Hello everyone, in Addiewell the weather has been surprisingly sunny, with a freezing wind but the sun has still been shining. Signs of Spring is finally evident with a few daffodils showing their heads, birds are chirping loudly and those dark early morning and nights are fading away. Children are coming to nursery full of beans too…

This week in nursery, some children have brought in some Fairtrade products and we were given some hot chocolate to share, that was greatly appreciated during snack one morning. Delicious!

Jack and the beanstalk has taken over our nursery as children enjoy the story especially the repeated verse: Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he alive or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.

As you can imagine, children have been very interested in creating a 3D display. This story and the level of interest from the children have informed us of using this for our next learning focus. Children have already started with sowing seeds in our garden and beans will also be planted to see how tall they will grow and you never know who might come down the beanstalk…. We will also look at castles and see who lives there and what are castles made from. So lots of investigation and discoveries.

Also this week we had a visitor: Rachel and her ‘dog’ Benny from the Scottish Dog Trust. The children sat beautifully as she spoke about safety when approaching a strange dog. Rachel’s advice for approaching a dog you don’t know, was to ask the owner if you can do this. She had children practicing “Can I stroke your dog please?” and if granted, Rachel said, you never stroke their head or tail but rather their shoulder or back. One child said to Rachel, “Cause if we don’t ask, it’ll be upset and can bite your fingers.”

Rachel also spoke about a dog running up to you and how to behave if this was to happen. Children practiced crossing their arms over their chest and turning their head to the side. This informs the dog that you don’t want to play as if you were to run they thinks it’s play time. “You cross your arms and not pet them.”

NEXT WEEK
SCIENCE WEEK – actually starts today however in nursery we will have some fun things for your child to participate in if they choose. So blast off! for next week.

Book Boost – Scaredy Cat and Boo by Michael Broad.

Plant a tree – On Wednesday as we said last week everyone is invited to plant a tree to create our own Addiewell woodland (12:45 – 2:00). Please support this by wearing wellies- it will be muddy and in years to come you can say to your family, I helped to plant that tree. Children from nursery and school are planting trees that day too, so can we ask if you can bring your child in wearing wellies and clothes that you don’t mind getting mud on them.

On this point can we remind parents that wearing “good” clothes is not advisable as paint, mud and others things will find their way onto your child’s clothes.

Lastly as promised earlier, we are coming up to creating a new menu for children’s snack. We would appeal to everyone for their suggestions as to what their child likes to eat where it will be added. The new menu will be further added to the menu page above. We will ask children for their suggestions too however adding your own suggestions helps us to make our menu varied and tasty.