P1D

Welcome to P1D!

We have had a fantastic first week of school and I am so proud of every single one of the children for the way they have settled into school life.

A few points to consider for this term:

Our PE days will be a Tuesday and a Thursday (at the moment, if this changes you will informed immediately). On these days children should bring PE kit with them – yellow PE top and black shorts/jogging bottoms/leggings etc. You may wish to get your child to leave their PE kit in a bag on their peg. This will ensure that PE kits are not forgotten on PE days.

All children should now have a pair of black indoor shoes which are to be left in the classroom to change into at school.

Children in P1-3 are entitled to free school meals and these can be order using ipay impact online system. If you are not able to access this, your child will be asked by myself in the morning to order their lunch.

 

This week in class we have been working on our daily routines and what to do in class. We have made our class charter and thought about  the rules for our classroom and how we can follow these.

We have been developing our pencil control by following patterns and we have been learning how to hold a pencil correctly. We know how to use the crocodile fingers to hold a pencil or we can nip it and flip it. Ask your child to show you these different strategies.

In numeracy we have been focusing on number formation and counting. We have been counting lots of different objects from dinosaurs to cubes to grapes and loom bands! What can you count at home?

We have learned some rhymes to help us form some numbers correctly.

2 – half a heart says ‘I love you’ add a line, now I’ve made the number 2.

3 – around the tree, around the tree, now I’ve made the number 3.

4 – down and across and down once more, now I’ve made the number 4.

Can you practise these too? Could you write the numbers using a pencil, chalk, play-doh, on a mirror (after a bath or shower) – be creative!

We have had lots of fun playing this game on the smart board in class too:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/teddy-numbers

 

Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you next week!

Welcome to P5D!

Good morning and a warm welcome back to Primary 5D!

We have had a busy first week creating our class charter focussing on being ready, safe and respectful and have started our novel study on ‘Junkyard Jack and the Horse That Talked’ by Adrian Edmonson. We have enjoyed getting to know one another and welcome our 2 new pupils to our class. We will have PE on a Tuesday and a Wednesday so please ensure you come fully equipped with PE kits and appropriate footwear. I look forward to the year ahead and the exciting times we are going to have.

Miss Diamond

1+2 Languages Family Fun Event

Please click on the link below to find out more about a family event taking place on 8th September from 10am – 12noon.

Learn to dance Flamenco and enjoy a croissant in the French café!
Please register your interest with your school by Monday, 3rd September to book your place! Cost per family: £1

1+2 Family Fun Morning Flyer

 

School Bank West Lothian Clothing Appeal 25th – 29th June

The School Bank are a local charity who help families in need within West Lothian and who provide clothing/footwear to children for the school day.  There are a small number of parents from our school who volunteer with this charity and we are organising a collection of clothing, footwear and school bags to help this local organisation and ultimately to help children within West Lothian.  In addition, it would help us all reduce our carbon footprint by re-cycling.  It’s a win win!

The School Bank are looking for USED SCHOOL UNIFORM AND GENERAL CLOTHING.  This could be:

  • – All school uniform e.g. shirts, trousers, skirts, pinafores, jumpers, cardigans and gingham dresses
    – Gym kit
    – Jackets
    – Shoes and trainers
  • School bags
  • – General clothing – both kids and adults

To help you organise any uniform / clothing to donate we will have dress down days on the last two days of term – Thursday 28th and Friday 29th June.

Nursery News

It was our SPORTS DAY this week!! And what a sports day we had! There was cheering, screaming, running, jumping, giggling and falling over… and that was just the staff – heehee!

 

Our boys and girls have spent the week rehearsing for sports day – changes to routines and patterns in the nursery can be difficult for little minds to understand so the staff team took time to explain to them what sports day would include and let them practice, practice makes perfect after all. We also made wonderful coloured banners to lead our teams in with – green, yellow, red and blue teams, with some children managing to wear their team colours! Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side on Thursday – but our contingency plan worked just beautifully…

 

We came roaring in to the cheers from the crowd as we did a lap of the hall for waves and smiles, before we got down to business and started racing. There were a few ‘cheat-abix’ moves on show – I’m talking to you Mrs Beattie 😉 but that all entered in the spirit of the day, where our boys and girls showed off their wonderful sporting talents in front of their parents, grandparents and friends. After all the hard work was over, the boys and girls received their medals as a huge well done for taking part in a fantastic day! Then we made our way back to the nursery where ice poles were awaiting us, to cool us down after all the physical exertion! A huge thanks to the crowd on the day for making it special for our children with their encouraging cheers, words and smiles – we couldn’t do it without you all!

