The Eco Committee spent the afternoon helping residents at Blackfaulds nursing home to add colour to their garden by filling hanging baskets and pots with lots of lovely flowers. They then got to meet other residents, then were treated to hot chocolate and home made cupcakes to thank them for their efforts! Thanks to Marion at Blackfaulds for making us all feel so very welcome.
The nursery children are thoroughly enjoying all the outdoor area, which is available all day, all weathers. With this in mind, please ensure that children come with appropriate footwear for puddles and a change of clothes, should they get wet. Waterproofs are available, but some puddles are big!
To read about the massive benefits that all this outdoor learning brings, please follow the picture below:
Click on the link to read a leaflet full of ideas for outdoor play!
http://www.greenheartsinc.org/uploads/A_Parents__Guide_to_Nature_Play.pdf
This week Mrs Alexander has been very busy setting up our new outdoor storytelling area, it looks fabulous. Mrs Alexander started by digging the holes for the logs to be place in and then secured them with postcrete. Next she inserted willow into the ground, for the frames of the chairs, and then weaved the willow around the base. To finish off our bespoke storytelling area Mrs Alexander created one large storyteller’s chair and added screening to the fence, to create the perfect storytelling setting for feeding young imaginations.
Some of the children helped a little by putting on gardening gloves and packing the willow chairs with wood chips and cuttings.
We are excited by the story area’s potential to help develop the children’s communication and literacy skills, as well as promoting creativity.
We have already started to witness the benefits it will bring with the children already using the area to share and listen to each other’s imaginative stories.
Please feel free to thank Mrs Alexander, in the comment section, for all her hard work in creating our fabulous bespoke storytelling corner.
Today, P1/2 were exploring our new vision: ‘Westfield, a place to smile’. After discussing the meaning of Succeed Motivate Inspire Learn Excel, they went outside and used materials found in the school grounds to create a smiling person, to represent our new vision.
This week the children in nursery have been enjoying their increase in outside access, despite the mixed weather. We enjoyed learning in snow, rain, hail and sunshine!
We have plenty of waterproofs in the nursery to help the children enjoy learning outside in wet weather but we were less prepared for the sunshine! The nursery is asking for you to donate any small unwanted sunhats/baseball hats so we can protect little heads from the sun and enjoy outdoor learning in all weather.
Please enjoy our photo gallery showing some of the learning happening this past week in the nursery.
This week the Nursery has introduced full ‘free flow’ play. This means that the nursery children will have access to the nursery garden for the vast majority of their session.
All the indoor activities have been moved into the large playroom to allow the outside area increased supervision. The garden door will be open during all weathers and children will be able to choose whether they learn and play inside or outside.
“There is a growing body of research that shows that young children’s access to nature and outdoor play is positively associated with improved self-esteem, physical health, development of language skills and disposition to learning.” (Davy, 2009 (57))(1)
The children have already been enjoying the greater access to the nursery garden this small change has provided.
We can provide waterproofs for the children on wet days but, to help the smooth running of free flow, parents are being asked to supply their child with a pair of wellies to be left in nursery and ensure they bring a bag with a change of clothes everyday.
Lastly a reminder that you can check out Westfield Nursery’s learning journey, for the term, on our sway.
Work on improving the nursery garden is well under way. Mrs Alexander has been extremely busy. She has already recycled some old tyres and turned them into all small wall around the vegetable patch.
The vegetable patch has also been dug over ready for planting. The children have been discussing what plants they would like to grow and will soon vote on their choices.
Mrs Alexander has also trimmed and reshaped the willow dome for us.
Mrs Alexander has been coming in in her free time to get all this work finished. Thank you Mrs Alexander for all your hard work!
Today, P6/7 were drawing maps of their journey to school. They were asked to create an aerial map that included key roads, buildings and other landmarks. Especially tricky for those who lived further away! Pupils have been asked to pay great attention on their journey to school tomorrow morning to assess how accurate their maps were.
This week, classes developed their problem solving skills and creative thinking using just a couple of hula hoops! Chilly outdoor challenges that kept us all busy.
