𝕎𝕖𝕖𝕜 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝟚𝟟.𝟘𝟝.𝟚𝟜

Due to the long weekend and unexpected closure, it has been a quiet week at Mauchline ECC ✨

We are continuing to explore space and the solar system. We have extended our learning and are continuing to create resources using various materials 🚀 Children are enjoying the opportunity to participate in imaginative play and are demonstrating sharing and turn taking skills through building opportunities.

In the creative area we have been using paper mache to create planets. This supports with language development and use of adjectives.🪐 Children enjoyed discussing the textures and textiles throughout and we discussed the benefits of creative reuse. This also supports with fine motor skill development as well as providing opportunities to be creative 🎨 🎈

Outdoors we are continuing to develop our problem solving and thinking skills. We have been building on our resilience and perseverance through team building activities including use of large construction materials and various shaped bricks, we have also been practicing a lot of ring games, encouraging listening, attention and turn taking. 🕺

Unfortunately due to the ECC closure, Beth’s outdoor learning (fire lighting) was cancelled. There are spaces left within the remaining dates so please feel free to sign up for one of these days. Thank-you for your understanding and continuous support.

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 – 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲 🔢 31.05.24

Thank you to those able to make todays session where we explored some of the activities that we have been doing during our numeracy focus time.Exploring ordering numbers, matching with the number name and counting out. Investigating 2D shape with 3D. Playing with 100 number square, exploring what comes before or after. And using pegs to make patterns. – 𝐿𝓎𝓃𝓃𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒

Have a great weekend and see you all on Monday 😊

Indoor Learning:

Continuing our interest in Space the children created their own space costumes using a variety of materials and boxes, they also made spaceships and rockets with construction resources, sharing their ideas. They explored books and gained information from the iPad when investigating all about planets. We read the story “Aliens Love Underpants” which was enjoyed by everyone and the children were matching, sorting and creating their own underpants, which they found really amusing 😊.  This is now going to link in with our Health and Wellbeing topic where the children will hear the story “Pantosaurus and the Power of Pants”, all about a dinosaur who has a problem at school and his super pants give him the power to speak up,  encouraging children to have conversations about keeping themselves safe.

In the art and craft area the children have been continuing to colour mix showing their knowledge and understanding about how two or more colours mixed together can create a different colour and which is their favourite.  🔴🟡🔵🟣🟠.  They have enjoyed the playdough where they have been creating their own planets, stars, space rockets and Aliens. 🪐⭐️🚀👽

Links to curriculum: Expressive Arts, Technology, Literacy, Health and Wellbeing

Outdoor Learning:

The children have been engaged in the construction area, using thinking and problem solving skills to create different houses  with their peers. The houses had walls, windows and doorways. We explored risky play as we had to figure out a way to keep our house from falling and we used our safety skills to manoeuvre loose parts. 🏠 👷👷‍♀️.  We also created our own hurdles and challenged ourselves to how high we could jump.

Some of the children headed down to the  Community Garden to plant our pumpkins that we started to grow in the ECC and learned some more about how to look after them, they worked together as a team to transfer the little plants into our large planter. We will be visiting the garden often to check on our plants and look after them. 🎃🎃

This week, the children had been talking about the “Aurora borealis” from the weekend, this sparked an interest in the night sky and finding out more information about space. We used the internet research engine to fact find about planets and solar systems in space. We have enjoyed creating our own spaceship and creating our own astronaut suits.

We also enjoyed using various coloured stones to create a transient art planet 🌎 . We explored information books to develop our knowledge around planets before exploring a range of small loose parts, developing hand-eye coordination.

In the creative area, we added tubes of coloured paint to the water for them to experiment and watch colours mix. The children worked hard to open the tube to mix the colours and was excited to watch it pour changing the colour. Creating their own Aurora borealis.

We were in the Quiet Room as the Music Room was busy this week but we still had fun doing our music and movement to the “Sticky Kids”. 💃🏽🕺🎶

Outdoors, we have been working on our problem solving and thinking skills. The children created their own obstacle course outside and tested their gross motor skills and understanding of behind, in front of, above and below. They were able to work together as a team to create different challenges and could adapt the course to make it more challenging.

The children have been very engaged in the construction area, using thinking and problem solving skills to create a house with friends. The houses had walls, windows and doorways. They explored risky play as we had to figure out a way to keep our house safe from falling and use our safety skills to manoeuvre loose parts.

As part of Health Week next week, the ECC are participating in walk to school week. Attached is the themes for each day.

