gw18johnsonmorgan@ea.dumgal.sch.uk
Final Outdoor Learning Week
We enjoyed our final week of outdoor learning where we got the chance to get creative with our friends or by ourselves. We had a choice this week about what we wanted to build to show what we have been learning throughout the weeks. We shared teamwork skills, problem-solving skills, communication and most importantly how to share our resources and outdoor area with other people. 
Pollution Poster Presentations
We have enjoyed learning about pollution and the beach this term. We split into groups and decided to make posters showing people how they can stop polluting water and the Earth. We shared these ideas with the rest of the class and had a great time communicating, using our teamwork skills to create different posters.
Outdoor Learning
The children have been throwing their stickmen at the dog (like in Stickman) and then measuring with a piece of string. The person with the shortest string won a table point!
PE fun with Mrs. Gray
The children have been practicing different jumping skills this week, taking turns and learning how to use a space safely. 
Outdoor Learning Block
We are 2 weeks into our outdoor learning block. We have been developing our problem-solving, teamwork, and communication skills. We have been doing different activities relating to the story by Julia Donaldson, Stickman. During week 1, the children created their own stickmen, locating different sticks and resources they could use as well as showing safety outdoors. In week 2, the children worked together and showed their imagination and creativity skills by building a nest for the swan in the book. I am looking forward to the next 4 weeks of our outdoor learning block!!
Outdoor Learning For Maths Position and Movement: Listening to and Giving Directions, Using Turns and Forward Steps.
Today the pupils had great fun designing their own treasure island outlines with chalk before hiding some gold bars! The children took it in turns to apply the skills they have been developing in topic maths in giving and following instructions, using forward moves and right and left turns, to plan a journey for a team mate. (Primary 2s have also been looking at half turns and the language of clockwise and anti clockwise. ) They took turns at hiding a gold bar and then giving directions to another team member to find the correct marker under which the bar was hidden. Great fun!
Trip to Rockcliffe
Today the class had a great beach trip to Rockcliffe. We enjoyed looking in rockpools and identifying the creatures living in them We also were learning about the dangers of litter for the environment. We enjoyed a scavenger hunt and some fun running about games on the theme of sea creatures. Thank you to all our parent and grandparent helpers and to our National Trust for Scotland rangers and volunteers. Thank you also to Mr Parker for driving the minibus.
Stone Age
The children have enjoyed their final topic of term 3. We have loved doing cave paintings with natural paint we have found outdoors and normal paint from the classroom. We have been using our ICT computer time to research the stone age and also been building some 3D caves!
World Book Day fun!
Teddy in the Park
We have just finished our topic, Teddy in the Park. We have been learning about different materials and seeing if we could help our bears, Fred and Ted with their problems. We completed several experiments to see if materials were waterproof and if these were also good insulators. We also helped Fred and Ted by creating a waterproof sign to show them the way to find the park! 
We have had 2 very confident individuals in our class this week. Mhairi and Aria decided to create their own novels at home in their free time. They decided to bring these in and share them both with the class. The rest of the children loved it, what a great way to share creativity and their own ideas!
Just a reminder that we have been practicing our Scottish poems in class over the last few weeks. The top 10 will be chosen this week (week beginning 5th February) with a letter being sent home on Friday if your child has been chosen. This will give you a week to perfect your poem to be performed in front of our class and another teacher on Friday 16th February. There is also a homework task due on Tuesday 6th February where your child will present some facts about Scotland to the rest of the class. I look forward to seeing their posters and hearing their facts!
We enjoyed a lot of Scottish food taste tasting last Tuesday! Some of our favourites were the Irn bru and the Tunnocks caramel log. P1/2 was not a fan of the porridge bar!!
PE
P1/2 have enjoyed being back with Mrs. Gray this term, showing enthusiasm and confidence in their balancing and rolling skills in gymnastics.
Topic Fun
Our topic this term has started off with Scotland. We have been looking at different textiles and will be going on to explore different food, hopefully with a taste-testing event!! P1/2 created their own weaving designs, cutting the paper themselves and weaving different colours of paper to do this. Well done, P1/2!
