September 2018

SummersideKindergarten & Pre SchoolProviding quality, service & value since 1991

NewsUpdate

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Welcome to the September News Update

We have another date for your diaries. On Tuesday 25th September, we will be having a ‘Bring your Parent to Nursery’ hour. Between 6 and 7pm you can let your child or children show off their room and their work. There will also be an opportunity to taste some of the food that your child or children enjoy in their day, cooked by our new Cook Hannah, whom all the children all know by now.

Thank you to all who came to the Allotment BBQ earlier this month. It was a great turnout and we all hope you had a good time catching up with parents, meeting Ros and most importantly looking at all our hard work. Thank you to Tony for yet again organising fantastic BBQ.

The Babies have been welcoming and settling in new friends into the room. There are lots of new faces to get to know and the Babies are all coping well with their new environment in their own ways. We look forward to getting to know all their little personalities and having fun in the next year. We have started the year developing

our awareness of our five senses through different experiences and environments.The Babies have enjoyed experiences in their room which have involved getting their hands a bit mucky. We made our own spicy salt dough with curry powder, helping to mix all the ingredients together, with some Babies getting adventurous and giving it a lick. Yum!We have also made our own sensory bags and bottles. The Babies explored the various textures before the mixture went into the bottles and bags. This is a great way of letting the babies explore different textures in a clean way and is especially beneficial for the children who are not keen on messy activities. We have enjoyed using crayons and pencils to make marks onto paper and have tried really hard not to put them in our mouths but sometimes it’s too hard to resist.We also enjoyed a mini food tasting session; getting to know what our new babies like to eat and letting the current babies enjoy their favourites. We tried cheese, tomato, pepper and blueberries. At the moment,

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tomato is the least favourite but all Babies tried everything. We will continue to offer this experience to our other Babies to explore, looking for their likes and dislikes.Along at the allotment, we have been working with Ros to harvest and plant. We harvested potatoes and got to take some home to share with our families, which we hope you enjoyed. We loved using sticks to hit plant pots to make music during song time. We collected herbs and brought them back to nursery where we have made scented sensory bags to keep in our loose parts area. We used a pestle and mortar to release the lavender oils. It smelled lovely. We watered the crops inside the poly tunnel, then tasted the cucumber and berries before mashing the berries and creating art for the allotment. In addition, we had a successful music session in the park with most children participating and responding to the songs and puppets. Bambino Beats has now started again and will run until October. All Babies participating in this have been

a little shy, but as the weeks are going by, they are becoming more confident in their participation.Some of our Babies have been transitioning on to rest mats after lunch and, with the support of staff, our younger babies have

been successfully resting on the mats. Our older Babies have been spending time within the Tweenie room to help them gain confidence in making the transition. They have embraced the change and are happy to be exploring a new environment. This month, the Tweenies have been exploring sand and water play. Using both the sand and water trays indoors and out, we have been enjoying the experiences. We have loved to pour water using funnels and jugs. Using different coloured water, we have been able to discuss colours with which we are familiar. The sand tray has been a favourite for many, with each pit offering dry and wet sand. The wet sand is great for building models whereas the dry sand is good for pouring and measuring, and also has a nice feel when we run it through our fingers. We have been walking in our community to local parks, where we have had the opportunity to use our parachute, play games with our friends and read stories under the trees. The allotment visits are being enjoyed by all the Tweenies; we have had the opportunity to harvest, eat, water and play. We made lavender perfume, picking the lavender, mixing it

with water and giving it a good stir. We have harvested lots of fruit and

vegetables and Hannah is enjoying cooking them

for us. We picked fruits

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and veg for Hannah to make a tasty salad for our allotment BBQ. We have visited the library to collect new stories for the new focus and Story of the Moment within the Tweenies room. The Tweenies have been focusing lots on The Story of the Moment which was ‘Five Little Ducks’. The Tweenies have been busy creating lots of artwork to display within the room and we have been particularly interested in sand, water and animals. The Tweenies have also been working hard

to add different items to our beach and sand area. We have made anchors, waves and shells using recycled materials that have been collected and painted and have hung them on our netting. They have been excited to explore the large pirate ship that we have added to our sand area. The Tweenies have particularly liked the glitter when creating pieces of art. We have been practising our listening skills by learning new songs about the sea and adding actions which has been extremely popular. The Tweenies have been visiting local parks and the walkways to collect natural materials for our loose parts play. Natural material autumn play with a musical twist has been the focus towards the end of the month. With loose part materials and natural musical instruments being popular, children have created their own microphones from recycled toilet roll holders and balls. Shakers have also been created using two plastic cups and sellotaping them together, adding pasta, rice and various other small foods to create a noisy shaker.

