Playground – Banton Biggies

Outdoor Learning May 2025

This week is an outdoor learning where each class has one day when they try to spend as much time as possible outside. The Biggies, minus the primary sevens, had a day on Tuesday this week.

Pendulum Art

We startedthe day with some pendulum art.

In the morning we did some pendulum art, we did pendulum art by attaching a cup with a hole at the bottom onto a piece of string them we put paint in it and then we swung the pendulum over paper to make some art. We did it outside because we didn’t do it inside because the floor would get too dirty. We attached the cup by having a bit of string hanging A bit of string from a stick suspended between 2 chairs, we put some weights and a carabiner and we put a wire to hold the cup onto the carabiner.
Robert

I got back just after playtime when my class was doing a huge piece of artwork. There was a huge giant piece of black paper and there also was a long thin thread over the basket ball hoop. At the end of the thread there was knot tied to a karabiner holding twisted wire holding a cup with a hole and paint in it. Robert my best friend was holding the thread keeping everything up. I was amazed.

This is pendulum art. How it works is if you push the cup or let go of the cup from not where the cup gravitates to the cup will swing in cool patterns letting paint out to mark those patterns. We did three different colours and it looked amazing in the end. It was nearly lunch time so we had to bring the gigantic art piece in when the rain decided to come.
Gene

Yesterday was outdoor learning day. In the morning we started by making some pendulum art we needed to have a cup, two chairs, string, metal wire, some paint, rocks, paper, sticks and a pencil. We made a pendulum by placing the chairs opposite each other then placing the stick on top. We used the pencil to pierce the bottom and the sides of the cup for the paint to leak through. We used metal wire as a hook to put in the 2 holes on the sides to hold the cup up then we connected the metal wire to the string with a carabiner. We added some washers for some weight we then rotated the string on the stick till it was about 5-10cm off the ground then we got some paper and placed it down after we placed the paper down we then got some rocks to weigh the paper down. Then we put the paint in the cup and started to swing it, it made some cool art so we tried it on a bigger paper with more colours too.
Jason

Firepit

How we did this is we used a sharp knife to chop the wood. First the person with the knife will put their hand on the wood chunk about 3/4 down. Second they will carefully grab the knife and put it about in the middle of the wood chunk and remove their hand. Third they would say tap and another person with a large and thick wood stick would hammer the knife into the wood and repeat this until the top of the knife was in. Lastly the wood hammer the edge of the knife until the wood chunk was split in two.
Gene

Around the Fire

We didn’t get any photos around the fire. This does keep happening. The pupils all know the rules and are very respectful fo fire.

We did a fire in the fire pit we did some fruit over the fire pit and marshmallows, the fruit tasted really nice so did the marshmallow but i burned it a bit but the bananas tasted nice.it was really fun
Billie

Then we got the fire pit roaring. We told some spooky stories and then we had some marshmallows on sticks (I accidentally burnt mine ). Later on, we had our fruit skewers.
Xander

After lunch we made a fire, we tried using our flint and steels but we couldn’t get them to work so we just used a lighter, we light a cotton pad and put it to the wood. When the fire was good enough we started cooking our marshmallows, mine kind of went black but it tasted amazing! When the fire went down a bit we put on our fruit kebabs that we prepared earlier. They where quite good.
Robert

A wee while later, we had a fire pit, we had fruit skewers and toasted marshmallows. I didn’t have any because I don’t like it, I would rather have something different that I like. We also shared some stories and also made some up with a sentence each, Mr. Johnston also came out with a talking stick and asks us loads of questions about ourselves, shortly after it was home time.
Chloe

We also made some fruit skewers to grill we were also toasting marshmallows. Most people burnt/dropped they’re marshmallow but I didn’t I burnt mine but I didn’t drop it in took the crust off and ate it and repeated that till i finished my marshmallow. We played a game about creating a story everyone got to say one sentence to create the story. Then we gone inside to get our fruit skewers then we put them on the grill for about 5 minutes. The apple didn’t taste the best the banana taste quite good and the strawberry was very sour. After everyone finished they’re skewers we told some stories until 2:50PM then we went inside and started cleaning up then it became 2:55PM and the first bell rang. We put on our jackets and bags and then we went home.
Jason

Outdoor Learning Day – Circles in the Rain

We had outdoor learning day today. We had to change our plans a little because of the weather, or maths went turned from a shape photograph safari to working with chalk & circles. It was too wet for iPads outdoors.

It was not too wet for the Biggies, we all had lots of waterproofs on.

The first thing we did was to gather some nice straightish willow branches for cooking later in the day.

Next Maths, we worked on by drawing circles on the playground using 2 different methods. This helped us think about the properties of circles, and the shape they make when they cross each other. Some folk just had fun with spirals too.

Although some of the Biggies were a bit dismayed at the weather, they all got really involved in making circles and were surprised when it was time for playtime.

After playtime we went back out for some P.E. The rain had really started to pour, this made the wet ground extra slippy and there were some exciting bumps and skids. After about half an hour of this we went back inside got our clothes sorted out and made some bread dough in the hope it would dry up in the afternoon.

