Our Literacy Transition Project Blown Away

Today was the launch of our Literacy Transition Project for our children moving onto Primary 1 in August 2017. The children and their parents and carers joined us to listen to the story Blown Away about penguin Blue and his friends.

We all joined together across the campus in Children’s House garden and play rooms to fly Blue and his kite and have a snack together with  our friends going to the same school.

Having snack together with our friends going to St Francis.

Having snack with our friends going to Niddrie Mill, Brunstane and Castleview Primary Schools.

Creating our penguins and kites together.

Showing off our amazing kites and penguins.

Here’s to 2017

What a wonderfully busy start we’ve had to the winter term. The children returned, excited to tell us about their winter celebrations at home, and we have welcomed some new children who have settled in so well to Lewis room.

The children have been exploring the winter season, both indoors and out. We’ve had lots of ice play in the water tray, and sliding, sledging and collecting ice outdoors.

We have continued to explore our local community, visiting the library and local landmarks. The children have noticed the signage and street names in the area, so we have been investigating what they say and mean.

This term we have been focusing on our bodies, and all the wonderful things they can do. We’ve been climbing, jumping, crawling and balancing as well as assessing personal risks at the gym. We danced and twirled at our ceilidh for Robert Burns day, and we have listened to our hearts at rest and at play.

As well as celebrating Burns, we have also had a fabulous Chinese New Year, with music, stories, dancing, parents cooking traditional Chinese food, and even a dragon!

Are you a great cook? Do you love singing? Do you play an instrument or can you sew or knit? Maybe you enjoy reading stories? If any parents, grandparents, carers or other relatives, are reading and have a special skill that the children might enjoy, please feel free to talk to us, as we would love to have you spend some time with us in Lewis Room. We know you are a talented bunch!

We hope you all have a terrific Mid-Term break and look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 20^th February

Morag, Davina, Mrs. Denholm and Laura

New Beginnings

We have had a wonderful start to the Autumn term in the Isle of Lewis room.

We’ve welcomed our lovely new children and have been delighted to see some of our big Primary 1 boys and girls visit us in their school uniforms. How smart they all looked!

At the beginning of the term the children were very busy harvesting the broad beans we planted before the summer holiday. The children shelled, counted, compared, tasted and weighed and measured the beans, then composted the pods, as well as getting the area we planted the beans in, ready for the winter. The children have also been caring for our environment, by going out in teams and picking up litter with our litter pickers. They made up a song (to the tune of the Hokey Cokey).

We are the Moffat litter-pickers,

We are the Moffat little-pickers,

We are the Moffat litter-pickers,

We pick up the rubbish each day!

During the Edinburgh Festival we took a trip to the High Street, to see some Fringe performers. We went to see a show The Girl with the Hurricane Hands, and had our snack together, right in the heart of the city centre! The children were excited to see the castle and Arthurs seat on the journey, and have been creatively building castles out of junk in our art area.

We have had a few trips to the library, where the children have had the opportunity to select their own stories and share them with the rest of the class. A firm favourite is The Gingerbread Man and the children have been baking and creating Gingerbread men to accompany the story. If your child has a favourite storybook at home, please bring it in for them to share with their friend at story time or if you have some free time, perhaps you would come and share a story with us. We hope to continue to visit the library and explore our local community, so would welcome any parent/carer helpers that would be willing to join us; please keep an eye on our notice board.

Best wishes,

Morag, Davina, Laura and Mrs. Denholm

Stay and Play

 

Stay and Play Day

The children and parents and carers really enjoyed our recent Stay and Play Day in Lewis room. They all spent a great morning and afternoon learning about numbers and counting. Some children made ladybirds in the art area and matched the number of spots to the numerals, so there was lots of counting and number recognition going on. There were many other activities to choose from too, such as play dough with number sticks, number puzzles and jigsaws and also just time for children and adults to create their own pictures and art work together. It was clear that the children really enjoyed having their parents and carers supporting their learning.

Welcome to the Isle of Lewis class!

The children have returned this year and have been very busy from the start.

They have been learning about light and dark and the animals that we see at those times of the day. Currently they are learning about the season of Autumn and using autumn colours to show what they have learned. Our September weather has been lovely and the children have been outdoors often. They have been harvesting fruit and vegetables and using them to make snack and have also been learning about water and it’s properties and effects.