Dear Parents and Staff,
Another week and according to Nicola, another few weeks of lockdown. We have been blessed with the weather and the sunshine makes everything that bit brighter!
The children in the nursery at Walker Street are enjoying the freedom of the garden and the Churchyard, and our new babies have settled in beautifully. As always the staff have all been superb.
Nikki is enjoying a well earned break and she is tackling painting her new garden fence.
A few of the staff have been given a provisional acceptance at Glasgow University to start the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Early Child Care, well done everybody! Several staff have already completed this degree and another group are well on their way on the course. This is a great achievement for them all and for the nursery. It is wonderful to see staff grow in confidence and competence when they complete this degree. I thank them for their commitment and professionalism.
For preschool children, the transition programme planned between our nurseries and our school primary one teachers is to be based around the book ‘Going On A Bear Hunt’. I am working with the staff to give you some ideas how to develop this with your child. We are trying to arrange a different staff member reading the story for you and hope this will be available next week.
I have just received information from the City of Edinburgh Council which gives more detail. Please find the information below, and should you have any queries, don’t hesitate to contact me.
From my home to your home.
Best wishes
Maureen.
Ingredients
2 large onions,
500ml mince,
2 large peppers (any colour),
2 tablespoon of tomato puree,
2 x tinned tomatoes,
1 x tin of kidney beans or baked beans,
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper,
2 teaspoon of paprika,
1 teaspoon of ground ginger,
4 teaspoon of cinnamon,
4 teaspoon of cumin,
2 x beef of vegetable stock cubes
Method
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Dice the onions and peppers
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In a large saucepan, fry the mince, onions, peppers and all spices with a little vegetable oil on medium heat until soft
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Add the tin of tomatoes, tomato puree, stock and ½ a cup of boiling water. Cook for 1 hour on a low heat
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After cooking for an hour add the kidney beans and heat through.
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Serve with rice, taco’s or baked potato – yum!
Serves 4.
Dear Parents and Staff
A new month and hopefully a new way forward. I was heartened by a recent piece of research which suggests that children do not spread the virus. So whilst we continue with the lockdown, we pray for a consistent lockdown trend and hope a vaccine arrives as soon as possible.
As mentioned in previous letters, I am assessing our financial situation on a month to month basis and as such there are no fees being charged for the month of May.
To ensure that we adhere to social distancing in the nursery, we have reached our safe capacity and now unable to provide further places at Walker Street at present. Thank you to all our keyworkers who have given us their weekly childcare needs. This has enabled us to offer childcare to some vulnerable families.
Nikki will be on holiday for the next two weeks and Steph McQueenie will be leading the team. Should you require any information, please contact the following numbers and emails:
Finally, Nikki has been asked for some of our lovely nursery recipes which we will send out every day next week – enjoy!
Best Wishes,
Maureen
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Dear Parents and Staff,
We are now in the next phase of lockdown and I hope you are managing to adapt to your new way of life. I have definitely managed to slow down and adjusted my routine to a much calmer pace. We have been blessed with beautiful weather which always makes life more pleasant.
The thing I miss most is hugging my family and I am sure you are all the same. I know the staff on furlough will be missing your children very much. We have been instructed that staff on furlough cannot be involved in nursery work and I know that is hard for them. Similarly the children will be missing their friends.
I have asked Nikki to look at some form of communication between the children so hopefully we can get this up and running soon.
If I could also ask that when you have a moment, please update your app on the app store – there a few bugs that need fixing!
We have some scavenger hunt ideas for the ideas for the children below – good luck!
I hope everyone is keeping well.
From my home to yours,
Maureen
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Dear parents,
This must be the strangest Easter we will have experienced. As I look out over the garden, it is first time ever that there are no grandchildren running around, searching for Easter eggs. Still, we are all doing the right thing and staying safe. I am sure your children will still enjoy the day.
The staff working have been doing amazing and creative things with our small group of children and they are having lots of fun.
Phil and Ozzy, two of our Jannies, (maintenance managers as they like to be called) are painting for Scotland and the children will return to their nurseries freshly painted.
Nikki has been busy compiling some fun Easter ideas for you to try with the children which you can find below:
I wish you all and your lovely children a happy, healthy Easter.
God bless you all.
Best wishes,
Maureen
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Below is a selection of ideas to consider for your child during this period of school closures. We are not suggesting you HAVE to do these things, but we are offering them as suggestions in case you run out of your own ideas! Also, keep an eye out for more fun ideas uploaded on our app daily.
You can also keep in touch with us through your child’s learning journal. Why not upload photos and comments about a challenge your child has completed, or share with us something that your child has been doing/exploring within their own free play, or maybe just a photo of family event you have all enjoyed. We can’t wait to see what exciting things you have all been doing from home.
Top Tips
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Remember all children are different and have their own likes, dislikes, interests, and own timetable of development.
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Children respond readily to routine and at present their daily/weekly routine is going to be different. Try to establish a daily routine around mealtimes, play times and rest times.
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Offer the challenges and play ideas only for as long as it is enjoyable for your child – this might only be for 15 minutes or less for most of these activities and you can always go back to them at any time.
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Allow lots of opportunity for your child to enjoy free play with their own toys, following their own interests and use this opportunity to observe what motivates your child and consider different ways you could develop their own interests.
Communication & Language
Read aloud to your child in your home language – encourage your child to choose the book, join in with a familiar story, hold the book themselves, turn the pages themselves, make up the story/retell the story by looking at the pictures.
Spend some time saying rhymes together/sing songs – revisit old favourites, listen to some familiar ones online, learn some new ones, action rhymes are usually the most engaging for our children
Make up a story together, write down the story as your child tells it to you, if they would like to draw their story encourage and support their mark making by writing simple captions for their pictures. Maybe they could share their story with other family members
Make a card to send to a relative or friend
Health & Well Being
Allow your child to help you prepare their snacks and meals, washing and preparing fruit or veg, spreading their own butter, serving out portions, pouring own drinks, washing up their own plate, cup and cutlery
Encourage your child to think about what you might need from the shops, gather their thoughts on what they would like to eat and write down their ideas and support them to find the products at the shops
Have them help you clean, dust, sweep, tidy the house!
Help to wash the car or their bike/scooter
Help to tidy up the garden/water house plants/feed pets/plant seeds/feed birds
Have a daily local walk/cycle/scooter or visit local park for fresh air and exercise (if we can!)
Check out the Cosmic Yoga & Go Noodle on Youtube – fun interactive video clips
Numeracy & Mathematics
Support them to sort out clothes for washing, organising items by colour for the machine, matching socks, fold clothes, put items away in the right place
Play family games such a snap, bingo, snakes and ladders
Look out for opportunities to count amounts, spot/say or read numbers on signs when out and about on doors/buses (if we can go outside!)
Baking opportunities to explore size, amount and weight
Water play exploring items which float/sink, fill containers different amounts using different sized spoons
Expressive Arts
Listening to music, dancing and playing party games such as musical bumps, musical statues
Use water and different brushes such as decorator’s brushes/rollers, old toothbrushes/scrubbing brushes for mark making on outside paths and walls
Offer opportunities to cut and stick with paper and fabric
Use cardboard boxes, tubes, packaging to make models
Use pots and pans to create drums to play along with different types of music
Make Playdough – use different shaped jars, tubs and boxes as cutters – add stones, sticks to add decoration
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