We welcomed staff from the Pre-School Home Visiting Service on Monday morning to introduce Shetland Sign-a-long. This is a 6 week training block for children and staff, where we all have an opportunity to learn games, signs and songs to help us communicate. Every Nursery in Shetland has access to the booklet that accompanies the programme.
From next week, the children will be separated up into 2 different groups (pre-school and anti-pre-school), and the sessions will be delivered in the Hall. This week we were learning the signs for different animals and the children played a fishing game to see if they could remember some of the signs. We hope to be able to use these signs more in our Nursery day as we develop our communication skills.
The transition processes has gently started this week. The pre-school children who were in Nursery on Thursday had a peerie wander through the school, on their way to the Tingwall Hall for PE. They saw Mrs Anderson, who will be their class teacher after summer when they start P1. They also had a quick look in the dining hall, so they could see where they would have their school lunches. The canteen staff, who will prepare, cook and serve their lunches, also came out to say hello.
There will be plenty more opportunities to have little visits in, before the longer visits start. Nursery staff and Mrs Anderson will also work more closely as we near the end of the summer term.
We loved the time in the hall, working on our throwing, catching and balancing skills during our PE lesson.
We have been thinking about Chinese New Year a little bit this week, and had great fun trying to eat with the chop sticks.
We also really enjoyed making a human “Chinese Dragon” outside. We watched the movement of the cloth, as it looked like a dancing dragon.
Continuing with celebrations, we are still working away on our torches, and managed to get a galley painted this week too.
As always, our block play has been amazing this week. Such a lot of creativity and skillful planning in some of the creations. This morning a group of children worked so well together making “sculptures” that turned into “The Police Department”. A full half an hour of engaged play in positioning, and repositioning co-operatively was brilliant to see.
We have been working hard at sharing resources, taking turns and looking after our environment and each other. What a super week, with lots of stories, pictures, communication, building and fun.
Next week, we will be introducing more visual information within the classroom environment. This will help with our sign a long sessions and support a positive approach to reinforcing key messages for all children. We will also continue our work on sharing and taking turns through our table top games.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!
