Whilst the sun has come out to play we have been making the most of our outdoor area again. There has been lots of exploration of measuring with water using the giant scales with some of the boys trying hard to balance the two buckets equally. Jude noticed ” You need to put more water in this side to balance it.” and Oliver observed the following… ” I just put a big bit of water in it and it went that way!”.

Some children have been busy building a den in the corner of our garden and even decided to make a flag and sign for it. There has been lots of tree climbing and activity on the bikes and scooters and we have even taken our Rainbow Room outside with sand play, water play and painting outside too.  The sun has been helping our vegetables grow and our greenhouse now has a tomato plant to grow in. The left over charcoal from our fire pit has been very useful as some of the children used this to draw  pictures, exploring a range of materials.

We have also been busy learning our Gala day Safari song and can’t wait to sing and cheer on Saturday…. We are just hoping that the sun stays out over the weekend and everyone has a wonderful day! We look forward to walking with you or waving to you if you are in the crowd watching!  HIP HIP….

Following on from our fire pit experience last week the children have been helping to set up a camping role play area and there has been lots of discussion about holidays, camping and camp fires. Some more children had the opportunity to toast marshmallows on the real camp fire again today. We will be developing our planning around the children’s ideas about holidays and summer.

Today some of the children were able to experience building their own camp fire using our lovely new fire pit. We worked in small groups and Ollie the Owl helped to teach us how to be safe and wise near a fire. We showed great respect for the fire and followed all safety rules and as a treat we got to toast marshmallows on our fire. We talked about the fire, flames and smoke and what fire is used for.

By using our Fire Pit we are developing:

Social interactions

Life skills

Risk Taking

Confidence

Experience

Co-operation

Communication

We will be using our fire pit again soon to allow other children to have the experience.

Our little chicks are settling into their lives at Bathgate West this week with lots of cuddles from the boys and girls. They have attracted lots of attention from parents, grandparents, brothers and sister and they are growing very quickly! Some children helped clean out their cage today in preparation for their holidays at the weekend. They will be back on Monday and we will be looking to see how much they have changed over the weekend. Chick number 9 still has no name so any suggestions will be appreciated.

We have been learning about all kinds of creatures this week, from mini beasts in our garden to the largest safari animals from the jungle. We are very much looking forward to meeting the chicks, hopefully next week, and have been learning all about the life cycle of a Hen.

With the slightly warmer weather we have even managed to eventually plant our potatoes in our new vegetable planters, so hopefully we will have a bumper crop of tatties by Harvest time! Our fire pit has drawn some attention this week as we have been discussing how we can make fire…what we can cook on fire and most importantly…how we will stay safe we really do light the fire!

Despite the changeable weather we have made it outdoors for lots of play this week and there has been plenty of creative play using our crates, reels and tyres and lots of messy and muddy play at our mud kitchen. Our garden has developed lots of lovely big puddles too, so please remember to send your child to nursery in wellies and clothes that you don’t mind getting a bit mucky…… as learning can get messy!!!

Alfred Alligator has been teaching the boys and girls about being kind and helpful at nursery, using gentle hands and kind words can make our friends happy. We know we can help our friends in lots of ways, by sharing, including them in our games, helping to tidy away our toys and following instructions, just like Alfred!

There is a buzz of eggscitement around the nursery this week with the arrival of our eggs and incubator. We have been talking about how to keep them safe and look after them whilst they are in our care. We shall be counting down the days until they begin to hatch and starting to think about names we would like to give our chicks.

So there have been some chick songs and lots of chick related crafts this week as we prepare to meet our feathery friends!

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/west-lothian-nursery-awarded-green-7828909#rZygCGCXEwJFeF2M.97

Take a look at this article celebrating the nursery’s recent Eco success. The boys and girls are delighted to have been awarded the Green Flag status.

The sun has come out and it’s finally feeling like Spring time! At nursery we have been embracing the Spring feeling and have been developing our writing skills using words from our blossoming Spring tree…

The sun has inspired us to get busy in the Rainbow room where some of us have replicated Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ through painting or collage. What do you think of our Sunflowers?

With the sunshine out we have made the most of outdoor play this week and our outdoor ‘room’ is being set back up after a cold and wet winter. Take a wee look at just some of the things we have been discovering outdoors…. from water play to diggers, mud kitchen to dens, drawing to weaving, we have been investigating and creative in our play.