St Ninian's Primary School

P1M Snow Day

Ideas for a snow day if you wish to complete:

Literacy:

Write your sight words in the snow.

Logon to Oxford owl. Can you find a story that has theme of snow? Read or listen to the story. You could create a new character for the story; play ‘find a word game’; create a new book title or front cover.

Numeracy and maths:

Make different sized snowmen e.g. A tall snowman and a short snowman. Use sticks to measure the different sizes. How many sticks tall are each snowman?

Subtraction snowballs: e.g. make 7 snowballs, throw 4 of them away. How many do you have left?

Health and Wellbeing:

Play! Have fun in the snow, go sledging, have a snowball fight, throw a snowball as far as you can! What muscles can you feel getting stronger?

Winter Ready – Nursery

Nursery

If nursery is closed due to bad weather you are welcome to try some of these challenges. You can bring any pictures, models or photos in to show

*Share stories together – use your bedtime read pack, check out ‘storyline online’ on YouTube, talk about what might happen and/or at the end recap on what did happen

*If you have access to a laptop or computer, visit Curious George’s Busy Day website to play some ICT games
Make a snowman – take a photo!

*Talk about the weather and the seasons together.

*Find a recipe you can make together – can your child get an opportunity to weigh, measure, chop, pour, grate whilst being supported by you?

*Play a game together – if you don’t have any board games or dominoes, play X’s and O’s

*Do a jigsaw, alone or supported by a parent/sibling.

*Can you draw patterns, shapes, letters in the snow with a stick? Take a photo and share with us!

*Paint, draw, dress up, pretend.. Get creative and use your imagination!

*PLAY! TALK! Share a meal together! Enjoy the time together <3

Nursery News

Food glorious food!

This week our learning context has been food! This has stemmed from observations of and discussions with our children about where there interests lie. Following on from our takeaway and restaurant role play areas, we have had a lot of discussion about senses, how things feel, smell and taste. We have consulted our children through using a talking tub filled with interesting things! Their ideas and comments have been added to our floorbooks and a consultative planner is on the learning wall, please read it and let us know what you think 🙂

Some children tasted some exotic fruit this week after our Asda delivery – Roma knew one of them straight away, the pomegranate seeds! She liked them. Dylan thought the Kumquat was ‘Yuck!’, but some of the children quite liked the sweet taste. We think the boys and girls might enjoy a tasting session at nursery to try some new flavours and textures!

Our playdough had a funny whiff about it this week as we added cinnamon to one batch! We have ordered some lovely spices to use in our playdough, for the children to choose and use as they like. Have you tried making playdough at home?? It’s very easy using just flour, salt and oil 🙂 give it a go!

Welly Wednesday was busy this week! We have been given lovely big empty tubs to use for foraging on our welly Wednesday sessions and we put them to good use this week! The boys and girls collected materials to make a bug hotel! We talked about what bugs would like in their hotel, not fluffy pillow and beds like us, but dirt and leaves and sticks. We have a treasure trove of goodies to use when building our bug hotels next week, in the nursery garden.

Food Prep Thursday snack continues to be a big hit! This week the AM boys and girls asked for crisps – but we discussed how crisps aren’t as healthy a choice as for example fruits and vegetables, so we compromised and decided to make apple crisps! It was a mixed reaction to these, maybe we will try something else next time? The PM boys and girls were still talking about pancakes so made lovely mixture with Mrs Macdonald, for her to fry in the frying pan! We enjoyed them with strawberries and blueberries 🙂

Our weekly update contains information about our busy week ahead! We would urge as many parents as possible to come along to our coffee morning on Wednesday to hear from our Speech and Language therapist about our Box Clever initiative. 11.20-12, supervision provided for children in the nursery! See you all there!

Have a lovely weekend!

Life at war

Today I am writing to you to raise awareness for children at war.

This is Israa, she is 13 years old she used to live in a small village in Syria, she went to school like all of us, she loved art! She even wanted to be an artist! And even has 5 little brothers and sisters!.

But then one day a bomb hit that small village and she had to flee to a small refugee camp in Jordan. Now she doesn’t have anything she used to Toys, electronics, perfumes all she was allowed to bring were a few pairs of clothes.

Now she only goes to school once a week. So tell me how would you feel if you were in the place of Israaa how would you feel sad, scared, anxious, terrified, please let me know?

By Max Kubiak P6/7

Life as a refugee

Israa’s country was attacked and they needed to move to Syria and she couldn’t take the toys she wanted to. Israa’s family could just take clothes.

About Isra,

Isra lived with her mum , brothers and sisters and she was just 13 years old. She just go 3 times in a week to school. Israa had to find new friends because all her friends need to go to the different country .

