Uncategorized – Page 9 – Imagining Aberdeen

Creating Praise Poems at Riverbank

Today at Riverbank we were gathering important information about each member of the class so that at the end of the project we can present each child with their very own Praise Poem! Praise Poems were used by ancient cultures to celebrate great and important people. The idea behind these is to say a big ‘THANK YOU’ to all the children for all their input, ideas and hard work over the last few months and to act as a reminder to them of what they have learnt about themselves, especially as a learner.

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We had to think about how nature can reflect our personality. Leon felt he was like a rainbow of jelly beans, happy, colourful and sweet! Sean decided that he was like a monkey because he liked climbing and could be a bit mischievous at times. Quite a few of us felt like we were like the sea but Bartek added more description by saying he was like the waves.

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We also had to think back to when we did our treasure maps and remind ourselves of some of the learning treasures we felt we were good at. Encouragingly, many of the class said that they would keep going even if it was hard, therefore showing that they were more resilient than they may have been at the start. Imagination was another key one, as was listening to and understanding others showing that as a class they are sensitive to others and good at showing empathy.

Now that I have collected all the information I will make them into poems which we can read out to each other as a class.

The beginnings of our Praise Poems

As we are nearing the end of the project we, as facilitators, wanted to give something back to the children for all their input and hard work over the last few months. So we are using the concept of ‘Praise Poems’ which are used in many different cultures to express each learners positive characteristics and learning attributes.

Phase 1 of creating our Praise Poems meant we had to do a bit of investigating to find out what our strengths were and what we were like as a learner.

This was a lot of fun as we had to think of different ways to describe ourselves. Kate felt she was ‘as positive as Miss Mitchell’ and Kyleena discovered she was ‘very good at the Treasure maps we did and felt she was particularly good at keeping going and getting on well with others’.

Cameron found out that he is really good at giving advice and people often come to him for help, and Broghan likened herself to snowflakes as they danced around making pretty patterns and colours!

For Phase 2 we will create poems out of the information gathered as a group and create individual Praise Poems for each child which will then be gifted to them at the end of the project.

Exploring our learning environment

This week at Children’s Parliament we have been looking at how our environment effects our learning. We focused on four main areas which were: what makes a healthy school, what makes a happy school, what makes a safe school, and how we can do our best.

Together, in small groups we made mind maps of all the different factors we could could think of and the discussed it as part of a wider group. Here are some of our findings:

One thing we thought of for healthy was the importance of exercise. We had an opportunity to participate in the mile run challenge today and some of us even managed to score some house points! We also thought that having a healthy breakfast and snack could help by giving us energy and get our brains working.

Some things which made us happy included: Fridays, using the computers, play time, spending time with friends and helping each other.

Thinking of things which kept us safe was a bit harder but we decided that the school was secure with the self locking doors, the receptionists who didn’t allow strangers in and having PSAs in the playgroup during break. We also thought about the importance of safety outside of school such as looking both ways before crossing the road.

Finally, we looked at how we could do our best in school. Things such as working hard, listening to the teacher and helping each other were all key points. Other important ideas included: respecting others, not being violent towards anyone and following the rules.

Why don’t you have a think and see if you can come up with some more as we would love to have your input!

What helps us get a good education?

Today at P5b in Riverbank we were exploring what factors can help our learning. The four key themes were: healthy, happy, safe, and doing our best. In small groups we collected ideas for each theme and then discussed what we’d come up with in a larger group setting.

Jennifer felt fruit and vegetables were important to keep us healthy and school helped us by giving us healthy lunches. Exercise, such as P.E helped to keep us fit and healthy as did fresh air.

Story time, playing the piano and Rainbow time all featured highly in things which made us happy in school. Rhiannan particularly enjoyed: ‘making new friends and learning new stuff.’

Deniss felt that the walls around the school keep us safe to stop strangers coming in and fire alarms were good to help us if there was a fire.

Finally, when we were looking at doing our best we thought that listening to our teachers helped us to learn and sometimes it could be helpful to look at thing on the walls or ask someone else for help.

Learning treasures at Riverbank

For the last week at Riverbank we have been hunting for learning treasures. Each treasure describes a different aspect of learning and we had to figure out if we felt it was like us as a learner or if it was not like us as a learner. We plotted these on treasure maps so we could see clearly what we felt about each treasure.

Rhiannan found that she was very good at ‘keeping going and getting on well with others.’

Whereas Samantha enjoys ‘imagining and listening to others and understanding how the feel.’

We also challenged ourselves to think of one learning treasure we would like to use more in our learning and Franco felt that he would like to be able to ‘manage distractions better.’

