Christmas Jumper Day 2021

To celebrate Save The Children’s Christmas jumper day, the pupil council challenged classes to make real Christmas jumpers using as many recycled or sustainable materials as possible.  Room 12 used it as a learning opportunity to “respect other people’s choices”. And I’m sure you will agree the results are fabulous. 

Up-cycling in Room 16

Room 16 have been preparing their up-cycled Christmas jumper for Christmas Jumper Day next week. We made a Christmas tree template and stuck it onto our jumper then used our hands to paint on with green for the tree, red and yellow for the baubles and lights then we used a pom-pom to bad some gold sparkly paint for the star on top. When we peeled off the template we could see our beautiful tree!  It gave us the opportunity to practise turn taking as we had to work one at a time on our jumper. We are excited to display it for all our friends to see and to see the other classes creativity with their eco-friendly jumpers.

The Book Fairy Visits

We had a lot of fun at Orchard Brae today, the Book Fairy visited us leaving copies of ‘A Boy called Christmas’ by Matt Haig around the school. The book is part of a nationwide book-drop to coincide with the film coming out today!

Lots of our classes had fun searching for the books, here are some of the ones we found!

Thank you Book Fairy (and Matt Haig), we will really enjoy reading the book during our school Winter Festival.

Special Events in Room 15

Room 15 have been learning about time by exploring when special events occur as part of our ASDAN (mathematics) work recently.  We used symbol information to work out when different special events take place, including Fireworks night, St Andrews Day and Christmas, as well our class birthdays, and added this information to our calendars.

We’re now extending this with our ASDAN ICT project to use ICT to prepare for a special occasion – we’re filming our Christmas video!  (Too early?!?)

We voted for our preferred song choice on the interactive board and we’re exploring different ways to share communication relating to the song – through signing, using our AAC, through our actions – and recording this together.  We’ll also be using technology in our video, switching on Christmas lights and using a camera.

We’ve had lots of fun going through our Christmas resources too, lots of fabulous sensory opportunities with tinsel, hats, baubles and more!

George’s Marvellous Medicine

Room 18 have been hearing the story of George’s Marvellous Medicine during lunch time book club and we are really enjoying it!  We had a go at making our own potions by measuring out different colours of water and mixing them together.  We have been learning how to measure water in different ways and it was a good chance to practise pouring and measuring carefully.

Switch fun in Room 17

Room 17 have been developing our skills of switch work through exploring different ways to use our switch button. We have been using our switch to play music on the white board, to activate toys and lights, to engage in sensory stories and even to make popcorn and to carve our pumpkin at Halloween! The switch has lots of uses which allows us to interact with our environment as independently as possible. We have great fun using them at the same time!

Music Therapy at Orchard Brae

There are a variety of musical experiences on offer throughout the school week.  We are delighted to announce that for the second year running we have a Musician in Residence from Drake Music Scotland, who is supporting secondary pupils to develop digital music skills.  We have weekly drumming sessions in class and individual lessons with Keith from Rhythmbox and we also have our Music therapist from ELM Music Therapy delivering individual sessions.  Below is a quote from Emmeline explaining what can be achieved through music therapy.  And we have a selection of happy and engaged pupils clearly enjoying their music therapy sessions. 

“I aim to support the pupils to make meaningful musical interactions through the use of instruments, voice, movement and more, to interact and communicate regardless of ‘musical ability’. Within the music therapy sessions, I take a pupil-centred approach where musical improvisation and active music making are the predominant therapeutic intervention methods. 

The music therapy sessions can create a safe space for pupils to express themselves and to develop language, communication skills, movement, fine and gross motor skills or to help with emotional regulation. Often the music therapy space can create opportunities for spontaneous learning and an outlet for emotions.”