Month: June 2021

17.06.21. Fettercairn Nursery News

I can’t believe we are nearly at the end of another academic year. It has been a challenging year, with the covid lockdowns and all the restrictions, but staff have strived to keep things as normal as possible for the children. I just want to thank the staff for all their hard work over the last year.

Our ethos at Fettercairn Nursery is very much to be led by the children’s ideas and interests, we plan both responsively and intentionally a wide range of activities and experiences to meet the children’s needs. We hope you have enjoyed getting a glimpse through the nursery newsletter of just some of the great activities and experiences your child has been involved in.

Woodland Wednesday

This week saw Yellow Group going to the woods. Some of the children decided they wanted to paint pictures of Rainbow Coloured Unicorns to decorate the forest area. After painting their colourful paintings (See some photos of their artwork at the bottom of this newsletter) They decided they wanted to put up their artwork on the surrounding trees. Before we left the woods, we pretended we were in a forest art gallery. We walked around as each artist talked about their painting. Lewis had an idea to build a tent. All the children joined in working as a team to build a tent. The children decided to have snack under the canopy. Last week Joshy asked if we could have a smoothie in the woods this week. Mrs Dubber kindly made some smoothie and the children said they were delicious!!! They had fun guessing what fruit was included.

Red Group wanted to do an obstacle course at Gym. Miss Riley P6/7 teacher brought in a few new pieces of equipment for the children to include in their obstacle course. They had a great time!

On Monday the children were learning a little bit about Scotland and watched a little bit of the football match.

Transition P1

On Wednesday Afternoon, Mrs Keal arranged a Teams Meeting with the current P1 Class and Mrs Smith. This was a great transition activity. The Nursery children had prepared questions, which were given to Mrs Smith beforehand. We started with a tour of the class, where they will sit, hang their coat, tray and the morning routine. We found out what happens at snack, lunch and playtime. What they will learn and many additional questions. It was lovely to see how confident and proud the P1 children were at showing the nursery children around and also sharing what they do and some of their routines.

Road Safety

Mrs Keal also read a story ‘Ziggy Starts School’ to all the children. It is all about road safety, covering walking to school and wearing seatbelts. When Yellow Group walked to the woods on Wednesday, we talked about crossing the road safely STOP, WAIT, LOOK and LISTEN and make sure you can be seen by traffic. We will continue to focus on road safety in Nursery next term.

 

Reminders for Parents

Graduation – Wednesday 23rd June 2-3pm  Pre-schoolers Only

As a nursery staff, we would like to dedicate the above date for our graduates.   We would like to invite you to return to the nursery setting between 2.00 and 3.00 to watch your child’s graduation.

Due to recent guidance provided by the Care Inspectorate this week, this will take place on a smaller scale.  You will be provided with a 15-minute window of time to attend the graduation and will be given an opportunity to take a photograph of your child as they receive their scroll and a warm send off from the nursery staff.  Two invites per family remains in place.

Graduation Times

2.00-2.15

Kayla Wood, Layla Wood, Hamish Strowger, Blaire Currie

2.15-2.30

McGregor Archibald, Isobel Gascoigne, Sophie Regnier, Isla Stevenson, Lewis Ruthven

2.30-2.45

Maddie Simpson, Euan Argo, Lucy Pickup, Cecelia Marsh, Doogie McRobert-Carnie

2.45-3.00

Cole Gavin, Jamie Donaldson, Glen Moore, Sam Anderson, Joshy Leon, Jacob Whitelaw

Parents will be collected by a member of staff from the main school gate

We look forward to seeing you at the Graduation.

 

This will be the last Nursery News for this term. I want to thank all the parents for your continued support. We wish all the nursery children, who are moving onto P1 all the very best for the future and hope they have many fond memories of being part of the Fettercairn Nursery Family. We look forward to seeing the returning and new children in August. We wish Mrs Rae all the best as she goes on Maternity Leave.

Have a lovely summer break.

Mrs Keal, and all the staff team Mrs Rae, Mrs Wheat, Mrs Dubber, Mrs Lloyd, Mrs Fraser and Mrs Craig

 

Artwork from the Forest

P3/4 – June 2021

In Literacy last week we learned to write Haiku poems. We learned that the poems have 3 lines and follow a pattern based on the number of syllables in each line. The children worked hard to be creative!

We have been focusing on comprehension skills and have been answering questions about our reading books and non-fiction texts.

This week we linked our writing to our Vikings topic. The children became Estate Agents for the morning and wrote a great descriptive piece to try to sell a Viking Longhouse!

 

In maths, we learned about 12- and 24-hour time. We applied our learning to real-life contexts by converting time on TV schedules and train timetables.

