In the playroom, we have been enjoying den building. We used wooden blocks and various types of material to create houses for some animals. 

In the creative area, we are beginning to learn about the lifecycle of a butterfly with a main focus on caterpillars at the moment. We have been working on number recognition and have began to explore symmetry, shape and pattern further.

Curricular Areas – Science, HWB, Numeracy, Technologies

As a result of the children’s vote, we will be moving on to gymnastics during our gym time  🤸‍♀️. This week we were exploring movement skills, competences and concepts. The children were developing their movement skills through practice and energetic play as well as learning how to move their body & exploring how to control it. Next week we will be introducing larger apparatus  🧗‍♀️

Curricular Areas – HWB

Outdoors we have been enjoying imaginative play, we created our own cafe in the mud kitchen and explored different ingredients.

The children have continued to explore architecture through drawing and problem solving in the construction area.

As part of Mental Health Week, we have explored various activities throughout the week. This included mindfulness activities, children’s yoga and lots of discussion and stories to support our children’s wellbeing. Also a focus on children’s rights. Thank you for taking part in Express Yourself Day and our HWB home-link.

Hope everyone has a lovely holiday weekend!

Beth⭐️

This week we have been continuing to learn about Robert Burns. We have been focusing on using ICT to research Burns Cottage . We have used the information we have found to create Burns cottage  using loose parts.through this we have been we developing  our technology skills and problem solving skills. We have also started to explore rhyme through looking at some of the songs/ poems Burns wrote.

The children have continued to participate in bird watching week. Thank you to everyone who brought back their homework. Lynnette will pass this on to RSPB.

Technology/ Science/ Literacy

Creative area the children have been beginning to explore Butterflies they have shown an interest in butterflies and what they look like 🦋 The children have been continuing to develop their pattern skills through  creating their own.

Expresive/ technology

On outdoors this week the children have been exploring and discussing the weather due to the stormy weather we have had recently. The children have also been continuing to explore the new resources in the mud kitchen and water play.

science/ technology

I n d o o r s 😊

This week in the ECC we have been exploring Scottish Castles🏰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The children began learning about Scottish castles and explored when they were built, how they were built and what they were used for. We even had a look at the castle in Disneyland. The children have been building on their enquiry skills, help to understand how people from different cultures used to live and comparing and contrasting the world today and the past. The children were also using technology to explore castles and find out useful information.

The children have also been exploring shapes and creating their own mosaic castles.

Links to Curriculum; Social Studies, Expressive Arts, Technology, Literacy.

Beginning to explore Scottish dancing within the ECC and we are having a special guest attending the ECC next week- a highland dancer from Aileen Robertson School of Highland dance to perform to the children 🕺.

C r e a t i v e     A r e a 😊

In the creative area we have been exploring the work of an artist, Steven brown art and we even created our own McCoo and the children named it May McCoo 🐮

Links to the Curriculum; Literacy, Expressive Arts, Social Studies.

Week beginning 8th January 2024

We are beginning to explore Scotland in the ECC.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿We have watched some videos of highland dancing and began to copy the moves, we discussed the type of clothing dancers wear and where they might perform, leading us to discussion of Edinburgh Castle🏰.

Children have been using a small world castle to role play using their imagination and a selection of Scottish, tartan dress up clothes to support increasing knowledge of their own country.

Building our own Scottish castles🏰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿  in our Scottish highlands imaginative area working on gross motor and team work skills.

Leading up to Robert Burns day we will be exploring Scottish songs and rhymes and learning a Scottish poem “The wee rid motor”, a copy of the words have been put on learning journals.

Creatively children have been exploring the saltire flag of Scotland using craft materials. Whilst learning all about Scotland the country we live in, we used our imagination and creativity skills and created her own Scotland flag 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 with the playdough.

Outdoors we have been exploring the Scottish weather which this week has been frost and ice. Children have been experimenting how to extract ice from the equipment and then see how small they can make it. Conversation led to discussion where we may find ice and interest has led to mountains. We will continue to explore  more about Scottish mountains and our weather through play.

We will be learning more about Scotland over the next few weeks.

