Well that is what you would expect when the schools are closed for a well deserved break however in nursery children have been exploring inside the school and having fun in doing so. Though there have been fewer children it has not stopped any learning through play as we introduce and reinforce their right to Article 31 – All children have the right to play.

Listening and attention is something as parents we all want our children to demonstrate however it is not necessarily a skill which comes naturally to all as it always appears that something else is more interesting or important to the child: certainly was for my children. So we have spent some time engaging children to develop these skills in a fun way as they discover and explore the school hall. As there was only nursery children in this was safe for us to do so. They played wonderful games such as the BEAN game, Jack, Jack, Giant (usually Duck, Duck Goose but keeping in focus of Jack and the Bean Stalk) and Corners. All children stayed focused on these and were very enthusiastic in their fun. Some children also showed leadership skills as they gave out commands as to what to do next following the rules of the Bean Game.

Turn taking and cheering on others through good sportsmanship was keenly displayed when they all participated in Jack, Jack, Giant as they sat quietly waiting in anticipation for their turn before springing up and chasing the ‘giant’.

Corner reinforced their learning about shapes as well as listening and following instructions such as galloping where some people thought they were suppose to do side stepping – and that was just staff; silly us.

They also spent time in the hall developing their ball skills and it was easy to spot children who played football or attended gymnastics/dancing, though everyone enjoyed discovering ways in which to move across a bench, bouncing on the older children’s ‘space hopper’ proved quite challenging as we forget how much children have grown in primary school.

Learning to bounce a ball on a bat soon changed to basketball where they had a choice of ‘nets’ to shoot for which then developed into a game of mini football as the ball dropped from the net allowing children to naturally kick the ball- some children were ‘diving’ trying to gain advantage of ‘stealing’ the ball from their opponent. There was even the activity to further these potential football players to learn how to control a ball as they dribbled one around some cones.

Fun was had as they had freedom to discover different types of rolls to do on a mat. We’re impressed how many knew and were confident at participating in a forward roll. One was delighted in learning how to do a pencil roll.

NEW SNACK MENU

Thank you all for supporting us in creating a new menu: ready to start on April 25th 2022. It was terrific to see so many replies to our form and it will probably be this way when creating future snack menus. Children have also had their voice heard and they were getting quite vocal for ‘sausages’ “They’re really scrummy.” As they are not a processed meat they can be a nice addition to our snack. A snack for us is not the food but rather the quantity or portion size which makes it a snack and not a meal.
Please look at the menu and have your say if it is good to go or maybe a tweak is needed. It is our menu which means all voices are heard.April Menu 2022

This will be placed in our Menu page for future reference.

Top Tip in supporting communication – These are always great to look at. The suggestions are always simple but so meaningful.Communication is Key calendar 2022 April

Nursery Natter
This was postponed and hopefully we can reschedule for the 19th April at 2pm. We would like it if parents can come along to have a wee natter where you can ask questions, share your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. It is a relaxed time: cup of tea and a biscuit with no pressure. Just everyone getting to know each other.

NURSERY CLOSED
Next Friday: April 15th and Monday April 18th we are closed on these days however we return as usual on Tuesday April 19th.

Our next time we are closed will be Monday May 2nd again opening on Tuesday 3rd.

Hello to this week’s blog

As you may have experienced this week, snow! Such a surprise !! Children thought winter had returned but alas it was just Scottish weather at it’s best. Children did have the opportunity to explore the ‘snow’ as it lay like little balls. Some children commented that it “looks like wee triangles but very cold.” Which was true as I thought they may have been more circular in shape but they were like little prisms for the short while they ley.

Earlier in the week and today all children have visited the local park to do some exercises in lovely sunshine.

Children have had a great time using soft pastels as well as looking at some artists to inspire them show their creative side. Their discussions have been wonderful and very descriptive. By using some pictures of famous artists who have also used pastels has motivated them to try their own hand at producing their own work – watch out Van Gogh.

