Category Archives: Literacy

Community, Creative Arts, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Health & Wellbeing, Life Skills, Literacy

Feeling Groovy 🌞🙏🏼

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It is Health and Wellbeing Week! In Pink and Yellow groups we are thinking about our differences & similarities, our feelings, and how to keep ourselves feeling good, relaxed and strong.

Monday is Dare to be Different Day. So we have had cool purple hair, some odd socks and some unusual yet fabulous style choices!

We’ve been talking about the ways we are different and the same.
“I don’t like spiders.”  “I like sprouts!”  “I have blond hair.”  “We all have brains…” “And skeletons.”

Our “Different Together” paper chain:

At Signing- In time each child chose a different patterned strip  to write their name on. We all have different favourite colours and patterns, and we joined them together to make a big paper chain.


We have been talking about different types of people and creating our own tiny people with lollipop sticks, pipe cleaners, buttons, felt, lace, wool and other materials.



“I want her to have red hair at the back and the front. She has a lovely smile.”   “I’m going to add this for a hat.”
“Let’s play with them…”



Noo-Noo (left) was feeling lonely because of being a bit different, but look how many friends the children have made for Noo-Noo now!

Tuesday is Bounce Back day, all about resilience.  At Together Time, the children all thought of things that make them feel happy and put them in a Thank You Jar with a coloured feather.



Here are some of the things we are grateful for:
“Star Wars and ice cream,” “Pink, and birdies in my garden”, “Daddy, Mummy” , “My sisters” ,”Squirrels in my gardens, and cats… and jewels”, “Tigers and PokĂŠmon.” “The colour red” ,”Jingle bells” “Tickly feathers” , “My puppy and my two guinea pigs”, “Music in your heart.”
Afterwards we made some Sunshine sticks:



Keep smiling!

Eco Learning, Fine motor skills, Food & Cookery, Fun, Group Purple, Life Skills, Literacy, Numeracy & Mathematics, Science, Uncategorised

Potions and Pumpkins 🎃 with the Purple Group

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We read ‘Meg and Mog’ and ‘I think my Mum is a Witch’, inspiring us to use our imaginations and create our own spooky stories.

 

Working collaboratively with our peers we successfully made Pumpkin Soup. We carefully deseeded the pumpkin, using our fine motor skills to chop the pumpkin and other vegetables.

We developed our problem solving skills as we measured and weighed the ingredients.

The children then had the opportunity to taste their creation. ‘This soup is amazing’- R

We created our own potions using  play dough and a variety of other resources, we retold the spells from the book developing our language skills.

We developed our fine motor, sensory and number recognition skills as we matched and counted spiders 🕷 and snakes 🐍 using tweezers in a variety of different experiences.

Fun, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Imaginary Play, Literacy, Mark Making, Music

Fun with Literacy

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This week the Yellow and Pink groups have been taking part in a range of different Literacy experiences.
They loved their Bookbug session with Mrs McInnes, where they were reading Shark in the Park on a Windy Day and practising rhyme together through song and puppets.



Later they gathered around the Story Box to take part in reading the seasonal classic “Room on the Broom” with plenty of props.


“We need to add some red fire for the dragon!”
“WHOOSH! They were gone!”
The children have been focusing on the initial letters of their name, identifying them and tracing them using Transient Art objects like green pasta, play dough, beads.

“That’s my letter. It’s a D.”
“We both start with A!”
They also experimented with different forms of mark-making, using a range of utensils.
The children are using Name Stones to identify their names when they arrive each morning.

Creative Arts, Food & Cookery, Group Pink, Group Red, Group Yellow, Imaginary Play, Literacy

Creative Minds at Work

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The Red Group put on a Show 🎭

After reading The Gruffalo’s Child together, the Red group children were excited to create their own puppets and put on shows using characters from the story, and characters of their own. They experimented with torches to create lighting effects in their cardboard box theatre.


The Reds have also been very creative at building houses with peas and cocktail sticks.
At the Junk Modelling table the Yellow and Pink group children came up with all sorts of innovative ideas, creating “a flag”, “a drum”, “a butterfly”, “a robot”, “a Dino Detector”, “R2D2”, “a bubble palace for tiny wee invisible people” and “a hamster run“. It’s amazing how many ideas emerge from a bit of rubbish, some tape and string…


A flag created at the junk table was tested out and flown in the wind outside.

Creative ideas with Rice:



“We made a cake with candles. Shh, it’s  a surprise!”

Creative Cookery: making banana smoothies. They were “yum!”

Eco Learning, Fun, Group Red, Health & Wellbeing, Literacy, Loose Parts, Natural World, Numeracy & Mathematics, Outdoor Learning, Science

The Latest Action with the Reds! 💥☄️

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The Red Group have been having plenty of Outdoor Action recently, experimenting with herbs in their Mud Kitchen, and practicing their throwing, catching, balancing and other physical skills.



Using a rope and recycled bottles of water, the Reds investigated forces, weights and volume. They tested their problem-solving skills as they used a pulley to hoist up the water.

“This is the Machine Maker.”
Watch the children creating a conveyer belt process with the tubes and bark pieces, using teamwork and imagination.

