The children have enjoyed being involved in developing their mud kitchen in the nursery garden this week. It is an ongoing project and the children have lots of ideas about what they need in their mud kitchen …. “we need an oven”, ” we need some spoons to stir” and “more mud!”. As the main appeal  of the mud kitchen its to get messy, please can we remind you not to send your child to nursery in their finest! We are waiting for more all-in-one water proof suits and hopefully some more welly donations to come in to help reduce the mess a little.

The lovely weather has meant that we have been able to get out our large building bricks and barrels and the children have been busy creating castles, bridges and wibbly wobbly roads.

Take a look at our week at nursery and read what some of our children have enjoyed most about their week….

“I like playing in the mud kitchen making lettuce soup.” River

“I’m cooking jelly soup in the mud kitchen.” Aileigh

“The play dough smelled of niceness.” Willow  (it was lavender play dough this week!)

” I like making bridges with the bricks.” Ethan

Just a reminder about our Parent Notice board which is by our coat pegs and above our friendship tree. This board has current monthly updates and calendars highlighting activities in the nursery and a topic planner to advise parents what we are currently learning in nursery.

It may have been a shorter week than usual but it certainly has been a busy few days! On Wednesday it was all hands on deck as we were getting prepared for Grandparents Day with a little baking (both in our snack kitchen indoors and our mud kitchen outdoors). On Thursday we had a very special day at nursery when our children invited their Grandparents to join them at nursery and show them all of the things they enjoy learning and doing here at Bathgate West. It was a very busy day and it was so lovely to see and meet so many Grandparents and to see them really get involved in the children’s activities and play. The tea and cake room was buzzing too and the children had a few surprises for their Grandparents, including a wee montage of video messages  and even a wee performance with our tap sticks.

Take a look at just a few of the many lovely comments we received in our comments book and some of our photos from the day. We hope the children and grandparents enjoyed their special day together.

“Had a fabulous visit. Everyone was very busy! What a great day.”

“Lovely morning watching the children. Thanks for the lovely tea.”

“Great idea, loved to see how much the kids enjoy it.”

“Really enjoyed the grandparents day. Terrific nursery with lots for the kids to do. They all seem very happy to be here.”

“What a wonderful atmosphere in the nursery. Children seem very happy and well equipped nursery. Great outdoor space. My grandson really enjoys his time here.”

“Fantastic environment, great welcome from staff and children. My grandaughter has flourished in the nursery!

“Wee trip down memory lane today. Fantastic staff, kids all happy too! Cakes were brilliant!”

“Another great day day. Keeps us in touch with what goes on and what they are doing.”

It’s been a busy week in the nursery, with lots of imaginative and creative play including building and putting out a ‘fire’, trekking through the jungle and we have even had an invasion of dinosaurs in our gardens! We have been making some natural art work outdoors and have been developing our ICT skills at the computer indoors. Take a look at some of the things we have been getting up to and what the children have had to say about their week at nursery….

“The dinosaurs live in the jungle.” Kaiden D

“I like going outside to play with the bikes and scooters.” Louie T

“I was helping people get their cars to the garage to fix them up.” Regan F

“I liked group time.” Adam C

“I can play the trumpet.” Mac F

“I like having picnics with my friend.” Megan C and Amy K

A quick reminder that we are having our annual Grandparents Day next Thursday 24th September…….

The children of Bathgate West Nursery School would like to invite their grandparents along for a special visit to the nursery.

When: Thursday 24^th September

Time: 10.15am – 11.30am (morning session) /

2.00pm – 3.15pm (afternoon session)

(We kindly request that only grandparents come along in order to keep numbers manageable.)

Any home baking that could be donated for our special occasion would be greatly received!

We have been singing about the sunshine a lot this week at nursery and it seems to have had a positive effect on the weather! We have enjoyed being out and about decorating our brick wall, creating music on our Musical Tree in the garden and painting in our outdoor classroom.

We would love to hear about the achievements and experiences that our children have out with the nursery. These Magic Moments could include certificates or special achievements in swimming/ gymnastics/ football, learning to ride a bicycle, counting to 10 independently, writing a story, a special drawing  etc….anything that they should be very proud of!

If your child has had a magic moment at home, please fill in one of our Magic Moment sheets and hand it to your child’s key worker who will share this with the other children at small group time and will help your child put their Magic Moment into their Learner’s Journey as a record of the learning from home.

This year the nursery is keen to develop and make use of our extensive outdoor learning areas. We have already begun to develop an outdoor classroom with lots of writing and mark making equipment readily available. We have been outdoors playing and learning as much as possible this week. Take a look at what some of us have been getting up to….

Some children enjoyed making shapes and patterns on the ground with water and a paint brush, some children played together and created a garage to fix the cars and refuel, there was a lot of bouncing on the space hoppers and we even had some parachute fun.

Take a look at our fabulous art work in the Rainbow Room! This week in the nursery we have been talking a lot about who is in our family, the children have enjoyed sharing and talking about their family members whilst drawing their own family portraits…here are a few examples of their work. Take a peek in our Rainbow Room to see them on display…..

With children still settling back into the nursery we have been singing familiar songs and reminding children of our nursery rules and routines. The children have been exploring the sand and water trays,  there has been lots of painting and gluing, building train sets and using our ICT equipment to play games. We have even managed to dodge the rain clouds and get outside to play as much as possible this week.

I asked a few of the children “What they have enjoyed at nursery this week?” Here are a few responses….

“I liked painting an aeroplane” Emily M

“I did a drawing, it was an ice cream cone ” Rocco L

“Playing with the choo choo’s” Rio M

“Playing with the bricks, making a castle” Josh T