Category: Rabbit News

Rabbits and Foxes News February 2018

Happy birthday to Lara who turned 4 this month and to Misha and Otto who turned 3!

In February we were in full swing with our topic of Scotland. We learned a lot in this time and really especially enjoyed practicing our Scottish dancing and learning about Scottish foods, as well as foods from other cultures.

Some of the children made Valentines cards for their families; we also had a few activities relating to Chinese New Year as well as some brilliant activities for World Book Day!

We are now moving on to learning about Space. The Rabbits have been incredibly interested in Space for quite a while so it is really great that we have the opportunity to go more in depth with this subject. We consulted with the children about what they already know and what they would like to learn and from this we worked out how we are going to go forward with the topic. We are all so excited about it!

We have wrapped up this block of Forest Schools and it will be the older Rabbits turn to go next – hopefully we will get better weather this time around!

It was great to have some snow in the city and the children enjoyed learning about snow, icicles etc. Unfortunately we had to cancel some of our extra activities due to the snow but we are pleased that they have started again this week!

 

 

 

Rabbits and Foxes News January 2018

Happy birthday to Sophia and Dasha who have turned 4 this month as well as Ruby, Ben and Hector who have now turned 3!

A big welcome goes to Barbara who has joined us on the ground floor as a full time staff member. Barbara will mainly be working with our Foxes group, however will also have some time with the Rabbits. We have also welcomed Munira who is doing break cover hours throughout the nursery and will be helping on all floors.

This month has seen the Rabbits and Foxes learning all about Scotland. We celebrated Robert Burns with a Scottish breakfast where the children had porridge and tattie scones to eat. We have all been learning various different Scottish dances and have enjoyed practicing these out in the garden most mornings.

We have been learning a little bit about Scottish foods, whilst discussing what is healthy and unhealthy, and are hoping to try some different foods before the end of the month. Within this we also hope try some foods from other countries too.

The Rabbits have also been looking a little bit at Tartan and had a go at making some themselves using strips of paper – they look amazing displayed on our wall. Both the Rabbits and the Foxes have been making Scottish Flags using a whole range of different materials, including paint, tissue paper and pens.  Some of the children also looked at the Polish flag and had a go at making this with Barbara.

The children have enjoyed having a couple of their favourite books in Scots being the focus for story times. This has included The Gruffalo in Scots as well as The Gruffalo’s Wean.

All of our activities have now started up again and the children are enjoying being able to get out and about at Forest Schools and the Care Home as well as their Enjoy-A-Ball sessions at the Meadows. We also have Tatty Bumpkins which all of the Foxes and Rabbits enjoy. Unfortunately because of all the bad weather, we have not yet been able to get out to Blackford pond; however the Rabbits have enjoyed half day sessions at Sciennes Woods and hope to be back to their normal routine at Blackford Pond this week.

Everyone would like to say a huge thank you to Myles’ dad who came in wearing a kilt and did some Scottish dancing with the children. He also explained all of the different parts of the traditional Scottish outfit as well as telling the Rabbits a little of the history behind the kilt. Also a big thanks to all the parents who have sent in their pictures of Scotland as well as providing us with some Scottish type materials that we have been able to use for collages and junk modelling.

We are now looking forward to finishing off our Scotland topic and consulting with the children to see what they would like to learn about next!

 

Rabbits and Foxes News December 2017

A big welcome to Max, Emily, Julek, Sebestian and Saul who have now joined the Foes and Rabbits downstairs! All of the Foxes and Rabbits have helped to settle these guys and we are so happy to have them!

This month we are now organising and practicing for our Christmas Nativity. We had discussions with the children and all staff members and made up our cast from there to make sure that everyone was comfortable with the parts they have.

We are very lucky to have Lizzie who comes twice a week to do music time. She has started playing the piano and helping us teach the children our nativity songs in preparation for the performance on December 14th! The children all seem to know the words for the songs, it’s just now practicing singing in time with the music and all together, however, this is all going really well. Everyone is doing an amazing job learning their lines as well as starting to learn some stage direction.

We have also started our Christmas crafts – we are making a little goodie bag to go home for our families as a little bundle of presents. The children are making some fantastic pieces of work!

At the start of the month, we had Zoolab who visit the nursery a couple times a year to bring some reptiles and creepy crawlies! This time they brought us a snake, African snails, a tortoise, a giant millipede and some cockroaches! All of the children either touched or held some of the animals which was fantastic. They had the opportunity to learn a bit about where the animals come from and how they live.

We have now come to the end of our Forest Schools and Tatty Bumpkins blocks. It has been so much fun doing these sessions and we can’t wait for them to start again next year!

Rabbits and Foxes News November 2017

Welcome to Juniper, Frida, Anna and Ben who have all started in Nursery this month!

Happy birthday to Charlie, Reuben, Chunyi, Anna and Pearl who all turned 3 this month too.

This month our topic has been Our Nursery. The children have been discussing at length the aspects of the Nursery that they really enjoy and also telling us what they would like to do more of. They have been learning more about the routines for each day and the activities that we do.

