Sound School Nursery

December days have been filled full of learning…

The home corner has continued to be a popular place for role play. Role play helps us develop talking and listening skills, process real life situations and learn how to collaborate and share ideas with each other. Shared role play areas are also places where we can develop mark making skills as we use marks to communicate our ideas and enhance our stories. Clipboards, pens and pencils have been used a lot in these areas to make shopping lists, recipe ideas, phone call notes and to jot down emergency numbers.

We have also used many of these literacy skills in shared painting experiences too where we have had opportunities to talk about our ideas as we mixed colours, created shades and experimented with line and shape.

The water tray too has been a place of shared play. This term we have continued to learn about measurement through emptying, filling and pouring using different containers. We have also learned about how water can turn to ice and then back to water again. We have explored and compared how ice melts in warm and cold water, have discussed what ice feels like and recalled last term when the puddles outside were icy.

Although it’s not been icy outdoors this term we have still had a brilliant time learning about other scientific concepts such as the forces of pull, push and twist when using the bikes. We have been very creative with the bikes, using them as motorbikes, buses and cars. There have been road blocks, diversions, emergencies and so much more to negotiate and discuss!

Our mud areas have also been well used as building sites, where we have developed our gross motor skills and strength, and as puddle jumping areas where we have learned about depth, width and height.

And of course there has been lots of Christmas celebrations…

We LOVED sharing our play and spending time with our family members at our Christmas Stay and Play sessions.

And we had a great time dancing, playing games, having a Christmas snack and meeting Santa at our Christmas party…

And finally we ended the term with Christmas Bookbug sessions with a story and songs to get us all into the festive spirit.

Merry Christmas everyone from all of us at Sound ELC.

Our Nursery Team have worked together with the Shetland Family Centre to complete the Incredible Years programme. For the past 14 weeks we have been attending the Family Centre to learn about Incredible Years approaches. This has been an excellent experience for us all, impacting on our practice in Nursery and for those of us who did it as parents it has impacted positively on our home life as well. At the beginning of next term we will be meeting as a team to discuss how we can imbed some of the approaches with our whole staff team. We will share this with you as well. We would all recommend it to all parents/carers!

If you are interested in doing the programme you can phone Shetland Family Centre on 01595745400 to find out more or you can speak to your Health Visitor who can refer you.

Shetland Family Centre – Shetland Islands Council

Remember remember we have been learning so much in November 🙂

This term we continue to develop our Literacy and Numeracy skills and Social, Emotional and Physical skills through play.

Every day, before lunch, we gather for Songs and Story time. We use a choice board to select nursery rhymes to sing after listening to a story. Each week we attend a Bookbug session with Ms Hutcheson too and enjoyed inviting family along at Halloween. Listening to stories and singing nursery rhymes helps us  engage with books, learn new words, recognise the sounds in words and grasp word boundaries. When we do actions alongside our rhymes we boost our fine and gross motor skills too.  All of these are fundamental to becoming good talkers, readers and writers of the future.

When we are read to at home and at school we are more likely to become readers ourselves.

We continue to develop all of these literacy skills, and more, through our every day play….

Budding builders mark make building plans and discuss their options.

Superhero’s focus, collaborate and share ideas as well as develop fine motor control to create super powered magic creations.

A group of children were “fishing” from the climbing frame “boat”. Miss Sandison drew the creatures that they described. Talking out loud, describing, learning new words with an adult and friends, and story telling through imaginative play creates writers of the future.

Some of us find enjoyment in drawing/mark making our stories and putting our ideas onto paper/the Smarboard now, not just in the future!

And many of us make up stories and tell our stories through small world play. Small world activities help us to maintain attention and concentrate for longer periods. Language skills develop as we use our imaginations to tell stories and create role-play scenarios.

Our talking and listening skills also develop as we collaborate, explain, ask questions, share ideas and problem solve together…

And it’s always great to share our news and ideas with each other over a snack.

Through talking, listening and mark making we also develop our Numeracy and Mathematics skills.

Using objects to draw around, or even rulers to create lines helps us grasp important concepts of shape, angle and direction.

As we mark make, design and construct through play we have many opportunities to learn about shapes and objects that we make, the direction of the lines we create and how to talk about and compare features such as edges, corners, colour and pattern.

Construction also gives us opportunities to link our interests to play, such as building Numberblocks or making cakes and “recipes” with playdough. Through this play we counted up to 20 and learned about early addition and subtraction as we added or took away blocks/beads/sprinkles during the creative process.

More ways we develop our understanding of number, counting and order is through playing number games with friends, using numbers in our play and making up games with objects.

Sand and water play has been a popular avenue during November. Playing with sand and water develops our understanding of volume, capacity and weight. As we fill and empty, pour and sift, lift and explore we learn words such as “empty”, “full”, “half”, “heavy”, “light”, “cold”, “warm”, “soft”,”rough” and we develop concepts of time as sand and water travel through various containers, sieves and tubes. As you can see it is also a great place to gather and share our ideas.

Gathering together, sharing ideas and collaborating is part of developing Social and Emotional life skills. Through our play we learn about our feelings and desires as well as other people’s feelings and desires. By sharing our thoughts, feelings and ideas we learn to share, turn take, listen and negotiate.

Shared paint mixing… “You can have that side and I will have this side so that we can make our own colours.”

Shared garage play “my car is going this way ok?” “This one is lift up!”, “Wait! My one come too!”, “I can park in here and then you go past.” “I go so fast! I crashed into you!”

