Inveralmond Early Years Centre

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!

This week we have been busy making lots of Autumnal crafts. We used some string and paints to display our fine motor and mark making skills to create our own firework pictures. We used a variety of tissue paper, glue and lolly sticks to make our own bonfires. Lots of the children enjoyed telling us they were going to watch the fireworks! Some of the children helped to collect the fallen leaves in the garden and used these to glue, paint and stick onto paper.

In the brick area we have seen some great team work, as some children played co operatively, talking and discussing how they will create their own structures.  We have been learning to move our bodies and stay active showing our gross motor abilities from the exercises on the promethean board. Well done everyone!

This week we have been busy with lots of Halloween activities on offer! We have been developing our mark making abilities by making our own skeleton paintings, we have been exploring our touch senses with slime in the garden and we have been scooping out our pumpkins, discussing the textures and how it feels. A few of the children knew what the pumpkin seeds were and that they eat them at home.

Everyone looked fantastic in their costumes!

We have continued to go out on our local walks in the community. This week we were looking to see if we could spot some 2D shapes within the environment. We managed to spot circles, squares and triangles!

Over the past few weeks the children have been discussing the changes of season in the garden which has taken us onto explore Autumn. The majority of the children have been helping to sweep up the fallen leaves in the garden, having lots of discussions asking and answering questions about why they are falling from the trees.

We have been focusing on our mathematical development, displaying our abilities to match and recognise 2D shapes.

Most of the children have been keen to mark make using a variety of different writing and drawing tools. We used some paint brushes to mark make in coloured sand, we have been painting our own pumpkins and we have also had the opportunity to create our own Halloween witch with different 2D shapes using chalk.

This week we went on a lovely walk in our local community. We were joined by Ladywell nursery and had lots of fun exploring the different environmental print we could find! We identified lots of numbers and letters on different signs, bins, houses and cars!

Some of the children have been challenging their mathematical skills by playing the matching picture game on the promethean board. We have also observed some great turn taking and team work whilst using this. Well done!

Some of the children have been enjoying using the light up boards in the writing area. The children are able to change the colour of the light on the board and they use the chalk pens to mark make and draw some lovely detailed pictures. We have continued to display our fine motor abilities using different objects to make spots and strips with the paint!