Welcome to Kesh Community Nursery

My name is Mrs Read and I am the Nursery teacher.  Mrs McCaughey and Miss Verner are our Nursery assistants and Mrs Middlemas, our caretaker, also volunteers in Nursery.  Miss Little joins us on Mondays and Tuesdays too. 

April 2024

Quote of the month:
“We must teach our children: To smell the earth, to taste the rain, to touch the wind, to see things grow, to hear the sunrise and the nightfall. To care.”
John Cleal

A very useful link from the team at RISE - lots of excellent advice for parents to support children at home in a wide range of areas including speech and language, physical skills, behaviour support etc - well worth a look!  https://view.pagetiger.com/RISENI/parents 

A warm welcome back after the Easter holidays as we look forward to another month filled with fun and exciting play and learning opportunities indoors and outdoors in Nursery.
Our focused themes this half-term are Spring, Mini-beasts, Houses and Homes, Castles, and Fairy tales.
The children have been out and about exploring for signs of Spring in the Wonderful World Around Us. They have been inspecting the work going on in our Forest School.  Mr Colin Osbourne is very kindly building us a forest shelter and blackboards.  Exciting days ahead! We can't wait to get using them!  Mr Stewart, Mr Anthony McCaughey and Mr Malcolm Read all set about creating a new pathway and fenced off garden area for our nursery children to use to get to our polytunnel.  The children are all set to create their own flower filled area...watch this space!

Spending time outdoors is great fun and promotes physical and mental well- being, the children can freely run, jump, skip, climb and learn how to become aware of their boundaries, limits, and challenges.
It promotes a sense of well-being and confidence; they are more likely to take on a new challenge as they grow in stamina, agility, and strength.   Being outdoors encourages their natural curiosity.
We love to hear the excited invitation to “come and look” when they find a new little creature roaming around the playground. There is equal excitement, curiosity and marvel at our amazing, real life and ever-changing tadpoles which swim energetically in our tank inside our nursery. It is a marvellous opportunity to secure and bring to life learning about the various life cycles such as frogs and butterflies. We promise to take great care of them until they are ready to hop off into the beauty of Fermanagh.
The World Around Us is an area of the curriculum where children will continue to learn about throughout their school life. We aim to harness their natural curiosity and offer broad and balanced experiences for them to explore.

Parents can view our Seesaw App to see what we get up to each day in Nursery and as always, we love to hear any comments that the children make at home or things they find at home linked to their learning.
Ways to encourage outdoor play at home:
o Make it fun.
o Take their favourite toys outside.
o Visit a variety of places.
o Involve them in everyday outdoor activities.
o Provide them with a variety of outdoor toys.
From now on we will be visiting the polytunnel every day to observe, water and care for the plants we are sowing.
Playing outdoors /indirect outlines the many health and well being benefits of playing outside and fun activity ideas to do, this can be accessed on the link below.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/playing-outside-your-child

One of our topics will be learning about minibeasts.  The children will have a variety of opportunities to discover this fascinating topic. Through pictures, toys, art materials songs and dance they will have opportunities to learn names, how and why they move in a certain way, why does it need so many legs, what does it eat and the roles of insects in the environment. Learning about and looking for insects encourages the children to enjoy and respect the environment and helps alleviates any fear that the children may have around them.

The link below has some wonderful ideas to learn about insects.
The Woodland Trust
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk
Children are naturally curious about their environment and benefit greatly by been given opportunities to explore and use their senses inside and outside. Above all it is incredibly good fun and offers a sound foundation of learning opportunities.

This month nursery is being transformed into a scene from a magical fairytale, where knights guard the tow bridge and ladies and gentlemen stroll around in beautiful attire in and out of the large castle. 
Fairy tale stories are a wonderful way to boost the child’s imagination, learn about diversity, culture and problem solving to name but a few.
This link Raise them Reading provides access to classic fairy tale stories and videos.
https://www.raisethemreading,com

Our Getting Ready to Learn Programme continues this term - we are delighted to receive all the feedback and photos from our families using all the wonderful home-learning resources.  A huge thank you to our parents! Nursery works best when we all work together as a team!

MARCH 2024

This promises to be another busy month in nursery! Lots of work has been underway  for World Book Day,

St. Patrick’s Day and Easter!! 

