outdoor learning – Page 5 – St Ninian's Primary School

Nursery News

Although a short week we still had a very busy one! We returned after the holiday to discover that the birds had eaten all our bird cakes!! They must have been very hungry. We had used our identification sheets to tick off the different types of birds that we had spotted in our garden. We would like to make some more bird cakes as we are sure the birds are still hungry.

Some children came in on Wednesday and were keen to make some valentines so they made lovely heart shaped flowers and talked about their families and friends that they loved.

The children have taken their learning towards the topic of shops so it was decided that we would have our own shop in the Nursery. Our AM children wanted a toy shop last week and our PM children decided on a food shop this week so we have incorporated both. We have been developing our numeracy skills by counting and recognising real coins. Some children have been writing their own shopping lists and taking turns at being both the customer and the shopkeeper. We have all been very good at sharing all the resources. We also discussed the different types of shops that we have and what we could buy in these. We continued this theme at the gluing table by making our own bank cads to use in the shop and also price tickets. If you or your child have any ideas that can be taken forward within this topic we would love you to post them on our visible learning wall. You can also extend this learning at home by discussing with your child about the various different types of shops and what products can be bought in them. Also looking at real coins and helping them to read the numbers on them and look at the shapes. If you are out and about at the shops with your child you can also point out the cashier, tills and scanners. We would welcome any photographs or pictures that you might have or take too.

A little reminder that both sessions will visit the library on Monday. We seemed to have misplaced a library book called ” The monster in the woods” We would appreciate it if you wouldn’t mind having a little look at home just in case it has been borrowed by someone. Thank you in advance.

It is the turn of our PM children to share their learning this week.

Kayla” I love playing in the shop.”

Emilie B and Liam” We made a spaceship with the big blocks”

Mark ” I made some good things at the gluing table”

Milena” I like drawing”

Shea” I love to paint pictures”

Lucas” The sand was my favourite”

Jiya” I did lots of jigsaws”

Have a lovely weekend.

The Nursery Team😊

Nursery News!

This week we continued to make bird cake for our nursery garden, below are the instructions if you would like to try this at home:

1) We mixed together softened Lard and bird seed to create our special mixture.

2) We put the mixture into empty yoghurt pots and recycled netting.

3) The pots and netting were then placed in the freezer overnight to harden.

4) The next day we took our bird cakes outside and hung them from the trees and the fence using string.

5) Finally, we watched and waited to see what birds would visit us.

Check back next week to find out what birds we have spotted 🙂

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY SAINT NINIAN’S NURSERY!

Our big news this week was that it was our 30th Birthday!!! We had a surprise party on Thursday to celebrate with music, dancing, balloons and cake! It was absolutely fabulous and all of the nursery staff and children were so excited! All the teachers from the school came to visit us and wish us happy birthday, and the Primary 1 classes made us birthday cards too!! Thank you everyone!

We would also like to say a huge thank you to our fantastic Head Teacher, Mrs Purdie, who planned and organised this surprise for us. It was wonderful and very much appreciated. Thank you Mrs Purdie x x

Finally we would like to wish everyone a very restful and relaxing February break and we look forward to welcoming our children back on Wednesday 15th February.

The Nursery Team 🙂

Nursery News

In Nursery this week we had lots of Chinese New Year celebrations! On Tuesday Miss Pan a Mandarin teacher from the Confucius Hub in James Young High school visited both sessions. She told us all about China and taught us some Chinese phrases and explained about the twelve special animals in Chinese culture. We found out that this is the year of the Rooster, red is the colour of good fortune and giving a mandarin orange is a symbol of a strong friendship. We were lucky enough to get a chocolate coin in a special red envelope and an orange to take home.

We also listened to traditional Chinese music and joined in by dancing using ribbons and musical instruments. In our creative area we made huge Chinese dragons which we were able to carry round the Nursery and use percussion instruments to create our own dragon dance. We also had the opportunity to make dancing dragons.

