Sanctuary

Welcome to the Sanctuary

We aim to provide a welcoming, nurturing and inclusive space to support our young learners from P1 through to P7. Within the Sanctuary space we have lots of opportunity for the children to explore, discover and experience in a safe and supportive place.

The Sanctuary Team is made up of two teachers, three wonderful PSAs and a variety of other support staff as and when they are needed.

During our morning sessions we focus on learning opportunities linked to the curriculum which includes both literacy and maths. Our afternoons offer a holistic approach best suited to our young people which is child led. We enjoy exploring our local environment, learning mindfulness with Serena, swimming and, of course, the important business of play!

Tracey Richardson - Sanctuary Teacher

Lianne Wehnert - Sanctuary Teacher

This term we have been joined by Robyn Davidson. Robyn is a primary school teacher who has come to support us until Tracey returns.

Sanctuary - Term 4 Newsletter

Planet Parade

This term we were inspired by the parade of the planets which took place Early in March. The Sanctuary took part in lots of activities to learn about the different planets and about space in general. We discussed astronauts and what it would be like to be in space then used our space helmet masks to get into character.

Shop Visit and Baking Fun

Baking is an ever popular activity in the Sanctuary and supports lots of our maths learning. Baking usually takes place in the morning so we can enjoy a social snack in the afternoons. Of course to be able to bake we need the relevant ingredients which involved our Sanctuary learners going to the shops. Before their visit the children use their literacy skills to discuss what they would like to bake and make a list of the necessary ingredients. While the children are at the shop they like to scan their own purchases and discuss how much each item costs.

Term 3 Swimming

Swimming is one of the most popular activities of the week and something we all look forward to. This term we were joined by some of the previous Sanctuary members who wanted to continue to join in the fun. We have been supported by a Sandra who is a very experienced swim teacher. It is amazing to see the progress of all our swimmers from the nerves of the first week to us all finishing our swimming sessions in the 'big pool'. Swimming is not only good for our health and fitness but promotes confidence and resilience. We continue to be grateful to our parents who support us with getting our little swimming super stars changed after their session.

Windy Days

Peterhead is notoriously windy but we don't that stop us getting out. We used the wind to our advantage and had lots of fun making and flying homemade kites. THis led to lots of discussion about what made the 'kites' fly, why they sometimes lay on the ground, what could be do to make them fly higher and where would they end up if they flew away.

The Sanctuary love to use the outdoors as part of our learning. We are lucky to have the opportunity to free flow between the Sanctuary and the playground but sometimes we like to head further afield. This term a group visited the beach to gather some shells for us to use in the class. There was lots of fantastic discussion about the waves, what causes them and what a tsunami would be like (from our resident Tsunami expert Oliwier).

World Book Day

The Sanctuary had lots of fun during World Book Day. We had a fairy tale theme for our tuff tray activities and read lots of fairy tale books throughout the day. Even the staff followed the fairy tale theme and dressed up to surprise the children.

Making Chinese dragon masks to celebrate Chinese New Year

Try to write numbers in Mandarin

Sensory fun with chop sticks and noodles

Chinese food tasting and vote

Chinese New Year

This week the Sanctuary have been experiencing different cultures by learning about Chinese New Year. There has been a variety of activities like mask making, pipe cleaner snakes, domino snakes, Chinese music and a Chinese taste testing and vote for our favourite Chinese food.

Drum Fun

Last Monday was African drum fun with Mr Steve! Team Sanctuary had the opportunity to show their fabulous sense of rhythm and fun. Steve taught us lots of game to help develop the children's understanding of rhythm and beat. They all have the chance to develop and share their own rhythm in a safe and supportive environment.

Writing

We find opportunities for the children in the Sanctuary to write whenever possible. We have several areas around the space which have the resources they need on hand.

Numeracy

Numeracy is supported using technology to make learning more fun and engaging.

Phonics

The children work in small groups to develop phonological awareness and practise their literacy skills.

Term 2 Literacy

There has been lots of literacy learning taking place for our children both in the Sanctuary and alongside groups in other parts of the school. At Peterhead Central PS we use Read Write Inc to support our literacy learning.

Please find a link below to a video explain this approach.

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/gAH7kQfb/QrD5fTXP

The Sanctuary had a visit from some of our P7's today. They were sharing skills they had been working on and showed some of our children how to make domino rallies. This took lots of patience and a very steady hand, which in turn helps to develop fine motor skills. The team had to use their resilience to pick up the dominoes and start again when it all went wrong! The P7's took lots of time to offer some top tips and encouragement.

We are thinking about the season of Autumn. We learnt about the pumpkin harvest in October and we painted a pumpkin shape and a hand print Autumn tree!

We had a great Stay and Play.

We welcomed our guests with a home baked banana cake!

We learnt to how to set the table and share our fine pieces!

We learnt how to read and write our recipe for banana cake!

We learnt how to count and weigh our ingredients!

We observed how our liquid ingredient mixture changed into a solid shape after baking!

We enjoyed writing, drawing and making our recipe for rice krispy buns!

We love Dance Freeze exercise's!

We love doing art and craft activities , we made a leaf man!

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