Anne Lowe from Childsmile visited P1 to talk about how to clean teeth properly and about having healthy teeth and gums. She said we had to brush our teeth for two whole minutes. We pretended to brush our teeth for two minutes – it was a long time! She brought a dragon with her, who had not looked after his teeth. Oh dear!
Thank you Anne for visiting us.
This year P3 have been very lucky to have some expert music input every Monday from Mrs Gillies. We have learnt how to clap the beat and tap out rhythms. Instruments we have learnt to play are – glockenspiels, tambourines, bongo drums and woodblocks. We have used these to accompany our songs “The Flintstones” and “Stone Age Man” which is sung to the tune of “We Will Rock You! by Queen.
It’s such good fun and we all love it! Hopefully we will soon be ready to perform our music to some of the early stage classes.
First we discussed what made a good group :
Next we researched the insides of the homes which were found at Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands in 1851. We worked out together what the success criteria would be for designing and building a stone dresser.
We planned our dressers choosing the materials we would use and drawing a quick sketch of what it would like. After the dressers were finished, we assessed our own against the success criteria and then the work of another group.
We were learning to work together, to problem solve, to persevere and how to give and receive feedback.
Welcome to Primary 6 and Mrs Collins and Mrs Ward. This term we are learning about our class community and Meet the Greeks.
Welcome to Primary 4/5 blog.
We have had a very busy first time with Miss Graham. In numeracy we have been working really hard to develop our mental agility skills. We have learnt a range of mental strategies, such as partitioning, counting on and back, doubles and near doubles, compensating and bridging through 10, to help with our addition and subtraction. We also focused on Place Value which gave us a better understanding of number and the value of digits. We discovered that some people found particular strategies easier than others to solve mental calculations. Using a range of games and activities to practice with our peers made our numeracy time fun.
In our writing we focused on the genre of persuasion. Before we started, we looked at examples and identified the features they include. For example, paragraphs, appropriate title, flattering and worrying language. We wrote a few pieces of writing such as a Hotel Brochure, an advert for a house and even a letter to Mrs Gilbert, trying to persuade her to let us go on holiday during term time. Although our letters were very persuasive, it might take more than just a letter this time!! 🙂
Furthermore, in our spelling time we have been using active resources to help us learn our spelling patterns and words. We even use our k’nex to spell them out!!
Our Context for Learning in term 1 was Travel and Transport. We had lots of fun learning all about how transport has changed throughout history, different types of transport and travel, inventors, the forces of flight, internal combustion engine and even took part in team challenges to build models of both cars and boats. Skills such as being good listeners, sharing and being fair all helped us complete our tasks successfully.
Throughout Term 1 Primary 4/5 also learnt about feelings and how different reactions can either be healthy or unhealthy. We discussed the times when we have felt these different feelings and shared how we reacted. We’ve also been trying really hard to have a growth mind set. We learnt that our brain is a muscle and that when we try new and challenging things our brains grow and get stronger. Everyday we have been trying to face new challenges with a positive outlook and know that although we find it hard that we should just keep trying.
We all got very creative sewing food bags with bone needles ( bodkins) and animal gut (wool). Once we had sewn up two sides we had to attach a handle and then decorate the front and back with Stone Age symbols and patterns.
Stone Age clay coil pots were really good fun to make but our hands got very messy!Stone Age people would have collected their clay from river beds. We learnt how to coil the clay round and round the base. Once these were completed we composed a set of instructions, learning that we need to start each step with a bossy verb. We then worked in pairs to put the steps into the correct sequence.
Beads were made from clay then allowed to dry. We then chipped the top off limpet shells and designed a necklace which we then threaded. Just look at how proud we are of our work!
We invited Di Hannan from Elgin Museum to come and talk to us about how people would have lived in the Stone Age. She brought a box of artefacts for us to look at and touch. We were able to see arrow heads, hand axes and flint tools up close. There was a whole deerskin for us to handle and we were able to grind grain into flour using a quernstone.
After Di’s visit we wrote thank you letters and designed and created posters to persuade people to visit the Stone Age display at Elgin Museum.
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As part of our theme on the Stone Age we decided to be hunters and gatherers, collecting brambles to cook and eat. Before we left school we did a risk assessment and we were very good at spotting what the dangers could be. The main one was crossing the road so we spoke about how to keep safe. We also decided that we needed to know what was safe to pick, as some berries can be poisonous. On the way we saw lots of berries growing in gardens that were poisonous. Brambles were picked, taken back to school, washed and cooked. We had to be careful of the stinging nettles – Mrs Summers was the first person to be stung! We looked for dockleaves and rubbed them on the sting to take the itch away.
Stone Age people would not have had sugar but they would have had honey so that’s how we sweetened them.We all tried eating the brambles and kept the juice to paint Stone Age pictures with a stick
(the wrong end of a paintbrush). It was great fun!
Primary 6’s first term began with pupils getting to know each other and their school community. They have settled well to having two teachers, Mrs Hemmings, Monday and Tuesday and Mrs Gray, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
In the curriculum, for language pupils have covered Report Writing, learning to write newspaper reports, diary extracts and letters based around their theme of Mary queen of Scots.
In Maths we have focused on Place Value, addition, subtraction, and multiplication, as well as 2D and 3D shape where they made nets and skeletons of shapes. The children also have a personal times table challenge each week to encourage them to learn their tables and table facts.
For P.E. with the class teacher, the children were involved in learning Kwik Cricket skills and with the P.E. Specialist, Mr Custodio they were developing rugby skills and how to improve their fitness. As a nationwide initiative, the children have been taking part in the Daily Dash and have shown great improvement in their stamina and fitness.
The children have enjoyed learning about Mary Queen of Scots through their theme, looking at her early life in France and continuing into her later life and imprisonment, culminating in a mock trial which included dressing up in period costume. Much of their learning focused on them developing their research skills. Some high points where making a Tudor Rose and Tudor Houses and also long-stitched tapestry.
Along with P6A, the children presented the school Harvest Festival assembly in front of family and visitors from the local community. They then played host to them in their classroom and afterwards in the hall for refreshments.
Our new system of rewards Dojo is proving popular with the pupils and parents who are able to follow their child’s progress in class.
P6b Harvest Assembly
P6B Dressed up in period costume
In primary 2 we have been learning about 2d shapes. We can identify the names and properties of basic 2d shapes and have used this knowledge to create shape art work. We were given the task of creating a recognisable picture (not simply a picture of shapes) which needed to use the four basic shapes, square, circle, rectangle and triangle at least once. Each group then had to present their work to the rest of the class.
Working in groups – discussing what we are going to make, agreeing on a choice of picture and creating it.
Presenting our creations to the rest of the class and checking our work against the success criteria. We are all happy to report that we had all been (mostly) successful.