During March we will be learning all about spring changes, life on a farm and Easter.  As the weather warms up we will be setting to work in our poly tunnel to plant our flowers, fruits and vegetables. 
Through our work we will be gaining an understanding of where our food comes from and how we can help to look after our environment. 
 

Thank you to all our parents for your continued fabulous work in our Getting Ready to Learn programme! We love seeing your photos and videos of your children hard at work and play with their Happy Healthy Kids packs and Big Bedtime Story packs. 
 

We are all enjoying our Little Talkers sessions with Charlene from RISE this month. These will finish at the end of the month.

DECEMBER 2023

This month our interest topic are Christmas and Celebrations

Nursery is being transformed into a Christmas wonderland by all our pupils.  Christmas trees are being decorated and lots of festive fun is about to take over the classroom from arts and crafts to playing in Santa's house and workshop, in the nursery stable as well as lots of other fun games and actvities.

We are busily rehearsing our nativity play in readiness to perform for all our friends and families on Thursday 14th December at 10am in the main school hall.  The children are very excited at the thought of performing for everyone on 'the big stage'!  It sounds as though lots of our family members will know our songs almost as well as our little ones!!

Why not  look at our nursery photo gallery to see some of the things we have been up to!

MARCH 2023

We have a ‘real spring’ in our step as we begin a new fun and exciting month ahead in Nursery.

Our interest topics this month are Spring, nature, new life and the farm.

The children will continue to develop their curiosity of The Wonderful World Around Us through a wide range of activities.

They are currently planting seeds and bulbs and enjoying time in the polytunnel. Gardening is a wonderful way to help stimulate all five senses where the children are actively involved and exploring natural materials such as soil, stones and water, sounds around them, distinguishing smells, observing nature and hopefully after all their hard work and patience tasting some of

their produce Multi-sensory learning is a fun way to help the child engage at a higher level and aids overall development.

The children will have opportunities to learn and broaden their knowledge about the weather, seasons, life cycles, animals, birds and minibeasts. These are exciting topics which the children explore in nursery and continue to develop right through their school life.

The National Trust 50 things to do before you're 11¾ | Visit | National Trust  offers some great ideas and suggestions about how children can benefit from outdoor activities all year around.  This site has a wide range of useful information on various topics.

You could help strengthen your child’s knowledge by asking about their day in nursery, talking to them about nature and letting us know any comments they make. We love to hear what they say and consequently work in partnership with you to ensure they have every opportunity to explore any particular interest that they have.

March got off to a great start with World Book Day on Friday March 3rd. Well done and thank you to all the costume designers at home. We had a great selection of characters from pupils and staff and the children enjoyed watching hundreds of book characters come to life as everyone showed their costume.

 booklet-compressed-updated - Copy.pub (eani.org.uk)

This link provides a comprehensive  Parent’s Booklet on Fun Activities for Language Development.

World Maths Day – March 8th 

Kesh Nursery never like to miss a celebration or miss out on the fun so we will continue to promote mathematical language and learning throughout the child’s day.

You can help us by:

Encouraging your child to recite songs and rhymes at home.

Talk about number around you example signs, doors, number plates …

Use mathematical language together in everyday tasks - for example big/small , full/empty,  light/heavy

Play board games that involve number and counting.

Some Important Dates

St. Patrick’s Day 17^th March - School Closure.

5^th April - Wear green for Macmillan Cancer.

6^th April to the 14^th April - Easter Holidays School Closure.

Tip of the month:

To develop children’s general knowledge you could play the ‘Who am I game?’.

For example, I live on a farm, and I am a baby cow... or I am a baby butterfly.

Make it fun and adapt your questions as necessary and see if they want to have a go asking you a question too.

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember,

involve me and I learn.”.

Benjamin Franklin.

Some of this month's rhymes are:

A Little Seed 

A little seed for me to sow

A little seed to make it grow. 

A little hole, a little pat.

A little wish, and that’s that. 

A little sun, a little shower.

A little while,

And then, a flower!

Five Speckled Frogs

Five little speckled frogs

Sat on a speckled log

Eating some most delicious bugs

(yum, yum)

One jumped into the pool

Where it was nice and cool

Then there were four green

speckled frogs.

(glub, glub)

Spring Morning

This is the way the bunny hops, bunny hops, bunny hops
This is the way the bunny hops, on a spring time morning.
This is the way the robin flies…
This is the way the little chick walks…
This is the way the little duck swims…
This is the way the little lamb runs…
This is the way the children play…

~ Author Unknown ~

Spring is here! Spring is here!

