Primary Department Activities – Week Beginning 4th May

Here are some fun activities for you to try at home this week.

Remember, we’re always delighted to see what you’ve been doing so please, feel free to share you photos and videos with us.   Please send any photos via your child’s teacher, the school Facebook Messenger page or email adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk.  We are having issues downloading videos from the messenger page so if they are too large to send via email, please use a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.

Story Of The Week: ‘We All Go Travelling By’ By Sheena Roberts

This week’s story is one of our favourites from Barefoot Books.  So get ready and hop aboard the yellow school bus as it makes its way through town.

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:

Activities1 and 2: Transport Pictures

Activity 5: Transport Colouring In

These can also be downloaded from Twinkl using the following link:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-23663-transport-template-activity-sheets

Other Activity Ideas:

Transport Sorting:

This can also be downloaded from Twinkl using the following link:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-4901-transport-sorting-activity

Transport Pencil Control:

This can also be downloaded from Twinkl using the following link:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-8005-transport-pencil-control-path-worksheets

Science: Forces Experiments

In keeping with our transport theme, we have some fun experiments for you to try based on movement and friction.

Learning Grid: Life Skills

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.

Oti Mabuse Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/mosetsanagape

Joe Wicks – Body Coach YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1

Cosmic Kids Yoga: https://www.cosmickids.com/

Cosmic Kids Yoga YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga

Learning Station YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLearningStation

Bumble Bee Physio: https://www.facebook.com/bumblebeephysio/

Expressive Arts – Week Beginning 4th May

Our Expressive Arts team have been busy creating more videos for you to enjoy at home throughout the week.

They include an art activity from Diane for you to copy, drumming from Keith and information about Sam’s online dance classes.  Don’t forget that Emmeline’s musical activities will be posted daily.

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.  We are currently having issues downloading videos from the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page so if they are too large to send via email, please send them using a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.

Art: Waterscape Reflections

Drumming: Session 6 – More Advanced Rhythms

Dance: Online Classes

Sam is holding two online dance classes this week on Wednesday 6th May and Friday 8th May at 1pm.

Both of these classes will be taking place through his YouTube channel.  You can join in by searching Sam Stephen on YouTube or you can subscribe to his channel by following the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWqBDh0VNpocZvdW29VlfPg/

Music With Emmeline – Monday 4th May

Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

Vocal Warm – Up – The Siren 

This week’s vocal warm-up is to make the sound of a siren. Can you make the noise of the siren of a fire engine or police car?  Not only is this a very effective vocal warm-up but it is fun! Start with a low note and scoop up towards a high note. You could also stretch your arms up high when you are singing a high note and bring them down low when you get to the low note.

Close to You: Part 1 – Chorus 

We are going to be starting another song from our pupil and staff choices selection; Close to you by the Carpenters. Today we are going to learn the chorus of the song and the part which I think is the trickiest.

The words are;

On the day that you were born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue.”

A Busy Week In Primary

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.

If you would like to share what you have been up to at home, please send any photos via your child’s teacher, the school Facebook Messenger page or email adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk.  We are having issues downloading videos from the messenger page so if they are too large to send via email, please use a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.

Rainbows

We’re still on the hunt for more rainbows to brighten up our day and to say thank you to everyone who is looking after us.  Here are a couple we’ve been sent this week.

Being Independent And Developing Life Skills

We were all very impressed with this video, showing this pupil eating his apple independently!  Well done!

Other pupils have been busy baking – looks yummy!

Making Music

Many of our pupils have been busy joining in with the musical activities posted on the website while others have been creating their own musical fun!

Fun In The Sun

Some pupils made the most of the sunshine and had lots of fun outside! This included bouncing on the trampoline, playing in the garden, splashing in the pool, getting ready for some football and growing their own garlic.

Getting Crafty

We have enjoyed seeing all your artwork – what a creative bunch!

Messy Play

There’s nothing quite like making a mess to cheer everyone up – I mean you’ve got to keep your parents busy somehow!

Chilling Out

Sometimes however, the best thing is chilling out and spending time with each other!

We can’t wait to see what you all get up to next week.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday!

We would like to wish a very happy birthday to our pupils who are celebrating their special day next week.

Here is a very special song to each of you from our Music Therapist, Emmeline – trust me you wouldn’t want to hear the rest of us sing!

We hope you all have a wonderful day.

2nd May

5th May

8th May

Music With Emmeline – Friday 1st May

Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

Musical Story – Rumble in the Jungle 

Today’s musical story is going to be ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz. All of their books lend to becoming music very easily because of their rhyming, rhythmic patterns.

Here is a jungle soundscape from YouTube for you to listen to after hearing the story if you would like to. Can you hear or see any of the animals from the story in the soundscape? Which animal is your favourite?

https://youtu.be/qy-tPpdVdh0

Make Your Own Kind of Music – The Whole Song 

Let’s try and put the whole song together today! Good luck and we can’t wait to sing this with you when we are all back together at Makaton Choir!

