Category Archives: News

P2 Roots of Empathy News: Discovering Emotions

This month P2A, P2B and the P2’s in Mrs McDermot’s class have been learning about emotional literacy, to identify, name and feel comfortable about discussing emotions.

They have discovered that emotions are not good or bad, but pleasant or unpleasant. Also that everyone experiences the same emotions and that our temperament influences how we deal with them. The children understand there are four core emotions of sadness, anger, fear and happiness. That they vary in how they are triggered and how long they last.
The children have thoroughly enjoyed our family visits with Harry, and his mum Kirsty and Jamie and his mum Maxine, they recognised and named baby Harry and baby Jamie’s emotional cues and facial expressions. How the mums read the emotional cues to meet their baby’s needs and this makes him feel understood. The children really enjoyed their visit, asking Kirsty and Maxine lots of questions and sharing their experiences. Recently the children have been practising for their Nativity and they sang some of the songs for Harry and Jamie including The Woolly Sheep and Jingle Bells, both baby boys really enjoyed the children’s singing and actions to the songs.

We also talked about different types of teasing and bullying behaviour, how this makes us feel and how talking about our emotions can help us manage them. Also the children created artwork and discussed how they can help their friends when they are sad.

For more information please ask Mrs Harris-Toner, Miss McArthur, Mrs Chadwick and Mrs McDermot. Also check out our Roots of Empathy notice board in P2B’s classroom and http://www.rootsofempathy.org

Masterclasses Update

Master classes have been very successful and we now run a wide variety of classes. We now offer coding which is run by Mr Kerr our STEM ambassador. Robotics which is run by Mr Bennett and Tanya from Roboticals. Our Primary 7’s have also been running classes. They do ICT maths games and pixel art. Chess continues to be popular and is run by Mr Hynd and Mr Good.

 

Illness and Sickness Advice

It is winter and the winter bugs are arriving as usual.

At this time of year it is especially important to follow the best advice to help keep children and staff well and keep schools and nurseries working well.

NHS Lothian have issued the following key advice for Parents and Carers.

The most important message is:

The key advice is the

Children should not return to school until completely well and 48 hours after symptoms have cleared.

The following will help prevent infection at home as well.

In the home the risk of catching or spreading flu/cold like illness can be reduced by:

•Regular hand washing with liquid soap and running water

•Covering nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing

•Using a disposable paper tissue, disposed off immediately after use.

•You can teach your child to sneeze into the ‘crook’ of their arm rather than their hands, if they don’t have a tissue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQINuSTP1jI

•Good general cleaning of surface that everyone touches often e.g. TV remote, light switches, door handles, toilet flushes and tap heads.

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/infections-and-poisoning/common-cold

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/infections-and-poisoning/flu

 

P1 and P1/2 Get the Bookbug

Primary 1 and Priamry ½ enjoyed exploring the wonderful books in their Primary 1 Bookbug and Primary 2 Read, Write Count bag. We explored each book, visited the library and discussed what we enjoyed in each one. The children then voted for their favourite title in the Bookbug Picture Book Prize. We recorded our votes on a pictograph. The Station Mouse was a clear winner!

P7 Tynecastle High School Transition Visit

Primary  7 had a really successful and exciting visit to Tynecastle High school this week! We were given the opportunity to make Key rings in CDT and make some delicious Chow Mein in Home Economics! The class also began to complete their My World of Work profiles which will guide them in understanding and choosing possible career paths and suggest school subjects which would support them in their career choices.

P1/2 Christmas Decorators

P1/2 have been busy preparing the classroom for Christmas. The children wanted to build their own Christmas tree and decided on old cardboard boxes as the best material. We painted the boxes green and stacked them up high. Then we added our decorations. Shiny bottle tops, Christmas wrapping paper cutouts and old tinsel all helped to make the tree look absolutely fantastic.

We are all feeling very festive now!