Hi P5b readers, I wanted to update you on what we have been doing in our most recent Learning Journeys 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. Thank you for the donations of materials, it was greatly appreciated! 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.

This week we started our new Learning Journey called the cost of tourism. This will involve exploring the links between travelling and the impact tourism can have on the environment. P5B have begun 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.

Hello to all the P5B blog readers, it’s Mr Atkinson here! As you will know this year I am doing NCCT for P5B 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 the Meta-Skills; leading, feeling and integrity. The children have been encouraged to consider the feelings of others by discussing how we can support each other when we are upset. To help with our discussions about integrity the pupils shared a time when they were faced with a moral dilemma and explained how they managed the situation. 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!