On Friday, a group of Primary 5 pupils came to our classroom to lead our learning. In groups, we were provided with packets of spaghetti and masking tape and our challenge was to make a 3D structure/tower on which to balance a marshmallow. This was fun, but, as you will see in the photographs, quite challenging!

This term, we have been learning about how our bodies need energy to function and that this comes from the food we eat.

By investigating the range of foods available, with our Student Teacher, Mr MacDonald, we have discussed how they contribute to a healthy, balanced diet.  We have been learning about making healthy choices.

We made food people with food pictures we cut out from magazines.

We have also been exploring how physical activity contributes to our health and wellbeing.

Outdoor  Learning/Team  Building

Yesterday, on a beautiful, sunny morning, our class visited Scotstown Moor for shelter building with Jen, the Countryside Ranger.  We enjoyed being outdoors, working together to make dens.  We had a fantastic time and it was a great opportunity to develop team building skills.

The children created images of pre-historic animals with charcoal, exploring some of the visual elements of line, shape, form and tone.  They shared their views and listened to the views of others, suggesting what worked well and what could be improved in their own and others’ work.

The children have been thinking about basic human needs, such as food, shelter, clothing and companionship and have been learning to draw comparisons between present day, modern life and life long ago, in the Stone Age period.

The children have created and clothed their own Stone Age people, carrying  tools or weapons, making use of a range of materials. They have also designed shelters/homes with Mr McDonald, our Student Teacher on placement at Scotstown.

I’m sure that you will agree that the art work looks amazing!

At Scotstown School we are enjoying opportunities to participate in physical activities, making use of our indoor space.  We are aware of the role physical activity plays in keeping us healthy and know that we also need to sleep and rest, to look after our bodies. We have been exploring how our muscles work and the effect exercise has on our heart.  We talk about our heart rate before, during and after exercise.  One of our favourite games is ,”Peel the Banana.”

This afternoon, our class visited our local library and met the librarian who read to us from books on the theme of “the Stone Age,”- which is our topic. We enjoyed listening to “Cave Baby,” by Julia Donaldson, as well as “Mammoth Pie,” and “The Org”. During the term, we shall compare aspects of people’s daily lives in the past with our own. We borrowed some non-fiction books to help us in our research.

We have experienced the energy and excitement of singing songs and performing a short movement/action sequence for audiences and being part of an audience for other people’s performances. Well done Primary 2!

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Our visit to Aberdeen Science Centre on 6th November, for a “Day and Night,” show triggered the interests of the children.  The high quality experiences provided, were very much interactive and hands-on.  The exhibition floor was explored keenly by the children and the “Science on the spot,” session that focused on exciting experiments, proved very popular.

In our cross curricular learning, we are focusing on food and farming – starting with harvest, leading onto the basic journey of food, sources of food, their local availability and their sustainability.

In groups, the children worked co-operatively on a task which involved first, cutting out pictures of food: then classifying/sorting them into different categories; such as meat, grain, fish, vegetables and fruit.