Bells Brae Nursery

Graduation 2024

Our 2024 Graduates put on a fabulous show for their families this week with brilliant singing and signing of two songs they’ve been busy practicing this term.

We hope you all have a fun filled Summer and a great start to Primary 1!

We look forward to welcoming all our returning children back to nursery in August!

Sports Stay & Play

The children all did incredibly well during our Sports Stay & Play. They waited so patiently for their turn, listened carefully to instructions for each event and moved round the events brilliantly with their group.

Egg & Spoon

Long Jump

Throwing beanbags into the hoop

Number Zig Zag Relay

Overhead Ball Throw

We practiced our sports activities in the gym hall!

We are delighted the Borrowing Library has been so well used this term!

A reminder that if you currently have any books on loan, it would be much appreciated if these could be returned by the end of term. This will ensure we can have the Borrowing Library fully stocked ready for the start of the next academic year.

African Drumming with Joy

The children have had the opportunity to take part in two African Drumming sessions with Joy recently. The children began by learning a call and respond game and exploring different rhythms. The children really enjoyed these sessions, listened well and were keen to replicate the rhythms and hand movements that Joy demonstrated.

The children have been mark making with their fingers in sand and on whiteboards with pens.

Pouring and filling in the water tray to develop hand eye coordination and exploring nature in the indoor/outdoor room.

The children used their fine motor skills to fill up water sprayers themselves and spray on the walls outdoors. “We are painting the walls”. They then used large paintbrushes and buckets of water to decorate outdoors.

The children built bridges with pallets and wooden planks. They practiced their balancing and helped one another to cross the bridge safely.

The children had a great time in the rainy weather with their suits and boots on! There was lots of puddle jumping and investigating bugs including snails, slugs, woodlouse and spiders which appeared whilst it was rainy!

Den building outdoors using pallets, fish boxes, floats and barrels.

Working cooperatively and using problem solving skills to reroute the water from the tap into the container.

Making their own individual cards using finger painting, choosing which colours they would like to use and the message they would like to include inside.

The children practiced cleaning and drying their brushes whilst exploring colour mixing and using dabbing techniques to decorate a cardboard box together.

Using a variety of construction toys to build “the Eiffel tower” and “Scalloway Castle”, inspired by the photos of the buildings on the wall.

The children have been fascinated to observe the changes in our caterpillars as they’ve grown bigger and bigger and formed their chrysalises. The children were delighted when they arrived at nursery one morning recently to find that the butterflies had begun to emerge from their chrysalises, two even emerged right in front of our eyes!

“He’s coming out of his cocoon”.      “It’s orange and brown”.

“The next one will be beautiful”.       “It’s flied off his cocoon”.

The children watched quietly as the butterflies emerged and were keen to share their news with friends.

We had two lots of butterflies who emerged a few days apart so there was lots of excitement when it was time to release the butterflies outdoors once each group had arrived. Many of the butterflies spent time in the playground, often landing on the children, much to their amazement!

“Letting the butterflies out”.   “Setting them free”.   “It’s on me”.

“Wow, it’s flying away”.    “Bye bye butterfly”.

We have been asked to share the following poster and information for children returning to nursery after the Summer.

ELC Change of Pattern Guidance – Poster

Any parents and carers who wish to request a change to their child’s nursery pattern, with a commencement date in August 2024, should do so no later than Friday 21^st June 2024. This will give us time to confirm changes with settings before the end of term.

Any requests received after this time will not be processed until settings reopen in August 2024.

The children have shown an interest in ‘Da Trow’ story book which is written in Shetland dialect. “I like the book because it was in Shetland”.

The children have the opportunity to visit the school library twice each week. They choose to look at books themselves, with friends or ask an adult to read them a book. Children are then encouraged to be responsible and show care and respect for books by placing their book back in the correct colour-coded section ready for other children to use.

The children enjoyed having together time outside.

“I liked it being in the garden”. “I liked it, I was cool outside”.

Recently one of the stories of the week was ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. The children have been practicing using signs for some of the words and learning about the lifecycle of a caterpillar to a butterfly. We have our very own caterpillars which has created a lot of interest and discussion, the caterpillars have now gone into their chrysalises. We check them each day to observe their changes. We have also had craft opportunities linked to this area of interest.

“I’m making lots of legs”.  “I need a red one”. “It has lots of legs”. “It’s the hungry caterpillar”. “It turns into a butterfly”.

“My caterpillar is growing by eating all the food”.

The children have been mark making in various areas of the nursery, using different signs and pictures for inspiration.

The children have been learning about sequence and arranged the pictures in the sequence in which a flower grows.

We have had a variety of water play opportunities outdoors with sea creatures, shells and different boats which created discussions around the concept of floating and sinking.

The children really engaged with the farm toys which have been used both outdoors and in the indoor/outdoor room. They could quickly tell the difference between the animals that belonged in the farms set and those that belonged in the wild or in a zoo.

“This cheetah shouldn’t be here in the farm, it might eat the cows!

They enjoyed reading stories linked to animals in this area such as Dear Zoo.

“I’m going to take it back to the zoo”. “This cheetah is too fierce, I sent him back”.

Children have been developing their gross motor and risk assessing skills by using the climbing frames to practice their jumping and climbing.

“I like to climb high”. “I am going to jump really high”.

The children worked together to make a den and decided to take in some story books.

“We made a den”. “We hid the climbing frame”.

We planted some Livingston Daisy seeds in our playground. The children helped to prepare the soil ready for planting and they sprinkled the seeds very carefully. They then collected water in the watering can and took turns to water the seeds.

We created a shaded rest area on a sunny day. The children looked at books with friends and role played families. “I’m the Mammy”. “It’s bedtime”.

Story of the week was:

Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French

Song/Rhyme of the week was:

Old Macdonald had a farm

It’s great to see our ‘Borrowing Library’ being so well used. Please feel free to borrow a book or if you have any books which you no longer use that you would be happy to donate to our Borrowing Library for others to enjoy, please pass these onto a member of staff.

We were delighted to welcome Eleanor Hutcheon the Shetland UHI STEM Outreach Co-ordinator to the nursery recently.

Eleanor’s focus was Early Engineering and we spoke about what an Engineer would do and things they might design.  Eleanor built some small towers and challenged the children to see if they were secure, would they fall down if the children tried knocking them down?

It was then the children’s turn to build something and see if they could make it strong and secure then test it by trying to knock it over.

The children really enjoyed the sessions and were keen to try building new creations with different blocks later in the week.

We had to measure our constructions to see how long they were.