Easter Delivery and Decorating Eggs (Monday-Friday)

The bairns asked if we could deliver something to our neighbours next to nursery.  They settled on Easter chick cards using shredded paper for feathers.  The bairns also decorated eggs by drawing a pattern on a piece of kitchen roll, wrapping up their egg and spraying it with water to transfer the colour to their egg shell.  The bairns asked for an egg hunt.  We numbered the eggs and they matched them up the numbers on the table.  Some of the eggs were very well hidden but not well enough for our intrepid hunters!

Band Practice (Tuesday)

There has been lots of band practice this week!  The bairns have been using all kinds of instruments, marching around the nursery playing together as a band.

Tinker Table (Monday-Friday)

We had a generous donation of old hard drives for the bairns to take apart.  They used screwdrivers to loosen the screws and find out what was inside.  “That’s a fan, see.”

Transition with Buddies

Our transition activities continued this week with another chance to team up with our buddies and explore the playground at break time.

Bugs (Monday)

The bairns have been really interested in bugs.  We were able to find a collection of bugs encased in resin.  Their was rich discussion around their colours, texture and the number of legs.  “What’s dis one?  It looks creepy!”  The bairns also used magnifying glasses to get a closer look.

P7 Health and Wellbeing Presentation (Wednesday)

We had a visit from some of the Primary 7 bairns who spoke about healthy eating, screen time and exercise.  There were plenty of interactive games for the bairns to join in.

Spa Day (Friday)

The bairns set about decorating their spa with pictures and signs.  They laid out towels, blankets and mats.  The bairns phoned to make an appointment for their treatment.  When they arrived at the spa, they chose their nail polish colour, a tattoo and they could use the Orbeez hand and nail spa.  The spa was a very popular place and there were even some appointments left for the adults!

Play and Learning (Monday-Friday)

Here is a selection of our play and learning from the remainder of the week.  The bairns have been playing team games, building a den in the outdoor room, celebrating a birthday, sliding down the icy path, checking flight paths, measuring carrots and accessing QR codes.

Library Van Visit – Tuesday

Our library van visits gives the bairns access to a varied and up to date book selection. This offers an opportunity to promote a love of reading, improved early literacy skills and a time to meet others from the local community.  When choosing books for the nursery bookshelves the bairns pick for their own interests and also consider that of their peers.

“Dis is turtles, lik da turtle song.”

“Let’s take the viking one like SMUHA, it’s two Vikings.”

Transition – Wednesday

The bairns are already familiar with the school, making frequent visits to the hall, canteen, printer/copier in the shared area and to the school entrance to visit Janis and Mr Clark. This week the bairns moving up to Primary 1 met the P6 Buddies who will be accompanying them along with nursery staff out into the playground to experience morning break with the other school bairns, meet support staff and build on their confidence, supporting them in the new environment, with new relationships and routines.

The playground visits will continue throughout term 4 and more transition activities will be added. Lunch visits in the school, teacher visits into nursery and the bairns visiting the P1 classroom. Dates for these will be confirmed soon.

The bairns met some familiar faces!

Early Years Numeracy – Maths is everywhere!

The continuous provision in nursery for numeracy and maths across all areas of the setting allows the bairns to explore and revisit, to consolidate their learning and skills through various daily routines and self-initiated play. This week has included shape, measure, symmetry, weight, capacity, problem solving, data handling, pattern, sorting and matching.

Gift from Community!

The bairns were very excited to receive an amazing gift from one of the SMUHA squads! Their props have been donated to various schools and nurseries and the bairns were delighted to get the John Deere Tractor!

‘It’s lik in da middle o da shields.’

Bats!

Mrs Smith has been leading a creative project with the bairns all about bats as part of her fine art degree! There is more information around this on the nursery facebook page. The exhibition and family friendly open event is being held at Islesburgh tomorrow- Saturday 21st March from 3pm – 5pm in room 16, where you can see what the bairns have been working on.

 

Comments on the Picture and Story Books by our very talented bunch of authors and illustrators.

We shared the bairns’ handmade books with the school bairns and they left lots of lovely and encouraging comments.

Helmets

The bairns made their own helmets using orange and black card.  They chose their own designs for band of the helmet and then drew around their hands and cut them out to represent feathers.  The designs were varied and included a cat, flowers, hearts and a sleeping Viking.