Secondary Update

School closure activities for Room 15 – Week Four

Thanks to Amanda for sharing her activities this week! Below are some ideas for families wanting to do “school” activities with their children – if any of these ideas look good to you, give them a go! Equally, if this isn’t what your child is needing just now please don’t put pressure on yourself or them to complete this. It’s also great to take more time on a previous week’s activities if your child is benefiting from those. Let me know if you have any particular learning requests for future weeks.

This week has LOTS of ideas – please don’t worry about fitting everything in, please do what works for you and your child.

Literacy – Theme park

This is an activity we do in class to work on communication skills without even realising it! You’ll need our theme park PowerPoint (https://bit.ly/2S8rOUR – please download for best use) and you might want to add to the experience with props at home – maybe a water spray for the water slide, use a garden swing for the pirate ship, you could even create your own rides – bubble boat ride? You choose! A wee video with how to do this activity is here https://bit.ly/3ax4IgP How does this build communication skills? We can talk about:

· I like it!

· I don’t like it!

· Scary! / I’m scared!

· Exciting! / I’m excited!

· Faster!

· Slow down!

· Help!!!

· Let’s do it again! / Do it again?

· Do something different?

· More?

· What’s next?

· You choose a ride.

· Oops! You’re wet!

· Finished?

And many more!

Please remember that as we model with our child’s communication device (e.g. PODD, PIXON, TouchChat) that the device should not be taken away from the child.

 

Numeracy and mathematics – Applying money skills

For those who have been learning to recognise a coin, we’re going to apply that skill in two ways this week.

First – sorting. You’ll need two places to sort coins into, it might be two boxes, it might be two sheets of paper on a table or the floor, or it might be two cereal bowls – absolutely anything! More confident learners might work with lots of different coins, those building their confidence might work with two different coins to sort. Ask your child to sort the coins – the one they have been learning to recognise into one container, the other coin(s) into the other – you will probably need to show them what to do the first few times. Some learners who are not yet working at the level of recognising a coin might still choose to do this activity looking at “same” and “different”.

Second – add coin skills to the theme park activity (see literacy, above). Each ride costs the coin your child has been learning to recognise. Provide your child with a container (purse, food tub, envelope, anything!) with several coins. If your child has become very confident with recognising a coin you could put lots of different coins into the container, if your child is still learning to recognise their coin then perhaps just a few of the coin they are learning to recognise and a few of a very different looking coin. Ask your child to find the coin they are working on each time they want to access a theme park “ride”. If you’re wanting to expand this, you could have items for sale at the theme park – snacks, bubbles, light up toys – or you could add additional rides (there are some great videos online, just check them first so you know what to expect and there isn’t anything too scary!).

Alternative option (for learners not using coins): Let’s build a tower

Use any items you have at home for this – they don’t have to be building blocks! Using different items helps us to understand shapes and their properties – brick shapes are useful for towers, balls are not! We might count how many bricks we have, we might focus only on communicating “more” or “all gone” when it falls down.

 

Health and wellbeing – body parts & self-care

Body parts – https://bit.ly/3cM9h8G will take you to some of the songs we use to practice finding body parts. Can you find the body parts mentioned in the song? Can you use your communication system to label body parts?

Self-care – What makes you happy? During a stressful time such as this, it’s even more important that we look after ourselves. Can we share with others what we would like to do? Can we communicate how we feel afterwards?

For physical movement this week, you might want to try some yoga (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzw-Oir8UPw – this one continues our theme park theme for this week).

 

Social studies – weather record or job role play

Weather – we looked at the weather in weeks one and two – let’s link it to our work on the season by keeping a note of the weather for a longer period (it can be more than a week if you’d like) to help us build our understanding of a season as a longer unit of time. You might record the weather with symbols, sensory resources (e.g. smooth / shiny materials for sunny, cotton wool clouds, sponge for rain, folded paper fan for wind) or with photographs of yourself in the different weathers. A simple chart and symbols can be found here: https://bit.ly/3aKT5Dr Can you use your communication device to share what the weather is today? Where is the sun? How long is the sun in the sky for?

Job role play – as part of our ASDAN work we have explored lots of different jobs through role play. I’m sharing with families some resources for role-playing a dentist, but you might prefer to role play a job that a friend or family member does (or has done in the past). Some learners will be learning what a dentist does, others might explore sensory resources such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash (if they won’t swallow it!), or mirrors to look at their teeth. Through this we get to experience different roles people in our communities have and how they can help us. Resources: dentist PowerPoint (download for best use) here: https://bit.ly/3bQUzwU and Makaton signs about the dentist here: https://bit.ly/2Y62t1z

 

Technology – cooking!

