30.05.22

For our maths focus this block we have been exploring measure within height, weight, length and capacity. We used a variety of different measuring tools such as measuring tapes, cubes and rulers to measure objects around the nursery using comparative vocabulary such as longer/shorter, taller/smaller etc. We have also explored measure through weight by weighing a variety of items and through baking activities using comparative vocabulary such as heavier/lighter/ balanced etc.

This week in nursery we have been starting to learn about Spring and discuss some of the signs of spring that we can see happening around us. We have been learning about spring flowers, the names of flowers and discussing some of the parts of the flowers. We have also been looking at the blossom that is growing on the trees at the moment. This inspired us to make some art based on the blossom. We used a variety of techniques such as blowing paint to create branches and coloured popcorn as blossom and using twigs we collected from the garden with cotton buds dipped in paint to create blossom. We used lots of fantastic vocabulary to describe the blossom. We also developed our fine motor skills to roll playdough into little bits of blossom to stick onto twigs. 🌺

There has been lots of excitement this week as we discovered the frogs have been very busy in the nursery pond laying lots of frog spawn. This has been a fantastic learning opportunity for the children to see first hand. We decided to make our own pond in the nursery using a tuff crate, discussing what we would need to make a pond, the children decided we needed logs, stones, water, frogs, tadpoles and frog spawn. We soaked some chia seeds to create some very realistic frog spawn. 🐸

For our maths focus we have been continuing to explore shape. We have been looking at 3D shapes and exploring what shapes you can create when printing using different 3D shapes.

This week in nursery we have continued to learn about shape. We explored shape in our snack area, we had a variety of items cut into different shapes that we had to identify by counting out how many sides each shapes. We also made some shaped pizzas and identified the shapes of the items we were cutting for toppings. Benji noticed that if we cut the circles in half it makes a semi circle. The shape pizzas were delicious!!

Leading on from using shaped paper to create emergency vehicles last week we got creative and used our junk to create 3D emergency vehicles, discussing what we could use for the different parts and what shapes we were using.

In the gym hall we have been focusing on our balance and co-ordination. We have been applying the skills we have been learning outside in our nursery garden by building obstacle courses and playing games that encourage us to balance using different parts of our bodies.

There has been a real buzz in our block area this week, the children have been working together as a team, problem solving and creating some amazing buildings. We have also been using the clipboards to design our models. Here are some photos of our fantastic designs!

This week in nursery we have been continuing to learn about people who help us, the jobs different people do and how they can help us. This week the children have shown a keen interest in hospitals and the different roles of people who work in a hospital e.g. doctors, nurses, cleaners etc. Mrs Padzuinas helped us to set up a hospital in our shed in the nursery garden. We discussed some of the equipment/resources we would need for our hospital and why we might need them. The children expressed their ideas and opinions and listened well to others ideas and opinions.

At the art table we used a variety of shapes to create some emergency vehicles such as ambulance, fire engines and police cars. Discussing the different parts and why they would need them.

The children have continued to show an interest in learning about rain. Miss Thompson helped us to make rainmakers in the water tray by piercing holes in different items and watching how the water drips through and the noise it makes when it falls into the water. We also explored how rainbows are made and used the water colour paints to paint our very own rainbows.

Recently we have been learning about birds and how to care for the birds that come to our gardens. This has led on to lots of discussions about different types of birds such as parrots, flamingos, emus etc. The children wanted to find out where some of these more exotic birds come from so we used the internet and non-fiction books to find out more information about these birds and their environments. This has led onto the children showing interest in jungles. Miss O'Neill helped us to set up a jungle area outdoors.

This week in nursery we have continued to learn about shape. We have been using the shape finders to find different shapes in our environment discussing how many sides each shape has using vocabulary such as round, curve, straight etc.

We have been getting creative outdoors to make some binoculars for our birdwatching. We provided a variety of resources for the children to explore. problem solve and experiment with creating their own binoculars. We have been observing what birds are visiting our garden and eating the bird feeders we have been making.

This week we have had some very rainy weather, the children were interested in watching the rain and listening to the sound that it made. Some of the children were asking how rain is made so Miss O'Neill found a book all about how rain is formed. We decided to do an experiment to explore the rain cycle, we used shaving foam, oil and pipettes of water to see how the raindrops rise and fall. We also used sieves in the water tray to replicate the noise of rain. After lots of discussion with the children there was a clear interest in umbrella's, so we provided materials for the children to design and create their own umbrellas. Outside we used watering cans (as the rain had stopped) to observe the water as it dripped of the umbrellas.

For our PE focus this week we have been working on balance, exploring different ways we can balance using different parts of our bodies. We then brought this learning back to the nursery were Miss Stewart helped us to set up an obstacle course in the garden where we could use our balancing skills. We worked together as a team to find loose parts and other resources that we could use and we had to ensure it was safe for us to balance on.

This week we have also been celebrating World Book Day. We had some visits from the Primary 7 children who came to the nursery to read us some stories. This was a fantastic experience for the children who loved having the older children in the nursery and it was lovely to see the nursery children taking a lead and showing the P7's some of the learning that has been happening in nursery. We have also been sharing our favourite stories with each other, drawing pictures of our favourite books and giving explanations why and the children coming to nursery dressed as some of their favourite characters from a book. We also had so much fun watching 'The Masked Reader' which included some staff from the school reading their favourite story whilst disguised behind a mask and trying to work out who was hiding behind the mask. See below for some photos of our World Book Day celebrations.

This week in nursery we have been learning about shapes. Miss Forbes and Miss Thompson introduced us to some 2D shapes, we discussed the name of the shape, how many sides and corners the had and used vocabulary such as straight, curved, round etc. to describe the shape. We used the shape finders to find shapes in the environment around us. We recorded our findings by taking photos and drawing pictures and displaying them in a book which we will share at group times. At the gluing table we have been making shape monsters using a variety of 2D shapes and exploring shape through the playdough, water and sand play.

We have started to learn about people who help us, what is their jobs and how they help us. This week we set up the fire station in the nursery. There has been some fantastic discussions about the roles of a fire fighter, the equipment they use and what it might be used for and how we can help keep ourselves safe. The children have been giving their ideas and opinions on how they would like to develop the area and what resources we could use. Jack and Archie had a fantastic idea to make walkie talkies so the fire fighters could speak to each other if they are in a fire. They used boxes that they decided to paint black and stick a screen on with numbers and an aerial to make their walkie talkies.

