On Monday, the children were excited to find a new mud kitchen in the nursery garden.  This had been constructed over the weekend by Lisa and some of her family members.  The children were exploring all the possibilities of mixing, transporting water, sharing spaces and resources, making recipes with a variety of “ingredients” and making different textures in the kitchen.  Many thanks to Lisa, John and Bobby for their generosity and wonderful addition to our nursery garden!  Many hours of play, discussion and learning will follow.

Also on Monday, it was time to release the tadpoles back to the environment that they came from.  We have enjoyed watching them grow since before the spring break.  We kept them outside in the garden to help them get used to the change in temperature, before going for a group walk with our P7 buddies, and seeing them back to their habitat.

Our buddies have been helping us learn and play together in Primary 1 as well as in the nursery environment as we continue our transition activities.  We have also continued to have our transferring children going to the school canteen for their lunch as part of their transition process.

Our free flowing sessions with Primary 1 have also helped the children work collaboratively on a couple of block play projects this week.  The children in nursery have been replicating the experiences supported by the older children as the week has continued.  What super role models they are!

Linda has been able to speak with children about growing peas this week.  The seeds were at the right stage for planting, so lots of good discussions about what seeds need to grow was had.  The children listened carefully to Linda’s helpful instructions and are wondering what will grow from their seeds.  We look forward to making observations and seeing what comes next.

We enjoyed a surprise visitor later on in the afternoon on Friday.  Mrs Anderson, who is looking after her sister’s dog, was able to pop along for a few minutes with Honey.  She was extremely well behaved and we enjoyed meeting her.

We have had another busy week at nursery with lots of different opportunities to learn about our world and develop our skills.  Here are some more of the ways we have played, talked, listened and learned together this week.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

With the super weather at the start of the week, we have been able to be outside to speak about our world around us.  We managed to have an outside registration one morning and stayed outside having more physical play time with a variety of obstacle course objects, chalkboards, water tray, bikes, hoops and space hoppers.  The children were able to explore some risks while climbing up on and jumping down from the cable reels.  We looked at bigger numbers this week on the large number square mat.

Some of the children were interested in the large ship that has been in Dales Voe recently, so we looked at some photos that Lisa shared, and learned that this was the largest crane ship in the world.  It had taken legs from an oil rig ashore to Lerwick, to be disposed of safely.  The ship is called the Pionneering Spirit.  We spoke a lot about the jobs that people do on boats and oil rigs, why we need oil and what happens when an oil rig comes to the end of its life.  The children had lots of big questions and were interested in finding out more.

We had a caddy lamb visit us this week, which the children and staff were delighted with.  The lamb was wearing a nappy and took time out of their busy day to play with us in the nursery setting.  They explored the peerie house, the music station and enjoyed a feed from their bottle.

Linda has been starting to speak about planting some pea seeds with the children this week.  They have been soaking in water and getting bigger in size.  When they start to grow shoots they will be ready to plant.  We are keeping an eye out to see the changes that happen.

Meg has been looking at bar graphs with children this week.  We have started to speak about how we can find out information from bar graphs.  We have spoken about the number of children that come to nursery each day, and will look at how that information is put into a bar graph.  We will also be making a bar graph to find out which colour of eyes is the most common in our nursery class.

The exciting news for this week’s transition activities, is that we found out who everyone going into P1 after summer will have as their “buddy” (current P6 children).  The buddies came on a walk this week, met the children in P1 for a play, and also met the children in nursery for a play.  This is helpful for after summer, as the buddies will look out for the children in the playground when they start P1.

We have played inside and outside with our friends, buddies and adults this week.  We have asked lots of questions and improved our skills in such a lot of different ways.  We follow the interests of the children to help us plan for their next steps in learning.  We have had such a lot of fun.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Transition experiences for those transferring into Primary 1 after the summer holidays continues in the nursery this week.  On Monday, the children were able to speak to and meet with Mrs Anderson in their small group while the current P1s were at their PE lesson.  They were then able to go to the primary toilets and become more familiar with those, before going through to the school canteen.  Children were served lunch by the canteen ladies and had their first experience of the processes involved there.  Afterwards, they were able to play in the playground attached to the P1 classroom, and then further outside with the older children in the class.

The Nursery children who are not transferring after summer enjoyed the extra space by themselves for a little while.

On Thursday, Transition activities continued again with more of the same.  We hope with this weekly consistent approach to play and learning, the children will all feel more connected and reassured as they prepare to move up, after the holidays.

