Marilyn Li – Page 5

5th October 2016

Rabbits & Foxes News September 2016

Rabbits and Foxes News September 2016

A big welcome to Aisling this month – Aisling is our Rabbits teacher and is taking over the oldest Rabbits as her key children and the Literacy and Numeracy section of our planning.

Happy birthday to Zander who is now 3!

This month on the ground floor we have been focusing on learning about ourselves. We have been doing various different activities that helped us to learn more about our bodies. All the Rabbits learned about some of their organs and their functions, before then using a diagram to stick the organs in the correct place on our skeleton in the Busy Bug room.

We have also been learning a lot about the importance of healthy eating and making sure that we have been drinking enough water. We then participated in an activity where we created our own ‘Eat Well’ plates. We have learned about the appropriate amount of food that we should be eating and a bit about having their 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

There has been some discussion on different types of families and the children had a turn of drawing their own families in our floor book, which they really enjoyed – they certainly love talking about their mummies, daddies and any siblings that they may have!

Aisling has introduced a ‘Sound Monster’ into our Flower Room which just loves to eat things that start with our letter of the week. The children have been searching high and low for items that started with the right letter and sound to feed him with!

We have also been learning how to measure various items and comparing their size. We have been discussing things that are big or small and using a ruler to measure animals on a worksheet.

We have been really been enjoying our Forest School session at Blackford Pond – so far we have done lots of exploring of the different paths up there and have gotten really really muddy most days! We have gone right up the Observatory where we found a nice wooded area and were able to build a tree swing and a den! Unfortunately the weather was a bit rubbish one day so we weren’t able to go out, but we went to Clambers instead where we did lots of climbing, running and jumping. It was a lot of fun! We have also been enjoying our Care Home visits every second Wednesday, it is always really nice to spend time with the residents and participate in arts and crafts with them.

The Foxes have been very busy doing some Autumn themed activities. They started with a small trip to the Meadows to collect some leaves which they then decorated with paint and glitter for our Seasons display in the Garden Room. They have also been making their own hedgehogs! The Foxes have also really been enjoying the various messy items that they have – including jelly, ice, paint, shaving foam, Gluck and water. They have also had lots of energetic play in the garden with bikes and balls!

5th October 2016

Hedgehogs News September 2016

Hedgehogs News September 2016

We would all like to wish Happy Birthday to Julek and Krishna who have turned 1 and Isabella who has turned 2 this month!

Tree Room

In the Tree Room this month our main focus and the children’s interest has been role play and dressing up. We changed our dressing up area to Doctors which the children have all enjoyed, dressing up as doctors and playing doctors with their friends. The older Hedgehogs have been doing a range of table top activities such as puzzles, sorting eggs, sorting games and magnetic letter and numbers. These activities help the children develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Bird Room

In the Bird Room our younger Hedgehogs have been using crayons and chalk to mark-make on paper and chalk boards. We have also enjoyed exploring our sensory baskets. Favourite this month has been the shakers and musical instruments making lots of different sounds.

Animal Room

We have had fun and messy activities this month. We have been doing lots of mark-making on the white board using coloured pens attached to cars, rolling the cars to make different shapes and patterns. We have also been exploring lots of natural resources in the texture tray exploring textures such as leaves, grass, pine cones, shells and sticks. The children have also used the grass and leaves with glue, sticking them down to create their own pictures.

Garden

The Hedgehogs have enjoyed using paint brushes and water pretending to paint the walls and toys of the garden, making different shapes and patterns. We have also had fun using the bikes and buggies this month.

5th October 2016

Nursery News September 2016 Millerfield Place

Nursery News September 2016

Door Security

We would like to ask parents to please be mindful of letting people into the building. On a few occasions, delivery men have gained access to the nursery by parents holding the door open for them. If you do notice somebody behind you trying to gain access to the building, we would be grateful if you could let a staff member know so we can greet them at the door.

