Category Archives: Literacy

Caring for others at the Cartmill Hospital

June 7, 2023 Miss Keith Leave a comment

In the home room we have been talking about people who help us . “A nurse and a doctor work in a hospital”. We chatted about making our own hospital and what we would need. “It’s a emergency number it’s 999”

We then had a look at some instruments that the doctors and nurses might use. We learnt some new words “stethoscope “ that’s for listening to my heart. This instrument has a light on it then the doctor can see in my ears . We also have bandages in case I hurt my leg.

”You need a x ray to check if you have a broken bone “ . We will get a screen because you get privacy at the hospital”

On arriving at our hospital we would like you to check in and let the nurse know how you are feeling and tell her what is sore. Our doctors and nurses will decide the best treatment for you.

Some of our patients who came to the hospital had bad accidents. “ I went to the zoo and a tiger scratched my leg”. We worked well together, turn taking,co-operating and responding to each other. We discussed how you can only take medicine if the doctor has given it to you. “Mummy gives me the medicine at home”

We have had a busy hospital today and the doctors and nurses have decided that some of our patients will need to stay overnight. Let’s see who comes to our hospital tomorrow “we might need more medicine and bandages”.

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Busy May time in the Garden

May 25, 2023 Miss Keith Leave a comment

This month we have been super busy in the garden. We have been watching our seeds grow and decided we would need to replant them to help them grow bigger. We discovered some of our plants have lots of roots “it’s like spaghetti “. Our plants and vegetables need to have lots of water to help them grow big.

When we have been digging in the garden we have found lots of insects and bugs. We became explorers using books to identify them and having a closer look with our magnifying pots.

This month was also World Bee day on the 20th of May. We watched a short film about how bees 🐝 grow and why we need them. We made our own bee hive and added it into our bug hotel. We planted bee friendly flowers for the garden. Then made our own bees to hang on the tree using pine cones.

Bees make honey I like honey . After all our hard work we had a taste of the honey. We worked well together slicing the bread and sharing the “sticky honey”.

There have been so many jobs to do in the garden and the girls and boys have thoroughly embraced each task. They have worked well together, sharing tools taking turns, spotting insects ,looking after the plants in the green house we look forward to June as they begin to flower and we can harvest some of our vegetables 🥕.

Article 31 – I have the right to have fun in the ways I want to.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Imagination Boxes!

May 22, 2023 Mrs Barnes Leave a comment

Today in the Studio the children were having great fun in the junk area. They were creating from imagination boxes! The children get a large empty box filled with smaller boxes and a variety of materials to use. This allows them to create without limitations.

The children quickly got to work and had some amazing ideas of what they wanted to make.

“I’m making a super rocket! This bit makes it blast off!”

”Mine is a racing car, whoooooooosh!”

The children used scissors, glue and cellotape confidently to attach parts to their models.

“I’m making a robot and he is making a robot dog!”

What a fantastic robot and dog. The children used tin foil, milk bottle tops and pipe cleaners for the legs! “Robots have little short legs!”

Some of the children worked together and made a house for their teddies! They decorated the top of the house beautifully and cut out a door for the toys to get in and out! They borrowed cuddly toys from the Home room to put in their house!

The children had great fun playing with the toys in the house and showing it to their friends!
”The teddy is hiding in there out the rain!”

What great fun we had with all the recycled junk! The children were left to explore and experiment allowing them, to make bold choices and try new ideas!

Article 31 ~ you have the right to play.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Bookbug 😁

May 3, 2023 Mrs Johnston Leave a comment

Today Bookbug came to visit, the children enjoy singing the welcome song ‘Hello Everyone’ and giving Bookbug a wee cuddle!

The children decided that they wanted to sing ‘Old Macdonald had a farm’ and they chose the animal they wanted to pick.

We had ducks, horses, pigs, sheep, sheepdogs and cows 🦆🐴🐷🐑🐶🐄

We all enjoyed our story and joining in with all the animals.

If this looks like something you or your wee one would enjoy why don’t you come along to nursery at 9.00 or 4.00 to join in the fun on Friday 5th May!🥰

Literacy

Fun with Jack and the Beanstalk!

April 24, 2023 Mrs Barnes Leave a comment

Recently in the block area the children have been enjoying reading the big books and building from the stories. Today they chose to read Jack and the Beanstalk.

We had great fun talking about the story and predicting what would happen. The children particularly liked how the beanstalk kept getting bigger and bigger! They thought the giant was funny and enjoyed shouting ‘Fe Fi Fo Fum’ just like him.

We then looked at the story cards and the children very cleverly put them in the correct order of the story.

The children then got busy with the blocks building the giants castle. Some chose to build their own beanstalks! They put a lot of thought into their designs.

“I put these two together and got a circle door handle!”

”The giant is big so my castle is big!”

