Catrine Early Childhood Centre

We are super excited to introduce 2 very special new members to Team Catrine, who will be joining us this week 🙂

A very good friend was looking to rehome 2 Guinea Pigs and we were delighted to offer our support and care.

Part of our improvement plan for next year is to work towards further developing our nurture principles. With this in mind we had been looking into welcoming small animals into the setting to help support children’s mental health and wellbeing as well as to teach them real life skills in caring for animals.

The children will be responsible for helping to clean out POPPET and SANDY’s cage as well as ensuring they have food and water. They have come from a home with 2 young children and are used to being handled.

At holiday times they will join our own families, starting with Alana and then Michelle during the summer holidays.

Full risk assessments will be in place as always.

If anyone wishes their child NOT TO BE involved in experiences with Poppet and Sandy please OPT OUT by sending an email to alana.speirs@eastayrshire.org.uk

 

This upcoming week we will be enjoying taking part in a health week within the Centre.   We have many fabulous experiences planned that aim to cover the areas within the health and wellbeing framework.  Lots of professionals will be visiting to share their area of expertise in sports and safety.  We are looking forward to practising skills such as football, dancing and so much more.  An area I will be focusing on will be how to keep ourselves safe with a little help from Pantosaurus.

Have a look at the sway below to meet or say “Hi again” to Pantosaurus, our prehistoric friend who has a fun way to explore how we can keep ourselves safe in our early years.  I hope you enjoy the attached videos and links and if you still feel that you need some information or support please contact the ECC or send us an email.   I, (Lesleyanne), am the Health and Wellbeing Champion here at Catrine. Relationships, Sexual Health and Partnerships (RSHP) fall under this category and therefore I will be more than happy to support in anyway that I can ♥

ealesley-anne.adams@glow.sch.uk

I aim to introduce the children to Pantosaurus at the start of the week. We have been exploring lifecycles within the centre where we have been looking in particular at how a tadpole changes and transforms, with our very own tadpole tank.

Lets Talk Pants – Pantosaurus

I have attached the video that the children will be watching this upcoming week. Some parents/carers may already be familiar with Pantosaurus. Pantosaurus is an age and stage appropriate s…

Go to this Sway

 

 

 

What a great week we have had here in the Early Childhood Centre!  Have a look at the Sway below to see all the amazing learning experiences we have had and our Platinum Jubilee Party.  Hope everyone enjoys the bank holiday, see you all on Monday ♥

Have a look at our sway below to see the incredible learning that has taken place throughout the centre over the past fortnight.

Hope that you all have a lovely weekend ♥

Please see below a brief summary of our end of term plans covering the full month of June.

With some events, you will find more information to follow nearer the time.

End of term dates for your diary

The Scottish Government has commissioned an independent researcher to undertake a survey of parents/guardians/childminders, following the increase in funded ELC entitlement to 1140 hours.

Please take the time to fill in the survey.

All data will be strictly confidential and anonymised.

https://surveys.progressivepartnership.co.uk/snapwebhost/s.asp?k=165209970436&i=4AE5E5450D6E68B5E52BFC21D74B1BBFAB

Keyworkers have been working hard on preparing your child’s progress report for the year and they are now ready to send home 🙂

If your child is returning to the ECC in August – 

You will receive 2 reports. Please take a few minutes to complete the comment sheet on the back of one and return this to your keyworker for your child’s file. The other is for you to keep.

If your child is moving into Primary 1 in August –

You will receive a transition report to keep. A copy of this report is also ready to be passed onto your child’s P1 teacher regardless of the school they are enrolled for.

 

A Rag Bag collection has been organised for Monday 23th May.

Your child will come home with a bag for any old clothes, handbags, belts, ties, & paired shoes you may wish to clear out.

Due to the restriction of space we have, can we ask that if you have a bag you wish to hand in, that you do so ONLY on the morning of Monday 23rd May.

Thank you

 

Walk to School Week 16th – 20th May

We hope that you will take part in the Walk to School Week.  If you come to the ECC by car, why not Park & Stride?  Park a street further away and walk to the ECC.

Mixed-up Monday: wear your jumper back to front

Team up Tuesday- walk to school with a friend or family member, & sing a song or recite a nursery rhyme

Wild Wednesday – Wear your hair in a wild or crazy style

Think about it Thursday – can you think of any ways that we can improve our community?

Freestyle Friday – Wear your own clothes to school.

 

Have a look at the link below to see all the fabulous learning experiences we have had on offer within the Centre over the past fortnight.

Junk modelling

Hi everyone, Rena here, it’s the last week of our Numeracy Challenges.

I hope you all have fun and don’t make too much mess.

 

What can you build with your family using all the recyclable boxes, bottles and yoghurt cartons you have at home?

Can you create a robot? A car? A rocket?

You will need scissors, glue and sellotape.

