Orchard Brae Early Learning and Childcare department have 2 developmental nurseries on 2 separate sites. Orchard Brae Nursery at Howes Road is based within the school site, while Orchard Brae at Ashgrove is based within the Ashgrove children’s Centre. Places at both nurseries are allocated on application through the Educational Psychology service in conjunction with NHS Health Visitors. Placement meetings take place in June, November and February with pupils starting in the term after their 3rd birthday, depending on the availability of spaces.
Both Nurseries have pupils with a wide range of additional support needs. The aim of the Nurseries is to support pupils to develop the skills required to allow them to reach their full potential. A place at Orchard Brae nursery does not assume a place at Orchard Brae school as many pupils will gain skills that allow them to start Primary 1 in their zoned Primary school or Mile-end ASN provision.
Room 2 had great fun exploring the sounds that fireworks make by using instruments and popping and stamping on bubble-wrap!
Then we created our own fireworks pictures to show the different colours and patterns that fireworks make. We used a few different methods to make our beautiful pictures. Our favourite was definitely using the ‘fly swatter’s to stamp the paint onto the paper. We finished off our pictures by sprinkling some glitter on top.
Room 12 are holding another doll raffle, to be drawn at the Christmas Fair on 30th November 2019, all proceeds to Orchard Brae.
Included in the prize is a beautiful wicker basket bed, bedding, the doll and several outfits – from a bride’s dress, to clown’s outfit to pyjamas and matching dressing gown and more. Doll donated and bedding and outfits beautifully made by the mum of one of Room 12’s class teachers.
Tickets to win all this are £1! Come and see us at the fair to buy your ticket!
There will also be many dolly clothes at our stall available to buy separately. These are unique, handmade and better than any dolls clothes you’ll see in the shops!
Room 5 have been very busy this week exploring Our World Of Movement.
On Monday the pupils were learning how to make a Tornado in a bottle.
We filled a plastic bottle with cold water and added some washing up liquid and glitter.
We then worked together to shake the bottle in a circular motion creating a water vortex that looks just like a tornado.
On Wednesday, we enjoyed a trip to the Maritime Museum to investigate our World of Movement. The boys enjoyed walking around the museum and looking at the large boat displays. There was a large scale display of an Oil rig which was very interesting but the boys enjoyed looking out at the views of Aberdeen harbour the most. The boats were huge!
The children in Room 3 have been busy having lots of spooky fun this week. We had our own (home grown!) pumpkin patch in class and enjoyed exploring the story of ‘Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin Picking Plan’. We went jumping in leaves after sweeping them up, had lots of fun picking the perfect pumpkin while taking in the sights and smells of the patch then it rolled all the way home! The children particularly liked our very interactive spooky singing session. We have explored lots of interesting toys and objects which might dance, sing, light up or blow bubbles – some amazing visual and auditory tracking has been happening. Halloween messy play was a big hit…we tried out jelly, gloop, spaghetti and rice crispies – some of us even tried it out with our feet! We participated in the school pumpkin carving competition and took great delight in getting hands on with a drill to make a starry night pumpkin. Everyone looked fantastic in their costumes on the big day itself and we even celebrated a Halloween birthday. Well done Room 3 for your very active participation.
Following our Nursery’s recent inspection, the Care Inspectorate have published their updated inspection report and grades for the settings at Howes Road and Ashgrove. Well done to everyone for all their hard work!
Room 4 recently enjoyed a visit to the Central Library in Aberdeen. While they were there they took part in a multi-sensory story time session and everyone had a fantastic time.
Thank you to the library staff for hosting this session for us!
Visit To The Duthie Park
As part of our moving world topic this term, we have been exploring different ways in which our bodies can move and make other things move. We had great fun at Duthie Park moving and playing with the equipment. We used lots of different forces such as pushing, pulling and twisting to move ourselves and things around us.
You can see in the picture that we were really excited when we stood very still and the frog moved out of the water to say hello!
We have also been learning about how to travel in and out with school safely both on our feet and on school transport. You can see that we really enjoy sitting on the bus with our seat belts fastened and ready to go!
Movement through Art
We have been further exploring cause and effect of forces and movement in art where we have been moving different materials to make pieces of art. We had great fun moving toy vehicles through paint to create some interesting track patterns.
Room 5 had a busy morning, visiting our local library at Northfield.
When we arrived, we spent some time exploring the library. We really liked the computers and colouring in table! We then met the librarian who gave us a library card for our class and we chose some books to take back to school.
We can’t wait for our next visit to the library.
The children in Room 3 have been doing incredible work on their movement skills since returning to school! The children use their equipment daily as part of class routines and work so hard to stand up tall in their standing frames or take steps in their walkers. Twice a week we do focussed movement sessions where we use a range of floor based positions as well as equipment. On a Tuesday we focus on trying out activities in a range of positions, sometimes these are new or challenging but the children are so motivated. On a Friday we have a music and movement session which is linked to our story. We have been exploring all the animals’ movements from ‘The Animal Boogie’ while moving our bodies to different pop and Disney songs in a range of positions. The children work together in pairs or small groups throughout the week in their equipment and are further developing their awareness of each other…sometimes there’s a real sense of competition while we throw/kick balls or try to press the computer first but likewise sometimes it is nice just to lie together during a relaxation time or even help encourage a friend by holding up a favourite toy for them. Being active is great – amazing work Room 3!
