January 22, 2021
by K. Cameron
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What colour are you feeling today?

Happy Friday Morning everyone. I am feeling happy because it is Friday I am looking forward to the weekend – I hope you are too!

This morning we have a post from Erin, who wants us to think about how we are feeling. She has sent us a great story to listen to and she, Ollie and Finn have been thinking about what colour their feelings are. Its a really great story. Hope you really enjoy it. Don’t forget to ask your mum and dad what colour they are feeling, after you watch the film. Here is Erin’s post:

Hi Boys and Girls!! I hope you are all enjoying your time at home! This is a little story about a colour monster. It is very good. Maybe you could draw a colour monster and pick the colour you are feeling to colour it in. I picked yellow as I was feeling happy and Ollie drew a green monster as he was feeling calm! How are you feeling today!

Click on this link to hear the story:

https://video.link/w/qdnJb

After watching that I think I’m feeling yellow too! Have a YELLOW weekend everyone!

January 21, 2021
by K. Cameron
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Getting ready for Burn’s day

Jen has been finding out a lot about the haggis. Haggis is something we eat on Robert Burn’s Birthday, 25th January. In Jen’s film she reads a great poem about the haggis – hope you enjoy it! Click this link to see her film:

https://video.link/w/ByNIb

On Robert Burn’s Birthday lots of people in Scotland have parties called Burns Suppers. The food at the party is Robert Burn’s favourite – Haggis Neeps and Tatties. He liked this dinner so much he wrote a poem about it. We’ll be looking at how we cook a Burns’ Supper tomorrow.

At a Burns Supper people read some of Robert Burns’ poems and sing some of his songs. One of his most famous songs is Auld Lang Syne. Maybe you’d like to learn it. Scots people (and Americans and other folk around the world) like to sing it at New Year, but we sing it at Burns’ Suppers too! It’s a song about remembering old friends and things that happened long ago. In this video, look out for people playing the bagpipes,( you could even count them) and some lovely Scottish scenery. This version of the song is very long, but maybe we could just learn the first verse and chorus:

AULD LANG SYNE

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For days of auld lang syne

https://video.link/w/EsNIb

January 20, 2021
by K. Cameron
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Pam and Lachlan Having Fun with Coins

Pam has made a film to show you some great fun that you can have using coins in a wide variety of activities. She has enlisted the help of her son Lachlan, who is a real screen natural, to help investigate how many coins it takes to sink a tin foil boat! Try and guess before he starts, just how many coins it is going to take! Click the link below!

https://youtu.be/CsPnFmij3fg

January 20, 2021
by K. Cameron
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Eileen’s Watching Birds & the Night Sky and Claire’s Number Walk!

Here is a post from Eileen

Hi everyone, hope you are all safe and well and enjoying some of our suggested activities at home. Did anyone make a bird feeder? I’ve had a few birds at mine but they have flown away before I’ve got my camera ready! 😆 This is a picture of my niece, Lily who watched the video then made her own bird feeders. Lily was very pleased with herself.

SUPPORTING WELLBEING THROUGH PLAY

Today I’m going to tell your grown ups about an activity pack they can find online. It has been developed by Play Scotland and it gives ideas of things you can do at home during lockdown.

https://www.playscotland.org/play-scotland-home-play-pack/

My favourite suggested activity is an evening walk. At this time of year it is dark well before bedtime so maybe getting wrapped up warm and going for a walk before bed might help make you sleepy. If there are stars ⭐️ in the sky, you might be able to see shapes or patterns. Maybe you could try and count the stars too? Or maybe you could play torch the in the garden when it gets dark.

Bye for now girls and boys. Take care and hope to see you all soon.

Eileen 🤗

Claire has been on a very special number walk – look what she found!

Hello boys and girls!

Today, I went on a very special walk. I went on a number walk. I tried to find as many numbers as I could. I saw numbers on houses, cars, signposts and lampposts.

