This week in nursery the children have been busy discussing measure in the block play area. The children were balancing thread reels on the wooden blocks and weighing blocks on a set of digital scales. Continuous provision, such as the house corner, sand, water, block play, outdoor environment, craft table and fine motor skills areas within the nursery can provide lots of opportunities to access different areas of the curriculum in different ways.

We have been keen to play with small world toys. The farmyard has provided conversations about animals and their babies.

We have been thinking about Chinese New Year this week. Some children have been wearing Chinese costumes in the home corner and there were some Chinese plates and bowls to pretend to eat and cook with. We had noodles for snack and talked about this year being the Year of the Dog and the other animals in the Chinese New Year cycle.

Many children have enjoyed being out in the Winter sunshine this week. We have had the scooters out, making obstacle courses and parking in numbered bays. We have been using chalk to write numbers and draw pictures on the ground. Counting backwards and forwards, counting objects and recognising dice dot patterns are good ways to begin an understanding of number.

We would like to say a HUGE thank you to our parent who re-felted the nursery play hut roof during half term. This resource is used continuously throughout the nursery day by all the children. The leaky roof was hindering its use so we are very thankful to have it fixed. Our parents are very important to us and we value all your help and support.

As the weather improves we will be having a focus on improving the garden. Following HMIE inspection recommendations, we would like the garden to have more literacy and numeracy opportunities along with sprucing up the borders and pots with flowers and bulbs for later in the year. If any parent/carer/grandparent/auntie/uncle has an interest in gardening and would like to be involved with the children, please let a member of staff know. We would love to have you on board.

Mrs Maclaren has started her maternity leave this week, earlier than expected. We wish her all the very best with the birth of her baby boy and look forward to a visit once he has arrived.

Finally, can we ask all parents and carers to pick up and drop off on time. We are limited in staff numbers therefore rely on the smooth and timely transition of all our pupils. Thank you.