We would like to share this super video of Summer practising her hula hoop at home. What amazing skills! Very well done Summer and thank you so much for sending us your video. It’s lovely to see you.
Keep sending us photos and videos boys and girls, we love to see what you are doing, as will your friends.
For any children who might benefit from a story about what coronavirus means, this story may be helpful. It’s called “Dave The Dog Is Worried About Coronavirus” and features Nurse Dotty explaining it all to Dave.
Click on the link below to see the story.
https://nursedottybooks.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/dave-the-dog-coronavirus-1-1.pdf
A focus on early reading skills has been one of our priorities this year in Nursery. We would like to share a few suggestions to support anyone who feels they would like a little advice when reading to their children.
• Find a comfy place to look at a book together ideally with no other distractions.
• Encourage your child to choose their own book to look at with you. Young children love to hear a familiar story again and again. This helps them to process the story and join in with the storytelling.
• Show your child how much you enjoy reading through your voice and facial expression.
• Talk about who is in the story. Use the clues on the cover of the book to help predict this.
• Talk about what they think may happen next in the story, encouraging them to use the picture clues.
• Use the terms ‘author’, ‘title’ and illustrator’ when starting to read a book. These may seem like sophisticated words for a young child but we use them in Nursery when reading a story and your child may well surprise you by knowing what they mean.
• Talk about where the story is set – is it at the farm, in the woods … ?
• Discuss how the characters might feel.
• Can your child hold the book the right way up with the front facing him/her?
• Can he/she turn the pages one at a time?
• Can he/she identify a picture and text?
• Can he/she read from left to right and top to bottom?
• With support, can he/she retell a familiar story using the pictures in the book as a prompt?
• Create a new ending for your story.
• Act out the story with his/her family, toys or puppets.
As well as books you may have at home, there are a range of websites providing online stories. As a starting point you could try these sites.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Interactive.aspx?cat=39
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories
Above all, have fun reading together. There are so many wonderful stories out there waiting for us all.
It’s lovely to hear from our families and to get photos of what you have been doing at home. We would like to share this photo of one of our pupils enjoying time outdoors. It looks like he’s having great fun!
Please send any photos you would like to share to the school e-mail address
gw08officehecklegirt@ea.dumgal.sch.uk
You could add a sentence or two just to tell us what you have been doing and let us know if you would like us to name your child in our post. We look forward to hearing from you.
Our Primary 6 buddies are always welcome visitors to Nursery and have been doing a super job of building relationships with our children. We have a few photos to share of their recent visits and hope that it’s not too long before the Nursery children and buddies can all meet again.
Thanks to Miss Nixon, our children have been enjoying some cosy story times in Annan Academy library. We hope that in time all the children will have the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful experience and would like to thank Miss Nixon for her time and for making us feel so welcome.
Buddy day is when groups of Primary 6 visit Nursery children to play with them. The buddies are beginning to get to know our children and are doing a great job. It’s lovely to see the older and younger children chatting together as they begin to build relationships. We are looking forward to lots more visits in the future and hope that Primary 6 enjoy their visits too.
The children in the Raindrop Room spent time recently talking about their emotions as part of a Wellbeing focus. Some of their thoughts were collected on an emotions tree to display in Nursery. We were impressed that the children were able to talk about their emotions and are beginning to understand what can cause them.
Ella: I feel happy when Mummy takes me to the park.
Summer: I’m scared of cobwebs and spiders.
Noah: I’m scared when Daddy puts the light out.
Luca: I’m happy when music is playing.
Freya: I’m scared when I have a bad dream.
William: I’m happy when my friends share with me.
Skye: I’m happy playing with Lola.
Emily: I’m happy when I’m outside with my brother Archie.
Mason: I’m scared of monsters.
Macaulay: I’m scared when Mummy turns the lamp off.
Violeta: I’m happy when I play together with Summer.
Barclay: I’m happy when I go to soft play.
After visits to the Technology and Music departments at Annan Academy in the past, our next invitation came from Miss Nixon, the school librarian. As you can see, this little group was very relaxed and happy in the Academy library and thoroughly enjoyed Miss Nixon’s story telling.
Miss Nixon has kindly invited us to visit her on a regular basis for the rest of term so lots of children will have the opportunity to enjoy this super experience. Thank you to the staff at Annan Academy for continuing to make us feel so welcome and, of course, to the children who made us very proud of their behaviour and interaction with the story telling.
Click then click again on photos for a closer look.
Friday gymnastics continues this term and the children are now showing increasing confidence in their skills. This group was working on balancing which can be challenging for some but all the children showed themselves to be confident individuals by ‘having a go’ under the guidance of adults. It’s great to see the children confident in the wider school environment too as some can find this initially daunting.
