As well as our usual learning, we had some spooky play in P2a this week. We used our fine motor skills, number bonds and spelling skills.  Here is our week in our own words.

We were making pumpkins.  We used paper, glue and pompoms. (JM)

I added lots of strips and I had to use lots of glue (SK)

It’s really hard but when you tried a few times it worked out. (CA)

I didn’t know how to do it but then I made two!  I added four pompoms. (EG)

I cut out a skeleton.  We glued it onto paper.  I really liked mine.  It’s a rock star skeleton (BO)

We worked together to make one.  We had to work out how small the pieces had to be.  Then we cutted it to the right size.  We used loads of glue. (ZL)

I finished mine but I found it tricky.  I got gluey fingers! (TG)

We gathered white boards together to make a big haunted house.  It was a bit tricky but it was easy too.  There was a big army at the bottom and they’re were trying to kill all of the monsters in the haunted house. They had vampires, zombies and ghosts and skeletons and spiders.  There were people trapped in the dungeon saying “Help”.  We used a speech bubble. (LG)

We made a spider wall. We used our spelling words on the legs (JF)

We put the sound in the middle on the body (TG)

I liked making the spider and writing the words on it.  I liked writing on the legs to learn about the sound (EC)

Mine looks like a fling spider because it’s high up the window! (ZL)

We had to get the numbers backwards and forwards in the spider.  If you found a number you put it in the cup.(MM)

We were trying to get the right numbers. You weren’t allowed to touch the spider web (JN)

We had to use calculations up to 20 with a partner to make a potion. (FR)

We used some spiders, some bats and some worms in our potion. (BM)

We had three French visitors to our classroom this week who were learning about school in Scotland.  We practised short conversations to say our name, our age and where we come from.  They were very impressed with our accents! We sang Frere Jacques in a canon.  Nous sommes  fantastique!

We used different resources to practise our maths skills this week.  We created subtraction calculations using skittles and used the laptops to create numbers using tens and units.

In Science, we have begun to explore different types of materials.  We had a class scavenger hunt to find different items that were hard, soft and smooth.

From this we talked about what the items were made of.  We found lots of wood, plastic, metal, glass and fabric in our classroom.  Then we moved outside… can you guess which materials we found in these photographs?

(metal)

(plastic)

(wood)

(glass)

(fabric)

We will use this knowledge to practise our sorting, designing and construction skills over the coming weeks.

In P2 we take part in a range of morning activities to practise a variety of literacy and numeracy skills. The boys and girls can choose from individual or partner activities to warm up their brains ready for learning.

One of our speedy skills jobs has been writing different words that start with d and b.

We have been learning about ay, ai and a_e sounds.  The boys and girls have thought up lots of their own examples.

“I made the alphabet using the cubes”.

We have been making 2 digit numbers using tens and units.

Here are some of our number bonds to 10 using numicon.

We have been using cubes to explore number families to 20.

We have made such a lot of progress in our play!

Lots of us choose to visit the construction area in our play.  Here, we learn to play co-operatively, share fairly and develop each others’ ideas.  When we create something, we use it imaginatively to tell stories and role play. Our structures are much more complex now, with more balancing and enclosing skills.  Look at our fabulous photos of work we were so proud of we took a photograph of it ourselves.

“This is a giant’s house with  steps and a slide to get in.”

“This is my boat in the water.  The water is the blue part and then we can see from the red part at the top.”

“This is a castle with some bad guys.  You can shoot from the top.  Some bits have fallen off but we fixed them together and made it better”

“This is a house with a man and a bit to crawl into.  We used some Lego and some of the blocks.  The balancing bit was hard”.

“We built this altogether.  It was hard because it fell down but we kept trying.  There are lots of windows.  It’s a townhouse”.

We have been learning all about different houses and homes as part of our IDL. At the start of term we discussed what we would like to find out about. We decided to set up our role play area as an estate agents. The boys and girls have had lots of fun taking customers notes and finding them a house that suits them.

We have learned about lots of different houses around the world and why people would live in them e.g. igloos for warmth.

We have also been looking at maps and directions. Using a map of our local area has helped us identify important landmarks in Newton Mearns.

There have been lots of opportunities for building new skills, such as working as a team and solving problems. We have worked together to make houses for the 3 little pigs, discussing what materials would work the best.

We have had lots of fun using different play provocations to make a variety of houses.

This week, we have used the laptops to reinforce our learning in 2D shape and to create Autum themed pictures to practise our clicking and dragging mouse skills.

We are becoming much more confident with our class camera to take photographs of work we are proud of in our jobs and in our play.

We welcomed the adults in our lives into our classroom this week to share our Houses and Homes work.  It was lovely to meet you!

This week, we have been continuing our Houses and Homes topic inside and outside, by making dens, role playing in our mud kitchen, creating Numicon buildings and creating homes for the three little pigs in our STEM area.

In PE, we have been using Houses and Homes in our warmup.  Can you guess which types of houses we are pretending to be?

(a bungalow)

(a townhouse)

This week, we have been using lots of different concrete materials and games to remember our number bonds. We have worked in pairs, in small groups and on our own.

We started our work on Houses and Homes this week. We like the word bungalow very much!  Ask us to tell you the names of different types of houses as we go out and about at the weekend.

P2B have really enjoyed taking part in our whole school Maths week. We have learned lots of new things and explored our exciting new maths trolley.

We took part in indoor and outdoor activities linked to our numeracy learning. We have explored different ways to make 20 using counters, rek and reks, cubes and numicon.

“I was trying to make 20 in lots of different ways”.

“We were using beads to make calculations to 20”.

Our outdoor area was a great place to investigate concepts, such as capacity, measure and ordering numbers.

“I used measuring sticks to see how long the pipes were”.

“We used pegs to see what side was heavier, one side went down”.

There were lots of opportunties for indoor exploration as well. We used geoboards to make pictures using different shapes, numicon to practise counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and lots more.

“I made a teepee with a triangle”.

“We were making buildings to 100”.

We are looking forward to using these new resources throughout our numeracy.

Welcome to P2a!  We’ve been settling into our new classroom investigating our new resources.

Our Work in Progress signs mean that we can leave our play and come back to it later.  This means we can play for longer to develop our ideas and work with different people.

We have been working together in our play.  Here, a group of children are creating shadows in our STEM area.

We’re looking forward to a year of exciting learning together.