This has been a very special week for us in Primary 1 because we had some amazing visitors to our school. The Osiligi Warriors came to visit us and put on an amazing show.
First of all we got a talk from a nice man called Jim who told us about the Maasai people, their way of life and why the Warriors were visiting us. They are from a country called Kenya in East Africa, we have been learning about Kenya with our teacher Mrs Mackay (she knew lots of things because she has family from Nairobi). He told us that the Maasai tribesmen and women were visiting us so that they could raise money for their community and the new school which costs £16 per month for a child to go to. We all agreed this was very important because we all like school and we want the boys and girls in Kenya to be able to go to school and learn too.
http://www.osiligiwarriors.co.uk/ http://osiligi.org/wp/
Next, Jim inroduced the tribe. It was AMAZING!!! The men and woman were wearing their traditional clothes and looked beautiful. A warrior call Kesame was playing a musical intrument made from an animal horn ( he has even been on American TV before) and someone and a head dress.
We learnt lots about their culture, they demonstrated how they used to catch lions with spears and that instead of talking they would whistle and make noises so the animals didn’t hear them coming. We also saw how the Maasai tribes whistle and how as a sport they jump as well as as part of their cultural dances.
Our teacher even had a go at jumping although she was terrible at it compared to her brilliant partner Simon who made us all gasp and clap at how he could jump! Miriam sang a beautiful song for helping a baby to sleep. There was so much to see and it was absolutely fantastic.
At the end of the show the whole school was cheering and clapoing because we had all had such a good time and had learnt so much. We wanted to thank Simon, William, Miriam, Lydia, Kesame, Sarge and Richard so we sang them a song in Swahili that Mrs Mackay had taught us. We were so proud of ourselves and they even joined.
We heard that alot of the Maasai people wear tartan cloths and clothes. Mrs Mackay’s husband has a Maasai blanket in this tartan.
Click on the link to here our P1’s singing a welcome song to the Warriors.
Song to welcome our warriors – Jambo
After the show it was lunchtime and we were all in the playground trying to jump like the Osiligi Warrior and sing like them.
Although that was the highlight of our week we have also been learning all about putting numbers in the correct order. We all had lots of fun sequencing different resources from our numeracy area. Some of us worked by ourselves and some of , some of us even managed to put all the numbered feet in the correct order and make a picture of a snail with it. After we had played lots of mental maths games with hidden numbers, used lots of materials to practise what we had been learning and doing a homework sheet and activity all about sequencing, we all completed a sheet. It was tricky but we all got there and were successful learners.
In language we have been learning three more sounds. We know g, o, and u. We are also beginning to get really good at blending them to make words and some of us have even started to get reading books with words. We can hardly believe that just 6 weeks ago we didn’t even know our sounds and now we can read! We have also been learning hou to sequence a story using beginning, middle and ends. We watch the Lotte Reiniger film of Sleeping Beauty again and talked about what were the key points in the beginning, the middle and the end. Next some of us went and sat at the teaching table and Mrs Mackay explained that we had six pictures of the films but we had to pick one that showed an important image from the beginning of the film, one that showed a key moment from the middle of the film- this is when the main action happens, and one from the end of the film story. Then we had to cut these out and put them in the correct box on our sequencing chart. Once we had done this we had one more job. We had to be a class coach for one of our classmates. We had to collect a friend, gather their sheets from the teacher, explain the activity to them and support them with any questions they had by talking to them about their ideas. When they had finished the first class coach got to choose an active class activity and their ‘pupil’ had to coach a friend. We were Brilliant at this and we all enjoyed it.
Ms Gauld came to visit us again on Friday. She was talking to the boys and girls who hadn’t had a chance to learn all about keeping our mouths, teeth and tongues healthy. This time Ms Gauld brought Doogan the dental dog with her and he taught everyone how to care for their teeth by brushing correctly. Afterwards we all got a toothbrush and toothpaste to use at home.
In the active learning zone this week we have been beginning to learn how to use the choosing chart to decide where we want to learn. We have to think carefully as we are trying to practise the things Mrs Mackay is teaching us in the classroom. We have also been thinking about what makes us Successful Learners. We have to think carefully in school to use these to help us. This week we have been doing the following things:
I can use technology.
I am good at listening.
I can use numbers.
I like to learn.
We have been working on tidying up. Sometimes we forget about this. Mrs Munro found some of the areas were very messy. So messy that she had to close them and we were not allowed to play in them. There was a red sad face on the choosing chart. Some of the children in the class decided that they would tidy these areas. They worked really hard putting lids on pens and picking paper up from the floor. It made everyone really happy as the areas were open again. Hurrah! We must remember to pick things up and keep everything tidy.
We have been extending our skills with Textease Paint. This week at ICT we made our pen tool thicker and thinner, we changed the colours and we tried using the fill tool. We are going to practise this some more in the active learning zone.
We have been looking at our thinking triangle again. This time our thinking flowers were asking us questions about Sleeping Beauty. We had some really good answers. We all loved the green ‘doing’ activity. We had to pretend to be the prince and chop down the thorny hedge around the castle. We were all really good at it.
Well done to everyone fo such fab homework over the last four week grid. There has been a terrific range of ideas and creations and everyone has tried hard. One of the things to be completed this week was some writing, some thorny plant investigating and your own project. Molly and her mummy created a beautiful jewellery box, Maddison created a awesome autum montage, Billy and his friends created a Meerkat Batman moving model, there were lots and lots more but here are just a couple of pictures to see how fab the entries have been.
Finally, well done to Edyn who is this weeks Star of the Week. Edyn was off on Friday at assembly but we will give her her certificate when she comes back. She is always very good at listening and gives all her work her very best effort. Well done her.
Week Starting 24th September 2012
- Remember to bring your filled, named water bottle with you every day (no juice please).
- We will send homework out on a Thursday. Please send it to school every day but any tasks should be completed by Wednesday. The teacher will collect in the weeks work on Wednesday. Each week there will be a Yellow Book Challenge to do but you can pick which challenge you want to do from a list of 2 of sheet 2. There will be no homework on a Wednesday night.
- Gym is on a Monday and Thursday. Please remember long hair will need to be tied back and no jewellery. This means all earrings must be removed.
- ICT is on Wednesday afternoons.
Our project is Sleeping Beauty.
This week we will be learning ;
- how to plan our complete and create a pattern
- how to write an invitation for Sleeping Beauty’s party
- how to make a Maasai sheild
- Jolly Phonics sounds l, f and b
