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Good morning and welcome to another glorious Thursday morning 🙂

It’s been lovely to hear from Alana that some of you have been sending her emails and photos to let her know what you’ve been up to.  She shares them with me, and I really enjoy seeing how busy you’ve been.

Today’s challenge is another singing one.  As the weather has been so lovely, lots of us have been spending time in the garden.  I’ve enjoyed planting lots of bulbs (under the careful instruction of my mum via Facetime!)

So today we’re going to get your family singing The Seed Song.  At the Primary School we sing this regularly at assembly so big brothers and sisters will know this song! Organise your family into two teams – the first team sings the first line, with the second team being the ‘echo’, and then both teams come together for the last line of each verse and the chorus.  You can show off some dance moves during the instrumental section. 

I’ve attached a wee video of the song and the words – I guarantee you’ll be whistling this tune all day!

As always, take care, stay safe and keep in touch. Mrs Govans x

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcsyVVHHYc

Daily planner suggestion for Thursday 23rd April

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I have also added a link below about the inspiring story of Captain Tom Moore a veteran of the second world war who is celebrating his 100th birthday this year.  He done 100 laps of his garden and raised and astonishing 17 million pounds for the NHS.  I thought it would be fun for us to try and do 100 laps of our own garden, you can walk, run or skip.  Have fun and enjoy the lovely weather ♥

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52277760

With us all spending so much time around the house at the moment I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity for us to discuss dangers within the home.  At the ECC we use the danger box to explore items we may find around the house that could be dangerous, we discuss why and what we should do if we come across them.  The sheet below gives an idea on how to make a task that focuses on this, you could draw your own bags and put items in them you find in your home whether they are medicine or not and you could even talk about items such as hair straighteners, irons etc that could be dangerous.  Hope everyone is keeping well ♥

Since the weather is lovely here is an activity you can do outside.

Can you make a magic potion ?

You will need a jar, bowl, bucket, empty bottle of any type of container to put your potion in.

Here’s some suggestions of what you could use to create your potion: water, washing up liquid, food colouring, shampoo, shower gel, shaving foam, glitter, paint, twigs, leaves or stones.

Encourage your child to unscrew lids, stir, pour/fill and squeeze to add items to their potions.

When creating your potions use of language such as full, empty, heavy and light. You could also count how many of each item you put into your potion such as 6 stones, one twig and 3 spoonful’s of glitter.

Encourage your child to use their imagination to talk about who makes magic potions? What will their magic potion do? They could explore role play and pretend to be a wizard or a magician.

My magic potion makes me invisible so I can read my favourite book, 5 minutes’ peace. 

I can’t wait to hear what your magic potions do.

(please ensure your child does not consume their potion)

It’s my favourite day ……. it’s challenge day

Click here to find out your daily challenge Daily Challenge

All pictures/videos please send into Alana.speirs@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

Good morning Tuesday 🙂

Welcome back to Term 4.  It’s been lovely hearing about what you’ve been up to over the Easter holidays and, as usual, I’m very impressed with how creative you all are!  I’ve been sent photos of brilliant dens, some delicious home baking treats and some beautifully decorated Wishlist Jars, full of ideas and adventures for when the lockdown is over.

Today’s challenge is … take time to play a board or card game with your family. 

With a pack of cards you can play Snap, Gin Rummy, Pairs, Solitaire, Twist – I’m sure there are loads of card games that your family members can teach you that are suitable for all ages.  You could maybe FaceTime your grandparents/family members and ask them to teach you a game that they know. 

Board games – this could be a great time to learn to play Monopoly or Scrabble or any other games that you’ve got in your house.  If this is a new game you’re learning take time to learn the rules and get everyone involved.

One rule – NO FALLING OUT!  In my house, Monopoly usually ends up with a bit of an argument with someone accusing the Banker of stealing money …  try not to let this happen 🙂

Have fun, get out in the sun to play, try to do some of the great activities that the ECC staff have organised for you on GLOW, stay safe, take care and keep in touch.    Mrs Govans x

Click below to follow Tuesday’s planner ideas.

Don’t forget to keep your pictures coming in.

