Sound School Nursery

Jack and Jill

Our Rhyme of the Week this week is Jack and Jill.

Jack and Jill went up the hill,

to fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down and broke his crown,

and Jill came tumbling after.

Up Jack got, and home did trot,

as fast as he could caper.

He went to bed, to mend his head,

With vinegar and brown paper.

This week we celebrate Maths Week Scotland in the school and nursery. We have chosen a number themed nursery rhyme for this week (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught A Fish Alive). 

One, two, three, four, five,

Once I caught a fish alive. 

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

Then I let it go again. 

Why did you let it go?

Because it bit my finger so!

Which finger did it bite?

This little finger on my right!

Each week in nursery we explore a new rhyme.

So far we have experienced the following rhymes:

• Row, Row, Row Your Boat
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• Humpty Dumpty

This week our rhyme is Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb,
It’s fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school one day
Which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play,
To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned him out,
But still he lingered near;
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear

“What makes the lamb love Mary so?”
The eager children cry;
“Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know,”
The teacher did reply.

The whole rhyme is above, however we will probably just hear verses 1 and 2 in the nursery. The rhyme is also displayed outside the nursery door.

On Friday last week we had special and important visitors…Paramedics! We have been showing our interest in emergency services for weeks now so this was very exciting and we learned lots.

When the paramedics arrived we gathered in group to hear about their uniform and learn about some of the tools they use such as stethoscope, electrocardiogram and the EMS bag. We got to explore and try some of the equipment, some of us were happy to get bandages on our limbs too.

Went outside to the ambulance. We stood back to see how the ramp was lowered for a stretcher or wheelchair to get on board. We got to take turns on the chair. It felt a bit funny being leaned backwards while on a chair but paramedics help us so we were great at trusting them.

Inside the ambulance we explored the stretcher and all the resources that are kept inside.

Finally we got to see the blue lights flash and heard how loud the siren was. When the lights flash blue it’s an emergency.

Following their visit we have been inspired to role play paramedics, hospitals and emergencies. Here’s some quotes from our play…. “Sorry you need to stay in here for 1000 days.” “I feel sleepy.” “We need to get the germs off.” “He bumped his head.” “I can be a nurse.” “Do you need an injection?” “There’s a baby in my belly.” “Put on the oxygen mask.”

A HUGE thank you to Emma and Helen for taking time to visit us and teach us so much about the job that they do.

We hope everyone has a lovely Spring break 🙂

The start of a new year has seen us full of celebration! January at Sound ELC and Primary is an exciting time as we prepare for, and celebrate the festival of Up Helly Aa. Through our play, and during some staff led activities, we have been given opportunities to learn some facts about Vikings and how Up Helly Aa is celebrated.

We have listened to stories about Viking characters, looked at magazines from past Up Helly Aa celebrations, learned some words to sing along to the Galley Song and shared an Up Helly Aa Bookbug session with Mrs Hutcheson. Through engaging with songs, stories and books in these ways we learn that books have meaning and can link text to real life contexts.

Books are great for stimulating different types of role play too. We have taken part in lots of Viking imaginary play in our very own galley and through construction and dressing up. Taking part in play like this develops our communication skills in listening, talking, explaining and describing and our collaborative skills as we discuss our play and create different scenarios together. Our imaginary play extended to the water tray and junk modelling where we played with boats in water and some of us built our own.

Our teachers noticed our creativity in junk modelling and so helped us create shields, axes and Vikings using art and craft resources, challenging us to explore shape, line and colour as well as develop our scissor skills.

We were excited to be visited by the Junior Up Helly Aa squad and were able to show off some of our creations and sing the Up Helly Aa songs with them. A big adult Viking came to say hello too. We were interested in his costume, his shield and axe. We got to hold some shields and try on a Viking helmet that Mrs Smith kindly brought in. They were very heavy! Vikings must have been strong.

We were also very lucky that we got a trip to see the real long ship in the Galley shed. What a wonderful morning we had. We learned more about Up Helly Aa by watching a video and more about how the long ship was built. Going on trips helps us learn about staying safe when using transport and develops our awareness of our local community too.

What an exciting time January has been.

If your child is due to start Primary 1 in August 2025 then from Monday 10th February to Friday 14th February 2025, please contact the school office for an enrolment form. If you live out with the catchment area for Sound School then you will also need to submit a placing request : Placing request link

Any child who has a 5th birthday after Wednesday 20th August 2025 has the automatic right to defer their child, meaning they could get another year in Nursery. Ms Sandison and Ms Hutcheson are available to chat to parents/carers about this. If you do wish to defer your child then please complete the following form by Saturday 15th March 2025: Deferred Entry Form

Registration week opens on Friday 7th February until Friday 14th February 2025. The link for this will become available on Friday 7th February.

If your child currently attends Sound Nursery, is NOT starting Primary 1 and you wish their hours to remain the same then you do not need to do anything.

If your child currently attend Sound Nursery, is NOT starting Primary 1 and you want to change the hours they attend, then please complete the following form by Friday 31st January 2025:

Change of Pattern Form

Any questions, please speak to Mrs Williamson, Ms Hutcheson or Ms Sandison.

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