Outdoors – well can it be anything other than water! The water tray was moved to another area of the outdoor area: which the children choose through discussion and it has challenged them to use this from their usual type of play – they requested pipes, guttering and containers of different sizes. They have explored and discovered: through problem solving and communication with each other, how to make water run fast/slow and some are now building canals for water to flow to other areas such as into buckets and containers.

NURSERY STILL OPEN

Both primary schools are closed for the Easter holiday however nursery is STILL open until the 14th April where we will be closed for the Friday and the Monday opening at the same day as the schools.

What is happening next week…

On Tuesday 5th April we have our NURSERY NATTER at 2pm. All parents are very warmly welcomed to join us as we have a natter about everything and anything you are interested in in regards to your child or any concerns we can help with. Keep an eye on your emails for our link as we will sending it out shortly.

Please support us

Please when you receive a form asking for your menu suggestions could you please spare us a moment to complete. All the data will be collected and used to inform our menu starting at the beginning of May. We have some suggestions already from children but it would be fantastic if parents could add their own ideas. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Find out what’s happening in nursery and school ….

The schools now have a school app which you can download on to your telephone. All you need to do is go onto your app store and search for Addiewell school app and you are then directed to school app for parents –

As you can see the sun shone down on Addiewell and children went exploring.

With the sun shining, it was the perfect opportunity to explore our community to go on a Spring hunt. With a clipboard on hand and a chart with pictures of common sights at this time of year, off the children went to discover wonderful signs of the season.

Daffodils, crocus and iris’ are evident but children didn’t see any lambs roaming around. Some children did say they have seen them on their journey to nursery or on the farm they went visiting.

Children also had time exploring our local woods. They loved risk assessing their play as they climbed and swung on trees and a few planks of wood. They were fearless climbing hills and ‘mountains’ and sliding down these too.

How are our experiments with plants going…

Well lets see…

As you can see we only have one plant showing signs of growing which suggests the front window has the most sunshine.
Our compost in a bottle has started to show signs of condensation suggesting there is something happening with the waste materials.

Sunflowers are showing signs of germination as we can see a pair of leaves appearing on the stem. Some are obviously thriving as they stand higher than others, though you never know sometimes the smaller ones grow tallest. We just need to wait and see.

Last week we made an appeal for suggestions for snack…. still waiting….

However from April after Easter a new menu for lunches will start. You can see this on our menu page above this blog.

We have been asked to share an exciting opportunity to learn sign-along as they celebrate 30 years!!

From Monday 4th April, we will be going live each day across our social media channels (as above) to deliver FREE workshops using our posters. And this does include learning the methodology in full too. Absolutely anyone can join as long as they are following our channels.

Please share this far and wide within your establishments, services, schools, local areas and with parents/carers too. It is completely free, all they need to do is follow us to find the live. Even better than that, if they miss a live, we will be posting them all up on Friday throughout April so they can catch up and they will be available forever!

Please forward the links below to everyone so that they can easily follow our accounts to view the lives.

Signalong Instagram – Mondays at 10am

Signalong Facebook – Tuesdays at 11am

Signalong YouTube – Wednesdays at 2:30pm

Fridays ALL videos will be shared across on YouTube to watch again as many times as you like!

Don’t forget to check out our social media pages for more offers and celebrations in April too. There is also a Tutor exclusive offer going live that you don’t want to miss along with competitions and lots more!

Thank you as always,

Maxine Archer-Strudley

Still on the theme of language and communication
cid:image001.jpg@01D24EE5.C6130BE0 www.lets-talk.scot.nhs.uk

FindUs logo www.facebook.com/NHSLothianSLT

What a week we have had! The weather for March has surely demonstrated the saying for the month of March, In like a Lion and out like a lamb or In like a lamb and out like a lion or in Addiewell we can have this weather within an hour.

This week’s focus for children’s learning from the story of Jack and the Beanstalk where we have been exploring different varieties of beans and how some seeds are different colours, and sizes. They have been terrific in supporting children to discover and create their own patterns using these seeds as well as others. Role play of the giant and recalling the story is observed through role play.

