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Music and dance play a large part in Burns Day celebrations and in this activity there are lots of opportunities to take part in movement to Scottish music as well as try some ‘ceilidh’ dancing.
Traditional Tales For Tiny People
Traditional Tunes for Tiny People’ is a Live Music Now Scotland project aimed at teaching families and young people traditional Scottish tunes and songs.
In this video Grant McFarlane (accordion), Claire Hastings (voice, ukulele) and Ron Jappy (acoustic guitar, piano) from the musical trio Aonach Mor introduce a fun song for sharing and enjoying at home, in nurseries or in schools. ‘Jump Jim Joe’ has some simple jumping moves and actions that they will guide you through.
In this video Grant McFarlane, Claire Hastings and Ron Jappy from the musical trio Aonach Mor perform ‘A doo fell off a lum’, meaning “a pigeon fell off a chimney”. Follow their simple actions to learn a fun and interactive Scots song. The songs come with simple actions that they will guide you through with the help of props and live music.
Ceilidh Dancing
For this activity our PE teachers Amanda and Salvi have recorded 3 set dances for you. They have been recorded keeping social distance between them, but if you are at home you can choose to dance like them or you can do them holding hands with your family. The 3 Ceilidh dances are “The Gay Gordons”, “The Canadian Barn Dance” and our “Circle Dance”.
Here are some links to the Scottish music so you can dance along at home. There is the Dashing White Sergeant, the Gay Gordons, the Canadian Barn Dance and finally Auld Lang Syne, which is always the last song in our Burns Day parties!
We would love to see how you get on with you Burns Day activities so please feel free to share any photos or videos via your child’s teacher, through Google Classroom, or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk.
On Friday the 6th of November, we will be undertaking a whole school challenge to raise money to purchase at least one of these bikes.
All the pupils at Orchard Brae will help us to complete this challenge. Every class will be allocated a 30 minutes time slot from 10 am until the end of the day to walk around the School Playground. Then Orchard Brae Staff will continue with the challenge over night until 10 am on Saturday completing the 24 Hour continuous Walk/Run challenge.
Some senior pupils and their staff teams have already started their own fundraising activities. In the video below senior pupils explain how much they have raised so far and a little bit more about the bike we are hoping to purchase.
After the October holidays further information will be shared on how to make a donation for this cause should you wish to.
Huge thanks to Amanda and Salvi, our PE teachers and Scott, Active Schools, for organising our Virtual Sports Day, and thanks to everyone that took part. Pupils and staff have been joining in over the course of the week to complete up to 8 challenges. It’s been fun seeing how you’ve been getting on, how things have been adapted to support our individual strengths, and also to see some healthy competition within your families! We hope you enjoy the photos. If you’ve not had a chance to get involved yet, why not try out some activities over the weekend, or even in the summer holidays?
Beat the Goalie
We set up our own goals and took on a challenge. The different options suggested were:
Kick from further back
Kick backwards
Pass to someone before trying to score
Kick blindfolded
Obstacle Course
Your challenge was to be creative and have fun, using various objects around the house and garden to build obstacles.
Throwing
We practised throwing with different challenges for anyone finding it easy:
Throw from further back
Throw backwards
Throw under leg
Throw blindfold
Water Run
Always a popular activity on Sports Day, thankfully we’ve had some sunny weather! As you can see, some of us really entered into the spirit of things and got very wet! Trying out the different options, you can see we had some team work in action:
As a team
With obstacles
With holes in the cup
Add food colouring to water
Egg and Spoon
A sports day classic, this can be adapted by using a frying pan or plastic bowl instead of a spoon. All sorts of things can be improvised in place of an egg, such as a potato, a scrunched up sock, newspaper, and anything else you can think of!
The options included:
Race against each other
Add obstacles
Time yourself
Bowling
Our challenge was to practise bowling using empty plastic bottles as the target – a good way of re-using plastic. Keeping things safe for indoors, rolled up socks, a toilet roll or even a teddy were suggested alternatives to a ball.
