Bells Brae Nursery

Our new Tesco Store role play area!

The children voted for what they’d like the role play area to be changed into.  There were three suggestions from children including a vets surgery, a hairdressing salon or a Tesco store.  The children voted at together time with the most popular choice being a Tesco store.  The children provided suggestions of what they think would be in a Tesco store.”Food”.  “Clothes”.  “Toys”.

“Tesco sells lots of things, I’m going to buy the bear”.    “Here’s the bag”.    “Bye, I’m going to cook now”.    “Ice cream is my favourite”.    “Next”.    “Let me put it in my bag”.    “5p please”.    “Add it all up”.

The children extended their play as the days went on, they have had a great time in the Tesco store role play area this week.  Staff added some real food items including tatties, limes and carrots and this encouraged the children to be even more engaged in their play.  The children would purchase these items and then take them to the home corner area to use in their play.  Children practiced their numeracy skills and social skills whilst working or shopping in the store.

“Shop is open”.    “That will be 2 pounds please”.    “You can buy whatever you like”.

Library

A group of children visited the school library and spent time relaxing with books with their friends. Children chose books to look at individually or with friends and had a good knowledge of where and how the books should go back to on the shelf to keep them safe for next time.  Children then enjoyed a group story read by a staff member.

“Look at this cover, it’s the front cover, here’s the back”.    “Look what I got”.    “Room on the broom”.    “What’s this one all about”?

Week Beginning: 23rd March 2026

Our story of the week is Monster Counting Book 1 to 20 by Frances Mackay.

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

Our song of the week is Number Song 1 to 20. Click on the link below to sing along to the song.

Week Beginning: 16th March 2026

Our story of the week is Click Clack Crocodile’s Back by Kathryn White.

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

Our song of the week is The Sneaky Crocodile. Click on the link below to sing along to the song.

Our pre-school children recently enjoyed their second STEM session with Eleanor Hutcheon from UHI Shetland. This time, the workshop focused on two important topics: recycling and renewable energy.

Using a colourful play mat designed as a miniature town, the children explored how communities can look after the environment. Through hands-on play, they sorted pictures of everyday items into the correct recycling bins, thinking about what materials they were made from. This fun activity helped the children to understand where rubbish should go and why recycling is important for protecting our planet.

‘Food goes in the compost bin.’

‘I have recycling bins at home.’

‘The scarf goes in the clothes bin.’

The children also learned about renewable energy. Eleanor showed us how solar panels capture energy from the sun and how wind turbines use the power of the wind to generate electricity. After discussing where these might work best, the children added solar panels and wind turbines to different parts of the miniature town.

‘Solar panels go on the roof.’

‘I don’t have any on my roof.’

‘The fan made a lot of wind.’

‘The windmills go on the hill.’

We also talked about how people sometimes have different opinions about wind turbines. While they create clean energy, some people feel they can affect the landscape and change the look of Shetland’s beautiful scenery. This helped the children begin to understand that communities often have to think carefully about how they use their environment.

Through play, discussion and exploration, the children were able to learn that small actions such as recycling and using renewable energy can make a positive difference to the world around them.

It was a fun and engaging session that introduced important STEM concepts in a way that the children could understand. We would like to say a big thank you to Eleanor for another fantastic workshop. 🌍 ♻️ ⚡

Children have been having lots of adventures outdoors!  One group of children went for a walk to Gilbertson Park where they ran around jumping in puddles, the grown ups joined in too!

Another group of children went to Hayfield Park where they did a great job  climbing up the ladders to get up onto the climbing frame, climbing independently onto the swings, balancing and helping their friends.

“You’re getting all muddy”.    “It’s so muddy”.

“See me”.    “I’m so good at this”.    “I like climbing on this, I never done it before”.

Children regularly have the opportunity to used wheeled vehicles outdoor including trikes, balance bikes and pedal bikes.

“I can do it”!

Children have used their patience and balance skills whilst working individually and in groups to build different structures using the bricks.

“It’s a castle”.

We have had a variety of resources available in the message centre recently such as coins to cut and stick, blank purses and piggy banks so children can fill these with the coins, number formation strips and coin and bank note visuals.  Children have spent time exploring the new resources and using their fine motor skills to cut and stick the coins.

Coins were also added to the playdough table where children were supported to roll the playdough flat and demonstrated how to press the coins in to make a print.