For snack we were given the chance to try Chinese noodles with soy or spicy chilli sauce which we tried to eat with chopsticks.

Our bird watching area has continued to be popular and Miss Brien one of our students made some bird cakes with us. We are planning on hanging these outside in our garden next week and then hopefully we will see more birds arriving!

As part of the 40th Birthday celebrations for the school we were asked if we would contribute to the time capsule. We discussed our favourite songs, films and hobbies.

We finished off the week by having our Wellie walks. Both sessions were lucky with the weather and we all looked for signs of nature and listened for the birds. Thank you all so much for your generous donations. We made £170 which is fantastic and we will discuss with the children the resources they would like to buy with this money.

Just a little reminder that we have our February break next week. Nursery will be closed on Friday 10th February and we look forward to welcoming children back to nursery on Wednesday 15th February.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Nursery Team😊

Nursery News

We have had another busy and exciting week in Nursery.

Both sessions were super excited to meet Billie Bear our travelling teddy. This is part of our home link learning experiences. The children in both sessions will each be given the opportunity to take Billie home for a few days and share what they may be doing either at home or outside. Billie will be so happy to join in with anything. He comes with a backpack and a special letter which explains what is in the bag and how you and your child can engage in this super learning experience. We would love to see photographs of Billie and his special friend ( your child) spending time together which you can either bring into Nursery or upload to your child’s online journal. We can’t wait to hear about Billie and his adventures. If you have any questions regarding this project please ask any member of the nursery team who will be more than happy to help you.

We have also been looking at patterns in Numeracy and the children had an opportunity to make their own patterns using a variety of materials and also followed a pattern using our link elephants. This learning experience came from an interest the children had when drawing self portraits and talking about differences and similarities.

There was a lovely smell coming from the kitchen this week too as some of the children decided to bake their own play dough food and once cooled paint it. This will make its way into our kitchen in the house corner next week.

We even managed to get outside this week and enjoyed playing in our shed which has lots of natural resources for the children to experience. The bikes and new kitchen were also very popular.

As part of our consultative planning we will be asking the children next week what they would like to learn about Winter and this will go on display on our visible Learning Wall. We would love to hear any ideas that the children may mention to you at home and this can be added to our learning wall too.

To finish off our PM session yesterday we heard the sounds of pirates approaching the Nursery door. It was Mrs Roy with her band of pirates! We loved seeing the super pirate hats that the Primary 1 children had made and we joined in with lots of pirate noises! Both Primary 1 classes will be dropping in to both sessions of Nursery from time to time as part of our transition programme.

Its our PM children’s turn to share their learning experiences this week.

Emilie M and Emileigh Rose ” We loved playing in our new outside kitchen”

Mark, Kayla and Riley” We loved making our telescope and playing with the boomerang”

Shea and Lucas” We liked making things with the Lego”

Luke” Playing with the castle is my favourite”

Ethan and Jamie” We like drawing with the pens”

Scott” I liked the pirates ”

Just a wee reminder of upcoming events.

Both sessions will be visiting the library on Monday. If you have not handed in your child’s EE2 form please bring it to Nursery on Monday.

We will also be celebrating Burns day on Wednesday next week and Chinese New Year the following week.

Teeth varnishing will take place on Thursday.

Our sponsored Wellie Walks will be on Thursday 2nd February for PM and Friday 3rd February for AM. More information on this will follow.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Nursery Team.

Nursery News

Another busy and exciting week in Nursery. We can’t believe that we have nearly come to the end of another term!

This week we have been getting the Nursery ready for Christmas. We decorated the tree, put up some decorations and we even have our own post office where we can write our letters to Santa and weigh our parcels. The children have also been very busy putting the finishing touches to their Art work which was then put into our Art Galleries. A big thank you to all the parents and carers who came along and bought the fantastic items. We have very talented children. Once we have the amount made from the galleries we will let you all know and then in the New Year we will discuss with the children which new resources they would like for Nursery.

