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Story sacks will be launching on Thursday 1st February for all ante pre school children. (Big Bed Time Read is fro Pre school children.) Come and have a look at the Story Sack on display in the foyer to discover what can be inside a story sack! Each week a different group will take it in turns to choose a Story Sack on a Thursday and bring it back on a Monday. There is a comments book inside each sack and we would love to hear your feedback.
The new boys and girls are learning how to safely use the fire pit at nursery this week and returning children are refreshing their knowledge of the safety procedures. Please have a look at the link below for a step by step video, recorded on the GoPro at the beginning of this year to share how we safely use the fire pit.
This term we are focusing on how to safely make and put out fire and how to cook toast a marshmallow/piece of bread or cheese on a stick.
Next term we will learn how to cook banana splits and damper bread safely on the fire pit.
If you have any tried and tested fire pit recipes (meat free please) please share them with the nursery staff or alternatively send an email to margaret.marshall1@westlothian.org.uk
Here is a short clip of how we safely toast the marshmallows once the fire is lit.
https://youtu.be/bLS8DBjvxzg
Once we have all had a turn to toast a marshmallow we have got to put the fire out to make the area safe.
Come back soon to have a look at our fire pit safety book. We are just about finished making it!
We would like to share our learning near and far and encourage readers to come to our blog. Please don’t share pictures and videos from our blog but instead share a link to our blog and bring your friends and family to us.
As you may already be aware Bathgate Early Years Centre is an Eco School. Children and Mrs Ola and Miss Heenan have been working extremely hard to develop our Eco area and bird hide in nursery.
This month we are learning about;
We also had a special visit from a landscape gardener this week. Miss Robertson’s brother Jamie helped us learn all about his job and what we can do at nursery to grow and care for our plants. He brought along lots of tools and explained what he uses them for at work. He kindly donated sunflower seeds, pots and compost to enable us to grow lovely yellow sunflowers we can plant in our garden when it is summer time and a bit warmer outside. Thank you very much Miss Robertson and Jamie!
https://youtu.be/yGGHbpjup7U
Please come in and have a look in nursery and on our Eco Schools news board to find out more.
We would like to share our learning near and far and encourage readers to come to our blog. Please don’t share pictures and videos from our blog but instead share a link to our blog and bring your friends and family to us.
We would like to share our learning near and far and encourage readers to come to our blog. Please don’t share pictures and videos from our blog but instead share a link to our blog and bring your friends and family to us.
Earlier this month we learned about the important work of Poppy Scotland and why the nursery ladies and other people wear poppies at this time of the year. We made paper poppies of our own by hand just like the volunteers used to at the Lady Haig Poppy Factory and we created lovely poppy collage pictures and poppy paintings to take home. We had fun modelling poppies from play dough and using our poppy shaped cutters in our red and black play dough. On the 10th (Afternoon group) and 11th (Morning group) of November the children went for a ‘Poppy Walk’ and planted poppy seeds in our nursery garden. Thank you to Poppy Scotland for providing, seeds balloons, flags, and age appropriate resource materials and thank you to everyone who bought a poppy on sale in nursery and supported The Scottish Poppy Appeal.
Our latest ICT addition at BEYC is a GoPro action camera. This is quality early learning in action! Staff are finding this resource really useful to gather observation and assessment information of the children’s knowledge, skills and application in a variety of contexts. Children can wear the GoPro around their chest as they play and learn.
More videos to follow…….
\\\\MORNING VIDEO BACK SOON ////
https://youtu.be/k0ccBFoNggA
Some of our Beebots are broken and we wanted to investigate what was inside them and how they work…..
We used screwdrivers to take off the shells and torches, cameras and magnifying glasses to help us see all the little parts inside a BeeBot.
We looked in books and on the internet to help us learn some more about how all the parts work together.
Some of us worked together to help hold the BeeBot still while our friend loosed off the screws.
We are learning new words…
“These wires need fixed for it to go fast again.”
“I think it just needs more battery.”
“These wires keep it working.”
“The green thing (circuit board) is like a brain.”
Please have a look in our Learner’s Journeys to find out more.
LIT 0-10a As I listen and take part in conversations and discussions, I discover new words and phrases which I use to help me express my ideas, thoughts and feelings.
SCN 0-04a I have experienced, used and described a wide range of toys and common appliances. I can say ‘what makes it go’ and say what they do when they work.
Some of the afternoon children were talking about a plant that “eats flies”. After doing some online research, together we discovered this plant is called a Venus Fly Trap. As part of our ongoing New Life/planting topic the group of children asked if we could look after a Venus Fly Trap in nursery. Together we looked on Amazon and found seeds and agreed we could plant the them in nursery and grow one ourselves. After only one week the plants are starting to grow up through the soil. We must not water them with tap water but only bottled water or rain water instead. Tap water contains chemicals that are harmful to this type of plant. Please come into nursery to have a look at our learning story and at our Venus Fly Traps.
If you would like to try and grow one yourself at home, this is the pack we purchased in nursery Grow Your Own Venus Fly Trap.
Please remember you can come into nursery to have a look at what the children are learning and how we are supporting their interests. The New Life topic continues to be very popular, now focusing more on the life cycle of butterflies and plants. If you are able to help further the children’s learning by sharing your knowledge please speak to any of the staff. Remember we welcome pieces of work/photographs from home too and will add this to our learning stories. You can also email information to Miss Wilkinson at eva.wilkinson@westlothian.org.uk
For those of you who enjoyed ‘Froggy Froggy’ you will be please to know there is also a ‘Butterfly Butterfly’ life cycle video clip! The children love dancing to it and are picking up lots of the vocabulary from the song.
Please remember to supervise children when looking at online clips. For more information on how to keep children safe online please see Think U Know and Net Aware.
Please remember children can bring in pieces of work and photographs to add to our New Life Learning Wall or you can email photos and a short description to eva.wilkinson@westlothian.org.uk
