Tag Archives: active learning

Primary 2, Primary 3

P2/3 Term 1 Update

Hello and welcome to P2/3’s first blog post for the 23/24 school year.

The children have settled in to their new class (for some!) and their new routines fantastically.

Maths & Numeracy

This term we started by looking at Number Processes and Place Value. The children learned to count on and back from any number, read and write numbers in both numerals and words and also to order 1-digit and 2-digit numbers.

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Over the last few weeks of term, we have also been learning about Money. The children are encouraged to use their weekly budget of 25p to pay for art and craft items during Independent Learning so it was important to make sure they all have a good understanding of coin recognition and value, how to make amounts and how to calculate change.

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Literacy

Reading

We have been reading everyday during this term – in our reading groups, for Higher Order Reading and our class novel – The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton.

To help us better understand the text, we have been learning to predict what may happen next, to ask each other questions about the text and also to visualise ourselves as a character in the text and think about what we can see, hear, smell, taste and feel.Displaying IMG_9794.jpeg

Listening and Talking

Along with other schools in Forres, we undertook a specific listening and talking session to help us better understand how we can assess and ensure we are meeting the needs of the children in this area.

P2/3 really enjoyed the task – where they had to give and listen to instructions in order to build the same model as their partner!

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Writing

This term, we have using Wraparound Phonics and Wraparound Spelling strategies to help us understand letter patterns and their sounds.

In Talk for Writing, we have been learning the story of the Baby Mouse. We have learned how to write a good opening sentence and co-constructed the toolkit we should use for writing a journey story.

Health & Wellbeing

We started the term by talking about our feelings. We used the Colour Monster to discuss the feelings in colours which links to the Zones of Regulation. The children enjoy playing with the monster toys and are confident in using them to help talk about what makes them feel happy, sad, calm and angry.

In PE we have been focusing on learning the skills to move with control. So far we have practised the skills of balancing, dodging, falling and galloping.

Our Play Journey

In P2/3, we have at least one session per day of Independent Learning – play. The children have access to all the resources in the classroom, from construction toys like Lego, K’Nex and wooden blocks to art and craft materials, maths resources and loose parts. There is no pre-determined learning intention during this time, instead, we observe the children as they play so we can focus on the skills they are developing such as teamwork, problem solving, communication, collaboration and imagination.

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Thank you for reading our blog post – to see many more photos and find out more about our learning each week, please check our Google Classroom.

Mrs Franklin 😊

P6 2022

Term 3

What a fantastic term we have had in Primary 6.  We have had a term full of fun and new learning opportunities

Literacy

 In Literacy this term we have been focusing on the genre of adventure.  Our class novel ‘Journey to the River Sea’ supports this and has engaged the children beautifully in the exciting adventures of its main character Mia.  Using Talk for Writing methods the children have been innovating on the short story ‘Safia and the Captain’ by Pie Corbett creating their own characters with a particular focus on appropriate paragraphing and developing adventure through the use exciting verbs and adverbs.

 Accelerated Reader has been ongoing as an independent activity with most children working hard to read books and then complete a test.

Numeracy

During this term primary 6 have been working on money and fractions.  Primary 6 have enjoyed some shop role play and are now confident in the four operations with money.  Primary 6 have also been working hard on fractions and are becoming more confident in calculating fractions of amounts, comparing and ordering fractions and equivalent fractions. Throughout the term we have also been revising our times table knowledge through active maths activities and games.

Health and Wellbeing

 In PE primary 6 always work extremely hard.  They have been working on circuits once a week and this has been extremely popular.  They have also been working on Badminton and now the children strive to hold a successful rally with their peers.  Finally, we have been playing team games which the children particularly love, this has helped us to work on communicating with peers successfully and supporting each other.  It’s been fantastic to be a part of!

Primary 6 have had a wonderful term, full of fantastic experience, We can’t wait to see what next term holds!

Primary 2, Primary 3

P2/3 Term 3 Update

P2/3 have had a great start to 2023! We have been busy learning both in class and outside in Adventure Island – although we are hoping that we’ve seen the last of the snow in Adventure Island for this year!