Why don’t you go out for a number walk with your Mummy, Daddy or whoever is looking after you, and see what numbers you can find. Try and spot more numbers than the grown up you are with!

Here are some pictures of the numbers I spotted while out on my walk. What numbers did I find? Have a look!

We will go out for a number walk around the Nursery and the village once we are all back together at Nursery again. I can’t wait!

Lots of Love from CLAIRE XXXX

January 19, 2021
by K. Cameron
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Monday Morning Learning Suggestions

Our Learning Journal Challenge this week is to create a number washing line. You will need: string, somewhere to hang it up, 10 clothes pegs, some paper and pens and a pair of scissors. We are going to draw and cut out 10 socks, each with numbers on 1 side and number dots on the other- numbered 1-10. We can play lots of fun games with these. Try shuffling up all the socks and then ask your child to put them on the line in the correct order. It is a great way to learn the concepts of ,”the number before” and, “the number after”. Our wee three year olds usually find the challenge of 1-5 enough, and if your child struggles at all take it back to what they appear comfortable with. It’s play and it’s meant to be FUN! If your wee one loves numbers and finds this super-easy, try starting with 10 and going backwards to 1. You can also start counting from a number down the line – i.e. start counting at 6. If they need more challenge – make numbers up to 20. You could also introduce a time challenge of 2 minutes etc. This is a great way to learn the sequence and the symbols which represent numbers. Pegging up the numbers practises a pincer grip and this alone is a worthwhile activity.

We would really love to know how you get on with this activity and some photos of your young mathematician would be really very welcome. You can upload these quite easily from your phone onto the home learning section of your Learning Journal.

Last week we started learning a wee bit about Scottish culture and had a look at some tartan. Does your family have a Clan Tartan? Today Debbie and her son, Richard, are showing us how to make some amazing Tartan Biscuits. You might like to try making these too – they look yummy!

Click this link to see Debbie and Richard’s video

https://youtu.be/Bi6N0d8utBg

January 19, 2021
by K. Cameron
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Lisa’s Delicious Shortbread Recipe and Highland Coos

This post comes from Lisa and her lovely daughters, Rosa and Emilie.

Hi Girls and Boys, this week I decided to bake some shortbread with my daughters as they are doing Scottish activities for school. This is a fun way to practice your measuring and cutting skills.

You will need:

230grams unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into cubes

250g plain flour

120g caster sugar

Pinch of salt

To measure the ingredients out you could see if your grown up could help you, and also please make sure that you use a plastic or butter knife to cut the butter up (or let a grown up do this bit!).

Ask your grown up to turn on the oven so that we can bake our shortbread – the temperature of the oven should be 180.
When you have weighed all of your ingredients, place them all into a food processor (or mixer) and mix until the ingredients look a bit like breadcrumbs. Stop your mixer and test if the mixture squishes together like playdoh when you pick it up! If it does then your mix is finished. If not, pop it back into the mixer and mix again until it does.
Using a square or round baking tray, get some greaseproof paper and line the tray with it – this is so that the shortbread doesn’t stick when we have baked it and try to take it out of the tin. If you don’t have greaseproof paper you can rub a bit of butter all around your tray, and this will do the same job.
Pour your mixture carefully into your tray, and use your fingers to spread it out and press it down so that it is nice and even, and not too bumpy!
If you want to you can use a fork to gently poke some holes into the top of the shortbread, but don’t poke the fork too deeply
Ask your grown up to put the shortbread into the oven, and set a timer for 30-35 mins. When the timer goes off your grown up should check that the shortbread is nice and golden and feels firm like a biscuit. If it does then you can take it out of the oven now.
Let it cool down, and your grown up can cut it into fingers for you. You could sprinkle some more sugar on top if you want to.
Taste your shortbread, and let us know how it turns out

Here are some photographs of ours – my girls loved making these, but I think they enjoyed the tasting most of all!