Fire pit

In the afternoon the weather brightened and we went out to ‘bake’ our bread on the fire.

When working around a fire we need to follow quite a lot of rules to help us stay safe. One pupil acts as the Fire Chief, and controls all the movement around the fire. When approaching the fire to light it or add wood pupils need to adopt the respect position. The Biggies are really good at this and manage to both stay safe & have fun.

We cooked some ‘damper’ this is bread dough wrapped around a stick. It doent always cook evenly, but almost everyone manage to make something they enjoyed, right of the fire without jam or anything. It takes quite like wookd cooked pizza crust.

Outdoor Learning Day November 2024

The weather outside was frosty, so the Biggies wrapped up well. We also popped in for hot juice and to warm up now and again.

The target for recognition today was “to stay on task” and the pupils were brilliant.

We started off in random pairs working on measure. We measured the length, breadth and height of different structures around the playground. The target was to measure accurately. After we finished we compared results and were almost all within a few centimetres of each other.

After the interval we worked on Art. The idea was to compare different medium. Looking at the bare trees, everyone made some pencil sketches, a charcoal picture and took some photos. The results speak for themselves.

1. The thing I like about the pencil sketch is the way I made the branches and how exactly I made the branches.
2. The thing I like about the charcoal sketch is how I outlined the thing and blended it together to make it look nice.
3. The thing I like about using a pencil to sketch is how easy it is to fix mistakes and how you can shade especially easy.
4. The thing I like about using a charcoal to sketch is that blending is very easy and blending can also be used to make very cool drawings.
5. The difference between pencil and charcoal is that charcoal is on black and can blend easily and pencil is grey and can’t blend together but you can make it lighter or darker shades of grey. I personally prefer charcoal because with blending you can make some beautiful artworks.
Robert

I like my pencil sketch because it looks a lot like the tree is used to draw it.

I like my charcoal sketch because it was my first time using charcoal for art because I have only used charcoal pens not actual sticks of charcoal.

I like using a pencil to draw because you can rub out mistakes when you make when drawing and you can also shade if your doing a black and white drawing because if you do it with only black when doing a black and white drawing it will just be black and white with no shading.

I liked using charcoal because you can smudge it with the drawing but it is really messy and it is like rubbing out because you can make the black lighter if you go to hard.

The difference between the charcoal and the pencil is that charcoal you can’t rub out with a rubber but you have to use your hand or arm to rub out mistakes and it is also smaller than pencils but you can rub out stuff with pencil unlike charcoal.
Jason

I like my pencil sketch, I’m pretty sure it looked quite accurate but I didn’t get all the details. I was quite alright with just doing a little bit of it.
My charcoal sketch was pretty good but I think it was a bit messy. But I quite like how it feels and how smooth it is.
Using a pencil to draw is quite easy and fun, the same goes for charcoal but it is a bit harder. But at least it’s good for shading and smudging in stuff.
I prefer pencil it is way easier but I would pick charcoal for shading stuff.
Chloe

In the afternoon we had a show rehearsal inside and then out for the final hour. The Children revisited their tress and wrote some poems. It was getting colder so we didn’t spend too long on that and finished the day with a game of capture the flag.

Football!

Yesterday the coaches from Clyde FC Community Foundation came to run some training sessions.

You can read a bit more on the Bairn’s Blog

We had a great time, here is what some of the class thought:

First we did a warmup called traffic lights, Chris had 3 cones a green cone, an orange cone, and a red cone. When he held up the green cone we were to dribble about, but we were to keep the ball close and have control over it, Chris calls this penguin taps. If Chris held up the orange cone we were to do this motion called toe taps, a toe tap is when you tap the ball with the tip of your feet one after the other. If Chris held up the red card we are to hold it still and sit on the ball
Chloe

The second game was hungry hippos. We had to dribble a ball Back to our team and to get the ball we had to high five a partner and go on my team was Jason and Juliet we won 2 times in a row.
Noah

I got better at dribbling the ball the session was really fun I like the football training a lot because it was very fun.
Jason

At that lesson I got a bit better at football. I didn’t really learn anything as far as I can remember. I felt competitive in the session and I really liked it. I had a lovely day yesterday in school and I enjoyed the session so much.

Thank you Clyde football club for coming to Banton.
Gene

Lastly we played football we split into teams then to. Then we started Calum was great he would find away to get the ball of you every time. It was 1&1 it was great
Tony

Finally we played a game of football the opposite team got a point then I got the ball under every ones legs and Jason got it in the goal.

I learned some new games practiced and got better at dribbling the ball. It was really fun and I really enjoyed it.
Juliet

Buzzing with the bees

On Wednesday it was the Biggies turn to work with Meik and the beehive.

First we got suited up: Trousers inside wellies, Fully zip head mask, no gaps, gloves.

A tip: Don’t push face mesh onto face cause a bee could sting you!

