Family Learning – Page 4 – St Ninian's Primary School

Positive thought for the week 3.4.20

Good morning everyone. Well done on another successful week of learning and making memories in our new normal routines and with our distance learning. Life has certainly changed over the past few weeks and as we adjust to this new normal we hope that it will be for a short period safe in the knowledge that we will weather this together.

On that note my positive thought going into the weekend is:

As we all adjust to this new way of life it is important that we try to find alternative ways to make memories and make the most of all the wonderful things we have. It’s important to make memories that will last a lifetime, laugh at the smallest of things, dance to the music and care for each other holding close in our hearts our loved ones.

One of the most uplifting things I heard this week was a Scottish grandma’s advice to her grandchildren. It brought both a tear and a great big smile to me all at once. Her inspirational message reminds her family that it’s finding a new way to dance in the rain that will get us all through this to the warmth of the sun and each other. She even made National News and GMB.

You are all doing amazing things from home and we appreciate all you are doing and the contact you are keeping with us. It means a lot.

I’ll end my post with a beautiful poem Mrs Scott shared with me and the staff team called At Home. Please read it as it is truly magical and heart warming and sums up a beautiful positive message of how well you are all doing. Thank you Mrs Scott.

https://www.freechildrenstories.com/at-home

Have a lovely weekend and a wonderful Easter holiday as you switch off and spend time together with your loved ones whether that is in your home or via the phone. You truly deserve a magical time. Keep smiling and dancing!

Happy Easter everyone,

Mrs Docherty

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

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

Nursery: Reading together helpful hints

Good morning,

Throughout the week I have been posting reading advice and tips for parents. Today specifically for Nursery I have included the Book Trust leaflet on how you can do this at home with your 3 and 4 year olds.

reading-with-your-child-booklet-for-parents 4-6

I have also included the Book Trust link with great ideas and books to engage your little ones.

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/

We are missing 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

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 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:

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