Although a shorter week at Nursery it has been as busy as usual. We have continued with our Fairy tales topic with the children leading on the planning and learning experiences.
Our AM children have been busy in the construction area building lots of exciting models including the Gingerbread house. They have been writing about the characters in the story and drawing them too. We also had some special visitors on Wednesday. Four teachers from Panama were visiting the school and nursery. They were very impressed when we greeted them in Spanish and loved our bright and nurturing environment.They took lots of photographs to take back to their school.
Our PM children have been loving the puppet theatre and have been retelling the story of Hansel and Gretel using the puppets they made themselves. The audience have been very impressed by the shows! They have also been busy in the construction area with lots of fantastic models being made.
We have also been outdoors and continued with our construction ideas using our natural materials. We are hoping for lovely warm weather soon,
Our transition programme continues next week with our PM children who are going to school in August visiting P1R to rake part in some carousel activities. They are looking forward to having this exciting experience. We also have some special visitors on Monday and Tuesday. Watch this space next week for details!
First of all we would like to thank all the parents who came along to our focus groups as part of our review week. We really appreciated you taking the time to come along and we value your continued support.
We have been continuing with our Space topic this week and the children had the opportunity to make alien headbands and space play dough. The children also made a model of Earth using a football. What a great idea! Lots of rockets continue to be built in the construction area and some children even became human rockets!
In our Outdoor learning we have been looking at Numeracy and Literacy using ten green bottles and using books to look for signs of Spring and nature. The children then recorded their findings on paper. We have continued this indoors using matching games and Space pictures as a stimulus for writing. The children have also helped make a lovely Spring tree and painted some beautiful grass to go under it.
Our focus next week will be Easter. We will be looking at Easter traditions, take part in Easter crafts and of course looking for some hidden Easter eggs!
Just a little reminder that on Wednesday 23rd March the Nursery is joining the school to have Daily Mile with dad or grandad at 10.00am and 2.00pm. If you are free to come along and join in you are more than welcome to . No running required! Also on Thursday 24 March at 10.00am and 2.00pm we are having a Sponsored Bunny Hop where the children will be hopping round the school. Parents and Carers are invited to join us for this. There will be no sponsor forms issued for this but we would welcome any donations which will go towards the buying of new Nursery resources in consultation with the children.
Please note Nursery finishes on Thursday 24th March for the Easter holidays and everyone returns on Monday 11th April.
Have a lovely weekend.
Apologies for no photographs this week as our media space is full on the Blog. They will be added as soon as space becomes available.
Sorry we can’t post photographs this week but there is no media space on the blog, hopefully I can add these later.
As you may have guessed from the title we started a new topic in maths – time. The children have been learning about daily routines, clocks and recognising o’clock times. They have enjoyed taking part in a variety of activities this week to help them learn, eg. making a clock, playing time apps, using small clocks to make times, being teachers and checking others clocks, time bingo and using the time playdough mats. It has been great to see everyone making links in their learning and the children are now using the class clock with ease, especially to remind me when it is lunchtime!!
A game which we used for our plenary sessions was Stop the Clock, Oma is the current class champion with 18 seconds to beat. Try playing this at home and see how quickly you can match the times.
In phonics we were learning about ‘sh’ and ‘ch’, these are not easy yet the children were confidently reading and spelling words with these sounds very quickly. Some of the activities which helped us were glitter tray writing, sounds bingo, interactive games on the smartboard and much more! Here is a game to try out which practises sh,ch and th.
In IDL this week the focus was on Scottish produce – we had a great afternoon on Wednesday tasting lots of different Scottish produced food – salmon, tablet, porridge, raspberries, shortbread, oatcakes to name a few! Everyone had to choose their favourite which we then wrote about in Thursday’s writing lesson. It was interesting to see so many different foods being chosen, shortbread was very popular! My favourite was the tablet, delicious!!
PE was good fun as we continued to learn about travelling with objects, we introduced some new equipment this week and we are now using basketballs, footballs and tennis bats/balls. Some of the boys were showing off their dribbling skills they have learned at their out of school football clubs.
We ended the week with some outdoor learning, Mr McCurdy joined us on an environmental walk in our local area. We were able to spot many signs of spring and at the same time increase our fitness levels by walking 2 miles, yes that’s right, 2 miles! We used a map and followed the signs as we walked. It was only fair that the children were rewarded with some time at the playpark on the way back to school.
Thank you also to P7 for teaching us about the Stations of the Cross on Friday, we learned a lot about the Easter story. We will continue to learn about Easter next week.
