P1-4 pupils had a wonderful session with Susi Briggs on Wednesday afternoon, as part of the Rhins Coastal Path project. Susi popped back this afternoon to complete her input with the class – and what a lovely time we had out in the sunshine making music!

We started by humming along to familiar tunes – pupils suggested sounds we could make such as meowing, barking, howling rather than saying ‘la’ all the time – we had quite the menagerie!!  We then kept the beat to a different tune by tapping, clapping and jiving! Pupils started to compose a class song on Wednesday all about the things they saw at the beach last week, so we had a practise of our song, standing like a professional choir on the outdoor steps!

Next, we got the instruments out – this was the bit we had all been waiting for!! We practised playing our instruments at different speeds and volumes – we definitely needed our listening ears on for this one given the noise level!

After that, we split into 2 groups – 1 group explored the instruments and looked and which instrument would be best to match a given word/phrase, e.g. the clip-clop of horses hooves, the shimmering of the waves. The other group worked with Mrs McHarg to decide on actions/movements for given words – we pretended we were limpets on the shore and used our arms to wave like seaweed. We were then given a song and we had to choose instruments and actions to match the words – and then performed it to the class.

After one final version of our class song which was recorded, we thanked Susi for a fabulous afternoon of music outdoors!

For our last day of maths week, P4-7 have been learning and revising our knowledge of coordinates.  We introduced our activity by locating the treasure on a pirate’s treasure map by plotting and locating coordinates.

We then went outside to play a game of human battleships.  The children worked out the appropriate size of grid for a fair probability of getting a hit for someone’s position when standing on the grid.  We decided that a 6 x 6 grid would give a probability of 1 in 36 chance of getting a hit for each person standing in a grid location.  We calculated all the possible grid coordinates that we would need to play and created grid cards accordingly.

Next, we split into two teams.  Each member of our ‘ship’ team selected a square to stand in.  The ‘submarine’ team then drew out coordinate cards from a bag.  If the coordinate on the card matched the position that a ‘ship’ (person) was standing in, then they were sunk.

The children were very enthusiastic and had great fun whilst learning in the sunshine.

Successful Learners

P4 – 7 learned about classifying angles today.  We used the angle family to help us group angles in to types: acute, right, obtuse and reflex.

We constructed our own angle classification tools from card and used these to identify angle types found both outdoors and indoors.

We simply moved our slider against the angle we were measuring to find out what segment it fell into to identify the angle type.

Have a look at our active learning.

Successful Learners

P4 -7 have been extending their thinking on 2D and 3D shape following on from our observational walk in the village when we looked and discussed shapes used in building structures.

Today, the children got their architect’s hats on and designed their own structures using software on the computer.  They used a range of 2D and 3D shapes as building blocks to form their structures.

Next, some translated their designs in to physical buildings by using Kapla building block materials.  Other’s used trial and error in the design process.

The task helped develop team working soft skills such as negotiation, cooperation and communicating where critical thinking was at the forefront of their challenge.

Effective Contributors & Successful Learners

P1-7 had a special treat today as we visited the set of the feature length movie, Kingslayer,  being filmed on location at our local Dunskey Estate.

Mr and Mrs Orr Ewing and the film production team, Stronghold London Limited, kindly invited the pupils to join them to learn a little about how movies are made.  The period film is being directed by Stuart Brennan  who also stars in the movie along with Carolina Carlsson, Ryan Gage and Ellie-Rose Mackinlay.

We all met around the fire pit where we were entertained with a lively talk about life in medieval times by actor and director, Stuart Brennan.  We saw replica weapons and had the opportunity to look at period costume examples. We then got to witness a sword fight and found out how each step is carefully choreographed over a long period of time to get it just right.

Next, we were invited on set, in the woods, to watch an scene being filmed.  We could see the many different people who work in the industry who are required to film scenes and make film production possible.  This experience helps children understand the varied career paths and options that might be available to them in the future.

It was an insightful experience which the children thoroughly enjoyed.  Everyone was given a little memento of the day; a laminated shooting schedule for today’s filming signed by the stars of the film.

Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible.

P4-7 headed up to the woods in the sunshine  today to gather natural materials to create symmetrical pictures.  We had the challenge of finding matching items of similar size and and shape such as leaves, twigs, grasses and pine cones etc.

Back at school, we created a line of symmetry on a large sheet of paper.  The children had to work in pairs using their soft skills of cooperation, idea sharing and negotiation to agree their layout theme.

They carefully selected and placed natural materials to produce symmetrical pictures with similar parts facing each other as a mirror image.

The children have been very creative in combining art with maths today.  Have a look at their lovely symmetrical pictures.

Successful Learners

 

 

 

P4 – 7 kicked off Maths Week by learning about how architects use maths and science in their jobs to design structures.