Remember this is all about fun – find out what they know and what they  want to learn about. If you take any pictures, can you please send them to me at rena.dornan@eastayrshire.org.uk.  Thanks.

Many of these activities can be found on various websites, such as

Top marks.co.uk                                                                                                                      Curious George                                                                                                        pbskids.org                                                                                                                             Pinterest                                                                                                                            Twinkle.co.uk                                                                                                               Oxfordowl.co.uk

Booklets should be handed back in to the ECC this week and will be kept in your child’s special folder.

Super proud and excited to be able to tell everyone that

100%

of Catrine practitioners and support assistant staff are now trained in Using Makaton with Singing. Makaton is a language programme using the spoken word, signs and symbols to help support language and communication development that we aim to offer to all children.

Look out for our Rhyme of the Weeks with some Makaton signs soon to be added that you can practice alongside your child 🙂

Great effort today TEAMCATRINE and we look forward to seeing everyone back in the centre again tomorrow 🙂

Hello everyone it’s Rena again. This is Week 3 in our numeracy challenges from home. Let’s hope for some nice weather.

Outdoors- can you get someone to draw your shadow, wait for a short time and then draw your shadow again?

Has your shadow changed?                                                                                                   Has it got bigger/smaller?                                                                                                   Has it moved?

Why has it moved?

What do think has happened?                                                                                                Can you draw you or your parents or siblings shadow?                                              Whose shadow is the tallest?                                                                                                  Whose shadow is the shortest?
You will need lots of chalk and adult assistance.

Enjoy and have lots of fun.

Websites are available for all the activities – they are listed on the first challenge card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parent appointments will take place on Wednesday 18th May 2022.

These will be over the phone again this term.

We have all been super stars 🙂

Please phone into the ECC on 01290 551233 to make an appointment to find out how much we have progressed during our time here at Catrine ECC 🙂

 

Please have a look at the link below to see some highlights from our transition events this week.

 

Transition – Classroom Tour

The pre-school children have enjoyed the opportunity this week of visiting their soon to be new classrooms and teachers. They enjoyed exploring the classroom environment and the new resour…

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Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. Here is the second post for your numeracy challenge.

In your house can you and your family pick 5 of your favourite toys.
Can you name the heaviest?                                                                                              Can you name the lightest?                                                                                            What one is the longest/ shortest?                                                                             What is your favourite toy and can you draw it.

Remember to have fun while you play and offer descriptive language to extend your child’s vocabulary.

Resources you could use – paper, paints, pens, crayons etc. If you are really adventurous you could use kitchen scales.

Many of the activities can be found on various children’s websites. I listed some on the first challenge card.

Don’t forget to bring your booklets back in each week 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Can all parent/carers of children moving to any Primary School in August please complete this form.

This should only take a few minutes.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKRqhoaEMY8FHkTJQGETc2XZUMlpGWjA3NjFWRjVPN0UxUlpMS1IzNU9aUy4u

Thank you in advance

Following on from our successful 4 week library block, we would like now to introduce a 4 week numeracy block for families to enjoy together.

Carrie will also be continuing to upload our staff videos each week showcasing our Rhyme of the Week and of course our tremendous singing voices 🙂 

Thank you in advance to Rena who has prepared our numeracy blogs that will follow below and for the weeks to come.

Good afternoon everyone, my name is Rena and as many of you know, I am the  numeracy champion. Every week for 4 weeks I will pop up a few activities for the children to do at home, either indoors or out and about in your local village.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above are a few cards you can try out when you are at the park, or in the garden.

Can you make a pattern?
Can you make any shapes with them?
Can you measure to find out the longest and shortest?
Which one is the thickest?
Which one is the thinnest?

A booklet will be given out to each child at the start of the numeracy block. You can chart your child’s progress as well as get them to draw some pictures of the activities they have created. Further numeracy websites and google searches can be found below if you wish to support your child with them.

Top marks.co.uk                                                                                                                          Pinterest                                                                                                                        Twinkle.co.uk                                                                                                               Oxfordowl.co.uk

 

Click on the sway link to see what we have been busy doing last week. Keep a look out for our Easter stories on learning journals.

 

Overview of last week’s learning

We have been loving the sunshine and been outdoors as much as we can. We have been creating our own obstacle courses using loose parts. We were using mathematical language whilst learning h…

Go to this Sway

It’s not Easter without a visit from the

Egg-cellent Easter Bunny 🙂

and we all know he likes to visit the children at Catrine ECC 🙂

So, on Friday 1st April if you would like a photo opportunity of your child with the Easter Bunny please arrive at the ECC at 2pm. 

Doors will be open between 2.00-2.15pm on Friday 1st of April.

ECC closes at 2.30pm for the Easter holidays.

ECC reopens on Tuesday 19th April for both staff and children.