In Numeracy, we have been continuing to focus on money, in particular giving change. We were able to use a 2 part process of adding 2 items together to work out the total cost and then subtracting this from 10p to calculate the change required. We also developed our understanding of finding a half of a quantity and played a game called Half–baked on Education City to support this. We used cubes to find out half of numbers to 10 and are aiming to be able to quickly recall these facts e.g. “Half of 4 is 2”. We also learned how to measure the length of objects using non-standard units.

 “We measured the table using pens and it was 8 pens long.” – Faith

“I enjoyed measuring the sand tray. I had to make sure I didn’t leave gap between the pens.” – Phoebe

“We had to count the pennies and put them on the tens frame. We then had to work out the change.” – Finlay

In Literacy, we learned the ‘x’ sound and had opportunities to say, make, break, blend, read and write words with these sounds.  We read Somebody Swallowed Stanley and did a visualising task where we had to draw a picture to illustrate what we think the inside of each of the sea creatures may have looked like for the plastic bag (Stanley). We linked our story into writing and wrote a pledge that we would like ourselves and our family to try to do to help reduce plastic pollution.

“A whale swallowed Stanley. I think it would be all dark inside the whale’s tummy and Stanley would be sad.” – Lucas

“Box has ‘x’ in it.” – Nicholas

“A pledge means something you are going to change. My pledge is to put rubbish in the bin.” – Jayden

In IDL, we continued our Under the Sea topic. We learned about plastic pollution and looked at various pictures of plastic under the sea and on beaches. We discussed what we could see in the pictures, where we thought the plastic may have come from and what we could do to help reduce plastic pollution in our oceans.

“You could find plastic bottles in the sea and it could be open and fish might not see it and might swim into it and die in there.” – Faith

“Animals can die when plastic gets inside them.” – Abigail

“People throw plastic into the sea. They flush rubbish down the toilet.” – Jessica

In Numeracy, we have been learning to calculate change from 5p and 10p. We set up a mini shop in the classroom and practised giving change using real coins. We also consolidated our learning of adding coins of different values through playing a bingo game in a group and taking turns to count out the amounts, using the tapping out method. We also linked our previous learning of equal sharing to new learning of finding half of a shape and a quantity. We played a game called ‘Sharing Shark’ where we had to help the shark share (half) his sea shells between two sea creatures. The children enjoyed this as it linked in with our Under the Sea topic.

 “I did not know how to add 5p and 5p but now I do. I tap the 5p 5 times.” – Lucas

“I found half of a shape in my room. It was a picture of a statue.” – Zack

“You share the shells between the sea horses. Each seahorse will have the same amount of shells.” – Finlay

In Literacy, we learned the ‘v’ and ‘y’ sounds and had opportunities to say, make, break, blend, read and write words with these sounds.  We read part of the story Smiley Shark and did a predicting task where we had to draw a picture to show what we thought might happen next in the book. We then read the rest of the book to find out if our predictions turned out to be true. We used the Eagle Eye reading strategy to whisper read our core reading books, as this is a strategy we are familiar with but have been forgetting to use. This involves the children looking at the beginning sound in the word and also using the picture clues to work out what the word might say. As it was World Book Day on Thursday, we watched a video from Authors Live on Demand on the Scottish Book Trust website and the children were able to join in.

“Vase has ‘v’ in it.” – Logan

“I thought the shark would just leave the fish in the net because he didn’t care about them.” – Jessica

“The shark jumped up and scared the fisherman. Then the fisherman went away and the fish got free” – Phoebe

In IDL, we continued our Under the Sea topic. We learned lots of information about sharks and watched a video to see the way in which different species of shark move about in the water. We then made our own sharks which allowed us to develop our cutting skills. We later wrote a shark fact file during writing time to share the new information that we learned.