For our numeracy focus this week we have been counting out a requested amount of items. We have been doing this in different ways such as at the snack area, counting out the correct amount of seeds to feed the birds and using counters.

This week in nursery we have been learning about how we can help care for the birds in our garden throughout the Winter. In the winter it is much harder for the birds to find food and water as the ground can be frozen, the children came up with lots of ideas of how we could help the birds and how we could attract birds to our garden e.g. hang bird feeders, make a bird bath. We used a step by step instruction book of how to make a bird feeder, Mrs Govan and Miss Thompson helped us as we had to use a candle burner to help melt the lard and mix the ingredients. (Please see our home learning section for the instructions on how to make a bird feeder.) We hung our feeders in the garden, we used a bird chart to monitor what kind of birds were visiting our garden, using our bird books to help us identify the birds. We also made a bird hide and binoculars out of tubes so we could observe the birds, we had to be very quiet so we wouldn't frighten them away.

For our maths focus we have continued to learn about repeated patterns. We have been using natural materials such as leaves, pine cones, stones etc outdoors to copy and create our own patterns. We have also been continuing the patterns on a game on the computer. Here is the link if you would like to give it a try at home. Shape Patterns (topmarks.co.uk)

We have become authors and illustrators this week, making our own fiction and non-fiction books. We shared these with our peers at group times. We have also been learning about the key parts of fiction and non-fiction books e.g. title, front cover, contents page, index etc. and what we use them for.

There has been lots of fantastic team work, problem solving and creative building going on the in the block area this week. Working together to create models and buildings, listening to each others ideas and trying out different solutions. We were all very proud of our creations.

This week in nursery we have continued with our ice experiments, looking at how ice melts.

What can we do to melt the ice?

Olivia at– “Hot water”

Stevie – “Smash it

Maci – “Put it in the microwave, because that makes things hot”

Kelsey – “If you put it in your hand it melts.”

William – “Put it in the oven or pour hot water on it”

Poppy – “We could get a hairdryer to melt it with the heat.”

Harris – “Smash it”

What does ice do when it’s melting?

Ben – “It cracks”

Bella – “Ice again, its water”

Greta-Rose – “It cracks when it melts”

We tried a few of these ideas, putting the ice in the microwave made it melt the quickest. Some of us used the ice to build igloos for the arctic lands.

For our maths focus we have been learning about repeated patterns and using the threading beads to copy and continue a simple repeated pattern by colour.

For our literacy focus we have been interpreting/reading signs or labels. This week we have been looking at road signs and discussing their meaning. We made some road signs for our garden to use on our road with the cars and bikes.

At the art table this week we have been following the instructions at the gluing table to create a penguin. We have also been using non-fiction books to find out more information.

This week in nursery we have been learning all about Robert Burns who is a famous Scottish poet. We celebrated Robert Burns' birthday with our very own Burns supper of Haggis, neeps and tatties and shortbread. We sat round the table together and discussed our likes and dislikes and our own experiences of a Burns Supper, sharing what we have learned about Scottish traditions with each other. We particularly enjoyed listening to the bagpipes and Scottish music.

We have also been continuing with our ice experiments this week, filling lots of different sized containers and putting them in different positions around the nursery to see what ones would freeze first, we even filled some really big containers and Debbie from the dinner hall let us put them in the huge freezer. We were making predictions of what containers would freeze the quickest and how long we thought it would take to freeze, our predictions ranged from 1 minute to 50 hours . We have also been discussing how we could melt the ice with some fantastic ideas such as putting it in warm water, putting it in the microwave and using a hairdryer ( we will try this one next week).

As part of our literacy focus this week we have been looking at fiction and non-fiction books and discussing the difference between them. We have been using the non-fiction books to find some information and facts on polar animals, such as penguins, polar bears, walrus' etc. and sharing some of the facts we have found with our peers at group times.

We been have been focusing on recognising and identifying numerals and sequencing numerals to at least 10.

This week in nursery we have been learning about Scotland, the country we live in. We have been learning all about different Scottish traditions such as Scottish foods, Scottish dress, the Scottish flag, tartans etc. We have also been listening to some Scottish music and Miss Forbes and Miss O'Neill have started to teach us some Scottish dances at the PE hall, we have to follow the instructions and learn to dance with a partner. (Could all parents please provide a pair of gym shoes for their child which can be kept at nursery.) We have particularly enjoyed learning some Scottish words and finding out the meaning, some were very funny!

We have continued to learn about the Arctic and Antarctic and the animals that live there. We used non-fiction books to find out some facts about penguins and polar bears. We have also continued with our ice making experiments using lots of fantastic vocabulary to describe how the ice feels and looks. We have discovered that ice melts the fastest if you put it in warm water.

For our maths focus this week we have been looking at patterns in the environment. Miss Walker made a pattern hunt for us in the garden where we had to follow the clues to match the patterns. As we have been discussing Scotland we decided to explore the tartan pattern. We made our own tartan prints using cars to create the straight lines on a tartan print.

As part of our literacy focus we have been identifying our initial letters within a group of letters, we have been doing this in various ways around the nursery using magnetic letters and outdoors with mark making.

Welcome back to all our nursery families, we hope you all had a lovely break over the Christmas period. We would like to welcome Miss Stewart to our nursery team , Miss Stewart will join our team part time.

We've had a very busy start to the new term. We've been fortunate to have some wintery weather this week which has created some fantastic learning opportunities for the children. There has been lots of ice and frost in our nursery garden which has sparked lots of conversations about how ice is made. Mrs Govan has been working with the children to set up some ice experiments around the nursery. We have set out a variety of different shaped and sized containers and placed them in different places around the nursery including outdoors, indoors, in the freezer etc. We have been making predictions of what we think might happen and what containers will freeze the quickest. We have also been exploring how ice melts and setting up experiments using salt, and warm areas to see what ice block would melt the fasted. We have been using some fantastic vocabulary to describe the ice and discussing how the wintery weather makes us feel. 🥶

In the art area we have been getting creative using a variety of winter coloured materials to create winter collages. Discussing things that happen in winter, what kind of clothing we need to wear and how it makes us feel.