We have been in full swing with all of our extra activities such as Forest Schools, the Care Home trips and lovely nature walks to the Sciennes Woodland.

The Foxes have also been learning about Autumn. This involved the children making lots of pictures with different natural objects that we had found out on our Woodland Walks. They explored these objects in a range of messy situations, where the children were able to practice their Autumn colours too.

The Foxes were also talking about the Golden Rules and reading a book called ‘Hands Are Not For Hitting’. The children did a few different activities where they discussed what they like to use their hands for – we got some amazing pictures and hand prints!

At the end of the month we had a fantastic Halloween Tea Party – it was so nice to see all of the children’s costumes, as well as the staff costumes! It was also great to have some of the parents along to join in with all of the activities.

Over the next month we are going to be starting a new topic, as well as starting to practice for our Christmas Nativity and doing some Christmas crafts.

 

Rabbits and Foxes News October 2017

Happy birthday to Isabella and Pearl who  have both just turned 3!

A big hello to Karen who is starting at the beginning of October!

Wow, September was a very busy month for us in the Rabbits and Foxes group. We finished our Dinosaurs topic, and enjoyed measuring the Dinosaurs and learning how to compare their sizes using appropriate language (taller, smaller, etc). The children also really enjoyed doing “Rhymeasarus” – with Denisa’s help, they choose rhyming words from their Core Text and matched them together. We learned a little bit about the Triassic and Jurassic periods. The children seemed to really enjoy looking at the difference in the dinosaurs from these periods and chose some to draw themselves.

The Rabbits and Foxes talked a lot about their feelings over the last few weeks . The children were able to identify their core feelings (happy, sad, angry and frightened) and we discussed different ways we can deal with these feelings. The children have been practicing using their words to tell both adults and other children what they would like and how they feel.

Both Rabbits and Foxes have had their turns at Forest Schools. The Foxes enjoyed half day sessions at Sciennes Woods where they did lots of digging, searching for bugs and really enjoyed creating beautiful things from nature. The Rabbits have now started going to Blackford Pond for their block of Forest Schools. Everyone has been having a brilliant time exploring the area and watching the ducks, swans and geese.

We are now well in swing with our Tatty Bumpkin and Enjoy-A-Ball sessions. All the children in nursery on a Monday get to have great Adventures with Tatty B and do some Yoga all the way. All of our 3 year olds love going out to the Meadows on a Tuesday to practice their balls and other practical skills.

We are now starting a new topic called “Our Nursery”. We look forward to discussing with the children and parents their experience of not only our nursery, but other nurseries in order to further improve our service and care. How exciting!

 

Rabbits and Foxes News September 2017

This month we have been really busy in the nursery. We said goodbye to some of our oldest Rabbits who have started school and sang Happy Birthday to Peter who turned 3 this month! We have had some great activities starting up again, such as Forest Schools for the Foxes and Enjoy-a-ball for the Rabbits, as well as our regular trips to the Meadows swing park.

Our theme this month has been Dinosaurs. The Rabbits and Foxes been learning all about the different kinds of dinosaurs and when they were alive. The Rabbits have been learning what a rhyming word is and using the rhymosaurus to create different rhyming words. We have also been learning about archeology and what archaeologists do. We searched for dinosaur bones in sand and tried to match the dinosaur to its picture.

We have also been thinking about our emotions and recognising the different emotions that we have by drawing and exploring different images of people and how these emotions make us feel.

This month Carrie has been doing eco schools with the children and we had an eco meeting which went really well. We got lots of ideas for upcoming events and ways for the nursery to be more eco friendly. Thank you to Sarah’s dad, Slim for coming along and giving us some great ideas.

 

The Foxes theme this month has also been dinosaurs, and we have incorporated dinosaurs into our messy play and water play. We have read lots of books on dinosaurs, looked at all the different types that there were and including this in the Foxes floorbook

A new block of Forest Schools started this month and the Foxes have had lots of fun digging for insects and having our hot chocolate outside. We have been getting really muddy, running around outside and playing with the ropes, making swings and balancing beams.

Rabbits and Foxes News April 2017

A big welcome to Eric who has joined us in the Rabbits group!

We have been super busy over the last month in Nursery. We finished off learning all about time – this included learning how to tell the time, about the mechanics of clocks and about how to order our routine. Everyone seems to have really enjoyed this topic and have learned a lot!

We have now started our new topic of ‘How Things Grow’. We will be learning about the life cycle of plants, humans and animals. We kicked this topic off with the chicken eggs which we got to see hatch and learn how to take care of. Some of the children were really upset when the chicks got picked up – they must have bonded with them after handling them every day! The staff members will be bringing in baby-adult pictures for the children to try and match up together and we welcome parents to do the same either with themselves or their own children.

The Rabbits had so much fun on their Spring Trip to East Links – it was a very long day but it was so brilliant to spend the time with the children and some of the parents too. We saw and fed all sorts of animals as well as playing on the big fort they have – I think that this was the children’s favourite thing to do as well playing on the Jelly Belly!

