Baldernock Childcare

This week had an emotional ending for us all here in Baldernock 🎓🌱🫶

More and more creations were made in our mud kitchen, with children working together, discussing recipes and ingredients and problem solving to make the most delicious and fresh dishes 😋 there was even some ice which made an appearance, and made an excellent addition for frozen smoothies and iced tea ☕️🥤

The babies were very well looked after this week, using the new baby clothes which were very kindly donated to us, along with nappies, bottles and some cozy knitted cardigans to keep them warm and well fed. One child was particularly worried that the line on the nappy was still yellow, because her baby brother's nappy line turns blue..how observant! This provoked discussion about why this happens and comparing our babies at nursery to real babies in our families 👶 👩‍🍼 🚼 🍼

We explored lots of pincer grip, magnets and peg boards this week to strengthen our hand muscles and develop our curiosity throughout the playrooms 🤩

Using bubble wrap, paint and leaves from the garden we created the most beautiful sunflowers which we have proudly displayed in our playroom! They bring such colour and cheer🌻🌻🌻

Bookbug made a special appearance this week, wearing his school shirt and Baldernock Primary School tie - he wanted to join us in Primary 1, but the ladies told him he had to stay at nursery because the boys and girls will miss him too much 🥲 instead, we enjoyed some stories, songs and a short video together about what our first day of school might look like. We do love a visit from Bookbug - he always makes us smile and laugh! 📖

We ended the week with a beautiful Graduation ceremony for our Big Schoolies 🎓 🥰 it was such a lovely celebration with all of our loved ones and the rain stayed off for almost all of the afternoon 🌦 😊 children sang their songs beautifully, showed off their fantastic BSL skills and were so well behaved throughout - we are so proud of each and every one of them! A massive thank you to all of our families who came to celebrate with us - we are truly grateful for all of your continued support 🥰

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you all on Monday 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🫶🌱

Another busy week has flown past here in Baldernock 😊🌱

Staff have been working hard with individuals to achieve their next steps using a variety of resources and experiences to support colour recognition, numeracy and literacy outcomes and various aspects of health and wellbeing. Children have shown fantastic progress throughout the year and have taken full ownership of their learning environments and opportunities available to them. 🥰

Outdoors, the sudden burst of plants and our recently planted vegetables sprouting everywhere has inspired lots of new recipes in our mud kitchen. Lots of salad leafs and soup concoctions being developed, with instructions going back and forth about how to make the best food! 😋 🥬🥦🫛☘️🌿🌱

We practised our pinser grip using pegs to carefully pass the little chicken round our circle. Some children found this really easy, with others very confused as to why the peg kept dropping the chick when it was pressed! After a few rounds, most children were passing the chick with ease and were so so proud of themselves 🐥

Some children created a game with the pom poms, throwing them into the pots to see how accurate our aim was. They persevered for so long, until each and every pom pom had landed in a box, with 2 even making their way into the tiny tub in the middle which was the hardest of them all! Lots of tips and tricks were shared to help each other improve their aim. 👫🤹‍♀️

Our new Henry Hoover created quite a stir, with children absolutely delighted to have the box ro explore and play with! From volcanoes to mountains, castles to postage boxes we had them all! We do love a box 📦 😍

Our stick insects have welcomed 8 little babies into their home with so many eggs hatching this week 🤩 we have been so gentle handling them and transferring them into the net with the adult ones now ❤️

Children are so engaged in our yoga sessions, and learning lots of stretches and poses to help our balance and flexibility 🧘‍♀️🤸 well done everyone 👏

As always, children have been exploring their learning environment independently, supported by staff and their peers. 😊

Graduation next week 🤩 👨‍🎓👨‍🎓👨‍🎓👨‍🎓👩‍🎓👩‍🎓👨‍🎓👨‍🎓

Have a lovely weekend everyone 🥰

Happy Friday everyone 😁

This week saw our trip to Glasgow Science Centre. We went on the big bus, taking in the journey and chatting excitedly about what we could see. In small groups, we explored the various floors of the Science Centre, discovering how our bodies work, trying out some different experiments and even exploring space 🌌🪐🌜☀️ We then had a picnic lunch before exploring the Science Centre to continue where we had left off. We have so many curious and clever boys and girls, who threw themselves into each and every experiment and task with such enthusiasm! 🥰
A day spent fully exploring all things STEM, which is something we have been working so hard on at nursery too! What a fantastic day had by all! There were some VERY sleepy 😴 boys and girls on yhe bus home!