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Hi

Since the weather has been lovely. Can you make your own water wall? Collect empty bottles and carefully cut out a section of each. Get an adult to do the cutting. Attach the bottom bottle first and then keep attaching higher up the fence,ensuring each bottle is pouring into the one below.

Have fun on your new water wall!

Here is the one we made.

 

Good morning everyone, hope you all had a lovely time together over the Easter holidays.

This morning I have attached a document with lots of counting songs, I’m sure the children will know most of them, for the ones you are unsure of you can find them on YouTube for help with the words and tune. 😉

The children can use their fingers for counting with the songs or why not line up some teddies to join in on the fun.

Have a lovely day 🙂

Counting songs

And we’re back ! We hope you all had a fabulous, family, fun filled Easter break. Here we go again …. please don’t forget to keep your pictures and videos coming in.

Daily timetable 15

Good Morning, hope everyone is enjoying this lovely weather we have been having this week.  We have enjoyed playing in the garden and going walks down to the River Irvine to collect stones to paint and decorate.  Then we have hidden them in various places in our town for others to find.  Have a go for yourselves and see what you can find, How do the stones feel?  Are they rough or are they smooth?  Are they heavy?  Do they have different colours or patterns on them?

Please be mindful of social distancing when out and about and I would love to see some of your stone creations, have fun ♥

Good morning and welcome to a beautiful Thursday 🙂

Alana and Lesleyanne have been phoning all of our parents/carers over the last couple of weeks and they’ve both enjoyed having a wee blether with all of our families – and even some of the children, which was just lovely.  If you receive a call with ‘NO Caller ID’ – please answer as it might be Alana or Lesleyanne just phoning to have a wee check-in chat.

I’m planning to go on a bike run today with my boys – it’s been quite a while since I was last on a bike so wish me luck …

Today’s challenge is another practical one – it’s to learn a new skill in the kitchen.  Every one is having to help out more around the house so it’s important that we take on new responsibilities, whatever our age.

Your new kitchen skill could be buttering your own toast, putting your milk in your cereal independently, making a drink of juice for your family, helping to wash the dishes, helping to fill or empty the dishwasher, washing the vegetables/fruit … the list is endless!

Safety first – talk through what your new responsibility in the kitchen could be with your family members, as they know what jobs are suitable for you. Let them show you how to do the job properly and help you out the first few times, and then it’s over to you.

I’m sure lots of you are already great helpers in the kitchen so this is a chance to be set a new challenge and try something different.

I’m off to enjoy my breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast – prepared for me by Charlie, aged 11 🙂

As always, take care, stay safe and keep in touch.

Mrs Govans x   

Good morning and welcome to the second week of our Easter holidays.  I hope you all had a lovely weekend, eating chocolate in the glorious sunshine.

Today’s challenge is based around Outdoor Learning.  It’s called Big Art Outdoors – I’m challenging you to create a piece of art without using any typical art supplies like paints, colouring pens, pencils or chalk.

Instead, you’ve to use outdoor materials like stones, twigs, leaves, flowers, weeds – anything you can find in your garden  – and use it to make a picture.  You can be very creative and also use bits of string, cloth and wood to help make your masterpiece.

I know that you are very creative when you’re playing outside in the Green Space at the ECC so I hope you have great fun working together with your family to create artwork outdoors in the sunshine.

So, get everyone in your house involved and remember to keep posting your photos to show off your work!

As always, take care, stay safe and keep in touch.

Mrs Govans x

Good morning  and welcome to Thursday 🙂

The weather this week has been just gorgeous and I’ve enjoyed spending time out in the garden reading my book, and watching my husband work his way through the list of jobs I’ve helpfully written for him …  it’s all about the teamwork!

Today’s challenge is totally stolen from Miss McLean, who is our P2 teacher.  She encouraged her class to create a ‘Wishlist Jar’ and I’d like to borrow her idea and suggest that we all create our own version.

The idea is that when you think of an activity or event that you can’t do right now due to the restrictions in place, ask someone to write it down on a wee piece of paper and pop it into your Wishlist Jar.  Then, when we’re all back to normal go through your wishes and make them happen.

Your wishes can include – sleepovers with family or friends, picnics up the water, days at the beach, trips to the swimming pool, baking with your gran, going a walk with your papa, going to the pictures with your cousins … the list is endless.

