Category Archives: News

Woodland Play Take 2

Another great day today at Woodland Play. So interesting to see the dynamics in this group and how they interacted differently with each other and the environment. Also lovely to see how they all grew in confidence as the session progressed. We had lots of water play again today, cakes, soup and mud pies were the order of the day. The children loved spotting the furry animals in the trees and we remembered all the animals from the Gruffalo story and how they ate scrambled snake, roasted fox and owl ice-cream! We thought we might spot a Gruffalo in our woods but we didnt even see a purple prickle 😒

We found a den and wanted to make a bed in it so we got a blanket and covered it all up. We really wanted to make a hanging bed though, we decided that was called a hammock, but we didn’t have the bits with us today. We will try to get them for next time and we can sleep in the den in the hammock. We did make a swing today, it was great fun. We took turns and even helped each other push. Our snack was hot chocolate and a biscuit again, we were quite cosy under our shelter. There were some wee bugs in the burn, we think they are water lice or shrimps. We got our books out to check but we couldnt find the same ones. We did find some lovely flowers in the tree book. There was a lovely white tree with flowers just like the one next to the Community Centre garden.

We’ll be back again on Monday – cant wait!

Woodland Play

We had a fantastic first morning at Woodland Play today. We are so lucky to have such a great resource on our doorsteps. As expected the burn was the biggest draw and most, if not all, of our children managed to get more than a little wet! It’s interesting to see the changes in group dynamics when you take the children into the woods and how the interaction is just subtly different. Lovely also to see so much imagination, interests, enthusiasm, cooperation, participation, team work, empathy and much much more. Roll on day 2 😊

Cambusbarron Community Fund

We are delighted to announce that our application to Cambusbarron Community Fund (administered by Foundation Scotland) for funds to assist with running our pilot Woodland Play sessions has been successful and that we have been awarded £1983.04. This will allow us to purchase initial equipment as well as help with costs associated with the pilot project. This will make a significant difference to our ability to run this project and we are very grateful!

Happy Easter

Playgroup will be closed on Friday March 30th for the Easter holidays. We will reopen on Monday April 16th. We hope you all enjoy the break, hopefully with some lovely spring weather.

Lending Library

Our playgroup is a learning community where our children are not the only learners. Our staff are continually learning along with the children, developing new understandings and allowing practice and thinking to evolve. We are committed to continuing professional development and regularly attend training and workshop sessions to support our children’s learning. We also encourage the developing early years workforce. We welcome early years trainees within our setting mentoring them and allowing them to gain experience.

Playgroups are traditionally supportive communities for young parents at a time in their lives when they are at risk of stress, anxiety and isolation. We also support parents in growing their parenting skills as well as their children. To this end we have created a lending library of a variety of books with information on child development, learning theories, activities and games. Some are on display in our playroom but please ask a staff member if you are interested in borrowing a book from the bookshelf