Bells Brae Nursery

Week Beginning: 24th March 2025

Our story of the week is Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson.

Click on the link below to view and listen to the story.

Our song of the week is Five Little Monkeys. Click on the link below to sing along to the song.

Our Signalong sign of the week is Listen, to.

Week Beginning: 17th March 2025

Our story of the week is There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe by Kate Toms.

Click on the link below to view and listen to the story.

Our rhyme of the week is One, Two, Buckle my Shoe.

One, two, buckle my shoe,

Three, four, knock on the door,

Five, six, pick up sticks,

Seven, eight, lay them straight,

Nine, ten, a big fat hen.

Our Signalong sign of the week is Quick.

The children enjoyed listening to The Perfect Fit by Naomi Jones which was one of our stories of the week earlier in the term. The book is about a triangle who doesn’t feel that she fits in with the other shapes so she goes off in search of somewhere that she can fit in perfectly. It’s a great story for introducing shapes but it also teaches us about diversity and inclusion along with the importance of being ourselves.

‘Triangles are pointy.’

‘Hexagons are cool.’

‘The rocket has five squares with a triangle at the top.’

‘This is my favourite book.’

The book was part of a resource pack borrowed from the UHI STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) outreach programme. We had great fun learning about different shapes and finding out about their properties using the interesting resources in the pack. The children sorted shapes into groups, ordered them according to size, used elastic bands on geoboards to make 2D shapes and explored tiling by fitting the shapes together.

‘A triangle has three sides.’

‘Look at my shape pattern.’

‘I’ve got lots of circles.’

‘The shapes are all lined up.’

‘The biggest shape goes first.’

Week Beginning: 10th March 2025

Our story of the week is One Banana, Two Bananas by Adam and Charlotte Guillain.

Click on the link below to view and listen to the story being read by the authors.

Our song of the week is The Banana Song. Click on the link below to sing along to the song while doing the actions.

Our Signalong sign of the week is Like, to.

We had lots of characters in school today including a ghost!  It was a good job we had a ghostbuster too!

Week Beginning: 3rd March 2025

Our story of the week is Mr Wolf’s Pancakes by Jan Fearnley.

Click on the link below to view and listen to the story.

Our song of the week is Pop a Little Pancake.

Pop a little pancake into the pan.

Pop a little pancake into the pan.

Pop a little pancake into the pan.

That’s for my dinner today.

Shake a little sugar with a shake, shake, shake!

Shake a little sugar with a shake, shake, shake!

Shake a little sugar with a shake, shake, shake!

That’s for my dinner today.

Squeeze a little lemon with a squeeze, squeeze, squeeze!

Squeeze a little lemon with a squeeze, squeeze, squeeze!

Squeeze a little lemon with a squeeze, squeeze, squeeze!

That’s for my dinner today.

Toss a little pancake up in the air!

Toss a little pancake up in the air!

Toss a little pancake up in the air!

That’s for my dinner today.

Eat it all up with a yum, yum, yum!

Eat it all up with a yum, yum, yum!

Eat it all up with a yum, yum, yum!

That’s for my dinner today.

Our Signalong sign of the week is Put.

Galley Shed Visit

We were kindly invited to visit the Galley Shed prior to Up Helly Aa by the Committee. We got a tour of the galley shed, saw the finished galley and watched a video of Up Helly Aa last year. The children had the opportunity to hold a real viking torch which would then have been used by a guizer in the night time procession and thrown into the burning galley. They also got to steer the galley boat and sit in the Jarl’s chair.

Up Helly Aa Day – Outing to see the morning procession

On Up Helly Aa Day we walked from Nursery to watch the morning procession. We got to see the procession begin and saw the galley which we’d been so lucky to visit at the Galley shed the week before. We saw the whole Jarl Squad marching along the street, singing and cheering as they passed by with crowds lining the streets to watch.

Viking Visitors to Nursery

We were very lucky to have some members of the Jarl Squad come to visit us at Nursery in the afternoon on Up Helly Aa day. They kindly showed us their viking outfits and accessories and even let us try some of it out!

Up Helly Aa Crafts

During January the bairns had the opportunity to create viking crafts including their very own viking helmet and shield.

Up Helly Aa has remained a very popular interest with many of the children at Nursery, with groups often using various items as torches and cheering as they march around Nursery with their squad!

Week Beginning: 24th February 2025

Our story of the week is We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.

Click on the link below to view and listen to the story being read by the author.

Our song of the week is The Bear Went Over the Mountain. Click on the link below to sing along to the song.

Our Signalong sign of the week is Now.

The pre-school children are enjoying weekly visits from Eleanor Hutcheon who is the Shetland UHI STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Outreach Co-ordinator. Eleanor is running workshops on Wednesday mornings in the General Purpose room in the school where the children have the opportunity to explore computational thinking through using Botley which is a programmable device. The children have used a remote control to enter a set of directional instructions in order to get Botley to move along a planned route. They have also learned that a set of instructions is called an algorithm.

The workshops are a great learning experience for the children as they are not only developing an understanding of computing science but also the ability to listen carefully to information and instructions. In addition, they are learning important maths skills relating to position and movement while also developing the ability to solve problems.

‘I love playing with Botley.’

‘Botley is a computer robot.’

‘You use the controller to tell Botley where to go.’

‘The green arrow is forwards.’

‘The blue and yellow arrows make Botley turn left or right.’