In our tuft crates this week we have set up 2 polar areas, the Arctic and Antarctic. We have been learning about the differences between them, what animals live there and looking at where there are on a map. We learned that Polar bears live in the Arctic and Penguins live in the Antarctic. We are going to use non-fiction books and the internet to find out some interesting facts about polar bears and penguins. 🐧

Miss O'Neill has been having discussions with the children in the snack area about what food we could make for snack that could warm us up in the winter. The children suggested we could make soup as that would keep us warm. The children have worked with Miss O'Neill this week to create a recipe for soup, which they followed and helped to make soup using the tools safely to peel, chop and grate the ingredients. We all enjoyed our soup outdoors for snack, it was delicious!!

For our maths focus this week we have been exploring patterns in the environment around us. We have been looking at the patterns on our clothes, on the floor, outdoors etc. There are patterns all around us. Can you find any patterns in your home or when out for a walk? We have also been creating our own patterns at the drawing table and displaying them in a book for us to share at group time.

For our literacy focus we have been beginning to interpret/read signs or labels supported by images. We had great fun playing a logo game, trying to identify familiar logos and discussing how we knew it was that logo and where we see these signs. We have also been looking at some road signs and interpreting what we think these signs might mean. Can you see any signs around your home or out for a walk? what do you think these signs are telling us?

It's been a very busy couple of weeks in the nursery with all our festive activities. We have been making Christmas cards, salt dough tree decorations, Christmas cookies, chocolate truffles, calendars and writing letters to Santa.

We have also been learning all about the Story of the First Christmas, we have used props and dressing up clothes to re-enact the nativity story.

We have also made some extra goodies to make a hamper for our friends down at Haddington Day Centre. Miss Forbes and Mrs Murray took a small group of children down to drop the hamper off at the Day Centre, they were all delighted with their treats.

Christmas has arrived in nursery this week! 🎄🎅 We started our Christmas celebrations by putting up our Christmas tree. We all worked together to decorate our tree whilst dancing along to the Christmas songs. I think you'll agree the children have done a spectacular job and our tree looks amazing!! 🎄. We have also started our count down to Christmas with our advent calendar, each day we will take it turns to find the correct number and reveal the picture underneath, this creates a great topic for discussion about all different Christmas traditions.

We have also used this opportunity to talk about people who are less fortunate especially at Christmas time. We have teamed up the Community Kitchen this year to design some Kindness Cards from all of us Haddington Primary School Nursery which the Community Kitchen will distribute to people who may be celebrating Christmas on their own . Here are some quotes from the children -

Daisy W - "We're making cards to give to people who are on their own at Christmas.

Sarah - "Some people don't have anyone to speak to at Christmas so we can make them a card to make them smile."

Jack - "Some people are on their own at Christmas and they don't get any cards so we're making them cards, it'll make them happy."

Ena - "You need to be kind to people and you need to help people out. I know this homeless lady and I'm going to make her a picture so my Nana can give her it. I hope she gets a new house."

We have also been extremely busy in the nursery garden tidying up all the debris from the storm at the weekend. Thankfully there has been no damage to our garden but lots and lots of sticks and leaves to tidy up. We all worked as a team to get the job done and make sure our garden was safe to play in.

For our maths focus this week we have been exploring a variety of devices we use to tell the time e.g. clocks, watches, stop watches, phones, etc. We have been learning what we use these devices for and some of the names of the different parts of a clock. 🕑

This week in nursery we have been learning about nocturnal animals. We learnt that nocturnal animals are active during the night and sleep during the day. Some nocturnal animals that we have been learning about are bats, owls, badgers, foxes and hedgehogs.🦊🦔🦉🦇

At the gluing table we used a variety of media to create some fantastic owls. We also got creative at the playdough table this week, using playdough, match sticks and googly eyes to make some hedgehogs. 🦔

For our literacy focus we have been working on prediction. Looking at the front cover of a book and discussing what we think the story may be about, predicting what we think might happen next in the story and thinking of alterative endings. We have also been learning about the key parts of a book e.g. the front cover, back cover, spine, author, illustrator etc.

For our maths focus we have been sequencing events in our days e.g. wake up, have breakfast, brush teeth, put on our clothes etc.

Some of the children have been commenting how cold it has been out in the garden this week. Jack had a fantastic idea how to make one of our wooden sheds a little bit warmer. Jack "I've got a good idea, if we get some wrapping paper and some cellotape we could hang some paper up and it'll keep the cold out." Lots of the children thought this was a great idea so we decided to collect the resources we needed and make a plan of what we needed to do. The children worked together to problem solve and try different strategies, some excellent team work!!! And it did make our shed a lot cosier 😊

This week in nursery we have been continuing to learn about Hibernation. We found out that bears, bats, turtles, hedgehogs, snakes and bumblebees all hibernate. Mrs Watson helped us to make a woodland area for some of the animals and we have been making little homes for them to hibernate.

For our literacy focus this block we have been learning about characters and events in a story. At story time we have been discussing some of the characters in the story and empathising with how they are feeling in different situations, also discussing character traits and our likes and dislikes.

We are continuing to learn about and explore Autumn. Miss O'Neill set out some natural autumn materials at the playdough table to allow us to explore and create. We made some autumn trees and used the leaves and rollers to make prints in the dough.

The children are continuing to show interest in learning about dinosaurs. We have made a Dino land in one of our tuft crates. We have been using non-fiction books to find out some facts about dinosaurs including which dinosaurs are herbivores and carnivores.

We celebrated Children In Need this week in nursery. It was fantastic to see so many children and staff dress up and take part in this event for such an amazing charity. We had great fun doing some Pudsey work outs with Joe Wicks, dancing and painting some Pudsey bear faces. Thank you to everyone who donated.

This week in nursery we have been learning about Hibernation. Discussing what hibernation is, why some animals hibernate and finding out which animals hibernate.

For our numeracy focus we have been counting out a requested amount of items. At the maths table we have been playing a hedgehog game, rolling the dice and counting out the correct amount 'spikes' (pegs) to put on the hedgehogs. We have also been using our interactive whiteboard to play a game where we have to give the teddy the correct amount of cakes. Here is a link to the game if you would like to play at home Learning to Count up to 15 with Teddy Numbers Interactive Maths Game (topmarks.co.uk)

At the art table we have have been using a variety of media to make some fantastic Autumn tree pictures using our hands to print the tree trunk and some cotton buds and autumn colours to print the leaves. We have also been leaf printing outdoors looking at the different patterns that the leaf makes.

