided to create a drive through area in the garden, which they then developed into a McDonald’s. They used boxes to create seating and a kitchen area. They even made signs for each area. They then took turns to work there and to drive through. Don’t worry, we only promote healthy eating at nursery!

It was very exciting when we had outdoor PE in the school MUGA this week. The children practised balancing by walking along the lines, changing directions, walking backwards, forwards and to the side. They also practised throwing and catching skills with small balls, which they had great fun with.

The children have daily opportunities to practise recognising and writing their name in lots of different ways. This week some of the children were keen to spell out their names with the letter stones.

There are also daily activities to develop fine motor skills. The playdough station has been very popular this week and the children have enjoyed rolling it into different shapes and sizes to create people. They have also experimented with different tools like cutters, rollers and scissors.

This week we have been celebrating World Book Day by sharing our favourite books from home and in nursery. We have enjoyed listening to and talking about these stories in our group times and drawing pictures of our favourite books and the characters in them.

Monday was a freezing cold day and the children found some ice in the garden. They wanted to find out how cold the ice was, so they gathered it into a pile and used a thermometer to measure the temperature. The children noticed that the temperature changed as the ice melted.

We now have a Music Hut in the garden where the children can experiment with the instruments to express themselves. They have enjoyed this so much that they created a musical space inside and started a musical conga around the room.

The children have been busy developing their creativity and using team work to create new areas in the nursery, based on their interests and the ideas that they would like to explore. Some of the children have shown a key interest in nails and have created a nail bar which is helping them to practise turn taking, recognising colours and developing fine motor skills. Another group of children created a large car garage outside in a garden hut. They worked together to problem solve and develop their ideas so they could move the cars up and down the garage, using long tubes and pipes. the children have also experimented with the train track to find ways to connect the dolls house to the house role play area across the room. We also now have a puppet theatre, which the children are using to create shows for each other and to share stories and books. Some of the children are enjoying playing hiding games and they decided to build a den using blankets and play bricks.

The children have been developing their scissor skills by cutting out letters and using them to spell their names. Some children are also practising writing their names on their pictures.

A lot of the children enjoy helping and having jobs to do, to show how responsible they can be. Mrs Thomson even had a little helper to dry the dishes, put them away and clean the cupboards.