She was almost always playing with her sisters and brothers and Israa’s house was very small.

By Oskar Gabrysiak P6/7

Raising awareness of Children at War

Today I wanted to write a blog about children and how they are affected because of war and conflict. I want to raise awareness of what their life is like because I learned about a child called Israa. She lives in a refugee camp in Jordan with her family. Israa was a normal child like you and me until she had to leave Syria because of war.

She said ‘’I miss my garden and the roses in it, school and friends” She used to go to school Mon/Fri like me and you, right now she goes Mon/Tue/Wed, this is a big change, right.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR LIFE IS LIKE COMPARED TO HER’S?

By Cole Forde P6/7

Nursery News

Short and sweet week at nursery!

We enjoyed welly wednesday in our small groups, having group time in the nursery hut! The AM boys and girls read the Rainbow Fish and talked about what lovely things they had within them that they could give away to others, as the rainbow fish gave away his shimmering scales! Lucy said she could give away hugs.. Connor said he could give away smiles.. There were lots of lovely ideas! We then took a bit of weaving ribbon and weaved it onto the fence to remind us of the lovely things we can give to others.

The PM group were chatting about Valentine’s Day and enjoyed the story of George and Silvia the monkeys in love! Following a lovely story and discussion, they tied their ribbons on the fence for the people they loved in their lives!

Food prep Thursday was another roaring success this week with an old classic – fruity kebabs! The boys and girls are becoming more confident when using our kiddisafe knives, using a sawing motion of backwards and forwards. We talked about where food came from, how you prepare it properly to eat and what our likes/dislikes are!

The fast food restaurant has been super busy this week with lots of interaction, sharing resoruces and ideas about how we can use it! We watched a video about working in McDonald’s to give us an idea of how best to use our counter area and how to serve food, we were lucky to receive a donation of McDonald’s wrappers and food boxes which really brought our play alive!

PEEP is back this week! Mrs Beattie is looking forward to welcoming everyone for their five week block, starting today with some fun and creative ways to explore maths activities together!

We listened to this very special song on Friday morning to remind us of how to keep ourselves safe, and are thinking about this when we use the nursery toilet..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyalcd955lg

The boys and girls enjoyed this song and took part in a great discussion with Mrs Beattie and Mrs Martinek about who around them can keep them safe and how they can keep each other safe! We also loved adding our own ‘pants’ to drawings of the pantosaurus at the drawing table!

See you all next week – have a lovely weekend!

Nursery News!

Roll up, roll up, the St Ninian’s Nursery Restaurant is open for business!

After a huge interest in creating a restaurant in our nursery, we have enjoyed transforming our role play area into a restaurant and takeaway! Our consultative planner is now on the learning wall – we urge you to take a look and see some of the fantastic ideas our children have come up with;

‘I go to restaurants with my family’ Lily

‘I went to a restaurant with my mum and dad, we saw Rojin there…’ Shay

‘It was McDonald’s!’ Rojin

‘The cookers make the food.. It’s called a chef..’ Shea

‘I’m washing the dishes’ Freya (Dylan was drying the dishes!)

We are not at nursery Monday or Tuesday next week – maybe you could take your child around some different restaurants to see the signage, menus, tables/chair set up and talk about what kind of food they serve – no need to go in and eat! We are going to talk about the difference between a restaurant and a cafe next week, we are hoping to visit the Candi Bean across the road and the Lanthorn Community Cafe to ask some questions! If your child has a really good question to ask, write it on a post it and stick on our learning wall!

We use a Thursday/Friday session to do a changeover of resources or to move around the areas of our nursery.. This week we have been noticing a lot of sand on the floor, with some children taking to sitting on the floor playing with the fallen sand. We have decided to create a sandpit on the floor this week to see if the children respond to this in different ways – the sand table has been swapped for water and the easel has been moved – we find a wee reshuffle every few weeks can reignite the children’s excitement about their learning environment! Have you seen or heard of any great ideas for early years? Maybe you are handy with a screw driver and can create wonderous things from pallets?? We are always on the look out for help and support to make our nursery a stimulating place to be!

Our boys and girls have enjoyed their ‘Learning Conversations’ this week with their key worker! Our GIRFEC focus this month is ‘respected’ and as such we wanted to think of the ways we hear our children’s voices in the nursery. The learning conversations will continue into next week and be presented at parents night alongside the tracker documents we use to gauge progress.

It was custard on the menu for food prep Thursday this week! The rich discussion that comes from food preparation is amazing – in this instance the wet and dry ingredients combining made for lots of chat about textures – great vocabulary on display. There was then the miracle of the white ingredients combining to make yellow custard! How exciting! We discussed safety – the custard has to be made on the hob, when the hob is on you should not go near the cooker area as it is hot and there is the risk of burning. We are so pleased with the engagement and focus of our children on food prep thursday and will continue this into the coming term 🙂 if you have any food prep photos from home, please share on our social media accounts or on on the online journal gallery area!

