Hello and welcome to week 6 of our home learning. I hope that you are all safe and well. Thankfully the weather has continued to be good so the kids are able to spend lots of time outdoors. 
Thank you for this weeks emails. As always I love to hear and see what the kids have been up to. Lots more photographs have been posted on our nursery page. 
Joanne Hamilton

jhamilton965@c2kni.net

Our Nursery Garden

 

Many months ago the boys and girls planted lots of tulip bulbs, one very cold winter‘s day.  Before nursery closed many of the bulbs had started to shoot but unfortunately we never got to see them bloom. Here is a little video to show the boys and girls how our garden looks now. Thank you boys and girls for all your hard work and thank you to Alfie’s dad for all the bulbs. 
Last but not least, thank you to Grandad Tom (Alex and Eva Parker’s grandad) for helping to look after our nursery beds while we are not in nursery. 

Let’s get planting and growing

Most children enjoy being outdoors and love digging in the soil, getting dirty, creating things and watching plants grow. 
Here are a few simple growing projects you can try with your child. 

Spring onions: Trim off the bottom (root end) inch of your spring onions and place them roots down in a small glass jar filled with water. Change the water every few days.

Within a few days they will start growing back into spring onions again.

 

Carrot tops is one of the easiest plants for a preschool child to grow.  Carrot tops make pretty houseplants for a sunny window and their fern-like foliage is beautiful in an outdoor container garden. Eventually, white lacy flowers will bloom. Growing carrot tops from carrots takes no special equipment and results will be seen in a matter of days. 

Read more at Gardening Know How: Grow Carrots From Carrots – Sprouting Carrot Tops With Kids https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/children/grow-carrot-tops.htm

Grow your own pea shoots. We do this project every year in nursery. 

Take a handful of dried peas and  put them in a bowl. Cover them with tap water and leave them overnight.

The next morning they’ll have about doubled in size.

Put about 2 inches of soil in a yogurt pot and sow the peas, then sprinkle more soil over to cover them. Put the pot on a windowsill.

Water sparingly each day. Don’t drown them or they’ll rot.  In a couple of days you’ll see their little shoots popping up through the soil.
After three weeks they will be ready to harvest.  Trim  off the tops and mix them into your salad leaves or mix them into a stir fry. Or stir them into cooked peas at the very last minute for a bit of crunch and added flavour.

Hello Cards

Here is a printable hello card to colour. You could help your child write a message inside and post to a friend or family member. 
They will also keep your child busy to allow you to get some work done!! 

Flower Gloop - Messy but a lot of fun

 

Some of you may remember the last time we did gloop in nursery. The children went home covered in a pale blue powder. 
Here is a recipe and an idea to add flowers to the gloop. 
 

Cornflower

Water

Flowers

Tray – I used a baking tray as this has raised edges so the goop was less likely to go everywhere

Spoon

To make the goop you mix the cornflower with the water, there’s no exact science to this but it’s more cornflower than water, so pop the cornflower into your tray and then add the water bit by bit until you are happy with it, stirring with a spoon as you go to mix them together. Add your flowers. You could get the kids to go and pick daisies, buttercups and dandelions. 

 

Flower soup

Back in my day they called it flower perfume but I guess this is maybe more appealing to both boys and girls. 

WHAT YOU NEED:

A water table or bucket

Scissors (to cut the flowers)

Flowers

Measuring cups, ladle etc

Cutting and swirling the flowers, making soup for me to ‘taste’, was it too hot? Was the seasoning right? Did it need more flowers, Using the ladles and measuring cups to try and pick the flowers up. 
Lots of fun and not too messy. 

 

 

Don’t forget to keep going with the observational drawing, in the past we have brought in tadpoles, snails, worms and of course lots of different flowers for the children to draw.