Wow! It’s great to be back to nursery after our break! On Wednesday Lucas said “I want to go for a walk to the pier and find litter”. What a good idea! We found out that ten more people wanted to walk to the pier too. What else did we want to see/do on our walk? “See the ferry”, “Look for the Antaras”, “Watch the cars coming aff o the ferry”, “Look at the marina”.

We got a litter bag and lots of gloves ready before we left. Why did we need to wear gloves for litter picking? “We might get dirty hands”, “so we dunoo get germs on dem.”

Picking up litter around our local community develops our self-worth and confidence. It allows us to contribute to and participate positively to our island which is great for our health and wellbeing and helps us become responsible citizens of the future.

On the way to the pier we noticed that there was no ferry at the ramp. “Where is the ferries gone?” “They go to Laxo” “Sometimes Vidlin” “I’m’ going on the ferry next week” “I saw dee on the ferry Miss Sandison”. We noticed a really peerie boat. It had lots of seagulls around it. “What do you think it’s doing?” “Catching fish”, “Floating on the water”, “Feeding the big birds”. We agreed that the boat must have caught some fish and the birds were waiting to eat some.

As well as picking up litter we did a lot of number work. We counted how many cars came off the ferry, how many were in the booked and unbooked queues, how many boats there were. Whether there was more or less cars than trucks. There was a big truck with gravel, bricks and sand on the back. “Maybe it’s going to nursery becis we need sand at nursery” thought Alfie.

 

We had fish cakes for lunch. “Did dis come fae yun peerie boat?” we wondered. We spoke about where fish go once they are caught. “Dey get landed”, “We eat dem”, “My Daa takes some heem.”

The next day we looked at the litter we had found. “Dir is a lot o litter oh yuk”, “D animals will get sick on dis litter .” With help we sorted it into different piles while learning about materials such as plastic, tin and paper. When we collect objects, ask questions about them and organise them we are learning how to analyse data and handle information mathematically.

We looked for symbols on the litter, we learned what the recycling symbol and “put it in the bin” symbols look like. As part of our science and technologies curriculum it is important for us to discuss how to reduce, re-use and recycle and to understand what these words mean. Being able to read symbols and signs is also very important for early reading development.

As part of our discussions about litter we watched a short video called “Whale’s Tale”. The poor whale got weighed down by all the litter in the sea. “He’s sad noo he canoo swim”, “It’s too heavy”, “He’s stuck” “His friends ir helping him!”, “Why did the dolphin eat yun?” “Why does the litter turn peerie?” We had a lot of discussion about how the sea breaks litter into tiny bits that sea creatures accidentally eat. We all agreed it is good to stop litter going into the sea. We also learned a little bit about how whales breathe.

We continue to be very aware if nature around us and eager to help look after nature. On our walk we noticed different types of that yellow flowers, “Dis is daffodils but no dis” We learned to spot some differences between daffodils and dandelions. We noticed some little insects around the flowers. Back at nursery some of us listened to “The very busy spider” story and linked it to what we had seen outside. We learned that we need to be nice to spiders because “They catch flies in their webs” “Birds can feed speeders to dir babies” “The flies dunoo go into wir food”, “Birds come in the lang girse and eat speeders and litter”

On Thursday during some time at the playpark we continued litter picking. We searched the perimeter of the playpark and all around to check it was clean. We noticed that the litter bin was very full. “Lots o folk ir been eating crisps”, “Lots o folk ir pitten dir litter in the bin”. We were happy that people are keeping the playpark tidy and using the bin. “The playpark is bonnie noo”, “It canoo blow into the sea” “D birds will not eat any o yun bruck noo”