Posted on

Rabbits & Foxes News March 2016

Rabbits and Foxes News March 2016

image3Literacy

We have been practicing writing our names this month! Some of the Rabbits were already very confident at writing their names, but some were a little unsure. After lots of practice, we have increased our confidence and the clarity or our writing is much better. The Foxes are starting to write their names too, with some of them being able to now write some of the letters in their names. We have also continued with our Letter of the Week this month, getting through letters b, c and d. The children were very good at going around the nursery and finding things beginning with certain letters.

Numeracy

We have been looking at our daily routines within nursery; what we do in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. We spoke about when we brush our teeth, when we eat breakfast and dinner and other daily activities. Most of the children were able to tell us what they did in the morning and evenings, and we also very briefly introduced time and the hands of the clock. We continued on with this idea of routine and created a bar chart to observe if the children knew what days they came into nursery. This proved a bit tricky but we counted up how many children we had in each day and were able to work out the busiest and quietest day in nursery.

image1Health and Wellbeing

As our topic was All About Me this month, we discussed our bodies and how they work. We drew around one of the children and then started to add in our body parts and talk about what we use them for. The children really liked this activity and joined in well, asking lots of questions! We also had discussions about privacy and why we need some privacy at certain times. For example, we made a mind map of how to give someone privacy when they are at the toilet.

Social Studies

We decided it would be a good opportunity to use our topic to discuss our feelings and how our actions can affect others. We had lots of group discussions about how we can make people feel happy and we can make them feel sad. We encouraged gentle hands and listening ears as this would make everyone very happy. We made our own little emotion sticks using straws and circular paper where the children could draw an emotion onto them. We reminded the children about using their manners such as saying please and thank you, and everyone in the nursery has noticed a big difference in the children’s manners, so well done guys!

Trips and Other Info

We have been carrying on with our Forest Schools and Care Home trips, with the first block coming to an end this month. Our Forest Schools will start up again soon but our Care Home trips have already resumed with a new group of children going this time. We have also been visiting the library every Thursday and we all get to pick out books to bring back to nursery. The library has commented that we are one of the only nurseries they trust to keep their books in good condition! We also had a trip to the museum and to the zoo this month which was lots of fun and everyone was very tired afterwards! We also want to say welcome to our two news friend who joined us, Nuala and Gigi, who have both settled into Meadows really well!

Posted on

Nursery News March 2016 Millerfield Place

Nursery News March 2016

With Spring well underway, we are hoping to soon dispense with our hats, gloves and scarves and replace them with sunhats! Thank you to parents for labeling these items and for your patience & understanding when belongings are misplaced. It can be a challenge keeping track of them all!

Could parents please bring in a labeled sun hat for their child and sun cream if you’re opting not to use the nursery suncream. All parents should now have signed our new suncream & nappy cream consent forms which require re-signing every 6 months.

With the better weather, the children will end the day out in the garden more often and there may not always be staff in the Tree Room to answer the buzzer. We are aware of this and will ensure that Flower Room staff man the buzzer at the end of the day. Please, however let us know if you are having to wait to enter the nursery.

Out & About!

All who went to Edinburgh Zoo had a great time. Thank you to the parents (& grandparents) who accompanied us. The weather held out for us and we all enjoyed the bus trip there & back.

Our next Forest Schools block is to Johnston Terrace Wildlife Garden and will begin on Monday 11 April for 6 weeks. We are including all the children leaving for school in this group plus the next 6 oldest children. It’s always a lovely walk to the garden through the Meadows, passed Greyfriar’s Bobby and on to the Grassmarket.

Our regular visits to Glencairn care home continue & we welcomed some of the residents to the nursery recently for a sing song and some tea! We plan to continue with our Tuesday slot until all the Tuesday children have had a chance to visit the care home and then move it to a different day.

Our trips to the library on George 1V Bridge and Museum will resume after the Easter holidays when it is generally less busy. In the meantime we’ve been getting out to the Meadows park on a regular basis.