We looked around our classroom to identify the range of 2D and 3D shapes that were visible.  Despite the drizzle, we extended our observation by going for a walk in the village to see how many other shapes we could identify.  We found a wide range.  The older buildings provided a greater range of shapes in their structures. We made sure to look up to spot the triangular prism shapes of roofs and the triangular structures on dorma windows.

We discussed why the square and rectangular shapes were more common on modern buildings; with their properties of tiling and tessellating easily together.

We created a tally chart of our shape spotting.  We then used technology to plot a graph of our results before we analysed our data by answering a range of questions.  For example; Why do you think this structure has been designed this way?   How does this shape provide structural support?

Have a look the photos of our activity.

Successful Learners

P1-4 joined Elizabeth Tindall on the beach yesterday as part of the Rhins Coastal Path Project. Thankfully the sun was shining (although Mrs McHarg & Mrs Rice both wished they took their gloves with them!!).

The pupils had a fun filled morning learning lots about various things on the beach. First, we had a nurdle hunt – these are small pellets of plastic that get washed up on the shore line. We hunted for limpets and sea aenmones and learned why/how limpets stick to the rocks on the beach.

Next, we searched for some perfectly sized stones and cleaned them in the rock pools (some children were also “cleaned” after slipping into the water…!!). Whilst waiting for our stones to dry, we listened to Elizabeth tell a story using her story stones and then used acrylic pens to create our own.

After a break, Elizabeth explained about the different types of seaweed on the beach and we went to see how many different types we could find – the most common ones were bladder rack, sea lettuce and sugar rack. Pupils seemed rather horrified to learn that toothpaste has seaweed in it, as does some types of ice-cream!!!

At the start of our session, we found some larger stones to place at the edge of the sea, so to finish off our session we went to find our stones – but they were no where to be seen! Elizabeth then explained that the tide moves in and out over the course of the day, and we played a little game at the edge of the water (although some overly-enthusiastic pupils ran a bit too fast and didn’t stop at the edge of the water, ending up with soggy feet!!!).

Everyone had a fab morning and learned lots about the beach. Huge thanks to Elizabeth for the past 2 days’ input – we are really looking forward to our next session with Suzi next week!

Today P 4- 7 joined Elizabeth Tindal for another outdoor session in the glorious sunshine.  We walked up the steps at the start of the Southern Upland Way path.  As we strolled, we took time to observe the different fauna and flora that grew along the pathway.

We tasted edible leaves, which were a bit nippy on the tongue and discussed salt environment hardy species of flowers such as the pink sea campion.  We learned that this plant  thrives along the coastline.  There were a few butterfly visitors to the flowers as we watched.  As the seed pods were ready, we gathered and scattered some seeds to help the species propagate and support our insect wildlife.

Next, we recycled card with a strip of double sided tape along it. We used this to gather a collection of plant colours and textures as we walked farther along.  We were careful to only pick tiny samples from each of the plants. There was a kaleidoscope of colours to choose from.

We even got to get up close and personal with an insect.  Can you identify it? 😉

Successful Learners

P4 – 7 spent the morning at our lovely, local beach today as part of our participation in the Rhins Coastal Paths Project. We were joined by Anna Johnson, Countryside Development Office and Elizabeth Tindal.

A further session with Susi Briggs, songwriter, will follow to develop our song writing skills using our session events as a stimulus.

The session began by us going on a beach forage. The children worked in pairs to bring back one object they knew something about and one thing they wanted to find out about. We found and discussed a wide variety of seaweed, crab claws, mermaid’s purses and the like. We learned that seaweed comes in three main colour groups: red, green and brown. We also discovered that some varieties are edible when freshly picked.  There is even a sweet tasting one that was used in a blancmange recipe during WWII rationing.

Next, the boys and girls placed large stones on the edge of the water to see if the tide was coming in or out. Pretty quickly, our rocks were submerged showing an advancing tide.  The children enjoyed a wellie wade whilst we were at it 😉

We learned how to identify male and female crabs by the banding on their outer exoskeletons. We readily found live examples of crabs on the beach to study along with anemones and whelks. The children were fascinated by the rock pool life forms.

The session then moved on to our using story stones to link together a creative and imaginative tale using the images painted on the rocks as features in our story. The children gathered a stone of their liking and decorated it with a picture using acrylic pens. These will be used in a future story telling and song writing session planned for the following week.

As a final activity, everyone gathered two more stones which we studied. We learned how many stones are formed e.g. sedimentary or volcanic. Our stone treasures were used as percussion instruments to produce a musical tune in groups. Different sounds were produced by rubbing surfaces together or tapping the stones together gently or with more pressure for volume.

It was all too quickly time to return to school for our lunch. The children thanked Anna and Elizabeth for a very informative and enjoyable outdoor learning session.

Successful Learners