This week the children are learning about different cultural festivals by celebrating Shrove Tuesday and Chinese New Year. For both events cooking plays a major part. We are making pancakes, of course, and preparing a Chinese Banquet. The children are also taking care of their “Little Pots Of Care” – daffodil bulbs planted in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care which have brought in from the dark now that shoots are showing.
Category Archives: Nursery/Primary
Enterprising work going on in our nursery and primary schools across East Lothian.
First Prize for Levenhall
Levenhall Nursery School was placed first in the Nursery Category of the Eskmills Christmas Tree Decorating Competition. Several of the staff and pupils were able to attend the Carol Singing at Eskmills on Friday evening where the winners were announced. The tree and gold certificate are proudly displayed in the school. The prize of solar powered lights will be used for decoration in the nursery garden.
Preparations for Christmas continue in the school. Last week children from the school went to Strawberry Corner Garden Centre to choose Christmas Trees to be decorated and displayed in the playrooms. Later this week some of us are going to Levenhall Nursing Home to sing some of our Christmas Songs to the residents.
Christmas at Levenhall Nursery School
Preparations are well under way for Christmas in the Nursery School. Last Friday,
we held a very successful Christmas Fair which raised approximately £860 for the
school fund. There were a variety of stalls including children’s crafts made in nursery.
This week we have been busy making Christmas Tree decorations from recycled
materials as we are taking part in the Eskmills Christmas Tree Decorating Competition.
An amazing variety of hanging and chain type decorations have been made from all
sorts of things including corks, CDs, curtain rings, etc. On Thursday six children will
go, with their parents and Mrs McNeill (Headteacher), to Eskmills and decorate the six
foot tree provided by them. The result of the competition will be announced on Friday
at a Carol singing event to which everyone has been invited.
Enterprise Week at Gullane Primary School
Gullane Primary School are running a number of activities this week to demonstrate how they use enteprising approaches across the curriculum.
The nursery are having a tooth brushing and hand washing week, with information being sent out to parents and demonstrations in class. On Tuesday they are having the machine which shows up the germs on your hand!
P1 are having a Teddy Bear week because they are doing a Toys project, this involves bringing your teddy to school each day and involving him in different activities finishing up with a Teddy Bears picnic on Friday to raise money for Children in Need.
P2 are having a Viking week where they will be building mini settlements, and finding out all about life as a Viking.
P2/3 have been busy working on individual research projects and are presenting them to each other this week.
P3/4 & P4/5 are holding a sponsored walk in aid of Food Aid, they have created their own sponsorship forms and have been busy getting as much money as they can before their walk.
P5 are busy preparing for the Christmas art and craft fair that they are organising in the school at the end of this month. They have organised activities for each class to create for the fair and have been in charge of arranging stalls, producing advertising, sorting money and resources etc. The class had to apply for jobs such as advertising manager, general manager etc.
P6 have been given a challenge to create stained glass windows for the front of the school for Christmas. The groups have to measure their window, come up with a suitable design and create it for display throughout December.
P7 are creating an anti-bullying DVD (see attachment for details)
Elise Sutherland
P6 Learning Festival at Cockenzie Primary
9th November 2007
This morning P6N and P6D held a learning festival in the school assembly hall. The children decided that this was the way they wanted to show what they had learned. They prepared displays and activities and organised a Remembrance ceremony too. The children opened their festival to all the classes in the school who thoroughly enjoyed looking at their displays and trying out their activities which ranged from dancing to the music of Glen Miller, bombing a power station, a display about rationing, getting dressed in the dark in a blackout, how to set a table and go inside an Anderson shelter, to name but a few. They also invited their families to come and look at what they had learned. They were also treated to wartime sandwiches, cakes and biscuits and a nice cup of tea. The children held a minute’s silence during their Remembrance ceremony and Rev Glover led the children and parents in prayer. The children also collected donations for the Poppy Appeal. Congratulations and well done P6N and P6D.
East Lothian Forest School Pilot
Over the past few months, we have been developing a pilot project in conjunction with East Lothian Healthy Living service and Saltoun Primary School. The idea is to set up a forest school area near the school where the young people can be given lessons in a real life context.
Forest School is a concept developed from ideas about working with children and young people in the outdoors. The participants are encouraged and inspired to grow in confidence, independence and self-esteem, through the mastery of small achievable tasks. Hands-on activities with natural materials develop practical and intellectual skills, which can all be linked to the curriculum.
This type of learning is very much geared towards enteprise in that it gives young people the opportunity to use concepts they may already have learned in the classroom in a real setting.
More information will be posted as the pilot progresses.
Yearbook Success at L.P.S.
Primary Seven have been very enterprising in their approach to creating a Yearbook. Guided by PGDE students, they collaboratively planned the content, made surveys and voted for articles to be included. The next step was to write to local businesses for sponsorship. They had to write to many businesses in order to raise the funds for colour printing – a second batch of letters even needed to be sent out! Finally they took time to plan the content and design of their own pages. It looks fantastic Primary Seven. They will be presented with the finished article after their show on Wednesday – they can’t wait! A huge thanks to all of the businesses who supported this venture, which would otherwise have been in black and white.
Life in granny and grandpa’s time…
P1 at Gullane Primary organised a special afternoon for their grandparents recently. The class had been studying life in granny and grandpa’s time as part of their environmental studies work and invited their grandparents in to class to find out about the differences between life now and then. The pupils acted as tour guides around the classroom and shared their experiences before offering granparents tea and scones which had been freshly baked by the children that morning. Grandparents then took their turn to share experiences and show off the artefacts that they had brought along, amongst them the favourites were the boxing gloves and the tin can! A great afternoon was had by all.
Athelstaneford Primary School
Primary 3/4 have been very busy lately preparing an assembly for the rest of the school. First they brainstormed ideas then they voted to choose one. Next they brainstormed ways of showing information. They used to ideas trail to separate red hot ideas from warm or lukewarm ones. In groups they are now planning and creating posters, games and slideshows as well as a short play. We will let you know how it all goes.
Tranent Primary Fashion Show
The Eco-group at Tranent Primary organised a very successful fashion show. Pupils were very creative and used recycled items to create outfits and accessories for the fashion show. Each class selected two pupils who had been exceptionally creative and they modelled their clothes to the whole school at the fashion show. The eco-group representative wrote the description of the outfit. The pupils had a fantastic time and each class got a chance to parade down the catwalk in their amazing clothes.