Children & Activities

Our new children, who started recently, are settling in well and it’s good for us to provide opportunities for siblings to play together. We also try to structure our day so that children of different ages can play together as there is a lot to be gained from this. Kiera and Misha start this month on the middle floor and we look forward to making them welcome.

Our next theme in the nursery is Our Community and we’d welcome any parent who works in the local community to speak with the older children about what they do. We plan to arrange visits from community police, fire fighters, rangers etc.

Staff

As you know, Samantha has moved on from Meadows Nursery and we’d like to thank her for all her efforts at the nursery and wish her all the best.

Rebecca has started on the ground floor working with the older children and is also mum to Kiera. Please say hello to Rebecca if you have not already been introduced.

Diary Dates

We were pleased to see a number of parents at our parents evening this Thursday 7 April and again hope to see as many parents as possible on Thursday 5 May for our Topic Session “A Typical Day”.

Our Parent Forum is on Monday 23 May at 6.30pm.

 

Posted on

Nursery News February 2016 Millerfield Place

Nursery News February 2016

February has been a very fun and busy month for Meadows Nursery with visits to the library, park, days out for Forest Schools and our popular care home visits continuing.

Outdoor Learning and Trips

Library: A small group of Foxes and Rabbits has been making a weekly trip to the George IV Bridge Children’s Library for the last few months. This has proven to be a popular outing and the children enjoy bringing back their library books for their quiet time. This trip starts around 10.30 every Thursday and parents are very welcome to meet us there.

Forest Schools: The children have been taking their learning goals outside with this current Forest Schools block and we are looking at how we can link Numeracy, Literacy and Health and Wellbeing to the outdoors. We have looked at patterns outside, collected sticks to put them into order and written our names in the ground. We also get lots of fantastic exercise and become more aware of the word around us.

Care home visits: We have had a great time with our Care home visits for this block. On pancake Tuesday, the residents and children got to decorate their own pancakes to eat for their snack. They have also been making friendship bracelets and necklaces and enjoying some puzzles too!

Other outings: We have also recently been managing to take a small group out on a Wednesday and Friday of each week too, usually consists of 4 babies and 2 older children. We have managed to have an outing a day for February!

CPD

The month of February has brought staff training from Edinburgh Council, with our language boost workshop focusing on comprehension and expression of spoken language in meaningful contexts. Nursery staff target key vocabulary and age-appropriate language within everyday nursery activities and use 4 simple strategies to acknowledge and extend children’s communication attempts and to support their comprehension and social interaction.

Claire has attended Up, up and away training during February and Samantha attended the Council’s pre-birth to three conference.

Diary Dates

Diary dates for 2016 have been emailed to parents and carers and are displayed in the main foyer. We hope that you can make the various events noted, in particular can you please note that the Christmas party has been changed to Thursday 15 December 2016 so that we could book Tricky Ricky.

Our Rabbits children will head to Edinburgh Zoo on Thursday 24 March for their annual Spring trip. Parents have been emailed the details of this exciting outing. Please let us know if you are available to be a parent helper on this day.

Children and parents

A big welcome to Leo, Sophia, Joachim and Matilda all joining the Meadows team this month! Everyone has all settled in really well and have been making some great bonds with their keyworkers and other children.

Sadly, we say goodbye to Loueï and his family in early March. Loueï has been with the nursery since he was a very small baby and we have watched him grow and develop into a confident and caring little boy, who loves to help and play with his best friend Alex. He will be missed by us all and we wish you all the best in your new life abroad.

March will see the start of our Children’s Committee. We will feedback the minutes of our meeting to you once this has taken place.

Activities

The preschool children are learning ‘ALL ABOUT ME’ for their current topic – thanks to all who have emailed/brought in pictures to help us with this topic. We will be focusing on our daily routines, with the children learning about themselves and their families and how, even though we are different, we are all the same and equal.

