Welcome back to the P5a blog! We hope you enjoy reading about what we have be exploring with Mr Atkinson in his Learning Journeys.

Last term we finished our cost of tourism Learning Journey which has helped us to learn about different parts of the world. We explored the links between travelling and the impact tourism can have on the environment. Mr Atkinson also helped us to translate  different types of vehicles and common phrases that you might use at an airport into French. The class was then challenged to construct modes of transport using K’Nex and create labels for them in French. As we become more confident with how to read and write different directions in French we then created maps of towns and wrote key locations in French. Working with partners, we provided instructions for our friends to see if they could navigate around our drawings and list the places they could visit. Afterwards we investigated which areas and countries around the world speak French and through applying our knowledge of time we calculated the time differences between these locations. We also solved Maths questions about time to find out durations of flights and how to convert 12 and 24 hour time. Equipped with all of this knowledge we then considered how you would organise a trip to Paris. In groups we discussed the different travel options,  researched famous places tourists would want to see, reflected on how long it may take to reach each place and how much time would be needed to eat at locations. Finally we compared the cultural differences between Scotland and France.

After returning from the holidays we have started our new Learning Journey, Earth’s Resources. In class we have been learning about the properties of different types of rocks and we have been pretending to be geologists by going outside and looking for unusual stones.

Hi P5a readers, I wanted to update you on what we have been doing in our most recent Learning Journey since my last entry.

I am delighted to share that the pupils confidently applied many of the Meta Skills when constructing their wonderful models for stopping and collecting marine litter. Whilst working in their groups the pupils displayed brilliant adapting, initiative, collaborating, leading, communicating and critical thinking when proposing and designing a solution to address this global issue.

The class has also utilised their curiosity when investigating different types of litter and then they researched how long it takes for them to degrade. Pupils were shocked to learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the state of Arrochar’s beach after discovering it was acting as a sink where litter gathered when it washed ashore. Inspired from the Keep Scotland Beautiful online lesson, the children took notes on the cleanliness of a variety of Scottish waterways and explored what was being done to prevent them being polluted. To help illustrate how marine litter can travel all around the world the children created a map and tracked the journey of 28,000 plastic bath toys that fell overboard and were surprised to learn that even after all these years some rubber ducks were being found in America and Scotland! To deepen their knowledge of the conditions of oceans, the class typed up ‘blogs’ about major environmental incidents and they shared their views on the damage these have had on marine life.  We also discussed how using different colours, shapes, artistic styles and materials can help evoke emotions when looking at artwork. With this in mind, everyone created their own marine themed artwork using tissue paper and litter to highlight the impact humans have on sea life.

Thank you for the donations of materials throughout this Learning Journey it was greatly appreciated!

Hello to all the P5A blog readers, it’s Mr Atkinson here! As you will know this year I am doing NCCT for P5A with a focus on developing Crookfurs Enquiry Based Learning approach so I wanted to give you an update of what we have been doing.

Before beginning our new Learning Journeys the class has revisited some of the Meta-Skills that were introduced to them last year such as communicating, collaborating and creativity. Recently we have explored two new Meta-Skills, leading and feeling. The children have been encouraged to consider the feelings of others by discussing how we can support each other when we are upset. They have also reflected on the importance of learning from mistakes rather than holding onto the feeling of disappointment when getting a question wrong. The pupils had a fantastic time applying their leadership qualities during a boardroom scenario. In this situation one pupil was late to the meeting and under guidance from the ‘boss’ the latecomer had to use the clues to guess what was being discussed – which led to some great hilarity!