Welcome to Dickson Nursery Unit 

World Book Day

Please follow link below to watch a special pantomime production. I also hope you are able to enjoy some World Book Day activities with the potato challenge. 

Home Learning wb 1st March

This week the learning pack includes a whiteboard and marker.  Whiteboards are a great tool for mark making and fine motor skill development.   The act of drawing will help with fine motor skills and the act of cleaning the board also helps with muscle development for fine motor skills.  Please encourage your child to use this regularly and provided the lid is put back on the pen when they are finished, the pen should last for several weeks. 

Catching is also a focus activity this week with support materials in the pack.  Please start this task by making it easy....... being close together and using a bigger ball.  Then progress to further apart and then lastly catching smaller items.  If your child is having difficulty with this don't worry but simply start by using a basket to catch so they experience how easy it is.  Remember some children really fear having something thrown at them and often close their eyes.  Build up their confidence so that this does not happen and with eyes looking and hands ready they should be catching in no time.     

I have included some images to help with the shaving foam activity and some animal art images as we will be learning about spring and animals in March.

Home Learning week beginning 22nd February

This week is a mindfulness week for the main school with lots of enjoyable activities and less formal learning. I have also included some mindfulness activities in your pack and I hope that everyone finds the joy in these activities.  Our focus this week is music.  You are asked to think about making music and if you have musical instruments at home this is the week to focus on them and enjoy them.  With that in mind I have also included some music clips below from children's movies.  The idea is that you will watch one each day and find that happy feeling and enjoy the music.  

Also you will find the links below for some teaching on feelings and emotions which ties in with mindfulness and understanding our feelings and what makes us happy.

I hope everyone enjoys our music week and I look forward to seeing all the instruments you make or use this week.  Please send photographs to my email address.  

Mrs Morrow

Home Learning 8th February

This week the resource is a ball with an additional focus of number and colour.  This is a week for you to talk and play with your children with these three things as a focus.  Many of the games they already play will allow for this new focus of learning.  Talking and experiencing colour and number will help with the learning and understanding process.  Please watch the videos below to support the learning worksheets in the pack.  I hope that everyone has a lovely week. 

Please remember to keep scrolling to the bottom for our 'Bake Off' video in preparation for Pancake Tuesday. I hope you all get to enjoy some pancakes and although we will be on mid-term break I would still enjoy seeing your pancake photographs. 

Enjoy mid-term and your next pack will be ready for collection on 22nd February.

Home Learning 1st February

This week we are thinking about mark making and everyone should have received their pack with resources for mark making.  Mark making in the traditional sense, is making marks on paper and we are focusing on this this week but there are many ways of making marks.  Please read all the information in the pack and watch the videos below to help the children see what I want them to do.  Sorry it is a long video this week but I had lots of things to show the boys and girls!

In February our nursery school topic is normally People Who Help Us.  This is something you can talk to your children at home about and enjoy some imaginative play if you can.  Children love to look after dolls or be a vet and look after stuffed animals....or real ones if you have any.  I will read some stories about people who help us and you can sing the songs and rhymes for February. 

Please enjoy the videos below and I am sure the children will love to see and hear Miss Dumigan who has kindly recorded a story and song for the children.

Home Learning 25th January

This week our home learning resource is a water colour paint palette  Painting is a great experience for children.  It develops many areas such as fine motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination, thinking skills, imagination, bi-lateral movements and language development to name a few.  Painting with water colour may be a new experience for most children so please take a paintbrush and model the painting with your child.  Painting should be an enjoyable activity for both parents and children.  I know I love to paint a picture when my children are.....I'm no artist but I still find the experience very therapeutic. 

Remember painting is a messy activity and children always wear an apron in nursery.  If you do not have an apron then please make sure children are not wearing their best clothes or give them an old adult t-shirt as an apron.

I have included a video to introduce the painting to the children.  I hope they enjoy watching it!

I have also included some images of ideas for painting if you are struggling but I really doubt this will be the case as the children always have great ideas in nursery......even if we have to ask questions to find out what the painting is....this is all part of the process of beginning to paint.   Also, children often make a wonderful painting, then continue to cover the whole page in paint making their painting impossible to see. Again please don't worry if this happens.  often children in nursery are just at the stage of painting the page with no actual picture.  Again this is developmentally appropriate and the experience your child needs.

I do not expect to see multi coloured pictures but would like all children to have the shared experience of painting with parental support.    

Home Learning 18th Jan

This week we will be focusing on scissor skills and bean bags.  I have included most of the detail in the packs this week, so you don't have to keep looking at the website.  Please take care with the scissors and start with the safety instructions!! Hopefully the pictures below will give you some more ideas for activities of your own.  Please work at the stage your child is ready for and progress from there.  Do not feel pressure to complete the cutting activities and simply store them away for a time when your child is ready for them.

The bean bags are to encourage lots of physical movement and I know the children will enjoy playing with these and trying out different skills. 

Home Learning Week beginning 11th January

This week our home learning focus will be on play dough.  Each child will be provided with a bag of home made play dough and some resources to use with it.  We have not been using this resource in school this year so this may be a first experience for some children.  

Our first focus this week is using our hands!  I would like you all to start with one colour of dough. I would like all parents to play with their child for these sessions as they would have adult support and conversation in nursery.    Let your child enjoy the feeling of the dough and use their hands to squeeze and press the dough.   

• use their fists to press the dough
• use their hands to roll the dough on the table
• use their hands to roll the dough unto balls 
• use their fingers to press and make marks in the dough
• use their finger tips to roll small shapes

These are are great exercises for fine motor skills which help children to hold pencils. 

Then you can let your and their imagination go wild to make your own creations.

After a few days of these exercises you can then introduce the rolling pin, cutters and tools to extend the play and progress the skills.   After the children have had some experience with the dough you can introduce using the two colours together.  There should be plenty to talk about as they mix the colours. Remember to only mix small amounts at the beginning as some children will prefer the separate colours but once it is mixed it will be mixed!

I have included the recipe so that you can make your own in due course.  Then you can create even more colours.

The play dough you have received is home made so if it is stored in the sealed bag it will last a few weeks.  If it is left out it will harden like any other play dough.  While playing with it, if it goes dry add a very small amount of oil, if it goes wet/sticky add flour (children love to add the flour in nursery).

I hope everyone enjoys playing with the play dough!