Poppy (and Room 9’s!) Busy Weeks!

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Room 9 have continued our community focus for this term with a new book study, “Poppy’s Busy Week” by Suzanne Miell-Ingram and Tracey Upton (Singing Hands).  In this story, Poppy visits a different place in her community each day.

We started off by exploring the library, setting up our own class library (and library cards), choosing books and cosying up for a story and playing games to see how quiet we could be!  

After that we headed to the dentist, and alongside a focus on our toothbrushing skills we set up a wee dentist practice in class for role play and exploring symbol recognition skills – we enjoyed seeing our reflections in the mirror!  We had mark-making activities using toothbrushes and sang about brushing our teeth for our listening activity.  

Following on from dentist week we explored the Post Office.  We set up a Post Office in class, with posting activities, envelopes, stamps, cards and more.  During our expressive arts lesson we designed cards which we have since posted to our home addresses, walking to the local post box to post them ourselves.

Throughout all of this we continue to offer free play options which explore other community roles, including dressing up (Room 9 are fabulous at taking on the role of different emergency services!) and toy figures.

Next week we’re exploring a more familiar community feature, school, before moving on to doctors, hairdressers and then houses and homes.  We’re especially looking forward to our end of term community feature – the beach!

Pour a Cup of Kindness With Room 17

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8 May was World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day.  Globally the Red Cross delivers lots of humanitarian assistance including first aid.  Room 17 pupils have also been doing some first aid and have been working towards their Basic First Aid SQA.  

To celebrate the success of Room 17 pupils and World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day we had a  ‘Pour a Cup of Kindness’ coffee morning.  We invited Room 17 parents and our friends from Howes Hoose to join us.  We also had a visitor, Colin, from the British Red Cross.  Colin presented all the pupils with a First Aid Certificate.  We also had fun with some tea cup photo props. 

Howes Hoose try grass cutting!

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Lately the pupils in Howes Hoose have had a go at taming the grass in their garden. Everyone was very keen to take a turn and enjoyed getting dressed up with all the safety equipment, they all looked very official! Everyone listened carefully to instructions and carried out the job safely. A few pupils had already tried out grass cutting at home and were able to show off their skills. There will be plenty more work needing done in the garden to neaten it up before the Summer Holidays begin!

Friends of Orchard Brae 5K Run / Walk

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We’re delighted to report that we’ll be hosting the Friends of Orchard Brae 5k Fun Run once again on Tuesday 11th June 2024. This is a fun, friendly event and runners of all abilities are welcome, as are walkers. Please do not worry about your time – we will have a tail walker at the back to ensure you all get home safely and nobody finishes last!

Greene King Brig O’Don Restaurant have kindly agreed to host registration for us again. This will be ‘open’ from 5:30 pm to 6:15 pm, although to help us you can pre-register by completing the Google form online: https://forms.gle/iE23ovdu5Girrhhq9 Please note the minimum age for participation is 11 years, under 16s must be accompanied by an adult as the route does run alongside roads.

After registration, we’ll walk together to the starting point in Seaton Park. The route is stunning, all the more so on the beautiful evenings we’ve had for previous events. All being well we’ll get another fine evening. Whatever the weather, fun and good banter is pretty much certain with the crowd of friends we’ll have along.

Post event, we’d encourage you to head back to Brig O’Don for food or refreshments as thanks to them for supporting us again.

The event is free to enter although donations are welcome. Online donations can be made at: https://www.justgiving.com/page/clare-russell-1715452972789?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Fclare-russell-1715452972789&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share

Any queries, please give Clare Russell a shout!

Room 17’s Special Visitors

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Room 17 were delighted by the visit of two very special guests – ‘Flicker’ and ‘Winston’ – the therapy ponies. Pupils from the class had the opportunity to stroke each pony and take them for a walk around the hall. The ponies were exceptionally well behaved and seemed to enjoy getting petted from the pupils. We were all very impressed with their little shoes! It was a rare and special treat for everyone!

My Community: Poppy Goes Shopping (with Room 9!)

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Room 9 have started to explore our new community theme for this term with a new book study.  We have been reading “Poppy Goes Shopping” by Suzanne Miell-Ingram and Tracey Upton (Singing Hands).

We have brought to life different parts of the story throughout our learning.  In numeracy we have had a shop role-play with symbol-supported shopping lists.  Some of our class even went for a walk to the local shops to buy resources for our sensory sessions.

Our Makaton song sessions have included “Five Currant Buns” and “Ten Fat Sausages” so as to link to the language of the stories (“shop” and “sausages” both featuring).

Perhaps our favourite feature of the stories though has been the pizza that Poppy bought (and ate!).  We have had pizza themed Bucket Time sessions, with Stage Three giving us all a chance to become a pizza!  We made our own mini pizzas for snack which we then ate whilst listening to the story.  We chose our own toppings –  cheese was very popular!  We’ve had pizza art, making our own pizza pictures, and pizza sensory play with basil, oregano and tomatoes in dough – the classroom smelt delicious.

We were very lucky to have the chance to meet the authors of our book study when Singing Hands came in to perform at Orchard Brae, they read the whole story with us and were very impressed by everyone’s signing!

Next week we will be moving on to another Signing Friends story, “Poppy’s Busy Week”, to explore even more features of our community.

Celebrating Ramadan in Room 5

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The past couple of weeks Room 5 have been learning about and celebrating Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. We have engaged in Ramadan-themed sensology sessions during which we tasted dates, enjoyed the visual experience of looking through a telescope for the new moon and smelled incense, as well as other sensory experiences. We painted pictures to depict the new moon in a night sky and enjoyed baking ma’amoul (biscuits with dates inside commonly eaten during Eid).

Howes Hoose’s Amazing Art for Display 

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Over the past few terms one of the pupils in Howes Hoose has been completing her National 2: Creating Materials for Display. She has created three beautiful pieces of work all based round the theme of the sun. Each of the pictures has been completed with different materials and worked on meticulously. They are displayed at the front door of the school and there have been so many lovely comments and questions about the art work. 

Exploring our reflections – Ashgrove Room 2

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In room 2, we have been enjoying looking at our reflections in various ways. The children have had lots of fun looking  at their images in different postures in the mirrors all around the playroom.

We also engaged in arts and crafts. Painting and decorating CDs to reflect the sun shining into the playroom. The children have enjoyed looking at the decorated hangings. Making gloop in the mirror tray gave the children a lovely experience. They also explored lights and shadows.

We also extended our learning by setting up a hairdressing station. This was a hit among the children, sitting in front of the mirror, brushing their hair and some even saying, ‘hair cut’. We’ve had loads of fun this term.