The Foxes have been very busy this month, too. They have enjoyed doing their mini Forest Schools sessions at Sciennes which included building a hammock swing and looking for bugs. They have really enjoyed doing some sensory activities as well which included smelly play dough and some textured shaving foam and jelly play.

As well as all of this we have enjoyed several trips out to the Meadows and a lovely visit from Zoo Lab.

The Rabbits and Foxes are all looking forward to another exciting month ahead!

 

 

 

 

 

Rabbits and Foxes News March 2017

Very Happy Birthday to Remi and Alasdair who both turned 3 this month and to Maisie who is now 4!

This month got off to a great start with our theme “Time”. The children have been exploring all the different topics that go along with Time, with activities that look into the mechanics of clocks and even looking at different stages of our routines here at nursery and in our homes. Various Time displays can be seen throughout the nursery on our display boards.

We have been going on lots of outings this month, exploring what is in our community. This   includes our Forest Schools block and our Care Home visits, along with keeping active by doing lots of running around at Enjoy-a-Ball.

The Foxes have been doing loads of water play recently. We have even brought out the water tray in the garden with the nicer weather. We also had some sensory activities with ice and jelly to engage the children in the messy play.

All of this month has been filled with lots of crafts with celebrations like Mother’s Day and Red Nose Day. We baked lots of special treats to raise money for Red Nose Day and everyone came dressed in something red. The children all enjoyed preparing fun things for us to do on this day. Thank you to everyone for your donations for a great cause due to this – we managed to raise £63.36!

 

 

 

 

Rabbits and Foxes News February 2017

A big welcome to Malcolm who started his settles with us this month, as well as Charlie, Branwen, Isabella, Reuben, Chunyi and Pearl who have moved down from the Hedgehogs group!

Also a welcome to Denisa who is our new teacher in the Rabbits group.

Happy birthday to Gigi who turned 4 and Lara who turned 4!

Now that we are at the end of February, we have finished our topic on Scotland and other cultures. The children learned a lot about the country that they live in – this included the story of Robert Burns and Greyfrairs Bobby. We also enjoyed learning about different foods and drinks we have in Scotland and we looked at healthy eating. The Rabbits put together their own plates, using clippings from magazines, of their favourite foods to eat. They then told us if they thought that these foods were healthy or unhealthy.

To round off this topic the older Rabbits went on a trip to the Storytelling Museum and Edinburgh Museum where they got to see a short video on the history of Edinburgh. It was lots of fun! After we came back, the children used the Lego and Duplo to build their own cities – their creations were amazing.

We have also just started our Observation week for planning. We have been listening to the children’s interests and thoughts for us to base our 4 weeks of activities on. At the moment the children are interested in clocks – including the mechanics of them – as well as Spring.

The Foxes have been busy exploring different textures and colours. They have been getting crafty with these and have produced some amazing pieces of artwork. As well as this they have been joining in with our baking activities where they have practiced their measuring and numbers.

The Foxes have also just finished their block of Forest Schools where they enjoyed den building, rope tying and many other things up at the Sciennes woods.

All the children have been thoroughly enjoying Tatty Bumpkins, Enjoy-A-Ball and our Care Home visits and we are already looking forward to the new blocks.

 

 

 

 

Rabbits and Foxes News January 2017

A big welcome to Sarah, Peter and Sizuo who started with us at the beginning of the month!

Also, very Happy Birthday to Sophia and Dasha who turned 3 this month.

We have been very busy since we came back from Christmas, settling back into our routines and finding out what everyone has been doing over the Christmas break. We have discussed our New Year Resolutions – it was great to hear the children’s own resolutions. Our group resolution is tidy up our rooms after we have finished playing!

We are now focusing our learning around Scotland. In the run up to Burns’ Night, we learned a lot about Robert Burns’ story, about Scottish food and types of Tartan. Everyone was busy making Tattie Scones, Shortbread and their own tartan. Whilst making their tartan, the children told us which patterns they were making and how many strips of paper they were using for each colour. We have also been focusing on some Scottish nursery rhymes and songs. Our favourite seems to be Coulter’s Candy/Ally Bally. We also had a really fun tea party – parents and siblings came along to do some ceilidh dancing and have some of our Tattie Scones and Shortbread!

We have just started to discuss a little bit about Chinese New Year. We have seen pictures of Chinese costumes, food and festivals and we discussed why this is at a different time of year from ours. The children have also seen come Chinese lettering and had a go at copying it with black paint.

The Foxes have been looking at their colours and have been exploring different objects in messy play. They have also been having a look at our story stones – these are stones with different pictures painted on to them – we have been discussing what these are and are building up to try and string together some of them.

Our extra activities are back into full swing with Tatty Bumpkins, fruit shop shopping, music with Lizzie and Sophia, Enjoy-A-Ball, Forest Schools and our Care Home visits now happening regularly.