Author: Miss McGinlay

On Wednesday 1st of February, the children enjoyed a visit from Generation Science who came to teach them about how sounds are made and how they move through the story of ‘Ella’s Wobble’. We hope you can tell from the pictures that the children had a fantastic time!

Thank you to everyone who made it along to our January ‘Stay and Play’ event. The children and our visitors took part in activities such as Chinese writing, eating with chopsticks and listening to the story the great animal race. We thoroughly enjoyed reading all of of the positive feedback we received on the children’s Learning Journals and look forward to our next event!

On Monday 16^th January, we had a visit from Lisa our Dental Hygienist. She brought along her special friend Dexter the dragon to help remind the children about the importance of good dental hygiene. Lisa and Dexter shared the following tips with the children:

• Brush your teeth by moving the toothbrush slowly in a circular motion.

• Use a pea sized amount of toothpaste.

• Do not pour water on your toothbrush before cleaning your teeth. This action can dilute the strength  and staying power of the toothpaste. You can use water to clean the brush after brushing.

• Do not rinse out your mouth with water or mouthwash straight after brushing. This action will prevent the toothpaste from protecting your teeth throughout the day.
• Try to save sugary treats for after meals rather than eating them throughout the day.

The AM and PM children had a great time learning about looking after their teeth with Lisa and Dexter. I was also very impressed at their good manners and excellent listening skills when Lisa was talking. Well done to all of the children!

The children have returned from their holidays refreshed and raring to go! Our first topic this term is Scotland. The children have decided that they would like to learn more about bagpipes, food, castles and animals. On Thursday, Mrs Martin began our investigation into Scottish animals by supporting the children to make bird feeders. We hope that the bird feeders will encourage birds to come to our garden so that the children can learn about the types of birds in the local area.

       

This week, we were also given a great opportunity (the snow) to look closely at Scottish weather and the science behind it. We started off by going out into the playground and observing how the snow had changed how the playground looked. The children handled the snow and talked about how it felt and what it could be made of. Then some of the children discovered that our outside water tray had frozen over. We talked about how a swishy liquid such as water can change into a tough solid (ice) when the temperature outside decreases. Then, Miss McGinlay brought some snow from outside and placed it in the water tray. The children investigated what happened to the snow when they held it. They then wanted to find out what happened when they poured hot water on the snow. Cody suggested that the hot water should be dyed red. This really helped everyone to see it being poured over the snow! When the children discovered that the hot water caused the ice to melt, we decided to find out the temperature of the snow and then the temperature of the water once it had melted. We found out that the snow had a lower temperature than the water it changed into. During all of this, we still found time to go sledging down the hill in the school playground! However, Miss McGinlay had her lab coat on again and this activity called for a discussion on the types of forces we were using to make the sledges go down the hill (pushing and pulling). Every day is a school day!

  

The children had a fantastic time at their Christmas party. They danced to Christmas songs and played party games such as ‘Pass the Parcel’ and ‘Musical Statues’. They also had a delicious snack consisting of pizza, crisps and ice cream.

Our party was so good that even Santa couldn’t resist the chance to attend. He gave all of the children an early Christmas present and reassured them that they were on the ‘Nice List’. We hope that the children loved their gifts and that you enjoyed coming to see them meet Santa. We would like to say a special thank you to the PPA for helping Santa’s elves to make all of the children’s gifts.

Recently, we had our December ‘Stay and Play’ in the nursery.  The children were very excited to have family members in the nursery and loved showing them how to play with the nursery toys. The children and our visitors took part in activities such as making Christmas cards, letter writing to Santa and making paper chains. They also tried printing with Christmas stamps and making salt dough ornaments. The children also made their own fruit kebabs at snack time. It was a very busy but very enjoyable day! Thank you to everyone who made it along. We hope to see you again in January.

 

Christmas is well on its way in the nursery and the children have been busy decorating. We have a fantastic Christmas tree on display which was decorated by our (morning) anti-preschool children.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching them work cooperatively to select and then hang the decorations on the tree. We think you will agree that it looks fantastic!

Our pre-school children have been busy learning to thread string on to baubles. They found that this activity takes a lot of patience as well as fine motor skill! However, with a lot of perseverance, they got there in the end. The children went on to use the baubles to add detail to a Christmas tree that they had created in our construction area using wooden blocks.

This month our nursery has also been filled with lots of little voices singing as we are practising for the nursery Nativity.  Our performances will take place in the school hall at the front on the school on the following days and times:

Afternoon session: Thursday 15^th December 13:15pm – 13:45pm

Morning session: Friday 16^th December 10:30am – 11:00pm

Please ask a member of nursery staff if you require any further information about tickets.

Our last big event of the year will be the nursery Christmas party on Tuesday 20th December at the following times:

Morning  session: 9:30am -11.00am  (Parents welcome from 10:40am)

Afternoon session: 1:30pm – 3.00pm   (Parents welcome from 2:40pm)

We hope you have a fantastic holiday and look forward to seeing you again in 2017!