An t-Sìde / The Weather

Haidh a h-uile duine! Ciamar a tha sibh uile?

We've had all sorts of wintery weather lately, I can still see some snow from my window today. But Spring is coming and the weather will be changing again, so we thought we would learn some weather-related vocabulary this week and next. If you have children who attend Òganan for nursery, you will know that their topic right now is weather too. We thought it would be a nice idea to provide a bit of overlap with what is being learned there where we can.

Let's start with a couple of songs about the weather. We have sung Fuar Fuar many times at Cròileagan sessions, so you may know it. You can hear it being sung, and see the words here.

The second song is Tha I Fuar An-Diugh. The words are below. You can also find them on the Gàidhlig nan Òg website, along with a sound file to hear it being sung. This is a great new resource, with lots more weather songs, as well as songs, vocabulary and activities for many more topics. Have a look around.

Tha i fuar an-diugh

Tha i fuar an-diugh,

Tha i fuar an-diugh,

Tha i fuar,

O tha i fuar,

O tha i fuar an-diugh.

Tha i breagha an-diugh...

Tha i fliuch an-diugh...

Tha i sgòthach an-diugh...

Today's vocabulary is seen in this song, and can be used for your craft project (below) too.

You can hear how to pronounce these words and phrases here.

For craft this week, we have a couple of different ideas. 

If you have a cardboard tube lying around the house (the inner tube from a roll of kitchen paper/wrapping paper/foil/etc would work well), you could make a rain stick. The instructions here suggest using dried beans or popcorn kernels, but rice also works well. 

Another nice idea, and a good way to practice the phrases from this week, is to make a weather chart that you can change every day. You can add whatever types of weather you think you might see, and you could even add the relevant vocabulary below your pictures. The instructions here will show you how to make one, although you definitely don't need all the materials they use.

Finally, when the ground is less wet and icy, you could lie outside on a sunny day and see what you could see in the clouds...sometimes they are shaped like all sorts of things - cars, animals, trees...use your imagination!

Gabhaibh spòrs! Chì sinn sibh an ath-sheachdain.

Laithean na Seachdain

 

We hope you are all keeping well and managing with your wee ones at home. We thought we would continue with our calendar theme this week and cover days of the week. 

Twinkl has got quite a few Gaelic resources which can be used for home-learning. If you type 'Gaelic' into the search bar at the top of its website they all come up and you can choose which age range is most suitable. Here is a link to a days of the week pdf which can be printed out and with a bit of blu tack made into a daily activity. This resource is free, you just have to fill in your email address.

Our online resource suggestion this week is a series called A' Bhuth which was made a few years ago. It is aimed at slightly older children but there are enough bright colours and wee songs to hopefully keep your littler ones' attention too, and of course lots of repetition which is good for learning.

You can find it here on iPlayer.

Also, the excellent LearnGaelic has a Days of the Week tutorial in its Beag air Bheag/Little by Little series where you can hear pronunciations and conversations.

Remember that the more your wee ones hear you speaking Gaelic, no matter how little of it or what age they are, it helps them to recognise the sounds that make up the language and start to recognise words. So, if you can incorporate some words or phrases into everyday life it really helps.

As always, keep in touch and if you would like some support with your Gaelic please do let us know.

Tìoraidh an-drasta!

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