Primary 6 – Page 5 – St Ninian's Primary School

Daily update-Wednesday 1st April

Good morning everyone,

Can you believe that we are now into the month of April, hopefully Spring has arrived and we will all be able to get out into our gardens more.

Tradition states that on the 1st April we should play pranks on one another and be a bit silly, we think that we should honour that tradition today and all make a pledge to have fun with our families with plenty of laughter.

We have also been set a challenge from our parish which encourages creativity and problem solving, 2 key skills. We have also posted this on our school Twitter page @StNinianPS.

We have also posted an Active Coping Calendar for April.

Have a good day everyone and Happy April Fools Day!

Mrs Roy and Mrs Smith

Sound Sleep Advice 31.3.20

Good morning,

Following on from last week’s sleep advice this week we will look at how to support a good routine. To do this it is worth having a look at what our evening routines look like. We have two routines, one on school days and the other on non-school days.

Questions to ask yourself for school day routines are:

What will I do after school?

What will I do after dinner?

When will my wind down hour start?

What will I do in my wind down hour?

When will I go to my bed and sleep?

What will I do if I wake up during the night?

Similar questions to ask yourself for non-school day routines are:

What will I do during the day and in the early evening?

What will I do after dinner?

When will my wind down hour start?

What will I do in my wind down hour?

When will I go to my bed and sleep?

What will I do if I wake up during the night?

These are some of the questions that will help us to look closely at what our routines look like and what is helping or stopping us from sleeping. You could keep a little diary to help you determine what you do and then have a look at the link below which supports a good evening routine.

05 Example of a Good Bedtime Routine

We will continue to provide Sleep support tomorrow and the main focus will be sleep behaviours.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Mrs Docherty

Reading Support and Advice 31.3.20

Good morning,

As part of our reading advice today I will be looking at questioning and how to encourage your child to talk about and share the story. Yesterday we looked at the High 5 Retell Helping hand. When developing reading we look at children’s fluency and word recognition but also their understanding of what they have read. To do this we can ask the children to draw a picture, share their thoughts or record in written form, there are many ways for your child to share.

Today I would like to share some key questions and prompts that you can use with your children when they are reading to you or indeed when you are reading to them.

I have attached a copy of pictorial question prompts for the younger children. These support reading for meaning and the key skills. Have a go and let me know how you get on.

T-C-083-Reading-Prompts-For-Parents_ver_3 (1)

I have also attached a copy of Guided Reading questions you could use with your children when you are reading together. Using a guided reading approach you help develop your child’s thinking skills and also support the development of reading strategies.

t-l-4266-af-guided-reading-questions-mat-_ver_1 (1)

As always know I am here to help and support and it’s great to hear how you are getting on.

Have a good day everyone,

Mrs Docherty

Daily update – 31/3/20

Good morning everyone,

It was lovely to work with our staff team in the HUB yesterday supporting children of key workers. All the staff commented on how proud they were of all the efforts and work you have been completing at home. We are all missing your smiles and laughter, we hope you appreciated yesterday’s virtual hug on our Twitter page.

Today we are posting some ideas for Messy Play at home, a favourite for the children but often a headache for parents!! Creativity is a key skill we encourage in learners so our challenge to you all is to have a go at one of the messy play tasks together as a family.

Messy-Play-Book-1

Enjoy everyone,

Mrs Roy and Mrs Smith

Reading tips and support for parents 30.3.20

Good morning everyone. Last week we focused on how to support your children with spelling at home. The focus this week will move to Reading where I will share tips to engage your child in reading and how to extend their reading and comprehension skills.

There are any ways to support reading at home especially with our younger pupils. A great site to support this and share ideas is Reading Rockets with lots of helpful hints about what to do around the house and with everyday routines. Some suggestions include:

An essential step in learning to read is good books read aloud. Parents who read aloud to their children are teaching literacy concepts simply by sharing books. Encourage your children to listen, ponder, make comments, and ask questions.
Show your child a recipe and go over it together. Ask your child to read the recipe to you as you work, and tell the child that each step must be done in a special order. Let your child help mix the ingredients. Allow your child to write down other recipes from the cookbook that he or she would like to help make.
Encourage your child to make a dictionary by putting together several sheets of paper for a booklet. Ask your child to write at the top of each page a new word he or she has recently learned. If the word can be shown in a picture, have him or her look through magazines and newspapers to find pictures that illustrate the words and paste them on the correct pages.