On Thursday our AM children attended the Achievement assembly. They all sat very well and Amelia received the award for being a kind and helpful girl in nursery. Well done Amelia.

It is the turn of our PM children to share their learning experiences this week.

Emileigh Rose, Szymon, Lily, Jenny and Robert ” We liked making things in the sparkly play dough.”

Kayla and Ethan ” We loved working at the gluing table.”

Emalie ” I made a manger from the Lego.”

Jamie and Luke ” We drew pictures at the drawing table and loved using the pencils.”

Riley ” I build lots of things with the big blocks.”

Jiya ” I love playing in the house corner.”

Just a little reminder that Tuesday is Nursery party day. The children can come to Nursery wearing their party clothes and you are invited to come back at 1030am and 230pm to see your child receive a present from Santa!

Tuesday is also the last day for handing in any P1 enrolment forms. After Tuesday the forms must be sent to pupil placement. Any questions regarding this please ask any member of the nursery team.

After all the excitement of party day the children will have a relaxing Christmas treat on Wednesday when they will get the opportunity to watch a Christmas movie with a little treat to eat.

The Nursery Team would like to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas with your families and friends. Thank you for your continued support which is very much appreciated.

We look forward to welcoming the children back on Wednesday 4th January.

The Nursery Team.

Nursery News

First of all we would like to say a big thank you to all the parents and carers who came along to our Stay and Play or Come back and Play sessions over the past two weeks. The children loved being able to share their learning experiences with you and show you round our nursery .

On Monday there was a spooky atmosphere in nursery as we had our Halloween parties. We all had a great time dooking for apples, trying to eat doughnuts and listening to a spooky story. We even managed to visit the library and pick some spooky stories to bring back with us.

We have been making firework pictures this week using paint, glitter and cardboard tubes. They look fantastic. We have also been discussing what we like and don’t like about fireworks and putting our ideas into our talking books. These books are on display and you are welcome to have a look at them at any time. We have also been having great fun in our leaves sensory box where we can walk on the leaves and listen to the sound we are making and look at the patterns in the leaves.

This week it is our PM children who will share their learning with us.

Mark, Riley and Luke ” We liked painting the Firework pictures”

Robert ” I liked playing in the sand.”

Courtney ” I liked playing in the water with the spiders! ”

Kayla ” I liked playing with the trains.”

Emileigh Rose and Lilly ” We liked playing in the kitchen and house corner ”

Emilie M and Jiya ” We love building things with the magnets ”

Szymon ” I love snack.”

Next week is National Nursery Rhyme week. We will be looking at a different nursery rhyme each day and there is a quiz which you can take home and try with your child. These will be given out on Monday. Good luck.

Parental appointment times have now been given out for either Wednesday 9 th November or Thursday 10th November. If you have not received a time and would like to talk to your child’s key worker please just ask any member of the nursery team who will be happy to help you.

We are also wanting to update our Nursery Behaviour Policy and we would really appreciate your thoughts and ideas. Please join Mrs Purdie and some of the Nursery team on Tuesday 8th November for Breakfast Blether at 10.30 or Afternoon tea at 2.15 to have a chat regarding this. We will also be asking for the children’s ideas and we have some exciting small visitors who will be coming to our Nursery to help us. Watch this space!

As you know the children also experience outdoor learning at Nursery and we are looking to build on the resources we already have to enrich further learning opportunities. If you have any of the following items to spare we would really appreciate it if you could hand them in to any member of the team.

Nuts and bolts, nails and screws, bricks, small hammers, saws and screwdrivers, pieces of wood, curtain hooks or rings, jars with lids and pieces of material. Thank you.

Have a lovely weekend and stay safe with Firework and Bonfire night.

The Nursery Team.

Little rays of sunshine

The sun has been shining outside and P1R have been little rays of sunshine in class this week!

