Macmillan Coffee Afternoon

Howes Hoose, supported by their friends from Room 19, led a very successful coffee afternoon today. Well done to all of the pupils and staff involved in making this such a successful event, and thank you to everyone that came along to join in the fun and support Macmillan Cancer Support. Our pupils were very busy throughout the afternoon, setting up, keeping the tables cleared, and topping up the cups. Hopefully they all had time to have a chat with their guests too!

Thank you for joining us and making our afternoon such a success!

Room 5 Visit The Library

Room 5 had a busy morning, visiting our local library at Northfield.

When we arrived, we spent some time exploring the library.  We really liked the computers and colouring in table!  We then met the librarian who gave us a library card for our class and we chose some books to take back to school.

We can’t wait for our next visit to the library.

Our Musical Activities Week

At the end of term, we had our annual activities week, which was kindly organised by Emmeline, our Music Therapist.  The week had the focus of exploring our right to access different genres of music, and what an exciting week it was!

On Monday, we were joined by Amy Strachan, a soprano singer and the B Naturals choir.  Both completely captivated us with their amazing vocal talents and many pupils continued to explore the operatic genre throughout the week in their classes.

On Tuesday morning there was lots of fun as we played and danced along with the Aberdeen Strathspey And Reel Society, listening to a range of traditional Scottish tunes and dancing a few reels too!  In the afternoon we were joined by the Confucius Institute who performed some popular Chinese songs as well as one from a Chinese opera as well.  Both of these groups allowed us to investigate and have a go at playing their instruments and well all loved the Chinese harp and flute as well as the fiddle and accordion.  It was a fantastic day allowing us to explore music from two very distinct and different cultures.

On Wednesday, we were entertained by Duncan and Bill who performed a range of folk music for us.  The hall was full to the brim and everyone had a brilliant time listening to Duncan and Bill’s wide variety of music.

On Thursday, we had hoped to have a picnic in the park but unfortunately the Scottish weather had other ideas!  Instead we had an improvised fourth of July picnic in the hall with musical accompaniments from the Fyvie Folk Club.  The Folk Club played a wide variety of music and their leader Bernie had even written us a specific song and poem in the spot!

On Friday we rounded off our musical activities week with a Makaton sing-a-long in the morning and a disco in the afternoon.

It was a truly magical and musical week which gave all the students (and staff!) the opportunity to experience a wide range of music genres and we all discovered something new and exciting.  A huge thank you to all of our special guests and performers and thank you to Emmeline for organising such an amazing experience for us.

A Trip to the Beach With Room 4

Room 4 have been reading ‘The New Friend’ by Alex Scheffler for their book study this term.

In the book, the main characters Pip and Posy make a new friend at the beach and they work together to build a sandcastle.

We enjoyed the book so much that we thought we would have a go at making our own sandcastles!  We visited the beach and worked together to build our own sandcastles.  We thought we did a good job.  What do you think?  We even made our own new friend when we went looking in the rock pools!

 

 

 

Makaton Choir Workshop

On Tuesday, our Makaton Choir hosted some very special guests in school as part of a choir workshop organised by our Emmeline, our music therapist.

The two choirs that visited us were ‘The Kitty Choir’ from Kittybrewster Primary School and ‘Singing Hands’, an Aberdeen based BSL signing (British Sign Language)  choir.  We all had a wonderful afternoon sharing our different approaches to choir.

The Orchard Brae Makaton Choir performed “Happy” and “Summer Holiday”, Singing Hands performed “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” and “Give Me Sunshine” and The Kitty Choir performed “Sing”.

The three choirs then collaborated and sang our Makaton signed version of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” alongside the BSL version.  It was very interesting to see the differences and similarities between Makaton and BSL.  We then rounded of the afternoon by all learning the Makaton signs for “Shotgun!”

Everyone had a wonderful afternoon and Scott, the hearing dog was a big hit with all of the pupils!  It was wonderful to have the opportunity to share our learning and learn from others too.

Kids Out 2019

Some of our primary pupils took part in a very special outing on Wednesday at the SRUC Aberdeen Campus at Craibstone, participating in a range of activities organised by various Rotary clubs in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire for their annual Kids Out fun day.
Despite the gloomy weather, we all had a fantastic time. Some of the highlights of the day included bouncy castles and face painting, magic shows, Aberdeen Science Centre, a disco and the very noisy police van and fire engine. However, the best bit of the day for many of our pupils were the animals and there was great excitement over the numerous pony rides, bird displays and Therapet dogs.
Thank you so much to everyone in the local Rotary clubs for organising such a wonderful day and we can’t wait for next year.

Rehearsals At The Lemon Tree

Some of our staff and pupils had a super morning at The Lemon Tree, rehearsing for our upcoming performance on the 11th of June as part of Aberdeen Performing Arts, Light The Blue Youth Arts Festival.   We have been working alongside Aberdeen Performing Arts to create a performance which takes you on a sensory journey through the seasons, with some surprises for the audience along the way!   As you can tell by our photos, we all had great time and we can’t wait for the final show and it would be wonderful if you could come along and join us.

The performance is free but tickets must be obtained prior to the event – please see the link below for booking details.

https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/creative-learning/light-the-blue/in-performance/orchard-brae-school/?fbclid=IwAR3BBV0ezL3uxkOeAxNkH3rKHfEUSzdVEFbrmeOaLT-YmrVDY9pngsyu00g

 

 

 

Choir Workshop

We are very excited about the upcoming Choir Workshop afternoon organised by Emmeline, our Music Therapist.  The afternoon will focus on how different groups approach being a choir and will feature:
– Orchard Brae Makaton Choir
– Singing Hands, a local BSL Signing Group and
– The Kitty Choir from Kittybrewster Primary School

**NB – Consent forms will be sent home with the pupils involved in the workshop afternoon**

 

Kilt Walk

After a  very busy week at the senior residential trip to Bendrigg, one of our pupil’s from Howes Hoose managed to find the energy to walk 5 miles for the Aberdeen Kilt Walk!  He collected his sponsor money for AFC Community Trust that runs his football sessions on a Saturday morning and he managed to raise almost £500! 

What an amazing effort and a huge well done on raising such a fantastic amount.

Our World of Rights – Our Right to Play

The pupils in Room 15 very much enjoy their right to play.  We have fun in the school playground and out at the park.  Our friends in Rwanda have the right to play too.  They don’t have the same play equipment we have.  We looked at some photos of our friends in Rwanda playing.  In Room 15 we played with a banana leaf ball made by some of our friends in Rwanda.  We also enjoyed playing with a banana leaf doll made by our friends in Rwanda.  We had lots of fun.