As you can see lots of props were getting made for their storytelling…. poor chicken has laid so many eggs!

Next week we will keep our eyes open to see what children are interested in. Also some children have investigated castles and in particular dungeons.

If you have observed your own child(ren) wanting to know more about something, please share it with us. Other children maybe interested too!

SCIENCE WEEK – Lots of experiments are happening in nursery. Some were spontaneous and children could see the reaction/change immediately…

Rainbows were created using different materials, some were real tasty too….
Using water, skittles (and a few for munching) and a paper plate children discovered how the colour bled off the sweets and they could ‘capture’ the rainbow on the plate where they left it to dry.

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More rainbows…

This time using colour water pens, 2 tubs of water and paper towels

For this experiment children discover how some things can float using an orange. They discover oranges float when it has the peel on yet when they peeled it and then tried it they discovered it sinks because the air between the peel and the fruit contains air. AMAZING!

The gentle musical notes tinkling in the wind is now heard harmoniously outside in the garden as children investigate different resources which make sounds in the wind as they create a wind chime.

Measuring with wool – Children measured themselves and then explored other other objects in the nursery to discover items which maybe the same height, width, both inside and outside the nursery.

Furthermore children discovered water is heavier than oil…

and others children are having to observe their experiment over a length of time…

Growing their own sunflower….

Making their own compost in a bottle.. using fruit and vegetable peelings with some shredded paper.

Where about in nursery is the best place to grow seeds. Children have placed seeds in a bag and taped these to w window facing different directions. They will observe over time if any seeds will germinate from the sun and record their findings – so far all are dormant.

Lastly, Children experiment to discover conditions a seed needs to grow – children chose a dark room with water, one in a bag and displayed on a window and a seed placed in an empty jar and kept on the shelf in the nursery playroom. They also investigated which beans can float or sink. They concluded “If it’s wrinkly it will float. All others sank.”

Plant a Forest
Well what a day for Plant a Forest on Wednesday. Children were highly engaged in planting and listening to the team who organised this event. It was really inspiring to hear that it started off in Japan, moved to India and it is now our turn: Scotland. Their aim was for community to plant 600 trees in our school grounds for future generations to enjoy. The team will return to investigate if there is greater activity from minibeasts and to see how the forest is flourishing.

Most children took part in this activity. They learned how to plant bushes and trees where roots went into the soil and the “sticks” pointed “up to the sky.” Can we thank everyone for making sure their child had on appropriate clothing and footwear – it was particularly cold in the morning with a light rain – all the more to be had.

SNACK MENU
As mentioned last week, letters have gone home asking for suggestions for the new menu which is aimed to start in April this year. The more responses we have the greater choice children will have so please share your suggestions with staff. You can either write them down or say to us.

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.

Hello everyone…

What a week we have had. Children have been very busy learning about all sorts of things…
At the start of the week children made pancake batter to celebrate Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday. One child was amazed at using the electric whisk, I think more batter went outside the bowl and surrounding area < "It goes soooooo fast, wheee."

Continuing on from last week’s focus: Fairtrade and why farmers need extra money to support their family as some children recognise how fortunate we are in our country as "We have snack, and drink milk and water." "You have to look after your teeth or they will move down to here (gums)." This linked nicely to the introduction of UNCRC article 24, where it is the right of ALL children to have good healthy food, water and health care". This message will be further explored next week.
Some children went on a bus journey to explore and discover Fairtrade produce in West Calder Scotmid – don't worry if your child didn't go this time, there will be other opportunities. Some children were apprehensive as they hadn't been on a bus before but it it wasn't long before they enjoyed the ride. Children were very enthusiastic exploring all the aisles looking for that iconic logo. They discovered tea, coffee, bananas, lots of chocolate and even the odd Easter Egg or two. One child was amazed at the the wine aisle, a few stories were shared about someone liking this… The children did buy some produce – chocolate, tomatoes, drinking chocolate, and all children just loved bananas.

Children were very keen to make chocolate crispies which they took home to eat.

