Thank you to all of you who came along to our library visits. The children were very excited about their visit and it was great for the nursery team to spend time with them out of the nursery. In the nursery we have been talking about the frost and ice this week. We have also been practising our songs for our nursery concert.

This week we have the Mousetale puppet show on Wednesday which we are all looking forward to. We will also be learning about road safety. The children will also be having their photographs taken during their nursery session on Monday.

This week we have been finding out about the cold and ice. The children listened to stories about winter weather and have been exploring ice in the water tray. On Wednesday they helped to make vegetable soup which they all enjoyed for snack. At art we have been making Christmas tree decorations ready to sell for the school Christmas fair on the 7th of December. Next week we will be learning about road safety and visiting the library with our families.

The nursery children have been making the most of the pirate topic this week with lots of pirate ships, pirates and treasure being found in the nursery. Today we had a visit from PC Law and PC Moore who brought their police van to nursery. PC Law explained to the children about the role of a police officer and the ways they help to keep people safe. The children asked some great questions which included “Where do you drive your police car?”, “What special clothing do you wear?”and “Why are the police lights on the van blue?”. The children went outside into the playground to see the police van and could see the blue lights and hear the siren (which was very loud).  We all really enjoyed the visit and learnt a lot about the job of a police officer and parts of a  police van.

This week in the nursery we have been learning about Diwali which is the Hindu festival of lights. The children watched some DVD clips about the festival and have been drawing mehndi patterns at the art table. At key group time we talked with the children about firework safety and they created firework paintings in the art area. The children built their own den in the nursery garden and have been building boats in the construction area. The children have also been interested in making treasure maps and telescopes. These interests have led us to look at life on the water with the theme of pirates and ships.

It has been a great start back to the nursery with lots of interesting and exciting play going on. The morning children began a discussion about bridges while building up the train set. This led on to looking at different types of bridges on the smartboard. The theme of bridges was taken up by the afternoon children too and soon there were bridges being built at the art area and with the large and small construction. A forth road bridge was built using the large bricks and outside the guttering track was used to make a bridge. The other theme the children came up with this week was hospitals. This began when one of the children asked for a nurse costume. Soon the home corner became a hospital ward and the children have been really engaged in play about patients, doctors and nurses. We will be continuing with these themes next week alongside the introduction of measuring materials to help the children measure their bridges.

We would like to say a huge thank you for all the donations of food and money for the West Lothian food bank. The nursery team have been overwhelmed by the generosity of parents and carers contributions. All of the donations have been added to the school collection for distribution by the food bank in the local area.

This week the children have been finding out more about Autumn and many of them have been bringing in leaves, conkers and acorns from the walks at the weekend. It is also great to hear many parents and carers talking about the talk homework we issued.

Yesterday we received a new wooden train and car set as a gift from one of the parents. The children were delighted and had a great time  building up the train set and road set.

At group this week we have been experimenting with musical instruments. We encouraged the children to play loudly and softly and stop and start the music. Today and tomorrow we will have a selection of these instruments available for the children to explore themselves.

We hope everyone has a lovely October holiday and we look forward to welcoming the children back on Tuesday 25th October.

This week in the nursery the children built a train in the large brick area, they developed this further into making tickets for the train. At group we played a matching pairs game all about transport and the story this week was “The Monkey Puzzle” by Julia Donaldson.

Thank you to all of you that have been handing in pine cones, conkers, acorns and autumn leaves. The children have been enjoying exploring these items as part of our Autumn display. This week we will be using some of these items in our art area and we will be learning more about Autumn.

Thank you to those parents and carers who made it along to our drop in evening last night. Remember the nursery team is always available to discuss any questions or concerns you have about your child in the nursery.

This Thursday we will be dressing down in aid of the local food bank which Primary 4 have been to visit. Your child can come to nursery wearing dress down clothes and bring a donation for the food bank. This could be a tinned or packet food item or £1. Please note the dress down day for the school is Friday.

Remember the nursery and school finishes on Friday (14th) for the October holidays. The school and nursery resume on Tuesday 25th October.

This week the children have really engaged with the theme of transport. Our new transport jigsaws have proved a favourite. They are a bit more challenging so encourage more concentration and hand-eye coordination to get them completed. The bricks have been turned into a car in the morning and a ghostbusters car in the afternoon. We added trucks to the sand tray as some of the children were showing an interest in tyre tracks. In the water tray this week we added some measuring spoons and a water dropper which the children can use to suck up water and measure. Both of these items have been encouraging some interesting maths and science play in the water tray. Along with the transport theme the children in both sessions have been making birthday cakes at the playdough table with straws for candles, this was extended to the writing table with the children writing party invitations.

Thank you to the parents and carers who were able to come along to the stay and play sessions this week.

Remember next week you are welcome to drop in and talk to your child’s keyworker about how your child is settling into nursery. The nursery will be open for parents and carers on Thursday 6th October from 4.30pm until 5.30pm.