Happyhansel Early Years

Morag from the library was really kind and agreed to come out to the nursery to do a Bookbug session with us. Mrs Geddes has been at lots of Bookbugs with her children but wanted to learn how to be the person who takes the session – she missed the training dates but luckily people at Shetland Library are really helpful and came out especially to have some fun with the children and talk to Mrs Geddes.

We did lots of games and songs and read some books. Shetland Library has already been to Wastview for Bookbug sessions with the Toddler Group so Mrs Geddes is going to try to build on their success and hold another one there tomorrow. Let’s hope she doesn’t lose her voice!

Everyone was very excited to have Brydon Sinclair from SIC Waste Management visiting today to speak to us about recycling. We all have our blue- and grey-lidded bins at home and have also been playing with ones in Early Years too so we were good at remembering what went in each bin.

We also found out about where the bruck all goes when it leaves our house – to a big recycling shed in Lerwick or to the Waste to Energy Plant for burning. And found out that it gets separated out even more before being taken away on the boat to places where it will all be made into new things.

When we finish our snack today we will be taking our compost brucks out to our compost bin. Thank you to Brydon for visiting.

Does anyone have any ideas for any other visitors we could have? Please let us know!

Our newsletter for the term has been produced and will be handed out to parents today.

Please let us know what you think.

Nursery September 2018 Newsletter

We do composting every day in nursery and have been speaking more and more about the recycling bins everyone now has at home – during junk modelling, in the home corner when we put the bruck out and in general play and conversations at the snack table.

Today we had another talk about it at morning Together Time and we looked through a box of interesting things to do with recycling, talking through what we already know and what we want to find out.

Mrs Geddes has taken in a toy essy kert and bins from home (borrowed from her peerie boy, so everyone is being very careful with it!) and it was one of the favourites today – we had lots of opportunity to negotiate turn taking and ways to include more people in play as a result!

We will be doing more recycling activities and talks during the rest of our week as we have Brydon Sinclair from SIC Waste Management to talk to us on Friday.

Our weekly plan reflects the changing season and everyone’s fascination with the essy kert and recycling:

T1 W6 18-19

We have been expanding our home corner, aiming for it to be realistic and as authentic a reflection of the children’s own homes as possible. We want the children to experience what they would in their home environment, to help them learn about their place in the world and and enrich them with new ideas and experiences.

We have lots of ideas for the Early Years but recently Mrs Geddes brought in some beautiful crockery for us to use. The children have really enjoyed this and been having lots of deep rich play! We have been learning about how we have to look after things as the crockery is quite delicate. There have been a few breakages but it has led to good conversations about how we can stop this happening again as well as some excellent problem solving, modelling and supporting from the bairns as they help and remind each other how we look after the crockery. We are hoping to get some real food for us to play with too! We have started looking at recycling so will incorporate this into our home corner too.

We have also been using real crockery for snack times too!

We are still wanting to stock our home corner further – children prefer the “real thing,” to plastic imitations, probably because they see adults using spoons, mixing bowls, strainers, at home and the urge to imitate adult actions is powerful. Do you have anything which would help us enrich our play further?

• pots and pans
• buttons, corks, beads, lids for use as things to cook with
• vases, containers, tupperware
• old tea sets, cups and mugs
• a teapot, sugar bowl and milk jug
• tea, sugar and coffee canisters
• utensils such as wooden spoons, spatulas, fish slices etc
• anything else which you think might be good fun!

Thank you.

One of our parents brought in some different sized cardboard boxes for us to play with and we have been very very busy!

If you have anything at home that you are throwing out that you think might be good fun for us to play with we would be really grateful to have it. Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated things.

We have been trying some small mindfulness games and activities to help us concentrate and have some calm time in Early Years. Studies have shown that if we keep this up even once a week for a few minutes at a time, we will be more able to control our emotions, it will help us pay attention and focus easier, and can also help us play with each other better.

Here we are doing Starfish Breath – sometimes called “5-Finger Breathing”. As you breathe in and out, trace around your fingers. On the in-breath, trace up the outside of your left pinky finger with your right index finger. On the out-breath, trace down the other side. Repeat for the next four fingers. Notice how you feel afterwards. This is really relaxing and we have noticed some bairns doing thisb y themselves in quiet moments.

…and we also rocked some teddies to sleep on our bellies. Asking children to concentrate on their breathing is difficult but asking them to breathe deeply but gently to make their bellies go up and down and rock a teddy to sleep works really well. Everyone was really quiet doing this and the room was very calm.

The teachers are hoping to find out more about how to do more mindfulness with the children so if you have any ideas or experience please let us know.

We have been having fun with some drama sessions in the Early Years. We have been exploring different types of roles and characters and trying on lots of different outfits!

Dramatic play is a great way for the children to express themselves and act out things they have experienced with other children and adults. It can also help children self regulate emotions and feelings. This in turn can promote confidence and self esteem. Children are able to have fun, be silly, feel safe and be part of a group. Drama is also a good way to expand communication skills and build relationships with peers.

If you have any outfits or props your child would like to bring in and share with us or a favourite book we can try to act out then please feel free to bring them in. Miss Handley and Mrs Geddes also got dressed up too! 🙂

We have been digging up our tatties and being really careful when preparing them for snack. Remembering to wash them really well before we cut them up! We have been learning how to safely hold the tattie and how we hold the knife properly too! The wedges were soooo yummy! We also had boiled tatties with butter but most people preferred the wedges.

Everyone in the Early Years planted their own sunflower seeds and grew small plants. We gave everyone theirs to take home over the summer and see if they could look after them and help them grow bigger at home – we have to remember they need water, soil and light, and a bigger pot when they grow!

James and Magnus did really well with their ones – just look how tall they grew them!