Well it’s been another busy term! Starting with autumnal activities including Halloween and Guy Fawkes, then a topic about moving toys and finally winter activities including Christmas!
Click on the link below to watch our highlights video…
Christmas time….
It has been a term like no other in Ochiltree but we have survived and got through it together and hopefully the new year will bring about positive changes for us all.
The children have coped tremendously well over the year and have made some great progress despite all the hurdles that they have faced. We have had a packed timetable despite the restrictions and we have been able to experience more of the outdoors and new activities throughout our day.
We have enjoyed our topic of electricity and the new class jobs that we experienced – using the hoover, microwave and lots of switching toys, tools and utensils.
We have been outside lots – going on walks, litter picks, experiencing different weathers and different environments. We are enjoying looking after the courtyard area of the school and look forward to planting and growing produce we can use in recipes as the year progresses in 2021.
We have had lots of experiences cooking, craft work and games in the classroom which has been fun for everyone getting to know each other and building relationships as they learn to take turns and share with each other. All of the children have made some great personal progress with their independence and target work as well as working on ASDAN and SQA modules which we will continue to update you on in their Learners Journals.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you all again soon in 2021.
Article 28 (right to education)
Every child has the right to an education.
Primary education must be free and
different forms of secondary education
must be available to every child. Discipline
in schools must respect children’s dignity
and their rights. Richer countries must help
poorer countries achieve this.
Article 29 (goals of education)
Education must develop every child’s
personality, talents and abilities to the
full. It must encourage the child’s respect
for human rights, as well as respect
for their parents, their own and other
cultures, and the environment.
Article 31 (leisure, play and culture)
Every child has the right to relax, play and
take part in a wide range of cultural and
artistic activities.
Ochiltree have been busy Elves over the last couple of weeks – having fun and working hard.
We all enjoyed our Christmas crafts and artwork that we worked hard on although really enjoyed looking at all our pictures while putting the calendar together.
We also enjoyed the pantomime despite it being virtual it was like we were there!
Our Christmas party was really fun – we enjoyed playing pass the parcel, corners game and dancing to party music before Santa came to visit and give us all a gift.
Despite everything that is going on in the world around us we have not let it dampen our spirits in Ochiltree!
MERRY CHRISTMAS from all your friends in Ochiltree. xx
Article 29 (goals of education)
Education must develop every child’s
personality, talents and abilities to the
full. It must encourage the child’s respect
for human rights, as well as respect
for their parents, their own and other
cultures, and the environment.
Article 31 (leisure, play and culture)
Every child has the right to relax, play and
take part in a wide range of cultural and
artistic activities.
A group of secondary children- Andrew, Nathan, Amy, Emily and Lauren visited Harlaw visitors centre in the Pentland hills this week. The regional park have created lovely accessible paths for wheelchair users around the Pentland hills. We went for a lovely walk around the reservoir, exploring the nature around us, very beautiful. Nathan especially enjoyed looking around on the walk around the reservoir.
The children also helped to make a bug hotel using a drill and took part in pond dipping too. We found a newt and a few other creatures too. Lauren was not impressed by our catch lol! However she enjoyed watching her friends. Amy laughed and giggled the whole time she was using the net to catch the pond life and didn’t want to let go of it! Andrew and Emily were very interested in helping to make the bug hotel. Andrew was focused using the drill and Emily loved listening to the sound of the drill. This would be a wonderful place for other classes and their families to visit. A round trip around the reservoir takes about an hour to walk.
The end of term is upon us and we would like to share some of the highlights from across the term. We began with Halloween and Guy Fawkes and did lots of art and sensory activities to support this.
Next we moved on to a topic about Toys. Our sensory story helped us to explore and learn about different types of toys. We had a special treasure box full of toys to explore too. We were able to use the toys to roll, throw, push, pull, spin and press buttons.
Christmas is now nearly upon us and we will post some photos of our celebrations at the end of the week.
What a busy term we have had! Our topic this term has been the weather, we have been learning all about different kinds of weather by going outside at least once every day. We have also been experimenting and exploring in our messy play. Did you know you can make it snow inside using shaving foam?
Messy play has been a firm favourite this term- for the children anyway! The classroom has often ended up covered in flour, pasta, rice, tinsel, jelly, cornflour and of course glitter.
We have had to do a lot more online activities this term, level four meant that we had online music sessions and even online visits from the clown doctors and an online pantomime! it has been different but the children have still enjoyed it.
Beyond the classroom we have been for our sponsored walk, all the children amazed us with their stamina as the walk was further than we would normally go but they all did very well, and of course a fantastic amount of money was raised. We have also been part of the UNICEF Outright campaign around climate change with all the children being part of making a poster and putting it up in the community.
Cooking had been another favourite activity for the children this term, we have made everything from fruit smoothies to soup and cheesecakes to peppermint bark. All so delicious there was none left to send home.
This term Glendevon and Ochiltree have been very creative collecting different resources from the forest floor to use as tools in art. We have painted by rolling pine cones, swishing with fir tree branches, pressing with stones, rolling with conkers. We have even used other shaped branches to create patterns in paint. We realise now we don’t need to buy paintbrushes again!
We also made our own natural paints using beetroot, spinach, cocoa, raspberries from our garden and turmeric too. We had great fun mixing and adding baking soda to the beetroot made the red colour change to violet!
As well as this we have also been working on a Christmas project too which you will receive soon.
Merry Christmas everyone
Catherine Duffin
OutRight is Unicef UK’s annual youth campaign that empowers children and young people to speak out about children’s rights on World Children’s Day – 20 November – the anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It’s a campaign by children, for children, that helps children and young people to promote and protect children’s rights in the UK and around the world.
Beatlie is one of more than 5,000 Unicef UK Rights Respecting Schools across the UK that embed children’s rights in their ethos and culture.
We hope that through the campaign not only the children got to experience how climate change is making an impact on our planet and they have had the freedom to express their feelings and understanding of what they have participated in but you have also:
Please have a look at our fantastic children having fun and learning over the last 3 weeks culminating with World Children’s Day.