This week we are revisiting Information Handling and are currently revising Bar Charts and Venn Diagrams.

We have been working to improve our speed on mental recall of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. The children are enjoying challenging themselves in their learning by trying to beat their previous scores.

 

This week we introduced a Worry Box in class. The children can write down anything they feel worried about – we discussed how talking about our worries can help up feel better. The notes are anonymous, and the children can indicate whether they want to discuss the issue as a class or have a private conversation with the teacher.

This week we started our Living and Growing topic in Health and Wellbeing. So far, we have discussed growing up. The children had great discussion about the way our bodies grow, as well as our skills and capabilities as we get older.

Over the last 2 weeks we started our new Vikings topic. So far, we have learned about Viking longhouses and longships. The children are working hard to create a Viking longship model with a partner using recycled materials.

P4/5 – Blog 11-6-21

In our last few weeks of term, we have been learning about different styles and types of poetry.  The children have particularly enjoyed listening to Michael Rosen and have written a Haiku with Miss Riley.  In maths we will be completing data handling this week and will be moving on to revising all topic areas for the second last week of term.

The last week of term is going to be children’s choice week!  I have asked all the children what they would like to learn about and I will create lessons based on these choices. The children have come up with some brilliant ideas about what they would like to learn and their ideas range from gaming to oceanography and space to the periodic table.

We will be making some more perspective drawings this week to add to our classroom display as seen below.

 

 

Our sports day event went very well and the children really enjoyed planning and designing the obstacle course.

P1/2 Post- June 2021

P1‘s sound of the week is ‘oa’, and to illustrate the word ‘boat’, the whole class had fun making origami boats. This was a great exercise in listening for instructions and we learned how important it is to fold carefully and accurately in this craft.

P2 have been learning about questions and when to use question marks.

In maths, P1 have been continuing to learn about money by using coins to find different ways of making amounts. They have become very good at adding and subtracting numbers in Numeracy recently, so have found it an extra challenge  to work within the limitations of the coin values. Any hands on experience with real money at home such as emptying out a piggy bank and counting the coins would be really helpful. Next we will be working on measuring capacity.

P2 have been learning about the concept of area and have been measuring area with non-standard units.

In maths we have also learnt about clockwise and anti-clockwise direction and practised making half and quarter turns. P2 learnt how to interpret grid references.

In RME we learned about the Hindu festival of Holi, and enjoyed making pictures with powder paint. In Health and Wellbeing we will be learning about ‘my body belongs to me’ and ‘differences and similarities’. We made some super line drawings of insects in Art.

P1/2 enjoyed sunny weather recently. We were looking at plant parts and made some bunting using mallets and things we found in our school garden. We also learnt some birds names and their calls, and went on a “caterpillar” hunt which helped us understand the importance of camouflage in nature.

We practised our warm-up for sports day. We were very excited to welcome parents and friends to support us in our sports challenge. Thank you to all.

 

P6-7 Last Term 4 Blog Update!

Literacy – The class have been practicing researching, note taking, planning and writing discursive pieces or balanced arguments. We have discussed a lot of current affairs in class in line with our topic and have argued points such as ‘should we try to cut down on single use plastic?’ and ‘are zoo’s ethical?’ The children have enjoyed doing the research into the topics and writing arguments both for and against each, to try to engage the reader. The children have been self and peer assessing their writing against our steps to success and using this feedback to improve their pieces.

Numeracy – The class have been revising different topics in Maths during the last few weeks we have gone back over operations, money, and time to name a few! The children said they are benefitting from a little refresh of the things we’ve covered across the year (some as far back as term 1).

Topic – P6-7 Had an in-school election last week. Our candidates were:
Roisin Brown – Representing Children’s Party
Findlay Armstrong – Scottish Health and Environmental Education Party
Ryan Mears – The Thistle Party
Sophia Leon – Scottish Children’s Voices Party
Rose Greengrass – Scottish School Party

The rest of the school cast their votes on our ballot papers and posted them in the ballot box on Friday 4th June.

Congratulations to Sophia, who won the election and is now our class ‘First Minister’ and her party are in power for the rest of the term!

Well done to all the candidates who took part, your manifestos were all fantastic!

Sports Challenge – The sheer grit and determination the children put into choreographing and learning their dance and the creativity they showed in designing their obstacle course was just fantastic. Miss Davie and I are so proud of all the children, as I’m sure those of you who made it along to watch will agree!

Thank you to all of P6-7 for all your hard work this year. I know it’s been a crazy one, but I have loved every minute of being back in the classroom with you all and I feel very lucky to have been your teacher this year.

I hope everyone has a relaxing summer break and we have lots of sunny days during the holidays!