Our buddies came to visit on Tuesday morning to do some paired reading with us, we were all really excited to see them. They read to us using the library books we had chosen last week. We can’t wait to see them again next week.

We didn’t learn any new sounds this week, instead we spent time practising all the ones we have learned already – m,c,p,s,t,n,a,i,ck,k. We are really good at recognising them in colour or when they are all black. It was fun trying to make words using 3 sounds at a time. We’ve learned that if we say them slowly to begin with, then faster, it helps us say the words, eg. m-a-t says mat, t-i-n says tin. Mrs Roy has asked us to keep practising this at school and at home, it’s called oral blending. We enjoyed using playdough to make the shapes of the letters during our carousel.

In maths we had our final week of learning about numbers to 10 making sure we are all confident in counting, writing the numbers and ordering the numbers. We had some new activities at carousels this week, some of our favourites were lollipop ordering and threading beads. Ask us at home about what we did.

We took advantage of the lovely weather this week and took Trex for a walk. The children decided to go to Dedridge Primary School as this was somewhere we had talked about in class. On our walk we stopped at various points when we saw something of interest – Bernice spotted the local shop, Lloyd spotted the Chinese Take-Away, Paul M spotted Dedridge Primary School, Paul L spotted the big bridge. We also chatted about the importance of using the underpass as the road is very busy in Dedridge. Everyone was very well behaved and passers by commented on this, I was a very proud teacher!! When we returned to class we made a lovely collage of all the places we saw, it’s on display in our P1 area, remember to have a look when you’re next in school. We also wrote super stories about walk and Dawid and Rafay were our star writers – well done boys!

Our wellbeing is very important to us and we are trying to create a wellbeing culture in our classroom. Every morning we check in with Mrs Roy and Mrs Stewart and discuss how we are feeling before recording this on our wellbeing chart. We have also enjoyed circle time and circle games allowing us to work together and share our thoughts. In October our GIRFEC focus is Healthy so we are taking time to discuss this and make sure we are looking after ourselves at school. We are now brushing our teeth daily at school and have all been given lovely new toothbrushes. As well as this we have our 2 slots in the gym hall for physical activities and take part in the daily mile.

We ended the week with a learning conversation with Mrs Purdie, James, Lucy and Ephraim chose to go along to Mrs Purdie’s office with our talking book to discuss their learning. They enjoyed this and especially liked meeting with the nursery children to look at their floorbook too!

Have a great weekend!

A surprise for P1M

This week we have been really busy completing all of the tasks that Trex asked us to do. We took a walk around the school grounds to look for the different things in our local area. We saw shops, another school (Dedridge Primary), the park, the Lanthorn and we recognised the path that would take us to the pond. After our walk we had a look at all of these different landmarks on google earth – this was lots of fun! We then made our own maps for Trex. We gave each different route we created a number to help Trex find his way around our local area.

We had a fantastic afternoon at the park on Thursday. The children wanted to bring in their own teddies to meet Trex so we decided to take our teddies and Trex to the park together. When we were at the park we all played so well together. We shared the apparatus and took turns too. We also spoke about ‘stranger danger’ and we know that we should only speak to adults that we know.

Thank you to all who sent in photographs of your houses and your address. We had so much fun looking at our houses on google earth. We then used the photographs of our houses to paint our own representation of these. Our painting skills are constantly improving. This week we were working on using the correct amount of paint on our brush and ensuring we cleaned our paint brush properly so the colours didn’t mix together if we didn’t want them to.

Last week, we went to the library and took out some books which we would like to read in class. We have enjoyed reading our own books in class this week and sharing our books with our friends too. Ask your child what book they took out from the library?

Do you remember about our letter from Trex last week? Trex told us that his baby brother was going to join our class. Well… you will never guess what has happened this week! A nest with an egg in it has appeared in our classroom. When we came into our classroom Trex was watching over the nest so we think it must be his baby brother that is inside the egg. We are so excited about the egg hatching, we keep checking on the egg throughout the day to check it is safe. This week in our writing lesson we wrote stories about what we think Trex’s baby brother might look like. Our writing is fantastic and well done to Adam our star writer this week!

