Author: Lesley Anne

As of Monday we will all be back in the ECC seeing all our friends and getting busy with fantastic learning opportunities.  We are all delighted to be getting back  to ‘normal’ next week and have been so grateful to everyone at home for their hard-work, participation and support over the past few weeks.  So this for now is our last post box video, we have loved hearing all your fabulous stories from home, seeing your creative pictures and lovely photographs, see you all on Monday ♥

Well we have made it to Friday again! It has been another super week with lots of great learning experiences here on glow, thanks to all of the creative staff at the ECC.  We are delighted with the responses we have been getting from home, you have all been great and we really appreciate your efforts.  We love seeing all those wee smiley faces and really can’t wait to get you all back into the ECC again.  Have a look at the gallery below to see all the marvellous creations and activities that you and all your friends have been busy with this cold February week.  

Well done Harry you found some signs when you were out your walk and have made some excellent looking playdough.

 

Katie has been busy helping out on the farm with the cows and making her own snacks – Well done Achieving Apple Man will be super impressed.  You and Alison have spotted a road sign with a 20 on it when out your walk, fantastic.

 

Jack you have been so busy at home and out and about.

 

Wow Emily, a 50 piece puzzle, that is an amazing achievement!

And a number line all the way up to 15 with Libby – great work 🙂 

 

 

Theia has been outdoors enjoying the cold weather, looks like fun.

 

Cole has been having lots of fun at home and keeping everyone amused too.

 

April has been busy recognising signs and helping in the house by making her very own snack, well done.

 

Well done Ayla practicing your numeral formation.  Super job!

 

Abi your mark making of signs you could recognise are fantastic and a well done from Achieving Apple man on helping Mum in the kitchen.

 

Zak we cannot wait to meet you, what a smiley wee face!  I think you are smiling because you can’t wait to join us here at the ECC.

 

Logan your mark making is superb!

Logan your videos are fab! What super work!

 

I am feeling the love with these gorgeous hearts♥

 

Aaron has been really busy enjoying this cold weather!

 

Ellie’s super hand number line, well done Ellie!

So as you can see we are still learning and having so much fun from home, well done and thank you to everyone for participating.  I hope you all have a great wee holiday and make the most of it, we are almost there, good times are just around the corner ♥

And on that note…….a little favourite in the ECC to get your weekend started.  Grown ups you will love me.

Recognising signs – Environmental print

In the ECC the children are encouraged to learn about the environmental print surrounding them, not only in the centre, but out in their community and surrounding them wherever they may go.  We encourage the children to recognise and ‘read’ environmental print as it is an important step in early literacy skills.    When children start to respond to environmental print they are beginning to recognise the relationship between words and visual representation.  

Here is a short video for the grown ups to show how we promote environmental print in the ECC and suggest ways that you could possibly introduce learning opportunities at home.

So, at the weekend, I was very busy and when out and about I searched for any environmental print that I could find.  I would like for everyone to watch the videos, possibly have a pen and paper at the ready and write down your answers, (children could mark make and draw their ideas too), as to what environmental print they recognise or what they think it may mean.  I am also looking for the children to comment on shape and colour as well as the pictures, words, letters and numbers.  You may need to pause the video throughout to give time to discuss your answers.  Hope you have fun!

Going for my shopping

Going for a walk

 

I hope you all managed to recognise some of these signs.  So why not have a go yourselves?  You could go for a walk and see what signs you see or go to the supermarket, even look in your home or in catalogues.  I would love to see what you find and for you to share it with me.  It doesn’t need to be videos – it could be photographs, pictures you have drawn or even print you have found and cut from magazines.  However you decide to explore environmental print, have fun and remember to have lots of discussion – what the children understand and recognise will depend on their age and stage but it is a great learning opportunity especially whilst out a walk or doing a shop.  

Achieving Apple would also like to set you one challenge for the week. Could you learn one thing to be helpful in the house?  Could you possibly learn one task such as;  how to make your bed, tidy your own toys away, load the washing machine or make your own sandwich?  I am sure the grown ups could find plenty for you to do and Achieving Apple man would be so proud as well as all the staff here at Catrine ECC, so get busy helping ♥

Send your photographs, answers and pictures to me at;

ealesley-anne.adams@glow.sch.uk

Curricular areas covered;

Maths and Numeracy;  Exploring numbers 0-10, 0-20, numeral recognition, recognising colour and shape

Social Studies;  Explore and recognise features of local environment

Expressive arts;  I can create a range of visual information, recognise colour, line and shape

Communication and literacy;  I can tell the difference between letter/word/numeral/picture, identify initial sounds, explore a variety of environmental print, I can find out more by asking questions, mark-make and relate personal experience to my information and ideas

 

As this is Children’s mental health week I have attached some activities for you all to have a look at whilst at home.  Emotional wellbeing is so important in early years as it allows children to learn new skills and develop socially therefore building their self-esteem and  their confidence.   Practicing good strategies in mental health, learning how to talk, listen and manage our emotions builds resilience in how we cope with stressful situations.