This safety measure is to ensure that our children and staff are kept safe at all times.

Outdoor Clothing

Could we please ask that children come to nursery with suitable outdoor clothing including wellies and waterproofs if possible. We have our garden open in all weathers and have a limited supply of spare wellies and waterproofs.

Policy of the month

Our policy of the month for October will be Behaviour Management & Promoting positive behaviour. We believe in promoting positive behaviour in young children by setting clear limits, praising and rewarding good behaviour, adopting a consistent approach and demonstrating a calm and clear response to inappropriate behaviour. Some of you may be aware that we have our ‘Kindness tree’ on the ground floor which we use for promoting positive behaviour. Children receive a leaf on the tree for acts of kindness and once they have collected 5 leaves they get to choose a prize such as getting to take their favourite toy home from nursery for the night. This has been working really well and the children have enjoyed helping to count the leaves on the tree at together times.

Lunch Provision

We are now receiving feedback on the lunch trial which concluded on Friday 30 September. The outcome of the consultation will be communicated to parents by Friday 7 October.

Parent Involvement

The Rabbits & Foxes really enjoyed having Remi’s dad Alfredo coming in to talk to us about his hobby tennis! Remi was great with the kids, showing them his tennis bag and equipment and showing them how to bounce the tennis balls etc. Please let us know if you would like to come in to spend time with either the Hedgehogs or Foxes & Rabbits, for example, to share your hobbies/ interests or to read the children a book (this could even be done in another language!)

Outdoor Learning in the Community

We have spent some time over at the Meadows this month to gather leaves and natural materials for our displays and messy play. The Foxes spent lots of time choosing their leaves to paint and had lots of fun getting messy with the paint and glue!

Forest Schools has been going really well. The children have been taking lots of surveys of the environment and recording their findings using block charts. They have also been having lots of fun climbing up the muddy hill and making role play BBQs with the sticks they collected. Our new block of Forest Schools will commence on Monday 31^st October.

Music

We are happy to announce that Lizzie, who is studying music at university, will be returning to providing music sessions with her guitar for all the children at the nursery. Lizzie will be coming in twice a week and will spend time singing with the Hedgehogs on the middle floor as well as singing with the Foxes & Rabbits on the ground floor. Amongst other songs, Lizzie will sing our ‘Song of the Week’ to the children and will come in on a Monday & Friday morning at 10am.

Staff

We would like to say a big Congratulations to Sam who gave birth to baby Harry on 2 September. Both Sam and Harry are doing really well and have already been in to visit us!

We would like to Welcome Ash to Meadows Nursery. Ash is a fully qualified teacher and will be working on the ground floor with the Rabbits.

Sadly we are saying goodbye to Kadie & Chantelle. Kadie is moving to London to be closer to her family and Chantelle is moving on to work as a teacher with Edinburgh Council.

Diary Dates

The Rabbits & Foxes will be having a visit from Zoolab on Monday 24 October.

Our Halloween tea party will be on Friday 28 October. All children & siblings are welcome!

1st September 2016

Nursery News August 2016 Millerfield Place

Nursery News August 2016

Doodle Poll

Thank you to all parents who took part in our Doodle poll to help establish a date for our next parent forum. The most popular date is Tuesday 6 September at 6pm. A sign-up sheet is displayed in the front hall for anyone who wishes to attend.

Managing Allergies in Nursery

Thank you to parents for cooperating with our nut allergy policy and, as far as is possible, for ensuring that your child’s lunch is nut free. Can we also ask that, when providing a birthday cake, or bringing in any other edible treats, that they are ideally “shop-bought” so that we can clearly see the ingredients and allergens. Should you wish to bring something homemade in to nursery, can we ask you please to provide a written list of ingredients.

Policy of the Month

Our policy of the month for September is Additional Support for Learning. Some children may require additional support at some point in their lives, or may have a long term additional support need, and Meadows will work alongside parents to support in line with the GIRFEC approach. Our Additional Support for learning co-ordinator is Kadie.

