This week in Maths and Numeracy we have been learning to sort and display information.

“We used Venn diagrams to sort our materials.  You have to put the things in the correct place in the circles. You put something in the middle if its both things”.  (S)

“In the photo above you put the wooden circle in the middle because it is wood and a circle”. (H)

In this photo, we were sorting out things in the box. If it was blue it went where the blue whiteboard was, and if it was plastic it went where the plastic whiteboard was and if it was blue and plastic it went in the middle.” (G and M)

“We also used tally marks to record our sorting.  Once you’d done the tally marks you put the number in the last box”. (E)

“To make tally marks, you do four lines down and then one across”. (R).

“”As part of our mental maths we played a game.  We all had calculations and we swapped numbers around. Then we had to try and find groups of 4. There were two adds and two takeways in each group of 4 like this 5+10 =15, 10 + 5 =15, 15-5=10 and 15-10”. (B, S and G)

We have been working on identifying different types of materials, their properties and choosing materials to do specific jobs.

We combined all these skills in making houses to protect little paper people.  From our work on houses and homes, we knew that houses had to be strong and waterproof. We could choose from lego, jenga bricks, playdoh, bubblewrap, metal and wood.  Have a look at the results in our photos below….

We made the people to go in our houses out of paper and pens so if the water came through we would be able to tell. (B.O)

1. Our house was strong but not waterproof because the bubblewrap roof was too small. Our people got very soggy but it didn’t blow down! It was very delicate to move.

 2. We put lots of bubblewrap on the roof so the little people stayed dry. We used lego for the walls and because we thought that it would be strongest. We used the bubblewrap on top to make it waterproof.

3. Our house was strong but not waterproof. The roof didn’t blow down, but they got wet. We did lego for the walls and bricks for the roof.

4. Our house was strong.  We used lego and bricks. Putting it together was tricky. The jenga blocks and playdoh were tricky to put together. We used the bricks for the walls.

5. We used metal for the roof so the water wanted to go off it (run down).  The lego walls were strong. We didn’t have time to make big walls.

6. We made the walls from Jenga bricks because we thought it would be strong but it wasn’ so we kept adding more playdoh. Our people got a little bit wet.  The roof was made of lego.  We added extra bits into the gaps.

We had two houses that were strong and waterproof.  These were the best designs with the best materials.

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.

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”.

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.

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.