Hello everyone again!

It has been such a long time since we last updated our blog but that is due to how busy we have all been over the past few weeks.  Recently we have been working hard on our latest topic old buildings and castles.  This was a great topic for us as it fitted in nicely with the school’s 100 year celebrations.  Being part of the school when it turned 100 years old is pretty cool and this got us wondering what life and school was like 100 years ago and also what it was like much further back in the past.  Some of us had also visited castles in Dundee and beyond so we decided that this was going to be our topic.

We were very lucky to borrow some wonderful active learning resources from the central library in Dundee including costumes, puppets, games, books, audio CD’s, jigsaws and posters.  In addition Mr Robertson has bought us a castle tent where we can play and read or listen to the stories on CD.  Lots of us also had things at home that were great for a castle and once we had asked for permission from our parents we brought them into class.

We also decorated a large area of the classroom to look like castle walls, designed our own shields for display in the castle’s great hall, researched castle words, made a model castle and much more.  In fact we are having so much fun with this topic that we used this as the subject for our class assembly last week.  We even learned a new dance from the Tudor era and also a song which we performed in public for the first time during the assembly.

This term we have also been very proud of ourselves as we have won a 30 minute time slot in the sunshine room twice.  We won it for the first time three weeks ago and then again this past week.  We won last week with our highest number of positive tokens in one week, an amazing 15!

Outside in the playground things are also becoming very exciting as we got to walk across the brand new astroturf area of the playground for the first time.  We have been watching for a few weeks as workers have been busy putting down astroturf on the part of our playground where the P1’s normally play at break and then a fence was put around it.  We have been discussing in class the kind of markings we want put on the grass for sports and can’t wait for the nicer weather to arrive so we can go out to use it.

That’s about it for now, but we promise not to leave it as long next time.

Mr Robertson and P2a1

This week has seen the class learning all things Scottish and celebrating our fantastic nation.  The beginning of the week saw the class recite the poem they have been learning in recent weeks, Lollipop Man by J.K. Annand.  The standard of recitals was very impressive and it was very pleasing to see everyone stand up and try their best.  On Tuesday afternoon the class gathered together with all the other infant classes to hold a Ceilidh.  It was a fantastic afternoon of dancing, poetry, singing, fiddlers, pipers and more.  Primary 2/3 joined us to perform the Circassian Circle in front of the other classes and did an absolutely fantastic job.  In the classroom we have been using a wonderful resource called Whar’s Wattie? to learn about Scots language including reading familiar stories and rhymes which have been rewritten in Scots.

Thursday saw some of the class taking their place among other children from every stage in the school as part of their house team in the 2011 Dens Road Highland Games.  It was an afternoon of determination, fun, sporting excellence and fair play with the rest of the school providing plenty of noisy encouragement.  Out of the four school houses it was Dudhope who emerged victorious, well done to all the competitors and especially to Dudhope.

Since the beginning of primary two we have been trying to find some new ways of working and learning.  We hope to make our class a fun and interesting place to be but still make sure we are learning as well.  A Curriculum for Excellence now allows us to set a context for learning that is relevant and interesting to the pupils and, therefore, helps them become more engaged with the learning experience.  In the classroom today we sat down at the end of the afternoon and shared our highlights of the year to date.  We also discussed why we chose these highlights and the characteristics of memorable and enjoyable learning.

One of the most popular memories from the year so far was the learning surrounding our trip to the DCA to see The Gruffalo and all the work that took place in the class following that trip.  During this project we took time to read the book, compare this to the animated film, learn about adjectives by trying to describe the characters in the story, plan a Gruffalo party, design and write party invitations, create our own stories in a Gruffalo puppet theatre, guiding our beebot through the dark wood and much more.  As a result we were able to do much of our learning using something that we were all interested in and found fun.  The focus of this project was not originally intended to be The Gruffalo, however, this is something the children wanted to do and had so much to offer.

This is one of the key changes we have seen this year under A Curriculum for Excellence.  We now have the ability to make changes to learning and provide opportunities for the class that allow them to learn in more active ways and in realistic, relevant contexts.  It also allows the children to have a greater voice in the leading their own learning by being part of the planning process and giving them flexibility to use available resources and opportunities in different ways.

We are now continuing to build upon what was a great experience in The Gruffalo project and have begun a new project about Old Buildings and Castles.  We decided this would be a good project as our own school reached 100 years old earlier this month, however, the children liked the idea of focusing mostly on castles and came up with lots of questions they would like answers to on castles.  We have already begun to create areas in our classroom and recently received some resources from the central library which includes books, costumes, hand puppets, games, posters and more.  Once again the children are excited by the resources that are available which can only lead to fun and productive learning.  They have also told Mrs McDonald  where they think we should go on our school trip this year – Edinburgh Castle!

Look out for more on our new project soon!

Term 2 was extremely busy in our classroom and also everywhere else around the school.  Early in the term we visitd the DCA to watch two short animated movies as part of the Discovery film festival.  One of those films was The Gruffalo based on the book by Julia Donaldson.  We loved the film so much that our learning for the term was all based around the book, its characters and the movie.

We were enjoying our learning so much that we even decided to organise a Gruffalo party for our class and also invited Mrs Bradbury’s P2/3 class.  We were also lucky to have the help of another teacher, Miss McDyer, who stayed with us for 5 weeks.  We all missed her when she left but hoped she would come back one day.

Later in term we all got a big suprise when the snow closed the school for a WHOLE WEEK!!!!!  Even though we weren’t at school the learning didn’t stop as many of us were outside discovering the different things we could do in the snow and also how much things change in that kind of weather.  When we returned to school we had so much to talk about and learn.  Even though Christmas was fast approaching when school opened again we didn’t have time to sit and dream of Santa and presents as we had to get ready to be part of the Infant Christmas show.  This year it was called The Sleepy Shepherd.  We were learning lines, songs, where to stand, how to enter the stage and also how to leave the stage.  We had to concentrate a lot and work very hard, but we all enjoyed it and hope the audience did too.

However, when we were not practising for the show we were also taking part in learning about Christmas.  We learned about the story of Jesus’ birth, invented our own toys, built things in Santa’s workshop, make giant 3D snowflakes to decorate the room and much more.  We even got to see and send messages live to Santa on Glow!

If that wasn’t exciting enough, Santa even came to visit the class during our Christmas party and before he left he gave the class a present.  Our gift was a game called Wobbly Chef and everyone loves it!

There is so much we can share about term 2 but hope this gives you an idea about how busy we were and how much fun we had a t school.  Term 3 promises to be just as busy with lots more learning going on.

Speak soon!

P2a1

Primary Two are now launching their own class blog to share with all friends and family what has being going on in our classroom. It also allows us to share with all of you what we have been learning together and how we have done that.

If you have anything to share then please add a comment to our blog and it will appear on screen once it has been accepted.

We look forward to hearing from you all.

Mr Robertson and P2a1

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