Christmas Party!!
P1/2 enjoyed their Christmas party during the last week of term. They had a fantastic time playing games with P1 and P2 from P2/3, dancing to lots of different Christmas music, and even winning some chocolate!
On Thursday 14th December, P1/2 went back in time and spent the afternoon taking part in a very traditional numeracy lesson. The desks were in rows and we used no technology or workbooks. We used chalkboards and chalk and even wore a dunce cap! We enjoyed going outside to play different games we had learned with Mrs. Howie and marching on the spot to count to 100. This term, we have also had 2 very special guests from Dalbeattie Museum to show us items and objects from school in the past. We have loved learning about this topic but it was even better to see the items we have been discussing.
Tuesday 5th December
Today we went outside to take part in an old fashioned playground games carousel. This was part of our topic work comparing schools from the past with the present. We had a go at skipping rhymes, marbles, gird ‘n’ cleeks, ‘Oranges and Lemons,’ Cat’s Cradle, Hopscotch, Rock paper scissors and the clapping game Pat a Cake. A great time was had by all and thanks go to our P7 helpers who held the skipping rope and demonstrated some actions. Also to our photographer Mrs McConnell!
Friday 3rd November
P1/2 have had an amazing first week back into term 2. P1 have enjoyed using the numicon for numeracy as well as practising their fine motor skills using tweezers to create different ice creams with pompoms. P2 have enjoyed sorting different autumnal materials into groups and ordering these to practise counting to 30. As it has been Halloween this week, we decided to learn about different textures we can create with various art materials and created our very own pumpkins which are displayed on the wall in the open area! What a great week!
I will continue to write on the A3 laminated piece of paper attached to the classroom window. Each week this will have what P1 and P2 have been learning, including spelling and the sounds that P1 should be completing in their booklets. I will also write when this should be handed back in.
Thursday 2nd November
On Thursday 2 November, thousands of schools around the world are stepping outside for Outdoor Classroom Day. Today, our class signed up for this and we were on the map too. The focus of our outdoor learning was literacy and Health and Wellbeing. We explored what makes a good playtime. We drew pictures to show what is a happy playtime and we took these outside to have talking and listening time/ circle time in our actual outdoor classroom! We shared our favourite games with each other and then went round the circle hearing each person’ s favourite. We made a list of all 25 favourites and then thought about how we could possibly improve things to make it easier for children to think about things to play… We thought about ways we could share good ideas for games ( and their rules) with each other. This is something the School Pupil Council may take forward in the months to come….
Tuesday 10th October
What an amazing afternoon! Primary 1F and Primary 1/2 were lucky enough to have a visit from PC Blacklock. They enjoyed asking questions about her job and trying on her uniform jacket. P1/2 were proud to show off their police hats they had made during topic.
Thursday 5th October
During Literacy today, P2 enjoyed practicing their spelling words in preparation for their spelling test tomorrow, rotating with two different activities. These activities involved writing their words on the tables with whiteboard pens (a big hit in our class!) and writing their words using magnetic letters. While P2 were practicing their spelling words, P1 learned their new sound which was ‘u’. They enjoyed designing their very own set of underpants to go with this!
Today, we watched ‘Pablo The Super Banana’ video clip and completed our Fairtrade audit in class. (It’s a short survey to count how many children are aware of the Fairtrade symbol and how it is used to display on products when the farmers have had a fair price for their goods. ) Thank you everyone who has done the booklet at home during the home learning days. If anyone has a completed one please do send it back into school.
We also watched a recording of a ‘Climate Action’ video where an author read us her story ‘Flooded.’ the story encourages young learners to see how a problem ca be solved as part of team work. After that we did a fun activity to complete rainbows. We started with a blank rainbow template. The idea was that the children each had only one colour of the rainbow each but they worked as a team to go round the class helping each other so that everyone ended up with a complete rainbow with all 7 colours. We did run out of time at the end of the day but the pupils grasped the concept well and worked collaboratively together. We did have one complete rainbow and a few more nearly finished!