 

In addition to Sports Day, this week we have taken on board a very exciting idea for our Welly Wednesday session next week… A few of our parents have made us aware of a ‘movement’ in West Lothian called ‘WEST LOTHIAN ROCKS’ – the idea behind it is that you find a rock, paint it and hide it somewhere outdoors, for others to find! You can then re-hide it for someone else to enjoy 🙂 once explained to our boys and girls they were super keen to take part! We went on the hunt for some rocks, and the PM group painted some for us to hide next week! If your child finds a rock they’d like to paint over the weekend, bring it to nursery on Monday to be painted in time to be hid on Welly Wednesday!

 

We also got a quick peek at the new baby signets on the pond – unfortunately one of the nine signets had to be taken away by one of the SSPCA officers due to having a poorly leg.

 

A little reminder, we capture the voices of our children in many different ways.. Now that we near the end of the session please take some time to look over our floor books, planning wall and learning journey wall – these are all tools that we use which are made to be shared with our children and their families 🙂 have a look and let us know which bits your children remember clearly…

Image result for its not what you teach its how you make them feel

 

Keep your eyes peeled for our new school website which will be launching very soon!

 

Nursery News

Wellbeing week has taken it out of us all this week – in the best way!

Monday was a great start to our wellbeing week! Some of our parents and children made it along to Bootcamp with Mr McCurdy at 8am, starting the week as they meant to go on – well done everyone, Mrs Conway still hasn’t recovered! The nursery children had great fun in a session with Star Harmonies. Ask your child if they can remember the ‘Toe – Knee – Chest – Nut…’ rhyme they learned! This session  included singing and dancing.
The wellbeing week continued in the sunshine outdoors on our trim trail. School children demonstrated their caring ways by helping the nursery children to complete the course.
Tuesday brought our first parents for their stay and play and come back and play sessions. Parents were able to join us in a Yoga session in the school. It was very relaxing and zen. Lots of children found the funniest part was talking about filling their sandwiches… sounds strange but led to some good yoga posing!
The P6 buddies and the current P1 classes were down to have fun in our garden at school playtime today for transition fun this week. Parents of future P1 children are reminded that only a small snack is needed at playtime 🙂
Wednesday was a whirlwind of excitement as we had our ‘park picnic’ trip for our ‘Welly Wednesday’ focus, some of the parents were lucky enough to join us as part of the stay and play/come back and play sessions. We also had dancing! Lots of great moves were displayed, and that was just the teachers and parents 😉 the routine was simple but effective! Our favourite part was the freestyling without a doubt! We hope your weekend will be filled with dancing!
Thursday begun with football for the groups – this involved lots of careful listening to the coach… And lots of lovely laughing as we played games together to help us develop our movement, balance and ball skills. The future P1s enjoyed a real playtime in the school playground with their friends from P1! It was very exciting as they learned which areas they were allowed to play in and what happens if you need the toilet at playtime (you don’t ring the nursery bell.. haha!) – this has been a wonderful experience to help our children build their confidence in preparing for school in August!
Friday was a quiet day, we made most of the wonderful sunshine (and enjoyed a story in the shade) before the forthcoming rain and stormy weather!
Please stay tuned to your emails for next weeks weekly update 🙂 transition for P1 on Wednesday and Thursday next week! Have a lovely weekend 🙂

Nursery News

St Ninian’s Nursery has been a hive of activity this week!

 

Our boys and girls who are off to school in August have had an exciting week! On Tuesday, there were transition carousels in P1 classes – this gave the boys and girls a feel for how they will learn when they get into P1. The P1 pupils did a great job of modelling, showing them the ropes in the big school! There was much excitement during these activities, which helps to build the transition to P1 into a positive time of change in our children’s lives! We have also had buddy visits this week – this is a highlight for our boys and girls, who regularly ask ‘is my buddy coming down today?!’. It has been lovely to watch the relationships between the children and their buddies blossom over the weeks 🙂 next week, we have PLAYTIME for transition! On Tuesday, the P1 boys and girls (and buddies) will come to the nursery garden for a ‘playtime’. And on Thursday, they will go to the infant playground for a ‘playtime’, again with the P1s and their buddies. Preschool children should bring a small snack on these days to practice eating, playing, chatting all in the one! A drink is not necessary as they will have milk/water available in nursery beforehand, and when they get to school they will be able to have a water bottle in their classroom and milk after playtime.