The middle floor children have been enjoying lots of role play and also welcoming their new friends into the nursery. The children have also enjoyed lots of trips to the Meadows and the parks. March will focus on transition into the nursery and supporting the babies’ individual next steps.

Staffing

Rebecca Blakey will join our staffing team in April. Rebecca has many years of experience and will also be bringing her daughter to join our team of little helpers.

 

Posted on

Hedgehogs News February 2016

Hedgehogs News February 2016

We would like to welcome Matilda, Leo, Joachim and Sophie who have started with the Hedgehogs this month.

A big Happy Birthday to Siardus, Fionn and Lara who are all 2 this month.

Role Play

IMG_7772The Hedgehogs have enjoyed a range of role play activities this month. We have rearranged the home corner to a wider and more spacious area for the children to enjoy more role play in a bigger opened space. The Hedgehogs have enjoyed having a ‘picnic’ with their friends around the table in the home corner making cups of tea and having yummy food! We have been showing love and care towards the babies, taking them for walks in buggies, giving cuddles and dressing the babies with clothes & hats all of which is great imaginative role play.

Messy Play

IMG_7491We have enjoyed a range of fun and exciting messy play activities and getting our hands very messy! The Hedgehogs have been exploring paint using objects to make different shapes and prints. We have balls and cars in the paint to roll around the paper making lots of different prints. Some of the children enjoyed just using their hands to make prints, exploring the different textures on their hands.

We also had role play in the messy area with babies in the big texture tubs. The children used soapy water with sponges and cloths to wash the babies and splash in the water.

The children have been getting involved in making play-dough every day, helping to pour and mix all the ingredients together and choosing colours and scents to make scented play-dough. We have been using natural objects in the playdough such as sticks, pinecones, stones and shells to explore with the play-dough.

Outdoor Play

We have been making the most of dry days and having lots of outdoor play. The Hedgehogs have loved playing on our new small ride-on bikes around the garden. We have also been getting out on trips including a walk around the Meadows or a trip to the park to enjoy the space to run around and explore.

IMG_7980

IMG_7768

 

Posted on

Rabbits & Foxes News February 2016

Rabbits and Foxes News February 2016

February has been a very fun and exciting month for everyone at Nursery. We have been learning a lot and have been having loads of fun too.

We would like to wish Megan, Zoe and Sophia a very big Happy 4th Birthday!

image1Scotland Topic

Our Scotland topic has kept us very busy. We learned about Robert Burns, that he was a poet and where he came from. We celebrated Burns Day by having delicious haggis for our snack. We spoke about living in Edinburgh and what things we like do here. We also filled our topic box with ‘Scottish things’ such as Irn-Bru, Haggis, Shortbread, Oats, Scottish slang books, and various other bits and pieces that we enjoyed looking through.

imaged4‘All about me’

After a week of close observations on the children’s interests we have decided that our new topic is going to be ‘All about me’. The children have been playing ‘mums and dads’. A few children have recently become or soon will be big brothers and sisters and are also very interested in our bodies growing. We will be looking closely at our bodies, what we need to help us to grow, to keep healthy and what our bodies do to help us. We have already made a start on drawing self portraits that look fantastic! We will also be talking about what country we come from and what languages we can speak. We can’t wait to get started!

imagefs1Forest Schools

Forest Schools has started again and we are having a great time. The weather has been a little wet and cold at times but that has certainly not stopped us. We have been busy building tents and small dens to hide under and enjoy a hot chocolate to heat us up when we arrive. We have been practising our balancing skills alongside our confidence when walking on the tree stumps and logs. We have been collecting sticks and making different patterns, looking at different kinds of bugs under the magnifying glass and of course playing hide and seek as we have an endless amount of hiding places.

IMG_3667The Care Home

On a Tuesday afternoon we have been enjoying visiting a nearby Care Home. We take along with us puzzles, paper and pens, books and recently we have taken family photographs to show the residents who we live with. We know that when we go to the Care Home that we are making the people there very happy. They always make us feel very welcome and kindly give us a homemade cake and juice.