I have a few activity ideas for you, let’s see if you could choose at least 3 things to challenge yourselves with over the course of the week.

 

So last week Achieving Apple set us the challenge of filling a reading diary with all of our favourite stories we have been reading at home with our grown ups.  I am so proud of you all because I have received some wonderful photographs of your diaries and of you reading your favourite story books.  I hope you can keep up all your hard work, I really do miss our daily story times here at the ECC.  Remember if you are out your daily walk you are welcome to pop into the foyer to choose a book to take home.

Logan and his brother Harris have been super busy in their house, great counting Logan ♥

Thank you everyone and take care ♥

So today Achieving Apple has a little challenge for everyone to do at home.  He really enjoys reading, do you?  He likes reading so much because he knows that reading helps him explore letters and their sounds and how they form together to make words.  He has a reading diary that he would like everyone to try and fill in over the next week at home with their grown ups.  While you are reading some of your favourite stories at home could you talk about the sounds of the letters and try blending them together?  Also he wants us all to look at books and see if we can recognise the difference between the letters, words, pictures and possibly numerals.  Who wrote your book, who is the author?  Who drew the lovely pictures in your story, who is the illustrator?  Take time to discuss your stories, its so much fun and lots of great learning happens when you take a little time out to really enjoy a book.

*If you don’t have a printer don’t worry you could make your very own reading diary.

**If you are in need of any books or fancy a wee change from the ones you already have, there will be a table in the foyer area of the ECC this week. The books you choose can be kept for use in your home over and over again. You do not need to return these.

I have a story for you all to listen to at home.  I think there could be someone in this story who achieves something? So get comfy, switch those listening ears on and maybe your grown up could ask you some of the questions afterwards, enjoy.

Possible questions to discuss;

•   Why do you think the tortoise challenged the hare to a race?
•  Why was the hare so sure that he would win the race?
•  How did the tortoise win the race even though he is slower than the hare?
•  Can you remember some of the friends who were watching the race?
•  Who are the the main characters in the story?  Do you have a favourite   character?
• Who do you think had a great achievement at the end of the story?
•  Have you learned anything about this story?

I would love to see you diaries once they are completed by next Wednesday but also over the week if you would like to share any photographs of you with your favourite book, any pictures you have drawn of your favourite characters, any writing you have done, maybe even telling your own story or making one up please send me your fabulous work and I can share it with all the ladies and your friends on GLOW.  You could also take the photographs and videos of your work on your own with permission from your grown up, you can send your creations to me at,

Ealesley-anne.adams@glow.sch.uk

Learning outcomes

Literacy – (Reading) To listen and engage in a story, show interest in books/text, talk about stories, explore letters, symbols, sounds and print and recall story parts. (Writing) Mark making, letter formation, pencil control. (Listening and Talking) Can listen and engage, hear and say sounds of letters and words, retell story parts, share ideas, when to talk and when to listen.

Technology – Explore using technology, how to share ideas.

Expressive Arts – Freedom to choose ways to create images, explore mark making, identify colours, begin to draw a recognisable body with arms, legs and head, different types of lines (zig zag, straight, wiggly, long and short)

 

Firstly I would like everyone to see this wonderful photo I’ve been sent in from Katie who has recently just became a big sister for the second time to a beautiful baby brother called Blair. Congratulations to Katie and all of her family – you look so proud ♥

Also I had asked for everyone to think of something that they would liked to have focused on achieving over the past week. April told me that her aim was to ensure that each day she took part in an exercise activity such as Joe Wicks, Cosmic Yoga or a walk with her family – I hope you managed to achieve this April.  Now I said my goal was to achieve 100,000 steps and I have just managed this (even if it has meant jogging up and down the stairs in my own house).  I am going to make this a weekly target for myself as I have enjoyed doing it ♥

In total this week I have managed to do 101,696 steps and I am very happy with my achievement. How do your achievements make you feel?

Lastly, I am so proud of all the children who this week have worked very hard designing and naming their own superheroes.  They have all been fantastic and totally unique.  Thank you to all the parents/carers also for taking the time to draw templates etc – fantastic effort from everyone!  So here we have the gallery with all of our entries with some super names also.  I am in the ECC today and the children who are attending the hub have voted for their favourite.

