St Anthony's Primary School Blog

I just wanted to put a wee message on to say thank you on behalf of all of the ladies at St. Anthony’s ELC to all of the children and parents/carers who have been taking part in the activities that the ladies have been posting over the last couple of weeks. It makes us feel so happy to know that you are joining in with us and we love reading your comments to hear how you are all getting on and what you think of them. Also thank you to all of the staff for all of your hard work.

Take care everyone.

Hi everyone!

I would like to tell you today a little bit about rhyming.

Rhyme patterns are fun way to help young children develop their listening and language skills. They also help with memory. Today I have chosen  Humpty Dumpty and  Baa baa Black Sheep rhymes and you can find them below.

I hope you enjoy listening to them with your child and singing them together.

The ladies are missing all of you.  Stay safe.

Nursery Team

Hello everyone!

I hope that you are all staying safe, healthy and are looking after yourselves. During this difficult time we all trying to keep busy and keep our spirits up. .However, it is alright at times to feel sad, worried or even angry and good to talk about these feelings.

In the nursery we started creating emotions boxes. The children happily took part in decorating them and it was a good start to quality conversations about emotions. Some children were very good at recognising and talking about their feelings, but some found this a little difficult. I am attaching pictures of the children’s’ emotions box that we created to help us to talk about our feelings.

Helping children to identify and label emotions is an important first step to recognise and understand emotions in themselves. Children who learn how to understand emotions in themselves and others are able to regulate their own responses to strong emotions, for example in new or difficult situations. We can do a lot of things to help our children with their emotions, especially during these challenging times. You will find below some ideas of activities you could try:

· Ask children how they feel, observe them throughout the day

· Talk about how you are feeling during the day in appropriate ways

· Talk about how people might feel in different situations

· Help children make the connection that all feelings are ok, but not all behaviours are ok

· Use a mirror and watch with your child your faces representing different emotions

Or if you prefer maybe you would like to watch together these videos about emotions:

I hope boys and girls you have some fun learning about emotions. We look forward to hearing from you. Feel free to be creative and share some of your ideas with us.

We miss you all and we can’t wait until we can be all back in the nursery together again.

Nursery Team

Good Morning Everyone

Hope you are all well, the ladies are missing all of you and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Todays activity is about keeping our bodies fit and healthy with some indoor exercises that can be done inside or outside in the better weather.

Before you begin to exercise it is important to warm your body and muscles up before starting this will help you to avoid hurting yourself.

Warm Up – Make sure you wear the appropriate clothing when exercising for example trainers,joggers and a t-shirt .

Start with some stretching exercises –

Stretch up high towards the sky.

Crouch down low into a ball.

Bend from the waist down from side to side.

Move your arm round in a circle like a windmill then do it in the other direction and change to the other arm.

Now you should be nice and warm ready for some exercises –

Star jumps X 5.

Bend from the waist and touch your toes X 5.

Run on the spot for a minute.

Push ups X 5.

Hopping on one foot and then the other X 5.

Jump up and down with both feet together X 5.

Brilliant!  You can do more if you are feeling more energetic and really fit.  However it is important to cool down after exercising.

Cool down

Walk around the room slowly for a minute.

Stretch up high to the sky.

Lie on the floor, close your eyes breath slowly in and out through your mouth for a few minutes.

Now you should be nice and relaxed.   If you enjoyed this activity maybe you could try some yoga another day.  See www.youtube.comCosmicYoga

Please remember these are only suggestions and you could use your own ideas .  We would love to hear about these.  Have lots of fun with your family trying these .

Stay Safe

Nursery Ladies

Here are some ideas of how you can make your own tartan at home using items that you may already have. You could also use paint if you have some 

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Click on the link above to watch Miss Watt reading some Scottish Rhymes and singing one of our favourite Scottish songs.
Have fun everyone!
The Nursery Ladies

Hello everyone hope you are all well, the ladies are missing all of you and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Todays activities will look at a few fun craft ideas where you can help develop your child’s fine motor skills.  This can aid concentration and help prepare for handwriting.

Some suggestions for resources; pipe cleaners, wool, laces, pasta, straws, buttons, card, child sewing needle, scissors, playdough, beads, single hole punch.  If your child is left handed it may be beneficial to buy left handed scissors or scissors for both left handed/right handed users.

Activity one: diy straw and pipe cleaner fidget.

Child can cut the straws into different lengths (encourage smaller lengths).  Begin to thread the straws onto the pipe cleaner, children can create their own pattern.  They might like to count how many pieces of straws they have used.  Adults can help secure the pipe cleaner when work is complete, join more together to make a longer length.

Activity two: Using pasta with wool or elastic thread the pasta onto different lengths of wool/elastic.  Your child can crate their own necklace or bracelet.  Alternatively use beads so they can create their own jewellery.

Activity three: Your child can cut a large shape from a piece of card (cereal boxes are good for craft activities).  Adult pierce holes randomly in the card to create various patterns.  Use laces or wool to thread in and out of the holes.  A child’s sewing needle may be helpful.  Use selotape or tie knots to secure different colours of wool.  Buttons could be threaded onto the card.

Finally dough – very good for fine motor skills.

A simple recipe:  2 cups of plain flour, half a cup of salt, quarter cup of oil (any oil, I like to use baby oil), 1 cup of tepid water. Mix it altogether in a large bowl.  Use food colouring to create the required colour.  Adding different hair conditioner can create various fragrances or vanilla essence (just experiment with these).  Involve your child in making the dough; counting how many spoonfuls of flour etc.  If the dough is sticky just add more flour or if it is dry add a little more water.  When it’s ready have fun; add cutters and scissors can be used to cut the dough.  Store the dough in a food bag or air tight container.

Please remember these are just some suggested activities you may wish to try with your child/children.

Have fun!

Stay safe.

Miss Curran

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Hello everyone!

Hope you are all well. Today’s activity is to draw a self-portrait. Please have a wee look at the link above showing some of the self-portraits Mrs Nicol did with some boys and girls. I hope you will enjoy this activity. We would be happy to see your work.

Stay safe and healthy.

We miss you all!

Mrs Nicol

Miss Taylor has uploaded the story of the hungry caterpillar for you all to watch. There is lots of different fruits and vegetables in this story, there is also some not very healthy snacks. Can you tell me what ones are healthy and what ones aren’t?

I hope your all having fun at home with your grown ups.

Miss Taylor 🙂