Parental Involvement – Page 3 – St Ninian's Primary School

MRS DOCHERTY POSITIVE QUOTE FOR THE WEEK: 8.5.20

As we look back at another week of learning, friendships, support and hope we realise what a journey we have been on and indeed are still on. Hopefully for all of you things are starting to fall into a new normal and a new routine that works for you all.

While things have changed and we are all adjusting, what is important is to remember that when we come to the end of this part of the journey we are all here for you and as we get closer to that time we are getting more and more excited to see you all.

They always say absence makes the heart grow fonder and I know that is the case for us at St Ninian’s. When we remember the words of our song of the week from Monday “Rise Up ” by Andra Day please keep in your minds the lines:

All we need, all we need is hope
And for that we have each other
We will rise

This song means a lot to me and I have used it as a writing stimulus in school which resulted in amazing pieces of writing based on hope, strength and courage. Please know these are the qualities you are showing at the minute and we are so appreciative of your support and engagement. Our special quote for this week is:

We know that as a school and as a community we will grow even stronger through this and look forward to a new chapter of learning, laughter and fun.

Have a lovely weekend with each other, continue to make special memories and please stay safe.

Mrs Docherty

Mrs Docherty: Early Years Writing Support Day 2 7.5.20

Following on from yesterday’s support we will continue with how to support your child with writing in the early years. There are many processes taking place when your child is writing from thinking of ideas, getting the vocabulary and grammar and the transferring it onto paper, never mind the handwriting aspect too. Through this whole process your child is able to share what they have learned and what they know.

For today we will look at a few more ideas to help you to support your child with how to develop their writing skills and foster a love of writing.

Help them to get started

Children can often find it difficult to get started and a blank page may be overwhelming for them. This is where you can help. You could give them the first few sentences or even words to help formulate ideas and thoughts for their writing. A good way to do this is to start with a question and then create a mind map or create a bank of words form their answer to the question. This could be: What did you see on your walk today? Who is the character in your story? Where is your story taking place? Allow your child to then free write using their thoughts.

Connect their interests

Think about your child’s interests. What is their favourite story, who is their favourite character, what is their favourite activity or toy? Whatever their interests are connect them to their writing.

Create Story Prompts

A fun way to do this is to cut out pictures from magazines with characters and settings on them. I have included a link for the story We’re going on a Bear Hunt with visuals for setting and characters that could support your child to write the story and sequence it.

Bear-Hunt-Stick-Puppets_ver_1

Bear-Hunt-Story-Sequencing

These are a few more ideas to help you when supporting your child with writing and we will conclude with our final ideas on Tuesday. As always please get in touch if you have any questions or would like more ideas/resources for writing

Take care everyone,

Mrs Docherty

Mrs Docherty: Early Years Writing Support Day 1 6.5.20

This week we will focus on another key area of Literacy which will be writing. Throughout the week we will look at fun ways for you to support your child with writing which will build upon all of the previous advice on our other literacy skills: reading and spelling.

Writing is a great way for your child to communicate. We will focus on ways you can make writing exciting from fun activities to daily reading and writing sessions. This will help you to continue to build your child’s skills through our distant learning. Here are some writing tips for home.

Reading

One of the first ways to support writing is through reading. Reading helps to increase your child’s vocabulary and this in turn supports your child in using these words in their writing. Try reading together every day with your younger children.

Materials

Try different materials, fun pens and pretty paper can be motivational.

Space

Just like your reading space create a quiet space for writing and provide some stimulus: this could be a story you have read, a favourite toy, or an experience you have had ex your walk in the woods.

Purpose

You could encourage your child to write for a variety of purposes such as a shopping list, a menu for your evening meal, or even send a letter to someone.

Technology

Technology can be used to support writing. Get your child to send an email or produce a story using word.

I have added a few resources to help stimulate writing through games below. You could create a pirate or fairy adventure or even create your own monster and describe it!! Have fun.

Fairytale-Story-Telling-Prompt_ver_2 (1)

monster-surprise-roll-and-draw-a-monster-activity Pirate-Story-

Writing-Activity_ver_4 (1)

These are a few ideas to help you get started when supporting your child with writing and we will continue with more ideas tomorrow. Please get in touch if you have any questions or would like more ideas/resources for writing.