World Book Day was yesterday: Thursday, and children visited the school library where school staff were very kind to leave a wee treat or two to share with the children. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience and discovered a hidden piano and a few other instruments. They entertained staff with an impromptu performance.

Everyone is warmly invited to support Addiewell’s planting event. It is on March 16th between 12:45 and 2:00 pm. This is the perfect opportunity for both morning and afternoon session to come along and either collect your child or be a moment or two late dropping off. Everyone is hoping for dry weather.

This is a fantastic initiative to make learning maths fun for everyone. A story is chosen and some activities are organised for children to participate or engage with throughout their session.
So far for estimation we read Goldilocks and the three bears where some children wanted to make bowls for the bears porridge. They then had to guess which held the most, or compare more/less.

This week the story has changed to Counting Crocodiles where children have the opportunity to learn number orderings and sequencing. If you could do something similar at home where you challenge your child to say which number is more than or less than a number you have stated would support us in nursery to build confidence and consistency with the children’s learning. You don’t need anything special – collect stones, sticks or even leaves.

On a separate note – Playbase is hoping to start up in our Community Centre. This is a West Lothian play project from Broxburn Family Centre and will support families by working alongside our community to develop skills . If you wish to find out more please visit them on their FB page, or telephone 01506 857158 or email leigh@fcdwl.org

Good day to everyone, we hope you are well…

In our nursery this week our learning focus has been looking at Fair trade. We have looked at the logo and listened to the story: Freddy and Flora’s quest for fairness. This is a Fair Trade story for young children to develop awareness of the purpose of Fair trade. Please watch the story, it only takes a few minutes.

Some comments from the children so far are: “Sharing is caring” and “It’s fair that others have too.” When asked what do they mean a few have added: “Farmers get money to look after their family.”
We popped up on Wednesday to the local shop to look for any goods with the Fair Trade logo and excitedly some children discovered a box of chocolate sweets – which were bought and shared later between all. One child noticed the lack of goods with this logo and asked “Why is it so hard to find?” This was later repeated when some children helped to do our online snack order “We only found bananas!”

Can we therefore ask, when you go shopping or if you could rummage through your cupboards if you can search for other items with the Fair trade logo- there are lots of different things which have this logo: coffee, honey, flowers, bananas and other fruit, cocoa and lots more…

If possible, could you allow your child to bring in the wrapping with the logo so children can see it and we can use it for a display…. so far they are loving it. Next week we can see what we can make/bake…. I’m sure it will be tasty and delicious.

Also I’m sure everyone was surprised with the snowy Thursday. Children have enjoyed playing out in it and some even made a snowman or two.

Next Week….

On Thursday we will be inviting children to participate in World Book Day where we have been invited to share activities along with the school. We’re sure the children will enjoy this. Don’t worry if your child misses this as we have other activities planned around different stories.

Lastly, our Book Boost story next week:- Monday 28th, will be

Please look at your child’s Learner’s Journal to discover how amazing this story is.

As part of our role in supporting children is to listen and observe their interests as to what they are doing we are currently focusing on hospitals including what to do in an emergency.

We asked for your support and had a fantastic response with lots of you saying that children do not know the emergency contact number or their address. Through this we are currently teaching children how to be responsible and to dial 999 – there is another number but staff agreed to do the most common one used in Britain. Children are learning to ask for which emergency service they would like, and to talk clearly and stay on the telephone until assistance arrives – advice which the emergency services ask for. So watch out if your child asks to practice this at home too.

We had a surprise visit yesterday (Monday 14th February) as the school fire alarm went off – not our fault as our snack was just getting prepared by the children. Children went calmly to the designated area, they heard the siren blaring along the road as they arrived at school, blue lights flashing, fire officers inspecting the school all the children loved it! Thankfully it wasn’t raining nor too cold as the sun popped out at that time.

Children are also learning how to safely walk along and across roads in our community. They completed a survey discovering how busy our roads are especially in the afternoons.

I wonder what will happen next…