Here are our youngest ‘morning’ performers – weren’t they fabulous!

Congratulations to all of our P4, 5, 6 and 7 pupils who performed in both performances of ‘Stable Manners’, our Nativity story told from a ‘slightly’ different point of view!

Thanks to all those family members who came along to be a very supportive and appreciative audience…

What a fantastic start to our Annual Festive performances. Primaries 1,2 & 3 provided us with such a joyful, musical and fun filled Nativity. Well done to everyone involved. Photographs coming soon. All of our infants were fabulous stars, who have shown themselves to be extremely confident on stage (and off), great singers and very successful learners. They were amazingly polished in their performances. A special thanks has to go to Mrs Brenda McCoy who has so creatively choreographed and directed the whole show.

Alongside the triumph of the Nativity our Enterprising entrepreneurs were out in force. Huge thanks to Miss Stack and her Enterprise Committee who, over the past number of weeks have been busily making lots of Christmas goodies which they duly sold after the Nativity. To date their profit margin is in the region of £200 +

I do hope as parents you were all delighted with your one child(ren)’s work in their folders and are also very pleased with each of the reports. We look forward to your feedback.

Each Tuesday our brand new active school co-ordinator; Jenny has been busily training our P7 children to be young leaders. This will allow our children not only to participate in after school/lunch time clubs but also to lead such clubs. Onwards and upwards! A fantastic learning curve for our children and a super opportunity. We welcome Jenny to our school and look forward to working with her.

Thursday saw our wonderful sporting facilities being utilised by the local schools for a festival of football, another great success.

Continuing on our sporting theme our netballers, ably led by Miss Lafferty and Miss Kane, enjoyed their first ever festival at Coltness High School. Another chance to wear our brand new (worn once) sporting Cathedral jackets provided by our Fabulous Fundraisers. Big thanks to Miss Lafferty and Miss Kane, our two probationer teachers for taking on such a great team sport for our girls.

Meanwhile doen in the nursery business is busy as always……

December has arrived and the children have been getting into the spirit of Christmas by decorating both inside and outside preparing for the forthcoming celebrations.

They looked out the decorations from last year and some were a bit worse for wear so a walk up to the shopping centre to replace these was a must. Off we set with the children and on the way they saw shops with flashing lights, christmas scenes and lots of glittery sparkly decorations, this sparked lots of different conversations about the decorations they put up in their own house and visits to see santa Claus. As the week progressed the children decorated two trees indoors and our big tree in the nursery garden. Outside they changed the “Owl Babies” nest into Santa’s grotto and had great fun using their imaginations and role-playing in the grotto.

On Tuesday the children had a visit from Amy from ABC music. She brought along with her some props to help them to listen to different types of music, sounds and  tempos. The children were totally engaged in the games that she played with them. Amy was very impressed with the children who took part and is looking forward to a further visit in the new year.

In the literacy area they had lots of different Christmas stories to look and listen to. They started writing their letters to Santa and used colourful Christmas stampers on the envelopes then posted them into the nursery post box.

Over in the maths area they have been playing Christmas positional, shapes and matching games on the SmartBoard. They have built snowmen using the interactive screen and got out the big Gruffalo floor puzzle and worked together to complete it.

The expressive arts area has been taken over with Christmas activities. The children made paper chains and hung them all over the playroom this activity was a good one to develop their fine motor skills as it was quite tricky threading them through each other. They decorated pine cones with sparkly paint and glitter and hung them up. They made a “Shed” (stable) for their nativity scene and  made colourful glittery Christmas playdough and used it to decorate the trees on their playdough mats.

The children continue to choose their healthy Winter snacks in the snack area using their senses to touch, smell and taste some scrumptious food.

Each day the children have the opportunity to listen to their Christmas show songs or practise for the forthcoming Christmas show “Its A Cracker” on the 18th December 2014. Please continue to support the children with their lines from the show.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read the blog, all comments welcome.

Mrs Shields

Here is a taster of what Primary Seven were up to last week in Kilbowie Outdoor Centre!  Wish you were here…….?

As mentioned in the main Blog, here are Primary 7a delivering shoeboxes for the Christmas Appeal.

Thank you to Fr Millar and Deacon Tom and the parish, for this wonderful new altar.  We will use this gift at all of our celebrations of the Eucharist.

Although we have had a short week, we’ve managed to cover a whole range of different learning opportunities both in and out of school!

On our inservice day, we focussed on 2 main areas of learning and teaching:  Big Writing & Homework, reviewing our new approaches to teaching writing and also our whole school approach to Homework.  More information regarding these areas of school will follow.

For ‘Anti-Bullying’ week, our Primary 6&7 pupils all experienced workshops, with all pupils in the school taking part in activities throughout the week.  we continue to celebrate Mass on Wednesday mornings, with senior pupils preparing readings each week.