On Thursday we celebrated Remembrance Day with our Wed/Thurs group. Miss Forbes told us why we celebrate Remembrance Day, we painted some pictures of Poppies and took part in the schools minute silence. Here are some of the children said about Remembrance Day....

Jamie - "We are remembering the soldiers"

Jack - "Remember the soldiers because they are dead"

Darcey - "To remember the soldiers that died"

Olivia - "The soldiers fighted"

Alessio - "We wear poppies"

Stevie - "We stayed quiet to remember"

Maci - "Poppy Day is to remember the soldiers that had to go away from their families and their homes"

Sarah - "The soldiers died"

Archie - "Some soldiers died in the war, they were brave."

This week in nursery we have been learning all about Autumn. Some of the facts we have learnt are...

The leaves change colour and fall off the trees. 🍁

The weather starts to get colder 🥶

It starts to get darker 🌃

Some animals hibernate for the winter 🐻🦔

We can collect conkers and acorns 🌰

We have been having a Autumn clear up in the nursery garden, helping to gather some of the leaves. We used some of these leaves for activities within the nursery and put some into our compost bin. It was great fun kicking and rolling about in the leaves. At the drawing table inside and in the literacy shed outdoors we have been using crayons to create some leaf rubbings, looking at the patterns it makes and discussing some of the names of the leaves. At the art table with Mrs Govan we used some conkers to create some amazing prints, we dipped the conkers in paint and rolled them over some paper to create some fantastic art work.

For our maths focus this week we have been identifying events that happen at different times of the day and sorting these into day and night.

For our literacy focus we have been learning about characters in a story. Discussing what is a character and identifying characters in a book. We also discussed who our favourite characters are from books we read at home with our grown ups.

This week in nursery we have also been learning about Bonfire night, we listened to the story about Guy Fawkes and learned all about why we celebrate bonfire night. We also discussed how we can keep ourselves safe near bonfires and fireworks. Miss Forbes helped us to make a delicious Bonfire night snack of hotdogs, hot chocolate and popcorn. We had our snack outdoors and Miss Forbes put on a sparkler show for us 😄🎆🎇🧨✨

This week in nursery we have been identifying when different events happen in a day e.g. morning, afternoon, night. 🌞🌛

For our numeracy focus this block we are working on counting items in a collection and counting out a requested amount. We have been doing this in lots of different ways for example in the snack area 'reading' our menu and counting out the correct amount of items. Mrs Watson made a pumpkin counting game where we had to identify the number on the pumpkin and count out the correct amount of pegs.

We have had great fun celebrating Halloween this week in nursery. Mrs Padzuinas helped us to carve some spooky pumpkins, we used some fantastic vocabulary to describe how the pumpkin felt, smelled and looked. Miss Forbes helped us to make Pumpkin soup for our snack, we had to chop up all the vegetables, the onion even made our eyes water!! It was very yummy! We transformed our water tray into a witches cauldron and used lots of different items to create some spooky spells and potions. We also had great fun dookin for apples. 🕸🕷🧛‍♂️👻

Some of the children in our Wed/Thurs group have shown a real interest in dinosaurs this week so Mrs Watson helped them to set up a Dino land in our sand tray, it sparked lots of interesting conversations about dinosaurs, what we know and what we would like to find out. Callum made a print with his dinosaur in the sand which led on to talking about fossils. We will add this to our responsive planning. 🦕🦖

This week in nursery we have started to learn about Autumn. We have been discussing some of the changes that are starting to happen. We have noticed that it's starting to get colder, the weather is changing and the leaves are starting to change colour. We are going to use some non-fiction books and the internet to find out some facts about Autumn.

Miss O'Neill has been busy in the snack area this week helping us to make apple muffins for snack using some apples that we harvested from the school apple tree. We had to wash, peel and chop the apples and weigh out all the ingredients.

Last week some of the children in nursery were very interested in scarecrows and talking about how they help the farmer to scare birds away from eating their crops. The children wanted to make some scarecrows this week so Miss Walker set out a variety of media and resources for the children to create their own scarecrows. They look fantastic on our wheat field display.

Miss Forbes and Mrs Watson have been getting in the festive spirit this week (yes we know it's only October 🙈) This was to help the children create their very own Christmas card that can be sent off to a factory to be made into real Christmas cards that you can buy. These have all now been sent home with your child. If you would like to order your child's Christmas cards please follow the instructions on the forms. 🎅🎄

This week in nursery we have been learning about the process of turning wheat into flour. Mrs Watson brought in her mortar and pestle from home to show us how we can grind the wheat into flour. This has been very exciting to se the process before our very eyes! It takes a lot of hard work, elbow grease and patience.

For our literacy focus we have continued to read the story of The Little Red Hen sharing our likes/dislikes about the story through group discussions and drawings. We have been using puppets and props to retell the story of The Little Red Hen in small groups. Here is the link to a short video of some children retelling the story. 🐔🍞 https://youtu.be/_RdJnUVkIcg

For snack this week we have been using some of the vegetables we harvested from our garden to make a vegetable pasta. We had to wash, peel and chop the veg making sure we were being safe while using the tools. It was delicious!

At the gluing area this week we have been using our problem solving skills to create combine harvesters and tractors using junk boxes, working out what resources we would need and how we could make things stick together. 🚜

Miss O'Neill set us a challenge this week to find out what our favourite vegetables were and how we could work out what vegetable is the most popular in our class. We asked each other what our favourite vegetable was. We then organised and displayed our information in a tally chart so we could identify which vegetable was the most popular. Carrot 🥕was the most popular vegetable and butternut squash was the least favourite.

This week in nursery we have continued to learn about Harvest.

We have been exploring a variety of vegetables. We had great fun using our senses to explore some vegetables in the tuft tray, using some fantastic vocabulary to describe them. We also has fun cutting them up and using matchsticks to make vegetable animals. We used some of the veg to do some printing, discussing things that we know about vegetables and how they grow.

