Effective Contributors – Page 37

Fiddle Fun

As part of our learning about Scottish culture, the afternoon children were invited to Primary 2/1’s classroom last week to learn about the fiddle. Mrs. Roberts told us about the different parts of it and how the sound comes out of it. She played us several Scottish tunes and then gave us a big surprise when she played a tune that we know. We all joined in with “Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff a Bus” then we managed to record it and listen back on to our singing on the computer which was great fun. If you turn up your volume and click on the link below you can hear the children singing along to Mrs. Roberts playing the fiddle.

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Mrs. Roberts even helped some children hold the little fiddle and they were able to make some sounds with it. Maybe one day they will be able to play like Mrs. Roberts.

Thank you so much to Mrs. Roberts as well as Miss Cameron and Primary 2/1. We really enjoyed our visit to your classroom. Hopefully the morning children will be able to enjoy this experience with Primary 1 later in the week.

Scottish Celebrations

We would like to remind you that, as part of building an awareness of Scottish language and culture, we will celebrate Burn’s Day on Tuesday 24th January. This will take the form of some fun games and a small “Burn’s Supper”.

It would add to the occasion if the children were able to wear something tartan but please don’t worry if your child does not have anything as this is a fun, informal event. We are looking forward to Primary 1 joining us in the morning and Primary 2/1 in our afternoon celebration.

Next Friday will provide the opportunity for families to come in to hear us sing our Scottish songs and see some of the work that all the Early Years classes have been doing as part of our Scottish celebrations. Details are in Miss Wilson’s recent newsletter. We look forward to a busy and fun week.

Who is Jack Frost?

During our discussions about the changing seasons, lots of the children talked about Jack Frost. We talked about what he looks like and where he lives. As always, they had some wonderful ideas which we thought you’d like us to share with you.

Evan: my Dad says Jack Frost makes ice. He’s white and he makes people cold. He eats carrots and lives in the dark.

Ryan: he’s like a scary gruffalo but he’s all white like a snowman and a gruffalo’s brown. He lives on an island in his house.

Jack V: when it’s white snow, he wears white things and that’s why he’s camouflaged. If he’s the same colour as the snow no-one sees him. He lives in a white cave far away.

Rohan: he’s a green boy and looks like fog. He lives in a dark place like underground. When it’s summer he goes to the North Pole.

Layton: Jack Frost is blue and he’s a boy with spikes on his back. He’s got spiky hair and he’s got a bad smile. He lives in an ice globe and eats ice-cream. The ice-cream’s orange. When it’s summer he goes somewhere far away in a snow globe.

Mischa: he looks like a snowman with a tree on his head. He lives in an ice cave.

Finlay: he’s white and no-one can see him ‘cause he lives in the clouds. The sun makes him turn into red hot and when it’s winter again he turns very cold.

Amy: Jack Frost’s a boy. He’s got a scary face and scary eyes. He lives in the North Pole and he builds an icy thing that brings him to Annan.

Happy Christmas

The end of term seems to have gone in a flurry of activity, ending with our party. The children planned what they would like to do and eat at the party and we did our best to provide it although we did draw the line at fish and chips. Dancing, circle games, lots of party food and, of course, a visit from Santa are great ingredients for a Christmas party and everyone seemed to have a good time. The children’s behaviour was excellent and it was lovely to see the morning and afternoon children playing and dancing happily together. We hope you all have a very happy Christmas and look forward to seeing everyone in the new term. The photos below give you a taste of our party. Don’t they all look wonderful?

Click on an image to make it bigger.

Family Christmas Crafts

Yet again, Eileen Johnstone, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, has proved popular with her Christmas craft activities. Lots of children and their families had great fun last week making cards and decorations for their homes.

We look forward to Eileen’s return in the new term when she will resume the weekly activity sacks on Thursdays.

Concert Congratulations

Congratulations must go to our children for a fantastic performance at our Christmas concert. They looked and sounded wonderful and all who took part should be proud of their achievement.

We would like to thank all parents who provided the outfits for the children and we would like particularly to thank Conner’s Granny for making us some of the cute little net skirts. We were also delighted that Sara’s Mum was able to help our Polish children learn a Polish Christmas carol to add to the concert: it was wonderful to see some of our Nursery children perform this with older Polish children who attend our school.

We greatly appreciate all the very kind comments made by so many parents about the children’s performance. Like you, we feel very proud of them all. The photos below show some of the children prior to their performance.

Christmas Preparations

Nursery continues to be a very busy place as we practise for our concert and delve into the glitter tub to make decorations and cards. The calendars are also almost finished so everyone who placed an order should have them by the end of this week. Thank you so much for you support in this activity: we have been quite amazed by the number of orders but the children have risen to the challenge and patiently fulfilled all requests.

We are pleased to say that the children’s pot pourri bags seemed to be popular at the Christmas Fayre and most of them were sold. It was also lovely to see so many of you attending this very successful event. A magnificent sum of £1000 was raised on the night so thank you to all who contributed.

The Magic Door

Everyone can make magic pictures inside their heads. In Nursery we catch the magic from our magic stick and put it in our heads to make our pictures and there was lots of magic in the air when we read the poem, “The Magic Tree”. We hope you enjoy some of the children’s thoughts on what they think is behind the magic door in the magic tree.

Murray: spiders’ webs and dustbin lids.

Mya: a cat called Tilly. It would be magic and would lick its paws.

Sam L.: an alien from outer space.

Reece: a duckie eating tomatoes.

Miley: a magic fish swimming underwater.

Caleb: a wasp that had been to the fireworks.

Suzie: a dolphin sleeping.

Corey: a princess who waves a magic wand to get a lovely dress.

Layton: lots of grass with flying dust on and a mouse carving people.

Iona: a wizard playing with a ball.

Rohan: frogs – lots of them hopping everywhere.

Lee: the moon – it might even live there.

Jaylin: Cinderella sitting on a chair.

Conner: some red and yellow space rockets flying about.

Neve: a shark eating up everything in the sea.

Ryan: toys like Buzz Lightyear with pop-up wings.