Lunch Provision

The Meadows at Pilrig kitchen has now been upgraded and we are currently planning the trial provision of lunch at Millerfield Place. We currently expect this to start in the week commencing 19 September or possibly 26 September. We thought it best to trial one floor at a time, so the first week will be the ground floor, followed by the middle floor the second week. Caroline, our nursery cook at Meadows at Pilrig, will be cooking a two course lunch which will be transported across in time for our usual lunchtime at 12 noon. The menu, which we will be emailing to you in advance of the trial, is on a 2 week rotation and generally consists of a soup & main course. Caroline has stressed that it can take time for the children to get used to the new arrangements and we can expect some children to sometimes refuse to eat some of the new lunch. However, we can expect an excellent high take up in due course as there is at Pilrig! We’d like to extend an invitation to all parents to join us for lunch any day (or days) over the 2 week trial period. Please just let us know whether you would like to come and we will update everyone on timings and detailed arrangements in due course.

Outdoor Learning in the Community

Now that the Festival is over and everywhere is much less busy, we plan to resume our usual programme of trips. Our nursery is very well placed to access all of the fantastic local attractions and trips out are enjoyed by both the children and adults. If you ever have a spare morning or afternoon to help out with trips then we’d love to have you along! Our usual weekly outdoor learning programme is as follows:

Mondays: Swingpark / Meadows ( mainly younger children) or museum (mixed ages)
Tuesdays: Children’s Library trip to George IV bridge (mixed ages in groups of 8)
Wednesdays: Glencairn Care Home (mixed ages, group of same 6 children for 6 consecutive weeks)
Thursdays: Forest Schools (Blackford Pond or Johnston Terrace Wildlife Garden). Same 8 children for 6 consecutive weeks.
Fridays: Tennis with Alex Harkins alongside the senior pupils of Sciennes Primary.

We also have weekly trips to the fruit shop as well as generally monthly trips to Clambers, at the RCP, and Mini Zoomers at Summerhall for mixed ages.

Staff

We have recently made some changes to our staffing.

Louise has led the middle floor for some time but is now working part-time so she has recently handed over the reins to Katie. Louise will continue to support Katie along with Chantelle, Carolann, Garazi & Irene.

Amy has asked to work from 9:30-4:30 Monday to Friday and will mostly be on the ground floor.

Keyworker groups will be updated shortly and parents will be notified of who their child’s keyworker will be.

Staff CPD

All the staff will be attending a refresher course on fire safety this month. Kathleen will also be attending a full day child protection course and Nadia will be attending a training course to learn more about ‘Building the Ambition’ curriculum which we use to plan for the 2 year olds on the ground floor.

Diary Dates

Our parent forum will be held on Tuesday 6 September at 6pm.

1st September 20161st September 2016

Rabbits & Foxes News August 2016

Rabbits and Foxes News August 2016

The Foxes and Rabbits have been very busy this month! We have been lucky to have such brilliant weather for the majority of the month, so we have been focusing on water play out in the garden. We used pipes, stands, trays and other objects that we found around the garden to build different types of runs to make streams and waterfalls going into several different water trays! Some of the Rabbits enjoyed discovering how much water we would have to pour down the tubes in order to make different sizes of boats flow down the stream of water. We also had lots of messy play out in the garden including shaving foam, paint, rice and different types of pasta which we love mixing up with the sand and water in our Mud Kitchen unit.
This month we have been focusing on ‘Summer’. The Rabbits have been taking a record of who has been on a summer holiday and which type of transport they used – we then turned these records into bar charts, once in the garden using different coloured blocks and chalk! The Rabbits have also been making some postcards that are being sent off to the Meadows at Pilrig Nursery. We created our own pictures and envelopes for them and then wrote a message on the back for our friends to read once they are posted. We can’t wait for the children at Pilrig to receive them!