Again, different options to increase the challenge:
Bowl from further back
Bowl from sitting
Bowl standing
Bowl blindfold
Running
The only event I personally tried, again there were options to make things a bit more interesting:
Have a race against each other
Run backwards
Shuttle run with toys
Run with obstacles (hurdles)
One inventive Grandad even encouraged running by turning on the garden hose!
Tower Building
This activity allowed us to be even more creative, using any number of objects to:
Build a tower and push it down
Shuttle run to build a tower
Build a tower as high as you can
Build a tower as a team
It looks like good fun was had by all.
A fabulous effort! We hope you had fun. You’re all winners!
Our Google Classrooms have gone live! Your child’s teacher will be using Google Classroom to share activities with you but we are aware that some families are waiting on technology and other supports to enable them to access Google Classroom so we will still be posting a selection of activities here too. If you haven’t logged in yet or having difficulty accessing Google Classroom please contact your child’s teacher who will be able to offer you support and advice. Here is a short video to show you some of the exciting things happening on Google Classroom.
If you would like to share how you have got on with our activities, please share any photos via your child’s teacher, through Google Classroom, the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. Downloading videos from the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page appears to be working again (fingers crossed!) however if you are having any issues, please send them using a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.
Virtual Sports Day:
This week we are holding our first ever Virtual Sports Day and we would like to thank our PE teachers, Amanda and Salvi for organising this. Our Virtual Sports Day will start on Monday 22nd June and we would love for as many of our pupils, families and staff as possible to join in.
There will be 8 challenges for you to try at home and you will have the whole week to complete as many challenges as you can. Each challenge will have a short video clip which will include a demonstration of the task and suggested equipment to use. Challenges can be copied, adapted or you can even devise your own.
If you would like to participate, please check your child’s ab-ed.org email where you will find an invitation to join and access the Virtual Sports Day Google Classroom.
Story Of The Week: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
This week’s story is a wonderful shimmering underwater adventure – The Rainbow Fish. Troughout this story, the Rainbow Fish gradually realises the importance of friendship and sharing!
Using the link below you can watch and listen to the story:
Education Scotland, in conjunction with Aberdeen City Council, produced a Resilience Alphabet full of fun think, say, do activities designed to promote resilience and develop coping strategies. There are a series of activities for each letter of the alphabet, so pick a letter and give it a go!
Here is a learning grid for Life Skills. It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help develop and promote your child’s independence in a range of household and life skills tasks.
These activities are only suggestions and we would recommend that, where appropriate, you adapt these activities to meet your child’s ability level.
Today’s the day … our Google Classrooms have gone live! Your child’s teacher will be using Google Classroom to share activities with you but we are aware that some families are waiting on technology and other supports to enable them to access Google Classroom so we will still be posting a selection of activities here too.
If you would like to share how you have got on with our activities, please email any photos via your child’s teacher, through Google Classroom, the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. Downloading videos from the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page appears to be working again (fingers crossed!) however if you are having any issues, please send them using a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.
Story Of The Week: ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ By Ronda and David Armitage
Click below to watch and listen to the story on YouTube:
The book study below has some activities for you to try at home based on the story.
Links and additional documents to support the activities can be found below.
Activity 1: Template For Lighthouse
Other Activities: Story Word Mat
Dimensional Lighthouse Model
Be Resilient!
Education Scotland, in conjunction with Aberdeen City Council, produced a Resilience Alphabet full of fun think, say, do activities designed to promote resilience and develop coping strategies. There are a series of activities for each letter of the alphabet, so pick a letter and give it a go!
Here is a learning grid for Life Skills. It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help develop and promote your child’s independence in a range of household and life skills tasks.
These activities are only suggestions and we would recommend that, where appropriate, you adapt these activities to meet your child’s ability level.
Learning Grid: Get Active!
Here is a learning grid for Getting Active! It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help promote physical activity both in and out of the home on a daily basis.
