Sound School Nursery

During term 2, the children have had great fun practising gymnastics skills using the apparatus set up by Mrs Ritchie in the gym hall. Throughout the weeks, the children have become more confident when using the apparatus and have worked hard at developing their balance, co-ordination and flexibility.

We enjoyed taking part in numeracy week which happened to coincide with stay and play visits for parents and carers. It was great to see the children engaging with their parents while learning about 2D and 3D shapes, counting, number recognition, measurement and fractions. The children were also keen to share their individual learning story journals with parents.

We also used our maths and problem solving skills to design and make a new jingle bell for an elf’s hat. The children used a range of objects to explore different sounds before deciding that coins, marbles and dried pasta made the best jingling sounds when placed inside different containers which the children then went on to decorate. This was part of the ‘Chaos at the North Pole’ challenge with each year group in the school completing a different numeracy related task. The design criteria for the nursery was to make an attractive bell that jingled, which the children were successful in achieving while working together in their key groups. Take a look at the ‘Chaos at the North Pole’ display in the foyer outside the office to see how the whole school was involved.

The children and staff wore yellow or spotty clothes for Children in Need on Friday 17th November. We had a special yellow themed snack and tasty homemade Pudsey biscuits. There were lots of Pudsey ears on show and the children made a puppet by decorating and cutting out Pudsey’s face which was then attached to a lollipop stick.

The school aim for this term is safety which the children have been learning about through road safety and keeping safe on Bonfire Night. In groups, the children practised crossing the road safely while using ‘Stop, Look, Listen’ and learned the actions for each word – a hand signal for stop and pointing to eyes and ears for look and listen.

We have also learned about the importance of reflective clothing through the ‘Be Bright, Be Seen’ campaign. Our janitor Tony, visited the nursery to show us his hi-vis jacket and school crossing patrol sign.

The outdoor environment and role-play was used to reinforce the children’s understanding of road safety and the traffic lights displaying the red/green man proved to be very popular.

The children enjoyed playing interactive games and listening to stories using the wide range of resources available from the Road Safety Scotland website. They have also been introduced to Ziggy who is the Road Safety Scotland mascot.

Click on the link below if you want to find out more about the early level resources available from the Road Safety Scotland website:

https://roadsafety.scot/children-and-educators/early/

The children had lots of fun taking part in various Halloween themed activities at the craft table and in the water tray. They also enjoyed dressing up and carving pumpkins. We had a special visit from Bookbug during our library session which the children really enjoyed. Scary spiders were used for practising counting and sequencing numbers to 10.

On Wednesday 25^th October, the pre-school children at nursery went to Mareel to see an interactive dance adventure show for under 5’s called ‘Paper Moon.’ The show was about a girl called Poppy Diddle who wakes up after falling asleep to discover that the MoonMoo (the cow that jumped over the moon) has got stuck on the moon. Poppy goes on a space adventure with her dog Peppy to help rescue the MoonMoo. She needs the help of the children in the audience when she goes on her space mission.

The children were very excited about the bus journey to Mareel and enjoyed pointing out familiar sights on the way there. It was the first time that many of the children had been on a bus. When we arrived at Mareel, we had to take off our shoes before sitting down on pillows which were arranged in a circle. The area was set up as a bedroom with a space theme. The children were engrossed in the show and enjoyed having the opportunity to be actively involved in the story telling.

Here are some of the children’s comments about the trip:

“I loved the show, it was exciting.”

“It was good fun going on the big bus.”

“I liked the paper rockets the best.”

“It was funny watching Poppy dance on the bed.”

“The music was really cool.”

“Can we go and see another play?”

Here is a short video taken by Miss Wilkinson:

We enjoyed a recent visit to the adventure playground. It was great to see the children using the equipment so effectively while working together and taking turns. It was good fun being outside on such a windy day where we could see and feel the effects of the wind.

The children look forward to our weekly PE session in the gym hall every Friday. Last week, Mrs Sutherland set up an obstacle course in one half of the gym hall. The children enjoyed using this and were able to practise a variety of gross motor skills such as balancing, jumping, throwing and climbing. The other half of the gym hall was used for playing catchy and circle games which involved running. The lesson ended with the children stretching and bending their bodies while performing some simple yoga poses.

The children love to visit the school library for our Bookbug sessions where they listen to stories and learn songs and rhymes. Ms Hutcheson read a story called ‘Fletcher and the Falling Leaves’ by Julia Rawlinson which is about a fox who is worried because the leaves start to fall from his favourite tree. The Bookbug soft toy character had some autumn leaves in his pocket which the children got to see and feel. We spoke about the different colours of autumn leaves and the crunchy sound they make.

Click the link below if you would like to listen to the story again.

The outdoor environment is always a busy and popular area of the nursery. The children enjoy being outside while playing and learning in all types of weather. Outdoor learning is part of the school improvement plan for this session so we will not only be developing the play on offer in the nursery grounds but also in the wider school environment such as the polytunnel, wildlife area and the Sands of Sound beach.