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Hey everyone hope you had a lovely week, welcome back to another weekly blog.

Hope you have all been busy because we certainly have been, we have been taking on a new profession has firefighters and birdwatchers and we all know that this talented wee bunch keep excelling.

So, jump in and see what’s been happening!!

The Famous Birdwatchers

Our talented wee bunch have been involved in outdoor learning/learning in the community with Mrs Whatcott, it has been very exciting. This week, we ventured out to learn about animal habitats and do a spot of bird watching. We were all very excited to see where the birds are living and what different birds we can see. As you can see, we have our binoculars and tick sheet out – the correct equipment for our birdwatchers. Then, we done a bit of tree rubbing and see what designs we can make using different colours on different types of trees. Also, Mrs Whatcott has created an amazing wall display which shows everyone some key photos and quotes for our bunch while they have been out on their adventures.

The new firefighters of Deans Nursery

As you well know from previous blogs, our children have been gaining a new profession each week which is remarkable – they might be putting us out of a job soon (haha)! We have been looking into what a firefighter does, explaining that they don’t just put fires. Also we had a few of our children take on the role as a firefighter – making sure there is no fires in nursery and making sure we are all safe. We began to speak about fire safety and the dangers of a fire, we had really good answers from our group but wouldn’t expect anything less from this talented bunch. These professions are endless and exciting, I wonder what we will have next week…

Tell us about your achievements?

We always love knowing any achievements outside nursery and would encourage you to tell us any achievement, award or success your child is a part of so we can celebrate it in nursery. This could be from achieving an award/medal at class to sleeping in their own bed – it’s the simple things that mean the most. So, let us know and we can celebrate, especially on the blog so everyone can see others achievements!! We have the best and talented wee group so lets spread the success!!

The Big Bedtime Read

Click the linkvideo below to find out more information about Deans Nursery reintroducing the Big Bedtime Read! go check it out!

Well another week is complete, hope you enjoyed it and have a great weekend!

And remember keep a wee eye out for some more professions and exciting adventures kicking off at Deans Nursery!!

See you all next week!

ELC

Hey everyone!

Hope you have been having a great last few weeks, here is what we got up to during Robert Burns week. We had so much fun celebrating Robert Burns day, we also have been learning about castles and what we can find in them and what we know about them.

Apologies for the lateness of this post as, myself (Mr McNab) was away gallivanting in Paris on holiday (typical haha) and never had a chance to post the amazing wee we had but its here and ready to go!!

Hope you enjoy what we have been doing – so lets get at it!!

Robert Burns

We had an amazing morning celebrating wee Rabbie Burns birthday, we kicked it of by designing our own tartan with different materials. We asked each other what tartan pattern was our favourite and also where we can find or see tartan. We then stuck on our dancing shoes and tried some highland dancing, now you all know how talented our children are – well they pulled of some amazing dancing. Some of us put on our construction minds to work and built Edinburgh Castle in our construction area and again we all know that we have wee professional builders in Deans Nursery.

After all the Scottish themed activities, we all sat down to have some auld haggis, neeps & tatties and a wee bit of Irn Bru to wash it all down (was referred to by some of the children as spicy juice). To top it of we had some shortbread, I think the staff enjoyed it a wee bit too much..

We hope you all had an amazing and tasty Robert Burns day from us staff and the wee patriots at Deans Nursery.

As we have been professional builders, the children have sparked an interest in castles. From old castles to princess castles we have been learning everything about them. We recently looked into Edinburgh Castle and its history as it was part of our Robert Burns day activities, now we have been looking into other types of castles. The children have been interested in king, queens and princess and the castles they live in. Some children were able to describe some of the features of castles, the children mentioned there is different sizes of castles, they have big doors and can stay far away. I think once we built our own castle, we will have new kings and queens of Deans Nursery, watch this space…

FYI

Happy Friday!

Hope everyone has had great week, January is nearly over and the year is in full swing. Come see what we have been getting upto this week from setting up hairdressing to getting ready for Robert Burns day next week.