Role play in the home corner…

Playing outside is a fantastic place to work together and develop co-operation and leadership skills….building snowmen and volcanoes…

And time in the gym hall during November has enhanced our Gross Motor skills even more through providing an indoor space for running, jumping, balancing, climbing, pushing and pulling!

Wow! The end of a term already….time flies when we are having fun!

This term we have been settling into the routines of the nursery and learning the rules. Routines such as hand washing, snack and lunch times and toothbrushing all teach us how to listen, how to follow instructions and how we look after our bodies. Bookbug, story time and drumming with Joy have been fantastic at developing our literacy skills such as syllable awareness, love of stories and songs and understanding patterns and sounds of language.

Rules such as gentle hands with friends and toys and quiet voices in the quiet area are great at teaching us awareness of others and develops our understanding of our feelings and other people’s feelings.

Through our play, both indoors and out, we have developed our literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing knowledge.

Numeracy – Weight, Measure, Volume, comparison of quantity, shape. Using words like “heavy”, “more”, “less”, “empty”, “full” and developing skills of Focus, Initiative and Critical Thinking.

Literacy – Using mark making materials, playing listening and memory games, cutting skills, listening to environmental sounds when on walks or playing outdoors, talking and listening as we play and sharing our thoughts and ideas, beating syllables and making music to learn about patterns and sounds of language. Developing our Communication, Collaboration and Creativity skills.

Health and Wellbeing – Oh so much! From learning about our bodies and how to move them through play, becoming aware of our feelings and the feelings of others to keeping safe when on trips. Through health and wellbeing learning we develop skills of Integrity, Adapting and Feeling

We wish you all a lovely October break and look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday 30th of October 🙂

We are so lucky to have Joy Duncan join us for a few weeks of drumming. We have really enjoyed our first couple of sessions and we are learning so much.

Drumming requires us to learn about our bodies and how to move them fast and slow and how to play the drums quietly and loudly using different parts of our hands.

We are developing confidence in playing the drums independently and saying our names out loud. We are also learning new moves as we copy Joy.

Drumming builds our listening skills which are so important for literacy. We listen to Joy’s instructions and stop when we hear her magic whistle. We take turns and listen to our friends play the drums and we listen for the beats and different sounds that we can make on the drums.

At the end of the session we get to dance and then to rest when the drum stops and we listen to lullabies sung in various different languages by Joy. Hearing all of those lovely sounds develops our listening skills even more. Some of us are becoming more confident in sharing our own songs with the group too.

We will share more photos of our drumming soon!

Wow it’s time for a new term and new school year already! Time to meet up with old friends and make new ones too.

We have spent the first full week at nursery settling into and learning/remembering, the nursery rules and routines as well as developing our skills and learning through our play.

Routines help us learn rules and help us listen for and follow instructions.

Each morning we hang up our coats and bags and find our water bottle tray. Throughout the day we learn about other rules of nursery, such as how to co-operate and communicate with our peers and teachers, mainly through play. Here are some ways we have been developing these skills this week.

Each day before lunch time we have a short tidy up session. It is important for us to learn how to tidy up and how to care for our nursery toys.

Our snack and lunch routine starts with washing our hands, waiting our turn, making choices and sharing space around the table. Hand washing routines are very important. At nursery we are encouraged and supported to wash our hands after outdoor play and after using the toilet, when we transition from messy activities and before we eat. We also develop our independence as we try to use cutlery and tidy away our dishes.

Our lunches follow guidelines provided by the Care Inspectorate. For children who eat packed lunches there is useful advice from the Care Inspectorate and Childsmile below.

Snack ideas for children (nhs.scot)

Setting the table (healthscotland.com) Please look at page 64.

Each day we listen to a story before lunch and on Thursdays attend BookBug in the library. These are wonderful opportunities for us to engage with stories, develop our listening skills and our imaginations. After story time we choose songs from a song board and all sing together. Singing and acting out nursery rhymes are important literacy skills.

At the end of the day we are encouraged to check that we have all our belongings, collect our water bottles and get our jackets and bags for home. Learning to think about what we need to bring home with us helps us to develop our working memory.

The nursery trip took place on Tuesday 18th June. We began our day at the King Harald Street play park where the children enjoyed the opportunity to run around and play on the equipment.  The drizzle did not dampen the children’s enthusiasm.

After being at the play park, we went to Islesburgh Community Centre where the children had snack. The bouncy castle was very popular and while each key group waited for their turn, there was the option to use the soft play equipment or to complete some colouring in. We then had a tasty pack lunch which was prepared by the canteen staff.

After lunch, we walked to the Lerwick Library and went upstairs to the children’s section where Mrs Sutherland led an interesting Bookbug session. The children listened very well while the story was being read and were keen to join in with the nursery rhymes.

Aimee Budge from Bigton Farm visited the nursery with two caddy lambs.  The children were excited to see the lambs who were very friendly.  Aimee brought bottles of milk and some of the children got the chance to feed the lambs.  This was a great learning opportunity for the children and we appreciated that Aimee gave up her time to come and visit us.

The children visited the Sands of Sound Beach recently in two groups.  They enjoyed the outdoor learning experience and were keen to explore the beach while engaging in a variety of activities such as mark making in the sand, collecting shells and pebbles, building dams across the burn, looking in rockpools and digging in the sand.  The children also enjoyed having their snack on the beach.  We had a great day out and the children had the opportunity to develop the meta-skills of curiosity, creativity, communicating, collaborating and focusing.

Here are some of the literacy activities that the children have enjoyed recently. They have been developing their mark making skills and letter recognition as well as exploring books.

The children have also been busy developing their numeracy skills by taking part in a variety of activities involving measurement, 2D shapes, patterns, number recognition and sequencing.