Welcome To Our Big Burns Day Celebrations

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Welcome to the Orchard Brae Big Burns Day Celebrations!

Today, Monday 25th January, is known as Burns Day in Scotland because we celebrate the birthday of the famous Scottish poet, Robert ‘Rabbie’ Burns.

To help you celebrate, we have lots of fun-filled activities and events planned for our pupils and families to take part in throughout the day.

In the morning, there activities for you to try at home, such as making shortbread, some Scottish stories, music and dance to enjoy as well as a flag inspired art activity. These will be available on the Whole School Activities Google Classroom and also posted here on the website. The timetable below has some suggested times, but feel free to take part at a time that suits you and your family best.

In the afternoon, we have a series of live events that you and your family can join in with, hosted by Keith, our drumming instructor and Emmeline, our music therapist. This includes drumming, a ceilidh and a Scottish themed Makaton choir before the grand finale of Auld Lang Syne. Links to these live events will be posted in the Whole School Activities Google Classroom, so check your gw email and make sure you accept the invitation to join! Please contact your class teacher if you don’t have an invitation to join the classroom and they can share the class code with you.

Have a wonderful day and here is a wee video from the Senior Leadership Team to start off your Burns Day celebrations!

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. 

Big Burns Day Celebrations: Making Shortbread

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Why don’t you have a go at making some shortbread to enjoy as part of your Burns Day celebrations. Here are a few different recipes for you to choose from.

BBC Food – Shortbread Recipe

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. 

Big Burns Day Celebration: Ceilidh Dancing And Movement To Scottish Music

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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. 

Big Burns Day Celebration: Scottish Music And Dance

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As part of our Big Burns Day celebrations, we are delighted to share with you the talents of one of our Pupil Support Assistants, Claire.

Watch the video below to listen to her play some Scottish tunes on the bagpipes and see her perform some Highland dancing. Why don’t you have a clapping or playing out a rhythm along to the bagpipes? Or maybe have a go at copying some of the Highland dance moves? Just make sure that you have plenty of space first!

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. 

Big Burns Day Celebration: Flag Making

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Flags are an important symbol and a way of identifying a country as every nation has their own specific flag .

The Scottish flag is also known as the St Andrews Cross or the Saltire. It is very easy to recognise with it’s white cross on a blue background.

The colour white in the Scottish flag symbolises peace and the blue symbolises the virtues of justice, vigilance, and perseverance.

Why don’t you have a go at creating your own flag? You could try making your own Saltire or design your own unique flag like the ones below.

Diane, our art teacher, has made this video to show you some of the different techniques you could use to create your flag.

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. 

Big Burns Day Celebrations: Scottish Stories

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As part of our Big Burns Day celebrations we have two very special stories to share with you.

Hamish The Highland Cow by Natalie Russell

Hamish is a Highland cow and very hairy. He hates having baths and never cuts his hair. Why should he when his shaggy coat is the perfect place to keep his favourite sweet – toffees! But one day his friends get fed up with the increasingly smelly Hamish, and they hatch a plan that involves a hairdresser and, yes, toffees!

One of Early Years Practitioners, Lorraine, has read this story for you in Doric and there are suggestions for some props to help you recreate the tale as a sensory story. Their is also a PowerPoint with some great activities for you to try related to the story.

The Tale o The Wee Mowdie That Wantit Tae Ken Wha Keeched On His Heid by Werner Holzwarth (translated by Matthew Mackie)

You may know of a popular children’s book ‘The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew it was None of his Business’ but have you heard of the Scots translation ‘The Tale o The Wee Mowdie That Wantit Tae Ken Wha Keeched On His Heid’?

An awfu stramash befaws the wee mowdie, yin bricht sunny morn. It looks a bit like a link sasser, an the warst o’t is – it faws richt ontae his heid. Oor gallus wee hero gangs oot tae speir wha’s keeched on his heid. 

This version, read by one of our teachers, Anne, was a hit during our bedtime story series in the first lockdown. Why don’t you watch the video and maybe have a go at some of the activities? And don’t worry, there’s even a glossary to help if you’re unsure of some of the dialect!

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. 

Sense Scotland – Activity Videos

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As well as the Activity Sheets in the previous post we wanted to share some more videos from Sense Scotland on things you might like to try at home.

The ideas can all be adapted to suit your child and can be made using items and objects that can generally be found in the home without having to go out and buy specialist equipment or items.

If you do decide to make, or try, any of the activities or ideas that we have posted we would love to know how they turned out and how much fun was had. If you would like to, get in touch and let us know, if you get the chance you could always send us some photos too!

This next video is from Easy Peasy and Fun and is how to paint with ice!

A Busy Start To The Term In Primary

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It has been an unusual start to the term as we returned to learning during lockdown. However, everyone has been very busy and working hard on learning and developing their skill whether they be at home or in school.

Here are a few pictures and videos to show you what we’ve been up to since we went ‘back to school’.

Karen’s Creative Challenge

Each week Karen, the Head of Primary, will set a creative challenge. The first challenge she set was all about building towers. As you can see, we had lots of fun, building (and knocking down!) towers. We made them out of wooden blocks, lego and other things we found around the house, such as cushions.

Learning At Home

There has been lots of wonderful work going on at home. Some of you are joining in activities through your Google Classrooms and others are working on resources that have been sent home. However you are accessing your learning, remember we are always here to support you in any way we can.

Keeping Active

It is always important to keep active, whether it be exploring equipment in gym class, practising your ball skills, playing at the park or exploring the great outdoors with family and friends.

Celebrations

One pupil enjoyed celebrating her birthday at home with her family. We hope you had a wonderful day!

Fine Motor Skills

Many of you have been working on developing your fine motor skills. You’ve been practising your switch work, manipulating blocks and other materials and working on your pencil control.

Life Skills

We have been very impressed with how well some pupils are progressing in the development of life skills. You’ve been very busy setting tables, cooking lots of yummy looking treats and it certainly looks like you enjoyed tasting what you made.

And Finally…

We love seeing your enthusiasm and how you are engaging with your learning. If you would like to share what you have been up to 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. 

Remote Learning in Secondary

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It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for both staff and pupils in our Secondary Department. With a new round of remote learning we’ve slipped back into things a little easier. We’ve got lots of activities on offer within our Google Classrooms and we’re seeing more pupils engaging with this. Circle time and stories are proving popular and it’s great to see our young people getting involved in helping around the home.

Although we have some sessions ‘live’, such as Makaton Choir (every Monday at 2 pm) and Assembly (1:30 pm on Friday 29th January), other activities are in the form of pre-recorded video or materials that can be accessed at a time of your convenience. We do appreciate that family life is busy, everyone juggling remote learner(s) with other commitments, so we invite you dip in and out when it suits your schedule.

Here are a few photos from our remote learning over the last couple of weeks. If you’d like your child to be featured, please let the class teacher know that you’re happy for your photographs to be shared.

Life Skills: Home Economics
Outdoor Education
Sharing our learning through Google Meets
Circle Time
Expressive Arts and Communication
Life Skills: Household tasks and shopping

We’re learning in everything we do. Please ask your class teachers if you need any further support.