Inveralmond Early Years Centre

This week the children have continued to develop their interest in pets. We have really enjoyed looking at and talking about everyone’s picture of their pets on the wall.

We have had lots of fun picking our own nursery rhymes and singing these around the nursery or with the musical instruments. We have even been singing our values song for Inveralmond and we are all very impressed at how good the children are at singing this!! Well done everyone!!

The children have been continuing to display some great fine motor skills using the weaving and threading materials. We have also been using the litter picking grabbers in the garden to keep our garden nice and tidy! Lots of the children have been taking responsibility  help tidy and clean our nursery. As one of our values is respect, this has been a great way to explain to the children that by keeping our nursery tidy and clean we are respecting our environment.

Many of the children have been recognising familiar or important numbers within their environment. We have been talking about what age we are and what number of house we live at. We hope to get out on a local walk next week to see if we can spot any numbers in our local community. We have had some number games on offer which some of the children have participated in, showing some great numeracy skills.

We also had lots and lots of fun splashing in the puddles from yesterdays rain fall!!

The children’s interest have moved onto animals, particular pet animals. Some children have been taking care, bathing and looking after the soft toy animals around the nursery. We have provided the children with a variety of books and stories and have enjoyed some discussion times looking at different kinds of pets. We have also enjoyed sharing photos of our own pets at home and having some lovely conversations about what they are and their names.

We have been focusing on the children’s fine motor skills, providing opportunities with threading and weaving indoors and outdoors. Some of the children have enjoyed making transient art pictures which has focused on the children using their pincer grip to pick up and place the materials on the board.

Nursery rhymes are always being sung throughout the day in nursery and the children have been enjoying picking their favourite one to sing along or to hum the tune.

With it being Valentines Day on Friday 14th we have given the children the opportunity to take part in some Valentine’s crafts. We have been having lots of discussions about showing the people we care about kindness and happiness.

We have been very busy this week at Inveralmond Early Years! We started off the week going for a walk in our local community. On the walk we took our purple elephant called SIMOA who is our mascot for safety inside and out the nursery. SIMOA stands for Safety, Inspect, Monitor, Observe, Act. You will notice our SIMOA signs up on all the doors and around our nursery to ensure everyone including staff, parents/carers and the children to act responsibly to safeguard, protect and support the children’s well being. Through the children’s interest of the icy wintery weather a few weeks ago we have been looking at ways we can keep ourselves safe inside and outside the nursery. We discussed about the safety on wearing helmets whilst we ride bikes and scooters, why it’s important to stay together when we walk and to hold hands when crossing the roads. We also found some road signs that show us where to go when we need help and keep us safe in the community. In the nursery playroom we looked at ways we can keep ourselves and others safe when playing with the bricks and with the tools t the tool bench. The children made their own risk assessments using a mind map!

Focusing on the children’s ability to recognise shapes in their environment we have been exploring ways which the children can talk about them in their own way. We have been using the sand to mark make our own shapes and the children have been building lots of different structures, talking about what shapes they’ve used to construct them. At the gluing area, we have had lots of different shaped materials for the children to create their own pictures of their choice and with adult support discussing what shapes they’ve used and what they look like.

Following on from the icy weather a few weeks ago we have been exploring how ice is formed and what we can use to melt the ice. This was very popular with lots of the children curious to explore the ice and experiencing it melting with warm water and melting it in their hands.

We finished the week off by having a tasting session at snack time of haggis, oatcakes and shortbread to celebrate Robert Burns Day. the haggis had a mixed reaction with some saying it was ‘delicious’ and others saying they didn’t like it. Some of the children enjoyed to dress up and try the kilts on, curious to learn what they were called and having a little dance.

I hope you are all staying safe and have a lovely weekend once this storm passes.

See you all on Monday!

Happy New Year to all our children and families! We hope you all enjoyed the Christmas break.

It’s been great to have you all back at nursery and it’s been lovely to meet our new children and families that have started with us this week!

We’ve had a busy week exploring the snow and ice in the nursery garden. We had lots of discussions on why we have snow and ice and investigating cause and effect when we smash the ice off a had surface. Some of the children have asked to colour the snow and we had lots of fun mixing and making colours with the paints. This weather has brought us on to our new topic of Winter. We are going to be looking at other signs of Winter in the garden and when on our local walks in the community. We have also been looking at ways to keep our selves and others safe when inside and outside. We recorded all our answers on our spider diagram which is on display in the garden.

You might have noticed we have moved a few bits of furniture in the areas of the nursery. This is all part of improving and ensuring our learning environment is built on high-quality provision and resources to ensure our children are getting high- quality learning outcomes.

