Merry Christmas!

The children have been VERY busy getting ready for our nativity concert next week.  I will be posting pictures of parties, pantos and rehearsals over the next few days but here is a special ecard from all in Room 5 meantime.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

World of Work - A visit with Gillian, the Park Ranger.

Amelia tries on protective gloves during our visit.

 Last Friday we visited Gillian Neill at her base in Balloch Park.  The children enjoyed finding out about her job and the equipment she uses.  We spied some bird boxes, had a shot in her van and tried on some protective equipment.

Paul wears a protective helmet.

Gillian shows the children some of the birds found in Balloch.

The children had lots of questions about Gillian's job.  They were interested to find out that she sometimes works at night to do surveys of nocturnal creatures.

Gillian shows us a new Owl nesting box.

Walking through the woods. Look out for low branches!

We have our own protective clothing!

Katie in Gillian's van.

The special refuse truck used in the park.

The tractor is also used to help the workers cut the grass.

Finding out about the World of Work

Our Dentist's Surgery

Callum dresses up as a Dentist.

We are learning about what people do in different jobs. Room 2, Room 4 and Room 5 children have their own role play areas so over the course of this block of learning they have the opportunity to try out being an Airport worker, a Post Office worker or a Dentist / Doctor.

          Checking Cole's teeth on our very own dentist chair!

Follow up work on what a dentist needs to do
 their job

Amelia busy at work.

We also joined other classes for a visit from our local community police officer, PC Watson who showed the children the Mountain Rescue Van.

Inside the Mountain Rescue van with PC Watson.

Looking at the rescue equipment.

Cole tries out the seatbelts. We also looked at the rescue radios.

We also took the opportunity to watch a bit of the demolition work that is happening in the centre of the village.  The old shops have been pulled down to make way for a new Cordale Housing Association building.  It was quite noisy so ear defenders will be taken next time! 

 Throughout the topic we are keen to stress how communicating, reading, writing and number are important skills in all the jobs we research.

SINGALONG TIME

This is the song we are singing, all about the world of work. A target for the children will be to add a few more verses about the different jobs we find out about this month.

Song: What do you do?

Hallowe'en Fun

We enjoyed a special Fizzy Gym for Hallowe'en with ghoulish games and eerie exercises! Fizzy Gym is a programme designed by Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists in East Kent NHS.  It has three levels of difficulty in Body Awareness & Co-ordination, Balance and Ball Skills.  Our children move through the levels in each area and also tackle fine motor skills development in Room 5 through activities based on the clever hands programme - also from East Kent. There are normally 5 or 6 stations that they rotate around in groups.  Here is a link to the original leaflets upon which we base our exercises. 

Fizzy's Training Programme

Here are the children enjoying their activities.  As it is a Hallowe'en special we made a few changes to simplify exercises:

Alfie throwing bean bags

  Co-ordination needed 

                                                       for mummy making!

Cole and Peter working together.

A strength building exercise for the arms.

Hand/eye coordination being developed.

As you can see it is a busy exercise class as we have 3 unit classes and half our Primary 1 class taking part each week.  We will take a fresh look at the programme in January so watch this space for further developments.

 The Hallowe'en Party

Our Hallowe'en parade is enjoyed by the whole school and sets us up for an afternoon of party games and food.

Amelia as Anna from Frozen

Paul came as Mario the Plumber.

Cole takes part in the parade as a ninja.

Room 5 and Room 3 children watch the parade.

We also made Hallowe'en Pumpkins with funny faces!

Catch up time!

Here are a few pictures of things the children have been doing in Room 5 during September.

Cole adds a happy face to our board.

Alfie shows his angry face!

Cole and Amelia share animals and playdough.

Callum works on money skills but monkey is his favourite thing.

Paul picks some leaves from our mint plants.

Alfie and Paul

Cole matches numbers.

Fun with our shadowboard.

Amelia likes to make lots of words on the shadowboard.

Weather & Seasons

We are busy finding out about different weather and the four seasons this month.  The children are learning about what they wear and do in different weather and also preparing for the darker evenings and mornings of Autumn and Winter.

This week we made our own rain clouds using shaving foam and food colouring and watched as it dripped through into water in our cups.  The children are learning that big dark clouds are full of raindrops that join together until they are so heavy they fall out of the sky.  Then the sky gets lighter again as the clouds of rain fall to the ground. Although the science is a bit complex they have enjoyed the experiments and making weather art too.

Alfie adds colour to his 'cloud'

Amelia uses the pipette carefully.

Callum watches his 'rain' fall.

Cole uses the magnifying glass to observe.

Paul loves to mix the colours. He knows his primary and secondary colours - clever boy!

Alfie makes a cotton wool cloud...

...then adds raindrops.

Cole making his grey rain cloud

We also decorated cakes this week for the MacMillan Coffee Morning.  We used the theme of seasons and the children chose the best colours and decorations for the cakes to represent each season.

Green icing for Spring

The children's choices

    

  

Cole adds flowers to his Summer cake.

Our finished cakes - can you guess the seasons?