Indoors the children have been exploring Numeracy using autumnal natural objects, and in Literacy they have been really enjoying the story of The Disgusting Sandwich, using Hanen techniques and exploring the meaning of descriptive words.


Technology
We have been exploring technology using the Beebots, sending them in different directions.
We have also used the App pictured below on our iPads to work out how to say words and phrases in different languages.


Creative Arts, Eco Learning, Fine motor skills, Fun, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Imaginary Play, Literacy, Mark Making, Natural World, Numeracy & Mathematics, Science, Sensory Play

Fishy Things going on… 🐠

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Nature is  fascinating! In Arran Building, the Pink and Yellow group children have been showing great curiosity about sea creatures, so we’ve been learning more about Ocean Worlds in various ways :
“Can we read this big book about shells?”
“What is this fish called?”
We’ve been reading fishy stories & books of facts to discover about different types of fish, like lion fish & deep sea angler.
We made our own Sea World, then designed fish and fishing rods using magnets and paper clips. Watch us trying to catch them!

“We need to make some seaweed for it.”
“That’s a whale shark. It’s the biggest fish.”
“Look, I’ve caught two anchovies.”
”I caught a number 3.”

The children explored with their senses as they felt the scales of a real mackerel and described what they observed:
“It’s cold and slippery…”
“…green and blue, shiny, feels soft…”
”Tail helps it swim. That’s the bit that the eggs come out… that’s the fin.”

Rock Pool role play and nature investigations with bladderwrack seaweeds and shells. “It feels slimy” (seaweed)
“I’m being a whale shark… This is a baby stingray.”
“I can hear something in the shell….I found a limpet!”
Expressive Arts: 
The children have also been expanding their creative skills by trying out different art techniques including collage, printing, and paper marbling with inks and oil. They used mashers to print turtles and clay to model starfish and other creatures.

We practiced numeracy skills through some fishy games.

“I counted 8 shrimps!”
Sink or Float: In Science experiments, we made jellyfish with balloons and string. When filled with air alone they floated too high. One of the children suggested it would sink more if we added water inside, so we did… We also tried adding a little oil and sand.

“I saw jellyfish floating in the water on my holiday.“
”They’re soft, yellow and red” “They have tentacles“ ”This one’s a baby”
“Look what it’s doing. It’s making a current….a whirlpool.”


More Science experiments: trying out salt to melt the frozen icebergs, and making ocean slime.
Creative Arts, Fine motor skills, Fun, Group Red, Health & Wellbeing, Imaginary Play, Literacy, Mark Making, Numeracy & Mathematics, Outdoor Learning, Technology & Construction

The Red Group Rev into Action! 🚘

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The Red Group are currently based in the Lomond Room in Arran building. They have been eagerly exploring the characters in the exciting story of Supertato and have been role playing his adventures and daring rescues.

In Early Science experiments,  the children  tried different ways to free the peas from inside the frozen ice, adding salt, hot water and using various tools.

The Red Group have also been studying different vegetables and talking about how and where they grow. Then they made their own vegetable characters using different resources and re-enacted some of the key story scenes from Supertato.

“My favourite bit is when Supertato runs!”
“They put him in the jelly…”
“He wanted to kill the vegetable market…”

At group times the Red Group have been enjoying songs with actions, story-telling and talking about their feelings.

Outdoors they have been busy catching rain, puddle splashing and investigating forces with ropes (after reading the story of the Invisible String.)

Mixing powder paint with rain and experimenting with colour.


Using gloop to play and experiment with colour and shape.

Creative Arts, Group Pink, Group Yellow, Health & Wellbeing, Literacy, Numeracy & Mathematics, Outdoor Learning, Science, Sensory Play

Back in the Swing of it! ☀️🌋🦕

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It has been wonderful to see all the smiling young faces back at Busby ELCC and to welcome all our new children into the ELCC family.
In these early weeks the children have settled in very well, enjoying one another’s company and trying out all that is on offer.

In Arran building the Pink and Yellow groups are currently based in the Katrine playroom. Here many of them have shown a strong interest in dinosaurs, so we have been reading lots of dinosaur books and facts, making fossils in moulds and salt dough bones, and creating a dinosaur landscape with a working volcano….

Making Fossils
Making Fossils


Painting our Dinosaur Landscape

Making an eruption (with vinegar and bicarbonate of soda)

If your child is one of our budding young paleontologists, they might have fun checking out this latest news story with you: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-53917742

The children have also been enjoying lots of sensory experiences with ice shapes, sand, shaving foam, herbs, petals and water.

Making play dough for the day

The children love their regular sessions outdoors and in the MUGA , developing and showing off their physical and creative skills.


Rainy days not a problem…


Exploring the Gruffalo story sack (Literacy) and experimenting with Shapes (our current Numeracy focus)

At Snack time we wash our hands, then choose our snack if we’d like one and chat with our friends.


At group times we have been playing Spin the Bottle and talking about our feelings using stories, character puppets from Inside Out, and by placing our names on our  Feelings Board.

COMING SOON….
News of the Red, Blue, Purple & Green groups coming soon –  so keep your eye on the blog!