 

 

imagefs2

Posted on

Nursery News January 2016 Millerfield Place

NURSERY NEWS JANUARY 2016

A very happy and healthy 2016 to all of our children, parents and carers!

January has been a fun and busy month for Meadows Nursery with Forest Schools and Care Home visits and much, much more.

Outdoor Learning

We have had a great start to Forest Schools in 2016. The children have been using the small woodland area opposite Sciennes School and have really enjoyed their first session. They have loved exploring the woods, playing hide and seek and learning the rules and boundaries of being outside. Next week the children have chosen to hunt for bugs and make a den.

This session of Care Home visits now includes two younger children. Everyone really enjoyed their visit to Glencairn Care Home and the residents made us some great playdough for us when we arrived. Unfortunately, the high winds resulted in cancellation of last week’s trip, but we look forward to returning next week.

Weather permitting, we aim to go out with a group of children every day. This may be to the park, Summerhall, the museum, George IV Library for story time and Clambers. We plan to visit Clambers on a monthly basis.

Continuing Professional Development

All staff at Meadows Nursery have regular opportunities to improve their skills and have recently taken part in First Aid training and Fire Safety training. Since we are a partnership nursery (with CEC), we can also make use of the courses on offer at the Council.

Samantha has recently updated her Child Protection Level 4 and will continue to be the Child Protection officer for the nursery. Katie also completed her level 2 Child Protection.

All of the middle floor staff have recently had GIRFEC and pre-birth to three training and this will help them to improve the children’s learning and developing opportunities.

Also, the ground floor staff have all received inhouse training on the Curriculum for Excellence and planning which has helped staff to look further into the learning opportunities for the children.

Other training courses arranged for staff include The Magic of Music, Additional Support for Learners, Up, Up and Away and Language Boost. All of these courses will ensure that we are up to date on current best practice and can ensure that we are giving the children the best possible care that we can.

Diary Dates

Diary dates for 2016 are displayed in the main foyer. We hope that you can make them.

Nursery Improvements

We were delighted to come back after Christmas to our newly painted Busy Bug play room and downstairs toilet. We are now looking forward to our Garden room being painted in the next couple of weeks.

We have been going through all of our resources and replacing them where necessary. We have also looked at our room routines and layouts and are making improvements in these areas too. We really hope that you can see all of the hard work that is going on!

Children and parents

We had our first Meadows breakfast in January with several families attending. This was a lovely opportunity for staff, parents and families to spend time with their children on what is normally such a busy time of day. Thank you to all that attended.

We have also been asking some of the older children each day if they would like to go upstairs for an hour or so each day to ‘help’ with the babies. This is a great learning experience for all children involved so look out for this in the coming weeks!

In February we will welcome some new children, with Leo, Sophia and Matilda all joining our Hedgehog room.

Activities

The children on the ground floor have been very excited learning about foods, Scotland and of course Haggis! We will continue this for a few more weeks before we move on to the next topic.

The younger children have been really enjoying our new kitchen apparatus and playing with the new foods. They have also shown a great interest in the messy play that is always available. The messy play room is such a hit and we are really enjoying seeing what the staff come up with each week!

Staffing

We would like to welcome Claire Kennedy. Claire has over 10 years childcare experience and is settling into her role as preschool leader very well. A very big welcome to Claire!

 

Posted on

Rabbits & Foxes News January 2016

Rabbits and Foxes News January 2016

Hello everyone, we hope you have had a good start to your year!

IMG_6565As you all know we have been looking at Scotland and its stereotypes. We had the opportunity to make our own tartans, which coincided with our patterns theme. To celebrate Robert Burns, some of us created our own poems: one about Frozen, one about our families and lots more! We even got to try some haggis, which most of us really liked!