We have also been enjoying playing with a programmable toy robot called Bee-Bot. The children all created a grid for Bee-Bot using pictures of summer trips that the children created; we then programmed Bee-Bot to move around the grid so that he could enjoy as many trips as we do in the summer time. Both the Rabbits and Foxes then enjoyed having Bee-Bot races as well as asking Bee-Bot to move from one child to another – everyone was giggling away as the Bee-Bots carried out their instructions!

This month we have also been going to the Care Home, which has been so much fun as usual! We have been crafting lots of different things including paper aeroplanes (which we flew out in their garden), some beautiful paper flowers as well as some lovely pictures of us to leave for the residents to enjoy. We have also been on several trips out to the park where we have been working together to help our friends on the swings and roundabout. We also had some races one day – this was so much fun!

1st September 20161st September 2016

Rabbits & Foxes News August 2016

Rabbits and Foxes News August 2016

1st September 20161st September 2016

Hedgehogs News August 2016

Hedgehogs News August 2016

We would like to give a big welcome to William, Krishna, Emma and Rafi who have all joined the Hedgehogs this month.

Tree Room

In the Tree Room the children’s interest have been exploring and sorting puzzles. Animal puzzles have been the children’s favourite. The children have been matching the animals together, naming the animals and making the sounds of the animals. This helps the children to develop their fine motor skills and to learn animal names and sounds through this activity. The children have also shown interest in stories and enjoy looking through and listening to different stories at story/song time. Some of our older Hedgehogs enjoy having some quiet time sitting in the story corner looking through books.

Bird Room

We have lots of new toys for the children to explore in our cosy natural Bird Room. The younger children have enjoyed exploring lots of sensory baskets such as pine cones, willow balls, wooden pegs, materials, textured sponges and many more.

Animal Room

The children have been doing lots of fun messy play this month, using a range of glue/paint materials for the children to explore and create their own pictures for our display. Some of the children preferred to use their hands and fingers in the paint to explore the texture and made lots of patterns on the paper. The children showed an interest in animals this month so we made our very own safari to explore. We did this by using the large texture tray with sand and lots of wild animals. The younger children enjoyed sitting in the large tray to explore the sand and animals with their hands and feet.

Garden

The children have been interested in water play out in the garden this month exploring coloured and soapy water with their hands and using a range of toys such as jugs, cups, boats and fish to play in the water with. We have also been using the small and large crates in the garden. The children have enjoyed sitting in the crates and doing lots of singing and actions such as ‘Row Row Row your Boat’ and ‘Wheels on the Bus’ which have been the two most favourite songs this month.

3rd August 2016

Hedgehogs News July 2016

Hedgehogs News July 2016

We would all like to welcome Julek and Chunyi who have both started with the Hedgehogs this month!

We would also like to wish Happy Birthday to Myles who has turned 2 this month.

The Hedgehogs have enjoyed a range of fun activities in the play rooms and also in the garden, enjoying the sunshine!

Tree Room & Bird Room

This month in the Tree room the children’s main interests have been role-playing with puppets and making a puppet show. The children have also been ‘transporting’ items from one object to another, opening and closing boxes and tubs, which helps to develop their fine-motor skills.

We have also had fun exploring with the dinosaurs and making lots of dinosaur noises!

Animal Room

The Hedgehogs have enjoyed lots of messy play activities, using paint and gluing materials to make pictures for our display board. We have also loved splashing in the water tray with a range of utensils such as bowls, spoons and whisks to mix the water and make bubbles!

Garden Play

We have been making the most of the lovely sunshine and getting lots of time outside. The children have been exploring with the water trays out in the garden, splashing and sitting in the water and playing with the balls and water toys. We have also been on trips to Meadows Park. The children have been developing their gross motor skills by climbing up the big steps to the slide and also running around on the big grass area.

