Nursery News

What a great start to October in the nursery. The GIRFEC focus this month is ‘HEALTHY’, ask your child what some of our answers and ideas were.

Each week on a Monday the children make their own play dough. We have taken photos to make a new ‘how to make play dough’ book with our new friends in it. This experience lets them plan and make choices for themselves whilst building confidence and following instructions, not to mention lots of mess and fun!!  When we come in each morning we discuss the day of the week the month and the date, E wrote the date this week, she was able to write the number 2 on the paper for our wall display. A simple math experience through play.  L was learning some math too this week, she was able to identify the numbers on the frogs and match them up with the correct lily pad. The creative table has been very popular too, K made ‘a parrot’ complete with a plume of feathers on it’s head and a perch!!

Fantastic fun had by all  !!  Have a great weekend from the Nursery Team!!

NEXT WEEK

Parents are welcome to come back during the nursery session to see the fun the children have each day. Please see the sheet in the nursery there are still some spaces left.

MONDAY – Come back and play for parents who have signed up 10.15 and 3.15

TUESDAY- Come back and play 10.15 and 3.15.

WEDNESDAY- Come back and play 10.15 and 3.15.

THURSDAY- Come back and play 10.15 and 3.15.

FRIDAY- LAST DAY – BREAK UP FOR OCTOBER HOLIDAYS.

Nursery News

What a wonderful week in the nursery!

Monday was whole group photo day.

On Tuesday we had a trip to the Library,  where we got to take the book back to nursery! We have been drawing pictures from the story and recalling events in the book ‘The Best Present Ever’ and ‘The Royal Dog who Chews Shoes’.

On Wednesday we prepared chocolate crispy cakes for our coffee morning/afternoon the next day.

Thursday’s McMillan coffee morning was such a success. Why? Because we have such support from our families and staff. Thank you all so much for the support and giving for this event. Together we have raised £249.87 and the total is still rising !! Absolutely magnificent !!

On Thursday we also had an Assembly for our ‘wee Jannies’ retirement, the children in the afternoon were able to attend and sang him ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ as he was a star to us. The morning children prepared him his favourite snack of a roll and sausage today. John sat with the children drawing pictures and sharing stories of his time at St Ninian’s.

We will miss you John!!

Have a great weekend everybody !!   from the Nursery Team x

NEXT WEEK IN NURSERY – nothing to report (yet) 🙂

GIRFEC FOCUS – HEALTHY

 

 

Nursery News

St Ninian’s Nursery has been a hive of activity this week!

 

Our boys and girls who are off to school in August have had an exciting week! On Tuesday, there were transition carousels in P1 classes – this gave the boys and girls a feel for how they will learn when they get into P1. The P1 pupils did a great job of modelling, showing them the ropes in the big school! There was much excitement during these activities, which helps to build the transition to P1 into a positive time of change in our children’s lives! We have also had buddy visits this week – this is a highlight for our boys and girls, who regularly ask ‘is my buddy coming down today?!’. It has been lovely to watch the relationships between the children and their buddies blossom over the weeks 🙂 next week, we have PLAYTIME for transition! On Tuesday, the P1 boys and girls (and buddies) will come to the nursery garden for a ‘playtime’. And on Thursday, they will go to the infant playground for a ‘playtime’, again with the P1s and their buddies. Preschool children should bring a small snack on these days to practice eating, playing, chatting all in the one! A drink is not necessary as they will have milk/water available in nursery beforehand, and when they get to school they will be able to have a water bottle in their classroom and milk after playtime.

In addition to all of this, the P1 classes have been finalised and the children now know which teacher they will have in August 🙂 Miss Boyes and Mrs Davenport (who used to be called Miss Meechan!) are very much looking forward to meeting their new pupils and their families.

 

Our interest in the garden has multiplied since the beginning of this beautiful weather spell! We have more than made the most of the lovely sunshine as we have scooted, climbed, ran, rolled and chalked all over the garden! Our welly Wednesday focus this week was chalk drawings.. we love to look at mark making in different ways and chalking was one of the suggested activities for our welly Wednesday sessions! By the end of the day there wasn’t an inch of garden that was untouched by chalk! We look to build mark making skills from basic shapes and lines, to more controlled written numbers, letters and detailed drawings. Which stage is your child at? Have they access to mark making materials at home? Share your views with your child’s key worker to see if, together, we can help them build their skills and confidence in this area 🙂

 

Jelly proved to be a very popular snack this week! The boys and girls loved talking about how it felt, with some of the AM boys and girls keen to play with it! On Friday we had jelly play and a sensory walk in the garden. The language and vocabulary around this play was fascinating – gooey, cold, gloopy, slidy! Great job boys and girls, maybe this type of messy play will make a reappearance sometime soon!

