Please click the link below to view May Newsletter 2020
One Planet Picnic – Earth Day 2020
Please use the arrows below to navigate through this Sway.
Growing & Planting: Try at home activity
Try at home activity:
Now we have more time to spend at home, it is a great opportunity to take part in growing, planting and observing the changes happening. We would love if you could join us in this journey, we would like to document the progress on the Sway below so please take lots of photos and video clips. You can Share them via our twitter page BEYC Twitter or your online Learners Journal under the learning from home tab.
What could you grow in your garden or from your home?
How could you document and share the results?
Keep Scotland Beautiful’s #GrowASeed initiative is also encouraging people in Scotland to take part and get growing. Visit their website for more useful information.
https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/news/apr-2020/join-us-to-growaseed/
Try at Home Activity: Mark Making
Harry the Hedgehog had lots of fun taking part in yesterday’s try at home activity...
Inspiring and motivating your child to lift a pen/pencil to begin drawing can be difficult if the interest just isn’t there. During nursery sessions we have a variety of ways we can get our children excited about mark making. You could Provide a tray with different mediums in for example: Flour, lentils, dry sand, wet sand, soil, shaving foam, salt and lentils then ask your child to use their pointer finger and begin to play. Quickly you may notice a variety of mark making taking place. Before moving on to writing letters or numbers we suggest trying some pre-writing shapes first (The grown up could draw these on paper for the child to copy) these are:
Horizontal line, Verticle line, Circle, Intersecting cross, Diagonal line, Diagonal cross, Square and Triangle.
Following this you could then move on to letters in your child’s name and other familiar names/words.
Please let us know if you try this activity by uploading a photo or video into their learning from home tab or on twitter @WLBEYC. Harry’s favourite was mark making in the soft flour… what might yours be?
Mindfulness Session with Mrs Hendry
Connecting with our minds and bodies is often easier said than done, when we are busy our mind can wander instead of focusing on what is all around us and the present moment.
Each week Mrs Hendry invites children to take part in a short mindfulness session. This could be a great short family activity to help reconnect, focus, calm and relax together.
Before you being this weeks session please make sure-
Your room is dimly lit.
You are comfortably lying flat on your back, we love to get a comfy cushion for our heads and even a cosy blanket. (Not all children will want to lie down, a comfortable position will do)
Press play on the voice recording, close your eyes and remember to breath slowly in and out…
Before you being this weeks session please make sure-
Your room is dimly lit.
You are comfortably lying flat on your back, we love to get a comfy cushion for our heads and even a cosy blanket. (Not all children will want to lie down, a comfortable position will do)
Press play on the voice recording, close your eyes and remember to breath slowly in and out…
This may support your child’s emotional health and well being during this period of change.
Make your own musical instrunment: Try at home
Make your own musical instrument!
Use things around the house to see if you can make quiet or loud sounds. Can you shake, hit or scrape?
Please watch the video below where you will see Miss Heenan playing a tune on her Euphonium, some of the nursery ladies and Harry the Hedgehog making use of items around their home to create musical instruments.
Your try at home challenge is to join our BEYC band.
Please send videos and photographs to us using twitter @WLBEYC or uploading onto your Online Learners Journal. Miss Kelly will use all the photos/videos to make a video showing our band together!
Some items you could use to make your own instruments…
Alphabet Egg Hunt: Try at Home
Harry the Hedgehog was delighted to be invited to take part in an alphabet egg hunt. Miss Collins hid eggs with both uppercase and lowercase letters written on the egg shapes to help support Harry’s early literacy skills by identifying and recognising letter names (B) and letter sounds (b).
Try at Home Challenge:
1. Help your grown up design the Alphabet Easter eggs.
2. Close your eyes and give your grown up a countdown to hide the eggs inside and outside your home.
3. Set a timer and get moving, finding all 26 Easter eggs as fast as you can.
4. Can you find all the letter eggs from your name and names in your family?
5.Can you find all the letter eggs in the word RAINBOW/rainbow?
6.Now your turn to hide the eggs and your grown up can go on the egg hunt.
Please upload photos or video clips into your child’s Learning Journal using the learning from home tab under your child’s profile photo or upload to twitter @WLBEYC.
Thank you all for taking part and keeping the nursery ladies smiling!
Guess Who? – Try at Home
Guess Who?
So many of us have lots of fabulous photographs of loved ones stored on our digital devices but when was the last time you looked through old photos or even brought the photo albums out? Over the next week your challenge is to spend time with your family and children playing Guess Who while looking at your family photographs? Who would’ve thought mummy or daddy were tiny babies!
Head over to our twitter page to see the nursery ladies joining in, can you Guess Who from our photographs? https://twitter.com/wlbeyc?s=20
Spending time looking at old photos can inspire curiosity and creativity, what was in fashion then, what was the most popular toy, what did digital technology look like then? Can you create a scrap book or time capsule using current photos and belongings to remember this time in the future? Could you use digital technology to call/face time a relative to tell them about the photographs you have found?
Harry the Hedgehog was suprised to see his baby photo!
Can you guess the ladies below?
Mindful Walking – Try at Home
Connecting with our minds and bodies is often easier said than done, when we are busy our mind can wander instead of focusing on what is all around us and the present moment. Over the next few weeks try focusing on the statments below asking your child the following questions if you are out for your walk or in your garden or street. (Staying within Government guidlines)
This may support your child’s emotional health and wellbeing during this period of change.
When we go for a mindful walk we really try to notice every little detail around us – trees, cars, flowers, clouds and the how our bodies feel at that moment.
Feel your feet on the ground and notice how you walk, heels lifting up and toes pressing down.
Think about the sounds your feet make as you walk.
Take big deep breaths of the fresh air.
Stop for a moment and notice how your body feels, is your heart beating a bit faster?
Look up at the sky and notice what you can hear.
What can you smell?
Find something to look at, a leaf or a plant and really look at it and notice everything about it.
How does your skin feel?
Carry on your mindful walk as you go back home.
Join Jamie from Cosmic Kids on her mindfulness walk around the countryside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P3Deuv8tbc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P3Deuv8tbc
Discovery Bottle Activity – We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Following on from yesterday’s try at home Bear Hunt activity today we would like to share an activity inspired by one of our most popular and highly requested stories to read at nursery. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
Discovery bottles can help enrich your child’s experience while listening to a story and help them to connect with the words in the book. While reading or listening to the book ask your child to find the matching bottle listening out for words which describe the objects inside e.g Squelch/ Stumble building on their vocabulary and early literacy skills.
Please watch the video at the bottom of this post to listen to the story and play along.
What you will need:
Clear bottles/ jam or coffee jars/ zip lock food bag
Grass
Water
Mud
Leaves/sticks
White Paper or cotton wool
Fill up the clear container to resemble the Grass, River, Mud, Forrest and Snowstorm in the story. While creating the discovery containers your child will be developing their fine motor skills.
Mrs Bonnar and her family had great fun completing this activity have a look at the photos below.
