This week we have had lots of Halloween fun across the classroom which has been linked to the learning taking place in class.

We used the rice, which had lots of creepy crawlies through it, to further our understanding of volume and capacity.

We had a go at drawing spooky spiders and spider webs which encouraged us to think about our pencil control.

We explored the numbers on the balls in the witches’ cauldron.

We enjoyed reading various books about Halloween.

Plus some Halloween colouring in the creative area.

This week we also started learning about Symmetry. We used some paper shapes to help support our understanding by folding the paper to create a line of symmetry.

We then used the boards and coloured pegs to help create our own patterns with a line of symmetry.

It was lovely to welcome the children back after the October holiday. On Monday afternoon, we took part in Circle Time to share our favourite part of the holiday and enjoyed hearing what each other did. We then drew a picture of this in our writing jotter 🙂

This week, as part of our learning about Measurement, we were learning about Volume. We discussed the vocabulary we can use to describe the volume of liquid (or something else) in a container. We then explored various containers of different capacities and labelled them based on the vocabulary we had learned. This promoted lots of discussion and the sizes of the containers seemed to influence our decisions!

We then used the knowledge we had learned the following day to complete a game on the iPad. This tested our understanding of the vocabulary.

We were so excited to visit our P6 Buddies in their classroom. They very kindly showcased their recent learning about light to us and made this very fun and engaging!

In Literacy we have been working hard each week with our reading books. We discuss the front cover and the title and make a prediction based on this. We then look at the key words in the story and use these and the picture clues to support us when reading the sentences.

We have been developing our sound recognition by putting the picture on the correct sound that it begins with.

We worked with a partner to match the Pink Stage Common Words and helped each other with words that were tricky to read.

We have also been learning about making sounds. We have been exploring musical instruments and keeping the beat and have started to think about other sounds in the environment around us.

We listened to The Three Billy Goats Gruff on Musical Storyland and used the ‘trip trapping’ across the bridge to help keep the beat with the egg shakers.

Some of us continued this learning by creating a ‘band’ and keeping the beat together.

We then took our learning outdoors to the garden. We explored various sounds we could make with the materials in the garden.

At the end of Thursday there were lots of smiles as we look forward to the holiday. The girls were delighted they made three starfish from the sand 🙂

Thank you to all that visited our classroom on Tuesday for Pop in and Play. We hope you enjoyed exploring our classroom and completing the activities related to our story of the week, Supertato!

We were tying up Evil Pea by threading around him which helps develop our fine motor skills and we used our creativity in the block area by building a jail for Evil Pea. We also designed our own Super Potatoes and lots of us enjoyed printing with the vegetables.

We have been learning about ‘more than and less than’ in class and demonstrated this at the tuff spot. We could count out the potatoes to help us.

It was lovely to see the children enjoy the afternoon with the grown ups that could attend and a delight to see how proud they were of their classroom!

This week we had lots of fun in the sun exploring our P1 garden.

Making a flower pie.

It is a ‘lava canon’!

Looking after the bugs in the bug hotel.

As it was Maths Week Scotland we took our learning outdoors. We discussed the vocabulary used in measure such as longer and shorter. We then made our own tower with the cubes and use this to help us measure anything we could find in the garden. There was lots of discussion and comparing of sizes.

The highlight of the week was the Colour Run and throughout Thursday the excitement was definitely building! Here are our before and after pictures, we were delighted with how colourful and wet we were at the end and we were all full of smiles!

At the beginning of the week we went on a shape hunt around our classroom. We focussed on 2D shapes but some of us were also able to spot some 3D shapes. We had to work with a partner and recorded the number of shapes we found with tally marks.

We have also been exploring numbers 1-10. This week we have been ordering numbers, identifying numbers before and after and determining the missing number on a number line. We have been doing this using number cards, number lines and enjoyed exploring a game on the iPads.

In PE we have been focussing on Fitness and thinking of different ways we can move our bodies to help keep us fit. This week our lesson took the theme of animals. We had to try and move like a particular animal which made many of us giggle!

We are moving like brown bears.

Crawling slowly like a tortoise.

Jumping like a rabbit.

For writing we have moved onto Drawing Club which is allowing us to link our writing to a story and develop a richer understanding and more detailed drawings. This week we read ‘Aliens Love Underpants’. Each week we draw something based on the character in the story, the setting of the story and then we draw and adventure based on the story. This week we drew some very detailed aliens, drew the planet that the aliens lived on and then had to think of a way to get the aliens home as their spaceship had broken down.

We have huge imaginations in P1A and thought they could bounced up to their planet on a giant trampoline or capture their planet with a lasso and bring it down to earth.

In our Creative Area we made our own aliens with lots of different materials.

There has been lots more building happening as we explore our classroom more and it has been lovely to see some teamwork happening too!

This week we have been learning about pattern. We started off by completing patterns and had to look carefully at the colour or shape to determine what came next.

We then created our own patterns with 2D shapes.

We also explored patterns around us and were all very intrigued when we looked at the patterns on the sole of our shoes!

We took a walk outside to find patterns in our environment. We found stripes on the cladding, patterns on the tyres, lines on the road and the pattern created from bricks.

The most exciting part of all was collecting leaves so we could explore the patterns on them the following day.

To explore the patterns we had a go at crayon rubbing!

We are currently using Numberblocks to help us with our number recognition and counting. We have enjoyed using a variety of resources to support us with this and some of us are even displaying our own creativity.

We have been using Number Zoo stories to help us form our numbers correctly and have been learning to write a new number each day.

We demonstrated team work this week by painting a beautiful background to display our self-portraits. It took a lot of time and effort to ensure the background was complete. We then discussed what we need to include in our self-portrait such as our heads, bodies, arms and legs along with the detail in our faces.

It has been so lovely watching the boys and girls settle into Primary 1 over the past week and a half. Already, they have adapted well to the school day and are learning rules and routines along the way. They are all making new friends and some are enjoying time with friends they already knew. Our classroom is already changing as I get to know the children and watch them play. Here are some photos of them exploring and enjoying their new classroom.

We are developing our Phonological Awareness skills and this week went on a Listening Walk around the school grounds. We heard different types of birds, cars, lorries and children playing. Some of us were sure we also heard a dog barking in the distance. We then drew and discussed what we had heard when we returned to the classroom.

In Primary 1 we initially learn to write through drawing and are encouraged to add as much detail as possible to our drawings. This week we drew a picture to match the sentence ‘I am splashing in the puddles.’

In Numeracy and Maths we have been focusing on counting strategies and numeral recognition. Here we are using ten frames to support our counting skills.

For Health and Wellbeing we are learning about our families. We have discussed that every family can look different and it doesn’t matter how big or small your family is, it is important that you feel loved! We drew a picture of our families and also enjoyed a circle time were we shared what we love to do with our families.