We have been singing lots of songs and rhymes this week, which has given us a chance to express ourselves a bit more in movement and dance too.  Emma and Hayley were able to put a band together this week, and the children were moving and singing to provided songs as well as given a chance to create their own music.  We also were singing along with Mr Travins in music this week.  The “chick- a-dee-dee song” and “the wheels on the bus” were very popular.  Our song of the week has been “heads, shoulders, knees and toes.”

We have been expressive with our bodies in movement while using the gym hall too.

Emma has been baking banana muffins with the children this week, they were delicious!  The ingredients were explored, smelled and mixed before the cooking process began.  The tasting part was enjoyed by most.

Carrying on with the theme of our healthy body, we have had a close up look as what our bodies look like underneath the skin.  This has been interesting to see and speak about.

We have been outside such a lot this week.  The water ways have been in use, and children have been using their problem solving skills to connect pipes and buckets as they observe the water’s movement.  We are getting better at putting on our own suits too.

We have had such a lot of fun learning and playing together again this week, and we hope you have a lovely weekend.

Another busy week in Nursery has already passed!

We have set up a hospital space this week, which has been well explored and used by children and adults together in role playing experiences.  There are x-ray pictures and a light box to help display these.  Lots of clip boards and mark making materials are being used.  Bandages have been applied, appointments and surgeries have been given and attended, even some of the animals have been helped back to full health! It’s been a lot of fun.

We were all delighted to see Linda this week, when she popped in for a visit.  She played for a little while in the hospital, spoke to all the bairns and read some stories.  She made us all smile and we hope to see her again soon.

We have managed to go on a couple of walks and spend time in the big play park this week.  We met Peter who showed us some of the seeds inside a rose-hip.  We also got to see the swans on our Tingwall Loch.  We are hoping for more nice and midgie free days as we love being outside so much.

This morning was very exciting for one of our Nursery pupils, who had been to The Marts with his parents to sell 50 lambs.  We were able to get a live link up to the sheep sale, hear the auctioneer and find out a little bit more about what happens at The Marts from his news and the filming.  It was really exciting hearing how fast the auctioneer spoke!

Nursery bairns have been making models with wooden pegs and lollipop sticks.  After creating and using fine motor skills to fix the models together, the children were asked to count how many things they had used in their models.  When we were speaking about numbers in play, we were able to see if we could match the number counted to the number on the stick.  Lots of learning about numbers through a variety of experiences has been going on this week.

Our playdough has been used to make face pictures, while we were thinking about what parts of the body are on our faces.  Some lovely creations were illustrated and spoken about.

Lots of opportunities to cut, stick, paste, draw, create, paint, transform, solve problems, carry, lift, count, play and learn together this week.

Will be updating “personal plans” and make sure the “all about me” sheets are updated in the coming weeks.  It is really important that we are working together with parents to support our children to feel welcomed and a sense of belonging in our setting.  More information is available about “Realising the Ambition: Being me” on line.

This is our national guidance document for early years, and very much places the children at the centre of our quality practice.  We hope to give you more information in the coming weeks about an information night for parents, and look forward to working together with parents on documents such as our Outdoor Play Policy.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Lots of photos for families to see this week, as we have been so busy! What an engaging week the children have had as the routines of the nursery day start to become more familiar.

Again we have had visitors in to the nursery, Elizabeth from Childsmile has been in this week, reminding us about how to have healthy teeth and gums, and the importance of good regular tooth brushing.

We have had music and gym this week.  There is no need to bring short for gym at the moment, the children can just wear clothes that are easy to move around in (as they do most days).  We are often climbing, running, jumping, visiting the park and using the equipment there, and sometimes follow some stretches on-line too.

In number work this week, we have been making our own dice games and seeing if we can recognise dice patterns.  This has also allowed us to look at double and near double numbers in our counting.  We have been adding how many spots all together on two dice and collecting the correct number of counters to match.

We have been exploring our fine motor skills to pick up small things and place accurately, we have been drawing and painting picture with paints as well as pens, pencils and chalks.  We are lucky to have a variety of materials and surfaces to practice on.

We have been exploring shapes in the blocks and in the construction area too.