These activity are only suggestions and we would recommend completing one activity each day. However, we would love to see what other creative ways you and your family are using to Get Active daily!
Links to YouTube Channels and websites can be found below.
Here are some fun activities for you to try at home this week.
If you would like to share how you have got on with our activities, please send any photos via your child’s teacher, the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. Downloading videos from the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page appears to be working again (fingers crossed!) however if you are having any issues, please send them using a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.
Story Of The Week: ‘Hamish The Highland Cow’ By Natalie Russell
This week’s story is all about Hamish the very hairy Highland Cow who hates having baths and doesn’t like getting his hair cut!
Click below to watch and listen to the story on YouTube:
This week we are going to continue looking at animals known as minibeasts, which you can find in your garden or local area. Here is some interesting information about minibeasts. The download links can be found below each activity.
Education Scotland, in conjunction with Aberdeen City Council, produced a Resilience Alphabet full of fun think, say, do activities designed to promote resilience and develop coping strategies. There are a series of activities for each letter of the alphabet, so pick a letter and give it a go!
Here is a learning grid for Life Skills. It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help develop and promote your child’s independence in a range of household and life skills tasks.
These activities are only suggestions and we would recommend that, where appropriate, you adapt these activities to meet your child’s ability level.
Learning Grid: Get Active!
Here is a learning grid for Getting Active! It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help promote physical activity both in and out of the home on a daily basis.
These activity are only suggestions and we would recommend completing one activity each day. However, we would love to see what other creative ways you and your family are using to Get Active daily!
Links to YouTube Channels and websites can be found below.
Here are some fun activities for you to try at home this week.
If you would like to share how you have got on with our activities, please send any photos via your child’s teacher, the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. Downloading videos from the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page appears to be working again (fingers crossed!) however if you are having any issues, please send them using a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.
Story Of The Week: ‘Hole At The Bottom Of The Sea’ By Jessica Law
This week’s story is one of our favourite Barefoot Books stories. Sing along and see what you can find at the bottom of the sea.
Click below to watch and listen to the story:
The book study below has some great activities for you to try at home based on the story.
Links and additional documents to support the activities can be found below.
Activity 1: Sea Creature Characters
These characters can also be downloaded using the link below:
This week we are going to continue looking at animals known as minibeasts, which you can find in your garden or local area. Here is some interesting information about minibeasts. The download links can be found below each activity.
Education Scotland, in conjunction with Aberdeen City Council, produced a Resilience Alphabet full of fun think, say, do activities designed to promote resilience and develop coping strategies. There are a series of activities for each letter of the alphabet, so pick a letter and give it a go!
Here is a learning grid for Life Skills. It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help develop and promote your child’s independence in a range of household and life skills tasks.
These activities are only suggestions and we would recommend that, where appropriate, you adapt these activities to meet your child’s ability level.
Learning Grid: Get Active!
Here is a learning grid for Getting Active! It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help promote physical activity both in and out of the home on a daily basis.
These activity are only suggestions and we would recommend completing one activity each day. However, we would love to see what other creative ways you and your family are using to Get Active daily!
Links to YouTube Channels and websites can be found below.
Thanks to everyone that has shared photographs of their remote learning this week. It gives us all joy to see your photographs or hear how you’re getting on. We hope that you all have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine. It looks like it’s going to be very warm so remember your suncream or protective clothing if you’re advantage of another spell of fine weather.
This week you’ve all been very busy! Here are some of the photos that have been shared …
Life Skills
Pupils from Howes Hoose have continued working on their life skills both indoors and out. It makes us very happy to see how you’re transferring your skills and becoming very independent at home.
Minibeasts
One of our Room 14 pupils made a ladybird using playdough and a rock he found when out on a walk.
He also recreated his favourite scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This took a lot of time, making paper mache rocks and a spider’s body, and then painting the box to hold the scene. I’m sure you’ll agree it looks amazing!
