We have been busy weeding and planting in our nursery garden as we work towards gaining our green flag award.
We have also been learning about healthy eating in the nursery so we invited Willie Carruthers the community gardener along to show us how to plant properly and talk to us about different types of fruit and vegetables we can grow in our garden. We have at the moment planted strawberries, peas, potatoes, carrots and cabbage and we are looking after them and eagerly awaiting to see the first signs of growth.
The photographer from the West Lothian Courier came along and took our photograph and our picture appeared in the paper that week.
Tag: Seasons
Autumn
We have been learning all about Autumn. We have been talking about the change in the weather and how all the leaves are now turning red, green, orange and brown and falling from the trees. The children even made an autumn tree with their painted footprints which was very messy and lots of fun. The children have been making Autumn pictures with glue and tissue paper. They have enjoyed going on a walk and collecting lots of leaves which they had great fun playing with in the garden. The children have also been exploring conkers in a large tray using scoops and tongs to help improve fine motor skills. Some of the parents and children made scarecrows at home as Sam our scarecrow was feeling lonely. The results were fantastic and well done to everyone took part and made our Sam very happy.
Sunflower Competition
Rural connect in association with Dobbies Garden Centre have challenged West Lothian Schools to grow the largest sunflower
The story so far…
A group of pupils from Broxburn Academy planted over 200 Russian Giant sunflower seeds in the glass houses at SRUC Oatridge in January. Over the following months they had the responsibility to care for them and ensure they were in great condition to be handed out to competing schools in April.
We are taking up the challenge and now have the responsibility to look after and grow our sunflower. We have made a display in the nursery entrance area to monitor the growth of our sunflower and at the moment it is measuring 99cm. There will be a prize for the tallest sunflower so wish us luck!
The children will be learning what a sunflower requires to grow successfully and learn how to care for it themselves.
Planting
The children have been learning all about plants. We are learning the names of the plant parts and that they need water and sunshine to grow. The children have enjoyed planting beans and sunflowers. They have also grown cress and made a funny head from tights, compost and cress seeds and it grew hair!
Winter
We have been learning about winter. We learned that when it is really cold water turns to ice and when it gets warmer it melts. We made ice paints to make pictures with. We added a little paint to some water in small paper cups and then put them in the freezer. The children thought they looked like lollipops! We also learned that because the ground is frozen it is hard for the birds to find food to eat. We found a recipe and learned how to make bird cakes which we then hung on the trees in the garden so that the birds would have something to eat. See the link below if you want to use the recipe at home.
We had great fun playing in the snow.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/youth/makeanddo/activities/birdcake.aspx