We have also been learning about the process of making flour/bread. We have been reading the story of The Little Red Hen and discussing our likes/dislikes about the story and explaining why. Miss O'Neill made us some Little Red Hen puppets so we could retell the story with our friends. Mrs Govan helped us to bake some bread for our snack, it was delicious!! We have also been experimenting with mark making in flour, it was very messy but lots of fun!

Our maths focus this week we have moved on to sorting and matching by other criteria including by shape, food or animal.

For our numeracy focus this week we have been ordering numbers 0-5, 0-10 and in some cases beyond. We have been doing this in lots of different ways including outdoors using a washing line and numbers items of clothing, our tractor number game and our caterpillar game on the computers.

For the first few weeks in nursery our main focus has been to settle in our new and returning children and families and ensure the children feel safe and secure in their surroundings. We have been focusing on our nursery values and routines and settling back into nursery life.

We have been spending time getting to know each other and building new friendships.

We have been learning our nursery rules:

WE ARE KIND

WE ARE GENTLE

WE LOOK AFTER NURSERY PROPERTY

WE LISTEN

WE ARE HONEST

We have been discussing the importance of these rules to keep everyone safe and happy in nursery and how to develop and value relationships and friendships.

We have recently started talking about Harvest time. Some of us have seen the combine harvester in the fields cutting the wheat. We have been exploring wheat and discussing how wheat is used to make flour. At the art table we have been busy doing some wheat prints with Mrs Watson using a variety of materials such as wheat, rulers, cotton buds and our fingers. We have also been discussing other foods that can be harvested at this time of year and some of us helped Miss Forbes to harvest our vegetables that we have been growing in our nursery vegetable patch. We have harvested potatoes, courgettes, broad beans, peas and carrots. We are going to make a plan of what we can cook using our vegetables.

Our maths focus this week has been sorting and matching by colour. We have been using a variety of different media such as the coloured teddy bears, coloured buttons to sort and categorise into groups.

This week in nursery we have been learning about money. We have been exploring different coins and discussing what we use money for. We have set up a Café in our home corner where we have been making menus and price lists and using money to buy our items.

For our Literacy focus this week we have been looking at key parts of a book, looking at the front cover, back cover, the role of the author and illustrator and discussing what a blurb is. We have also been focusing on recognising our names in a variety of situations and experimenting with letter shapes and in some cases writing our names.

We have continued with our transition to P1 discussions this week. We watched a video of the 2 Mrs Murray's reading a story called This is the Bear and the Picnic Lunch and watched a video of some current P1 children telling us what they enjoy most about Primary 1.

This week in nursery our pre-school children that will be moving on to P1 after the summer started their transition visits. We started this week with a tour of the playground. We met Mrs Murray (Deputy Head Teacher) who set us a challenge to see if we could find all the cards she had hidden around the playground, using a poster to help us. We had so much fun exploring the playground and trying out some of the equipment. Some of the things we discovered was the climbing wall, trim trail, the outdoor classroom and the sand pit. We also had a look on the transition website and watched some videos from Mr French (Head Teacher), Mrs S Murray, Mrs K Murray and Mr Smith ( Deputy Head Teachers) who are all grown ups in our school who help everyone in the school, children and teachers.

For our maths focus we have continued to learn about measure. We have explored measuring by height, length, weight and volume. We have been learning lots of new vocabulary and experimenting with different measuring devices such as scales, rulers, measuring tapes and jugs and containers in the water tray.

For our literacy focus this week we have been discussing our likes and dislikes about different stories and giving our reasons why. This had helped develop our listening skills, encouraged us to share our views and opinions and respect others.

The weather has been beautiful this week and we have been spending a lot of time outdoors. We have been planting some seeds in our vegetable patch and explored seeds inside different fruit and veg by cutting them up and comparing the different seeds. We are going to plant some of these seeds to see what happens. We have also had lots of water play outdoors washing dishes, marking making and watering the plants.

• Please remember to apply sun cream on your child before nursery and send some in their bag for top ups. 🌞

This week in nursery we have been continuing to learn about measure. As well as measuring by length and height we have now introduced measuring by weight and volume. We have been exploring using scales and how we can see when items are heavier, lighter or balanced. We have even used the scales to weigh out some our snack items. We have also been exploring volume in our water tray using jugs and containers to measure capacity, using vocabulary such as full, half full, empty etc.

We have been reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. At the drawing table we have been developing our cutting skills and sequencing parts of the story. The Giant also sent us a letter and copy of his giant footprint asking us if we could find items around our nursery that was bigger, smaller or the same size as his footprints. We also measured the giant's footprints using cubes and rulers. We have also continued to measure our beans, they are now 21 cubes tall!!

We have been using a beanstalk to help us recognise/identify numbers to 10 and sequence these numbers in order.

Outdoors we have set up a potting station with compost, plant pots, trowels and some veg and flowers for the children to explore potting/planting their own mini gardens.

Mr Smith from the Upper Campus very kindly shared with us some of their strawberry plants. We planted these in our nursery garden, we are hoping to grow some delicious strawberries that we can eat for our snack. 🍓🍓

This week in nursery we have been learning about what a seed needs to grow. We know that a seed needs water, sunlight and compost. We discussed what compost is and how it is made. The children have decided they would like to try and make our own compost in nursery. We used information books and the internet to find out what things we can recycle for compost. We have now set up a food waste bins in our snack areas.

We have continued to to care for our beans, making sure they have enough water and sunlight. They are starting to grow, we have been measuring them, they are now 2 cubes tall. We have also been making a plan of what of what we would like to grow in our vegetable patch.

We have continued to learn about rhyme, identifying rhyming words in stories and songs. We have also been making up our own rhyming words.

This week we had a delivery of some new furniture and big bricks, The best thing about getting a delivery is the big cardboard boxes!! We have had so much fun! Cardboard boxes are a great resource for children, they inspire creativity and imagination and the children can build upon, transform and reinvent them.

This week in nursery we have been continuing to learn about measure, using a variety of measuring tools to explore different lengths and heights. We have been measuring each other using the cubes and counting how many cubes tall we are. We have also been comparing and ordering people by height from tallest to smallest and using vocabulary such as longer, shorter, taller, smaller etc.