Have you heard all about the game we played in PE this week? It was called dice dash. This game incorporates a range of skills from social interactions to speed and stamina. Ask your child about this game.
We are continuing with our number topic of multiplication and everyone is working really hard with this topic… Miss Meechan is really impressed! Our learning this week focused on ‘switcher’ sums. Sophie ‘switched’ the sum ‘2 x 4 – 2 groups of 4’ around because we can’t count in 4’s. She switched this sum to ‘4 x 2 – 4 groups of 2 because we can count in 2’s’. Great work, Sophie.
We have also been learning about ‘arrays’ to help us with multiplication. Last week we learned about arrays and this week we consolidated that knowledge through a range of activities. One of our activities was a competitive game with a trio or partner. In this picture you can see Robbie, Ethan and Imogen using the array flashcards to create and practise ‘times’ sums. Well done!
We are continuing to practise counting in steps of to help us with our multiplication knowledge of skip counting to count quickly in groups. We really enjoy playing the ‘pass the ball game’ to help us count in steps of. Did you enjoy the homework task this week? I loved reading your comments on the blog about what numbers you counted to… great work! We listened to and sang along with a new ‘counting in 2’s’ song this week. Have a listen and sing along at home too.
We finished off our maths topic of money this week. We completed a money assessment to show off how much we had learned over this 5 week topic. As well as completing this assessment we played 2 games to showcase the skills we have learned. One of these games was an ‘Orchard Toys’ board game called ‘Pop to the Shops’. Do you have this game at home? This is a fantastic game which requires children to recognise coins, count coins, pay for things with the exact amount and give change too. If you have this game at home I would love to see some photographs of you playing. You could post them in the comments section or bring them to school. As well as playing a board game we played a game on the ipads using an app called ‘Moca GPB’. Why don’t you download this app on a device at home and have a go. Let me know how you get on playing this game.
I’m sure you have heard all about our topic of ‘Transport’. All children have shown such enthusiasm with this topic and have loved learning about a range of different modes of transport from old to new. This week we watched a video of the first moon landing. Here is the video we watched:
After watching this video we wanted to make our own rockets. We had to work with a partner to create a design, develop that design into a model and think of a name for our rocket. We then took our rockets outside and launched them using our very own rocket launcher… we even remembered to do the countdown just like we watched in the video. Check out the school facebook page for some of our rocket launching videos.
Lots of the children have been interested in cars as part of our topic. We know that the roads around our school can be very busy with lots of cars… vans and lorries too. Therefore, it was important that we learned about road safety. We crossed a road outside of our school gates and remembered the important points when crossing… don’t stand too close to the kerb, look and listen for vehicles before you cross and when it is safe to cross the road remember to keep looking and listening for cars.
We had a look at the main road outside the school and spotted some ‘islands’ in the middle of the road. We know that these can help us cross one part of the road at a time. But do you know we don’t even need to use these islands? Some of us knew about the underpasses around Dedridge. These go underneath the roads which make getting to the other side of a road even safer. We also learned about ‘crossing patrol – lollipop man or lady’ and we learned how these people could help us when crossing a road. Sophie was playing a spelling game on the iPads and found this picture of a lollipop man and managed to spell the word ‘stop’. This game is called ‘spelling bug’ if you want to download this at home.
When we got back to the classroom we created posters with all of our knowledge about road safety and we even received a certificate to show that we know how to safely cross a road.
Our posters were so good that we decided we would like to share our learning with some other children in the school. We showed the nursery, P1D and even P4 our posters and gave them some tips and advice about road safety.
What a busy week. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday for more exciting learning experiences.
The week may have been short but it’s been action packed in P1R!
In phonics we spent time looking at the Vowel House story and learned the trickiest sound of all ‘igh’, ask your child if they remember the special name given to 3 letters that make the same sound and leave a message for us on this blog post,it’s worth 20 House Points!! The children were sorting sounds with the igh sound that had different spellings then made their own sentences, they had to write from memory and play phonics games on the smartboard and ipad. We all agreed that this work was challenging but everyone rose to the challenge and succeeded!
In maths we continued to revise shape, addition, subtraction and money. We had good fun working in teams to make a number line to 20 using number names which earned us extra dojo points, played a shape matching game in trios, gave change from 10p using a smartboard game and completed a maths assessment!
In PE we had a choice lesson before starting our new block next week. The children could choose 2 aspects to focus on from our Significant Aspects of learning in PE to focus on, they chose Rhythm and Co-ordination. After some discussion we decided to do some pirate dancing to demonstrate this and film it to review our performance.
