Mr Stewart | Primary 1b 2018-2019

We couldn’t have asked for more fun filled, fantastic first term in P1B!

All of the children made a super start and wasted no time making use of absolutely every aspect of their exciting new school environment!

Our first topic of the term was ‘People Who Help Us’. We learnt all about the different people in our community who help us including Doctors, Nurses, Fire fighters, Teachers, Vets and we were even lucky enough to have a visit from a real life Police Officer! We asked him lots of questions about his job and even got to try on some real Police uniform.

We used non-fiction books and the school i pads to help us to find out information about the job a Fire Fighter. In Art we learnt how to mix red and yellow to make orange so that we could create Fire paintings of our own!

All of this information helped us to recreate the everyday lives and jobs of these people who help us through role play in the classroom.

In Numeracy this term we started by learning about different sorts of patterns; shape patterns, colour patterns, number patterns, picture patterns and patterns in the environment! We started by copying simple patterns and then moved on the creating our own patterns using resources in the classroom and outside.

We have also been learning how to collect and analyse data by collecting different objects and learning how to ask questions such as ‘What is your favourite colour?’ to gather information. Using pictures, objects, tally marks and numbers we learnt how to organise and display our findings in different ways.

Here we are on a walk around Pollokshields collecting data on different types of buildings in the area. We made tally marks on a chart to record how many houses, flats, shops, schools and places of worship we could see.

In P1B we LOVE numbers, which is very handy because we have been doing A LOT of counting! This term we have been focussing on numbers 0-20, counting verbally, counting objects 1:1, recognising numbers, ordering and sequencing numbers and even having a go at writing them!

Shape, shape, what’s that shape? What’s that shape I see? https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/clips/zhnvcdm

We’ve also been learning about simple 2D shapes and their properties. We played lots of guess the shape games and had a go at making shapes out of natural materials outside.

In Literacy we have been focussing on learning the first 2 sets of sounds in the Jolly Phonics programme (s,a,t,I,p,n,c,e,r,h,m). We have been learning 2 new sounds each week and do lots of activities both inside and outside to help us learn how to recognise and say the sound, write the sound and to learn what words start with that sound.

On a treasure hunt for things that start with the sound ‘t’.

Sorting objects that start with the sounds and blending the sounds together with our racing cars to read the word.

Making the sound ‘C’ using Conkers.

In P1B we also LOVE reading! We read at least one story as a class each day and are given time to choose our own books and talk about them with friends. In Term 1, A secret book bug delivered a very special new reading mat and some new books. It was a beautiful afternoon so we worked together as a class to put together the pieces of the reading mat outside. We sat down and talked about how to treat our books with care, how to turn the pages and looked at and named all the different parts of the book (the front cover, the back cover, the author, the illustrator, the writing and the illustrations). We looked at the differences between fiction (story books) and Nonfiction (information books) and discussed which books we liked best and why.

We were also lucky enough to take a trip to the library. We walked sensibly all the way from school to Pollokshields library, talking about all the different things we could see along the way and making sure to hold our partners hand and stay safe when crossing the roads. At the library we learnt about the different books they have to offer and listened to a story read by the library staff.

Our second big topic of the term was Construction. We used traditional tales such as the 3 little pigs to learn about different building materials and used different construction equipment in the classroom to make and build.

We looked at different buildings and structures around the world and learnt about how they are designed and made. In art we used junk material and worked in teams to make our very own giant Big Ben and Eiffel Tower.

We had a very special visit from a digger at School!

We used our new toys to role play being builders outside. We learnt how to make cement and replicated it in our play.

As Term 1 was coming to a close, the children noticed that the leaves were starting to fall off of the trees and our outdoor environment was starting to change. Autumn had officially arrived and we had lots of fun using our senses to explore and learn about the changing of the seasons and what that meant for living things in our environment.

We read a story called The Bog baby by Jeanne Willis which is all about a very interesting little pond creature. We listened to descriptions of The Bog Baby and without seeing the pictures, we predicted what it looked like and made our own. We also went pond dipping to see if we could catch our own little Bog Baby…but unfortunately we didn’t have any luck! We think it was probably a bit too cold for Bog Babies!