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.

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!

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.

We started off the new term by continuing with our Jolly Phonics, three new sounds a week, also the introduction of tricky words which will help with our reading.   We also have been give a reading book which will be changed twice a week.   Our class won the Shine award for October along with P6A.   The tens frames work has been developed so we are now using this for adding.   In our theme, we have discussed the weather and enjoyed finding out about different cloud formations.  Fiona Burnett visited us to tell us about recycling.   In the gym hall, we have used The Carnival of the Animals music to work on creative dance.  Primary 1 have also started on their craft for the Hythehill Craft Fayre, which will be held at the beginning of December.