The Hairstyling Shop

We have some new professional hairdressers in our nursery, if you can remember from last week, the children opening up their own doctors – well next door to that we now have a hairdressers. Some of our children inspired this idea and even named the shop “The Hairstyling Shop”, as you can see operation “get the best haitcut” is in full swing. Here is a few snaps of Miss Galbraith and our student Miss Hill receiving first class service for our new hairdressers, I think we can all tell what superb job our children are doing. Now we have doctors, nurses and even hairdressers in our nursery, what talented bunch we have!!!

A gift from the builders

The lovely builders from Strain Construction across the road from our nursery have given us some materials that we can use for our construction area inside and outside the nursery. As you can see they have been very generous on what they have given and I think these new resources will be used efficiently in our nursery. I don’t think I’m the only one in thinking we have may have another profession making an appearance at nursery….

The Wee Patriots of Scotland

As its Robert Burns day next week, this week we have been getting into the Scottish spirit. We have been looking at our flag, tartan and Edinburgh Castle, some of us this week have been drawing our Scotland flag and designing our own tartan, we even built Edinburgh Castle in our construction area – our wee talented children keep on producing wonders. On Tuesday 25th we will be having a Scottish themed day in nursery for Robert Burns day, part of the celebration we will be having the traditional Scottish snacks of haggis, nips and tatties and will definitely be followed by shortbread and a wee drink of IrnBru and possibly some Scottish music to get jivin’!.

There will be a letter sent out to each parent today giving you more information on what will be happening that day. If you could hand this letter back to us on Monday 24th would be great, so we get organised to celebrate wee Rabbie Burns day!

I hope you all have a great weekend, stay safe and we will see you next week.

THE ELC TEAM

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas and New Year, we are excited to have our first full week back after having some time off for Christmas and New Year. We have been so busy so come see what we have been getting up to:-

Discovering Ice

We have been learning about the cause and effects of ice. As it was a icy morning we brought in the black tray that had frozen water in it, we discussed as a group different ways of cracking it open. Most of the children agreed to use a screwdriver and a block (resembling a hammer) to carefully crack it open, this was so we could apply some green food colouring by using syringes. We wanted to see how fast it would spread through the ice. We also spoke about why outside freezes and how cold it needs to be for everything to be frozen.

The First Snowfall

We got a chance to play outside in the snow in the morning, we were all excited as it was the first snowfall of the year! The children engaged in a lot of different activities such as snow angels, building snowmen and having some snowball fights – staff vs children but I think we all know who won that one….Also we spoke about where snow comes from and how cold does it need to be for the snow to freeze.

The Deans Doctors

We have been learning about doctors and nurses and how they help us. The children have become their own doctors, we now have a little doctors opened up in nursery for the children continue their new practice. As you can see, Miss Kitchin was the first patient to be seen, the children were administering medicine and understanding how this can help us, monitoring heartbeats and applying bandages – I think Miss Kitchin was looked after very well from the new doctors and nurses. The children were beginning to learn and the understand the roles of each medical equipment used by these professionals. We also spoke about how we can keep our own bodies healthy and the importance of looking after our body.

Hope everyone has a brilliant weekend and we will see next week for some more fun filled activities!!!!

We would like to thank everyone who bought raffle tickets to help us raise some funds for the nursery.

We have raised a fantastic £91!!!!!!

The winners of the raffle were:

Hamper: Mrs Smith (Evan’s Gran)

Knitted Santa: Nannie (William’s)

Wrapped gift: William

Tub of sweets: Skye

Selection boxes: Mrs Campbell (Holly’s gran) and Mrs McNab.

The raffle tickets were drawn on Monday by the parents/carers when picking up and dropping off children.

Again we would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing everyone in 2022!!!!

Nativity

In the nursery we have been very busy practising and filming our nativity play. We have now finished filming it and parents will be sent the link very soon. We wont post any pictures as we want you to experience the full effect when you watch it at home. Our children were amazing as always and make sure you have a tissue at the ready!!!!

Christmas Crafts

Again the children have been very busy making different things in the nursery. Once all these are complete they will be sent home with your child. Again no photos as we do not want to waste the surprise!!!!

Christmas Raffle

We will draw the raffle on Tuesday morning so if any parent/carer still wants to but tickets please speak to a member of staff. The main prizes are a household hamper and a knitted Santa, there are also some smaller prizes to be won. Good luck everyone who has purchased a ticket.