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As we are focusing on Scottish activities, we decided to have a go at making our own McCoos! Steven Brown is a Scottish artist, and he makes very colourful paintings, lots of them are animals – have a look at the pictures below and see if you recognise any of these. The one with the cow is very popular so you may have seen this one before.

You could have a go at home at making one of these pictures with some crayons, pens, paint or whatever you have. It can be a bit tricky to get the shape of the animal but it is good fun to give it a go (and you could use a picture to copy, that’s what we did).

Here are Rosa and Emilie’s drawings – they used oil pastels and pencil, and I helped Emilie with her horse shape. I bet that you could all do an amazing McCoo style picture too! Have a go and show us your results.

January 19, 2021
by K. Cameron
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There’s A Moose Loose Aboot this Hoose! Let’s Dance!

If’ you feel like a bit of crazy dancing this morning, there’s nothing better than this crazy music. If your mum or dad can video you dancing to it we would love to see it!!!!

https://video.link/w/yWTHb

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Try this wee rhyme about a moose on your family. It will definitely make them laugh!

https://youtu.be/t6lwDljuo88

Hope everyone is feeling well this morning and that Mums and Dads are keeping sane amid the home schooling, home working and countless other pressures of this current time. Be kind to yourselves- if today doesn’t go to plan, don’t worry. We will all look back on this time in years to come and be amazed that we came through it so well. Wishing you a happy and minimally stressful, day!

January 18, 2021
by K. Cameron
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The Sorry Tale of Tam O’Shanter

A slightly sanitised version of Burn’s famous poem by Kate

https://youtu.be/GHhhEaFVnrs

A wee animation made by school children, with the music “Tam O’Shanter” by Malcolm Arnold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvRD8R1DMCQ

January 16, 2021
by K. Cameron
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CBeebies Space Week and While We Can’t Hug?

Many thanks to Julie for these posts!

For all our wee future astronauts-

🚀Next week is Space Week on CBeebies and we’re especially excited for Maddie, Space and You, filmed at the National Space Centre. 🚀

👩‍🚀Maddie Moate takes us on a journey into space to explore the planets in our solar system, astronauts, rockets and robots. There will be one episode per day:

🚀Rockets – Monday 18 Jan – 16.50

🌌Solar System – Tuesday 19 Jan – 16.50

🛰️International Space Station – Wednesday 20 Jan – 16.50

🤖Space Robots – Thursday 21 Jan – 16.50

👩‍🚀Astronaut Training! – Friday 22 Jan – 16.50

📺Each episode will also be available on iPlayer afterwards. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rjgj

Hope your weekend is going well!

Here’s a lovely bedtime story- While We Can’t Hug? By Eion McLaughlin

https://youtu.be/2PnnFrPaRgY

January 15, 2021
by K. Cameron
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Junk Modelling and Frog Drawing Masterclass

Today’s videos are from Erin and Shona. They have both enlisted their lovely children to help them. so many thanks to Ollie and Finn and also wee Mila. It is so good to see children enjoying their learning and having fun. We really hope your wee ones enjoy it too.

Junk Modelling

In her video Erin outlines the amazing developmental benefits from making objects from junk. Junk modelling really gives the brain a workout as children decide what can be made, how they can make it and how exactly they are going to use it. The language skills they practise while modelling and playing can be quite amazing and imagination is exercised to the full. Please keep all your boxes and cartons and tubes and bottles – combine them with some cellotape, glue and scissors and let your child amaze you. (You can always recycle their masterpieces as they build their next one). We would love to see photos of the things you build – we can put these on the blog to inspire other wee builders.

Click the link to see Erin’s lovely wee film

https://youtu.be/ZYXEywpMSWw

Drawing Activity with Shona

Introduction to activity with a list of the things you will need:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I0_aLn3Jw8

Now let’s get started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77u25cMUTq4

Shona’s daughter Mila, who is only 3, decided to draw – here is her beautiful picture

Fantastic Work Mila!!!!