P3b 2024-2025

As part of our I.D.L topic this term, we have been learning about the various systems of the human body. When exploring the digestive system, we decided to carry out some science experiments to help us deepen our understanding of the processes involved. To do this, we re-created the journey of food through the intestines and as you can see below, science is fun!

We have a wonderful group of Scouts, Brownies and Beavers in P3B who were eager to tell us about ‘World Thinking Day’. This is a global event where children are encouraged to celebrate international friendship, and speak out and raise awareness for issues facing young people today.

Hi there and welcome to the first IDL Blog of this year. It’s Mrs Dougall here. As you may know, I have a different role this year and I am now responsible for Inquiry Based Learning across P2, P3 and P4.  This means that I complete Learning Journeys with the children, starting with a problem/question and working towards them finding a solution using teacher and child led learning across different aspects of the Curriculum for Excellence.   I now teach P3B for 3 periods each week and it is so lovely to be part of their continuing Learning Journeys.

We started this year investigating how plants and animals depend on each other for food. We learned about food chains, developing this learning into food webs and then focused on environmental changes across the Great Barrier Reef.

We then began to focus on seasonality and the challenges of growing and planting in winter in Scotland. We created terrariums (mini greenhouses) and carefully monitored the temperature in them while watching what happened to our plants growing inside the jars.

We have also fitted in two short blocks of learning about Meta Skills, these are the skills that we use everyday in our learning and our Meta Skills Lessons help us to investigate the skills, apply them in practical situations and recognise the importance of them in our daily learning. Recognising how they use these Meta Skills will help equip the children  for the World of Work.

Our first Meta Skills focus was on Creativity and Curiosity and our next blocked focused on the skills for Communicating and Collaborating.  The class teachers work with us to apply these skills in all of our learning.

We are now a few weeks into our third Learning Journey of the year. Our Big Question is – What is Scottish Food? We have investigated the Top Ten Scottish Food Brands, dispelled some myths about the Scottish Diet and completed Food Maps to show the diversity of foods produced around the whole of Scotland.

It is so lovely to see how excited the children are during their learning journeys – they will be able to tell you all about our current developing Journey over the coming weeks.

Mrs Dougall

A big thank you to all the parents, grandparents and relatives who came to support the class during our open afternoons. The children were eager to share their learning of the human body and coding with you and it was wonderful to see everyone so engaged in all of the active learning stations!

As part of our Man vs Robot topic, we are engaging with different types of technologies and investigating what they are capable of and how humans can use these to enhance their day-to-day lives. Micro:bits are programmable, pocket-size computers that introduce the children to how software and hardware interact. They children were fascinated by these and quickly grasped how to create simple commands. Miss Lamb and the school digital leaders were there to help support our first experience with Micro:bits.

The children love their music lessons with Mrs Lyall (music specialist teacher for East Renfrewshire). During term 2, they will be exploring and listening to music and rhythms from other cultures and had a very lively, fun and interactive experience!

We have continued to work on developing our ball skills through learning to play tennis. Eye to ball tracking, holding and using the racket correctly and serving and returning have given us plenty to focus on. We will then move onto Badminton in the following weeks.

We would like to introduce Miss Gemmell, who is a student teacher on placement with P3b for the next 6 weeks. She has really enjoyed her first week getting to know the children and taking part in our open afternoon. I’m sure she will learn a lot during her time with us and have plenty of fun along the way!

Having designed and made our weapons, we decided to stage our own mock battle in the style of the Spartans and the Trojan armies. Both sides were extremely enthusiastic and competitive in their quest to be victorious! We discussed safety, rules of engagement and battle tactics. What a fun and active way to experience the past 🙂

As part of our I.D.L topic on Ancient Greece, we have been engaging in personal research and finding out the facts of the Trojan War. There were many heroes and clever tactics employed by both sides, the most famous being the ‘Trojan horse’. We were fascinated by the weaponry used at this time; materials and how armour and weapons were strategically used to maximum effect during battle. This inspired us to design and make our own swords and shields using our knowledge of the popular designs favoured by the great soldiers of the time.

KODAK Digital Still Camera