We are currently offering a summer scheme to the nursery school children and to the Year 1 children from Killowen and St John's Primary Schools.  Our focus is developing language and maths skills and of course promoting emotional well-being!!




 The fortnight is organised by Kerry, Grace and Margaret who plan a wide range of exciting activities for the children where they will have fun and learn through play based activities.  Of course, as with all good planning - each day is flexible and the direction of the planning may change based on the interests and needs of the children.
On arrival the first activity is choosing a coat peg and creating a personal plaque that will identify where each child will hang their belongings during the week. 






There is variation in the resources the children choose and their approach to the task







Children can choose to spend time outdoors or indoors and staff are available to encourage support and extend children's learning.  Outdoor activities are popular.

Gaining a sense of balance - alone....and with friends

There has been lots of excitement recently in the area because Darren Clarke won the Golf Open championship.  In nursery this week there was lots of conversation about golf and  how to play it.  Knowledge varied greatly while one or two could talk about the Open, using relevant vocabulary ..there were other children whose knowledge was very limited.  Kerry brought in an iron for the children to use and who knows....we may have a future champion in our midst!!!!




 We also used our golf balls to paint! 
Using a builder's tray, some paint and a variety of balls of different shapes, sizes and textures we created artworks... it was a great opportunity to discuss colours, colour mixing and simply enjoy the activity with our friends!



Our nursery school was successful in gaining the Ecoschools Green Flag for the first time in June.
http://www.eco-schoolsni.org/
We love being outdoors and one of our great passions is growing vegetables and fruit in our garden.  When we returned for the Summer scheme many children were curious to see how the potatoes, tomatoes and broad beans had grown.  The beans were ready to harvest.  Margaret and some children picked some of the pods, talked about their shape, then opened them and looked closely at the contents.  The beans were then cooked and shared.  Almost everyone loved them and there were none left at the end of the session!!

"this one looks like a smiley face" says Emily

At story time - there was only one story that we could choose - a - touchy feely version of Jack and the Beanstalk




INDOOR ACTIVITIES
Plants that are grown in our garden also feature in our indoor activities as we chop herbs in the kitchen.


Language and discussion is continuous during the session.  Craft activities offer children many opportunities to talk to each other and to the adults as they plan what to do, decide how to carry out these plans and finish their activities.


Making a butterfly - using tissue paper and a dolly peg, decorating it with glitter and pompoms and then displaying the finished product on a backing that has been created using flyswats and blue, green and yellow paint.

Using twigs and grey clay to create spiders....how many legs do they have?

Working with sandpaper to remove a smiley face that has been drawn on the piece of wood...
And of course it wouldn't be fun if we had to keep ourselves clean....just look at the surprise on her face when Rhiannon realises she is covered in blue paint!!

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  1. Marian - like I said I had been reading this without putting 2 & 2 together!!! Love the whole summer scheme idea - great to use the place in summer - is it funded or self-funding by charging?
    Keep up the great work!

    ReplyDelete

I'm really amazed at how quickly this term has passed.

Since September it has really all been about Relationships between staff parents and children!

We have nearly all of our children settled into the daily routine and although there are a few children who haven't yet been comfortable enough to stay for story we hope this will change in the next few weeks.

To date all nursery school staff have been busy working with our children, settling in, focusing on establishing and embedding the rules and routines in a very busy, sometimes hectic environment.  That's why we have introduced Small Group time at the beginning of each session to allow the children to get to know the names of the other children in their group and a staff member to whom they can relate more closely.

What a busy day!  Lots of interested children - lots of relevant and focused discussion as the wood was measured, marked and then cut.

Later there was the opportunity to explore how the pump works....
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Settling in Post from September 2013 is still relevant and worth reading today - please take a wee look!

This blog will be updated more frequently this year or check our Facebook and twitter pages
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We had visitors on Friday 3rd October from Windmill nursery in Dungannon. Kierna Corr - nursery teacher and lover of outdoor education for preschool children wrote this post following their visit - AND our caretaker gets a mention too.

Thursday 2nd  October 2014

What fun!

All the children, staff and many parents walked together to the Coleraine West community centre where we were met by Amanda who enticed us to Be Active and move together to music!

There were lots of props and tunes to help us move in a large variety of ways and everyone enjoyed the day!

