We looked at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting then we painted our versions of this famous painting.   Beautiful bright paintings are now on our classroom wall for all to see.   We painted Percy the Park Keeper too.  Lovely!

This was our third session with the Wildthings leaders, James , Ruaridh and Kate. There was great excitement as we travelled to Covesea Beach by minibus. The weather was sunny and pretty breezy as we walked down the coastal path to the beach. The sea was a beautiful turquoise colour and we spotted lots of colourful wild flowers.

Once there we played the Endangered Species game after talking about the animals around the world that are in danger. We found out what the threats are and how we can help by being conservationists and protecting the animals, their habitats and the environment.

We then spoke about how long it takes for items to break down before sorting items made of different materials onto a litter time line. Glass and plastic will last forever. They might break into smaller pieces but they never disappear. Natural materials break down quickly. Fraizer was a dead fulmar – he would rot away in about six months!

It was then time to do our bit to help the environment by carrying out a beach clean with litter pickers. We filled three bin bags of rubbish, most of it plastic. Good job P3A!

Before we walked back up the hill to the bus, we played a food cycle game called Otter, Trout and Midge.We can play this at playtime

What a lot we learnt and what fun we had. See you next week Wildthings!

Mrs Lucy Cramb, the Road Safety Education Officer, visited P1A to tell them all about crossing the road safely.   The children were told to STOP, LOOK, LISTEN, THINK and HOLD HANDS.   We all then went out into the playground and “crossed the road” safely in the playground.

We talked about flowers and the different parts of a flower.   We used the IWB to help us then we went out into the playground to draw chalk flowers.   Some were gigantic!

P1A have planted broad beans and vegetable seeds.   The children are very interested and excited about their plants and care for them everyday.  Spike the grass caterpillar was also planted and he will be needing a hair cut very shortly.

P3A  Term 3

Our theme was “Owls “ and  this led on to “Planet Earth”.

OWLS

We learnt about:

• the characteristics of different birds and how we could sort them
• food chains and how living things depend on each other
• an owl’s diet and dissected owl pellets
• different types of habitats and what might be found there
• Scottish wildlife from Ged Connell, the Countryside Ranger
• how we can protect barn owls and hedgehogs from danger – Conservation

PLANET EARTH

We researched facts about:

• the phases of the moon , the stars and the sun
• our solar system, the size and location of the planets
• shadows and sun dials – we had lots of fun doing outdoor learning one sunny day!

P3A – Term 4

Our theme is “Coastal Classrooms” and we will be working each week with leaders from Wildthings and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Most weeks our outdoor learning will take place at West Beach, Lossiemouth and we will then use this as a stimulus for follow up work in the classroom.

Through COASTAL CLASSROOMS we will learn about:

• the effect of the sun and moon on the tides
• life on the foreshore – sea creatures and plants
• all about seaweed and its uses
• the bottlenose dolphins living in the Moray Firth –the threats to them and how we can protect them
• John Muir, a famous Scottish conservationist who lived in America
• conservation of our beaches – beach litter and the threat it poses to the environment
• working together to create beach art
• having FUN

We have been learning about the weather and natural disasters this term. We carried out various scientific experiments linked to the water cycle. The children investigated the freezing and melting properties of water. We researched a number of natural disasters, including volcanoes and earthquakes.

We were lucky enough to have Stu Rolfe come and talk to us about radio

and radar waves during STEM week. He demonstrated how radio and radar waves work using a photo of a typhoon and ping pong balls! We found this a really interesting talk and had a lot of fun with string telephones and passing messages.