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When two tribes go to school! (Well actually, it was one and it was fab!)

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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

We’ll cast a spell on you!

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Well, what a magical week we have had in Primary 1 this week. As part of our homework tasks some of us made magnificent magical wands! There are all very different and our teachers and classmates think that they are fantastic!! We had to think of what spell we would cast with our wands because in the story of Sleeping Beauty the good fairies and the bad fairy cast spells with their wands. Some us would cast a spell to give us princess dresses, some of us would cast a spell to make us run fast, some of us would cast a spell to give us presents whenever we wanted and some of us said that our wand would turn the lights on and off when we waved it. They are all wonderful and our teachers are very proud of us and our families for such fantastic work!

Also, as part our homework over the last two weeks some of us have been drawing pictures of Sleeping Beauty, her castle, the fairies and even the spindle that she pricked her finger on and fell asleep for 100 years! Mrs Mackay thinks that we might be famous artists when we grow up they are so good. Here are few for you to see.

In number work, we have been learning all about sorting. We used the Promethean Board to help us play different games where we had to sort bears into different circles depending on what colour they were. Then we had to sort flowers, this was trickier because we could sort them by colour or height or by how many leaves they had. Lastly, we had to sort kangaroos but they made us think hard too because some had matching t-shirts on and some had matching hats so we could sort them two different ways. We really got the hang of it and soon we were sorting using different materials. We got lots of colourful buttons. Some of us wanted to sort the buttons by shape and some of sad we would sort them by colour. We also had some animals which we said we could sort by species or colour. We recorded our sorting results by taking a photo of our work. We all did very well and used super thinking!

In Language and Topic, we have been learning more Jolly Phonic sounds. We did ‘e’ and ‘h’ this week and we had lots of fun finding them in different pieces of work on the board so we decided to all take a page from the story of Sleeping Beauty and we highlighted some of the sounds we have been learning. Some of us were able to colour exclaimation and question marks that we recognised!

On Friday Ms Gauld, our Healthy Eating Assistant, came to visit half of our class to talk to us about how to keep our teeth healthy. First of all WALT, our ‘class crocodile’ told us what we would be learning and WILF, our ‘class pink rabbit’ told us how to succeed and how to make our teacher smile. Then Ms Gauld showed us how to brush our teeth and how much toothpaste to use. Next we met Buzzy who showed us his teeth and Ms Gauld told us what all the different teeth do when we eat. We all agreed that we should brush our teeth at least twice a day and Ms Gauld explained that in a couple of weeks we will all get to brush our teeth at school after lunch too – we are sure that that will make our smiles even more beautiful! We also looked at what foods were good for our teeth and what foods can be bad for our teeth. We even got to see some teeth which have not been looked after properly which we all agreed where a but yucky and so  before Ms Gauld left she gave everyone in our group a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste to use at home (and we were all very polite and used lovely manners to say thank you).

In the Active Learning Zone we have been practicing making wands too. At the creative area we can cut, stick, draw and glue anything we like. We have make some wonderful things this week. Lots of wands and we had to design our own. Some of us made brilliant robots and learned how to staple with a little stapler.

At the Science table we have been investigating shiny things. Glass beads, shiny materials and shiny letters. We are really good at finding all the shiny letters hidden in the shiny beads.

At the playdough table we have been making sausages and making them into letters. We have to try and make the letters that we have learned about so far.

At the story table we have been making stories from the felt shapes. We have been making knights and princess and dragons. Next week we are going to video our friends telling their princess stories.

At the Numeracy table we have been making some fantastic shape pictures. Some of us have started finding our name, putting it beside our picture and taking a photograph of it. Well done!

Week Starting 10th September 2012

  • We are full time this week. We come to school at 9am and finish at 3.15pm. Remember we will need a packed lunch or money for lunch. If you are going home for lunch then lunchtime is from 12.15pm till 1.15pm.
  • 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 3. 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 own learning in a mind map
  • Jolly Phonics sounds r,m and d
  • how to use the computer to make a picture using Textease Paint
  • the Swahili  song Jambo so that we can sing it for our visitors  on 20th September.