When you read with your child a good way to help them share their understanding of what they have read is by using your Helping High 5 Retell Hand. Every finger on your hand has a different theme:

Characters: Talk about the characters using their names and maybe describe their personality, behaviours and role in the story.
Setting: Where is the story taking place, describe the setting and how this helps to set the scene for rest of the story.
Beginning: What was the main event at the start of the story, who were the characters involved in the beginning. What do you think will happen next.
Middle: What happened in the middle, was there a problem that needed resolved, did any new characters get introduced, did the setting change. How to you think the problem will be resolved.
End: How did the problem get resolved. Could you change the ending

You can ask your child questions using these themes about what they have read. I have included 2 templates to help you support your child with retelling and to use as a cue to help them remember the key events.

Tomorrow we will look at specific questioning such as Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating using Blooms with a different theme each day.

As always please don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions or would like more resources or ideas to help you support your child.

Have a good Monday,

Mrs Docherty

HWB: Song of the Week: That’s What Friends Are For

Good morning everyone.

I hope you are all keeping well, looking after each other and staying safe. As equally important I hope you are able to make nice memories along the way too.

Over the weekend I spent my time thinking about how life has changed but also how much we need people and things to help us along the way on this new journey we are on at the minute. It is so important to stay positive and to be there for each other.

I have always found that Music is something that really helps and songs can send such a powerful message of hope and positivity. So with that in mind I started to listen to songs I hadn’t listened to in a long time and realised that it made me feel better. I have decided that on Mondays I will share a song that has a powerful message and one which will reinforce to you how much we are missing you all and thinking about you and your families daily.

It also made me think about how much we are all in this together and that our friendships and teamwork which are key themes for our school will get us through this. As a team and together.

So the song I have chosen for this week is Dionne Warwick and Friends: That’s what Friends are For. Probably giving away my age with this one!!

The chorus has a very powerful message for us all and rest assured that you can count on us at St Ninian’s. So please keep smiling and shining as these are equally important messages to hear! Please listen to song number 1 on the songlist below through Spotify.

I’d love to hear if you have any songs that we could add to our Monday list.

Mrs Docherty

Please know we are here for you and remember:

Daily update 30/3/20

Good morning everyone,

Hope you all had a nice, relaxing weekend with your family and managed to get out in the sunshine for a little while.

Today your teachers will be posting new activities for you to work on at home, please remember to take your time with these and don’t worry if you don’t manage to complete everything. If you need any help or support with tasks please get in touch with your teacher via the blog or TEAMs.

Many of the St Ninian’s staff team will be working at the St Ninian’s HUB today so we may not be as quick to respond but we will do our best.

At 11am today we are asking all of our families to log onto www.youtube.com/fischymusic for an online assembly which will lift your spirits. We use these songs at assembly and in our classrooms so the pupils will help you out at home! We will also be logging in at the HUB today.

We have also sent you all a virtual hug via Twitter @StNinianPS to say we are missing you all!

Mrs Roy and Mrs Smith

Coronavirus advice and support link

Please find attached below a link to the Educational Psychology Services resources around COVID-19 with useful resources and supports for schools and families.

https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/50765/Coronavirus-Helpful-Resources

Mrs Docherty

Spelling Advice and Support Day 5

Good morning everyone,

I will finish off this week with the final day of spelling support before we move onto reading next week. I will revisit the spelling over the coming weeks and check in to see if there are further supports or advice you would like so please keep in touch and message using the comments section.

Our last set of mnemonics for this week are:

Only: Only Nice Little Yachts

Does: Do Open Eggs Safely

Beautiful: Bring Eddy And Uncle Teddy I‘ll Fix Us Lunch

People: Please Eat Only Perfect Little Eggs

Through: Ten Hens Ran Off Up Green Hills

Please look back at the spelling posts for a comprehensive guide to supporting your child with spelling and know I am here to support also. Today I have also attached a letter which will explain how to use the Fry’s words posted previously along with the words again for extra support. Remember you could also make up your own mnemonics for tricky words in the Fry’s pack!

fryfirst100set

frysecond100set

Fry’s words cover letter

Have a lovely weekend with your family and stay safe.

Mrs Docherty

HWB 27.3.20: POsitive thought for the weekend

Good morning everyone,

Throughout the week I have been posting HWB support such as Sleep Scotland advice, fine motor activities and also mindfulness strategies. I will continue to update these supports and strategies over the coming weeks. Next week there will be a new fine motor skills activity on Monday followed by further Sleep Scotland resources to support routine and also other relaxation ideas as the week progresses.

Every Friday I will post a special message following the Thursday Clap for our NHS Heroes which is so inspirational and moving. I hope this will help to lift everyone’s spirits.

A good idea for the coming weeks is to keep A Little Book of Positives and in it record 3 things that made you happy each day. For me at the moment these are the little things like a hug from my children to the big things like the whole neighbourhood taking part in the Clap for our NHS heroes.

Stay safe everyone and take care of each other. Thinking of you all.

Mrs Docherty