St Ninian's Primary School

Nursery News

Another week has flown by in nursery. First of all we welcomed another member to our St Ninian’ s family. Khyla has joined the AM session. We hope you enjoy your time with us. On a sad note we said goodbye to Liam in our PM session who has gone to another nursery nearer his new house. We wish him well and will miss him.

The transition programme for our children going into Primary 1 continues with the nursery children working together with the children in both Primary 1 classes on Numeracy and Literacy carousels . This gave the nursery children an opportunity to see how they will be working when they come to big school. They were all excited and again were a credit to us. Well done everyone. In nursery we also listened to a song about the letter ‘m’ and we tried to think of things that began with this sound. As a home link activity we would love it if the children could bring something in beginning with this sound and also if you are out and about have a look and see what you can find that begins with ‘m’. Next week the nursery children will be going out for a short playtime with both their buddies and the Primary 1 pupils. This will be in the nursery outdoor area and the following week it will be in the school playground. If they wish the nursery boys and girls can bring a snack and drink with them which they can have at this time. It is only 15 minutes so something small to eat will be great. As they will be outside we would ask that the children come in appropriate clothing and shoes. Thank you for your support in this.

The children also received a lesson on personal safety this week when we had a fire drill. Both sessions had to stop what they were doing and leave nursery quickly and safely. All the children were amazing and we were very proud of them.

Outdoor learning has been very busy this week with lots of exciting adventures in their learning. The children have been using their skills of curiosity and inquiry when using our natural open ended resources. They have been on the bikes, making lots of yummy recipes in our mud kitchen, sitting in the sand pit and role playing at schools! We hope the sun keeps shining for us next week. A wee reminder that children should come to nursery with suntan cream already applied and proper clothing for the sunshine. Please check out our Nursery Parents Facebook page for some photographs of our outdoor learning.

Mrs Beattie’s PEEP classes continue on a Friday and this is what they will be doing this week. The first group will be working together choosing different size balls and finding ways of rolling , bouncing and throwing them to each other while singing songs. They will then enjoy snack and a story together. The second group after nearly being blown far far away on top of their large parachute quite literally and having so much fun doing so have decided to go outside again! Hopefully they will find other ways that they can use and play with the parachute together and also use stop watches to time themselves going over the school assault course which they had tried last week for the first time. Another exciting PEEP session ahead!

It is the turn of the PM children to share their learning with us.

On Primary 1 transition.

Liam ” I made a snake ” ( this was linked to our shared topic of The Gruffalo)

Riley ” It was good”

There was lots of chat at the snack table.

Martin” I like to have this at home” ( yoghurt)

Emilie M ” I ‘m tidying up ”

Outdoor learning

Scott ” I like to play with the train”

A little reminder that there is a information meeting on Monday 15th May at 6 o’ clock in the school for new Primary 1 parents.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Nursery Team.

Nursery News

Its been a very short week in Nursery but we still packed in lots of learning experiences. Transition continued this week with both nursery sessions joining the Primary 1 classes to take part in either a numeracy or literacy carousel. The children got the opportunity to join in with a reading carousel listening to a story on the smartboard then moving onto working with a Primary 1 friend on a literacy app on the iPads . They also got a chance to make a Gruffalo story wheel which we will use to retell the story. In the numeracy carousel the children learned about time and made their own watches. All the nursery children showed a great attitude towards learning and were little superstars. Next week the children will be joining in with more carousels.

The children have continued to enjoy The Gruffalo topic and they got the chance to make their own Gruffalo masks. We will continue with this topic next week as the children have came up with lots of super ideas which are written in our talking books. Please feel free to have a little read when you are in nursery.

In P.E. with Mr McCurdy we have been concentrating on athletics. We enjoyed improving our running and jumping skills and next week we will be working on our throwing skills.

PEEP classes continue with group 1 learning about stopping, getting ready to think and go. They then got to take red, amber and green plates to take home to reinforce this learning. Group 2 have been working on their numeracy skills. They have had fun making their own skittles and using different sized balls to knock over huge tins and working with each other in order to listen and take turns. What fantastic fun they are having!

