Mrs Docherty

MRS DOCHERTY SUPPORTING YOU TO LOOK AFTER YOU AND YOURS: 22.4.20

Following on from yesterday’s advice on how to look after each other during Lockdown I’ll keep providing further supports from the Glasgow Times article which I found so informative. Today’s focus is

Acknowledgement:

Children can find it difficult to recognise or share what their feelings are. It is important to talk about these with your child and help them to identify what they may be feeling and why. When doing this it is important to get your child to name their feelings. You can help with this by identifying the feeling for them if required. This can be done by saying: I can see you are feeling….

When you have helped them to identify their feeling you can work together to develop ways to make them feel better if their feeling is one of fear, or worry or anxiousness.

Maybe as a family you are finding calmness at this time and that is important to recognise and spread too.

Some questions suggested that you could ask your child included:

What makes you feel calm?

How can you continue to keep in touch with friends and family at the moment?

Can you think of anything fun we can do at home today?

What is something you could you do for someone else today?

What have you enjoyed about today?

What made you feel proud today?

I will further support this on our positive thought for the week on Friday and also on Thursday’s mindfulness self-regulation focus.

Have a great day,

Mrs Docherty

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD WITH RHYME DAY 3: 22.4.20

I hope you have been having fun looking at and using the resources provided over the last few days to help support your child with rhyme. For our final day of how to support your child with rhyme I will share two more games and ideas. It would be great to hear how you get on with any of the games, if you get a chance to play them. Please post a comment if you feel they have been successful.

Two great games for the whole family are what we will be sharing today. The first one is:

What’s in my Bag?

Once your child can successfully recognize rhymes, this activity will help them learn to produce rhymes. Just fill a bag with several common household items. Examples of these are included on the attachment with steps on how to play the game. Just print off the list, fill your bag and you’re ready to play “What’s in My Bag?”

Whats-in-My-Bag

Your child will pull something out of the bag and then see if they can think of a word that rhymes with it. It doesn’t even have to be a real word!! Have fun.

Dinner Time

Another great game to use is Dinner Time and this can be played with the whole family and will provide great fun. Please let me know how you get on with this one. I have attached a copy of the game below with the resources you will need to play.

Dinner-Time-Rhyming-Game (1)

I hope you have found this week’s support beneficial and more importantly they have helped both you and your child to have fun with learning in these times.

Sending all my best wishes,

Mrs Docherty

Supporting you to support each other 21.4.20

As I spent my Easter holidays in very different times this year I came across lots of great advice and support for us all in such times of unknown and times of real change. A great piece of writing I came across was in the Glasgow Times which provided super ideas and advice on how to support yourself and others during Lockdown. I thought it would be good to share some of these ideas with you this week as part of our Health and Wellbeing weekly posts over the next two weeks.

The ideas shared range from special breathing exercises to ways of talking about feelings. I’ll share 4 of the strategies and supports the Glasgow Times discussed today.

INFORM

Provide clear, age appropriate information and reassure. Be led by what your child talks about. Talking will help reduce anxiety.

CONNECT

Encourage talking to friends and family through technology. Connection supports positive wellbeing.

SOOTHE

Spend time doing fun and positive activities together, laugh, sing, dance, try out relaxation and breathing exercises together.

CONTROL

Focus on what you and your child can do like handwashing, eating well, exercise, learning a new skill.

Some great advice and know that we are also hear to support you in these times and to stay connected to you and yours. Tomorrow we will look at further advice that was shared in the post which supports Acknowledgement and recognising feelings.

Have a great day in the lovely sunshine everyone and keep making memories.

Mrs Docherty

Supporting your child with Rhyme: 21.4.20

Following on from yesterday’s post about rhyme we will look at further strategies and resources to help you support your child with their understanding of Rhyme.

A great way to do this is to play games. One great game to play is Get out of the Wagon which I have attached for you to use. In the downloadable activity below. Three word cards—like rake, cake, and king—are placed in a wagon. The child determines which word doesn’t rhyme and tells it to “get out of the wagon.”

Get-Out-of-the-Wagon (2)

Another great strategy is to use is Sharing Nursery Rhymes with your child. Nursery Rhymes are great to say over and over again and again. After your child knows the nursery rhymes, let him fill in the rhyming words. I’ve attached a list below where you’ll find some wonderful nursery rhyme collections to enjoy together.

Nursery-Rhymes-For-Little-Ones-Library-List

Enjoy the games and ideas and tomorrow I will continue to provide more ideas to make learning rhyme fun.

Have a great day,

Mrs Docherty

Supporting your child with Rhyme: 20.4.20

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD WITH RHYME: 20.4.20

Rhyme is a great way to help support your child with reading. It helps your child to notice that rhyming words often have shared letter sequences, such as –all in tall, ball, and small. Most children enjoy hearing and participating in rhyming activities, and when they are exposed to rhyming, they usually pick it up naturally.

There are 3 stages to help support the development of Rhyme. These are:

STAGE 1: HEARING RHYME: Your child gets used to hearing and repeating rhyme.

STAGE 2: RECOGNISING RHYME: Your child can identify two words that rhyme.

STAGE 3: PRODUCING RHYME: Your child can think of a word that rhymes with another word

Over the next few days we will look at 5 different ways you can help your child to understand rhyme and I will share resources and ideas to help also. Step 1:

Read rhyming picture books together.

There are hundreds of great rhyming books, and this Rhyming Picture Books Library List is a good place to start. As you read, occasionally point out words that rhyme. (“Oh, goat and boat rhyme! They sound the same at the end. Goat, boat.”)