“Sharks are dangerous because they have sharp teeth. They have 5 rows of teeth” – Jorgi

“Sharks can be bigger than our classroom.” – Sarah

“Sharks might eat other bodies.” – Ayesh

Literacy

This week as part of our whole school ‘identity’ focus P1EC studied ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak. After reading the story the children completed a 3 Sharings on the book.

On Tuesday our visualisation task required the children making a wild thing. Using different 2D shapes the children created their own wild things.

On Wednesday we thought about what we did when we were being a wild thing….

‘When I am feeling wild I jump on my bed and scream.’ Jacob

‘When I am feeling wild I slam my door.’ Cooper

‘When I am feeling wild I hit my brother and jump up and down.’ May

The children participated in some Drama freeze frames to show what they do when they feel wild.

During our Class reflections at the end of the week the children discussed that studying ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ was a highlight of their week and they would like to do more on the book.

Numeracy:

This week we consolidated our addition of coins to 10p. We played a money bingo game, topmarks games and completed written tasks.

‘I would like to play more money games’ Celestan

As we are making very good progress we are going to start looking at giving change from 5p and 10p.

If you are out and about at the shops over the next week encourage the children to help you use coins to pay for things.

HWB: RSHP

As part of our RSHP lessons the children have been learning the correct names for different parts of the male and female bodies. The children worked collaboratively together to label the outlines of the male and female bodies. To consolidate their learning the children then worked into pairs and wrote labels for male and female bodies.

To extend out learning we learned the ‘Pants’ Rule. The children understand that they are the boss of their bodies and that the ‘Pants’ rule teaches them that their private area remains private.

We loved singing the Pantsosaurus song!

Drama

We were super lucky on Friday and got to work with Glenna Scacchi. We did some drama linked to our Under the Sea topic. After warming up our bodies we brain stormed what under the sea creatures we knew. We then acted out being these creatures. We had sharks, jellyfish, sea turtles and fish. At the end of the session we learned about a clever fish called a ‘Chichlid’

These clever fish pretend to be dead when they get caught. When they are thrown back into water they quickly swim off.

In Numeracy, we have been continuing to learn about equal sharing and were introduced to the word ‘divide’. We also continued to learn about money and how to add coins of different values. We used a special method of tapping out the coins to do this, for example tapping a 5p coin 5 times and a 1p coin once to make 6p. We were also introduced to the concept of capacity and used the language of ‘empty’, ‘nearly empty’, ‘half full’, ‘nearly full’ and ‘full’ to describe different cups and we then did a cut and stick activity to show our understanding of this.  

 “You have to count out ‘1 to you, 1 to you’ and if they have the same answer, you write that number down.” – Abigail

“We tap out the coins. We tap a 5p 5 times.” – Jorgi

“We were putting the cups in order from empty to full.” – Finlay

In Literacy, we learned the ‘z’ and ‘w’ sounds and had opportunities to say, make, break, blend, read and write words with these sounds.  We read the story Where the Wild Things Are and explored the book through the 3 sharings, then made our own wild things. We also linked our writing to this story as we discussed and wrote about our behaviour when we feel wild. We used the Lips the Fish reading strategy to whisper read our core reading books and were able to sequence the events, through looking at what happened ‘before’ and ‘after’. We drew pictures to illustrate these events and were able to identify important words to then add as labels.

“Wild starts with ‘w’.” – Sarah

“The action for ‘z’ is you have to flap your wings and say ‘zzzz’ like a bee.” – Faith

“My favourite part of Where the Wild Things Are is the bit at the end where Max’s mum leaves his supper for him.” – Zack

In IDL, we continued our Under the Sea topic. We learned lots of information about starfish and watched a video to see how slowly they move and catch their pray. We then made our own starfish, using bubble wrap and paint to create a pattern. During story time, we read Starry- Eyed Stan to link in with our learning.