On Thursday, Fr Millar and Deacon Tom celebrated Mass for our Confirmandi, during which time our new school Altar was blessed.  Fr Millar took time to teach us all about the Vestments and Altar vessels.  The Altar, which has been purchased for us by the parish, will be blessed again during our Saint Andrew’s Day Mass; please come along and celebrate our National Patron Saint, as well as sharing in the Eucharist.  Mass begins in school at 10.00am with Primary 2 leading the liturgy.

On Friday, our Primary 7 pupils delivered ‘shoeboxes’ for their Operation Shoebox appeal.  Working alongside pupils from Firpark, Primary raised money to purchase essential items for children in need. They’re sure to have a busy weekend too, as they pack for their week long outdoor residential trip to Kilbowie!

Coming up next week…

Primary 7 pupils are all off to Kilbowie – pupils should be in school at 8.30am…

We have our ‘Tartan Discos’ on Tuesday evening, organised by our Fabulous Fundraisers:  P1 – 3 from 5.45-6.45pm and P4 – 6 from 7.00 – 8.00pm.  Please note this change of time for P6 pupils.

Bag2 School Collection on Wednesday

Feast of Saint Andrew Mass in school at 10.00am

And now…the news from the Nursery!

A four day week but a very busy one as always in nursery. The children continue to practice their songs and actions for the Christmas show.

The new topic “Light and Dark” continues with the children watching the story of the “Owl Babies” on the SmartBoard. This is a very popular story as you will see from the activities the children have been participating in below. The children have put lots of information about the story and what they have learned into their group floor books.  Outside the children have continued to explore the dark den and have decided to turn it into a nest for the Owl Babies to live. The transformation will continue throughout the coming week.  In the literacy area they have been discussing the story and drawing pictures of the Owl Babies in fine detail. They also had the opportunity to listen to the story using a torch in the dark den.  Over in the expressive arts area they have painted the whole owl family and they stuffed tights and painted them brown to resemble branches for the owls to sit on. This display can be seen at the opposite end of the playroom, please take time to have a look at the hard work the children have put into this display. They also painted their own owl baby faces on paper plates to take home.

In the snack area they discussed the types of food that owls like from the story and the children made a list of all the hot food they would like to have for snack. This week they have made minestrone soup with star pasta, macaroni cheese and beans on toast. Comfort food now that the nights are fair drawin’ in!!

The maths/science area has been busy with the children exploring the lightbox and tracing different sources of light such as the moon, stars, torches, the sun and candles. The projector was used to project light onto the wall to show the children another source of light and they quickly realised that they could make shadows. Great fun was had by all. They played games on the SmartBoard where they had to find different sources of light and they watched “Can’t You sleep Little Bear?” another popular story about the dark.

On Friday the children took part in our wear blue day to highlight anti-bullying week. They made a mindmap of what they thought bullying was all about and what they should do. Both of these can be seen on the board in the cloakroom.

As mentioned in the main blog, Miss Stack, Miss Mooty and the Enterprise Committee organised a fabulous MacMillan Coffee Morning and as a community we raised £1700 for the charity.

Two short weeks in school but still time for lots to share with you.

Last week, prior to our September weekend, we were delighted to welcome Ms. Moira Cumming to our new building. Ms. Cumming was the lead inspector at the time of our HMIe inspection in October 2009.

I am very pleased to report Ms. Cumming was, once again, most impressed by our children and staff, their engagement in their learning, the range of learning activities on offer and of course our beautiful new building. Ms Cumming commented most favourably on our use of our outdoor space not just for play space but as an outdoor learning facility. Ms Cumming also spoke most highly of our wonderful nursery playroom, our dedicated staff and of course our fabulous nursery children. A most positive start to the week.

Wednesday of last week we held an evening whereby the parents/carers of those children who had been selected for instrumental tuition had opportunity to come to the school to hire/purchase their instruments. Thanks to Band Supplies for taking the time to come along to school thus saving parents from having to go into Glasgow for this service.

Thursday morning saw a most successful Enterprise Initiative within our school. Miss Stack, Miss Mooty and our wonderful Enterprise Committee have been working tirelessly over the past few weeks to organise a MacMillan Coffee Morning. And what a coffee morning it turned out to be. We were delighted with the huge number of people who came along to support such a worthwhile cause. There were games, stalls, raffles and so much more not to mention the wonderful array of cakes on offer. Our whole school and nursery became involved in this venture with our children baking and cooking for the big event. Another excellent learning opportunity for our pupils, the tastiest maths lessons ever!

£1700 was raised that morning, a fantastic amount. I am so proud of our school and nursery community for rising to this challenge. A huge thanks to Miss Stack and Miss Mooty who spent endless hours harnessing the interest of all and writing so many letters asking for help from a variety of organisations.

Have a look at the back page of The Scottish Catholic Observer this week – great photo and story about the morning.