We then had lots of fun playing with the Jack and the Beanstalk toys in the castle.

“Look, Jack climbing the beanstalk!”

”The giant is hiding in the castle!”

The children had great fun retelling the story to each other whilst using their imaginations to add their own twists! This helps to promote brain development and imagination whilst developing language and emotions.

Some children wanted to read the story again to their friends whilst they acted it out.

Article 28 ~ I have the right to an Education

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Life feels better with colour !

April 19, 2023 Miss Keith Leave a comment

In the studio we are continuing to study artists from around the world. We have chosen to look at the colourful art work of Scotlands Steven Brown. “ McCoo” being his most famous piece of art . The children used their knowledge gained to select material to begin our painting.

We had the most fun using our hands and feet to create some bright colours and lots of shapes. The children also chose some rollers and bottle tops to enhance their work . It was slippy standing in the paint and we had to be very careful.

The girls and boys enjoyed the sensory feeling of the paint on their hands and feet. “My feet look like a rainbow”

The girls and boys waited till the paint was dry and then we were able to create more animals within our painting using a black pen . We now have a caterpillar 🐛, a tiger 🐅, rabbit 🐰, elephant 🐘,ladybird and whale 🐳.
We enjoyed working together to produce our own colourful painting and will be continuing on with this trying out different resources and media. As we do everyday we had to help tidy up . Well done .

Article 30: You have the right to play and relax by doing things like art.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Inspirational Artists 👩‍🎨🧑‍🎨

March 23, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

This week in the Studio Room the children have been investigating the art styles of the Spanish artist, Antoni Gaudi. He had an ostentatious style of mosaics called “Trencar”. This means “to break”. Gaudi created mosaic forms by putting together broken ceramic tiles, plates and cups.

We used some different types and textures of materials such as felt, foam, tissue paper and shiny paper. We started with some pre-cut shapes to start us off. But we soon got adventurous and used our scissor skills to create our own shapes.

We created our own “trencar” using these shapes to bring our creations to life.

Some of our older children could write their name on their finished art works.

Then pop them into the drying rack, to dry the glue.

We had a cup that was made in the style of Gaudi in our curiosity cube this week to show our children some 3D Art.

We were able to look at the mosaics pattern on the cup. We looked at how the lizard was made up of different shapes and colours.
We used the cup for inspiration to create our own still life drawings.

We have had a very creative, inspirational week in our Studio, learning about Gaudi and his “Trencar” art style.
here is some of our own interpretations.

I wonder what artist will inspire us next week……

Literacy

Wednesdays are for visiting dinosaurs in far away lands🙂

March 23, 2023 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Today the children decided they would like to make a story map using dinosaurs. They had great fun creating different habitats for their dinosaurs to live in.“ I’m writing that it’s a dinosaur world we are making” “ I found my same stegosaurus in the book” “ I’m drawing some grass for my diplodocus to eat he’s hungry from walking for a long time”

”I’m drawing around the triceratops’s he’s quite big” “I drew a cave I wonder if my eight dinosaurs will fit in it” “ My dinosaur is going for a swim in the pond”

“This is my triceratops he’s going to eat the purple flower for his lunch.

“Oh no my dinosaur is on fire” “The volcano is to hot”

“It’s okay he can go to the pond he’s not hot now” “ He’s going for a swim”

“The pterodactyl is flying over his land” “ He might fly down on his friends and eat them “ The children were very imaginative with their story telling .

“ I have a sonic dinosaur he is very fast” We thought that next week we could move onto story’s about woodland animals.

Literacy

What can you SEE👀?

March 13, 2023 Miss Brown Leave a comment

It’s STEM week! (Science, Technology,Engineering, Mathematics)

Following on from learning about the sense of hearing in the science area we have been talking about how many senses there are and what they all are. We found out there are 5 senses. Today we discussed which of our senses we would like to focus on, we chose sight.

The children looked through the microscope to SEE the different specimens on the micro slides.

“I can see it, it looks like a little bit of grass from the garden”

“It’s tiny stones” “Now it is BIG”

Next we did an experiment to SEE if the items we chose would Sink or Float. We discussed each item before it went in the water. We predicted whether each individual item would float or sink, developing our critical thinking skills.

“The golf ball will sink”

“Why do you think it will sink?”

“Because it’s heavy”

“The pom pom will float”

“i know, it’s not heavy, it’s light”

”I can see it sinking all the way to the bottom”

We used our mark making skills to record our findings. The children made tally marks for each item and recorded them on a table.

“3 floated and 2 sinked”

For our final experiment, the children used pipettes (developing their fine motor skills and hand- eye co-ordination) to add different coloured food colouring to individual glases and then filled them up with water.

In each glass they added a paper towel so that half was in one glass and half in the one beside.

We watched as the coloured water transferred from one glass to another causing some of the colours to mix creating different colours in the empty glass.