No nursery Monday or Tuesday – Have a lovely long weekend!

Nursery News

This week has been action packed – including the return of some snow!

The boys and girls have been full of creativity this week, painting on cling film, painting faces on plastic sheets – these exciting experiences have built on all the fun of tartan painting last week and have filled our easel with beautiful art work! We have been really interested in faces this week – have a look at our doorway to the school hall to see some of our handy work 🙂 this is something you can explore at home by checking what naming words your child knows to describe their face; eyes, nose, mouth are straightforward but what about nostrils, eyebrows and earlobes?

Food Prep snack on Thursday was scrambled eggs! Each week we take suggestions for food prep snack from our children and this week Lucy (AM) asked to make scrambled eggs! Miss Burns had a great time with the children as they cracked their eggs, added milk and margarine and whisked them before Miss Burns cooked them in the pan – the queue for snack was a mile long and the mini chefs were very proud of their accomplishments! Maybe your child could have a go this weekend? Share photos on their online journal gallery and/or our Facebook and twitter accounts!

Welly Wednesday was almost cancelled again due our glorious Scottish weather but fortunately we made it out, however briefly for some of us! As our Welly Wednesday sessions continue, Mrs Martinek has used the feedback from parents/children to create a plan for welly Wednesdays between now and the Easter holidays – hopefully as the weather improves so will the time we have available to explore on Welly Wednesday sessions!

Today we bade farewell to Miss Pinkett our college student who has been with us Wed/Thurs over the last few months! She has made a wonderful impression on our young people and will make a great practitioner when she qualifies next year – goodbye and good luck Miss Pinkett!

Please ensure you are receiving our weekly update emails over the weekend – any problems please speak to your child’s key worker 🙂

Have a lovely weekend!

Nursery News

Och aye the noo and lang may yer lum reek!

The nursery has been alive with thoughts of Scotland this week! Tartan, haggis and highland dancing – what more can you want!

Mrs Beattie tested the power of many a families washing machine this week after ‘ball painting’ with the boys and girls to make a lovely tartan shawl! The laughter and engagement in this activity was fantastic with many of our boys and girls choosing to join in. The end result of rolling balls covered in paint in lines across a large bit of paper definitely resembles tartan – a tartan shawl was created, which is now hanging on our learning wall!

Welly Wednesday was postponed due to high winds – but the PM group managed to sneak out for ten minutes in between the worst bouts of wind and rain.. Mrs Hogg made ‘kites’ with the boys and girls out of plastic and string to see what effects the wind had – their strength was certainly tested as they flew about in the gales! We are glad no-one ended up flying away!

Thursday brought our Burns night celebration! It was lovely to see so many Scotland items brought in and worn on the day! Mrs Conway had four handy helpers during each session to prepare the Burns supper of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties – which we discovers included Scottish words for turnip and potatoes! We talked about where turnips and potatoes come from, what the feel like and smell like – and how to cook them.. we said the Selkirk Grace and sat down together to enjoy our traditional Scottish meal!

The PM group then had a wee ceilidh led by Mrs Macdonald – who has some serious Scottish dancing skills! We dosey-doed and skipped together, counting, clapping and keeping the time.

Mrs Martinek’s yellow group had a fantastic challenge at group time when they had to dress themselves for winter from a bag full of different clothing items! One of our assessment focuses this month involves looking at how much support the boys and girls need when getting dressed independently – some boys and girls are there already, some at the beginning of their learning journey.. our job is to support and encourage – maybe you could challenge your child to get their own clothes/pyjamas on one day, if they don’t already?

Mrs Mushet was delighted to relaunch the Big Bedtime Read on Tuesday, joined by a sea of onesies, pyjamas, house coats and slippers! Our boys and girls LOVED coming to nursery in their pyjamas! Mrs Mushet is looking forward to the return of the Big Bedtime Read bags on Tuesday to swap them for new ones! She has lots of lovely feedback to work on and will be on the lookout for parents to come in and share stories with their children in nursery!

Our ‘Ladies Night’ fundraiser was a rip-roaring success! Thank you to Mrs Beattie, Mrs Martinek and Mrs Mushet for supporting this event and ensuring our lovely ladies were well looked after and entertained! We were delighted to make £258 from this event to add to our funding pot.. this money will come in handy to subsidise the costs of trips and resources in the coming term! We have had many requests for another and are hoping to organise this for June. Keep your ear to the ground 😉

we hope you have had a restful weekend and are ready for another busy week ahead!