It’s been a while since we did any food technology, so this week I’m sharing a few ideas for easy recipes to try at home. These are symbol supported recipes – no quantities are mentioned, just the

actions, but I promise you can’t go too wrong! Your child might focus on one part of this activity – perhaps washing their hands, perhaps wearing an apron, perhaps mixing skills or knife skills, perhaps safety. If your child will get more from the activity by focussing on one element, please do spend time on that!

(I’m sharing several recipes so you can choose (or your child can choose) which one looks best, you don’t have to do all of them!)

Recipes: Coleslaw: https://bit.ly/35d9m2D Guacamole: https://bit.ly/2Y2RJ49 Strawberry smoothie: https://bit.ly/3bGQQ51 Vegetable wedges: https://bit.ly/2KyI8Ka

 

Science – spring “treasure” hunt

Can you find each item from the worksheet (https://bit.ly/3aKUfPj )? For any you might not be able to find in or around your homes, fear not – I’ve put together a document with pictures of each item (https://bit.ly/2Y8tAcb ). Equally you might have toy animals at home or perhaps you could use your art work this week?

 

Sensory play – flower ice

Freeze some flowers in ice and enjoy melting the ice together to get to the flowers and splashing in the water once the ice has melted!

 

Expressive Arts

Can you sing / sign along to “Bring Me Sunshine”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmOPSpIDIKY&list=PLjT4XhijakZjgDSblHxgYBiN4R9V2BZnA&index=6&t=0s Can you dance along? Can you add your own music?

Spring art – can you choose one of the projects on the worksheet (https://bit.ly/3bFA3PR) to try at home? (If you don’t have any paints at home, you might want to try an online recipe for making your own, or you can leave this option out)

 

RME

Ramadan has recently started, so let’s explore things with links to Ramadan.

An interactive colouring activity can be found by logging in to TwinklGo (https://www.twinkl.co.uk/go/sign-in ) and using the code PU7192.

Muslims often break their fast by eating dates – can you try a date (or other dried fruit such as raisins if you don’t have dates). Do you like it? Can you share the fruit out to your family?

(Note for health needs – dates are very healthy in many ways, but for anyone watching blood sugar you might want to check how dates fit into your diet plan!)

 

Sensory Story

In other news, one of our pupils has been having fun at home with his brother, making Sensory Stories. Here is one that they have given permission for us to share:

http://pamis.org.uk/news/news/a-visit-to-the-zoo-by-shehzad-ahmad-to-share-with-his-brother-waleed/

It’s lovely to see how creative everyone is being and the different ways we’re finding to pass time and have fun!

Music With Emmeline – Thursday 30th April

Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

Familiar Song: Bingo was his Name

This week’s familiar song is going to be Bingo was his Name. Do you have an instrument at home that you can play for each letter of Bingo’s name we lose as the song progresses? Or maybe you could blink your eyes, clap your hands or pat your knees instead.

Make your Own Kind of Music: Part 4 – Verse 3

We will now learn the third part of Make Your Own Kind of Music before we put the whole song together. It is a short part but with a slightly different tune to the other two previous parts. Here are the words;

So if you cannot take my hand,
And if you must be goin’
I will understand.

Music With Emmeline – Wednesday 29th April

Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

A Rainy Day Soundscape 

 

 Today we are going to be playing a rainy day soundscape. We have provided this picture as a visual stimulus for this rainy day but perhaps you would like to use your imagination to think of your own rainy day or remember one. Do you have a bubble tube or rain-stick at home you could watch or use when listening to the rainy music.

Please relax, listen to the music, look at the picture, imagine the rain and take deep breaths. Perhaps there are more rainy/ water sounds you can find at home that you would like to use and play along with the music.

Make your Own Kind of Music: Part 3 – Verse 2

It’s time to learn the next part of Make Your Own Kind of music today. You can always try and sing/ sign along with the Paloma Faith version of the song to practise at home. Here are the words for the second part;

You’re gonna be Known-in’
The loneliest kind of lonely,
It may be rough goin’
Just to do your things
The hardest thing to do.

Music With Emmeline – Tuesday 28th April

Here are today’s musical activities from Emmeline.

Musical Activity: The Clap Game

This week’s musical activity is the clap game. Can you clap your hands at the same time as Emmeline. This is a game of concentration! Once you have tried clapping along with Emmeline can you copy someone at home or can they copy you! Keeping a steady beat is tricky enough but it is very difficult to concentrate and clap at the same time as your partner if they are trying to catch you out!

Make your Own Kind of Music: Part 1  – Verse 1

We are going to learn the first part of Make Your Own Kind of music today. The words are;

Nobody can tell you,
There’s only one song worth singing.
They might try and sell you,
Cause it hangs them up,
To see someone like you.