3rd August 20163rd August 2016

Rabbits & Foxes News July 2016

Rabbits and Foxes News July 2016

This month the Rabbits and Foxes have been enjoying the sun, spending a lot of time out in the garden and also on trips to the park, library and the museum. In the garden, the children have been doing a lot of running, climbing and jumping. They have been really good at taking turns and helping each other when something becomes a little bit tricky.

We have also been really lucky as we have had two awesome new balance bikes donated to us by The Bike Station. The children have loved the bikes and, to make the best use of them, we even made an obstacle course in the garden. The children designed the obstacle course themselves and set it up with a little help from the teachers. They said their favourite part was the racing as they got to cheer on their friends from the side.

We have also been learning the letters in our name, using lots of building blocks with the letters of the alphabet. The children had to find all the letters in their name and then put the letters in the correct order to spell their name and build a tower. All of the children were very good at this and only needed a little help from the teachers. At the end, some children had really tall towers and some had smaller ones, so we then counted the bricks to find out how many letters each child had in their name.

Finally, at the end of the month, something really exciting happened. One morning, it got very dark outside and we could hear thunder. All the children ran to the window in the Flower room to have a look outside. They said that it started to rain really hard and then they saw a flash of lightning which caused squeals of excitement from the kids. We sat down and explained that, if you are quiet and listen, you will hear thunder and once you hear it, you have to start counting until you see the lightning and this tells us how far away the thunder and lightning storm is. The children did really well at counting and we found out that the storm was a few miles away!

2nd August 20162nd August 2016

Nursery News July 2016 Millerfield Place

Nursery News July 2016

Doodle Poll

We have recently set up a doodle poll for our next parent forum date & time. We would appreciate parent’s input to allow us to choose a date that allows more people to attend in future.

Balance Bike Project

We were delighted to receive 2 balance bikes from The Bike Station Edinburgh as part of their Balance Bike Project. The project aims to provide nurseries in Edinburgh with balance bikes to encourage more children to use bikes. We have had lots of fun riding our new bikes and have been setting up circuits to cycle round, as well as having lots of discussions about the benefits of cycling and exercise.

Handovers

We would like to respectfully ask parents to arrive at nursery by 5:50pm so that parents can receive a handover and allow staff to leave the nursery at 6pm.

Out & About

We have been spending time over at the Meadows park this month. The Rabbits, Foxes & older Hedgehogs have been having great fun climbing on the climbing frame and taking turns on the roundabout! Our younger Hedgehogs have been enjoying the swings as well as walks around the Meadows in the buggies.

We are looking forward to our next block of forest schools and care home visits as well as tennis starting up again after the holidays.

Children & Activities

We have had lots of water play this month to help cool us off on the hotter days! The Rabbits and Foxes have been using spray bottles with water to make patterns on the ground as well as brushes and water to mark-make in the garden!

We have also been learning about days of the week and seasons through our floor book planning and daily activities. We have been using our magnetic calendar at Together Time to discuss days, months, weather and seasons.

The Hedgehogs have been exploring ice & water this month, both indoors and in the garden. We have had lots of fun exploring the different shaped and coloured ice and loved to mix it around in the water and sand trays.

We are looking forward to the new term of Boogie Beat & Tatty Bumpkins starting after the holidays.

Staff

We will sadly be saying goodbye to Sam in August as she is heading off on maternity leave. We will all miss Sam lots, however, Sam will be returning next year along with her little one.

We will also be saying goodbye to Amy M who is leaving to work closer to home. Amy has worked at Meadows for 2 years and we would like to thank her for all her efforts over her time with us.

Staff CPD

All the staff will be attending a course on Curriculum for Excellence this month. We also had a visit from Kirsty Dobson from Edinburgh Council to discuss the Technologies area of the curriculum. We are looking forward to implementing lots of new ideas over the next few planning blocks.

Diary Dates

We will be holding a tea party on Friday 5 August from 2:30-4:30pm. Everyone is welcome!