It is the turn of our AM children to share their learning experiences with us this week.

Dylan” I like being outside at Nursery.”

Carter” I played with the bricks and made a tower with my brother.”

Liam ” I was playing with the bricks and the magnets and I made a rocket. It was easy!”

Sophie” I played with the wee girl Celine.”

Micha ” I liked playing the bricks with my friend Oliver.”

Roma” I played with my friend Lucy”

Blake ” My favourite was playing outside with my friends.”

Just a little reminder that as the children are outside every day and hopefully the sun may shine can we please ask that suntan cream be applied before coming to nursery and that appropriate clothing is worn eg sun hat, long sleeve top. Thank you for your support with this.

For parents of preschool children a letter has been given out detailing parent meetings to provide you with important information before your child starts St Ninians. Please let any of the team know if you have not been given one of these letters.

Snack money is now due either £1 per week or £11 till the end of this term. This can be paid by iPad impact. If you are unsure of your payments please ask any of the team and this can be checked for you.

For more photographs please check our Nursery parents Facebook page.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Nursery team.

A short week in P1R

Time continued to be the focus in mathematics and we welcomed some of the AM nursery children into our lessons. We learned about o’clock and the important job the hands on the clock do. We discussed why do we need to learn about time and sang a time song. In carousels we made clocks, played bingo taking turns to be the bingo caller, worked in pairs to match times and lots more.

During topic time we invited the nursery PM gps over to continue our work on The Gruffalo. We listened to the Gruffalo song as a warm up then discussed the characters from the story. We each made a Gruffalo story wheel which we will use later to retell the story in our own words.

On Friday we attended our committee groups,here are some of the highlights:
I learned all about cooking equipment-Bernice
I learned about Marie Curie, we are planning a tea party for charity-Paul M
I was outside and had to think of how we could make our playground more fun-Isla
We made posters about Fairtrade-Ephraim and Dawid
I was talking about my favourite thing this year – Lucy
I went on a litter pick-Amber
I listened to the Rainbow story and worked with Paige- James

Primary 6 Weekly news!

It’s been another short week in Primary 6 but we still maned to pack in loads of learning!

We have been focusing on weight and measure in maths, as well as trying to tackle very tricky multi-step word problems. With great team work and problem solving strategies everyone tried their very best to complete their questions.

We had our second swimming lesson today which was great! Everyone is making fantastic progress in the pool and it is great to see all the children encouraging each other.

Here are some of our comments about our committees today:

Declan – Health & Wellbeing – we were completing a questionnaire about the wellbeing tool kit box, we asked pupils how often they use it and what they would like to add to it.

Kieran – UN Ambassadors – We were making posters for the 17 Global Goals to be displayed around the school.

Kalvin – STEM – We were drawing the outline of a human.

Emma – Eco – We were in the garden taking pictures and listing what lives and grows in the garden. We also cleaned up the garden.

Isabel – 1+2 – We were finishing off our carnival masks and next week we are going to have a party with Spanish food

Jennifer – Life Skills – We learnt all about first aid and what to do if people were hurt and we also completed a cross word about first aid.

Krzysztof – Globe Trotters – We were learning about the rainbow being a sign of peace and made a rainbow using different coloured tissue paper.

Leon – Pupil leadership – We counted how many votes we had on the pupil questionnaires.

P7/6 News

This week in primary 6/7 we have continued learning all about plants, we planted flowers (a green for growth plant pot and a tickled pink plant pot). We are going to use these to investigate the effect fertiliser (liquid plant food) has on the tickled pink versus the green for growth that we’re only putting water in.

We have hypothesised that the tickled pink plant will grow bigger than the green for growth plant. We also looked at seeds, we cut open a broad bean seed (it had to be soaked first) to see the embryo inside and the stored food bank that a seed has to make it grow. Thinking time,

“Does a seed need light to germinate? Why?”

We have ‘planted’ a broad been seed in a glass using damp paper towels as the soil so that we can track the seed germinating, we were excited today to see the TAP ROOT appear and growing!