In other areas of play and learning, the children have been exploring number and number processes through the “loose parts” in the setting.  We have been comparing numbers, counting, ordering and matching.  We have also been measuring the length of things and looking at the number on a number line.  Understanding number and number processes can be engaged with so much more easily, when children are able to hold, see and play with numbers in their hands, before holding them in their heads.

Fine motor skills continue to be developed as well as exploring properties of water and sand.  The outdoor environment is one of the most resourceful places in the nursery to experience every day learning such as weather, seasons, growth, community etc.  We have enjoyed exploring these this week again too.

We have painted stones, made marks, painted pictures, built towers, played games, taken turns, read stories, eaten together and spoken with the staff and other friends in the setting.  All of these things help us with our skills for life.

Most of all, we have had fun and enjoyed the experiences, spaces and interactions with our nursery people.  Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Some parents have requested a reminder of the Nursery Rules, which we are trying to stick to each day, so they can also reinforce them at home.

Welcome back to our nursery after the spring break!

We have been delighted to see everyone again after the holidays.  The children have been reconnecting with their important friendships, getting back into the routines of the day, practicing their skills and making progress through play.

We have been exploring shapes, patterns and colours, talking about capacity in the water and sand trays, experimenting with printing, making and creating through block play and mark making, and lots more.

The weather has been a pleasure to be out in.  The children have been exploring a variety of role play situations from both outdoor spaces this week.  We have had a fish-market, an ice cream van, and of course our ever popular cafe for bacon rolls.

You will have read in Mrs Spofforth’s April Newsletter about our ongoing transition arrangements too, which has been big news in the nursery this week, and something which the children are chatting a lot more about.

The children making the transition into P1 after summer have been to the canteen for their lunch on Thursday, this is something that will continue throughout the term.  They have also been given the opportunity for free flow play in the P1 classroom this week too.  The younger children, are using their time apart in the hall for a PE lesson.

Here are some photos from this shortened week for you to look through. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Week beginning 25 April will be week three’s menu.

Week beginning 2 May will be week four.

Week beginning 9 May will be back to week one.

Week beginning 16 May will be week two.

Nursery Menu 2022

 April Newsletter

We have had a super week at nursery this week.  Our interest in frogs and life cycles continues.

We have collected frog spawn to observe in the nursery setting.  Already these have turned to tadpoles which has been really exciting to see.

The life cycle books and cards have helped the children think about what will happen next.  As we imagined what the fogs will look like at the end of the cycle, we used this as inspiration to paint our own frogs and make a display to illustrate the life cycle of a frog.

We decorated hard boiled eggs this week, with lots of different colours and patterns.  .

 

We enjoyed an Easter egg hunt too.

As always, we are learning to move our bodies and our hands/fingers as we make marks and create our own pictures.  This week, the bairns were interested in using chalks in the playground areas, on the ground and on vertical surfaces.  This is helping us use lots of different muscles, which really helps us before we learn to write.  We made some “street art” this week.

There has also been lots of building structures again with our blockplay, This helps with imagination, problem solving and collaboration amongst other things.

Reading stories is a big part of our nursery week.  There is always time for a story.

We have explored the cold wet snow this week and had an opportunity to speak again about the changing temperature outside.

Technology is also a bit part of our nursery learning.  We are learning how to get the best out of our whiteboard at the moment.

There is always so much to explore, investigate and learn about in so many different playful ways in nursery.

There are still some items of lost property which are looking to be claimed.  We will keep these for a couple of weeks after the holidays before clearing out again.

 

We are looking to provide a mud kitchen for the nursery children to play with in the nursery garden.  If there are any parents/carers willing and able to help us with making a simple mud kitchen, we would be delighted to hear from you.

We would of course pay for any materials required for the job.

Some ideas to help visualise what we had in mind for the bairns …

There will be some changes to procedures for our pick up and drop off arrangements after the holidays.

All parents/carers should try to remain 1 meter socially distanced from other parents/carers at pick up and drop off times.  This is a reduction from the 2 meter distance previously set.  Face masks should still be worn when picking up and dropping off.

We look forward to a time when all parents/carers are able to join us back in the nursery setting more freely.  Unfortunately this is still not the case currently.  If there are any parents/carers who feel their child needs extra support to settle during transition times, please be in touch with nursery staff members and we will be happy to discuss ways we can support you and your child through this period.

If there are any further changes to Covid related mitigations, we will of course let you know.