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Shredded paper and sticks have been used in our sensory tray, whilst some parents have been kind enough to provide more materials for our loose part/heuristic area by bringing curtain hooks, toilet roll holders and various materials. Thank you. The children have enjoyed music time and circle time this month, moving their bodies to different rhythms and nursery rhymes relevant to our topics. Following from our subject Under the Sea and incorporating natural music autumn play, we are working together to create a musical jellyfish xylophone. We have been focusing on expanding music within the Tweenie Room. The children enjoyed their first Step Up dance session where we enjoyed moving our bodies to different types of music, dancing with rainbow ribbons and recognising various body parts through different songs. Following

on with the children’s interest in music, we decided to create our own pianos using sticks and cardboard and offered the children the opportunity to paint and decorate them. The children have enjoyed using our handmade instruments within the Tweenie Room and taking them out into the community for song times. We have enjoyed exploring loose parts play in the garden and we have used our imagination to create drums with crates and sticks that we collected on our walks in the local community. Lastly, we have had the opportunity to have a pizza cooking session with our nursery cook Hannah. The children enjoyed rolling out their own dough and adding toppings of their choice and were keen to show their pizzas off to staff members and parents! The Pre School Children have seen a few changes in their room in the last month.

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Gradually over the summer we had the school leavers depart and the older Tweenies move up. We enjoyed a Graduation for the school leavers; an afternoon of a bouncy castle and party games finishing with a Graduation Ceremony with their parents and carers coming to watch. It was a lovely afternoon and a nice way to end their time at Summerside. We are also welcoming a few new children into the nursery and to the Pre School room. They are settling in well and the current children are all doing great in helping them along. Our free flow play is still very popular with the outdoors being the favourite. This might not be the case in the winter! The children have been participating in lots of traditional story role play and ‘The Three Little Pigs’ seems to be the favourite one to retell. In the art corner we have had duplo bricks, sticks, and straw available for them to make the houses. We also have a tray with the pigs, the wolf and the story for the children to retell the story together. They have enjoyed doing this and a lot can retell the story looking at the illustrations or from memory. Outdoors, we have life size bricks, straw and sticks for them to build with. We also made a campfire area with pots for the soup to be made and the story available for them. Hannah has led a cooking session with the Pre School children, making pizzas from scratch. The children enjoyed this, telling Hannah all about themselves while listening and responding well to a new member of staff. Out in the community we have been enjoying a variety of experiences. We are still enjoying the woodland area, walking through, stopping to listen to a story that we took along with us. Also, as part of being an Eco School, we are doing a monthly litter pick

and this month the Pre School children took a bag and some gloves to the woodland area and picked up all of the litter we saw. We came back with half a bag of litter and put it in our nursery bin. The children really embraced this and were able to identify the rubbish and say if it was plastic, glass, or cardboard. On these paths we have noticed the blackberries starting to ripen and the children were keen to know what they were. We got busy and took a few tubs out one day and collected rather a lot! Back at nursery we made it into blackberry jam which the children enjoyed. We also made some jam tarts. Hopefully we will be able to pick many more before the season ends.

Have a great month,

MichelleNursery Manager

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Blackberry Jam

Ingredients• 1lb of blackberries

• 1lb of sugar

• Teaspoon of lemon juice

• 6 fluid oz of boiled water

Method1 - Wash the blackberries.

2 - Add the boiling water.

3 - Boil the fruit on high heat for 25

minutes.

4 - Mush the brambles to release the

juice.

5 - Add sugar to the blackberries.

