Author: Alana Speirs

We plan to make a simple “Virtual Tour” video for our new children and families starting in August. We hope that by showing them around our ECC and introducing them to our fabulous staff team it might help with the transition process and put their mind at ease a little about starting nursery in these uncertain times.

We can tell new parents what we offer and what we strive to achieve……but we believe your voices and views will be what they want to hear.

Under the circumstances this year our priority in August will be settling our children – both returners and new, it will be about emotional wellbeing and nurture, care and trust, relationships and respect.

We would appreciate it so much if you would take just 5/10 minutes to answer a few questions in relation to how you found your experience at Catrine ECC last year. We hope to use some of your responses in our short video.

Thank you in advance 🙂

Alana Speirs

Depute Manger

Last week one of our favourite shops, Dunelm in Kilmarnock, posted a competition on Facebook…….

Lots of parents, carers, family members and friends of the school and ECC voted ….. and guess what …… WE WON !!!!!!

We are absolutely delighted and want to thank both yourselves for voting and Dunelm for donating the fabulous outdoor toys.

The children in Catrine will ❤ them 🌈

Huge big birthday wishes and Olaf special warm hugs are being sent to April today from all of the staff and your friends at Catrine ECC.

We hope you have had a great day xxxxx

Whooo hooooo !!!!!

Team CATRINE ECC are super excited for today !!!

As we said earlier in the week, our aim, in an effort to feel part of a group again is to each start at 11am (ish) however if this time doesnt suit everyone it’s fine to do it whenever does ❤

Our first race of the day starting at 11am will be the 50m Hurdles. Thereafter, simply work through the activities remembering to time and record each.

Once you have completed your virtual sports day AND TAKEN PLENTY OF PICTURES send all of your times into Marion our glamorous 2020 Sports Day  Umpire 🙋‍♀️

eamarion.smith@glow.sch.uk

So team CATRINE ECC……On your marks….get set….. GOOOOOOOOOOO

No explanation really required for this one ……

We would like EVERYONE in your house up and on your feet ready for a workout with your Catrine ECC staff today 🙂

How many times can you complete our video today?

2 times? 5 times? maybe 10 times ?!?!?!?!

As promised here is a sneak preview of our Sports day Schedule for Friday 5th June. We, as individual families, plan to start off our races at home around 11am in an effort to try and make it feel like we are joining forces and racing together 🙂 Feel free to do the same along with us,  however if this time does not suit you, or you are working and actually would prefer to hold your Special Sports Day 2020 on a different day, then that’s fab too.

Remember your “race track”, however you choose to measure it, needs to be 50 metres long. This may well need to be from the top of your garden to the bottom 5 or 6 times or at a grassy area near to your house but please remember to adhere to social distancing rules at all times.

Look out any resources you might need ready and remember to simply adapt things to work that you can find around the house 🙂

We would LOVE to see your videos from this memorable day to share with other ECCs and to revisit upon our return after the summer with the children.

eamarion.smith@glow.sch.uk will be waiting eagerly on Friday for your times and distances to be sent into her by 2pm on Friday at the latest so that she can tally everything up . Results will be posted ASAP.

ROLL ON FRIDAY 🙂 🙂 🙂

It’s Wednesday and we are half way through the week already ! I hope everyone is still keeping a count of their steps/distance travelled to give to Active Apple Man and Leoni at the end of the week.

I thought today we would do something a little different and be active through the form of dance – my personal favourite Saturday night activity to stay fit and healthy 🙂

So simply set up your laptop or mobile on a surface your child can see it with plenty of space around them. (Another good trick we have discovered during lockdown is how easy it is to mirror things from your phone onto a SMART TV if you would like it on a bigger screen – no APPs required – google helped us within seconds.)

Work your way through these fun videos – don’t forget to take pictures or videos and send them to me at alana.speirs@east-ayrshire.gov.uk – we would love to see your moves.

This next one is a definite favourite in our house …….

A new one we tried yesterday ……

Cole (age 9 LOL) was having none of it by this point when we were practicing ………. 🙂 haha

This song is NEVER OFF in our house, may as well learn a dance to go with it, eh ……. ?

