Primary 7 – Page 5 – St Ninian's Primary School

Daily update – 3/4/20

Good morning everyone,

It felt strange waking up this morning on this last day of term, we should have all been having family tea and toast together at school before our Stay, Play and Learn Outdoors morning. It would be great if families could still take part in this today and spend a little time in their gardens or perhaps go for a short walk together.

Here are some ideas for outdoor learning that you might want to use:

Nature-Play-Leaflet

Remember it’s also Funky Friday, so get the music on and get dancing!

Today would also have been our last Hot Chocolate Friday of the term so today we nominate………ALL OF YOU!!! Join us at 11.15am for a hot chocolate in recognition of all your hard work these last few weeks at home.

As we approach Holy Week let’s also take time to prepare ourselves for Easter. The Archdiocese of Edinburgh have some useful guides and activities for families to do:

Notes-for-parentscarers-catechists

Holy-Week-Day-by-Day

Stations-of-the-Cross-for-Children

We have also provided some additional materials for over the Easter holidays if anyone is looking for some activities to do as has West Lothian Council:

Easter Holiday Activities

https://www.westlothian.gov.u k/article/51911/Learning-at-home

All that’s left to say is have a restful, relaxing family break for the next 2 weeks and enjoy Easter when it comes. The teachers will be logging off today for their Easter break too and will be back online on Monday 20th April.

Stay safe everyone, take care!

Mrs Roy and Mrs Smith

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

Daily update – 2nd April 2020

Good morning,

Hope you all had a good night’s sleep and feel ready for the day ahead! Mrs Docherty has been posting some really helpful information about the importance of sleep for our wellbeing via the blog.

It has been lovely seeing some of our families at the HUB on a Monday and then talking to pupils via the blog or TEAMS.

The theme we have been working on in school for Building Resilience is ‘Talk things over’ and never has there been a greater time to do this! Mrs Smith and I have been calling parents to check in for a chat and we will continue to do this today and tomorrow. We are also available via email each day for any questions or concerns.

Have a good day everyone, we have almost made it to the Easter holidays!

Mrs Roy and Mrs Smith

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

Sound Sleep 1.4.20

Good morning,

Following on from yesterday’s blog post on sleep today’s focus will be sleep behaviours.

When reviewing our sleep patterns and ability to have a good night’s sleep there are specific questions we can follow to help us build up a picture of what our sleep behaviours are. There may be things we can amend or change that will help to support good sleep routines and patterns. Some of the questions we can ask ourselves over a two week period are:

In the past two weeks how often have you felt tired or sleepy during the day?
In the past two weeks how often have you stayed awake until after midnight?
In the past two weeks how often have you gone to bed because you could nit stay awake any longer?
In the past two weeks how often have you watched TV or played a console, used a phone or tablet in bed?
In the past two weeks how often have you felt tired or sleepy during the day?
In the past two weeks how often have you found it hard to fall asleep?
In the past two weeks how often have you felt tired or sleepy during the day?
In the past two weeks how often have you woke up during the night and found it hard to get back to sleep?

Try and build a picture of your sleep routines using the questions above over a 2 week period. If you can find things that are regularly coming up try and change some of the routines and see if that makes a difference to how you get over to sleep and how good a sleep you have.

Have a great day.

Mrs Docherty

Reading Support and ideas 1.4.20

Good morning,

Welcome to April. This week’s focus has been Reading with helpful hints on how to support reading and reading for meaning. As we are all at home I have included some helpful hints on how to create a reading environment and continue to foster a love of reading in our own houses.

Routine: Make reading part of your daily routine. This links in well with our Sound Sleep advice. It could be part for our evening and downtime hour to allow us to switch off in preparation for sleep.
Read at home: Reading regularly at home promotes a love of reading and supports your child in becoming a great reader. Your children could even read to their siblings, pets and even toys!
Make a special reading spot: Designating a special reading spot for your child to read with you is not only fun, but is also a great way to create a distraction-free zone where they can concentrate.
Be a great reading partner: As parents you could read aloud and track the words with your finger as you are reading. Read the story over and over and try using different voices to do this. Ask questions as you are reading. You can find hints on how to do this on yesterday’s reading blog.
Bring books everywhere: Bring books wherever you go. In the car, on a picnic, in the garden
Be a positive example: In school we have ERIC time which is everyone reading in class, this includes the teacher. A good way to continue this is by us as parents being caught reading and also during that downtime hour reading our own book as our child reads theirs.

Have a great Wednesday and as always stay safe.

Mrs Docherty

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