Primary Concert (Tuesday)

The nursery bairns were invited to attend the Primary Music Concert in the hall this week.  The bairns that choose to go through listened to piano recitals, fiddle music and group ensembles that the school bairns performed at the music festival.

Sports Day (Thursday)

It was great to see so many of our nursery families at Sports Day.  The bairns gave it their all with every race.  “I like da poon and egg game.”

Beach (Monday)

We took another group to the Mail beach this week.  We caught the service bus from nursery for the short trip down the road.  After a peerie walk, we made it down to the beach.  We had a safety briefing so that everyone knew the rules.  The bairns got straight into throwing stones into the water, looking for treasure and mark-making in the sand.  After a while, we moved closer to the burn and the porta-potty!  Mrs Meadows had some activities planned related to her outdoor training.  The bairns were tasked with building a city of sandcastles and adding a moat around it, filled with water.  They also collected interesting finds from the beach onto a tray and compared them.  The bairns played a shark game, starting with one person being the shark the rest playing minnows.  The shark had to catch as many as possible and then they turned into sharks for the next round of catching.  It was very heartwarming to see the sharks get together in a circle with their arms around each other’s shoulders to discuss tactics.  To finish up, Mrs Meadows lit the fire pit and we had snack, while watching two seagulls bobbing along on the sea.

Play and Learning (Monday-Friday)

Here is a selection of our play and learning from the reminder of the week.  The bairns have continued to enjoy yoga, building structures with the coloured blocks, making creations at the workbench and searching for slugs and bugs in the garden.

Expressive Arts (Monday-Friday)

This cohort of bairns are incredibly creative.  They have explored painting, drawing, model-making, woodwork and more, just this week.  “Can we do statues?”  The bairns have been practising yoga with Mario, unicorns and Huntrx.

Makaton (Thursday)

We had our second Makaton session this week.  The bairns remembered some of the signs, especially for We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Down in the Jungle.  They also learned some new signs for Five Little Sandcastles.

Sea Creatures (Thursday)

We were delighted when a nursery grandad dropped off some sea creatures for the bairns.  There was lots of discussion about the texture and size of the creatures.  “It’s rough.”  Mrs Malcolmson shared more information about the sunfish, highlighting that their mouths are underneath and their eyes are on the ends of their arms.  We wondered about the kind of water they need – “salty”.  The lobster was a popular creature and we learned about it’s feelers and where they keep their eggs.  The velvet crab had it’s back rubbed many times.  There were two octopuses who made a valiant attempt to escape from their enclosure.  The bairns talked about how they can change colour and their tentacles “dat stick on”.

Parent Lunch (Thursday)

Thank you to everyone who came in for the parent lunch.  The bairns were very keen to show you all the steps they had been learning already in the canteen.

Beach Trip (Thursday)

A group of bairns went to the beach at Mail.  They used a pop-up tent for shelter and searched the area for treasures, collecting them onto a white tray.  There was also time for throwing stones into the water, building sandcastles and a snack on the beach.  While they were building sandcastles, the bairns discovered that the wet sand was more effective.

Gym and Sports Day Practice (Thursday and Friday)

The bairns played three kinds of catchy games – Toilet Tag, Stick in the Mud and ET Go Home.  Then it was time to practice for Sports Day.  They took part in an egg and spoon race, being careful to keep their egg balanced on the spoon.  They placed bean bags on their heads to test their body’s balance.

We can’t wait to see everyone there on Thursday 25 June.

Moving Up Day (Friday)

As part of moving up day, the bairns read The Three Little Pigs.  Afterwards, “you needed to make a house with loads of stuff.”  Then they tested how strong their houses were using a hairdryer and a spray bottle of water.  “It got weet but it didna faa doon.”

World Cup (Monday)

Primary 4/5 invited the bairns to come through to their classroom to do some voting in their World Cup data handling activity.  The categories included favourite foods from different countries, favourite football kit, footballer, footballs and animals, to name a few.  The bairns went around the tables in peerie groups, pointing to their favourites and the P4/5s would add their votes to a tally chart.

Stay and Play Prep (Monday-Thursday)

The bairns have been busy painting a rainbow of stones for our Stay and Play scavenger hunt.  “We did red, yellow, green, blue, purple and orange.  We did some outside.”