This one will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day )

And I’m afraid we can’t possibly do a dance blog without finishing with this one …….

Now that you have learned some new moves, do you think you could make up your own dance?

Happy Health Week everyone xxx

Active Apple Man wanted to talk to us about 2 very important things today……

1. ORAL HEALTH

As well as being super active this week, it’s also a week to learn about and revisit what we need to do to keep ourselves healthy.  While we are in the ECC, a team called Childsmile usually come in and show us how to look after our teeth. They show us how to brush properly and why it’s important to do so. The link below is great for supporting tooth brushing from birth all the way through to age 12.

http://www.child-smile.org.uk/parents-and-carers/index.aspx

Although we are not in the ECC just now it’s still super important to keep brushing your teeth. In my house the challenge is always to make sure Cole and Halle brush for as long as they are supposed to! We use songs to help with this. Here is our favourite one at the minute ……

2. HAND WASHING

Hand washing is more important than ever just now. Rena has found a poster and another fab song you can sing at home to help you wash away your germs the best you can.

And this one I thought was just rather catchy 🙂

So remember everybody, to stay healthy we need to keep our bodies healthy too, so plenty of hand washing and remember to brush your teeth at least 2 times a day.

We need as much participation as possible next week. Lots of photos, videos, pictures, comments, memories and fun for all ages.

Catrine ECC’s Health Week Planner. Posts will be available in the morning each day and can be found on our GLOW page.

We will post our Sports Day Schedule later in the week to allow you to get prepared for the occasion.

Most resources can be found within your home or adapted with other resources similar, however you will need ……..

• to measure some distances so a tape measure would be helpful, and
• an app on your phone to track steps/distance – there are plenty of free ones.

Enjoy your week, from everyone at Catrine ECC xxx

Last week Eilidh was learning all about the parts of flowers and plants 🙂

Busy times in the Muir household

Another busy week for Logan’s house

Fun in the sun for Emily, and a huge big well done for learning to ride your bike! 🙂

Ashton’s bean update and his daily fitness class with his big sister 🙂

Good morning everyone – I hope you are enjoying this lovely weather.

So, yesterday, I received the most beautiful bunch of flowers ever, and it got me thinking ……

…..flowers are so beautiful and can be used for so many lovely things. Remember making perfume out of petals, and potions in the garden with grass and dandelions? 🙂 Well … as well as those ideas, here are a few more you could try.

Using some double sided tape and a piece of cardboard/paper/cereal box create your child’s name. Go for a walk with your board and along the way collect flowers and grass, sticks and small leaves to stick on.  A fun way to learn some letters.

Another activity my two children love is adding loose parts to their play dough – Dandelion dough is fab and again so much fun to use little bits of nature around us to brighten it up.

But my ultimate favourite is this one below, and so much fun on hot days like today…..

Go for a walk and collect some flowers – the more colours the better and with a little help from an adult place them inside empty egg shells.

Fill them with water and carefully place them in the freezer for a few hours to solidify.

Once you peel the shell off the results are amazing 🙂

And super fun and educational to watch and handle as they melt.

Have a great day everybody 🙂

We have had loads of pictures sent in this week which is fabulous.

I know we say it every day, “we want to see your pictures, send us in your pictures”, but we genuinely mean it. We miss all of your wee faces and it makes us all smile seeing each of you happy and having fun.

This week we have been sent through lots after our request for video images so look out below and see if any of your extra photos have been uploaded onto here 🙂

April thoroughly enjoyed Carrie’s lovely activity on Monday, Paper Dolls as did Owen who even took his paper dolls on their very own adventure 🙂

Cole has been working super hard on his pencil control and writing skills 🙂

A HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Emily who celebrated her 4th Birthday on Monday – We hope you have a great day Emily xxxxx

On Tuesday Jan showed everyone how to make fab bird feeders and Gracie-Leigh wanted to show Jan her superb one. She also took part in Mrs Govan’s Headteacher wheeled challenge 🙂

Another BIRTHDAY BOY – Harris also celebrated his big 4th Birthday this month. Everyone at the ECC hopes you had an amazing day Harris 🙂

Logan has been keeping a close eye on his beans – has anyone else noticed any changes yet????