Nursery Up Helly Aa Procession

Thank you to everyone who could make it along for our nursery procession.  The bairns had voted for the galley name and the colours of their galley,  orange was a clear favourite! All the bairns decided on their role for the day, we had 3 Jarls, 4 Galley pullers and everyone else wanted to be a Viking. The galley ‘Fire Galley’ didn’t take long to burn but the bairns had time to throw their torches in. We were very lucky to have Trevor on his guitar and Mrs Garrick on her cornet to play the music for singing along to.

Messy Play allows the bairns to create, build, develop their imaginations, explore textures, use their senses and it’s great fun too!

Gelli baff fun –

“It is squidgin oot o my hand.”

“Listen to the noise it maks when it falls down.”

Getting Creative with Bubble wrap – The bairns all worked together to stick a large sheet of paper down to the floor using masking tape, trying really hard to keep it flat. From a donation of bubble wrap they wrapped their feet to make boots! Colour mixing using paint was the next part of their plan, squirting it in flat trays, experimenting with shades, adding more and mixing up. The bairns and their bubble wrap boots stepped into the trays of paint and onto the paper exploring texture, cause and effect, and motor skills while creating unique, textured patterns. This evolved into painting and printing using their hands too, adding more interest through sensory exploration, fine motor skills, and creative expression.

“This is so fun.”

“I can feel the bubbles popping.’

SMUHA

Everyone got dressed up with their helmets and shields to head through to the hall to welcome the SMUHA Jarl Squad. The bairns joined in with the Up Helly Aa song and listened to the Primary 1 bairns sing a song to the Jarl and his squad. Some of the squad came to visit in nursery and very kindly offered to let the bairns try on their helmets, hold shields and axes if they would like to. The bairns had thought up some questions to ask the squad members.

“How do you mak da shields n da axes?”

“Is the Shield heavy?”

“Whit is your skirt made out of?”

The squad members were so lovely with the bairns, taking time to answer their questions and giving time for them to ask more.

Play on Pedals

We had our last week of four sessions, Andrew had the bairns balancing bean bags on their heads while cycling, obstacle course with tight corners, braking and getting on and off bikes.

World Book Day Reading Breakfast (Friday)

We were delighted to welcome so many of our families to celebrate World Book Day.  While waiting on a space for lunch, the bairns listened to their friends’ favourite books.  We had a great selection with lots of different animal stories and more.  We gathered some quotes from the bairns about their WBD experiences – see if you can guess who said it!

“I readed a book wi Luissa.  It was Poppy and Sam.”

“I readed da bat one, it was like bats were sleepin – Mr Bain readed it.”

“I was reading my Beauty book n it had Beauty and the beast is in it.  I was like Beauty.  Mummy readed the owl book and he fell and hurted his leg.  He just needed to find his mummy to get him a plaster.”

“Me and my Mammy was reading da Highway Rat and we were going to read Snail and the Whale but I changed my mind and I went in the sandpit and my feet were freezing.”

“I read a book with Mummy.  We did The Hairy Toe.  My Mum think it was really funny.”

“My book I made, da lion dat eats a giraffe.”

“I am a gingerbread man.  He runs away and a fox eats him.  Dats my favourite book.”

“My Mam got me a ghost book.  It was next to da passage.  My Mam and Dad read my Ghost Hunt.”

“Dad read me a monster book.  Its eat a giant.”

“We read the book that I made – the Viking one.  They said it was great.”

“Dad read a book, had some coffee, den he goed.  Da tiger comed and he eats all da food.”

“So my Mam readed da We’re All Going on a Bear Hunt.  We used da persons and da bear for walking through da water.”

“My Mum read the pop-up sun book with me and Ava.  We saw the pop-up sun and the pop-up ice cream.”

Thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a successful morning.  Life is better with books!

Play and Learning (Monday-Thursday)

Here is a selection of our play and learning from the remainder of the week.  The bairns have been finding bugs and catching bubbles outside, engaging in imaginative play with the big hollow blocks, putting the Tesco delivery away, finding new places for their magnet play and creating masterpieces out of cardboard and on the smartboard.  We have also had a lot of superhero play following a donation of masks.  We had a visit from Bookbug this week and the story was about a pug called Pig who told the most terrible lies.