Spring is here! Spring is here!
Winter is gone and two flowers appear.
Three little robins begin to sing.
Four bicycle bells begin to ring.
Five children come out and jump the rope.
Spring is here now! I hope, I hope!

Author Unknown

FEBRUARY 2023

February has just begun and the children are already hard at work exploring our Interest Topics for this month which are: People Who Help Us, Valentine’s Day, and Looking after Ourselves. 

People Who Help Us - The boys and girls are currently enjoying role play in our Kesh Nursery Nail and Beauty Salon. The job involves many skills from answering the phone, recording appointments, managing the waiting area and of course providing that all important friendly and excellent service.

In the coming weeks the children will have opportunities to explore roles of various people who help us in the community including our hospitals, the emergency services, shops and many more.

Role play is a wonderful way to develop confidence, social skills, promote gender equality, communication, new vocabulary and problem-solving ability in a way that is fun and where the child can freely get lost in their imagination. Please view the Seesaw app for a more detailed planner and to view photos or videos of them in nursery. You can support their learning by discussing their day and please feel free to share any comments the children make as we love to hear them.

Looking after Ourselves

During the month of February, the children will continue to learn about ways to look after their own health, both physically and emotionally. This first week of February is also Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week so we will be looking more deeply into our emotions and how we can express our feelings.  We aim to empower children to enjoy the benefits of a healthy lifestyle at this early age to last a lifetime. We are delighted to work with you to promote various programmes in Nursery such as The PATHS programme, Happy healthy Kids and The BigBedtime Read.

Twiggle the Turtle from PATHS is a great friend to all in Nursery, he comes to visit each day to offer great advice to help the children make positive choices and encourage them to express how they feel throughout the day. He is part of the PATHS evidence-based programme to promote social and emotional well-being for schools in the UK.

You can visit the PATHS website below for some great information to help your child regulate their emotions and view a video of how to do turtle.

http://www.pathseducation.co.uk/

The Education Authority Pre-school Resources website also has some great ideas and useful links to promote health and well-being, and this can be viewed on the following website.

https://www.eani.org.uk/pre-school-education-resources

Getting Ready to Learn Programmes

We hope everyone is enjoying the Happy Healthy Kids resources to promote fine and gross motor development which in turn greatly supports overall physical health and  mental health. The packs should be returned on a Monday and a new one will be given out again on Tuesday. Improving fine and gross motor skills will greatly assist the child’s overall well-being and significantly improve their learning. For example strengthening the muscles in the hand aims to improve pencil control and writing skills whereas improving gross motor skills strengths the shoulder and arms to maintain stability in order for the hands and fingers to work with control and precision.

You can help by:                                         

• Having fun with your child and joining in where possible.
• Dance like there is no one watching.
• Play hopscotch using chalk.
• Play Simon Says, crawl like a crab, jump like a kangaroo, stand on one leg and count
• Encourage your child to be creative and use a range of mark making tools, such as pencils crayons or even a stick in mud.
• Turn off screens and encourage children to play.

The benefits and ideas are endless.

The Big Bedtime Read packs should also be returned on a Monday morning and a new pack will be given out that day. Spending time together reading builds bonds, helps the child relax and in turn creates good bedtime routines which promotes better quality sleep.

Important Dates for your Diary

Mid-term break – school closed Monday 13^th and reopens Monday 20^th March.

Parent Teacher Interviews – Thank you to all who have replied, you will now have received your allocated date and time. If you haven’t replied please do so as soon as possible, there are still some available slots available on Tuesday the 28^th (Unfortunately all slots on Monday 20^th and Friday 24^th have now been filled). Looking forward to seeing you.

Early Notification World Book Day is on Thursday 2^nd March but we are having a special visit from Brian Poots (Forest Schools) that Day so the whole school will be dressing up as their favourite character on Friday 3rd March instead.

This year’s theme is You are a Reader.

“If you want your children to be intelligent read them fairy tales, if you want them to be more intelligent read them more fairy tales” – Albert Einstein. 

Tip of the Month

Memory games help to improve concentration, memory and thinking skills. For eg: gather 3 or 4 small items and put on a tray, allow your child to study them and then cover. How many can they remember or take away one to see if they can guess which one is gone. You can then add more items.