All of this got us discussing the Global Goal of the week “No Poverty”. We talked about using charitable donations to help people grow their own food so that they can develop a sustainable way of providing food for themselves and their families.

In maths we have been completing our work on learning about money. Primary 7 have done credit cards/debit cards. primary 6 were consolidating their understanding of how to apply the four maths processes using money values. Some of us worked on a problem solving question,

“How many £1 coins in a stack would reach your own height?”

We have also continued using our Numbertalks mental strategies to share different methods of adding, subtracting and multiplying.

In RE we have learned about the Disciples meeting with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, we have taken the quote “Did our hearts not burn within us” to inspire us in our daily life to follow Jesus.

In PE we learned javelin techniques and we ran the track. It has been lovely to be completing the school mile in the sunshine this week.

I hope you have a great weekend from primary 7/6

by Danielle (and Mrs Currie)

A short but sunny week in Primary 2!

This week we have been recognising the difference between O’clock and Half Past on an analogue clock.
Marcus- “We know that when it’s half past the big hand points to the 6. When it is O’clock the big hand points to the 12.”

At our independent station we used the half past clock face fans. One person had to call out a time and we had to show the correct clock face.

To evaluate our understanding we went outdoors and used the playground as a clock. Miss Boyes called out different times and we had to record them correctly.

We really enjoyed showing what we know outdoors in the sunshine.

We have been practising our letter-join this week in class and Miss Boyes is seeing an improvement in our letter formation.

In writing this week, we have been learning how to write a description for a setting using our 5 senses.
Ryan “We know that the 5 senses are to see, smell, hear, touch and taste.”

We wrote a description for the Fairy land setting.

Here are some examples:
Lilly- “I can hear the giant roaring and stamping.”

Ana- “I can hear a cackling witch on a jaggy broomstick.”

Ahmad-“I can smell yummy fruit and chocolate cake.”

Vanessa-“I can hear a bird cheeping.”
Alice- “I saw a furry, soft bear.”

In art we have finished off our symmetrical butterflies, they look beautiful and we added glitter to them.

It’s been lovely and sunny this week, we have enjoyed completing the daily mile in the sun!

In class we have been busy practising for our assembly. We have been singing our Goldilocks and the Three Bears song.

We are super excited for you to come to our assembly. It is on Friday the 12^th of May at 11am. Remember you are welcome to come back to our classroom to complete fun fairyland activities. We can’t wait to see you all.

We hope that you have a lovely weekend from Miss Boyes and Primary 2!

Short but amazing week!!

This week has been fantastic not just because it’s been a short week but because we have been learning lots of new things!

Aleksander: In writing we have been writing letters to Mrs Purdie about Global Warming and climate change.

Aidan: We have written formal letters using formal language and layout.

Ailie: In Art we have been drawing self portraits. We used photos of ourselves and had to draw facial features using lots of detail.

Hannah: In RE we were learning about The Last Supper and The Passover.

Camryn: In PE we have been learning all about Athletics. Javelin was our main focus this week.

Evie: We were put in groups to see who could throw the furthest and try to hit the wall.

Jacob: We are going to extend this next week using real javelins!!

Haseeb: We watched a clip all about Climate Change and learned about four different climates. They were tropical, warm, cold and changeable/temperate.

Shannon: In maths we have been learning about Time using an analogue clock and we answered lots of questions. There was questions like calculating the time for journeys and reading analogue clocks.

We are sure you will agree that it has been a busy week, as always, but a really enjoyable week too.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine.

P1M Weekly News

Our thoughts on this weeks learning:

Sophie: “I liked doing the play. I liked the rhyme robbers game because you rob words from people.”

Patryk: “I like learning about the Gruffalo. I made my own Gruffalo story. There was a big Gruffalo in my story and a big machine in the water and the Gruffalo put somebody on the boat.”

Adam: “I liked number work. I liked cutting out the numbers to put on the clock. I liked play time too.”

Rutendo: “I liked doing the daily mile. It was so fun because we were running on the grass.”

Kerr: “I liked the daily mile because we went on the grass. I liked big maths beat that because it’s good to do sums.”