Healthy Happy Safe

We at Children’s Parliament believe that every child has a right to an education in a setting where they are healthy, happy and safe and have an opportunity to do their best. In small groups we had a look at each of these factors individually and then discussed our answers as a class.

Some of the ideas we came up with to make our school a healthier place included: no litter, clean and safe spaces to play outdoors, healthy school meals and fruit from the tuck shop. We also felt that exercise was very important and realised that there were many different ways to do this.

Things which made us happy included: friends, sumdog, people giving respect, teachers and PSAs, our families, break time and when ‘Miss Murray gives P6 a good comment’.

Things which made us feel safe included: Teachers and PSAs, lollipop man/woman, our families, the new fence and the safe doors, learning about first aid and Miss Gray making sure no strangers come in.

Finally, we looked at how we could do our best in school. Some of the ideas we came up with included: to keep going and not give up, not allow ourselves to get distracted, having a nice environment to work in and using some of the things we’ve have learnt in Children’s Parliament.

Looking for a new year’s resolution for 2017?

These 30 ideas for adults come from the children who are Imagining Aberdeen…. Go on! Pick one!

My new year’s resolution is that I will:

Spend less time on my phone
Give up smoking
Drink less alcohol
Spend more time having fun with my kids
Be a good role model for children
Realise children make mistakes and so I won’t get angry with them
Give children more respect
Stop swearing in front of children
Take more interest in my children’s work
Always treat people the same
Not be sad, be happy
Always smile
Get on better with my family
Help my children to learn to stay safe
Shout less
Give help to people when they need it badly
Give more love to my kids
Do what I can to stop racism
Do what I can to stop bullying
Do what I can to stop killing and bombing
Not leave my children in the house
Get on better with my children’s grandparents
Won’t lie to my kids (surprises are okay)
Stop drinking in front of my children
Help my children with everything
Eat healthier
Do more exercise
Go to the gym
Stop taking drugs
Do stuff with my children that they want to do

Plotting learning treasures

The treasure chest is full of ideas about how children learn. The treasures are written on individual scrolls and put in a treasure box. Every child is given a treasure map and they have to plot the learning treasures depending on how much they are like them as a learner.

‘The learning treasure I would like to use more in my learning is I can manage distractions because I get distracted so easily from noise. I could manage distractions by wearing ear defenders. I would then stop going in tantrums as I would be able to get on with my work.’

Freya

‘The learning treasure I would like to use more in my learning is learning with others. I don’t use this because I don’t get on with other folk and shout at them. If we did work well together, we could help each other with the times tables, like if they are bad at the two times table and I am bad at the six times table, then we can help each other.

Brooke

‘I notice things – if I have made a mistake I go back and look at it and see it. The learning treasure I am going to use is watch and learn. I don’t do this a lot as I get worried people think I am copying them and they would tell the teacher. I don’t want to get into trouble.’

Katrina

‘I’d like to use the learning treasure listen and understand how people feel. This could be done by not shouting out anymore or speaking to them in a quiet place. Instead of shouting out you could go outside the class and calm down. I find it hard not to shout out – you want to have your answer out there and listened to.’

Brooklyn

Merry Christmas from the Imagineers

‘We had Christmas lunch with every Imagineer. We made a 2017 because it is the new year and we have been working with the Children’s Parliament for a year. One group covered the 2, one the 0 and so on. We covered it in paper and coloured it in with sharpies. We put the 2017 on the ground and took a photo for a card and the blog. We came up with ideas for new year resolutions for adults – things they should get rid of and do. I wrote ‘spend more time with your kids’. We have chicken, pizza and sausage rolls for Christmas lunch. It was great because it was with all my friends and good food.

I feel happy that I have changed Aberdeen a bit by getting more people to look at Children’s Rights.’

Aidan

‘We wrote how we felt and what we were doing on the back of photographs of some of the things we have done as Imagineers. Colin read out scrolls with poems about all the Imagineers – what we are like and how good we are.’

Katie

Treasure hunting at Bramble Brae!

Today at Bramble Brae we went on a treasure hunt. We were exploring some of the different learning treasures available to us and looking and which ones we felt we possessed and which ones we would like to become more like.

Kate felt she was very good at ‘listening and understanding how other people feel and she wanted to work on asking questions.’

Quite a few of us noticed that we identified with characters other than the one we picked and we could also see who we would like to become more like.

Alex wanted to become ‘more resilient like Robert and not to give up.’ Nicole and Cameron felt that they were good at ‘keeping going like Robert.’

The treasure maps were great for helping us recognise our strengths and look at how we come become more like our learning characters.