Our numeracy skills are constantly improving and this week we participated in some fun activities to improve our numeracy skills. We are becoming much quicker at recognising random dot patterns and we loved using sand trays to work on our number formation too. We played the caterpillar ordering game on the smartboard. Search for this on your device at home too to play this game. We are continuing to work on our ordering of numbers, we used numicon and lollipop sticks to order our numbers this week. Can you believe that we are also learning about addition too! We are clever clogs in primary 1!

A big well done to Kerr who joined Mrs Purdie for ‘hot chocolate with the head’ today. Kerr always works hard and is a good friend to everyone in our class. A well deserved treat for you, Kerr.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Meechan

Nursery News

Another busy and exciting week has flown by in Nursery. Our Transition programme continued with our pre schoolers getting the opportunity to have a school lunch in the dinner hall alongside our school pupils. They all coped with this new challenge so well and there were plenty of empty plates !

We enjoyed the lovely warm weather and took our learning outside a lot this week. The children used their curiosity and creativity when they made a den out of material, pegs and bricks and worked really well as a team to complete this. Our buddies also came along to play with us and we enjoyed showing them all the exciting things we were able to do. Our potatoes are really growing well in the heat and hopefully we can use these when they are finished growing. The children also enjoyed singing and dancing on our stage. What talented children we have! Can we please ask that the children come to Nursery in hot days wearing suntan cream and a hat. Thank you for your help in this.

We had a special visitor in our AM session when Eilidh brought in her pet turtle Sheldon to see us and some children were brave enough to hold him. We were able to think up some interesting questions to ask her about him. Thank you Eilidh.

We continue with our Transition programme next week with our two moving up days . On Tuesday 7th June the children should be brought to the main entrance of the school for 9 o’ clock where you will be taken into the main school hall. The children will be taken down to their new classes and get the chance to meet their new teacher and the other children in their class. There will be a meeting for parents while the children are away where you will be given important information about the school. The children will be brought back to the hall at 11 o’ clock.

On Wednesday 10th June the children should be brought to the infant playground for 9 o’clock where they will line up at coloured cones and the Primary 1 teachers will come out and collect them. The children should then be collected from the cones at 11 o’ clock. As the children will also go out at playtime on both these days they can bring a small snack to eat when out. Please ensure children have suitable clothing depending on the weather.

Transition letters have been issued with all the information for these two days. As usual if you have any worries or questions please don’t hesitate to ask any member of the Nursery team who will be more than happy to answer these for you.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine if it stays.

The Nursery Team.

You are a star!

I am so proud of all the children this week as they have shown how confident and responsible they have become.

There have been various opportunities for the P1 children to support the pre-schoolers this week as part of our ongoing transition work. Every day we went outside in the morning and afternoon for some playtime, the P1 children were fantastic at assisting the younger children by opening their snacks, playing with them, showing them around, etc. We also had some science lessons and again the P1’s had to work with a nursery child to support them in the carousel activities. They went outside for a mini-beast hunt with Mrs Caskie and then worked with myself to do some senses experiments. I can’t believe that almost a year has passed and we are now preparing our current P1’s for their transition to P2. More details to follow in the coming weeks about these preparations.

In class we continued to learn about numbers within 20, with the focus on number names which can be really tricky. The children played some matching games, used flashcards, did some written work and used the smartboard games. All were very successful in these activities.

Mr Hunter took the children for a fun outdoor lesson and the children worked in teams showing their creativity. Have a look at their efforts!

We ended the week with our Achievements Assembly and P1R had the honour of presenting their class assembly to the whole school. I was so proud of each and every one of them as they all stood confidently in front of a large audience. They said their lines clearly and sang their hearts out.

This was the song the children chose to end their assembly with, why don’t you ask them to sing along at home with the link below.