“Starfish can come in different sizes: big or small and they have bumpy skin.” – Abigail

“If a starfish loses its leg, it will grow back.” – Jessica

“Starfish like to lie on the sea bed.” – Nicholas

Literacy:

This week our shared class text was “Stardust” by Jeannie Willis and Brionny May Smith. This book was all about identifying that everyone shines in their own way and at their own time. This links to our HWB lessons on Unique, Similar and Different.

“I loved that the little girl started to shine when she became an astronaut” Kristofer

After discussing the text using our 3 Sharings, the children thought about how they shine. We discovered that we shine in many different ways.

Some of were really good at swimming, some were really good at gardening, looking after their pets and numeracy.

“I would like to do more learning on this book” May

In writing this week the children read the book “Guess how much I love you?” Sam McBratney with Miss Elizabeth. The children then created their own little ‘Guess how much I love you’ books for their Valentine.

Numeracy:

We continued our learning about Money and Division this week.

Money: We are becoming more confident with identifying the different coins and their values. We are able to identify how many 1p coins are required for a given amount eg; 1p, 1p, 1p, 1p, 1p, 1p = 6p. We can count up 1p coins to identify the total as well. We are enjoying the active games and activities to consolidate our learning.

We have also started to add simple amounts of coins together. Eg 2p, 2p 1p = 5p

Division: We have been taking part in lots of different practical tasks using cubes and pasta to support us. We are learning to become familiar and use the language of division ‘share’ ‘equally’ ‘groups’ eg share 12 by 4 groups

“I am becoming more confident with division” May

“I know that I have to make the number if groups and share cubes between the groups” Ryan

 RME:

This week we heard the story of Joseph and his technicoloured dream coat. After reading the story and discussion, the children made their own special multi-coloured coats.

“I like hearing the story about Joseph” Ellie

“Joseph wanted to be a sheep farmer and look after the sheep. His Dad gave him a cool coat.” Celestan

 Valentine’s Day:

On Friday we had a very special visitor in our class who helped us make a special gift for our Valentines. Claire, May’s Mum showed us how to make Bath Fizzers. We were very excited when we saw the activity being set up. We used bicarbonate of soda, Cornflour, Epsom salts and Citric Acid. Once we had mixed all the ingredients together we used a heart shaped mould to press the mixture into. We then popped it out and left it to set. We had such a lot of fun and our classroom smelt amazing! Thank you Claire!

In Numeracy, we have been learning about equal sharing, as part of the early stages of division. We spoke about what it means to share equally and used words such as “same” and “fair”. We used cubes to represent dog biscuits and shared these out equally between the dogs. We also continued to focus on money through comparing values and developing our ability to count, using 1ps.

 “We were learning about money. We had to recognise the number and count out the coins.” – Finlay

“I liked when we were sharing equally. We took the cubes apart and shared them between the dogs.” – Lucas

“We were sharing the bones with the dogs on the iPads. Sharing equally means to do it fair.” – Zack

In Literacy, we learned the ‘ng’ sound and enjoyed doing the action for this (pretending to lift heavy weights above your head). We read the story Stardust, as part of our Identify focus, and used this as a stimulus to learn how to make connections with ideas in a story. We used the Lips the Fish reading strategy to whisper read our core reading books and were able to sequence the events, through looking at what happened ‘before’ and ‘after’. We also wrote a set of instructions on How draw a house and were able to locate a full stop and capital letter in our writing and circle them red and green.

“I Liked the bit when granddad said we are all stars because he was being kind.” – Faith

“I am a star because I look out for people when they hurt themselves.” – Abigail

“Geraldine the Giraffe found a ring. R-i-ng.” – Oscar

In IDL, we continued our Under the Sea topic. We learned lots of information about sea turtles and watched a video to see how baby turtles hatch out from their eggs. We then made our own sea turtle craft, using pointillism, and drew a diagram of the life cycle of sea turtles inside its body.

“Sea turtles eat jellyfish.” – Zack

“Sea turtles lay their eggs in a nest under the sand.” – Maati

“When the baby sea turtles hatch, they are called hatchlings.” – Jessica