So, find a jar or tub with a lid (I’ve washed out a beetroot jar) and then make a fancy label for it.  All of the people in your house can add their wishes and it’s something to look forward to.

Have a lovely Easter weekend, and, as always, stay safe, take care and keep in touch.

Mrs Govans x

Let’s spread some Easter joy and get creative!

How exciting and joyful is decorating your windows for Christmas? Well, let’s shake it up and get decorating our windows for Easter!

Encourage the kids to mark make and develop their snipping and cutting skills for their window displays then send in your photos for us to display on the blog!

-And remember if you’re using paints/pens directly on the window, ensure that they are washable first!

If your window display features a rabbit and a carrot here is a fun game that you could try before putting them in your window display.
Create a carrot using cardboard and fold it (like you would fold to make a paper fan).

Place your rabbit on the floor, since we’re practising social distancing please move 2 meters away from your rabbit and this is where you will start from.
Place the carrot on the floor and use the straw to blow the carrot until it reaches the rabbit.
If you’re competitive you could make more than one carrot and have a race to see who gets the carrot to the rabbit first.
Have fun!

 

Great pictures everyone 🙂

Good morning to you all 🙂

I hope you’ve been managing to (safely) enjoy time outside in the lovely Spring sunshine.  To make the most of the glorious weather, today’s challenge is …

Build a den outside in your garden (or in your house) with your family

You can use anything – sheets, duvets, binbags, sleeping bags,  brush handles, clothes pegs, string, cardboard, chairs, boxes, trampolines ….

Think of the great times that you’ve had building dens on the grass in our Green Space at the ECC and use some of those ideas to help you build your den.

If you prefer, build your den inside your house somewhere – your bedroom, under the kitchen table or take over the whole living room (remember to ask for permission first …)  My boys used to build dens with their papa under the kitchen table when they were wee, and they used to eat their dinner there and sometimes even slept there too, all wrapped up in sleeping bags and pillows!

So, have fun, and I’d love to see some photos of you and your family in your dens on GLOW – you could try to squeeze some of your favourite toys into your den too.

As always, take care, stay safe and keep in touch.

Mrs Govans x 

(Logan and Harris busy in their garden)

Stick man, oh Stick man, BEWARE OF THE WATER AYR!!!

Once you have collected your sticks, created your Stickman and on your way to put stickman in the Water Ayr. It would be a good opportunity to talk about safety around the water/river.

Please send us in your Stickman and what happened on Stickman’s adventure down the Water Ayr.

Who did he meet?

What did he see?

Where did the Water Ayr take him too?

Will he ever get back to the family tree?

What a fun way to start the holidays! Hope you are all having a lovely time together. 🙂

 

It’s officially the Easter holidays now and, although we won’t be gallivanting anywhere apart from the back garden it’s still a time to switch off from school work and enjoy quality time with our families in the (hopefully!) lovely Spring sunshine.

Staff won’t be posting activities over the next two weeks but I will still be posting my Headteacher’s Challenges on Tuesday and Thursday so remember to check in …

I’d like to thank every member of staff at both Catrine ECC and PS for their commitment, professionalism and positivity during the last three weeks.  Every member of staff is working behind the scenes to keep our ECC and school functioning and to ensure our young people are accessing appropriate, enjoyable and fun learning activities.

Thank you also to the parents, carers, families and friends of both Catrine ECC and PS #homeschoolarmy – what a wonderfully creative lot you are!  Some brilliant ideas coming through GLOW and emails about the home learning activities you’re enjoying with your family – well done to all.

And last, but by no means least, the children of Catrine 🙂

Let’s applaud them – ‘these wee heroes have stayed indoors more than they’ve ever known in their lives.  Their whole wee worlds have been turned upside down, full of rules they’ve never known. Every day they get up and carry on, despite all that’s going on around them, and they’re delighted to paint pretty rainbows and pictures to thank the ‘heroes’ out in the world working hard to keep us all safe.

So let’s acknowledge our wee heroes – our children, our groups, our pupils, our future – today, tomorrow and forever.  We are so proud of you all.’

Words copied from Twitter but I mean every single one of them.

As always, take care, stay safe and keep in touch.

Mrs Govans x