Songs and rhymes we will be doing this month: 

Our PATHs rhyme for 'doing turtle' a technique to help us control anger or help us when we are scared

When I feel like I want to fight,

             wise old Turtle says,           

                       “Hold on tight”.                    

                 I tell myself to stop,              

                  I take a deep breath,              

                               doing turtle sure feels right

Later this month we will be creating a hospital in nursery to replace our nail and beauty salon. We will be looking at how lots of people help us but especially those in our emergency services

This little rhyme tells us how Polly phoned for a doctor for her sick dolly.

Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick.

So, she phoned for the doctor

to come quick, quick, quick.

The doctor came with his bag and his hat,

And knocked at the door with a rat-a-tat-tat.

He looked at the dolly and shook his head,

And said “Miss Polly put her straight to bed.

He wrote a paper for a pill, pill, pill.

I’ll be back in the morning

with the bill, bill, bill.

We will be learning how to contact the emergency services on the telephone

9–9–9

(Sung to the tune of ‘3 Blind Mice’)

9-9-9, 9-9-9,

Help’s on the way,

help’s on the way,

If I need help,

I know what to do,

I can call the police

 and the fire brigade too,

It makes me feel safe to know what to do,

Call 9-9-9

A counting rhyme with lots of actions!

_{Five friendly firefighters}

_{Five friendly firefighters standing near the door,
One washes the fire engine, now there are four.
Four friendly firefighters waiting patiently,
One fixes the hoses, now there are three.
Three friendly firefighters have a lot to do,
One climbs up a ladder, now there are two.
Two friendly firefighters exercise and run,
One cooks some dinner, now there is one.
One friendly firefighter-all the work is done,
This one goes to bed, now there are none}.

JANUARY 2023

A very happy new year and a warm welcome back to nursery, we look forward to a fun and exciting new term ahead.

Our Interest Topics this month are Winter and life in the Polar Regions.

The children will have opportunities to explore life in the Antarctic and Arctic regions. They may choose to visit the nursery igloo and polar explorer’s boat, discover the amazing creatures in these regions by playing with the various resources, look at maps and books or help make snow for the small world area. They will have plenty to keep them busy! Please view the Seesaw App for a more detailed outline of the learning and play opportunities.

Thank you for continuing to join us in our Seesaw journal.  It makes a good way to talk to your child about their day in nursery and as usual we love to hear what they remember and say, this helps develop their thinking skills, increases their memory and language skills.

Big Bedtime Read

Our Big Bedtime Read will recommence each Monday in January from Monday 9th. We really appreciate your commitment and help with this. As the Education Authority website states, “Spending just 10 minutes per day reading, talking and playing with your child helps develop their thinking skills. Problem-solving skills, turn taking skills, language and social skills”.

Important dates for your diary:

Applications for Nursery and Primary one places 2023 will open on Tuesday 10^th January at 12 noon.

Admissions | Education Authority Northern Ireland (eani.org.uk)

Happy Healthy Kids Packs will begin to go home from the week beginning Mon 23^rd January.  The packs will go home on a Tuesday and are to be returned on a Monday with the Big Bedtime Read Packs.  Hopefully you will enjoy all the activities and they will help you reinforce some of the skills the children will have been working on in nursery too.  

Tip of the Month             

I spy game. You could play The I Spy Game to help your child learn various mathematical concepts for example, I spy something big/small, long/short, up /down, wide/ narrow something straight / crooked for example.

Try rolling up some socks to use as ‘snowballs’ to aim at targets/boxes to practise those aiming and throwing skills ahead of the real snow arriving! Great for focus, direction and spatial awareness too.

Some of the poems we will be looking at this month:

I'm a little penguin

I’m a little penguin

Black and white

Soft and Cuddly,

What a sight.

I can’t fly at all

But I love to swim,

So I waddle to the water

And I dive right in

The North Wind shall blow

The North Wind shall blow

And we shall have snow

And what will poor robin do then?

Poor thing

He’ll stay in the barn and keep himself warm

With his head tucked under his wing

Poor thing!

Five Little Snowmen

Five little snowmen standing in a line

1,2,3,4,5 so fine

Melt in the sunshine with a sigh

We’ll see you next year, now bye bye!

(Continue to count down until none are left)

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Nursery 2022-23

Nursery 2021-22