Maths & Numeracy

We started Term 3 by looking at and making continuing patterns. The children could recognise patterns made with objects and shapes and applied this knowledge to number patterns too.

Our pizza shop in the role play area helped us to learn more about fractions and we have explored how to find a half, a quarter and a third.

Learning about fractions really helped as we moved on to ‘time’. Understanding what a half and quarter is made reading the time on a 12-hour clock a little easier. The children have learned about the minute and hour hands and are confident in reading o’clock and half past times. We have also looked at quarter past and too, and even telling the time to 5 minutes.

Learning about clockwise and anticlockwise has led us in to our position and direction block of learning and it has been fun to follow and give directions to our friends using mathematical vocabulary. We are now having fun programming the BeeBots to follow our route!

Literacy

P2/3 continue to read everyday – in groups and as a whole class. The children really enjoy stories and this term we have chosen to read a chapter book to end each day. Mr Fox by Roald Dahl has been a big hit!

The children have continued to learn through ‘Talk for Writing’ and this term have concentrated on journey stories. By following the original story structure, the children have become confident in changing the main characters and settings through the innovation stage. They have been learning to use time connectives and sentence openers to make their writing more exciting.

Health & Wellbeing

Our main focus in PE has been to improve our fitness and exercise techiniques through circuit training. All the children increased their number of repetitions over the term, but the best progress has been made in  their technique – we have some fanatastic demonstrators of squats, sit-ups and even burpees!

Other Curricular Areas

The first half of the term we focused on all things ‘Scotland’. The children learned about the Scots language through stories, poetry and songs. They also found out about the Scottish Colourist Painter, Samual Peploe and created paintings in his style.

Over the second part of the term, we have learned about the weather and the water cycle. Miss Ritchie has joined our class again and has delivered some exciting science lessons!

Sharon from the Royal Voluntary Society has also visited for the final time this year and this time taught us all about different types of bees and how they help us. We planted sunflowers to encourage the bees to visit, along with courgettes and peas.

P2/3 2022

P2/3 Term 2 Update

Maths & Numeracy

We started the term with a focus on money. The children learned to recognise, count and make amounts, as well as calculating change. This learning has continued in our play as the children now have a weekly ‘budget’ of 50p to spend on art & craft materials and for hiring equipment such as the laptops and the Promethean Board.

We have also spent time learning about multiplication and division and strategies to help us solve calculations.

We are currently learning about 2D shapes and 3D objects.

Literacy

The children continue to read in groups every day and complete Higher Order Reading challenges on a Friday.

Our phonics group have completed their learning of all the single sounds and will be moving on to learn about digraphs – two letters that make one sound. We call these ‘special friends’.

The spelling group have continued to make great progress with their Wraparound programme and are applying this learning across reading and writing.

Spelling words and phonic sounds can be found each week on Google Classroom.

This term, our Talk for Writing unit has concentrated on creating character descriptions. The children have enjoyed creating their characters to add to out class story – ‘Finding a Friend’.

Health & Wellbeing

The children have been learning Gymnastics this term with Miss Masson. They have focused on balance, rolling and creating sequences.

We have also continued with our weekly Yoga. The children enjoy following the moves along with the story while developing their strength and flexibility.

Other Curricular Areas

This term our learning in P2/3 has been led by the events we have celebrated such as Bonfire Night, Remembrance and Christmas. Lots of our play activities have come about because of the children’s interest in these events.

We are looking forward to ending the term with our Carol services!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everyone!

Latest News, P5 2022, P7 2022

Riding for the Disabled

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Some of our P7 and P5 pupils enjoy a session with the RDA group on Monday mornings.

P6 2022, Primary 6, STEM

Coding taster

Some P6 pupils have enjoyed learning how to code with Ms Hakim. They have made use of the Beebots, programs on the Ipad and Scratch. This is what they had to say:

“Getting to use the coding games on the Ipad was fun.”

“I enjoyed using Scratch.”

“It was good, really fun.”

“Scratch is good if you are someone who likes to create animations.”

“I liked using the Lightbot.”

