Bliadhna Mhath Ùr!

Happy New Year everyone!

It feels like a wee while ago now (especially if you have children at home who would normally be in school or nursery!) but this is our first blog of the year, so Bliadhna Mhath Ùr!

The new year is a good time to organise our diaries and calendars so we have made a simple calendar that you can print off with the names of the months in Gaelic here. 

We also have a very simple activity that you can print off and get wee ones to help colour in and stick in the right order.

Top tip - fill in the names of the months before you cut them all out! You can access the file for printing here.

Our recommendation for some words and sounds this week is an episode of

Piseag agus Cuilean. This is a great CBeebies Alba series for wee ones. The episodes are only 5 minutes long and are on one subject, or feature opposites. They are great for adult learners too as they are quite slow, repetitive and there are no English subtitles. This episode is about sneachd - snow.

We hope you are keeping well.

An Sgioba Cròileagan

 

Dùrachdan na Nollaig Dhuibh Uile

 

Rionnag mhòr

Òran àlainn bho A’Bh-uas NicIain Sgoil-Àraich

A lovely song from A’Bh-uas NicIain

Here is a reminder of our Christmas vocab from last week.

Nollaig Chridheil = Merry Christmas

Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ùr = Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Bodach na Nollaig = Father Christmas

An leanabh Ìosa = the baby Jesus

Craobh Nollaig = Christmas Tree

Cairt(ean) Nollaig = Christmas Card(s)

Feidh-Lochlannach = Reindeer

 

And a few phrases for if you are feeling confident...

 

Curranan airson na feidh-Lochlannach = carrots for the reindeer

Cuir a-mach curranan airson na feidh-Lochlannach = put out carrots for the reindeer

Tha bodach na Nollaig a’ tighinn a-màireach = Father Christmas is coming tomorrow

Deoch bainne airson Bodach na Nollaig = a drink of milk for Father Christmas

Cuir a-Mach deoch bainne airson Bodach na Nollaig = put out a drink of milk for Father Christmas

You can find the sound files for how to pronounce all of these here.

Christmas Crafts

Dèan Glagan Binn – Make Jingle Bells

Pàipear Gleansach – Shiny Paper

CHRISTMAS TRAIL
On the morning of Friday 18th, we will be organising a wee Christmas trail in Pilrig park for our families. It will take place from 10-12, but with half hour slots to allow for social distancing. Keep an eye on our Facebook page over the next few days for more details...
(The event will be weather dependent, so keep your fingers crossed!)

To finish we have to sing our favourite, Glagan Binn which you can find it here

Le gach deagh dhurachd airson na Nollaig, Sgioba Cròileagan!

Nollaig Chridheil!

We’re sure that excitement must be starting to build in all of your houses for Christmas now!

We would love to be with you all making some Christmas crafts together and singing Christmas songs at circle time, but for this year we will just have to accept that virtual Cròileagan is the only way we can celebrate together. 

Some people have asked us if we could do a Zoom Cròileagan. We just thought we would quickly explain why won’t be able to do this. It’s simply because the City of Edinburgh Council have a policy of not using Zoom, and since all of us Playleaders are council employees then we have to follow their guidelines. There are other options that we are looking into and we will keep you posted as we know more ourselves.

So anyway, on with our Christmas virtual Cròileagan.

A few useful words for you are:

Nollaig Chridheil = Merry Christmas

Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ùr = Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Bodach na Nollaig = Father Christmas

An leanabh Ìosa = the baby Jesus

Craobh Nollaig = Christmas Tree

Cairt(ean) Nollaig = Christmas Card(s)

Feidh-Lochlannach = Reindeer

And a few phrases for if you are feeling confident...

Curranan airson na feidh-Lochlannach = carrots for the reindeer

Cuir a-mach curranan airson na feidh-Lochlannach = put out carrots for the reindeer

Tha bodach na Nollaig a’ tighinn a-màireach = Father Christmas is coming tomorrow

Deoch bainne airson Bodach na Nollaig = a drink of milk for Father Christmas

Cuir a-Mach deoch bainne airson Bodach na Nollaig = put out a drink of milk for Father Christmas

You can find the sound files for how to pronounce all of these here.

We are trying to keep our crafts simple, not too messy and using materials we think you will have at home. Here are a couple of our suggestions for this week.

To finish with we have a couple of song clips for you this week, with our old favourite, Glagan Binn - Jingle Bells. The first of these is a simple video with the words in Gaelic on the screen. It goes at a nice slow speed so you can take your time over learning the words. You can find it here  The second clip is a lovely one featuring children from the Gaelic unit in Greenock. This time the words are translated into English on the screen as they sing. You can find this one here.

We’ll be back again next week with some extra Christmas fun for you all.