Activity options for P1 every day:-
*Numeracy – Task Board 9. Instructions on the sheet.
*Practice formation of numbers. See ‘Zoo’ character sheet.
*Count out objects to match the number from 1-10 e.g. buttons, lego, sweets, pens.
*Literacy – cut up the sounds sheet to make a set of flashcards. Ask your child to say the sound, sing the song, do the action and say something beginning with the sound.
*Pablo the banana Fairtrade booklet.
*Early Level STEM activities posted by Mrs Duncan (pick and choose).
Here are some links to the songs for each letter we have covered if you would like your child to sing along!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdQe5Op1fU8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMUo6dxfUek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOiNSTsIvfA
Tasks for Tuesday 26th September
*Complete the ‘d’ page in the sound booklet.
*Maths Week Scotland Idea :-
https://www.mathsweek.scot/news/how-to-play-trash
(you may need to highlight, copy and paste the link into the search bar)
Activity options every day for P2:-
*Spelling – practice new words
*Reading – new books given out yesterday with core words
*Practice blocks 1-4 words
*Pablo the banana Fairtrade booklet
*STEM activities First Level posted by Mrs Duncan (pick and choose)
*Maths Week Scotland idea – see link in P1 work for Tuesday 26th Sept
Home Learning -Wednesday 27th September
*Please continue to choose from the ‘Activity options for every day’.
*P1’s practice your ‘d’ letter formation – see clip to watch below.
*Maths Week Scotland activity for whole class:-
https://www.mathsweek.scot/news/maths-outdoors-scavenger-shape-hunt
(you may need to highlight, copy and paste in the search bar)
*Click the link to watch a ‘Charlie the Firefighter’ story that links to our topic of the emergency services.
Activity options every day for P2:-
*Spelling – practice new words
*Reading – new books given out yesterday with core words
*Practice blocks 1-4 words
*Pablo the banana Fairtrade booklet
*STEM activities First Level posted by Mrs Duncan (pick and choose)
*Sumdog – at least 30 minutes of sumdog practice. Passwords and Usernames are in blue folder with spelling book.
*Maths Week Scotland idea – see link in P1 work for Wednesday 27th Sept
Home Learning – Thursday 28th September
Primary 1
*Please continue to choose from the ‘Activity options for every day’. If you are short of time perhaps just do Task Board 9 and practice your sounds with the flashcards.
*Maths Week Scotland Activity:-
https://www.mathsweek.scot/families/activities (please scroll down to find the ‘Number Fun with Lego‘ video and again you may need to highlight, copy and paste in the search bar)
*BBC Bitesize – What are the parts of the human body. There is a video, activity and quiz you could do. (again you will need to put the link in the search bar). We are going to start looking at th ehuman body next week in class. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6882hv/articles/z3cyn9q
*PE: – We usually have gym on a Thursday. If you go to Mrs Gray’s home learning page there are lots of P1-3 videos you could join in with her.*If you would like to listen ‘Little Princess’ story click the link below.
Primary 2
*Spelling – practice new words
*Reading – new books given out yesterday with core words
*Practice blocks 1-4 words
*Pablo the banana Fairtrade booklet
*STEM activities First Level posted by Mrs Duncan (pick and choose)
*Sumdog – at least 30 minutes of sumdog practice. Passwords and Usernames are in blue folder with spelling book.
*Maths Week Scotland idea – see link in P1 work for Thursday 28th September
*PE: – We usually have gym on a Thursday. If you go to Mrs Gray’s home learning page there are lots of P1-3 videos you could join in with her.
25th September – Maths Week Scotland(Mrs Howie)
Today in school, we used a Maths Week Scotland resource as our starting point. We looked at how shape is used in art work and we looked specifically at the work of Kandinsky. We then transferred this to the next steps in our learning about 2D shape by learning about vertical lines of symmetry. We then followed this up with our own creative work during some outdoor learning. Here are just a few pictures.