A very big word for a magical process.  We've spent the last few weeks observing our caterpillars closely and anticipating the day when they would emerge from their cocoons and become .....

Beautiful Butterflies!

We had lots of opportunities to talk about the changes that happen, how the butterfly moves, the colours, caring for them, feeding them and then watching as they flew away....

Tuesday 13th May 2014

Fabulous weather!

Interested children!

Interested adults!

What a super combination for a great educational visit!
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Transitions from home to nursery or from nursery to primary school can be challenging for some children.  When transitions work well they help children to develop confidence and acquire skills to manage future changes in their lives.  

In Kylemore Nursery School we want to provide support from the earliest stages in Education for Life.  Thanks to DSD Neighbourhood Renewal  funding we now have  an additional member of staff who supports families - especially during Transition.
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Our latest Eco-school project.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of Barry from Coleraine Borough Council and William one of our daddies, the bugs and minibeasts in the Heights area of Coleraine now have a new 5***** dwelling!

What makes a good bug hotel or minibeast mansion?

The best bug hotels have lots of small spaces in different shapes and sizes and made from different materials.  Ideally, some should be nice and dry inside, and others a bit dampish.
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The Plastic Bag tax in Northern Ireland is providing wonderful opportunities for school and community groups to improve facilities.  Who would have believed it!

We have been fortunate to receive a grant from NI Environment link to provide a Parent/Child friendly space at the front of our school! Last December we created the initial seating area in front of our school.

We have now extended our outdoor seating area by creating a second area that mirrors the first.
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Check out the local papers!!!

Kylemore nursery school's children, parents and staff took part in the Big Spring Clean this month. The event was a massive success and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents and children that got involved.
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Music today - What's in the case.... is it a guitar, a recorder, a drum...

It's a violin!  - How do we play it....do we tap it, do we blow, do we pluck the strings....

Oh look - this wee black piece tucks under my chin!!!

So what happens next.....do I use my hand to make music...or do I use this....stick....

Mick Conway, who works as an environmental educator, reflects on the ‘Poet and the Piper’ performance at the Millennium Forum and environmental education! Mick is well known to the children and families attending both our nursery and Ballysally nursery as he interacts with our children in the Roe Valley country park regularly.  He is inspiring and informative and we love working with him.

He shared this press release with me and has given permission for its inclusion on our school blog.

Settling  in to nursery is a busy time and for some children it can be a traumatic process.  Our children - all 104 of them - are in school now and most are settling reasonably well.  Many are staying for the full session but inevitably there are some who are not just prepared to let mum or dad go at this early stage.  And that's ok!!!!!

Time is of the essence.
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Just to say a really big Thank You to all the wonderful children we have had the pleasure of learning from and learning with this year...

It isn't possible to add each child's photo to the blog so here's some recent pictures of our outdoor adventures....
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Monday 10th June 2013

Beach visit

Red class and Green class together....in a Double Decker bus!!!!!

http://roevalley.com/newsbrowser/historical/martello.htm

Sand sculptures

Focus:   Trees  /  Climbing  / Taking risk within a controlled environment

We agreed to offer our children the opportunity to do a bit of tree climbing after a session in our school grounds with Dave working on a zipwire.

The use of the zipwire was prompted by reading Julia Robertson's blog - "I'm a Teacher, get me OUTSIDE here."

http://creativestarlearning.blogspot.com/2013/04/making-zip-wire.html   

This month each class of children, staff and parent helpers were joined by Dave.
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Wednesday 10th April 2013

The text below is  from the NI Curricular Guidance for Pre-school Education 2006

Children enjoy physical play both indoors and outdoors.

They revel in freedom of movement and in play that is inventive, adventurous and stimulating.
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Friday 1st March

Today is traditionally the last day farmers or tree surgeons can cut hedges or trees - the official start of the nesting season. Our children created nests with wire hanging baskets using cornus, conifer branches and loads of moss.  It was a very popular activity, and a good lead-in  creating lots of opportunities for discussion before our Woodland School visits.

Monday 7th January 2013

Welcome back to the new term and Happy New Year to all our parents, carers and children.

We hope this  term our children will continue to be curious about the World around us and that we can experience frost, ice and a tiny little bit of snowy weather - but not too much!!

Staff will be talking about winter weather and promoting the children's creativity as they mix blue, white, and grey to make cold colours and discuss why they look cold.
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