Digging for buried treasure was the theme for outdoor learning this week with Mr Hunter, everyone had great fun trying to find the hidden treasures!
As promised some of us went to visit the nursery to share our use of technology with the children, the P1 children from both classes visited the AM and PM groups. I was really impressed at the leadership skills shown by our P1’s, they had the nursery children engrossed in what they had to say and took it in turns to use the various ipad apps. We will continue to provide opportunities to share our learning with the nursery children over the coming months.
I think you will agree that we have made sure our school values are at the heart of what we do in P1R!
Although a shorter week at Nursery it was by no means quieter. On Wednesday we were all super excited to get a visit from our friends in Primary 1D and 1R who came to show us some learning apps that they use on their iPads in school. We listened really well to our excellent Primary 1 teachers. Thank you so much for coming to visit us Primary 1. Please come back again. Our pre school children are really looking forward to working alongside you when we start our transition.
As it was very frosty and snowy outside this week the children made some lovely sparkly, frosty pictures using salt and glitter. We are planning to put these fantastic pictures up on the wall.
The frost and snow didn’t keep us away from our Outdoor Learning and we got the opportunity to learn about shapes, numbers and even how long our shadows were and what made them! We discovered that the snow had left some interesting patterns and we made some little snowmen. We also explored the school garden looking at ice patterns, the sun dial and how it worked and we were amazed to see some flowers beginning to grow! We thought we looked great in our new all in one suits for outdoors. As we are trying to give the children the opportunity to go outside every day could we please ask that the children come to Nursery with warm clothing and suitable footwear. Thank you very much for your support in this.
To finish off our busy week Mrs Craig took a small group of children out to try our new balance bikes which arrived last week. Mrs Craig has attended a training day for the use of these bikes and our aim is to show the children how to use these bikes properly and also receive basic bike maintenance tips which is a valuable life skill. Pictures of our first balance bike session will be posted on the Nursery Facebook page for you to see.
We look forward to seeing the parents and carers who have signed up for our Curriculum Showcase which is on Thursday 25th February from 6.30 till 8.00. If coming along there will be a welcome from Mrs Purdie first in the main hall of the school at 6.30 after which you will then move onto your first workshop.
Lastly on World Book Day which is on Thursday 3rd March the Nursery is planning on taking on a Pirate theme and the children are welcome to come dressed as pirates that day. Ahoy, me Hearties!
This week in Nursery we have been learning about Chinese New Year which is celebrated on Monday 8th February. We listened to a story about how the years are named after different animals and had the opportunity to make Chinese drums. Our Chinese restaurant has also been busy with lots of cooking and writing down food orders. More exciting things are planned for Monday so watch this space.
In our Outdoor learning we have been using our new gardening tools to dig up the soil and see what we can discover. No treasure yet unfortunately! We are planning on buying all in one suits for the children to enable them to go outside regularly to experience all the benefits of learning outdoors.
Some of our AM children used their artistic skills to paint or colour in self portraits. Our responsive planning took on rockets too this week when some children decided they wanted to make their own rockets and then continued on to construct a super big one so they could travel to the moon wearing their moon boots and masks. They then watched a clip of Tim Peake on the Smartboard. Perhaps we may have a future astronaut in our Nursery!
We had a special treat at story time on Thursday afternoon when the children listened to the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff in both English and Polish read by our Polish student Miss Suszko. The children loved this experience and we plan to read this to our morning children next week.
Today at our Achievement assembly Kerr got a special certificate for being a reflective learner as he was excellent this week at talking about how we are Active in Nursery which is one of our GIRFEC indicators. Well done Kerr. We will be continuing to discuss each of the indicators in the GiRFEC wheel with the children and make a children’s display of this. We will post pictures of these as we complete them. We have also been recording the childrens’ views in our Talking Book.
Next week is Technology week across the school and Nursery and we are planning on working with Primary 1 classes on apps that can be used on the iPads as well as building some exciting things!
Our Breakfast Blether is on Tuesday 9th February at 845 all parents and carers are welcome to come along for an informal chat with some of the Nursery Team. If you are free to come along please add your name to the sign up sheet in the Nursery. Thank you to everyone who has put their name down so far. Remember breakfast is included! We look forward to seeing as many as possible at this event.
Wow I can’t believe it’s Friday again, what a busy week we’ve had in P1R!
In reading this week we have been focusing on revising all the sounds we have learned and blending sounds together to make CVC words. We have used a variety of approaches and resources to do this, Miss Smyth even paid us a visit and spent the morning observing us as we worked. She was very impressed at how well the children used the apps on the ipad and their classroom displays as a tool for learning.