Keep mixing so the fruit doesn’t

stick.

6 - Boil to setting point (105 degrees).

7 - Leave the jam to set.

8 - Put in a jar.

Made with blackberries collected from our walk in the local area

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At the Allotment

It’s been another busy month at the allotment with the

continuing good weather helping our allotment crops to ripen. At the moment, we

are harvesting potatoes, runner beans, blackberries, autumn raspberries, apples, tomatoes, courgettes,

sweetcorn and chard.

This amount of produce shows that Summerside Kindergarten has created a very healthy, fertile and productive plot. One of the smaller children was so excited about the apples that she nibbled a juicy red apple that was hanging temptingly from a low branch!The children as usual have been very keen to help with the many jobs of the season, so strawberry runners have been planted up by the pre-school children, chives and sedums have been split and

Firstly, thank you to everyone who came to the allotment BBQ which was a most enjoyable event and it was great to meet so many parents.

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planted up by the

Tweenies and Pansies

have been planted by the babies. We are also starting to refresh some of the beds, including the strawberry bed. This means digging in nutritious compost made at the allotment and leaf litter from last year. There is a lot of incidental learning while doing these jobs as there are always some wood lice, worms or spiders involved at some point which the children are keen to gently handle and observe. It’s a good chance to talk about habitats and animal homes. We are also starting to plant new crops in the poly tunnel such as rocket and chard.I have been thinking hard about increasing play opportunities at the allotment. This is play based around natural objects and elements and we call it ‘nature play’. The children have responded well to this and are enjoying such things as very small sand play, mixing up flowers and berries and small world animal play.

Bye for now,

RosResident Horticulturalist

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Whats On..

Cramond Walled GardenCommunity play space for toddlers and juniors set in the beautiful walled garden adjacent to the Roman Fort in Cramond. Featuring a play ship, multiplay unit for older children, large rotating net and goal/basketball unit. Winner of Nancy Ovens Play Award 2009 for young people’s participation in design.

For more information: www.edinburgh.gov.uk/directory_record/18564/cramond_walled_garden

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Venue: Cramond Kirk

Address: Glebe Road, Edinburgh, EH4 6QU

Admission: FREE

Dates: Open all year round

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Venue: Museum of Childhood

Address: 42 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TG

Admission: FREE

Dates: 10.30-12.30 or 13.30-15.30, Saturday 22nd September

Marvellous Puppets

Using a range of recycled materials, you can create and take home your very own puppet inspired by our Growing up with Books Exhibition.

For more information: www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/marvellous-puppets

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Venue: Lauriston Castle

Address: 2a Cramond Road South, Edinburgh, EH4 5QD

Admission: £5.98

Dates: 09:30-11:30, Saturday 15th September

Ahoy Me Hearties!Using a secret pirate map, navigate the grounds of Lauriston for ‘treasure’ to help transform yourself into a pirate. Make your own cutlass, pirate hat and parrot.

For more information: www.list.co.uk/event/465822-ahoy-me-hearties

SummersideKindergarten & Pre SchoolProviding quality, service & value since 1991

Pre-Birth To Three

1 Summerside Street • Edinburgh EH6 4NTw www.summersidekindergarten.org • t 0131 554 6560

e summersidekindergarten@blueyonder.co.uk

Spending time outdoors and particularly in natural environments is good for all of us and especially for children. The Care Inspectorate recognises the benefits of accessing the great outdoors and this resource aims to make a positive contribution to the further development of outdoor play as part of early learning and childcare in Scotland. We are lucky to have access to our own gardens and outdoor play areas; we are also close to outdoor parks, woods, and fields which can help stimulate a love of the outdoors and allow children and young people to explore nature. Our service provides an outdoors experience daily. As practitioners providing services, we find that learning experiences in promoting outdoor and natural play, whether the service is wholly

or just partly delivered outdoors, are beneficial. The SHANARRI framework used also provides a good model for assessing and reporting your impact on children’s outcomes. moving from measuring inputs such as whether an outdoor play area is safe and adequately equipped, to assessing outcomes and how children actually experience outdoor and environmental play in all weathers.

Copyright 2018