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.

This week the children have been exploring the role of the police and dressing up as police officers. They have enjoyed listening to the story of “The Gruffalo” and playing with the puppets and story stones to re-enact the story on their own.  In the garden we are still investigating minibeasts using our magnifying glasses and the mud kitchen has been open for business.

Next week we are going to move on to looking at transport as this week the children in the morning created a bus with the large bricks and the afternoon children built a boat. We have added some literacy idea cards which can be borrowed to give you ideas on how to develop your children’s literacy further.

We are looking forward to welcoming those parents and carers that can make our stay and play sessions in this coming week. Please sign up if you would like to stay and play for a short while with your child.

The nursery children have continued enjoying the people who help us theme. This week they moved on from fire fighters to the police. This came about through lots of “Paw Patrol” play, especially in the afternoon. The children added to their big book planners thinking about how the police keep us safe. Police costumes were added to the construction area and the afternoon children made walkie talkies out of bricks and black paper. In the garden the children have been experimenting with the mud kitchen and running around with ribbons. We also went on a spider web hunt today in the morning and took photos of what we found. At story time we read the book “Emergency” and talked to the children about the emergency number (999). At group time this week we focused on name recognition.

Remember that there will be no nursery on Monday or Tuesday due to the holiday and inservice day.

Our latest newsletter can be found here:

2016-09-10-murrayfield-nursery-class-newsletter

Another busy week in the nursery this week. The children in the morning decided to build a fire station and fire engine using the big bricks. They helped to build the play fire engine tent and have enjoyed playing with it for the rest of this week. The afternoon children have been playing “Paw Patrol” rescuing people from different situations. They have been using the fire engine as part of their “Paw Patrol” play and making the most of all the different equipment available. All of the children enjoyed using the new numeracy resource “Numicon”. This week they have been building numbers using the materials. We will be inviting parents in to have a look at this resource in the coming weeks so look out for further information. The children helped us to create our nursery rules which are now displayed on the wall. The children have enjoyed seeing themselves acting out the rules as a reminder of the nursery expectations. Please have a look at them when you come into the nursery to help your child sign in.

Online learners journey

We will again be using the online learners journey this session to record the progress your child is making. Individual observations will be uploaded over a four week period with summaries in December, March and June. The new planning format we are implementing this session will also ensure that you are kept up to date with your child’s progress through their nursery years. Planning will be recorded on big floor books which will track their learning in a particular area. If you have any questions about the learners journey or the nursery curriculum please ask one of the nursery team.

It has been a busy first few weeks for the nursery. New children who are joining the nursery have settled in well and everyone has been making new friendships. Lots of the play has been in the large building area. So far the children have built a fire engine, house, home for animals, a slide and bridges. There has been some great teamwork as they built their creations.  The house corner has been popular too with cooking and ironing proving very popular. Next week we will be focusing on supporting the children with the nursery routine and creating the nursery behaviour reminders. These will be visuals of helping hands, walking feet, sharing friends, good sitting and good listening. The children will also take part in their first group times with their keyworker which will focus on all about me and drawing a picture of themselves.

We have had a busy week this week with our successful sports taking place on Tuesday. Thank you to all the family members who came to watch the sports and support the children. The children have been playing with the small and large construction this week as well as enjoying using the sea creatures in the water tray. On Thursday we took the children on a walk around the school which they really enjoyed. We pointed out the primary one classrooms and said hello to big brothers and sisters that we met on the way.

Information for new primary one Parents and Carers:

First Week Information

Children start on Tuesday 23rd August 2016

First day will begin at 9.15am in the front playground  and finish at 12.15pm at the P1 playground door.

For the following days this first week your child will be in school Wednesday and Thursday 8.55 – 12.15pm  and Friday 8.55 – 12.15pm

Remember that you can join your child for lunch on Thursday 25th August at 11.30am

Second week and for the rest of the year

From Monday 29th August your child will be at school from 8.55 until 3.20pm Mon-Thurs  and Friday 8.55am – 12.30pm

Advice

I have attached a handy guide for parents called “Top ten tips for Starting School” this is published on the parenting Scotland website – http://www.parentingacrossscotland.org/ this website also contains other guides for parents and carers.

starting-primary-school-tips-2nd-edition

The Education Scotland website has great advice and ideas about the curriculum for parents and carers  – http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/parentzone/

This week we introduced a Talking and Thinking box with the children. This was a box filled with items associated with summer. The children selected an item and then described what it was and how or why you would use it. The items included a summer hat, a beach ball, flip flops and creatures you would find in rock pools. The children were really engaged in this experience and could describe how you would use each of these items. We recorded all of their responses on a large sheet of paper which is displayed in the nursery. During group we discussed how to keep ourselves safe in the summer which included discussions on suncream, hats and drinking lots of water. We will continue with the summer theme next week.

Below you can find dates and times for the nursery events coming up:

Tuesday 14th June – sports day (hopefully it will be dry)

10.15am – morning session

2.15pm – afternoon session

Please come to the nursery door and watch the sports

Monday 27th June – Graduation picnic

10am – morning session

2pm – afternoon session

Join your child for a summer picnic and celebrate moving on to primary one or their pre-school year

Remember the nursery will be closed for the election day on Thursday 23rd June

This week we continued with the pets theme. The children enjoyed making newspaper cats and paper plate animal paintings at the art table as well as helping hurt animals in the vet corner. On Tuesday we visited the chicks for the last time as they will leave the school on Friday to return to the farm they came from. The children have gained a lot of knowledge from watching the chicks grow and were amazed to see how big they were. The primary one transition this week focused on the snowstorm scene in the book and the children worked in teams or individually to create their own snowstorms.