We have also been learning about what a seed needs to grow. We know that a seed needs soil, water and sunlight to help it to grow. We have planted some broad beans in a pot, we are hoping that if we give them water, soil and sunlight they will grow, some children think they might grow into a huge beanstalk!! 🌱 We are going to use our cubes and rulers to measure how tall they grow.

For our literacy focus we are continuing to learn about rhyme. We have been reading rhyming stories and identifying the rhyming words in the book. We have also been thinking of words that might rhyme with our names, we came up with some very funny rhyming words!

Our PE focus this block is object control, we have set up some targets in the garden so we can throw a ball/bean bag with aim.

This week in nursery we have been learning about the lifecycle of a frog. The frogs have been very busy in our nursery pond (see post below) and we have lots of frog spawn. We have been observing the frog spawn and we have already started to see some changes. We used non-fiction books to find out information and facts about frogs. We have learned...

• Frogs eggs are called spawn.

• When they hatch they become tadpoles.

• Tadpoles have gills so they can breathe under water.

• The tadpole grow back legs and then front legs.

• They then turn into a frog.

We have made our own 'frog pond' in a tuft crate in the nursery with toy frogs, tadpoles, spawn, logs and other pond creatures. This provides the children with opportunity to explore new materials, act out scenarios, build language and gain understanding of their world.

For our maths focus we have continued to learn about shape. This week we introduced the children to some 3D shapes such as cube, cuboid, pyramid, sphere etc. We used 3D shaped moulds to make shapes in the sand tray and explored building with 3D shapes in the block play area.

Our literacy focus this week has been to discuss characters in a story. We read 2 different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, talking about the characters in the story and how we thought they might feel in different situations. We also used puppets to retell the story.

In the garden a group of children worked together to create the 'Bridge of Doom'. Using loose parts to problem solve and work together as a team to create a bridge to cross the river full of crocodiles, sharks, snakes and catfish! This also help support the children's balancing skills.

At the gluing table we have been using a variety of collage materials to create spring flower pictures.

This week in nursery we have been learning about people who help us, the jobs that people do and how their roles can help us. the children have been sharing with us jobs that their family members do and the importance of their roles. 👮‍♂️👨‍🚒👩‍⚕️👨‍🏫

There has been a real interest from the children in the role of a police officer and fire fighters. Mrs Skirving's husband is a fire fighter and he very kindly gave us some old equipment to explore. We had great fun trying on the helmets, exploring a section of a fire hose ( they were very heavy), torches and a pager. This inspired some fantastic conversations about what we think the equipment is used for and why they would need it. We have also had lots of role play surrounding the role of a police officer. We even transformed our shed in the garden into a police station. Unfortunately Mrs Watson got arrested several times 😲

Our literacy focus this week has been prediction. We have been discussing the front cover of story books to see if we can predict what we think the story might be about. We have also been predicting what we think might happen next in a story.

We have had great fun in the garden this week exploring water channels, problem solving and working together as a team to build water channels for ducks and boats to flow. We have also been working together to build obstacle courses where we have to use our balancing skills. The children worked well together problem solving, sharing ideas, listening to each other and trying out different strategies.

This week in nursery we have continued to learn about 2D shape. We had great fun going on a shape hunt indoors and outdoors to find shapes in our environment and recording our findings on our tally sheets to see what shapes are the most common. We also started to look at more difficult shapes such as pentagon, hexagon and octagon.

We have introduced our woodwork bench back into nursery this week. Mrs Watson showed us all the tools we would be using and we came up with some rules to help keep us all safe whilst using the tools. We had great fun designing and creating some masterpieces 🔨🔧

We also introduced our Tinkering table. This is an area where we can develop our fine motor skills by manipulating tools, problem solve and understand properties of materials. This week we have been exploring old keyboards, taking them apart, exploring their parts and putting them back together. 🔩⚙

The woodwork bench and tinkering table will be rotated between groups on a fortnightly basis. If you have any old technology items or scrap wood that you no longer need we would love to use them for our wood work and tinkering table.

Spring is starting to make an appearance in the nursery garden! Our spring flowers are starting to bloom, we have found crocuses, snowdrops and daffodils. Miss O'Neill brought some spring flowers in from her garden, we have been drawing some still life pictures using chalk. 💐🌸

We have continued to learn about people who help us. At the art table we have been using a variety of shaped collage materials to create fire engines.

The children have all been very busy and very excited making special cards and cupcakes for our Mothers Day treats. We hope all have a very special Mothers Day weekend.

This week in nursery we have been learning all about shape 🔵🟨🔺.

We have been looking at standard 2D shapes and learning how many sides and corners each shape has. We have been exploring shape in lots of different ways. We used our shape finders to help us find shapes in the environment, we took photos of the shapes we found and Mrs Skirving and Mrs Govan helped us record our findings in a shape book. The shape we found the most of was a rectangle and the shape that was the most tricky to find was a triangle.

At the gluing table we used different shapes to create shape monsters. We even had some different shaped sandwiches for snack!

At group time we have been discussing the jobs people do, the roles of some of these jobs and how they can help us. The children have been sharing some of the jobs their parents, grandparents or other family members do and we discussed some of the roles of people in the nursery/school.

For our PE this week our focus has been balance. We have been balancing bean bags on different parts of our body e.g. heads, hands, feet, nose etc. and trying our best not to let them fall.

Maybe you can go on a shape hunt at home and see how many different shapes you can find.

This week in nursery has been all about Christmas!!

There is certainly an excitement and buzz around the nursery with all our festive activities.

The children have been very busy this week making Christmas cards for their families or friends, using all sorts of sparkles, tinsel and glitter. We have also been making our traditional salt dough tree decorations (Christmas wouldn't be the same without them!) These will all be sent home next week with your child.

We have been continuing to learn about the story of The Story of the First Christmas and acting out and retelling the story using props and our Nativity set.

We are continuing with our countdown to Christmas using our Advent tree. We can't believe how quickly the days are flying in.

At the drawing table Miss Forbes and Mrs Padzuinas have been helping us to write our letters to Santa. We used some old catalogues to cut out pictures of things that we liked, helping to develop our hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills. We also experimented with writing letters and in some cases our names and focusing on developing our pencil grip.

On Wednesday our Yellow and Blue groups had the opportunity to watch the pantomime Rapunzel (Red and Green groups will watch this next week). It was great fun and left us all feeling very festive!! We then enjoyed our Christmas lunch, it was delicious!! We all made some festive crowns to wear for our lunch.