Use the list attached to help you share rhyming picture books together like we do in Nursery and P1/2 and let us know how you get on.

Rhyming-Picture-Books-Library-List

Tomorrow we will look at a Rhyming games and also Nursery Rhymes to further support teaching Rhyme and I will include the games and further reading lists.

Mrs Docherty

POSITIVE SONG FOR THE WEEK 20.4.20

Welcome back after the Easter break. I hope you have had a lovely time with your family and that you have made many memories to cherish at this time.

As we return to our New Term albeit a very different start to our final term I think the message we need to continue to focus on is that we are all in this together. We will get through this with the help of our friends and the support of each other. On this note the Song for the Week has been chosen by James in P3/4. It is a great song with a very strong message of Hope and Friendship which is what we are all relying on at the moment. It’s You’ve Got a Friend in Me from Toy Story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNi02gxTI1M

The lyrics always make me smile and help us realise that at St Ninian’s we stick together and share everything along the way as good friends do. One of my favourite lines is:

And as the years go by

Our Friendship will never die

You got to see it’s our destiny

You’ve got a friend in me

Please know we are missing you all greatly and missing the smiley faces but also know that when we are all back together we will continue to make great memories and build on our amazing Friendship as it is one that will last a lifetime even as the years go by. Have a good week everyone,

Mrs Docherty

Positive thought for the week 3.4.20

Good morning everyone. Well done on another successful week of learning and making memories in our new normal routines and with our distance learning. Life has certainly changed over the past few weeks and as we adjust to this new normal we hope that it will be for a short period safe in the knowledge that we will weather this together.

On that note my positive thought going into the weekend is:

As we all adjust to this new way of life it is important that we try to find alternative ways to make memories and make the most of all the wonderful things we have. It’s important to make memories that will last a lifetime, laugh at the smallest of things, dance to the music and care for each other holding close in our hearts our loved ones.

One of the most uplifting things I heard this week was a Scottish grandma’s advice to her grandchildren. It brought both a tear and a great big smile to me all at once. Her inspirational message reminds her family that it’s finding a new way to dance in the rain that will get us all through this to the warmth of the sun and each other. She even made National News and GMB.

You are all doing amazing things from home and we appreciate all you are doing and the contact you are keeping with us. It means a lot.

I’ll end my post with a beautiful poem Mrs Scott shared with me and the staff team called At Home. Please read it as it is truly magical and heart warming and sums up a beautiful positive message of how well you are all doing. Thank you Mrs Scott.

https://www.freechildrenstories.com/at-home

Have a lovely weekend and a wonderful Easter holiday as you switch off and spend time together with your loved ones whether that is in your home or via the phone. You truly deserve a magical time. Keep smiling and dancing!

Happy Easter everyone,

Mrs Docherty

Reading Advice and Support 2.4.20

Good morning,

Today we will complete our Reading advice for this week. I hope you have found the hints, links, strategies and resources helpful. Please look back for these posts for all of the information and as always remember I am here to help so please leave any comments or questions.

A great website to use for ideas and book recommendations is Book Trust. The site is split into ages and provides recommendations of books for all ages.

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/search/#!?cat=&type=Booklist&q=&sortOption=MostRecent&pageNo=1

On this page you will find lists of books for your children depending on their age and stage of reading. I loved looking through it as my children are older so it keeps me in touch with what’s out there! Some new books added to my reading list!

A great resource on the Book Trust website is the link to Waterstones Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell BookTrust Home Time. I have included a word document which explains what this amazing initiative is all about. It is very exciting and offers a digital hub with a wealth of resources to support reading and illustrating. Definitely worth a look.

childrens-laureate-cressida-cowell-launches-booktrust-home-time-final

We will revisit Reading and Spelling support in the coming weeks. The next focus I will be supporting is writing.

Have a great day everyone,

Mrs Docherty

Mindfulness 2.4.20

Good morning everyone,

You are all doing so well with our new normal and engaging so well in all of the activities and learning online.

In these times we also need to remember that it is equally important to look after our wellbeing. Last week I posted helpful hints on mindfulness with ideas and strategies to help us have that all important downtime.

Thursdays are now such important days where we all stop at 8 o clock and thank our NHS. This is a time for reflection. These times are important for ourselves and our own wellbeing daily also. Today I have included a link for a great resource to use with your children at this time.

There are 5 themes to explore on this site. They are Calm, Focus, Kindness, Sleep and Wake up. Your child will be introduced to simple fun breathing exercises, how to practise a relaxed precise kind of focus, will be taught about openness and generosity, how to get a good night’s sleep with relaxed mindfulness activities. These simple meditations will help your child start the day of right.

http://www.headspace.com/meditation/kids

As today is Thursday I have also included a Mindfulness NHS Heart picture to colour as a family and to say thank you. This is a little challenge from Mrs Docherty and one I’d love to see you share. I’m going to do one and display it in my house to remind me about what the most important things in life are and to remind me to stop and have quiet time.

NHS Mindfulness colouring

Please take times in your day to stop and think about you. Take time to stop and switch off and take time to relax your body and mind.

Have a lovely day everyone. I’m thinking of you all,

Mrs Docherty

Nursery: Reading together helpful hints

Good morning,

Throughout the week I have been posting reading advice and tips for parents. Today specifically for Nursery I have included the Book Trust leaflet on how you can do this at home with your 3 and 4 year olds.

reading-with-your-child-booklet-for-parents 4-6

I have also included the Book Trust link with great ideas and books to engage your little ones.

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/

We are missing you all.

Mrs Docherty