 

Make sure to consult our weekly update for all the details about wellbeing week next week – parent and child bootcamp begins at 8am on Monday morning on the school field. Mrs Conway and Mrs Martinek will be attending with their own children – will you join them? Letters will come home on Monday about our family wellbeing festival on Thursday evening  (6-7.30pm) – it is set to be a highlight of the term with lots of interesting activities planned – make sure to get you choices handed back asap to ensure you get your first choice of workshops!

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Nursery News

What a busy week we have had, getting settled back into real life after our snow days!

The boys and girls have missed the nursery as much as the staff have missed them! And we made the most of our time this week with lots of busy, creative learning together.

Our smart board has been popular this week as the boys and girls are becoming more confident in their ict skills as they use and access the internet to play nursery rhymes and songs to sing along to. Nursery rhymes provide a great basis on which to build literacy skills, we love to sing together at group time and are learning words and actions for common nursery rhymes. The boys and girls have been able to personalise this by self selecting the songs that they like to listen to, maybe they could share some of these at home? Twinkle twinkle is a favourite!

Some of our children were exploring science activities this week, a great lead into the whole school science week next week! Some of the boys and girls were using blocks as ‘magnets’ – talking about them sticking together and pulling apart. This led to the creation of a lovely ‘magnetic investigation’ area set up with the children. Can you talk about magnets at home? Have you got anything magnetic? The children enjoyed finding things that were magnetic and were able to identify things that weren’t.

The creative area had a real buzz this week! After a quick move around of our furniture we had some makeshift floor easels which were very, very popular! The children had the opportunity to draw on large a3 sheets of paper with felt pens, a great big space to fill with ideas and imagination! We have been astounded at some of the works of art from this area this week. Sitting on cushions alongside friends, in a new space really gets the creative juices flowing!

We like to encourage children to foster their skills of independence and have given our creative area a wee makeover to help promote this – the boys and girls can access all of the creative resources in the coloured trays and are developing their sorting skills when returning the things they haven’t used. We look forward to seeing what masterpieces are created as a result of this next week!

Mrs MacDonald was hard at work on Thursday trying to source some construction materials after lots of interest in construction and home building! The ‘Book of Homes’ sparked a great discussion about what kind of homes there are in the world and how they are made and built. We couldn’t believe the sultan of Brunei has 252 toilets!!!!! Watch this space as we prepare an area for building and construction, including real tools!

A gentle reminder that our Grandparents/Special Person day is Tues 20th March where the boys and girls will prepare to give their special person a tour of our nursery before singing some songs and enjoying some cake together!

Nursery News

Food glorious food!

 

This week our learning context has been food! This has stemmed from observations of and discussions with our children about where there interests lie. Following on from our takeaway and restaurant role play areas, we have had a lot of discussion about senses, how things feel, smell and taste. We have consulted our children through using a talking tub filled with interesting things! Their ideas and comments have been added to our floorbooks and a consultative planner is on the learning wall, please read it and let us know what you think 🙂

 

Some children tasted some exotic fruit this week after our Asda delivery – Roma knew one of them straight away, the pomegranate seeds! She liked them. Dylan thought the Kumquat was ‘Yuck!’, but some of the children quite liked the sweet taste. We think the boys and girls might enjoy a tasting session at nursery to try some new flavours and textures!

 

Our playdough had a funny whiff about it this week as we added cinnamon to one batch! We have ordered some lovely spices to use in our playdough, for the children to choose and use as they like. Have you tried making playdough at home?? It’s very easy using just flour, salt and oil 🙂 give it a go!

 

Welly Wednesday was busy this week! We have been given lovely big empty tubs to use for foraging on our welly Wednesday sessions and we put them to good use this week! The boys and girls collected materials to make a bug hotel! We talked about what bugs would like in their hotel, not fluffy pillow and beds like us, but dirt and leaves and sticks. We have a treasure trove of goodies to use when building our bug hotels next week, in the nursery garden.

