Our week in school and nursery has been filled with many exciting opportunities and unique learning experiences.
Our Primary 7 pupils have been demonstrating their leadership skills through ‘Young Leaders’ programme where they plan, lead and review lunchtime sessions for our younger pupils. A fabulous platform for our P7 pupils to be ambassadors for our school and a fabulous opportunity for our younger pupils to enjoy lunchtime clubs. My thanks to Jenny (Duracell) Thomson, our Active Schools Co-ordinator who trained our P7 pupils and to Mrs Munro, ASNA in school, who acts as adult supervisor to the lunchtime clubs.
In assembly this week we focused on the importance of the month of November and remembering All Souls. We also discussed using this month to prepare for the season of Advent and the Great Feast of Christmas. One of the ways we do this in school is participation in Keep Christ In Christmas competition. This competition, run by the Knights of Saint Columba, asks our children to draw/paint a scene which represents keeping Christ at the heart of Christmas. Each class was asked to decide on their ‘top 3’ entries and these will now go forward as our school entries.
The slideshow below shows our entries. Well done to all of our children for their active participation in this most important annual competition and thanks also to staff for taking the time to prepare the children. One of these entries will become our school Christmas Card this year.
On Friday of this week our Primary 4 pupils excelled as excellent hosts and hostesses at their very first Coffee Morning, and what a busy Coffee Morning it was! A HUGE thanks to all who came along to support our school in this most delicious, tasty way and to all who donated baking and raffle prizes. An amazing £778.00 was raised on the morning – outstanding. Well done to all in Primary 4. And, as always a MASSIVE thanks to our wonderful Coffee Morning Ladies and Gents who give so tirelessly of their own time for the good of our school, we would be lost without you.
Some snapshots of the day below.
A wee reminder: School photographer will be in school and nursery this week for individual and family photographs. Tuesday for school and Wednesday for nursery. Photographer will return next week -Tuesday 21st for class group photographs. Parents/carers will have the option to purchase individual, family and class group photographs. Thanks in advance to John Wilson photographer.
REMEMBER: Full school uniform on both Tuesdays, and Wednesday if you are having family photos with nursery pupils.
Hooray! Our nursery is back on our blog. A warm welcome back to our nursery staff who have been feeling under the weather. It’s lovely to have you all back and in full health ladies.
Here’s Mrs MM Murphy will all the news:
Our new topic in nursery is Light and Dark which has followed on from the clocks changing and the weather getting colder and of course Bonfire night. The children have been discussing what they saw heard and smelled on Bonfire night and through this discussion created a range of very colourful firework pictures using a variety of glittery art materials and paint They used stencils to create a nightime starry sky scene and paints to create a daytime scene which are displayed on the wall. They sequenced shapes to create rockets and used the star shape cutters in the playdough.
In Literacy they listened to the story of the ‘Owl Babies’ and used the puppets to re-enact the story. They have watched the ‘Owl Babies’ story on the Smartboard and are able to recall it in their own words. . The children started to discuss other animals that come out at night and this be our focus next week. Over on the writing table the children have been exploring different ways to help their pencil control improve. They have been using the sand to write some of the letters in their name and they have used some visuals to trace wavy and zig zag lines.
New resources for our outdoor sensory area have arrived and the children had the opportunity to explore the mirrored shapes before they were fixed to the fence. Some children were able to name the shapes and discussed how many sides they had. They looked at their reflection in them and discussed what they could see. The shapes are now fixed to the fence to allow the children to explore them freely. Also outdoors the children drew some fabulous rockets and sparklers with the chalk on the ground. The game of choice outdoors this week was ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf’. A counting game which the nursery children and the P6 buddies enjoyed.
In numeracy the children have been set a few different pattern challenges. They have followed some simple basic shape patterns before being challenged to some more difficult ones as the week progressed. They used the SmartBoard interactive activities to help them create their own pattern.
In snack this week the children requested pizza. Each group had the opportunity to make their own pizza, choosing their preferred toppings. Always a very popular activity and Mrs Little was kind enough to encourage the children to make a pizza for the ladies lunch. Yum Yum! Gino Di Campo better watch out!
Down in the forest this week we had a special visitor. Marian Cairns from the Forestry Commission came to visit our forest site. Marian was most impressed with our forest adventures and loved our forest song but most of all she was very impressed with the facts that the children could tell her about their natural surroundings. She was super surprised to find the Owl Babies perched on the ivy tree in the forest and the discussion that transpired when the children discovered them. After reading the story and sharing the Owl Babies the children tucked into tomato soup and crusty bread for snack. The children had requested this the week before and it was a perfect snack to end a perfect day in the forest.
A wee reminder our musical workshop will take place this Monday at 9am in the drama room and 1pm in the afternoon. Please sign your children in as usual and you will be escorted to the drama room through the nursery. Next week also starts the first block of our Play on Pedals programme. This year this will take place in the school yard where the children will have the chance to use the road markings. All bikes and helmets will be provided by the nursery.
Finishing, of course with lots and lots and lots of lovely pics:
As always many thanks for taking the time to read all about what’s happening in our wonderful school community. Please leave a comment or two.
Mrs Shields
