Health and Wellbeing – Page 3 – Bathgate Early Years Centre

April 24, 2020April 24, 2020

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…

This may support your child’s emotional health and well being during this period of change.

April 20, 2020

Try at Home Challenge. One Planet Picnic, a picnic that is good for you and good for the planet!

Can you have a Teddy Bears Picnic as part of Earth Day 2020 on Wednesday 22^nd April?

We are asking everyone to have a picnic in their living room or in their own garden at home and to send us in some photos. It would be great if you could help your grown up to prepare the food too. Things to think about:

You can choose what you eat for your picnic but can you also include one item that has been produced or grown in Scotland or some local and seasonal food too?
Can you reduce food packaging and waste or perhaps you can recycle any food packaging and wrappers to make something after your picnic?
Can you avoid single-use plastics such as drink cartons and bottles?
It’s a great excuse to spend a bit of time discovering new foods or rediscovering old favorites. Here are a few ideas to start:
use seasonal Scottish fruit
cheese sandwiches using Scottish bread and cheese
if you don’t have a teddy then any toy is welcome to come along!

Please share photos and videos with your nursery friends .

Good luck everyone 😉

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020

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…

April 8, 2020April 8, 2020

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!

April 6, 2020April 14, 2020

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?

April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

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

April 2, 2020April 2, 2020

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.