“This is a 2p”.    “What’s this one”?    “Is this 5p”?    “This one is bigger”.    “This one is smallest”.

Children helped an adult to draw a road map so the children could drive their cars on it.  The children were keen to decide what needed to be on the map and add their own ideas.

“My do it”.    “It’s a pond”.    “I do grass”.

Children were busy using a variety of resources in the sand tray and playing in groups with their peers.  They used containers to fill and empty from one container to another whilst counting.

“”How many scoops will fill the bucket”?    “Five”.    “I think it will be more”.

There has been a variety of mark making activities for children to explore both outdoors and in the indoor/outdoor room, including an adult initiated activity where children could use cars with pens attached to the front to mark make.

“We are drawing”.    “A dinosaur with big teeth”.    “I can make a circle”.    “I’m drawing people”.    “Choo choo”.

Throughout the week the loose parts have been used in many different scenes including Up Helly Aa, boats travelling to different places and obstacle courses.

“We’re making a galley”.    “Yeah a galley boat”.    “Look there’s wood. That’ll help burn the galley”.

Week Beginning: 9th March 2026

Our story of the week is Noah’s Ark by Lucy Cousins.

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

Our song of the week is The Animals Went in Two by Two. Click on the link below to sing along to the song.

The children had the opportunity to develop their numeracy and maths skills using the UHI Early Years Maths Tales Pack, based on the story Puffin Peter by Petr Horacek, which we recently enjoyed reading together at story time.

The STEM resources enabled the children to explore measuring and sorting activities while working collaboratively as a group. Toy animals representing the characters from the book were used for estimating, comparing and ordering by length, height and weight.

‘I think the whale is longer.’

‘Let’s check to see.’

‘I guessed right.’

‘The parrot is the tallest one.’

The children particularly enjoyed using a two-pan balance alongside non-standard units (multilink cubes) to investigate and compare the weight of each toy animal.

‘It’s like a seesaw.’

‘The whale is heavy.’

‘Can you help me count?’

They also used magnifying glasses to closely observe each animal’s features and were excited to be blindfolded while guessing the animal using only their sense of touch.

‘I can see bumps on the whale.’

‘Is it the parrot?’

‘It feels like the puffin.’

The final activity involved using sorting rings to group the animals according to specific characteristics such as wings, webbed feet, beaks and tails.

‘The whale can’t fly.’

‘The puffin has a beak so it goes inside the circle.’

‘Let’s do tails now.’

The Maths Tales Pack is a fantastic resource that supports children in developing and applying a wide range of maths skills through engaging, hands-on learning experiences.

Week Beginning: 2nd March 2026

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.

Coin Recognition

The children have been learning all about the different values, colours, shapes and sizes of coins.  They have been doing various activities to help develop their knowledge of coins.

Staff introduced children to a coin recognition/sorting game on the interactive whiteboard.  The children showed great interest in the game.  There were discussions about the colours and shapes of each coin and what we need and use money for.

“Tiny ones is a circle”.    “That one is number 1 not 2”.    “10 is bigger than 1”!    “To buy some stuff”.    “My Mammy and Daddy have money”.

The children have been using the coins and crayons to make rubbings of the coins.  The children have been developing their fine motor skills.  They then moved over to the craft table and discovered they could make rubbing patterns of other items.

Some children were cutting and sticking paper coins and putting them into purses, identifying which value each coin had.

“This one’s 20, no 50”.

Play Dough

The children were keen to help make playdough. They got their aprons on, requesting help when needed using their kind manners.  We read out the recipe, the children recognised the numbers and quantities of each ingredient.  They took turns to put each ingredient in the bowl whilst staff encouraged independence.

Winter Mind Map

The children drew some pictures on a season mind map.  They shared their knowledge of winter and what they liked about winter.  A lot of their knowledge was about the weather.  We also spoke about other seasons and what they knew and liked about those seasons.

“Rain, winter”.    “My hat” (When going outside).    “My window, looking outside at the snow.  It warm in the window”.

Week Beginning: 23rd February 2026

Our story of the week is The Wobblysaurus by Rachel Bright.

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

Our song of the week is Once There Was a Dinosaur (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star).

Once there was a dinosaur,

And all he did was roar and roar.

He roared high and he roared low,

He roared fast and he roared slow.

Once there was a dinosaur,

And all he did was roar and roar.