Blog
28th June 2022
We have reached the end of the school year! It has been another fantastic year for Maidenhill Nursery Class. For the first time, we have been able to celebrate all of our end of year events without bubbles or restrictions, and we have enjoyed the company of lots of Maidenhill families for many of these.
Our Celebration Lunch
Just as our last blog post was being prepared, the children enjoyed the Celebration Lunch which was provided just prior Jubilee holiday weekend. The ice cream dessert was a particular highlight!
Masks for Gerald the Giraffe
Recently we read Little Giraffe's Big Idea. In the story Gerald the giraffe dresses up to try to fit in with the other animals. We used some felt to make crocodile masks for our own Gerald puppet.
Bookbug Sessions
As part of our home to nursery transitions for children joining Maidenhill Nursery Class in August, we offered some Bookbug sessions. Ahead of the transition sessions, Maria practised some of the songs with our current learners.
Giant Jumps
Outdoor play is always full of fantastic opportunities for moving our bodies in different ways and developing gross motor skills. These children can be seen showing control of their bodies while performing massive jumps.
Movies
As a way of encouraging children to create their own stories, Maria has been working with large groups of learners to create movies. First of all, the children work collaboratively to choose a theme. Then each learner decides what their character will look and act like. The children then work together to work out how the characters interact.
Sports Day
Last week, we had our Nursery Sports Day. The children had spent a long time practising for the games and races and all their efforts definitely paid off. They did so well whilst participating in relay, bean bag and potato and spoon races. They worked well in their teams when collecting the balls and even did some fantastic counting to check how they had done. The children also negotiated the obstacle course well and really gave it their all when chucking wellies.
Our Mad Hatter's Tea Party
Our Mad Hatter's Tea Party was fantastic! The children enjoyed a sandwich, a biscuit and a cake before joining in with party games and dancing. What a lovely way to end the year!
1st June 2022
It is hard to believe that it is June already. June is a particularly busy month in the school year and the same is true in our nursery. Preparations for nursery events are already underway but even with so much happening, there is still plenty of play and learning going on.
Our New Tree
Thanks to all the donations from Crazy Hair Day, we have been able to order new plants. This beautiful new tree is one of our purchases. The children worked hard to plant the tree and have been taking care of it ever since.
Maidenhill Nursery Campsite
Some children in the nursery class have been talking about camping trips they have taken or are going to be taking with their families. Out in our nursery garden, some children have set up camp. There is a tent, an area for cooking and even a hammock.
We Built a Tent Indoors, too.
The addition of an indoor tent has been really popular, too. The children enjoyed helping to build it and now it is rarely empty.
Our Greenhouse
As well as developing an allotment in our garden, the children have had the chance to grow plants from seeds in the "Greenhouse" area of our indoor environment. This has sparked some mark-making, including labels for the plants and drawings of plants. There has also been lots of filling and emptying of plant pots from the compost tray.
Parachute Games
Last week, almost everyone in the nursery joined in with some parachute games. They changed places based on the colour they were holding and acted out different categories underneath the parachute. It was also a good opportunity to talk about favourites such as colour and fruit.
Lapin is Hungry
The professional learning partnership programme involving this bilingual story has now come to an end, but it doesn't seem like the children will be forgetting about Lapin (or the French vocabulary that they have learnt) any time soon. Over the past four weeks many of the children have made their own puppets: Tania, Lapin, Oiseau, Ver or Escargot. They have been able to play with these to retell the story or to create their own story.
Crowns for Kings and Queens
The Jubilee Weekend has sparked quite a bit of discussion in the nursery and some children have been been able to make links to their prior learning about London and Buckingham Palace. One of the experiences that was set up to encourage the children's thinking about the Queen and these celebrations was to make crowns. Look at all these Kings and Queens!
13th May 2022
This month, there is a buzz in the nursery as some learners start thinking about moving on to Primary 1. All learners have been offered the chance to visit some different parts of the school, including the playground, games hall, dining hall and library.
Gymnastics
During their visits to the games hall, the children have been doing some gymnastics. In particular, they have been working on pencil rolls. They have also been developing their ability to balance when moving along a bench and have tried some jumps.
Lapin is Hungry
Our teacher, Sarah-Jane, is currently participating in a professional learning partnership programme with Scotland's National Centre for Languages (SCILT) and Tania Czajka (Author of Lapin is Hungry). The programme gives ideas for introducing French through the story, Lapin is Hungry. The introduction of the book was very exciting for the learners. We have already read the story together many times.
What have the Animals at Edinburgh Zoo been doing?
Since March, we have been accessing the Edinburgh Zoo webcams to check what the animals at the zoo have been doing at various points throughout the day. To build on the work we have been doing on charts, we have worked together to make a pictogram to record the animals' actions. Some learners are able to interpret the data and explain how many times we have seen the panda or koala perform a certain action.
Biscuits and Muffins and Cakes...Oh my!
Our CDOs, Claire and Maria, will be ready to write a book about baking with children in no time. The children have had the chance to bake even more delicious treats, in the last few weeks.
Wonderful Weaving
Some children have been developing the fiddly, footery skill of weaving. It is an excellent way for our young learners to develop their fine motor skills. Weaving is offered on different scales to ensure that there is an appropriate level of challenge offered to the learners. The variation also adds to the novelty and fun.
29th April 2022
After their spring break, the learners returned to nursery full of energy. Many of them shared stories of decorating or hunting for eggs and eating lots of chocolate! The pleasant weather has meant that many learners have been spending large parts of their days outside.
Raft Building
After reading Peter Rabbit's Secret Mission, some learners were eager to build their own squirrel raft. This play experience involved some weaving (to sort out the messy rope), threading and searching for perfectly sized sticks.
Waterfalls
For some learners, there is currently nothing more exciting than waterfalls. They have been exploring how to make their own waterfalls by digging and using hills and the water play equipment.
Our Allotment
Many learners have worked together to pot the plants for our new allotment. They have used real tools to make labels for the pots and trowels to fill the pots with compost. There has been plenty to discussion about caring for the plants, too.
Minibeasts Galore!
The bugs that can be found in the nursery garden (and even sometimes in the nursery) have really piqued the learners' interest. The children have been examining bugs inside viewing tubs, hunting for worms, representing different scenarios in bug-filled small world play and drawing their own bugs.
Flowers
Minibeasts aren't the only garden dwellers that have made their way into the nursery from outside, many flowers have also been brightening up our creative area. Children have been inspired to draw their own flowers and to create flower models.
Charts, charts and more charts
The children were introduced to the idea of making charts to display information about our friends in our nursery class. So far, we have made a pictogram to show our favourite farm animals, a chart to show our favourite sweets and another to show our favourite fairy tale.
From Charts to Dragons
Once we had used the fairy tale characters to make our chart, it was clear that the children wanted to use them to make and reenact stories. At times, we have worked together in groups to retell the story "There is No Dragon in this Story." Other times, children have used them independently to play out scenarios of their own.
Ramadan and Eid
The children have had opportunities to learn about the holy month of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid. We have read stories to help us learn what Muslim people do during these special times and have made Eid cards.