 

Food Prep Thursday snack continues to be a big hit! This week the AM boys and girls asked for crisps – but we discussed how crisps aren’t as healthy a choice as for example fruits and vegetables, so we compromised and decided to make apple crisps! It was a mixed reaction to these, maybe we will try something else next time? The PM boys and girls were still talking about pancakes so made lovely mixture with Mrs Macdonald, for her to fry in the frying pan! We enjoyed them with strawberries and blueberries 🙂

 

Our weekly update contains information about our busy week ahead! We would urge as many parents as possible to come along to our coffee morning on Wednesday to hear from our Speech and Language therapist about our Box Clever initiative. 11.20-12, supervision provided for children in the nursery! See you all there!

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Nursery News

Och aye the noo and lang may yer lum reek!

 

The nursery has been alive with thoughts of Scotland this week! Tartan, haggis and highland dancing – what more can you want!

 

Mrs Beattie tested the power of many a families washing machine this week after ‘ball painting’ with the boys and girls to make a lovely tartan shawl! The laughter and engagement in this activity was fantastic with many of our boys and girls choosing to join in. The end result of rolling balls covered in paint in lines across a large bit of paper definitely resembles tartan – a tartan shawl was created, which is now hanging on our learning wall!

 

Welly Wednesday was postponed due to high winds – but the PM group managed to sneak out for ten minutes in between the worst bouts of wind and rain.. Mrs Hogg made ‘kites’ with the boys and girls out of plastic and string to see what effects the wind had – their strength was certainly tested as they flew about in the gales! We are glad no-one ended up flying away!

 

Thursday brought our Burns night celebration! It was lovely to see so many Scotland items brought in and worn on the day! Mrs Conway had four handy helpers during each session to prepare the Burns supper of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties – which we discovers included Scottish words for turnip and potatoes! We talked about where turnips and potatoes come from, what the feel like and smell like – and how to cook them.. we said the Selkirk Grace and sat down together to enjoy our traditional Scottish meal!

The PM group then had a wee ceilidh led by Mrs Macdonald – who has some serious Scottish dancing skills! We dosey-doed and skipped together, counting, clapping and keeping the time.

 

Mrs Martinek’s yellow group had a fantastic challenge at group time when they had to dress themselves for winter from a bag full of different clothing items! One of our assessment focuses this month involves looking at how much support the boys and girls need when getting dressed independently – some boys and girls are there already, some at the beginning of their learning journey.. our job is to support and encourage – maybe you could challenge your child to get their own clothes/pyjamas on one day, if they don’t already?

 

Mrs Mushet was delighted to relaunch the Big Bedtime Read on Tuesday, joined by a sea of onesies, pyjamas, house coats and slippers! Our boys and girls LOVED coming to nursery in their pyjamas! Mrs Mushet is looking forward to the return of the Big Bedtime Read bags on Tuesday to swap them for new ones! She has lots of lovely feedback to work on and will be on the lookout for parents to come in and share stories with their children in nursery!

 

Our ‘Ladies Night’ fundraiser was a rip-roaring success! Thank you to Mrs Beattie, Mrs Martinek and Mrs Mushet for supporting this event and ensuring our lovely ladies were well looked after and entertained! We were delighted to make £258 from this event to add to our funding pot.. this money will come in handy to subsidise the costs of trips and resources in the coming term! We have had many requests for another and are hoping to organise this for June. Keep your ear to the ground 😉

 

we hope you have had a restful weekend and are ready for another busy week ahead!

Nursery News

Wow! Has that really been a week??? How busy we have been!

Elfie our naughty elf has been hiding from us this week! He ended up playing in the flour in the kitchen and he stole Mrs Findlays socks and hid them all over the garden!! Cheeky elf! We have enjoyed talking to the boys and girls about how we are trying to make good choices and prepare for Christmas, not only for Santa coming with presents, but also for the birth of the baby Jesus.

The nativity rehearsals are well under way! We tried on our costumes on Thursday for the first time – it was so exciting! We can’t wait to show off our singing skills next THURSDAY 14th DECEMBER 10am and 2pm for our nativity show 🙂 can you please let a member of staff know how many adults you plan to bring so we can be organised for seating! We will have mince pies, cakes and refreshments available for afterwards – please stay for a festive blether and a bite to eat!