Worthwhile mentioning that during the coffee morning we had an unexpected, unplanned fire drill. So many of the people at the coffee morning commented on how speedily and efficiently our children left the building and went straight to their ‘fire zones’. One comment summed up the voice of all:

“Well, at least we know our children are very safe in the event of a fire. The organization of so many children evacuating a building so quickly was incredible. So much more efficient than where I work.”

Our fire drills are carried out at least once per term. It is the first thing we do on returning to school. Firstly with staff only on In-Set days and then on the first day the children come into school and nursery.

Two four day weeks in nursery but very busy ones as usual. Our group activities were postponed until next week due to the short week and the pre-school eye testing which took place on Tuesday and Thursday. The children used their time on Wednesday and Friday to design a group road safety poster. These posters can be seen dotted throughout the playroom please take time to look at the hard work they put into them at parent’s night on Tuesday.

The children continue to learn about road safety and outside this week they were role playing the job of the lollipop person using our own zebra crossing and the props that the children had made the previous week. They also played the traffic light game using red, yellow and green to reinforce the meaning of each colour.

Snack/home corner – On Wednesday the children were asked what other people help us in the community, a mindmap of their answers can be seen on the wall in the cloakroom. This sparked a great discussion and the children decided to turn the house corner into a hospital, they moved out some furniture and brought in beds, costumes and other props and immediately started to roleplay doctors, nurses and patients, pictures of this will follow next week. This theme will continue to grow over the next few weeks.

The children continue to choose what they are having for snack and write it on the menu board. Healthy fruit/veg are always available each day along with their own choice.

In the numeracy area they played Ziggy (road safety character) memory pairing games on the SmartBoard, some children managed to complete all three levels WOW! New puzzles were introduced with different types of emergency vehicles, these puzzles attracted a lot of children to the numeracy area.

In the literacy area the children visited the school library to look for books about people who help us and they returned with books about nurses, dentists, police and Fireman Sam. The story corner is now well stocked to help them throughout this theme. They also made their own identity badges such as nurse, doctor and firefighter.

Over in expressive arts they painted portraits of people who help us using the right colours for each uniform, yellow for the lollipop person and blue for the nurse. These can be seen displayed in the art area. They made blue playdough to correspond with the nurses uniform.

Our Autumn display is starting to grow and this week all group activities will have an Autumn theme.

A reminder that parent’s night is on Tuesday 7/10/14. The staff are looking forward to sharing all of the children’s hard work with parents/carers.

This week the P6 buddies joined the nursery for their very first visit. They were allocated different groups to join as the children took part in group activities. They helped the children put on their aprons to play in the water and even attempted to put the aprons on themselves to help the children with the golden rules and routines. Unfortunately the aprons were a bit small! They enjoyed their first nursery experience and are all looking forward to returning soon.

The children have now all been introduced to six jungle animals who promote positive behaviour. Mona the monkey learns to listen, Elsa the elephant always tries hard, Louis the lion learns it is best to be honest, Zelda the zebra is kind and gentle, Alfred the alligator turns out to be very helpful and Gino the giraffe learns to look after all his toys and cares for his friends. These characters help the children to follow the nursery rules and routines. Feel free to introduce the characters at home.

The children have painted these jungle characters in the art area and outside and they can be seen on the Jungle wall. The nursery rules that the children have discussed can also be seen on this wall. They also made detailed drawings of their favourite animals and these can be seen in the story corner.

In the numeracy area they continued to explore number games on the SmartBoard and colour matching board games. Due to the exceptional good weather the maths area moved outside and the children used the foam numberline to sequence 1-10. They also played skittles counting how many they managed to knock over. The children waited in turn to bowl.

Outside they have been carrying out their daily Eco tasks and playing circle games. By the end of the week they were singing and doing the actions to some jungle songs that they have been introduced to. They also painted their own set of jungle characters and these can be seen on the garden wall.

In the literacy area they have been writing the names of the Jungle animals which can be seen on the wall display and reading animal stories in the story corner.

In the snack/house corner they have been roleplaying with real food. They have been using their imaginations to make some pretty awesome dishes such as carrot soup, French potatoes, a whole picnic spread and chocolate cake. (Cathedral Bake Off) The children continue to choose their snack each day and they can now write it on the menu in the snack area.

Each morning the children form a train and head off to their special activities as a group.  Below is what they have been involved in this week.

The group activities this week continued with a water matching game in the messy area which involved different sized coloured boats.

A story from our new story sacks which include props and puppets to help the children listen and retell the story.

They sequenced 0-10 on the numberline and some children picked out numbers at random and the majority of children confidently picked out their age.  They were shown how to prepare and play with real food in the home corner.  Outside they played ball games to enhance their hand to eye co-ordination.

Next week the children are going to be learning all about how to travel safely through our Ziggy stories.  Reminder – Nursery is closed on Thursday 18th as it is an in-service day. The cooking bus is in school car park all week and if you have put your name on the list for Thursday don’t forget to come along.