Aig an traigh - At the beach

This week we have been thinking ahead to the summer holidays and hoping for a trip to the beach.

We played with some buckets and spades, we fished for ducks with little fishing rods and we wrestled with some inflatable sea animals!

For craft we painted some sandcastle pictures with sand mixed in amongst the paint. We stuck some shells on them as a finishing touch.

We learned a few phrases that might be useful when at the beach, as well as a few extra words. They were...

Nach dèan sinn caisteal-gainmhich? - Won’t we build a sand castle?

Cuir ort d’ ad-grèine. - Put on your sun-hat

Tugainn dhan mhuir! - Let’s go into the sea!

Peile - Pail/Bucket

Spaid - Spade

Balla - Ball

Deise-snàmh - Swimsuit

Speuclairean-grèine - Sunglasses

Ad-grèine - Sun hat

Gainmhich - Sand

Feamainn - Seaweed

Sligean - Shells

Creagan - Rocks

Muir - Sea

Tràigh - Beach

You can find the downloadable and printable version of these words and phrases here.

At song time we learned a new song, Còig sligean bòidheach - Five pretty shells. The tune is the same as the one for Ten Green Bottles and you can find the downloadable words here. You can also hear to how to sing the song by clicking here. You will then need to click on the first picture on the top line, the picture of the beach, then click on the tab that says Oran and the song is the top one.

Here's hoping that the beach weather returns to us soon!

Body Parts

Last week and this week we have been learning about the Gaelic words for different parts of the body.

For craft last week we decorated some little people and then added labels onto the correct parts of their bodies.

Some of the little people looked very fancy!

This week we are colouring in pictures of people and making them into jigsaws.

The words that we are learning are:

Falt (Hair)

Làmh (Hand)

Gàirdean (Arm)

Cas (Leg)

Cas (Foot)

Òrdag (Toe)

Glùin (Knee)

Uileann (Elbow)

Corrag (Finger)

Ceann (Head)

Gualainn (Shoulders)

Stamag (Stomach)

Broilleach (Chest)

Amhach (Neck)

You can download and print a copy of these words here.

At song time we sang an old favourite - Ceann,  Gualainn, Gluin 's Cas - and if you want a little print out of the words for that you can find them here.

More weather phrases

Last week we continued with our weather topic and learned a few phrases that are useful for talking about what sort of day it is.

For craft we made big fluffy clouds, by using lots of cotton wool, and added some raindrops to the bottom of them with strips of tissue paper.

Last week was one of the many May Monday holidays, so if you normally attend a Monday session then you haven't missed out on our phrases sheet as you can download it here. Also useful for anyone who might have missed last week's sessions. Or misplaced their copy!

You can hear how to pronounce these phrases, and a whole lot more weather phrases, on this page here.

We learned a lovely new song, which goes to the tune of Frere Jacques, and is about both sunny weather and rainy weather. You can hear the song by clicking here and clicking on the first song. You can also download a copy of the words here.

Hopefully the phrases we have learned should cover all the bases for the many different types of weather we can expect right through the summer!

Aimsir - Weather

Given how many different types of weather we seem to be having each day just now, it seems very appropriate that we were learning about different types of weather this week.

For craft time we made weather wheels out of paper plates.

Our weather wheels said:

Tha i......   =   It is.........

gaothach = windy

grianach = sunny

sgòthach = cloudy

fliuch = wet

This song here is very suited to the sort of weather we have had the last few days!

Anns a' mhuir - In the sea

This week at Cròileagan we were learning about the creatures we can find under the sea.

We also practised our numbers when we read the book Cric Crac Crùbag, available here from the Gaelic Books Council.

For craft we made pictures of sea creatures using some fun stamps.

The creatures we learned were:

each mara : sea horse

muir-tiachd : jellyfish

leumadair-mara : dolphin

turtar : turtle

iasg : fish

crosgag : starfish

ochd-chasach : octopus

crùbag : crab

muc mhara : whale

leòbag : flatfish

peileagan : pelican

siorc : shark

Là nam Màthraichean - Mother's day

Last week we made cards for the all the mummies and learned a few phrases we could use when talking about our mum.

The cards were lovely and pretty, and everyone chose whether they wanted to make a card, a flower or both.

The words/phrases we learned were:

Mamaidh/Màthair - Mummy/Mother

Tha mo mhàthair.... - My mother is......

Sònraichte - Special

Bòidheach - Beautiful

Spòrsail - Fun

Coibhneil - Kind

Cuideachail - Helpful

We didn't have a song to sing that was especially about mums and just sang all of our usual favourites instead.

This week look out for some little duckies, as we continue to think about Spring.

An t-Earrach - The Spring

Ever hopeful of Spring being on it's way, we decided we would start back after the February holidays by looking at some Spring words.

We made some lovely pictures of trees with blossom on them and learned the following words while making them....

An t-earrach - the spring

Earrach - Spring

Craobh - Tree

Flùran - Blossom

Flùr - Flower

Flùraichean - Flowers

Feur - Grass

You can hear how to pronounce these words here, 

The grown ups talked about how there are actually other words used for both blossom and flowers but we are sticking to these ones for now as they are so similar and easy to remember!

Our song of the week was a bit more realistic about our Scottish Spring weather. We sang Splis Splais, which you can listen to here. 

If you want to download and print out the words, to hang up on your fridge or some other memorable place, you can find them here.