Bodach-sneachda

We saw in the weather forecast that there was the tiniest possibility of snow in Edinburgh this week. That got us all excited about the thought of making snowmen and so we thought we would look at some snowman related words, crafts and songs at Cròileagan this week.

Bodach-sneachda = Snowman

Sneachd = Snow

Ad = Hat

Stoc = Scarf

sùilean = eyes

fuar = cold

A bheil thu fuar? = Are you cold?

Our song for this week is one that we regularly sing at Cròileagan in the winter, 'Rinn sinn bodach-sneachd'. You can listen to it here. It's a nice jolly one to sing along to, the words are below if you need them. We just wish that we could be singing it together with you all.

Rinn sinn bodach sneachd’ an-diugh, (We made a snowman today)
Rinn sinn bodach sneachd’ an-diugh,
 Rinn sinn bodach sneachd’ an-diugh, 
Bodach reamhar sneachda. (A fat snowman)

Bodach mòr le sùilean dubh,  (A big snowman with black eyes)
Bodach mòr le sùilean dubh,
 Bodach mòr le sùilean dubh,
 Bodach reamhar sneachda. (A fat snowman)

Stoc mu amhaich ‘s ad mu cheann, (A scarf round his neck and hat on his head)
 Stoc mu amhaich ‘s ad mu cheann,
 Stoc mu amhaich ‘s ad mu cheann,
 Bodach reamhar sneachda. (A fat snowman)

Bodach bochd le casan fuar, (Poor man with cold feet)
Bodach bochd le casan fuar, 
Bodach bochd le casan fuar,
 Bodach reamhar sneachda.  (A big fat snowman)

We have a couple of craft suggestions for you to try out at home. You can make one or maybe even both!

Finally, how about decorating some biscuits to make some cute little melted snowman biscuits? You don't even have to bake your own biscuits. Just get some Digestives or Rich Teas, spoon on some icing and then decorate with a marshmallow and some sweeties.

If you give any of our crafts a try then do send a picture to us as we would all love to see them.

We'll be back next week with some Christmas words and crafts for you all.

 

An Crogall

Halo a-rithist! Ciamar a tha sibh uile?

Hello again, how are you all?

We're looking at Animals again this week, and will start with a story and simple song.

An crogall nach iarradh gu uisge agus Iomair am Bàta

Row, row, row the boat, Gently down the stream.

 We are happy, happy, happy. We are happy today.

Row, row, row the boat, Gently down the stream.

If you see a big crocodile, Remember to make a noise. Aaaaaaaaagh!

Building on our animal vocab from last week you can try

Cò ris a tha e coltach?    What is it like?

Try making your own Crogall!

Please do keep in touch with us via our facebook page.

 

Tioraidh an-drasta! 

 

 

Beathaichean

 

Halo a-rithist! Ciamar a tha sibh uile?

Hello again, how are you all?

This week and next we are going to be learning animal names. The words are all found in the book Cò Tha Siud?

                             You can have a listen to Cò Tha Siud? here

Our song this week is Tha an t-Aibhean Mòr and can be found here

For craft this week, try making a fish.

Please do keep in touch with us via our facebook page.

  

Tioraidh an-drasta! 

Còmhdhail

Hello, and welcome back to another week of virtual Cròileagan. This week we are continuing to learn about different types of transport, specifically some more unusual ways to travel!

Lets start with this weeks song. It may be familiar to some of you, but we haven't done it for quite a while so here is the link to it for you all to sing along. 

Sum, sum, sum ars an rocaid, 

Sum, sum, sum ars an rocaid, 

Sum, sum, sum ars an rocaid, 

Seallaibh mise falbh chun na gealaich.

 

Suas, suas, suas chaidh an rocaid, 

Suas, suas, suas chun na gealaich, 

Nuair a ràinig i shuas, ’s ann a thuit i a-nuas

 ’S bhuail i le brag air an talamh. 

Sum, sum, sum ars an rocaid 

Sum, sum, sum ars an rocaid 

Sum, sum, sum ars an rocaid 

Cha tèid mise tuilleadh chun na gealaich.

There are also some new words for you to learn this week. 

Hot air balloon	Bailiùn adhair theth
Rocket	Rocaid
Raft	Ràth
Camel	Càmhal
Helicopter	Heileacoptar

You can hear how to pronounce these new words here.

A step-by-step guide for making this weeks craft can be found here. These would look lovely displayed at a window or could be used to decorate your bedroom. If you would like to share your creations then please do so via our facebook page or our email address. We love seeing all of your hard work. 

Here are some other ideas for crafts too!

And finally for this week, here is the link to the bookbug video of 'Oidhche Mhath Tractor'. 

Sin e! That's all for now. As always, keep in touch and don't hesitate to contact us if you would like some support with your Gaelic. 

Tioraidh an-drasta!