Have a lovely day,

Mrs Docherty

NHS Speech and Language Advice 30.4.20

Today’s focus from the NHS Speech and Language Facebook page is focussing on Listening and Talking. Listening and attention skills are one of the key parts of our overall Literacy and Language areas of CfE. They are important for your child to help with their social skills, understanding of language, following instructions, learning to communicate, developing speech sounds and all areas of their learning.

The website below shares some great ideas to help support your child with listening and talking and is definitely worth a look.

www.lets-talk.scot.nhs.uk

Please see below ideas suggestions for you to use with your child to help support them with their speech sounds:

Play musical bumps or statues. These are also examples of games we play in Nursery and School.
Get your child to spot the mistake. You could use their favourite song or nursery Rhyme and make a deliberate mistake. See can your child recognise the mistake you have made or the word you have left out.
Play games where your child must wait for you to say go before they take part. An example is building a tower of bricks where your child cannot knock it down until you say Go!
Use a noisy toy and get your child to follow the noise by hiding the toy or object.

As always have a go and try them out. If you have any other ideas that you use at home please share these also.

Have a great day everyone,

Mrs Docherty

NHS Speech and Language Therapy Marvellous Monday Post: 27.4.20

Good morning everyone. A very exciting piece of information to share is that NHS Lothian Speech and Language Therapy are this week posting great ideas on how to support your child with Phonological awareness.

They are doing this on their Facebook page:

https://en-gb.facebook.com/NHSLothianSLT/

I will take out the main points as shared below and over the week continue to share their ideas and tips with you. It is also worth going onto the page using the link above as there is a wealth of resources available. Over the coming weeks I will use this site to continue to support you with your child’s speech and language development.

Did you know? Phonological (Sound) Awareness involves listening and playing around with sounds in words. Children can then begin to understand how the sounds join together to form words.

Children benefit from being able to break words down into smaller parts called ‘syllables’. First show your child by clapping 👏🏼 whilst saying 🗣words and then let them try too!

‼️ Remember: these activities are beneficial for all children in nursery and early school years as it helps with early reading 📖 and writing 📝skills. The activities also support children with speech sound difficulties 🗣!

⬇️ Try the syllable activities below using words with different numbers of syllables.

If you have any questions please just post in the comments section above.

Have a great day everyone and please visit the Facebook page it is really informative.

Mrs Docherty

Mrs Docherty POSITIVE SONG OF THE WEEK: 27.4.20

This week’s Positive Song is Rise Up by Andra Day which is a very powerful song with a powerful message. It is a song about courage and strength in the face of adversity. The song has a very special message for everyone and has been used by our special NHS nurses across the country to rally each other and support their patients.

As a school we feel the message of the song is exactly what we would want to say to you as our parents and as our friends. It is a message of working through things and knowing that we will rise up and come out the other end. We will do this together as a team and the lines from the song which stand out for me are:

You’re broken down and tired
Of living life on a merry go round
And you can’t find the fighter
But I see it in you so we gonna walk it out
And move mountains
And I’ll rise up
I’ll rise like the day
I’ll rise up
I’ll rise unafraid
I’ll rise up
And I’ll do it a thousand times again
And I’ll rise up
High like the waves
I’ll rise up
In spite of the ache
I’ll rise up
And I’ll do it a thousand times again
For you

Please listen to the song which is even more powerful when you hear the lyrics with music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMpXtI6Nhskknowing

The song gives a clear message that who we are is demonstrated in what we do to help each other. It is about how we show support and empathy for each other which as a school we see in abundance not just now but at all times, so thank you. The words of the song give us a positive message of how we will get through these times and the positivity and experiences we will have again soon.

Have a great week everyone and please stay safe,

Mrs Docherty

MRS DOCHERTY POSITIVE THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Friendship: 24.4.20

At the end of our first week back in our final term we hope you have had a successful week of fun and learning. Please know you are all doing so well and we are very proud of you. I know we have loved being in teaching mode and in contact with you all again this week and following on from our positive song of the week we have appreciated all of your friendship. As I always say Thursday is such an important day to stop, think and reflect especially when we Clap for our Heroes. Some of the things I ask myself on Thursdays are:

What have I felt happy about this week?

