Kim Talbot

Many thanks to parents and grandparents who read stories to the children for #nationalstorytellingweek. Some of the stories were in Urdu, Irish Gaelic and Polish 📖

We have been super busy using junk modelling to create cars and masks using mathematical language.
We have also been super creative and curious about “under the sea” crating wonderful fish tanks ☺️

We have enjoyed our book of the week the 3 little pigs so much we decided to make some props so we could act out the story. #literacy #storytime #roleplay #creativity

We have been exploring sensory play shaving foam in our craft area. It has been so much fun and we have loved getting our hands in the foam to experiment and mark make. #art #sensoryplay #markmaking #finemotorskills #exploration

❄️Children showed strong interest in Christmas stories, and we believe literacy should be everywhere in the nursery. Using a Christmas book, we also promoted numeracy through decorating a gingerbread man, counting buttons, and present sorting☃️ #EarlyYears #LearningThroughPlay

We were delighted @stfranciselc.bsky.social and @carronelc.bsky.social to share our child-centred pedagogical approach to children’s learning. What a turnout of passionate educators within Falkirk.

This morning we enjoy exploring the change in the weather. We used hammers to smash the ice and observe the change in properties of water. 💦 ❄️
We used great problem solving skills to melt the ice in warm water 💧

More ice for our curious and adventurous learners ❄️
We enjoyed saving frozen sea creatures and going on an ice hunt round the garden comparing different sizes of ice ☺️

This morning we re-introduced our campfire sessions 🔥
We have been learning what’s safe and unsafe round fire. The children demonstrated great listening skills and we are now ready to make toast on the campfire next week 🔥🍞☺️

What a busy day with visitors at St Francis Xavier’s ELC📖We had a special story in Spanish 🇪🇸 from a family member and a visit from local author Carrie Taylor who read her book My Little Brother Is So Annoying! Thank you so much for reading to us on Book Week Scotland #ScottishBookTrust

Story time at St Francis Xavier’s ELC for Book Week Scotland 📖Some children listened to our story of the week Pirates Love Underpants, voted by the children! We had parents reading stories.Some stories were in Polish 🇵🇱.We even had children sharing favourite stories from home! #ScottishBookTrust

Many thanks to our special visitor today who came to remind the children about road safety. The children gave good examples of stopping, looking and listening before they cross the road with an adult #RoadSafetyWeek

Nene our safety elephant came with us to the woods to help remind us on how to keep ourselves safe. We had good looking eyes, listening ears and all children listened to all instructions perfectly.🐘🪾

Looking forward to sharing our child-centered pedagogy @carronelc.bsky.social and @stfranciselc.bsky.social
Sign up via CPD manager for this fantastic opportunity to connect with our wonderful practitioners across Falkirk!

Today we were busy shaking the trees to watch the leaves fall 🍂 Zero percent formal education, 100% fun and curiosity! #LearningThroughPlay #EarlyYears

“Stay away from the fire and don’t touch” R “Only let grown ups touch fireworks”C

The boys and girls at craft were very busy making their playdough bonfires. We had lots of discussions around fire safety and what to do to keep us safe. This was also a fun activity to practice fine motor, language, co-ordination and colour. How amazing!🔥🎆

Our children showed great interest in building the Three Bears’ house, which led to a brilliant idea – we decided to rebuild our shelter and turn it into a Numeracy Den! 🧱🐻 A wonderful example of child-led learning and teamwork in action. #MathsWeekScot #LearningThroughPlay

“This is tricky to pick up with these” (tongs) L “I can cut the squiggly lines” S

“This is my broom. I’m the witch from the Room on the Broom story” B “This is my skeletons head and all his bones” R

At craft this week we are strengthening our fine motor skills through mark making, scissor control and threading. We are developing our pincer grip by using tweezers/tongs and exploring small objects such as google eyes and cotton buds.

It’s amazing how much learning can come from one simple woodwork activity! 🪵✏️ Children wrote the first letter of their name, counted nails, used hammers safely, and weaved yarn to form their letter – building fine motor skills and confidence. #LearningThroughPlay #woodwork #STEM

Today we harvested our nursery potatoes 🥔 The children compared sizes, counted carefully, and one child joyfully exclaimed, “It’s like a treasure hunt, guys!” 🌱✨ #EarlyYears #OutdoorLearning #NurseryLife #LearningThroughPlay

“It’s so loud” “I can shake it hard” “This one sounds a bit quiet”

Today in the garden we provided some empty bottles and asked the children if they would like to chose their own natural resources to make some music shakers. They searched the garden and finally decided on some stones, twigs, rice and pasta to create different sounds.

“Leaf, stone, stick, leaf, stone, stick….” H

“Look I made a pattern” E

We used some natural materials brought in by someone from their garden. We intentionally set out a few pattern examples and role modelled mathematical language relating to patterns, also discussing texture and size of our materials. Here are a few examples that children made. #MathsWeekScotland

Maths is all around us – even in the sandpit! 🎂 We baked birthday cakes with 5 candles, remembered the number 0, and when we shared our cake, we discovered it could be whole, halved or quartered. #MathsWeekScot #LearningThroughPlay

Navigating Bee Bot using directional and positional language to co-ordinate the movement. Developing a sense of length during play experiences #mathsweekscotland

Developing early mathematical concepts though our love for song, rhyme and play. #MathsWeekScotland

#MathsWeekScotland

Today our young learners were exploring opportunities to develop mathematical concepts like counting, sorting, matching, pattern-making, exploring shapes, and understanding symmetry #NaturalNumeracy

Early Years Officer - FLK13156 | Falkirk Council | myjobscotland View details and apply for this early years practitioner / child care / nursery role in Falkirk with Falkirk Council on myjobscotland

VACANCY ALERT - We are looking for an Early Years Officer to join the team @stfrancisxaviers.bsky.social - for more details check out myjobscotland
myjobscotland.gov.uk/councils/fal...

🎨 Our art area has been buzzing with creativity! From drawing monsters to making spoon dolls, wrapping gifts, and crafting mobile phones — our wonderful children never run out of ideas.💡🧒👧 #NurseryLife #CreativeKids #ArtFun

Is your child starting an ELC Setting in Falkirk Council from August 2025? Please see out new guide for Parents - Click on the QR code for more details

Thank you to our families who joined us this afternoon to celebrate #EidMubarak