The creative juices have been flowing this week! We have made Christmas gift bags to keep all our special Christmas gifts in 🙂 we have sent home invitations to the Nativity and have talked about what we can make for next week! We have started crafting a gingerbread house on the entry to the school – so many wonderful pieces of artwork have been added as sweeties and candy canes! Someone suggested we make reindeer food so we are looking to do that in the coming week 🙂

The fundraising stall was a great success! Thank you to everyone who supported us in this venture! We have raised over £90 and will have a final total for Monday 🙂 thank you!

Next week the school is having a Christmas jumper day on Friday – we are so lucky that we can wear our Christmas jumpers ANY DAY OF THE WEEK! We would love to see children in their festive wear between now and the Christmas holidays so if they would like to come with any jumpers, tshirts, hats or headbands they are more than welcome to do that!

PM panto trip is on Tuesday – the bus will be leaving at 12.20pm – please ensure that your child is dropped off at 12pm sharp, if you haven’t paid for the panto or filled in the EE2 form please do so on Monday.

Here are the final four nativity songs for you to practice this week 🙂

An Angel Appeared in the Sky

 

Three Kings Were Riding

 

Away in a Manger

 

Ring out the bells

 

Enjoy!

Nursery News – Term 1 Round Up

What a term it has been!

Highlights of this term include;

*Welcoming our new children and their families following the successful introduction of home visit/one to one enrolments!

*Outdoor learning – Welly Wednesdays! Learning opportunities in our local envirnment, supported by parent helpers on a weekly basis.

*Big Bedtime Read📚Our PEF initiative set up by Mrs Caskie, aiming to have our nursery children having a bed time story on four or more nights of the week!

*The return of PEEP! Fridays at PEEP are a great start to the weekend, keep an eye out for the next block starting next week!

 

We have been busy! We continue to be blown away by the progress of our children, we can’t wait to see what next term has in store!

 

Some things to look forward to include;

*Halloween! Parties will be during sessions on Tuesday 31st Oct.

*Children in Need fundraising!

*Road Safety Week – our next opportunity for stay and play/come back and play sessions!

*All things Christmas! Nativity, Parties and Panto!

 

We have a lovely new display at the nursery doorway – leave us some feedback on a welly! Let us know if there’s something you’ve enjoyed or if there’s anything you would like us to look into/change!

 

Have a lovely, restful holiday! See you all back on TUESDAY 24th OCTOBER!

 

Nursery News

Today we had our Big Bedtime Read launch. It was a lovely day and I would like to thank all the parents, carers and grandparents who came along some even dressed in their pyjamas. It was fantastic to see so many and I know the children really loved  you being there.

 

I hope you you enjoy reading your pack of 5 books which you have for a week . Once returned next Tuesday you can then pick another pack to take home.  I can’t wait to see any photographs of the children enjoying this new learning adventure. Please don’t hesitate to ask either myself or any member of the nursery team any questions you may have about this initiative.

Here are some photographs of  our exciting day.

Mrs Caskie

 

                    

      

      

      

 

Nursery News

What a wonderful MATHS week we have had in St Ninian’s Nursery!

The boys and girls have explored many wonderful areas of maths, including; numbers, counting, bigger/smaller, shape, pattern….. and many more!

 

We have been tweeting from our new twitter account @StNinsNursery giving an insight into what maths week looks like in our nursery.

 

We have welcomed parents/guardians/family/friends along this week for stay and Play sessions, and come back and play sessions. These have been very popular and we have had great verbal feedback from those who made it along 🙂 please take time to pop a few words on a post it to tell us what you thought of the sessions – how can we improve?

 

Mrs Beattie has been drumming up support for new PEEP classes which start on Friday 22nd September! There will be two classes running and although they are full for this block, if you would like to attend the next block please let a member of staff know so they can pop your name on Mrs Beatties list 🙂

 

Our Facebook page has a poll to come up with a catchy name for our outdoor learning Wednesdays – go on to vote for your favourite! We will be asking the children to vote next week too, let’s see what the winner is next Friday!

 

*NO NURSERY MONDAY OR TUESDAY*

It is the September holiday weekend – we will see you all back on Wednesday!

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