P2/3 2022

P2/3 Term 1 Update

All the children in P2/3 have settled in brilliantly. You can see photos from our very first week here:

Go to this Sway

Maths & Numeracy

This term we have been learning about place value – tens and ones, addition and subtraction.  We have been focusing on learning strategies which will help us solve calculations mentally, like learning our number bonds to 10.

 

Literacy

The children have really engaged with the WrapAround Spelling and Phonics programme. They are becoming confident in applying the strategy of stretching and blending to both their reading and writing. Our spelling words and new sounds are added to Google Classroom each week.

In Talk for Writing, we have learned the words and actions for ‘The Sleepy Bumblebee’. We created a class story map and have innovated it by changing the main characters and the setting. The children are looking forward to sharing their new story with the rest of the school at our assembly this week.

We are reading every day, both in groups and also as a whole class for Higher Order Reading.

Health & Wellbeing

The children are really enjoying PE with Miss Masson and have been concentrating on their ball skills, including throwing and catching. In class we are also doing yoga each week as we work our way through the Cosmic Kids Yoga Quest map.

Focus Children

To see more of your child’s personal learning journey, please follow the link in our Google Classroom which will take you to their Focus Week SWAY.

P7 2022, Primary 7, Uncategorized

P7 Term 1

Literacy

We have been reading short non-fiction texts linked to our topic (How was it made?) this term.  The children have been engaged in discussions about the texts and have been able to share their thoughts.

We are continuing to use The WrapAround Spelling scheme to look at spelling patterns and words in more depth and the strategies we can use to help us spell words accurately.

This term we have read ‘Varjak Paw’ by SF Said as our class novel, and looked at the short story, ‘Zelda Claw and the Raincat’ to inform our own suspense writing.  We have been using the Talk for Writing method to help us learn these texts, innovate on them, and then write independently.

 

Numeracy

We have been focusing on place value and decimal numbers.  We have used a range of active learning activities to help us consolidate our understanding.  We’ve also linked our numeracy to the Dandelion Festival (reading and writing big numbers linked to the amount of potatoes grown by different countries), and our ‘How was it made?’ topic (using scale factor to start making a model of the Solar System).

 

Health and Wellbeing

Primary 7 have had weekly basketball lessons with Miss Masson and have also been practising their ball skills in netball lessons with Mrs Young on a Monday.

We refamiliarised ourselves with Zones of Regulation at the start of term to help us recognise, understand, and talk about our emotions.

 

Topic – the Dandelion Festival and ‘How was it made?’

Primary 7 learned all about how potatoes are grown, which countries grow the most potatoes, and what potatoes can be used for.  We then shared this learning at our school’s Dandelion Festival assembly in September.

We worked collaboratively to research the planets in our Solar System before using the information we had found to help us make a scale model of the Solar System.

 

Independent Learning through Play

The children have done lots of fantastic learning through play, developing a range of skills like teamwork, communication, and problem solving, as well as advancing their learning in other areas.  For example:

  • Hair salon role play area which has involved literacy (talking & listening) and numeracy (money, scheduling);
  • Watercolour paints at the arts and crafts table which will feed into our ‘How was it made topic?’ through fashion designs;
  • Experimenting with magnets which has furthered our scientific understanding of magnetism and forces;
  • The Kapla blocks have been very popular this term and have allowed the children to develop their teamwork skills to work on big projects. They have created some amazing models and tall towers.

 

 

Google Classroom

We post what we are learning daily on our Google Classroom so we encourage you to access this with your child and discuss their learning with them.

 

Next term:

Over the winter term our topic will be ‘Where do we come from?’ which will give us the opportunity to explore our history.  This will be supported by numeracy work linked to understanding time.  We will also be planning lots of fun activities in the build up to Christmas, including learning linked to whole school events such as the Christmas Fayre.

Health and Wellbeing, Latest News, P2/3 2021, P6 2021, Uncategorized

Riding for the Disabled


Riding for the Disabled Moray are back in operation after winter storm damage meant they could no longer use their Burgie location. They have secured new premises at Miltonduff and carried out extensive work in order to resume the riding sessions this month. There have been news articles in the local newspapers to publicise this and currently the Co-op have them as one of their featured charities.

https://www.forres-gazette.co.uk/news/children-s-horse-riding-sessions-are-back-269748/