Dear nursery families,
It is hard to believe that January is almost over. It’s also hard to believe that we have only been back at nursery for three weeks, the children have settled back in so well and are supporting our new children with great care and kindness.
Highlights from this week:
We had a Scottish focus this week at nursery to celebrate Burns. The children have been listening to Scottish stories and singing Scottish songs. We had porridge for morning snack, haggis if ordered for lunch on Tuesday and shortbread for afternoon snack, which the children helped to make. In our creative area the children have been making tartan collages, ‘tattie’ printing pictures, painting saltires and even had a go at weaving their own Edenside nursery tartan using yellow and purple paper.
Outside the children have been enjoying getting muddy. They were transferring the water from the water tray over to the mud kitchen and digging area to make their own muddle puddles, mud pies and mud hot chocolate. They have also been climbing and jumping between and off the tyres in the garden. Before jumping the children have been practising counting forwards and/or backward before lift off.
Some children have preferred to play indoors this week. We had a request for the ‘little’ Lego last week and the children have been busy making towers, vehicles and houses. The children have shown great understanding of structure and balance when building in the block area, using the large wooden blocks, foam bricks and stones and wooden slats to make models that are strong and sturdy.
The children have really enjoyed having clay at the emerging literacy table. Using clay develops and strengthens their finger muscles which aids pencil grip and control. They have been pulling the clay apart and rolling it into balls of varying sizes. This is very different from using play dough, it takes a bit of perseverance and hard work to make the clay soft enough to mould but this hasn’t deterred the children.
Daily snack:
The children have a variety of fruit and vegetable sticks for morning and afternoon snack along with a drink of milk or water.
Notes
Staff news
On Wednesday 2nd February we will be welcoming back Miss McHarg, after what seems to have been a very speedy maternity leave. She will be working Wednesday – Friday. We are very excited to have her back as part of the nursery team.
Keeping Warm
Please make sure your child brings a hat and gloves to wear at nursery. We try our hardest to make sure they get sent home, but we’d be grateful if you could make sure all items are labelled to make this job easier.
Expressions App
Groupcall Xpressions App is available for parents to ensure communication between school/nursery and parents is effective and easy. The App is free and can be installed on your mobile or table. You can also login on your browser at https://xpressions.groupcall.com
To use the App you must ensure that the school has an up to date mobile number and email address. All you need to do is install the App and login in order to get information on your child. Once set up you will receive messages directly to the App and you can message the school.
Staying safe
With the number of Covid cases rising within the school community it is important to do a Lateral flow test on your child if they display any Covid-19 symptoms before bringing them into Nursery.
Illness
We are continuing to be vigilant and to keep everyone in our learning community safe. If your child shows any symptoms of being unwell, please do keep them at home. If anyone in the family shows symptoms of Covid-19, please follow the NHS Scotland guidance. Thank you for working with us to keep our school community safe. If your child is unwell/going to be absent from nursery please notify the school via telephone (01573 224264) or send a message through the Expressions App.
Have a lovely weekend!
Love from The Nursery Team