In addition to all of this, the P1 classes have been finalised and the children now know which teacher they will have in August 🙂 Miss Boyes and Mrs Davenport (who used to be called Miss Meechan!) are very much looking forward to meeting their new pupils and their families.

 

Our interest in the garden has multiplied since the beginning of this beautiful weather spell! We have more than made the most of the lovely sunshine as we have scooted, climbed, ran, rolled and chalked all over the garden! Our welly Wednesday focus this week was chalk drawings.. we love to look at mark making in different ways and chalking was one of the suggested activities for our welly Wednesday sessions! By the end of the day there wasn’t an inch of garden that was untouched by chalk! We look to build mark making skills from basic shapes and lines, to more controlled written numbers, letters and detailed drawings. Which stage is your child at? Have they access to mark making materials at home? Share your views with your child’s key worker to see if, together, we can help them build their skills and confidence in this area 🙂

 

Jelly proved to be a very popular snack this week! The boys and girls loved talking about how it felt, with some of the AM boys and girls keen to play with it! On Friday we had jelly play and a sensory walk in the garden. The language and vocabulary around this play was fascinating – gooey, cold, gloopy, slidy! Great job boys and girls, maybe this type of messy play will make a reappearance sometime soon!

 

Make sure to consult our weekly update for all the details about wellbeing week next week – parent and child bootcamp begins at 8am on Monday morning on the school field. Mrs Conway and Mrs Martinek will be attending with their own children – will you join them? Letters will come home on Monday about our family wellbeing festival on Thursday evening  (6-7.30pm) – it is set to be a highlight of the term with lots of interesting activities planned – make sure to get you choices handed back asap to ensure you get your first choice of workshops!

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Nursery News

A royal wedding to end the week – what more could the princes and princesses of st Ninian’s Nursery want!

We were jam packed and book bug focussed this week as we celebrated the national ‘Book Bug week’ alongside the P1 classes.

The AM group enjoyed a storytelling session with our special guest – Miss Meechan, who shared a story chosen by the P1 pupils. The boys and girls thoroughly enjoyed this and it was another lovely build up to the transition into P1 by sharing a story with the P1 class and their teacher.

The PM group had another special guest in the shape of Mrs Smith, our depute head teacher. They thoroughly enjoyed a twisted fairytale all about Goldilocks eating her greens! The boys and girls who are going to school are becoming more familiar with school staff in their interactions with them across the nursery session, especially when they get a blether in the office with Mrs Findlay and Mrs Vetesse!

Our welly Wednesday was a glorious one this week as we basked in the beautiful sunshine in the garden. We have planted our veg patch which can been seen on the side of the hill which faces into the school car park.. we have so far planted tatties and will add carrots and Brussels sprouts to our list!

We also planted some sunflower seeds and put them in our little green house to flourish before we can transfer them to pots in the garden 🙂

Our book bug activity on welly Wednesday was being joined in the garden by our P6 buddies and parent helpers where we could all share a story in a small group/pair in the garden. The boys and girls loved this reading buddy set up and many lovely stories were shared.

Thursday was national ‘Outdoor Classroom Day’ where many school staff donned their outdoor learning kit of wellies and waterproofs.. not the staff of st Ninian’s Nursery – who got all glammed up to join their very well dressed boys and girls to celebrate the upcoming royal wedding with a garden party! There were sandwiches, croissants and cakes galore as we all enjoyed music, dancing, a fashion parade and the beautiful weather to mark the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan at the weekend.

At the end of book bug week let us remind you about the fabulous initiative that is Book Bug via the Scottish Book Trust;

http://scottishbooktrust.com/bookbug/about

The below Facebook page gives a list of the free book bug sessions available in West Lothian..
https://m.facebook.com/BookbugWestLothian/

Happy weekend!

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