CfE areas – science, technology, expressive arts, literacy,  numeracy, RME, social studies, health & wellbeing.

Please check learning journals for our latest newsletters and dates for up and coming personal plans meetings.

Hope you have a lovely weekend, Lynnette x

Week beginning 18.12.23

What an exciting week we have had in the run up to the holidays 😊🎉🎅

🄸🄽🄳🄾🄾🅁🅂

Indoors this week, the children have enjoyed exploring transient art 🪵🌲

https://earlyimpactlearning.com/transient-art-definition-examples-activities/

They enjoyed exploring various materials and creating Christmas trees using moveable objects 🎄 This encourages creativity with open ended resources and supports language and communication skills.

Some children created play dough before exploring various shape cutters, making Christmas ‘cookies’ 🍪 We added some cinnamon spice to the play dough and enjoyed using our senses to smell and touch throughout. We also decorated some gingerbread biscuits with our TAP teacher Hannah before eating them 😋 The children discussed the different smells, taste and touch. Some children described the biscuits as spicy, salty and minty 🍪

P A R T Y!

On Tuesday we enjoyed our Christmas party 🎈 All children looked amazing in their party clothes and enjoyed taking part in some party games. We played musical bumps, Christmas corners and had a prize for the best dancer. We danced to a selection of Christmas music and showed off our favourite moves 🕺 Also, thank-you to the parent council for donating a special party snack 🍬

P A N T O M I M E

Our N5 children had the opportunity to watch our in school pantomime on Wednesday ‘ Robin Hood.’ They all thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

Oh yes they did! 🍿🎭

🄾🅄🅃🄳🄾🄾🅁🅂

Outdoors this week some children enjoyed making a gaming station using wooden planks and crates. The children worked together and shared the resources well. They also created an ice rink using the wood, working together and working as a team.

Some children created a water slide with balance materials 💦 They took it in turns to explore the slide and had great fun. This supports the development of large motor skills as well as encouraging problem solving and creativity. The children also demonstrated balance and co-ordination skills and supported each other throughout. Due to a weather warning, outdoors was not permitted at the end of the week for the safety and welfare of everyone 🌬

The staff at Mauchline ECC wish all our children and families a healthy and happy Christmas 🎄Stay safe and we can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store for us all 😀

𝐿𝒾𝓈𝒶 x

This week in the Main Playroom the children have been exploring different traditions for Christmas and finding out the true meaning behind Christmas 🎅🏼  🎄

RME/ Literacy

This week in the Art area the children have been making gingerbread men. We have been focusing on the story of the Gingerbread man and making our own song.

We have also been Creating our own Christmas biscuits 🍪 🎅The children have been exploring the play dough and creating Christmas biscuits to sell in our Christmas shop 🏬

Expressive Arts/ Literacy

This week on outdoors the children have been continuing to explore distance through mathematical language. We set a challenge to see who could make the sleigh travel the furthest 🛷.

Indoor Learning

The children have been busy writing letters to Santa and creating patterns to make their own wrapping paper. They have been using the Christmas cutters in the dough area to make shape cookies, they were discussing the different shapes and selling them in their Christmas Cafe. The children have been focusing on how Christmas is celebrated in different countries around the world and the meaning behind advent. On Thursday the children wore their Christmas jumpers and enjoyed a Christmas lunch in the dining hall.

Curricular Areas: Health and Well-being, Expressive Arts, RME

Outdoor Learning

This week the children who have been outdoors have been using their  imagination to build a boat and travel to South America, using the iPad to find different countries and how far away they are. They had fun exploring the frost and ice, using warm water to make patterns and write on the ice and watching it melt. They also made Christmas lights using paint and talking about the length of their lights, being long and short. Some of the children made bird feeders to take to the woods during their Woodland Wednesday visit, whilst at the woods they listened to a story that explored senses and explored the change in weather❄️

We would like to thank everyone who came along to our Christmas sing-a-long this morning, we hope you all enjoyed it and were as proud of the children as we were. 🎅🏼👏👏😊

Have a lovely weekend everyone 🎅🏼🤗

Jan