Just a reminder to check our communication page for details of our Christmas parties.

Christmas has arrived in nursery this week!! 🎅🎄

Our Christmas tree is now up in the nursery.

This week in nursery we have been learning about why we celebrate Christmas and learning all about the story of The First Christmas. We read the Nativity Story and loved using the small world nativity set to act out the story. We have been discussing what Christmas means to us and our hearts all melted listening to the children tell us it's about giving and spending time with your families. 😍 Of course Santa got a mention too!!

As it was the 1st of December this week we have started our countdown to Christmas with our Advent Calendar tree. Each day we take it in turns to finds the correct number on the tree and reveal the Christmas picture.

The glitter and sparkles have made an appearance this week at the art table as we have started to make some decorations for our nursery. Using a variety of materials and practising our cutting skills to create some masterpieces.

There was a definite change in the weather this week where we were greeted with some frost and ice. This was a wonderful natural learning opportunity for the children to explore and experiment with freezing and melting. We went on a hunt round the garden see if we could find any ice. We discovered that the ice melted in our hands and if we took it indoors as the warmth melts the ice. We also used some fantastic 'wow' words to describe how the ice felt or looked such as 'freezing', 'nippy', 'jaggy', 'soaking' etc.

This week in nursery we have continued to learn about nocturnal animals. We used non-fiction books and the internet to find out information and facts. We have also been learning about hibernation, were some animals go to sleep for the winter as there is not enough food. Mrs Watson and Miss O'Neill introduced us to some woodland friends at together time. We helped to put them in the correct groups of animals that are nocturnal, animals that hibernate and some that do both.

For our maths focus we are continuing to look at time and talk about different times of the day. We have now started to explore time devices, identifying the different devices we can use to tell the time e.g. clocks, watches, phones, Ipads, cookers etc. We have also been learning the names of some of the parts of a clock e.g. face, hands etc. 🕑⌚⏰⏲

We have been very busy at the art table experimenting with different techniques and media such as painting, gluing and modelling with clay to create some nocturnal animals. 🎨

This week in nursery we have continued to learn about day and night focusing on nocturnal animals. We used non-fiction books to find out facts and information about animals that come out at night. 🌛

We found out that bats, owls, foxes and hedgehogs are all nocturnal animals. We made a mind map of things we know and things we would like to find out about some of these animals and used books and the internet to help us find out. We found out where some of these animals live, what they eat and where we might see them.

We have continued to sort daily events into things we do during the day and at night. We also sequenced these events into the order we do them in.

At the art table we used a variety of media to create owls for our nocturnal display, choosing our materials and using scissor skills to cut templates.

For our literacy focus this week we have been predicting what we think might happen next in a story. We also used our Owl Babies story sack to create alternative endings to the story and what we think happened after the story ended. 🦉📚📙

As part of our night and day theme we have created a dark tent area were we have been exploring using torches and creating shadows. 🔦

This week in nursery we have been learning about night and day. We have been discussing things that we do during the day and things we do at night e.g. brush our teeth, put on our pyjamas, eat our breakfast etc. We played a game where we sorted these activities into day or night.

We have also been learning about some animals that only come out at night time, these animals are called Nocturnal animals such as bats, owls, foxes etc. We will be learning more about these animals next week. 🦊🦔🦉

Our literacy focus this week has been looking at characters in a story, this week we read the story of Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and discussed what is a character and who were the characters in the story. We also had lots of great discussions about what we think would happen next and making up some alternative endings. This led onto us becoming authors and illustrators and writing our own story books.

At the art table this week we have been painting pictures of autumn trees and recalling facts that we know about autumn. We painted our hand and arm to print the tree an used cotton buds to make dot work as the autumn leaves. 🍁🍂

Some of the children have been making up their own recipes at the mud kitchen this week, foraging around the garden looking for their ingredients and mixing up some very delicious autumn soup!!

We have been busy creating some masterpieces at the playdough table this week, using the natural autumn materials to sculpt some fantastic models.

This week in nursery we have been continuing to learn about the signs of autumn. We used non-fiction books to find out some facts about autumn. We found out that the days get shorter and that some birds migrate south for the winter, to warmer countries as it's easier for them to find food.

We have continued to learn about the days of the week, singing our days of the week song and discussing what day is it today? what day was it yesterday? what day will it be tomorrow?

The red and green group had great fun on Monday with their Halloween celebrations. We iced some spooky Halloween biscuits and loved dookin for apples in our own individual bowls ( adhering to covid restrictions). 🎃🧛‍♂

We also celebrated Bonfire night this week. We learned all about Guy Fawkes and his plan to blow up the houses of parliament. We also discussed fireworks and how we can keep ourselves safe around fireworks and bonfires and who can help to keep us safe. At the activity table we made some firework pictures using fluorescent paint, tubes and sparkly glitter. We used some fantastic 'wow' words to describe what the fireworks sound like such as 'bang', 'boom', 'crackle' and 'wheeee'. We also had our traditional bonfire day snack outdoors which was hotdogs and hot chocolate with marshmallows, it was delicious!!! The nursery grown ups even had some sparklers to set the mood! 🎆🎇🌭☕

Our literacy focus this week has been to look at key parts of a book. We have been discussing the front cover, back cover, what way we hold a book and where to start reading. We have also been focusing on asking the children literal questions about the book.

Our maths focus has been to count out items in a collection. We have been doing this as part of our snack routine by reading the snack menu and counting out the correct amount of items.

Welcome back everyone, we hope you had a great October break!

This week in nursery we have been learning about Autumn and looking for the signs of autumn around us. We have had great fun exploring our nursery garden for signs of autumn and using the wheelbarrows and tractors to gather some of the leaves. 🍁🍂

Some of the facts we have been learning are -

The leaves change colour to red, orange, yellow and brown.

The leaves fall off the trees.

The weather starts to get colder and we need to wear warmer clothes.

The days get shorter.

The animals start to gather food for the Winter.

This week has also been full of lots of Halloween excitement!🧛‍♂️🎃

We carved our spooky pumpkins. The children used lots of fantastic 'wow' words to describe what the pumpkin felt like inside such as 'gooey', 'slimy', 'squishy' etc. The children were particularly interested in how heavy the pumpkin was and took it in turns to carry/lift them.

