We were delighted to be able to get beyond the nursery setting and explore parts of Aith this week.  We went to Michaelswood first and ate our snack in their lovely pollytunnel. The tables were covered in historic information and photos from aith, which some children noticed old style cars and boats in the pictures.

We split up into groups and went dinosaur spotting.  There were also lots of interesting parts of the garden to help us learn a bit more about the trees, nature, birds and other wildlife that were in the wood.

Before we left for the Leisure Centre, we were able to play on the swing and see some of the other things there.

When at the Leisure Centre, we were able to enjoy a sit down with our sandwich picnic and the delicious biscuits made by our canteen staff.  We also used up a lot of energy playing with the bouncy castle and all the other soft play resources.

I think everyone enjoyed the trip and this was yet another step towards getting back to “normal”.

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!

It has been an exciting week this week in nursery as we have had our school sports day.  We were all delighted that we could start to re-establish connections with friends and families and spend time together in the school grounds.  What a difference it makes to everyone to start to get back to the normal school life experiences we have been missing for such a long time.

The children decided to make a shop this week, so I sign was an important addition.  There were also labels, price tags and dates for the items for sale.  Lots of mark making opportunities.

We have been playing listening games this week as well as listening to our names being called at “registration”.

We have been practicing our independence skills at lunch time, both with the transitioning group who are having their lunch in the school dining hall, as well as the group who stay in the nursery to have lunch.

One of our friends made a special discovery this week, and brought it in to show all our friends together.  Following on from this we wondered how birds made such amazing structures.  We then spent time in our nursery garden looking our for the signs that helps us to know that a bird is making a nest.  We have not been lucky enough to spot any other nests yet, but we are keeping a look out!

We have also been finding out about different species of birds and noticing their different sizes and colours.

We have been exploring different ways to use our fine motor skills this week.  We have made marks in the sand and on the chalk boards.  We have been cutting, moulding and building.  We have been using different sizes of bubble making instruments and experimenting on which ones work the best.

We have enjoyed spending time outside with friends exploring new things!

Mostly we enjoy time with our friends learning.

We hope you have a lovely longer weekend!

 

Please remember that this Friday (27th May 2022), the nursery will be closed for an occasional holiday.

Next Friday (3rd June 2022), we will be closed again due to the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations.

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Snack Menu for 23rd May 2022

Link above to the snack menu for the week ahead.

There have been more additions to the mud kitchen this week, as a mobile “cooker” has been sourced.  The children worked well together as they sourced the ingredients, decided on the “recipe”, then made sure the “lobster soup” was cooked properly before agreeing an appropriate charge.   £4.90 a cup was the final price.  They then wrote up their menu for the day on the blackboard.  Some prices were more expensive than others.

There have also been some more sea life related resources added to the environment.  A large fishing net was considered essential for the garden, by one enthusiastic fisherman in the making.  Again, the adults were able to respond to this request and brought in a wonderful clean fishing net.  This has not only provided a lot of role playing opportunities for catching “fish”, but also provided opportunities for obstacle courses with other loose parts in the garden.  Children have been testing their jumping skills as well as going under the net, over the net, bouncing and climbing.  These opportunities to build gross motor skills also supports what comes next with the fine motor skills.

We have also been exploring the large hollow blocks to make obstacle courses inside too.  With such a variety of construction opportunities in the nursery, the children are never short of ideas. These blocks are great for being creative, making role play areas, supporting gross motor skills, fine motor skills, turn taking and co-operation.

Vaila has been giving some golf lessons this week in the nursery.  The children were really engaged, and very able to work co-operatively taking turns with the “clubs” after a few practice shots.  They were considerate of others by replacing the ball for the next person, giving enough space for the swing and congratulating their friends on their good shots at the target.

There have been lots of play outdoors this week, long may the better weather continue for exploring, playing, learning and socialising outdoors.

As our transition experiences continue, we have again been able to have our transitioning children spend time building up their Primary 1 experiences.  This week parents/carers were able to drop off children at the start of the school day.  They were then able to go into primary 1 to play in the space and meet Mrs Anderson.  This will be similar to their starting experience after the holidays, so hopefully be more familiar and less daunting.   Again the canteen routines have been explored, as has the Primary 1 playground area.  The buddies have been keeping in touch with their paired nursery child/children too.

Finally, in the nursery we have been pretending we are in Primary 1 already with some short together time “lessons”.

It has been such a busy week! Lee has been helping us learn some more sign language, we have put up some new mirrors in the environment, been very careful with our cutting and been independent with our pouring and clearing plates at mealtimes.  We have had such a lot of fun with our learning this week and even managed to celebrate a birthday.

Please remember that next Friday, the nursery and school will be closed for an occasional holiday.

Have a super weekend everyone!