Monthly Archives: January 2021

Children’s Mental Health Week

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Good Morning!  Today is the start of a new week and a new month, today is the 1st of February and the beginning of ‘Children’s Mental Health week’.

We try very hard in nursery to boost children’s wellbeing from helping the children build resilience, the positive relationships that have been built and the access to outdoor play!  We understand that children, like adults have good days and a bad day now and then, this is one of the reasons we keep in touch with you all to see if there is anything we can do to support your children.

Remember these are difficult times for everyone, including your children.

This is a powerful and very helpful poster, with such a strong message that it is OK not to be ok.

Here is an E-book produced by the Scottish government you can read with your children, the story is, “There’s a Spider in My Hair”.  The book was written for children aged 3 to 5 and will help parents and carers explore with their children who they can turn to for help.  This book is also a good starting block to discuss feelings.

CIS-Book-LowResAW-JUN19-2

 

Hopping Mad

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Good morning boys and girls,

This Friday Mrs Donnelly has read you all a story called “Hopping Mad”, we hope you all enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/505705241

More scottish activity ideas

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To continue with our Scottish theme this week here are some ideas that support emerging numeracy & literacy skills .
I wonder if some of you enjoyed a traditional burns supper ? Did you eat haggis, neeps and tatties on Monday after reading our post about it being Robert Burns birthday?
How about baking some shortbread ( a traditional Scottish biscuit )
Follow the simple recipe below .
Shortbread recipe
Ingredients

  1. Put the flour and butter into a mixing bowl and rub together with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the vanilla & sugar .

  2. Squeeze the mixture into a ball with your hands. Sprinkle a work surface with flour and roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness.

  3. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out shapes and place on the baking tray. Re-roll any leftover dough to make more biscuits.

  4. Bake the biscuits for 12-15 minutes or until pale golden-brown.

This baking activity gives lots of opportunity to weigh and measure ingredients using scales and other measuring tools with a grown up supervising.

Can you  follow the instructions to weigh out the ingredients ? How about timing how long the shortbread will take to cook? Watch the clock to keep a eye on the time.

If you make some yummy shortbread please share some photographs with us.

 

 

Tartan pictures
I wonder if  you know what tartan is?
Tartan is a traditional Scottish pattern and usually seen on kilts.
Maybe you have worn a kilt or seen someone in your family wear a kilt to a special occasion such as a wedding or party.
Have a look at the tartan below .
Takla Makan Tartan | Venetian Red Art Blog
Can you make your own tartan picture?
All you need is some pens, chalk, crayons or paint and paper .
Experiment making symmetrical patterns using lines and crossing them over .
Share your creations with us.
Scottish rhymes and songs
If you were in nursery this week we would be enjoying listening to a selection of Scottish stories, rhymes and songs.
Here are two of our favourites.
Try learning the words to – Three craws
https://youtu.be/Ckhyx9QCMpo
Do you recognise any of the Scottish words and know what they mean?
Can you join in the rhyme using your fingers to represent the number of craws, counting down as they fall?
Can you practice counting up to 3? Or how about counting up to 5 or even 10 or more?
Our all time favourite that we sing all year round in the nursery is – You cannae shove your Granny off the bus. This is such an upbeat song even our quieter children love dancing and singing along at the top of their voice. Get your grown ups singing and dancing along with you.
Have fun and remember to share your learning with us.
We love to hear what you have all been up to, as we miss you all very much.

The Smartest Giant in Town

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Good Morning everyone!

This week our story of the week is “The Smartest Giant in Town” by Julia Donaldson. Please click on the link below to access the story and some great ideas for learning experiences. If you complete any of the tasks we would love to see your photos! Maybe you could send them to your keyworker or post them on our nursery Twitter!

Giant in Town Final1(002)

Homemade play dough

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Good Morning, 

who would like to try making their own play dough?

All children at nursery love working at our play dough station. This provides endless sensory fun and allows children to explore different sizes, shapes, patterns and promotes imaginative play. 

All you need is-

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of flour
  • 2 tsp cream of tartar 
  • 1/2 cup of salt 
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil 
  • 1 cup of water 
  • food colouring 

Method 


1. In a large bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients (flour, salt, cream of tartar) and mix well.

2. Mix food coloring with your water first. Then add the vegetable oil and water with food coloring to a large pot. Mix together. (Food colouring is optional). 

3. Add the dry ingredients to your pot and mix well.

4. Cool over a low heat until the dough starts to form and becomes dry.

 

5. Once it starts to form a ball together and looks fully cooked, take it off the heat. Let the dough cool first before touching. 

6. Once cool, knead the dough for 5 minutes to make the dough soft. 

Children also enjoy adding different scents to the play dough or textures for example glitters, seeds etc.

 

You can also follow the above recipe for a no cook play dough recipe using a large bowl missing out the cream of tartar and mix with cold water.

 

I hope you all have a great day today.

 

From everyone at nursery ☺️

 

 

 

Burns Night

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Good Morning!  We are at the start of a new week, but today is a special Monday, today is the day we remember a very famous Scottish poet called Robert Burns.  

Born in Scotland more than 200 years ago, Robert burns is no longer with us but many people still enjoy his poems.  

Sometimes in nursery on this day you can choose to wear something tartan but you can do this at home if you like.  We might have had a special snack or lunch in nursery having haggis, neeps and tatties which is traditional Scottish food, but not this year because most of us have to stay safe at home.  If you have this for your dinner this week why don’t you share a picture with us?  Remember to let us know what you thought about it to!

‘Bookbugs Scotland’ and ‘Visit Scotland’ have put together a pack of activities you and your grown up could have a look at and more information about Robert Burns.  There are art activities and opportunities for your grown up to read you one of the poems. 

Copy and paste this link in your browser.

http://static.visitscotland.com/pdf/rabbie-for-kids.pdf  

 

The weather is still very cold!!  It was finally cold enough for our ice block sculpture to go completely hard and frozen in my garden!  My children were so excited and we posted a photo on the twitter page with the amazing ice sculptures the boys and girls going into nursery made! Today would be the perfect day to make one as the temperature is going to be below 0 which means its very very cold and the water will freeze. 

Ice painting

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Wow more snow! Hope everyone has been enjoying getting out in the snow. As the snow is continuing to fall and the temperature is very cold why not try some simple sensory activities using ice at home (or in the garden).

You could try making your own ice paints. See instructions and all the items you will need to try this activity in the picture below. If you do not have lollipop sticks you could always use cotton buds.

Or how about painting on ice. Watch the video link to to find out what you need and how to do this fun activity using blocks of ice you have made in the freezer or ice you can find outside.

Both these activities are sensory rich experiences for your child , developing early literacy and numeracy skills. Take the opportunity to explore mark making (text, lines, patterns) , colour recognition, mixing  & making new colours, discuss how the ice froze, or what might happen next to the ice.

So much fun and so many learning opportunities.

The boys and girls in the nursery hope to try out these activities too, look out for our photographs on twitter this week.

Remember to share any learning with us  – by email or tweeting.

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