We have had such a fun Christmas party today! We played our party games, danced and enjoyed our yummy snack. We had a surprise visitor from Santa who brought all the children a gift.

All the staff here at Inveralmond would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Nursery closure is Friday 20th December and we return on Monday 6th January.

We are looking forward to welcoming you all back in January.

Take care

This week we have bee very busy continuing to make all our Christmas crafts that you will be able to make a donation or pay £1 to take home next week! We’ve also been opening our nursery advent calendar daily!

Using our mark making skills, developing our early literacy and writing skills we have been practicing writing letters and words using a variety of materials including sand and a paint brush, paints, pencils and pens.

On the promethean board we have been exploring making patterns using the Christmas themed train. The children have also enjoyed taking part in cosmic kids yoga, stretching and exploring different ways we can move our bodies.

A few of the children wrapped up nice and warm with hats and gloves and enjoyed a walk to our local park. We took SIMOA who is our purple elephant which represents how we can keep everyone safe whilst in and out the nursery. SIMOA stands for Safety, Inspect, Monitor, Observe, Act. We discussed different ways we can keep safe whilst walking to the park. Crossing the road, Stop, Look and Listen. Staying together and walking together holding hands when we need to. Not touching dogs or animals that pass us. Well done everyone. You all showed great ways to keep safe with SIMOA.

This week in the garden we have been using the tyres and hoop to create our own solar system. We used our hand to eye co ordination and turn taking skills to throw the ball into one of the planets(tyres). We have also been very busy with lots of Christmas crafts and activities on offer.

We have been practicing our mark making and writing skills by writing our own letters to Santa. It’s been lovely hearing what they are asking for from Santa Clause! Some of the children have enjoyed dot to dot and colouring in pictures. We decorated our Christmas tree which the children had such fun helping with! Lots of children have been telling us about their own Christmas tree at home and if they have it up or not yet. We have decorated gingerbread biscuits with icing this week which was very popular! Some great decorating, well done!!

We have a very cheeky elf in nursery too!! I wonder if you will all be able to spot him everyday??…

We enjoyed another lovely walk in the local community with some of the children from Ladywell Nursery. It was great fun to explore one of the local parks and demonstrate our gross motor skills on lots of the park equipment!

In our nursery garden the children were discussing the change in weather, commenting on how cold it was. We discussed what we could do before coming to the garden to ensure we are kept warm whilst playing outdoors. Lots of the children were able to tell us to wear a jacket, hats and gloves. We have had lots of fun doing treasure hunts in the garden this week. The children worked together and co operatively to find the hidden treasure!

Using our coordination and mathematical skills we have been playing hop scotch!

We have continued to explore planets and the solar system this week, in particular fact finding the different planets names, how big they are and how far away they are from earth.

Some of the children were keen to show off their gymnastic skills so we provided a mat for them to do this. Fantastic forward rolls, well done!!

Some of the children have been talking about Santa and putting their Christmas tree up. We have had some Christmas themed problem solving games available on the promethean board and we have made a start for the children to make their own Christmas crafts which will be available to buy for £1 the week beginning 16th December.

This week some of the children discovered some ice in the garden. they asked lots of questions about why it was ice and what it was before ice. We made up some small and large containers of coloured water and left it over night to see what it would turn into. The children had great fun exploring this, watching and feeling it melting and smashing is to see the cause and effect! We have also been using our bodies to play different games to keep ourselves warm such as hopscotch.

A few of the children enjoyed a walk to the local park to show off their gross motor skills!

Following on from the children’s interest of telescopes last week the children have been discussing different planets. We have had quite a few astronauts getting ready to go to space to land on the planet mars in nursery this week! A few of the children used the playdough to create the different planets in the solar system, using our mathematical skills to compare and explore different sizes.

Some of the children helped cut up the vegetables for the soup we made for snack time. The children enjoyed eating it and said it was delicious!

This week we have been busy in the garden collecting the fallen leaves from the trees to use at our gluing station. We have had the opportunity to create our own Autumn wreaths using the leaves and glue. They all look beautiful on display in the nursery, well done!

We have been using our problem solving abilities to complete a variety of jigsaw puzzles. We have observed lots of perseverance from some of the children when completing these! Throughout the nursery the children have been listening to story books being read or looking through the books independently or with their friends.

When ordering snack last week some of the children were asking to try some lemon. We cut some up into slices for snack and let the children taste. There were some funny faces whilst doing this!

In the garden a few of the children asked some questions about telescopes and what they looked like. We used the ipad to fact find some information and then we built our own using the duplo! We could see the moon with them!