Willowbank School, KilmarnockThe Transition class were Effective Contributors when they worked in the school garden. Due to lockdown our vegetable bed was over run with weeds. They boys put in a lot of effort to dig and remove the horsetails.
The boys then planted cauliflower, cabbages and broccoli to grow over winter. They will have to use their numeracy skills to keep an eye on the weather forecast each day to watch out for frost.
It was a happy/sad day in the Transition Classroom when we released our beautiful butterflies. We had seen them grown from tiny caterpillars into very big caterpillars then eventually into butterflies. The boys were Responsible Citizens when we finally released the butterflies. The butterflies hung around for a while showing off their colours in the sensory garden before flying off into the sunshine.
In the Pine Room we have continued with the yellow part of our Rainbow Theme, we made some beautiful stained glass effect stars for the class room windows – lots of glitter was used! We read the story ‘Yellow is my Color Star’ again and make our own colour choices.
For Science we are being successful learners and learning all about Bees, so we finished our bee pictures and watched a little bit of ‘The Bee Movie’.
We are continuing with ‘The Colour Monster’ and looking at our feeling, we all took our turn in picking a colour and painting our Colour Monster – isn’t he cool!!! And have started making a display board all about the Colour Monster and his feeling jars.
The Stars class were successful learners this week when doing our Eco work. We learnt about some boys and girls living abroad who had to go to work so were not able to go to school. We are very thankful we are able to go to school living in Scotland. We were responsible citizens when voting for Pupil Council posts. Good luck to all the candidates. We formed initial letters of our names using twigs from the garden and at theme art did leaf printing and created a raccoon and porcupine for our ‘Over the Hedge’ wall display. At science we made a fizzy volcano.
The Stars class have been confident individuals and successful learners whilst enjoying outside activities when the weather is good. We have been looking at the garden trees and how they change over the year. We created lovely pictures for the class wall of the four seasons of the tree. We discussed our needs and wants this week and had a great time with the car ramp deciding which slopes and surfaces made our cars go farther……and faster! We enjoyed hearing the story of the ‘Loaves and Fishes’ and were amazed at how five wee loaves and two fishes could feed five thousand people!
Wishing you a warm ‘hello’ from the Stars class. We have all settled in well to our new group and are enjoying activities. We have been successful learners doing hard work both indoors and in the sensory garden. We have been learning about ourselves and our new classmates by doing activities together. This week we created DVD spinners for the garden and enjoyed making a grass head caterpillar. We will keep it well watered and see how it grows. It might need a hair cut soon!
Hi everyone. We hope all is good for you and that you are enjoying the mild weather. 
Helping at home
Our families do lots around the house to look after us. Maybe you could help them do some chores. Why don’t you help………
Set the dinner table
Clear the dinner table
Wipe the dinner table
Wash and dry the dishes
Vacuum any crumbs up
Brush the floor
Dust
Mrs Logan, Mrs Westerman and Mrs Gardner have been very busy doing these chores around our own homes.
Balloon Rocket
Mrs Chisholm and her family had a great time making balloon rockets. Her children enjoyed this activity so much that they showed their teacher’s at their own school what they had done.
Why don’t you try making a balloon rocket too. All you need is some string, scissors, a straw, balloon and sellotape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uJLb-HrsMY
Picture Dominoes
We have good fun matching the pictures in this game. If you don’t have a picture dominoes game at home why don’t you print out these farm animal picture dominoes.
https://freeprintablepdf.wordpress.com/portfolio/discussion-cards/
Story
This is one of our favourite stories but read today by James McAvoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sly2G9tae_s
If you choose to do any of these activities then why don’t you send us a comment or some photographs. We’d love to hear from you.
Have Fun! Stay Safe! 
Hi everybody,
I hope you liked your little rabbit and enjoyed using the stickers. This week the ladies have been extra busy thinking of fun activities for you to do with your family.
Activity 1 – literacy
Put a picture on a plate the cover it with salt. You can then use your finger or paintbrush to write out some letters, draw a picture of just to reveal the picture underneath. Have fun. You may want to put your plate on a tray to minimise spillages.
Activity 2 – expressive arts
Shadow art – we put cling film over a toilet roll or kitchen roll tube and stuck a sticker or made a design to stick on the end. We then used a torch to shine light through the tube and create a shadow image on the wall of the sticker or design.
Activity 3 – science
Tornado in a jar – We made a tornado in a jar. Watch the video to find out what you need and how to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF9v-t9AZIU&feature=youtu.be
Activity 4 – numeracy
Colour hunt – all the ladies went hunting around their house for a specific colour. Check out the video to see some of the pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWxFGg1ncWU&feature=youtu.be
It would also have been Diggidabble week in school this week so here a few activities related to digital learning you can do at home.
Use a phone to take a selfie of yourself or you and your family.
Use your tablet or iPad. What apps do you like to use? Do you have a favourite game to play? Let us know in the comments below.
Make a facetime call or skype call with a family member to stay in touch.
Breaking news Oak class, we have BUTTERFLIES! We have 2 so far and hoping the other 3 will make an appearance any day soon.
Have a look at the video that has been made for you, Mrs Murray has given these caterpillars a lot of love and chat to encourage them to keep growing. The video will show you the life cycle of our butterflies. Did you guess the colour correctly? Click here to watch the video.
Take care everyone and hopefully there will be more photos coming soon of the other butterflies.
Hope you are all well. The weather has not been so good but hopefully the sunshine will be back soon and we can get outside again.
The bin men visit our homes every week to collect recycling and every three weeks to collect our green bins. Just now many Council workers are doing different jobs and some are helping the bin men. Thank you to all! 
Help your family organize your rubbish ready for the bin men. Recycle paper, glass and plastics in your recycling trolley and put black bags of non recyclable rubbish in the green bin. If you can, help pull out the bins onto the pavement for collection. Always remember to wash your hands afterwards.
The ladies and Mr Gardner have been busy sorting out the rubbish and recycling at home.
Floating/Sinking
Fill a basin or bowl with water then collect different small items from around the house and garden. Check if they float or sink. Try things such as a stone, flower, shell, plastic cup, pine cone, twig, coins, small ball, small plastic toy, paper or keys. Choose whatever you have available but ask first! Can you guess beforehand if it will float or sink?
Dice Game
Play a game of snakes and ladders with your family. Do good holding, shaking, listening and rolling then help to count the squares. Remember to wait your turn! Watch out for the snakes!
If you choose to do any of these activities then maybe you could send a photo or write a comment. We’d love to hear from you.
Have fun! Stay safe! 