Louie wanted to share some his pictures over the past few weeks with everyone – nice to see you Louie 🙂 and boy does your bike look like fun 🙂

Loved this email from Poppy – She helped her mum and dad on Friday to make and deliver packages safely to vulnerable and elderly people in the community to help them to celebrate V.E Day before relaxing in the hot tub after a hard days work 🙂 Well done guys 🙂

And same again, I’m pinching this idea for in my house next week – to help Poppy’s big brother Flynn with his homework on Italy, mum and dad decided to go all out and create an Italian restaurant. Great effort everyone 🙂

Quinn has also been busy in the garden looking after his beans and other seeds. Great job Quinn.

Rebecca wanted to show us her grass seeds growing. Super work on your laptop there too, great concentration skills 🙂

And below is Oscar showing everyone his bird feeders and his HUGE puzzle he completed all by himself 🙂

Thank you to everyone who sent us in images this week. The above were all extra so look out for yours still to come if it wasn’t posted on here today 🙂

So ……. last week …… this happened …..

Halle managed with really no help from myself or her Dad to ride her bike with no stabilisers!

We were so proud of her.

Then just days later she managed to cycle 5miles!

… and she is super proud of herself!!!!

Achievement is a huge thing for us all no matter what our age.

We all want to achieve, and when we do, whether it be big or small, it makes us feel great about ourselves.

Within Catrine ECC we celebrate the children’s achievements both daily and weekly. Our SHANARRI character, ACHIEVING ANDY, named and designed by the children helps us to develop the children’s understanding of what the term achievement means.

And Andy wants to know now, WHAT YOU HAVE ACHIEVED? Parents feel free to join in too 🙂 Use this week to try and work on tasks you usually find difficult.

Remember achievements should be challenging but manageable for each individual. They can be things you have been working on for weeks, like making your bed, it could be eating carrots at dinner time, it could be catching a ball or spending a full night in your own bed.

If you are proud tell us, so we can be proud too.

Send any achievements into your child’s keyworker personally and make them smile along with you.

Keyworker emails can be found below:

Yellow ealesley-anne.adams@glow.sch.uk

Yellow eacourtney.cameron@glow.sch.uk

Red ealeoni.gilmour@glow.sch.uk

Red eamichelle.terry@glow.sch.uk (Julie’s group)

Blue earena.dornan@glow.sch.uk

Blue easherrie.devlin@glow.sch.uk

Green eajan.wardrop@glow.sch.uk

Green eacarrie.hamilton@glow.sch.uk

Yesterday, Education Scotland published a fantastic new resource to help support parents and carers during this time of home learning. There are super ideas from nursery age right through to secondary school supporting older siblings alike.

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/scotland-learns/

Within the publication there are also further links to support with resources such as GLOW, and Parentzone Scotland.

Oscar has been busy planting his magic beans – I wonder what they will turn into? 🙂

He also wanted everyone to see the jigsaws he managed to complete all by himself – great work, Oscar.

Mud pies and face masks !!! Karen I think you deserve the shout out for this one 🙂 Brilliant !!!!

Another wee busy bee. Owen has been working on his fine motor skills and pencil control this week. Through his interest in dinosaurs he has also been carrying on with the labelling theme and managed to name and label all the parts of a T-Rex. Super work, Owen.

Owen was also VERY excited to receive his letter through the post on Monday 🙂 Great photos Owen – thank you.

Logan has been practicing writing his name – super work!

He also wanted to send in a picture of him with his Catrine hug and his 2 very magic beans 🙂 We are glad you liked them Logan. Don’t forget to keep us updated on how they grow 🙂

Gracie-Leigh spent a morning this week helping her mum to get resources ready for the boys and girls in her school where she works. Gracie-Leigh concentrated hard, developing her cutting skills and learning about simple symmetry. Well done Gracie-Leigh.

Gorgeous chalk pictures by April – a beautiful butterfly and some super rain clouds 🙂 April has also been mega busy adding and counting with muffin trays. Great work April – you are learning so much at home.