Our yellow and blue group had their Halloween celebrations this week (the red and green group will be celebrating on Monday 2nd Nov). They had lots of fun dookin for apples in our own individual bowls (sticking to covid restrictions) and icing some spooky Halloween biscuits.

Our numeracy focus this week has been counting out items in a collection. We used the seeds from our pumpkins and had to count out the correct amount of seeds for each numbered pumpkin.

For our literacy focus this week we have been looking at key parts of a book such as the front and back cover, title, what way we hold a book and turn a page. We have also been making predictions about a book from looking at the front cover.

This week in nursery we have been continuing to extend our knowledge on harvest, recapping what we have learned over the last few weeks. All the children were able to share some facts about what they have learned about harvest.

As promised we responded to the children's interests and followed the plan they had made to bake some apple pies. They were so yummy and the nursery was smelling amazing!!

We used puppets to retell the story of The Little Red Hen, the children have been putting on some fantastic shows using the puppets and puppet theatre and can confidently retell the story independently.

Our numeracy focus this week was to sequence numerals 1-10. Miss Forbes also gave us a challenge by 'stealing' a number to see if we could identify the missing number.

We have continued exploring different mark making this week, we have been using the coloured sand and rubber brushes to make patterns and experiment with writing our initial letters or in some cases we have been writing our names!

This week Autumn has officially landed in the nursery! There has been a big change to the weather and the children have been commenting on how much colder it has been. In the nursery garden there has been masses of leaves falling! We gathered some leaves and put them in our sand box where we had great fun kicking, throwing and jumping into them!

Please refer to the Communication page on the website to see email regarding ordering school lunches after the October break.

We hope you all have a fantastic October break 😀

This week in nursery we have been continuing to learn about harvest, we have been discussing what other food items can be harvested at this time of year such as fruit and vegetables. Miss O'Neill brought in some apples from her granny's apple tree. The children decided that they would like to use some of the apples to print with, so we set up an apple printing activity on the art table. They have also suggested that we make an pie, so watch this space!!

We have also been discussing other items that can be made using flour, the children had a 'meeting' to discuss their ideas and we used recipe books to help us. They then decided they would like to make pizza for snack, it was delicious!!!

We also made some extra dough for the children to 'make' their own pizzas in the home corner, exploring and experiencing kneading the dough etc.

The children have been participating in more mark making activities this week and this week we used flour. The children loved getting messy with the flour and exploring how we can make marks using a variety of items such as cars, trucks, rollers, rulers and paint brushes.

We have been continuing to read the story of The Little Red Hen, but this week we have been retelling the story without using the book. The children have been using puppets and props to retell the story to each other in small and large groups and add their own twists to the story. We then discussed our likes/dislikes about the story the majority of the children commented saying they didn't like the Little Red Hen as she didn't share her bread with her friends.

This week in the nursery we have been learning all about the process of turning wheat into flour. Mrs Watson brought in her mortar and pestle in from home to show us how we can grind the wheat into flour, this has been very exciting to see the process before our very eyes! It takes a lot of hard work, elbow grease and patience!

We have been reading the the story of The Little Red Hen and the children have been sharing their likes/dislikes about the story with the group. We have been doing this through group discussions and drawings.

Miss O'Neill and Mrs Watson have turned into master bakers this week! They have been very busy rustling up a batch of homemade bread with the children. Unfortunately due to the Covid restrictions the children are currently unable to help with the actual baking process. However this experience has still allowed for a lot of valuable learning to take place e.g. 'reading' a recipe, following instructions and weighing and measuring ingredients. Although the children missed out on the experience of kneading the dough for the bread for snack, we have made some bread dough for our play dough table so the children can still have this experience.

At the gluing table we have been getting creative using a variety of materials to make our very own tractor and combine harvester pictures.

This week in nursery we have been learning all about Harvest. The children have contributed to discussions about what we know about harvest time and what we would like to find out , sharing their knowledge, thoughts and ideas. There was a clear interest in finding out about wheat and the process of how it's made into flour.

We used a variety of media to make some wheat printing pictures.

Mrs Murray brought us some sunflower heads from her garden. We have loved exploring and investigating these with our magnifying glasses and learning about how the seeds can be reused. We used tweezers to pick all the sunflower seeds, we will store these and replant them in the spring. This sparked a discussion about other plants that reseed. The children found some dandelions in our garden and had great fun blowing the seeds to see what would happen.

Our maths focus this week has been sorting and matching by different criteria. The children have been working hard to sort out all the coloured pom-poms into the correct coloured groups, we made it extra tricky by using the tweezers to do this, this will help to develop our fine motor skills.

This week in nursery we have been learning about the importance of handwashing. As it is now part of our 'new normal' to be washing our hands thoroughly and more often we have been discussing the reason why and how we can make sure we are washing our hands properly. The children have an incredible understanding of why we need to wash our hands more often and telling staff 'it's because we need to protect ourselves for the virus'.

Miss Forbes and Mrs Padziunas have been showing us some fantastic experiments to show us the reason why. Our first experiment was to look at the importance of soap. We used a bowl of water, some ground pepper and liquid soap. We sprinkled some ground pepper into a bowl of of water, the pepper represented the germs. When we put our finger into the bowl of water all the germs stuck to our finger. We then put another finger into the liquid soap first then into the water/ pepper mixture. The children were amazed to see what happened! All the germs dispersed and your finger was completely free of any germs. This was a great visual to represent the importance of using soap when washing your hands. Why not give it a go at home.

Our second experiment was all about how we know we have washed our hands correctly and completely covered our hands with soap. Miss Forbes and Mrs Padzuinas put on a pair of disposable gloves and used paint to represent the soap. We squirted a small amount of paint onto our hands and rubbed it in just as we would when handwashing. We started by only rubbing it into the palms of our hands and asking the children if our whole hands had been covered in soap. We then demonstrated that we need to ensure that we cover the back of our hands, in between our fingers, round our thumbs and around our wrist until our entire hands have been covered in soap and discussed the importance of rinsing our hands properly and also drying them thoroughly.

We then made some laminated hands and drew on some germs using a white board pen. The children loved washing the hands using their spray bottles and sponges.