Christmas Party

As in previous correspondence, the children’s Christmas party is on the last day of term, Wednesday 22nd December. The morning session children will be bringing a packed lunch home on this day. Afternoon children will be offered a sandwich at the start of the session. If your child is a full day child and does not normally attend on a Wednesday they are invited to come along to the afternoon party with their friends. These children will be collected from the party between 3-3.15pm. Any child in for the full day will receive their gifts from our special visitor in the afternoon.

Party food will be served to the children during the party.

Have a great Christmas everyone and we will see you back at nursery on the 5 January 2022.

Our school/ nursery environment

Mrs Dobbie has been working hard with the children in the school improving our school playgrounds and the areas around the school. During the outdoor learning sessions they have been planting trees and shrubs to enhance the areas, they have also created a bug hotel at the top of the trim track. Mrs Dobbie sadly has noticed that the bug hotel has been damaged with some of the resources being taken out of the structure. When you are dropping off and picking up your child from nursery could you please be vigilant and report anyone you see damaging the areas to a member of staff. Thank you for your cooperation on this.

Christmas is coming fast

We have been busy practicing for the nursey nativity. We have sent home the words to the songs we will be singing during the nativity and would appreciate if you could practice these with your child.

We will be holding a raffle in the nursery to help raise some funds. We would like to raffle a food hamper and are asking parents/carers if they would like to make a donation to this. Please just pop any donation into the bag sitting at the nursery gate. From Monday there will be a knitted Santa on display that is also being raffled. If you would like to purchase raffle tickets for either of these please speak to a member of staff. Tickets are £1 a strip or 3 strips for £2.

Achievements from home

We have created a display wall in the nursery where the children can celebrate their achievements at home with their peers. We are looking at the 4 capacities from the Curriculum for Excellence: Successful Learner, Confident Individual, Effective Contributor and Responsible Citizen. If your child has something to celebrate please share this with staff so that it can be included on the display wall. We celebrate all achievements so for example if they have helped to prepare the dinner, tidied their room, learned to ride their bike, walked the dog, tied their shoe laces or fastened their jacket independently please let us know. Photos are also welcome and can be sent to the school  for us to print out. The email  is:  wldeans-ps@westlothain.org.uk

Skye was a Successful Learner this week which she proudly shared her peers. Well done on passing your junior yellow belt at Karate!!!!!!

The Nursery Garden

Mrs Galbraith and some of the children have been busy this week out in the garden. They have been harvesting some of our vegetables that have been growing over the last few months. Our pumpkins are looking good and we will finish ripening these in doors. The children have been asking to cook with them so in the next week or so we will all be trying some pumpkin soup using our own ingredients to make this. The children have also been helping with some general maintenance in the garden, weeding and turning over the soil, getting it ready for the winter.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

West Lothian Football Association have started doing a session with the children in the nursery on a Tuesday morning. These sessions are aimed at developing listening and attention skills along with developing movement and coordination. Today the children were looking at different body parts and how they could hold a ball still using these. They played a game that developed hand to eye coordination as they had to turn over the cones with speed and dexterity as they competed in 2 groups to see who could do it the fastest. Everyone enjoyed the session and are looking forward to next week!!

This week we have been exploring in the forest when we have been out and about in the community. We enjoyed listening to our story about the Gruffalo and we went looking for him in the woods. We found somewhere that he might try and hide in the bottom of a tree and we searched under the bridge to see if there was any signs of him there. We enjoyed exploring moving our bodies in different ways as we moved along the tree trunk and through the stream. We sat on the tree trunk and ate our snack before coming back to nursery. Even with our waterproof clothing we still managed to get a bit wet but it was all great fun!!!!

The children have been invited to attend story telling sessions at Carmondean Library on a Monday over the next 3 weeks. When they are there the will be listening to 3 different stories and will vote on which one they like best, this book will be included in the “Book Bug Bag” that will be issued next year to children. The children will be walking to and from the library and will have snack while they are there. On the walk the children will be encouraged to look at the wider environment and see the changes that are happening within it due to the changes is seasons and weather. I am sure they will all have a great time!!!!

Monday 25th October visit will be in the afternoon.

Monday 1st and 8th November the visits will take place in the morning.