In the water tray, the children have been using their imaginations, and exploring the properties of water.  There has been a coffee machine, which made so many different types of coffee in the indoor outdoor cafe.  The same resources were used to make a shower for the divers.

Our creative ideas and thinking extends through all areas of the nursery.  On Tuesday, “The ewes escaped” and some of our bairns spent a long time trying to round them up again.  It was hard work and a bit frustrating at times, but thankfully the quad came out in the end and they were all safely back in their park before we went home.  We sand about “Old MacDonald” and Lee helped us to sign as we sang.

Snack time is a super opportunity to take time to chat as well as progress our skills in spreading and using cutlery.

We enjoyed a rainy walk on Wednesday, then were singing “I hear thunder” before our lunch.  We investigated the rose hip on the rose bushes, and have spoken about the seeds we are starting to see at this time of year.

Playing, learning and growing together has been great fun at Tingwall Nursery this week.  We are looking forward to more of the same next week.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

It has been so lovely to welcome back both our returning children and some new starts this week.  The older children have helped to show the younger ones where things are kept, and around our environment.  Children have explored the blocks, painting, the new workbench and tools, numbers, making marks and of course all the skills that going along with being in a larger group play environment.

We have also welcomed our newest member of staff Rachel Morris to our team this week.  Rachel is a Practitioner, who has replaced Linda after her retirement.

There was a very friendly visitor this week to the nursery, who had beautiful blue eyes, as well as being soft and fluffy.  We were delighted to meet Anya’s new cat.

It has been super to be outside together playing and learning.  We have discovered raspberries growing in the garden, as well as taking the opportunity to measure some of the wild flowers growing.  “Which one is the longest?”  “How does this flower smell?”

Both of the outside space have been explored and developed with the changing play this week.  We have had window washing, that developed into a car wash!  We have rediscovered the mud kitchen, that developed into a “clear out” of some of the things needing to go to the “recycling bins” before we could make dandelion soup!

We have had quiet time relaxing outside, as well as time to jump, run, chase, throw and catch.  We have been very busy.

We have heard a lot of “big questions” this week.  Whilst 2 boys were outside playing in the water area, one of them commented “I wonder where the water comes from?”

It is such a privilege to work with this age and stage of learners, as they are so curious, enquiring and they have so much they want to communicate to the noticing adults around them.  We will continue to capture these big questions and the learning opportunities that arise, in the children’s learning journals.

These will be sent home each term for parents to see what they have been working on.  We will also be sending home some “more about me” sheets, so we can work in partnership with parents and carers about what features in their bairns’ learning and development at home too.  The children’s “personal plans” will be updated again, so this is another area that we work closely with parents and carers on.  Please be in touch if you have any comments or questions about any aspect of Nursery life.

We look forward to working well within our community in this new session.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Of course the grand finale of the year has been the graduation celebrations that we had yesterday.  We will miss all of our pre-school children as they transition into Primary 1 after the summer.  There have been such a lot of transition experiences engaged with over the term, we are sure everyone is now feel much more at ease with what will be the new surroundings and trusted adults.  What a pleasure it has been to share your learning journey with you over your time in nursery.

The children’s Learning Journals or stories are being passed on to Primary 1 for the moment, however they will go home again for good once they are more settled into Primary 1.  In the meantime, here are some great pieces of advice from the bumps to bairns website, which will support any family with a child transitioning into Primary 1 after the summer.

We will be back in nursery, looking forward to seeing returning children and new starts on Wednesday 17th August 2022.

Have a wonderful summer everyone!

Wow, what a week for our last few days of term before the summer holidays.  It has been an emotional week as we say goodbye to 2 very much appreciated, key members of our nursery staff.  Mrs Spofforth and Linda are both retiring today, and we wish them all the very best in their next adventures.  We hope they will both keep in touch and be able to visit us if they can.

The bairns have had lots of photos taken as keep sakes and memories of their time together in nursery. Particularly lovely to have all their handprints on such a unique and special gift.

We welcomed Care Inspectorate staff to Tingwall Nursery this week in an unannounced visit.  The experience was helpful and well balanced, our visitors were approachable and reassuring to staff and we feel this has been a positive end to the year.  The final report will be made public in due course.