So I am delighted to tell you that after all the votes today from the staff and the children that the next Achieving Superhero is going to be…………Achieving Apple by Braxton, so well done Braxton, you have done a great job and everyone thinks so.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend with their families, stay safe ♥

 

 

As part of our health and wellbeing focused learning we are going to look at what achievement means and how we can actively encourage achievement at home.  We encourage the children within the ECC to be aware of what their targets are and acknowledge when they have achieved these.  Children can set their own targets at home too alongside parents/carers to identify what they want to achieve and ways that they can do this.  Firstly I would love some help designing our very own superhero character to support us through our learning.  Below I have a template of 2 superheroes could you choose one to design and give them a name beginning with the letter A?, for example;  Achieving… Andy, April etc.   Don’t worry if you can’t print these templates you could also draw your very own template. We will choose a winner next week,  who will be our new character?!  You can send your superhero to

lesley-anne.adams@eastayrshire.org.uk

                            

I have found a lovely story about a little alien called Zid who is very determined to achieve something that he has his heart set on ♥

Parents/carers, here are some questions you can ask to encourage recall skills, hope everyone has had their listening ears on.

•   What does Zid want to make?
•   Who helps Zid?
•  What happens when Zid first shows the dress to Yoff and Mab?
•   What do you like to make?
•   Do you think it was easy for Zid to make dress?
•   Why do you think Zid makes dresses for is friends too?
•   How do you think Zid feels when he achieves making his own dresses?

I would love now for everyone to think of something that they would like to achieve at home.  It could be anything from learning how to make your own bed everyday, going a daily walk with a step target, helping prepare your own meal or snack or even reading a certain amount of stories each day.  I would love to hear what everyone wants to achieve and how they are going to do this.  I’d love to hear what everyone is up to, send me along your photographs and comments.

lesley-anne.adams@eastayrshire.org.uk

I too am going to set myself a task, something I would like to achieve over the next week.  I would like to walk a total of 100,000 steps!  Wish me luck ♥

Curricular areas covered

• Health & wellbeing – goal setting, self belief, building confidence, self satisfaction, feelings and emotions, resilience
• Literacy – listening skills, answering simple questions about a story, discussing characters and events, pencil control
• Expressive Arts – creating an image of their own, imagination when making up a name, choice of design for character e.g pencils, paint, collage, crayon

 

 

We had such a fun morning, watching The McDougall’s Christmas Party show.  We were very lucky winning tickets to this.  We joined in, lots of laughter and dancing.  The ice cream 🍦a gift from Dino’s Cafe in Catrine went down a treat… A huge thank you for your generosity 🥰

Have a look and see what Buddy and Waffle have been up to this week – they get into some mischief here at the ECC! ♥

 

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Have a great weekend everyone

We have been exploring feelings with our healthy superheroes here at the ECC.  We have been discussing what feelings may look like (expressions) using our feelings balls.   I have been encouraging the children to think about their friends and how they might feel and how we can make friends feel better if they are upset ♥

Here is a link to cbeebies ‘How are you feeling today?’ song – it addresses lots of feelings and we enjoy listening to it in the background during our play.

https://youtu.be/uvMx-roJxRw

 

What fun we have had here today at the ECC, out to enjoy the snow.  We had to make the most of it!

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Hope everyone has a great weekend, see you all on Monday ♥

Today we had a lovely surprise from the Elves, they had a special message straight from Santa!  ♥

It was great to see that Santa has a photograph of Catrine ECC hanging in his very own Gallery ♥

So this morning when we arrived at nursery we found that Waffle and Buddy had met in the corridor last night but they were very sensible following the rules, they chatted at a 2 metre safe distance ♥

I wonder what else they will get up to now that they are friends?

What a lovely surprise we got yesterday here at the ECC!  Group A had a special little visitor arrive and Group B got one too!

  He arrived with a special letter!

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Group A’s Elf is called Waffle and Group B’s Elf is called Buddy after a name vote

Elf was watching us complete our first challenge

To feed the hungry birds

Stayed tuned to find out what else our cheeky little elves get up to ♥

It was all things Scottish here in the ECC yesterday in celebration of St Andrew’s Day.  The children had the opportunity to make tartan pictures, design their own McCoos, make Scottish flags, read Scottish stories and most importantly eat shortbread for snack, yum!

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Over the past week, the children in Group A have enjoyed exploring fruit and vegetables whilst learning about farms, the children took an interest in where the food came from.   We used our senses to explore the food and a range of fantastic vocabulary to describe the experience.  The children enjoyed having the opportunity to cut, grate and peel their fruit and vegetables, discussing safety as we did so.

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There is a new payment available for families who are in receipt of certain benefits or tax credits to help towards the costs of looking after a child.  It doesn’t open until Monday 15 February 2021 but applications are encouraged from now.  There is a short video clip below that will give you the information you may need ♥

https://vimeo.com/476356089/9cbc8c529c

Thank you to everyone who took the time at home to write down all your family comments about Fairness and what this means for you and your family.  I have collated all your comments, adults and children and we have some super ideas, well done 👏

We will be discussing fairness with the children and reinforcing what it represents throughout their day ❤️