Woweee! What an amazing week for us and the whole of Dundee – The Olympic Torch came to visit as part of it’s relay race across Great Britain! We were all very excited and lots of us even went to see it in the park and along the streets. For homework we had to talk to our families about what we know about the Olympics and also what we wanted to know.

Each day we count down the days until the London 2012 Olympics and we  follow the torch by putting its picture on  a map to show us where it was. We were so happy that on day 25 it came to Dundee.

http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/video/video=torch-relay-day25.html

This week to celebrate such a special event we decided that the best thing we could do was join in with all of the celebrations and have our own Olympic Torch Relay.  We decided that to have a torch relay we would all need a torch so our teachers set us the task of designing our own torch to hold our ‘faux’ Olympic  flame. We had to think of how to make a shape with the card that would hold the flame safely and that would show people the 2012 logo. They were all fabulous and we were amazed at how different each one was.

Once we had all designed our torches we went outside for our race. we used the very long playground at the front of our school and we passed the torch around. We had been learning that this has a special name. When the special flame from the Olympic Gods is passed from one torch to the next the torches have to touch together at the top. This is called a ‘kiss’.

When we had passed the flame on from our torch we joined the race and supported the next torch bearer. It was great fun and we were really pleased that we even got a special Olympic London 2012 certificate too!

In the Active Learning Zone we have also been finding out where the torch has been going by using a GIANT map and our Torch beebots. We have to think about where the torch goes to and see if we can guide the Torch Beebot to it. It was lots of fun exploring where in Great Britain we know or could find with support.

We have also been learning all about the Olympics and ordinal numbers by using the Wii and the London 2012 Game. We have only been looking at the running but we are doing very well at it. We have to use a timer to make sure that all of our friends can have a go and share the fun. When the race ends we have to look at who came first, second or third and then we put our medal on the chart. We even get a sticker which some of us have been putting in our wider achievements section of our folios.

We are learning all about plants and  this week and we have been planting cress. We had to think very carefully about what equipment we would need and then how we would plant our seed. It was very  interesting and lots of us were able to share what we had been learning in nursery, what we had written in our plan and use that to help us think and decide. We even wrote a set of instructions to help people who visit our ‘garden’ and ‘garden centres’  and we are going to put them all into a book to help new gardeners plant seeds successfully. We have been using our thinking flowers to help us think about our learning

We have been measuring lots and lots this week. We had to measure different leaves and then Jack was very kind and let us borrow his Beanstalk garden  and measure all the beanstalks which have been growing there. It was tricky because some of us had to estimate and measure. We learned that when you estimate you have to make a sensible guess before you measure. On Thursday we all brought things in from home and we estimated and measured them. Then we shared our object or toy with our friends to let them do the same. We all brought really good measuring objects in, there was even a Slinky which was long and short! We used our thinking flowers and triangle again and it helped us talk lots about measure.

We are still enjoying hearing and learning all about Jack and the Beanstalk and this week we looked at scenes form different books and we had to highlight where the characters were speaking. We have been learning that speech marks open and close to show when someone starts and stops speaking. We all used the Promethean Board to highlight some pages from books which we had already read and then we got a sheet from a book we had not read. Some of us had to highlight what the different charachters said in different colours and some of us had to highlight any speech using just one colour. It was quite hard but we all got there in the end.

Lastly we are still getting some super homework from our classmates. This week Tallulah has been very excited as two of the pieces of homework have been about her! Aiden made a mask and picture with his family. We all agreed that they were SUPER!

We would love it if you want to have a look and comment on the work that the nursery boys and girls have been doing. We share our Active Learning Zone with them on a Tuesday and Friday because we are getting so big that we are nearly in P2 and they are nearly in P1!

https://wikis.glowscotland.org.uk/0003321/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk_Pre-school

NEXT WEEK

• We are all going on our trip to Blair Drummond Safari Park on Tuesday and won’t be back at school until 4pm. Please remember to wear your play clothes, bring a packed lunch and bring a waterproof coat.
• P1a1 and P1a2 have gym on Wednesday afternoon.
• We will have a new way of doing homework this term. All homework will be given out on a Thursday and is due back on a 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 4.

On the day your child has gym, please ensure they returned their clean shorts, t-shirts and gym shoes (some of us have grown a little so please check that they still fit) and have no jewellery on. Also, please tie up long hair. Thank you. Gym bags will be sent home this week as there is no gym next week.

Our topic is all about Jack and the Beanstalk, Growing Plants and the Olympics.