Jarred: “I liked play because you get to make your own story. I made the “Fox’s Party” and in the story the Gruffalo and the little mouse and the owl and the fox and the snake were on the bouncy castle and then they had pizza to eat at the party. I liked doing maths too and saying prayers.”

Kaitlyn: “I like golden time because there is so much things to play with.”

Kaimee: “We learned the ou sound this week. We learned the action for this sound.”

Sophie: “We done Spanish. We learned Spanish words for animals.”

Esmee: “We learned colours in Spanish too.”

MacKenzie: “I liked to do maths. I put the numbers on the clocks.”

Kyle: “I liked doing number work. I like counting.”

Sophie: “We have been learning to say the prayer ‘Hail Mary’.

Sophie: “I like reading. My book was called ‘The Glum Cat’.

Patryk: “My book was called “Sam, Tam, Tim”.

Adam: “My book was called ‘Village in the Snow.”

MacKenzie: “My book was called ‘Pam and the Cat’.

P1M Weekly News

Apologies for the lack of photos this week – we have been so busy and forgot to take any!

Literacy: This week we have been working on the ‘oi’ sound in phonics. We have completed lots of fun activities to help us learn this sound. We even learned that this sound can be made using the letters ‘oy’ too. Mrs Scott taught us this chant to help us: “O I in the middle, O Y at the end.” We are very excited to have Mrs Scott in our class on a Tuesday to teach us phonics and reading with Miss Meechan. We have participated in a few guided reading lessons this week too where we are working really hard on our comprehension and understanding of the story which we read.

Maths: We are taken a wee break from numeracy and looking at mathematical concepts. Our topic this week was time. We had to think about our daily routines, days of the week and months of the year. We even worked on some collecting and displaying information. We found out when everyone in the classes birthday was and created a bar graph showing this. Have a look for this in our maths jotter.

Topic: We are continuing with our novel study topic “The Gruffalo”. This week we started to create our own Gruffalo books during our play: plan, do review session. We have also started to learn about rhyming words which feature in the Gruffalo. We played a board game called “Rhyme Robber” to help us with this. Well done to Kaimee and Kerr who have already won at this game.

Next week we are going to be learning the ‘ou’ sound and learn about telling the time (o’clock). The only homework we will have next week is reading books due to the short week. Homework will continue to as normal from the following week.

P2 Weekly News!

This week we have been learning how to read the clock and write the time for half past the hour. We were getting a bit confused about which number the hour hand was before or after.
At our independent station we played a matching game, we had to match the written time with the correct clock face.

For our plenary on the smart board we looked at the big interactive clock and Miss Boyes called out different times. We had to try to move the hands into the correct place.

In reading this week we looked at a piece of non-fiction text.

Marcus “We know that non-fiction texts are true and tell us facts.”

The text was all about Blackpool, we read it on our own and then we had to work together to decide if the statements on the statement sheet were true or false. We all wrote the statements under the correct heading.

This week we had art with Mrs Young, we love being creative and we enjoyed making butterflies and talking about symmetry.

We learned how to use the paint package on the notebook this week. We worked in trios or small groups to design either a shield for Prince Charming, Cinderella’s glass slipper or a fairy tale home. We explored all of the different tools and learned to use the paint brush, choose different colours, add shapes and add text. This was lots of fun and Miss Boyes was so impressed with how we got on!

Our class talks were great this week, we spoke about the fairy tale character or home which we created for homework. We had to say why we chose the model which we made, how we made it and which materials we used then our peers asked us a few questions about our creations.

We have begun our Athletics block in PE. Before PE this week we watched a clip of an Olympian throwing the shot put. We thought about his technique and commented on it. We know that you have told hold the shot put under your jaw, tucked into your neck. After watching the clip we worked on our own technique in the hall. We split up into 3 groups and we had to see who could throw the bean bag the furthest. We tried throwing the beanbag with both our right and left hand to see which one felt best.
Mr Robinson and Miss McCafferty our PE students worked with us to record the distance and to help us with our technique.

We then had a final for the boys and girls who threw it the furthest.

We hope you have a lovely bank holiday weekend, From Miss Boyes and Primary 2!