Other visitors have been welcomed this week too.  Louise, who works with us on a temporary basis also works at Tesco.  She was able to pop by the nursery and show our bairns what her other job involves when delivering food orders to customers.  It was really interesting to think about the jobs that people do and how people can help us with their roles. Thank you Louise!

We had some 4 legged visitors this week too.  The children were so careful and used gentle hands with these visitors.

We also had a visit from a baby sister this morning, and it was so lovely to see how gentle and caring her big brother was with her.

The children have been aware of the changes that will happen after summer and have enjoyed spending time together as a cohort as they continue to play and learn and explore together.  There have been interesting finds in the nursery garden as well as creative opportunities in the potential of a cardboard box.  We have also celebrated another birthday this week!

Please find below information we have been asked to share with parents/carers.

We have been busy learning, playing and working together again this week.  Transition activities are very much part of the weekly routine, as we are joining Mrs Anderson, having lunch in the canteen and exploring all the playground areas.

We have been dressing up this week and celebrating together as we said cheerio to one of our friends who is moving away.  We wish you all the very best!

Everyone has been exploring the resources on offer in the nursery with their friends and practicing turn taking, sharing and developing other skills together.

We have been in the games hall and in the playground having fun and sharing spaces and time with each other.

We have been drawing pictures, making marks, working with playdough and building structures.

We have been clearing away our dishes after lunch and snack, and practicing being more independent.

Another fun filled week with so much going on, and not many weeks left before the summer holidays.

We hope you enjoy looking at a selection of photos and have a  lovely weekend everyone!

What another busy week!  We have had a visit from Childsmile on Wednesday this week, as they painted flouride varnish on to teeth.  Then on Thursday we had our school photos taken by John Coutts.

These are already back for a pre-view, and are being sent home with the eldest child in the family.  Mrs Spofforth has also posted our super nursery group photo on the blog already. We are delighted with them.

Most of the week has been spent outside and again in preparation for transition, with our preschool children visiting the canteen and Mrs Anderson’s classroom.  Our “Buddies” have been in playing, reading stories and helping keep the nursery tidy too.

We hope you enjoyed looking at the learning stories which have gone home this week for you to see.  We will be reflecting on any feedback received.

Here are some super photos to give you a flavour of how busy our bairns are in their play, talk and learning.  We use our indoor, outdoor and beyond environments to spark discussions, be curious and have fun.

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Although most of the week has been spent in preparation for celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, there have been some other things going on in the nursery this week.  We have been hunting for “dinosaur fossils” in the sand tray, digging and brushing away the layers of sand that covers them from sight.  This was sometimes a little fiddly, but we managed to clean the discoveries very well.

Lots of block building and creating amazing structures, independently and together as a team, have been observed.

We have been exploring numbers and looking at number patterns.

We were delighted to have a special delivery this week of some lovely fresh eggs.  It was really interesting to find out a bit more from the experts, about where our eggs come from.

With all the lovely, much needed fine weather, we have been enjoying all the outdoor areas much more.

We would like to say a huge thank you to the parents who have helped us in the outdoor areas this week.  Suzanne and Adam Talbot have helped remove the raised beds from the middle of the garden, also resourced and filled 4 very large tyres with soil.  We are hoping to plant some nice flowers and maybe some herbs, to add smells, colours and textures to the nursery garden.  This is hugely appreciated.

Also Alicia Hunter and Stephen Bishop removed some unsafe planks of wood from the slide shelter at the top of the slide this week.  Thank you very much for that, again this is really appreciated.

If any parents would like to help with renovating things like the broken slide shelter, we would love to hear from you.

Of course most of our week has been spent in preparation for the jubilee celebrations that took place on Thursday.  We painted Union Jack flags which were used as bunting for our garden party decorations.  We made a collaborative effort on our picture of Her Majesty the Queen, complete with crown, sparkly dress and lovely jewellery.  We practiced singing a special song about Royal Family life, and enjoyed showing the actions to go with the song.  All of this came together as we celebrated 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II being on the throne.  We dressed up, had a garden party and even had a special visit from Mr Stripey as he celebrated 25 years in business.

Enjoy the lovely photos and enjoy the long weekend everyone!