Salvation Army Polycrub (Thursday)

The week at the polycrub, the bairns learned about growing peppers.  They repotted some into larger pots.  Then they had a taste test with red and green peppers.  “Me no like dat een.”  The bairns completed a colouring game using the colours of the peppers as traffic lights.  They had a quick play in the ball pit and sand pit before it was time to feed the hungry goats.

Makaton (Thursday)

We have a Makaton user visiting who will be delivering four sessions over the coming weeks to familiarise the bairns with signs that can be used during popular nursery rhymes and songs like Wind the Bobbin Up, Incy Wincy, Miss Polly Had a Dolly, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Five Speckled Frogs, Reach (S Club) and Peter Rabbit.  “I liked the Bear Hunt one.”

Outdoor Play (Monday-Friday)

There has been many bug hunts and the bairns managed to find over 25 slugs in just one morning.  Although, the slugs have been renamed as “stinky doodahs”.  With the warmer weather, the bairns wondered if we could have a paddling pool in the garden.  We began filling a tuff tray with water but it was on a slant.  The bairns problem solved to find pieces of wood and propped up the lower side to make it flatter.  There was lots of peerie toes, splashing and giggles.

Graduation Assembly (Friday)

We had a whole group of superstars performing in our graduation assembly.  They started in good form with The SAMBA! and then welcomed everyone with the Good Morning song, along with actions.  The Planting Song was next and our grand finale was Golden, the most played song on our nursery playlist.  Each of our graduates was presented with a gold medal, mortar board and certificate.

Stay and Play (Friday)

We were delighted to welcome so many families for our Term 4 stay and play.  The whole setting was buzzing with excitement for our rainbow scavenger hunt.  Thank you to everyone who came along.

Wir Ain Peerie Bodies (Monday-Friday)

On Monday we learned the proper names for our body parts, including private parts.  We read the ‘Who Has What’ book and then chose two bairns to draw around on large pieces of paper so we could add the body part names for a girl and a boy.  Day Two built on our discussion from day one, as we talked more about our bodies and the concept of private parts.  The bairns decorated pants using coloring mediums.  On Wednesday, we introduced Pantosaurus, a singing dinosaur who teaches us how to say “NO!” when we don’t feel safe.  Next, we discussed emotions and how they make our bodies feel.  We also introduced the idea of safe and trusted adults that you can talk to if something makes you feel uncomfortable.  “My Mam makes me feel safe.”  On the final day, the bairns were supported to know the difference between good and bad secrets and we revisited the messages from earlier in the week about saying NO and telling someone if they feel unsafe or worried.

This is a link to the Pantosaurus video on YouTube (it might just get stuck in your head!).

(8) Talk PANTS with Pantosaurus and his PANTS song #TalkPANTS – YouTube

Salvation Army Polycrub Visit (Thursday)

The bairns created marigolds with plasticine during their visit to the Salvation Army polycrub this week.  Then, it was time to plant the real thing.  They also fed the goats and got up close to the lambs.

Preschoolers Transition (Tuesday and Thursday)

Our preschoolers visit with Mrs Johnson focused on The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  After listening to the story, the bairns had to use small loose parts to build a bridge.  They also had time for free-play to explore the classroom.  Thursday was another chance to experience lunch in the canteen and familiarise themselves with the routines.  The bairns had a visit to the school bathrooms and noticed that they don’t have any magic taps there.

During their first gym lesson, the preschoolers learned about staying safe by being aware of the doors and who might be passing through.  The bairns listened about how the equipment was stored and that today they would be using balls.  They practiced rolling, throwing, catching and passing, either on their own or with a friend.  Then they had two games – I See and Mr Men & Little Miss Movements.  The I See game was a listening challenge involving different movements like walking, skipping, marching, running, tiptoeing and hopping.  The Mr Men & Little Miss game had the bairns acting out how they thought different characters would move.  They stretch up like Mr Tall, crouched down like Mr Small, froze for Mr Quiet and did star jumps for Little Miss Star.

Play and Learning (Monday-Friday)

Here is a selection of our play and learning from the week.  The bairns have been busy taking their fishing boat out, creating masterpieces at the workbench and dancing to The Flight of the Bumblebee on Alexa, matching their movements to the tempo of the music.  We were very lucky to receive a donation of plasterboard scraps and the bairns took these out into the garden and used spray bottles filled with paint to colour them.  They noticed how the paint dripped down the upright panels and how the colours mixed together.