What have I done to make someone smile?

What special memory have I made this week?

What has made me sad or worried?

Who helped me when I felt that way?

Most answers involve my family and my friends which again I know we will all be missing. So for today I am sending you all a special message to help you to know we are all here for you and for each other. So from all of us to you we are sending big hugs and a big thank you for your support, hard work and friendship.

And please remember:

Have a lovely day everyone and look after yourselves,

Mrs Docherty

MRS DOCHERTY SUPPORTING YOU TO LOOK AFTER YOU AND YOURS: 22.4.20

Following on from yesterday’s advice on how to look after each other during Lockdown I’ll keep providing further supports from the Glasgow Times article which I found so informative. Today’s focus is

Acknowledgement:

Children can find it difficult to recognise or share what their feelings are. It is important to talk about these with your child and help them to identify what they may be feeling and why. When doing this it is important to get your child to name their feelings. You can help with this by identifying the feeling for them if required. This can be done by saying: I can see you are feeling….

When you have helped them to identify their feeling you can work together to develop ways to make them feel better if their feeling is one of fear, or worry or anxiousness.

Maybe as a family you are finding calmness at this time and that is important to recognise and spread too.

Some questions suggested that you could ask your child included:

What makes you feel calm?

How can you continue to keep in touch with friends and family at the moment?

Can you think of anything fun we can do at home today?

What is something you could you do for someone else today?

What have you enjoyed about today?

What made you feel proud today?

I will further support this on our positive thought for the week on Friday and also on Thursday’s mindfulness self-regulation focus.

Have a great day,

Mrs Docherty

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD WITH RHYME DAY 3: 22.4.20

I hope you have been having fun looking at and using the resources provided over the last few days to help support your child with rhyme. For our final day of how to support your child with rhyme I will share two more games and ideas. It would be great to hear how you get on with any of the games, if you get a chance to play them. Please post a comment if you feel they have been successful.

Two great games for the whole family are what we will be sharing today. The first one is:

What’s in my Bag?

Once your child can successfully recognize rhymes, this activity will help them learn to produce rhymes. Just fill a bag with several common household items. Examples of these are included on the attachment with steps on how to play the game. Just print off the list, fill your bag and you’re ready to play “What’s in My Bag?”

Whats-in-My-Bag

Your child will pull something out of the bag and then see if they can think of a word that rhymes with it. It doesn’t even have to be a real word!! Have fun.

Dinner Time

Another great game to use is Dinner Time and this can be played with the whole family and will provide great fun. Please let me know how you get on with this one. I have attached a copy of the game below with the resources you will need to play.

Dinner-Time-Rhyming-Game (1)

I hope you have found this week’s support beneficial and more importantly they have helped both you and your child to have fun with learning in these times.

Sending all my best wishes,

Mrs Docherty

Supporting you to support each other 21.4.20

As I spent my Easter holidays in very different times this year I came across lots of great advice and support for us all in such times of unknown and times of real change. A great piece of writing I came across was in the Glasgow Times which provided super ideas and advice on how to support yourself and others during Lockdown. I thought it would be good to share some of these ideas with you this week as part of our Health and Wellbeing weekly posts over the next two weeks.

The ideas shared range from special breathing exercises to ways of talking about feelings. I’ll share 4 of the strategies and supports the Glasgow Times discussed today.

INFORM

Provide clear, age appropriate information and reassure. Be led by what your child talks about. Talking will help reduce anxiety.

CONNECT

Encourage talking to friends and family through technology. Connection supports positive wellbeing.

SOOTHE

Spend time doing fun and positive activities together, laugh, sing, dance, try out relaxation and breathing exercises together.

CONTROL

Focus on what you and your child can do like handwashing, eating well, exercise, learning a new skill.

Some great advice and know that we are also hear to support you in these times and to stay connected to you and yours. Tomorrow we will look at further advice that was shared in the post which supports Acknowledgement and recognising feelings.

Have a great day in the lovely sunshine everyone and keep making memories.

Mrs Docherty