𝕀𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕠𝕣𝕤 😃

This week in the ECC the children have been finding out facts and information about ladybird and life cycles. The children have also continued to focus on their interest of direction and positional language whilst exploring using transport 🚗 🚙 🚃

In the creative area the children have been exploring the life cycle of plants and butterflies. Some children created their own symmetrical butterfly paintings 🦋

Outdoors the children have been exploring building and constructing their own houses using a variety of materials. The children also have been exploring 2D and 3D shapes whilst creating their own houses. Some children were able to identify their address and were able to use Google maps to explore street views in Mauchline 🗺 🌍 

We have also continued to explore the life cycle of plant and the children planted their own sunflowers 🌻 , pumpkins in the community garden 🎃 and strawberries and tomatoes in our ECC. We are looking to continue to plant vegetables and wildflowers in our ECC outdoor area if anyone would wish to donate seeds or compost it would be very much appreciated.

Due to the lovely weather we all enjoyed a picnic in the garden today  🍎 🍌 ☀️

ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ᴡᴇᴇᴋ 💜

Rebecca from the Crosshouse Ted-ucation 🐻 team visited the centre to discuss Crosshouse Children’s Fund and what to expect if we ever need to visit a children’s hospital. Crosshouse Children’s Fund is a charity in place to help support babies, children and young people in hospital in Ayrshire and Arran. Rebecca brought various medical equipment and discussed the purpose and benefit of its use. We also watched a slideshow and video telling us more about what the charity does to help others 👣💜👶🏼👦🏽

INDOORS

This week we have started to explore the life cycle of ladybirds. This was taken from children taking about ladybirds in their gardens.

Following on from last week we have continued to explore vehicles using “click” resources to make “monster trucks”. Children required to do lots of trial and error to fix the pieces the way they wanted.

We have also been using the Bee-Bots to build on our knowledge of using directions forwards, backwards, left and right.

Curricular areas : HWB, LIT, MNU, TECHNOLOGY, SCN.

OUTDOORS

With the nice weather, the children have been exploring the plant life cycle and getting our ECC garden ready for summer/Halloween harvest. We planted pumpkins, tomatoes and strawberries. This will be a continuous process over the next few weeks/months as we watch our plants change and understand how to look after them.

We have also been exploring the community garden. As part of our outdoor learning, we are currently learning how to look after plants. The children explored the community garden and also the school grounds. We then worked together to collect soil and planted some flowers.

Almost all children have been enjoying the construction area outdoors using their imagination to make things they use in a house. Developing gross motor skills when moving the tyres around and showing signs of lots of perseverance as it was a little tricky at times as they are heavy.

Curricular area: HWB, LIT, MNU, SCIENCE, SOCIAL STUDIES.

REMEMBER ECC IS CLOSED MONDAY 6th MAY 2024.

Have a great weekend.

Lynnette x

Week commencing 22.04.24

𝕀𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕠𝕣𝕤

Indoors this week, the children continued to explore different forms of transport and extended their knowledge through research. We added new resources to play including small world vehicles and figures. The children explored direction through use of bee bots 🐝 and discussed mathematical language effectively. This supported the children to engage, interact and communicate with each other whilst exploring sequences and computational thinking. 🚘 🚐 🚛🚂

𝕄ℕ𝕌/ 𝕥𝕖𝕔𝕙𝕟𝕠𝕝𝕠𝕘𝕪/ 𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕪/ 𝕊𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖

The children enjoyed exploring planting through mailable materials. Some children selected mint and lavender leaves from our garden to add to the dough to give it a lovely scent. They used small pots, dough and artificial flowers to create their own planting experience. 🪴 This helps to develop fine motor skills and encourages creativity. 🌱🍃 🍂

𝕊𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖/𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕪/𝕄ℕ𝕌

𝕆𝕦𝕥𝕕𝕠𝕠𝕣𝕤

Outdoors this week we have been continuing to explore houses and the various structures of our homes. Children have been using materials to create their own homes including construction blocks,  magnetic shapes and large lego. We discussed the essentials required to make a house including the use of electricity and water. Some children could identify some of the roles involved in this process including an electrician and plumber. We also discussed the importance of knowing our address in the event of an emergency 🚨 👮‍♀️

ℍ𝕎𝔹/𝕄ℕ𝕌

Ｒｏａｄ Ｓａｆｅｔｙ 🚘 🚦🚏🖐🏼

Outdoors this week we have been discussing the importance of road safety and keeping ourselves safe when in the community. This includes riding a bike, walking or in a car. We discussed the purpose of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings and what we need to do to ensure we are kept safe and free from harm. We created our  own road using chalk and included some traffic lights in our play.

“STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN” – quote by Jax

Some children also created a car wash station where they cleaned their scooters and bikes 🚘 😊

This week on indoors we have started to explore the modes of transport air, road, rail and sea. We have been using books  and ICT to research information about different types of transport. We have also started to explore distance using different types of transport.🚗🚂⛴✈️

MNU/ technology/ literacy/ Science

This week in the creative area the children have been exploring the life cycle of plants 🪴We have been exploring the process of germination and what plants need to survive.  The children have been planting sunflowers and will begin their planting in the community garden with Beth  soon🌻🎃🥕🍓 They have also been creating diagrams of the plant process and creating their own pictures of flowers/plants.

HWB/ Technology/Science

In the outdoor area this week, we have been discussing and creating our own homes using the construction resources. We have been exploring our address and where we live, using Google earth to investigate this further. We have been discussing the different foundations when creating a home and through number formation designing our own door signs. We have also been exploring shape and using mathematical language throughout.

HWB/ Numeracy

Indoor learning:

This week the children have continued to explore animal habitats and construct models of them independently, showing the knowledge they have gained in their learning.  They enjoyed a lotto game matching the animals to their homes.

They have also began exploring Easter, listening to Easter stories and  learning songs using the Promethian Board. They have been dressing up in the Imaginative area, enjoying the Easter/Spring costumes.

Number recognition and formation writing has been a focus indoors and the children are showing their writing skills ready for P1.

In the art and craft area the children have been creating their own pictures of jungle animals and are continuing to make lovely patterns of colour and shape. They also explored the Easter Bunny story and drew their own Easter Bunnies, some children also used their cutting skills when making their pictures.

On Monday we went our Community Walk, it was very wet so we were all dressed for the weather in our waterproofs and wellies, we turned left going out the school and went up to the Hilltop where we used our binoculars to look down into Mauchline and beyond, we also looked for birds and insects. There was a lot of road signs to see and we were very good at using our road safety rules of stop ✋ look 👀 and listen 👂.

They have been exploring planets, where they learned the names of them and were practising their dribbling skills going in and out the planets. They have also been using their problem solving skills when making “jet packs” ….what materials to use, how to stick them together and how to fasten them onto their backs???

Indoors

This week we have continued exploring our interest in animals and further explored animal habitats and animal pattern. We have been learning about the tropical jungle and forest in Africa and the Wetlands and Waterways. We explored shape and pattern throughout this learning and also enjoyed lots of imaginative play and construction/problem solving. We created our own African necklaces in the art area, focusing on pattern and colour and also drew our own jungle scenes.

We continued to expand our learning through research using iPads and the Promethean board. The children learnt some new words this week such as; endangered, species and extinct!

“Endangered means there isn’t many animals left in the world”

“Species is the different animals”

“It means there’s none left”

Links to the Curriculum; Social Studies, Science, Technology, Numeracy, Expressive Arts.

Outdoors

This week we have began exploring space. The children were keen to take part in the planet hop where they discovered things about the different planets, this is part of our focus outdoors in line with the book “How to catch a Star”. Some children made their own rocket-ships using magnetic shapes then expanded on this by making larger rockets that they could sit in. Lots of imagination and team work through construction too.

Links to the curriculum; Science, Health and Well-being, Numeracy, Literacy

Out in the Community

We explored the local community when out a walk and discussing the importance of road safety and keeping ourselves safe when in the community 🚦 We also popped in to the local shop to say hi to the shopkeeper 😊

Our woodland Wednesday we continued to expand our focus on insects and used our investigation and exploration skills to find them.

During both of these visits we focussed the importance of listening to an adult, road safety and keeping safe , the purpose of the green cross code, stop, look and listen ✋👀👂 recognising key traffic signs and noises.

Links to the curriculum; social studies, health and well-being, science

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!
Beth✨

I n d o o r s

This week in the ECC we have continued with our interest of jungle animals and we have been using the interest research engine to research different facts about jungle animals 🦁 🦓 🐅 🐘 

Through exploring small world jungle animals it sparked wonder and questioning…

“Can pandas climb”

“Why do zebras have stripes”

“How tall does a giraffes neck have to be to reach the trees”

We then used the internet to research our wonders and discovered our findings.

We continued to explore the story of Handas Surprise and some children were able to retell the story and create their own handa story 📕 📚.

Links to the Curriculum; Literacy, Expressive Arts.

For STEM week this week, we set STEM challenges in relation to exploring the jungle and constructing our own designs. Most children were able to complete the STEM challenge.

As part of STEM week this week the children have been using their problem solving skills to see who could create the largest fruit tower, setting challenges and achievements for themselves 🍎 🍌 

Links to the Curriculum; Technology, Engineering Disciplines, Health and Well-being.

O u t d o o r s

Big well done to everyone who took part in our STEM Home Link challenge to create your own boat. A lot of hard work, problem solving and engineering skills went into create these boats, well done to everyone such great effort 🛥 🚤 

Outdoors this week the children have tried and tested their boats to see if they could float or sink.