We have continued our weekly trips to the library and have been bringing books back about Scotland. We even managed to find The Gruffalo and Room on The Broom in Scots!

We have also been looking at patterns over the last few weeks, to see if we can find them in our environment and to create our own patterns. We made our own tartan kilts. We also had an activity where we could make our own patterns with sticks and pine cones!

IMG_6645Everyone is still doing lots of baking for our snacks and the children have been helping to prepare the fruit for snack time too! We have been discussing with children what is healthy and unhealthy and we made a list and mind map of all our comments!

Our Care Home visits and Forest Schools visits have started back up again with new groups of children! At Forest Schools, it was our first week so we established boundaries and discussed the rules. Then we had a big game of hide and seek. At the Care Home, again with it being our first visit with a new group of children, all the children got to pick a toy to take with them and introduce themselves to everyone!

IMG_6683IMG_6640

Posted on

Hedgehogs News January 2016

Hedgehogs News January 2016

We would like to welcome back all of the Hedgehogs who have settled back in very well after the Christmas break.

A big Happy Birthday to Hector who turned 1 and Dasha who turned 2 this month!

The Hedgehogs have enjoyed a range of messy activities this month focusing on pouring and mixing textures together such as shaving foam, sand, oats, shredded paper and water using a range of utensils to pour and mix. The children have also been making lots of coloured and scented playdough, pouring the ingredients into bowls and mixing it together.

The Hedgehogs have enjoyed a range of role play in the home corner exploring with the new kitchen and food. They have also enjoyed dressing up using bags and hats and looking at their own reflection in the mirror. We have also enjoyed role play with the babies and buggies.

The older Hedgehogs have taken an interest in construction play, building towers with blocks, using objects to stack on top of each other and developing their fine motor skills.

As the weather has not been so good this month, on the days we can’t get outside, the Hedgehogs have been doing a range of physical activities indoors such as dancing and group games. The favourite this month is Ring a Ring o’ roses.

As the preschool children go to the Care Home to visit on a Tuesday afternoon, we have started taking two Hedgehogs for a six week block.

Posted on

Hedgehogs News December 2015

Hedgehogs New December 2015

This month the Hedgehogs have enjoyed lots of fun Christmas activities. The children have enjoyed exploring with tinsel and Christmas baubles in our large texture trays.

The Hedgehogs have been very busy and creative this month making lots of cards and gifts for Christmas. They have used lots of arts and crafts materials to decorate with a range of gluing materials and textures, paints, chalk, pens and crayons.

The Hedgehogs had lots of fun at our Christmas party on. The children enjoyed lots of dancing along to Christmas music and fun games. We also had a surprise visit from SANTA! The children loved seeing Santa, we all sang some songs to Santa and got a lovely present.

From all at Meadows Nursery, We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New-year and look forward to welcoming you all back in 2016!

Posted on

Rabbits & Foxes News December 2015

Rabbits and Foxes News December 2015

Firstly we would like to wish Morag and Battista a Happy 3rd birthday & Baz and Zoe a Happy 4th birthday when it comes around.  We hope you both have a fantastic day.

December has been a very exciting month for both the Rabbits and the Foxes.

image2On Friday the 18th we had our Christmas show “The 12 days of Christmas” and our Christmas party afterwards.

We had been practising twice day for the last month and it definitely paid off. We all had a fantastic time and all performed so well in front of our teachers, family and our friends.

We sang a selection of Christmas songs including Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and we Wish you a Merry Christmas to finish.

Once our show was finished it was time for our delicious snack. We all had our own party bags with a selection of treats inside.

After snack we enjoyed playing party games in the Flower Room, where we enjoyed playing musical chairs, musical bumps and pass the parcel!

Later on after the games were finished, Tricky Ricky made a magical appearance and we enjoyed being entertained by him for almost an hour.

We all had a fantastic time at our show and party and are looking forward to practising for our summer show next year!

We hope that everyone has a magical Christmas and that Santa is very good to everyone.

See you all in 2016.