🌞 With the beautiful weather this week, children have chosen to spend the majority of time outdoors - looking after our strawberry, potato, carrot and sunflower seeds which we planted earlier this month. They are growing bigger and bigger, and we are so excited to see the fruit and vegetables start to appear! 🍓 🥔 🥕 🌻

We also observed children playing "schools" in the Book Nook, using the chalkboard, pens and paper to be teachers and pupils, and role playing some learning experiences and homework delegation 🙈

Lots of group games such as Duck, Duck, Goose, Red Light, Green Light and Big Brown Bear encouraged turn-taking, collaboration and developed confidence. Children listen and respond so well to instruction and constantly cheer each other on, encouraging their peers with kindness and genuine excitement and support - it really does make us so proud! What a bunch of superstars ⭐️

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you all next week 🥰

What a busy week this week in Baldernock 🤩

🚗🚕🚙 We recycled some old cardboard boxes into a new car park, complete with numbered spaces and room to drive. Children explored number recognition, sequencing and matching in order to park their cars in the correct spaces, building their confidence in numeracy through play. 🔢

We designed some beautiful blossom trees 🌳 using cotton buds and paint to make the leaves and pink and white blossom on top. This allowed children to share their thoughts and discuss what we already know about blossom trees with some of us being lucky enough to have one in our garden at home 😍 These are now proudly displayed on the wall in our big playroom, brightening it up and showing off our hard work!

⬆️➡️⬇️⬅️🔝🔙🔛 Exploring positional language, we were able to move the little animal counters into positions including beside, on top, under and behind. Our clever boys and girls absolutely smashed it, and were able to complete most instructions perfectly 👌 😁

👔👖The addition of school uniforms of primary schools our children will attend in August have inspired some school role play, with lots of 'teacher and pupil' scenarios, teaching and homework in the playrooms 🏤

Children's progress in literacy this year has been phenomenal, with staff working hard to ensure individual needs are being met and fully supported and children are showing such progress, particularly in name recognition and formation. Most children were able to find the letters of their names independently, with a few requiring a visual support to assist them. Fantastic work everyone 🤩

Outdoors this week, children have been completely engaged in exploring the resources on offer, building confidence and relationships, conversational skills and problem solving, amongst many, many more. 🌻 We each planted some sunflower seeds, which we hope will begin to grow over the next few weeks and will keep a close eye on them 👀

We also went on a walk down the lane, where we said hello to the horses, who are very friendly and seem to enjoy our company 🐎🐎 We formed a small circle and sang some songs in a choir, which the brown horse in particular seemed to enjoy! 🎶🎵

🚌 Together we took turns to play the bus stop game, picking up and dropping off passengers as we moved around the game board. The winner was the person with the most passengers at the end 👧👱‍♀️🧓👨‍🦲👨👱🏿‍♀️

We finished off the week as project designers, exploring real blueprints of a school building, measuring dimensions and creating our very own plans using rulers, pencils and protractors to make sure we got the angles just right 👷‍♂️👷‍♀️📐📏 some children even made a start on building their designs, using the wooden blocks to do so 🧱🏗

We have also had some new families visit our nursery over the past few weeks, who we look forward to welcoming into our little family soon! The children have all been so welcoming and greeting their new friends so kindly and effortlessly! What a lovely little Baldernock family we have 🥰

Have a lovely weekend, and we will see you all next week 🥰

It was a very short week for us this week!

Children continued to develop their literacy skills through various experiences such as signing in sheets and lots of resources and opportunities encouraging pincer grip development 👌🤌🤛

🥕🥕 Our carrot seeds have sprouted in the greenhouse, so we transferred them into the night planters to give them more space to grow! We now have strawberries, carrots and potatoes on the go with some turnip seeds starting to grow too 🤩 children have been so excited to watch them grown, making sure they are watered daily and keeping a close eye on the cheeky jackdaws so they don't eat our seeds!! 🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

🚜 We watched the Tractor ploughing the field beside us, turning all the grass over and leaving lots of mud behind. The jackdaws were everywhere, catching all the worms that came up with the soil 🤪

🌳🌱 Using the nursery phone, we were able to identify some of the leaves and various plants around the garden by taking a photo of it on the PictureThis app. This app is such a fab resource to have when our and about exploring and the children like to photo new discoveries to find out what they are and if thay are safe to touch. 😊

Some of the bark was peeling from our logs, revealing some lines, patterns and different colours underneath. We used spades to strip the bark off the logs and were so surprised to feel how soft and smooth the wood underneath turned out to be! The lines and patterns uncovered were beautiful 😍

Children enjoyed exploring the newly resources playrooms which have been carefully set up by staff in line with children's current interests and next steps, ensuring children's engagement is maintained within the playrooms. Lots of happy faces and positive feedback from the children told us all we needed to know - it was a giant thumbs up from them! 😍👍

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you all next week 😊

Today we set up our school role play area, complete with uniforms for children to explore. However, we are looking for a Milngavie Primary school uniform if anyone has any old ties/jumpers etc with school badge on to enhance this area. If you know anyone who may be able to donate an item or 2, please let us know!

Thank you so much 😊

😊

via @ Early Childhood and Family Service

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We completed our Sponsored Welly Waddle Week today!! And what a week it was...

🌞 The sun shone with us every day until Friday, and each walk featured a different fun activity or theme to keep us engaged. We went on a scavenger hunt to see what we could spot, flew our flags, enjoyed chalk drawings, spotted a tractor ploughing the field, enjoyed a bubble walk and explored different silly walks and ways to move our bodies 🦵💪🫶

So far, we have a total of £720 handed in from all of our children and families! We are completely blown away by the children's efforts and the support received from everyone who has sponsored us over the past few weeks!! We cannot thank you enough 🥰

Roll on our Summer Trip ☀️ 🚌🧬🧪