Family Time
I know from staff as well as pupils that it can be tough just now trying to find creative ways to keep the family entertained. Please always remember that we’re all doing the best that we can! One family in particular have been going to great lengths to entertain themselves and even features on a TV series of Lockdown Diaries.
Fitness
Our PE colleagues have shared some links for fitness videos you can try at home. Why not give them a go as a family? The feedback from one of our young people was that the whole family enjoyed lots of fun and laughter as a result.
Finally, thank you to Mortey and Sam from Aberdeen Bon Accord Rotary Club. They visited school this week, having been in contact to arrange a way of accessing the grounds to avoid being in contact with anyone, and very kindly cut our grass. It had been growing very long during the period of lockdown. This is very much appreciated by us all.
Here are some fun activities for you to try at home this week.
If you would like to share how you have got on with our activities, please send any photos via your child’s teacher, the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. Downloading videos from the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page appears to be working again (fingers crossed!) however if you are having any issues, please send them using a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.
Story Of The Week: ‘Shark In The Park’ By Nick Sharratt
This week’s story is about a young boy, Timothy Pope, who goes to the park to try out his new telescope. What will he find?
Last week, we looked at slugs and snails. In keeping with our Story Of The Week, ‘Shark In The Park’, we are going to look at animals known as minibeasts, which you can find in your garden or local park. Here is some interesting information about minibeasts. The download links can be found below each activity.
Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week. Education Scotland, in conjunction with Aberdeen City Council, produced a Resilience Alphabet full of fun think, say, do activities designed to promote resilience and develop coping strategies. There are a series of activities for each letter of the alphabet, so pick a letter and give it a go!
Here is a learning grid for Life Skills. It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help develop and promote your child’s independence in a range of household and life skills tasks.
These activities are only suggestions and we would recommend that, where appropriate, you adapt these activities to meet your child’s ability level.
Learning Grid: Get Active!
Here is a learning grid for Getting Active! It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help promote physical activity both in and out of the home on a daily basis.
These activity are only suggestions and we would recommend completing one activity each day. However, we would love to see what other creative ways you and your family are using to Get Active daily!
Links to YouTube Channels and websites can be found below.
All the staff at Orchard Brae are missing seeing all our pupils every day and we are always eager to see and hear what you’ve been up to. We love seeing what everyone has been busy doing while they are at home and we have some wonderful photos and videos to share with you this week.
If you would like to share what you have been up to at home, please send any photos or videos via your child’s teacher, the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. Downloading videos from the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page appears to be working again (fingers crossed!) however if you are having any issues, please send them using a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.
Working Hard
We’ve been delighted to see how well some of our pupils have been working and learning at home .
There has been lots of work on this week’s story ‘The Snail And The Whale’, listening to the story, making seaside inspired pictures and creating seaside sensory tubs. Some pupils enjoyed taking their daily exercise at the beach – I wonder if they managed to spot any whales? One pupil even managed to find a seaside themed treasure trove when he was out for a walk!!
Others have been busy practising their writing or simply taking part in a familiar school routine such as circle time and some enjoyed exploring science and technology by making their own sensory bottles .
Some of you have been enjoying listening to stories, and the Bedtime stories shared on the school website and Facebook page have been a nice way to see some familiar faces and hear some familiar voices from around the school!
Making Music
It’s been a fun, musical week, listening and joining along with your favourite tunes!
Out And About
We’ve loved seeing where you’ve been visiting when you’ve been out and about in your local communities.
Getting Active
You’ve all been busy this week exploring different ways to keep yourselves active from swinging around, bouncing about on balls and on the trampoline, climbing trees, enjoying a bike ride with your family or working on building your core strength.
And Always Remember…
We love seeing all your smiles and even during this difficult and strange time it’s important to have fun, whether it’s on your own exploring nature…
…playing with your favourite toys…
…or simply chilling out and having some sensory fun.
Remember to make some wonderful memories and have fun with those you love.
We can’t wait to see what you get up to next week!
