Meet at 9:15am in the front playground.  Bring a picnic, unless you want to buy lunch at the cafe, and come prepared for all weathers!  Bags can be left on the reserved tables in the picnic barn, so you don’t need to carry everything around with you.

Bus will return to school for 3:00pm.

We had a fabulous day playing outside in the mud.  Lots of mums, dads and childminders came along to play with us in our mud kitchen.  They all seemed to have a great time!

As well as having some good ‘clean’ fun, when children are playing in the mud kitchen they are learning across the whole curriculum.  They learn about the mathematical concepts of volume, capacity, weight, mass, time.  They are using literacy skills of speaking and talking, holding conversations, using language to describe, ask questions, explain.  They learn about the different properties of materials working with dry mud, wet mud, water and combining the two – very wet and sloppy mud, as well as working with equipment made of wood, metal and plastic!  The expressive arts section of the curriculum is included by children using role play skills to recreate what they are familiar with and by being creative with the mud.  Talking about the importance of handwashing/hygiene and not eating the mud pies forms part of the Health and Wellbeing part of the curriculum.  Children are also developing their spatial awareness, co-operation and and turn-taking skills, as well as their gross and fine motor skills.  This is just a small part of what is being learned in our mud kitchen!

If you weren’t able to come and join us today, please join us any day to ‘Stay and Play’.  Sign up on the calendar in the cloakroom (dates from August now available!)

Because the equipment gets rusty/damaged by being left outside all the time we are always delighted to receive unwanted kitchen items to supplement our stock, as well as old towels.

Here are slideshows of the Muddy Fun:

The Morning Group parents/carers are invited to join us at 11:20 on Wednesday 2nd July for a short ceremony to celebrate the children’s achievements at nursery and to mark their transition to Primary 1.

There will be a special mass at 9:15am in the church on Wednesday 2nd July. All are welcome to join us in celebrating Miss Burke’s many years of service to our school and community. The Morning Class will be attending the mass. Please let us know if you are able to help (we will require 3-4 helpers.)

The Afternoon Group will be attending the whole school assembly for Miss Burke in the afternoon.  Please ensure they are at nursery promptly as this starts at 1.15pm.

All parents/carers are welcome to join us on the playing field at the back of the school on Tuesday 1st July.  Family and friends are welcome to come along too.  Primary 6 will be helping us.

AM Group – 11.00am

PM Group – 2.20pm

In case of rain, the sports will take place in the gym hall.

The Scottish Government has approved an additional in-service day in session 2014/15 for primary staff as an additional opportunity to reflect on learning and teaching practice to further embed Curriculum for Excellence.

The extra in-service day for nursery and primary staff will take place on Wednesday 20 August 2014.  Nursery and school will now resume after the summer on THURSDAY 21 AUGUST 2014.

It is International Mud Day on 29th June.  To celebrate this, and the fact that we set up our very own mud kitchen this year, we invite parents/carers to come and join us in our mud kitchen on Monday 30th June.  There are sign up sheets for short time slots in the cloakroom. Choose a time to play with your child in the mud.  Wear clothes you don’t mind getting muddy and bring an old towel!  We shall be playing with mud whatever the weather!

For more information about mud kitchens and the benefits of mud play please see the Muddy Faces website.

The Morning Class have been busy thinking about moving on to Primary One.  We had an excellent workshop with David Troughten this morning which was great fun.  He helped us make up songs about his shopping!  We had to think about how the different things rhymed – a can of peas and some cheese, a slice of ham and strawberry jam, a bunch of grapes and sticky tape (and don’t forget the bananas and sultanas!).  We have visited the Primary One classroom, hunted around the school for different places we find the school badge, visited the library, school office and dinner hall.  We have really enjoyed going out onto the big playground with our buddies and played ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’ today!

A reminder that children going to Primary One at Loretto RC Primary School in August are invited to an induction afternoon on Friday 20 June from 2-3pm.  Children will have opportunity to spend time in the classroom with their teacher, and parents will receive information in the dining hall.

Can all story sacks please be returned by Friday 13th June by the latest.  They need to be cleaned and checked before the new session. The story sack borrowing scheme is now closed until after the summer holidays.

If you would be willing to help by taking one or more sacks home to disinfect the contents, check for missing items/breakages and launder the bag itself, please let staff know.  We will sign the bags in/out so we know which ones have been sorted.

Thank you for your cooperation and help in this matter.