Burns Day at Cherry Tree Nursery
Karen Bulloch tells us how staff at Cherry Tree Nursery used Robert Burns's birthday to widen children's understanding of Scottish culture.
About the centre
Cherry Tree Nursery is a local authority centre, catering for children between the ages of 6 weeks and 5 years. The learning experiences described here, mainly took place in the 3-5 unit where there are 45 children attending in the morning and 39 in the afternoon session.
Cherry Tree Nursery is situated in southwest Scotland in the coastal town of Ayr, also known as Burns Country. The school location is about four miles from Alloway, which was the main residence of Robert Burns, one of Scotland’s most recognised poets.
Aims of the project
With Burns Night approaching, we planned to use the celebration of Robert Burns's birthday to widen the children’s understanding of Scottish culture. Specific aims were that the children would:
- begin to understand the importance of cultural celebration in people's lives
- have fun with language through Scots poetry, rhyme and songs
- develop a sense of self/identity within Scottish culture
- contribute effectively to discussions and celebrations of Burns Day and share songs/poems with early years classes in Dalmilling Primary School, our local school
- use a variety of art media to create/represent tartans
- use ICT/the internet to find useful information.
We also wanted to involve people in the local community in contributing to Burns Day celebrations, by sharing their talents and knowledge.