Maths has been great fun as we continued to learn about shapes, this week we looked at 3D shapes and spent lots of time exploring the shapes using our sense of touch and sight. We played games on the smartboard, went on a shape hunt, played shape bingo and dominoes and even wrote detailed descriptions for each of the shapes in our writing lesson.
In IDL we looked at how pirates defended themselves when at sea and how they used different weapons in battles. Everyone chose a weapon they would like to make using junk or recycled materials. We have put these on display for everyone to look at, hopefully we won’t have to use them too often!! On Wednesday we went outdoors for learning on a pirate scavenger hunt, we had to listen carefully to the clues and then go and look for evidence of pirates in our school grounds. We worked in two teams and chose names and captains for our crew – The Jolly Rodger and The Squeaky Sail. It was lovely to see everyone working together and helping one another in their search. The fun continued on Thursday when Mr Hunter asked us to create our very own sea monsters which were often a feature in pirate stories. We again took the learning outdoors for this and the children created fantastic monsters! Harry loved making the weapons and pirate play, Matthew enjoyed making weapons and Angelina liked finding pirate things in the school garden.
For Catholic Education Week we spent time discussing how we could show mercy to others, the children enjoyed watching the Pope Francis animation and all produced their very own Hands of Mercy for a whole school display.
Finally we finished off the week with an Achievements Assembly and our committees. Oma was awarded a special certificate for being a reflective learner – well done Oma! When asked how she felt she said, ” I felt really good.”
Well as I said at the beginning of the entry, it’s been a busy week! We’re all looking forward to next week when we have Technologies Week as our focus and Lent begins.
Another busy week in Nursery. First of all we would like to thank everyone who came along to our Nursery Natters on Thursday and Friday. If you were unable to attend this time there will be more Nursery Natters coming up.
We have continued to learn about Winter this week and we continued to look for signs of Winter outside. We discovered some ice and discussed how ice was formed and how it changed when it melted. We also looked at patterns on the leaves and how the frost changed their appearance.
Our PM children were worried that the birds were not getting enough food as it was Winter and so decided to make bird cakes. These will be put in our Nursery garden on Monday. We then plan to do some bird watching. We can’t wait to see what birds appear!
We also had a visit from Primary 2M who showed us something amazing on their iPad it was a picture of a rocket which had landed in the playground. They wanted to know if anyone had seen anything but we promised to have a look on the way home. It was all very exciting.
We have also been busy preparing for Grandparents Day which is on Thursday 28th January at 10 am and 2pm. We are very excited to show you what we have been doing. We would also be very grateful for any donations of home baking that could be handed in for this special event. Everyone is welcome to come along .
There is also a Breakfast Blether on Tuesday 9th February at 8:45 am. This is an opportunity for you to have an informal chat and provide valuable feedback to our Headteacher and members of our Nursery team. We are looking forward to seeing as many parents/carers as possible. If you are available please add your name to the sign up sheet in the Nursery . Breakfast is included!
It’s been a grand ole week in P1R with lots of learning and fun. It all began on Monday when we learned a new sound, ‘ai’, we’re flying through the sounds now and getting better every day at blending. We used letterjoin to practise joining the a and i together to remind us that even though it is two letters it only makes one sound.
In maths we continued the sharing theme but focused on learning all about fractions/halves. Chocolate was aplenty in our lessons, we were given a challenge of working out how to share 1 mini-roll with our partners, we decided to cut them in half meaning each person got 1 piece. On another day we looked at whole chocolate bars and counted all the square pieces, we then had to work out half. We even found out that half of 5 is 2.5!! The best bit was getting to eat our share of the chocolate!
We also had a go at making fraction flags using 2 colours and decorating half a pizza (don’t worry they were pretend pizzas!)
In PE we were trying to combine the skills we had been learning and apply this to the different apparatus.
Famous pirates were the talk of the class this week. We learned all about Blackbeard and Anne Bonny. Ask your child to tell you one of the facts they found out. We made Wanted Posters for our class display, puppets and pirate hats for role play, sang Pirate songs, danced like a pirate, wrote some facts about famous pirates and used the Morfo app to create talking and moving pirates.
Outdoor learning was also part of our week although unfortunately the rain changed this slightly, we brought the outdoors indoors! All the children were set a challenge by Mr Hunter to make a ‘Crow’s Nest’. They had to think about which of our school values would be important, the children thought ‘teamwork’ would be the best way to approach the challenge.
We’re all now looking forward to tomorrow’s skills academies and going along to the dress rehearsal of the ‘Great Scots’ show!
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