Tag Archives: literacy

Early Years 2023-24 Term 2 Week 7

December 8, 2023 Mrs Malcolmson Leave a comment

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

One of our lovely neighbours donated a whole box of wooden train track pieces. The bairns have been building different tracks all week, connecting the pieces in a variety of shapes and making good use of the space in the quiet room.

We encourage the bairns to look after their nursery by picking things up and putting them back where they belong. We’ve seen lots of great helpers this week. The bairns also help themselves to water during lunch by filling up the jug at the sink. Although, it’s not always tidying – “I’m not tidying up, I’m getting ready for mums and dads coming.”

Here is a summary of the rest of our learning and development for the week. There has been lots of interest in small world play, building and role play.

We’ve been opening our advent calendar each day by picking names out of a hat. The bairns have been keen to see what will be in the box.

One of the bairns asked for a large piece of paper to draw around her friend. We found a roll of wallpaper and the bairns secured it at the corners with heavy items from around nursery. The bairns took turns laying down or drawing. We extended this by comparing the length of the drawings and adding our names.

We have been exploring the gym equipment in the hall and the bairns have been increasing in confidence, trying more adventurous moves and climbing higher. The rope swings have been a tricky piece of apparatus to master but the bairns have persevered and their swinging skills have developed, allowing them to swing with one or two ropes at a time.

The bairns have been engaged in lots of Christmas activities this week. They’ve made cards and pictures, decorated a large Christmas tree with loose parts embellishments, created pin pictures and found out how to cut out Christmas jumpers on a Cricut paper-cutting machine.

Early Years 2023-24 Term 2 Week 6

December 1, 2023 Mrs Malcolmson Leave a comment

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

After our music practice, we headed through to the soft play area and the bairns used the gross motor skills for climbing, jumping and balancing. They also explored the role play area and made models using the magnetic bars.

We headed down to the Salvation Army polycrub on the bus and when we arrived there were lots of jobs to keep us busy. The bairns trimmed the geranium plants and repotted their cuttings to take home. They made room for some new geranium plants and had a smell of garlic. The bairns even found some loose parts (plant pots) to make a telephone! They fed the chickens and visited the goats in their new home inside the second polycrub.

The bairns have been engaged in building structures using Magna-Tiles, such as houses, castles, garages and a spaceship. They incorporate their imaginative play and have spent extended periods of time creating their own settings.

The Library Van came back for a visit and the bairns headed aboard in small groups. Each group chose a book to take back to nursery. In their groups, they discussed why their book should be chosen and we ended up with a great variety from Sir Scallywag and the Deadly Dragon Poo to a factual book about giant machines.

A bairn with a keen interest in ice cream wondered about how it was made. We found a recipe on the iPad and after watching a video, we wrote out a shopping list and gathered the ingredients. The bairns added the sugar, cream, vanilla and milk to one bag and the salt and ice to another and got to shaking. After the ice cream had formed it was time to have a taste “yummy”, “it’s very cold”, “it’s a bit icy”. If you fancy making your own, it only takes 6 minutes!

How To Make Ice Cream In A Bag – My Fussy Eater | Easy Family Recipes

Here are the rest of our photos of learning and fun from this week. The bairns have been playing lots of different games and making up their own.

Early Years 2023-24 Term 2 Week 5

November 24, 2023 Mrs Malcolmson Leave a comment

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

We were invited through to the gym hall to have a shot on the apparatus including the climbing bars, rope swings and trampoline jump. The bairns listened to the instructions before setting off to explore all the equipment. They climbed, jumped, took turns, assessed their own risk and had fun. We are excited to see how their confidence has grown next week.

The bairns noticed that lots of little birds were eating our hens’ food and they thought they might need something for the winter. We set about making some bird feeders using pinecones, wild bird seed mix, mealworms, raisins and lard to stick it all together.

This week our visit to the Salvation Army polycrub included taking geranium cuttings and planting them to take home, planting lettuce, feeding the hens with crushed egg shells and old vegetables, visiting the goats and cows and shaking off the soil from some dead plants.

The bairns have been engaged in volcano play, particularly in the sand pit. We discussed the active volcano in Iceland and how far it was from Shetland, finding some photos on the iPad. The bairns were keen to try a volcano experiment, sourcing the ingredients of vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, dish soap, warm water and food colouring. After building the volcano from sand, we added the ingredients to make the volcano erupt. While the bairns were waiting they decided to count, getting all the way to 100.

After the Halloween decorations came down, the bairns were asking about decorating for Christmas. We got the tree down from the loft and after some discussion about how small the box was, we set it up in the quiet room. We added the lights first and then the bairns searched the boxes of decorations to find items to make the tree look beautiful. They placed on tinsel, baubles, nutcracker ornaments and pinned up a Santa sock. Finally it was time to add the star.

Here’s a snapshot of the rest of our week and the learning that’s taken place.

Early Years 2023-24 Term 2 Week 3

November 10, 2023 Mrs Malcolmson Leave a comment

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

This week we started our music lesson by moving to the beat and warming up our muscles. We did lots of practicing for our Christmas concert and then finished off with a super fast Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

The bairns made use of the soft play area, building structures to jump from and making an ice cream shop.

A couple of the bairns went on a trip to the Salvation Army polycrub with some of the school bairns. They took up the strawberry runners and replanted them. There are a number of strawberry plants in the nursery honesty cupboard for sale. The bairns sampled some raspberries which was a highlight of the trip. The hens were fed too with handfuls of crushed egg shells.

We were delighted to have a visit from Miss Irvine and her baby. The bairns were keen to find out more about their little visitor and noticed that she had four teeth. The bairns read lots of stories to the baby making sure she could see the pictures.

We’ve had another busy week and here are just some of the learning that has taken place.

We listened to a short story called Poppy’s Day which follows a little girl finding out about Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies to honor those lost to war. The link below is a two minute video containing the experiences of animals on a WW1 battlefield. After listening to the story of Poppy’s Day, the bairns were keen to make their own poppies.

(1) CBeebies | Poppies animation – YouTube

Early Years 2023-24 Term 2 Week 1

October 27, 2023 Mrs Malcolmson 1 Comment

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

We were delighted to welcome the bairns back this week after our October break. It was an exciting first morning with a trip to Lerwick on the service bus to see Paper Moon, an interactive adventure show featuring Poppy and her dog Peppy. We meet Poppy and Peppy and find out they love all things space. Poppy dozes off under the bright light of the moon. This is just the start of the adventure. Suddenly, Poppy wakes up to discover that MoonMoo (the cow that jumped over the moon) has got stuck on the Moon! Poppy and Peppy begun their mission to rescue MoonMoo and with the help of the bairns they walked on the moon, fought off a meteorite and found MoonMoo. After the show we went on a quick walk which took us around the water’s edge at North Ness. The bairns were curious to find out what was inside the big red squares on the wall. We had a look and found life rings showing the words Lerwick Harbour. We spoke about how these could be used to help rescue someone who had fallen into the sea by helping them float and be pulled back to shore.

The bairns have been engaged in various fine motor activities this week. This has also involved imaginary play in the small world area and playdough station.

Childsmile visited this week and the bairns brushed their teeth following the directions.

The bairns have settled back into the nursery routines which has supported their play. We’ve noticed how much collaborative play has taken place this week already. The bairns have discussed the best way to include their friends, how they want to continue their imaginative play and worked together to build.