Willowbank School, KilmarnockThe Transition boys were Confident Individuals in the cookery room this week. They were set the challenge to independently make one serving of beans on toast. They boys successfully and safely portioned the beans, used the microwave and toaster and spread their own butter. Their reward for achieving this was…….a lovely plate of beans on toast!
As part of their Work Experience class this week the Transition boys helped to put up the Christmas Tree. The lights were in the usual tangle so the boys were Effective Contributors and applied their problem solving skills. They untangled the lights and wrapped them around plastic lids. This allowed us to pass them around the tree without any birds nests or knots. Well done boys, it was a great effort!
Yesterday at cookery we tasted lots of different Scottish foods. We tried haggis, neeps and tatties. Poppy really liked this. We also tried scotch broth which Maja really enjoyed. We also had pancakes and tattie scone which was a huge hit with Callan, Kayden and John. We will be learning about Glasgow as this is going to be our new theme.
We all took part in circle time this week which had a communication focus.
We played games which required us to listen carefully to instructions, respond appropriately and deliver communications to others. We played charades, ‘Apples and Bananas’, parachute counting games and a games called ‘spider web’ where we had to pass a ball of string to each other but holding onto our own piece and use verbal communication or signs to indicate who we want to pass the string to. We then had to listen carefully to each other as we tried to untangle ourselves! We were effective contributors as we all took part in every game!
*Successful Learners* *Effective Contributors*
The Moonbeams have been working together this week to make Reindeer Noses and Build a Snowman sweetie bags to sell at the Christmas Market. The children applied their counting skills when counting out how many of each item they needed and were very responsible when working together to close the bags. We hope everyone likes them at the Market tomorrow.
The Beech class have been learning about Sphen and Magic!
Sphen and Magic (together, “Sphengic”) are two male gentoo penguins living in captivity at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. They are young, in love and about to become parents for the second time, thanks to a foster egg donated to them by staff at the aquarium.
When Sphen and Magic became a couple, Australia had just gone through a bitter battle about whether same-sex marriage should be legal. The human gay marriage debate had brought out thorny personal and religious tensions. These two gentoos, unaware of the political heat around their courtship, became a larger symbol for the country. If a penguin colony could figure this out, a human nation certainly could.
we decided to honour Sphen and Magic by putting them on our class snow globe!
The Beech class read some stories about Scotland and St. Andrew this week as well as enjoyed a special St. Andrew’s day assembly on Wednesday. To help us celebrate, we listened to traditional Scottish music while designing our own Scottish thistle! We were all very successful learners!
So Christmas is well underway in Willowbank, Anthony was responsible for starting our concert costumes.
There has been a lovely atmosphere in the class this week, lots of fun interaction between everyone.
Everyone was effective contributors when decorating the classroom. Christmas is about giving and making people smile, so we have started making nice gifts to take home.
Below are some snapshots of active numeracy sessions and life skills mathematics in the Beech class. The work we do is based on life skills and pupil ILP targets. The young people work round each station focusing on their own number targets.
Lyle is working on number and coin recognition
Sean and Skye use their hands or instruments to count out the numbers on coins or play matching games to help develop their coin and number recognition.
Nicole is working on her understanding of her personal timetable and thinking about when different activities happen in her day.
Sean loves our counting Monkey game
!
* SUCCESSFUL LEARNERS, CONFIDENT INDIVIDUALS, RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS *
The Bluebells class enjoyed a winter wonderland walk to the Kay Park yesterday. We had lots of fun on the park equipment and enjoyed meeting the Comets class and playing with them too.