If a bee gets in the mask you stay calm and squish it with your gloves.

At the hive we learnt about bees. We pulled the frames out to check on the bees and make make sure the queen was there.

A group of children in beekeeping suits stand outside their school. — Suited & booted

A beekeeper stands beside a colourfully decorated beehive — Suited & booted

What we learnt

Meik told us a lot about bees, this is some of what we remembered:

The different colour of the cell things on the frames you could tell the flower the pollen was from

If there was a new queen the queen would get some of the hive and swarm

You need to destroy the queen cells

If you take the queen away for 2 or 3 minutes and bring her back they will kill her and raise a new queen

They try to clean the queen after she’s in the cage on the hive

Only smoke calms the bees

There is a strap around the hive so it doesn’t blow over.

Juliet

We pulled out all of the frames to see the buzzy bees

To make honey bees take nectar the digest it vomit it up then an other bee takes in and vomits it up till it makes honey!

He destroys the other queen been eggs so that they don’t develop to bees and take away the other bees to start a new nest

The nectar that is in the middle are different colours because it is from different flowers

Chloe

Only one drone mates with the queen.

The queen mates once in her life.

Different colour of cell – different flower.

The paint on the queen depends on how old she is.

Drones don’t do anything but eat the food.

Bees eat the nectar and vomits it up, another bee eats it. It keeps going until honey is made.

The hive is really clean, you could eat your food out of it.

If a new queen is born the queens swarm.

Bees dance to communicate.

Olivia Rose

Different coloured pollen depending on the plants

The queen will be killed if left for only 2-3 mins

The queen bee cells grow on the side of the honeycomb

The drone bee cells grow on the centre of the honeycomb

Harry

I learned that the queen does not control the hive

I learned that the different colours of pollen cells can tell you what flower was used.

I learned that bees vomit into each others mouths to make honey

I learned that they have to destroy the queen cells to make sure no more queens are born.

I learned that bees dance to communicate.

Rory

Outdoor Learning day June 2024

Photoblitzer

The first thing we did was Photoblitzer. At it’s core, photoblitzer is a website that Mr. Johnston gave all of us. The web page had a small list of photo ideas, then we had twenty minutes to take pictures going along with the list.
Nathaniel

Capture the flag

Next we had a game of capture the flag in the playground. This is a new game for the Biggies and went down really well. Lots of running, laughing and thinking.

After our photo blitz challenge we did a game of capture the flag, I had never played it before but it was really fun. Mr. Johnston split us into two teams team red, & team yellow. My group started off as team yellow, my team had me, Olivia, Lexi, Alexia, Rory & Tony. In the first round most of them came sprinting and I tug Juliet, Harry, & then Xander. Team yellow won the first round
Chloe

Dow’s Wood

After the interval we headed down to Dow’s Wood. We started by searching the wood for new creatures to add to our collection at the Banton Beasties. This is a new site that well will make public soon. We found quite a few interesting ones and a few more got away.

One Beastie was not very welcome. We were attacked by swarms of midges. This made our other activity in the woods more difficult than usual, we stopped to spend some time writing and drawing. It is a credit to the Biggies that they got some done!

In the woods, a thick tree canopy shades mossy rocks. 
In the woods, big blue flys lurk uncatchable. 
In the woods, midges bite continuously and with no mercy. 
In the woods, ferns are everywhere.
In the woods, there is no escape from midges.

Juliet

King of the Forrest
For he is king of the forest 
He has a centurion of bugs
For he is king of the forest 
There’s a smile on everyone’s mug

For he is king of the forest 
He cares for the children 
For he is king of the forest
He has a crown of ferns 
Placed on by a hern 

Nathaniel

The Nature Poem

Deep down in the woods,
Through the lush leafy forest
At the heart of the woodland,
This is how it starts.

Xander

Pendulum Painting

We constructed some painting pendulums in the playground in the afternoon. This was messy but fun and gave some interesting results. The next day we took our art, edited it in Snapseed to boost the colours. We then but it on a virtual gallery wall and added ourselves as a visitor.

Biggies in the Rain!

The Biggies took part in the school outdoor learning day yesterday. The weather was unrelentingly wet! We got on our waterproofs and took part in a full program.

We started by preparing a fire and making some sticks to toast marshmallows. Next we worked on our maths making circle paterns in the playground.
after the interval we got the fire goign and helped our wee pals from Primary !-2 to make s’mores.

After lunch we cleaned up the Bee Cafes and cut and planted some willow whips.

I really liked yesterday it was really fun . I liked the fire pit with the p1,2s and planting the wild flowers I did not like how wet it was because we had to draw circles with a piece of string.
Lexi

I thought it was really fun but soaking wet. I loved the fire pit and the marshmallow. I liked playing the games with the little ones I had so much fun. It was fun watching matheo eat his s’mores like he does with his sandwich. I didn’t necessarily liked making the circles it was challenging but instead I made a monkey with Lexi.
Alexia

Yesterday was a fun and exciting day, our class got split up and we taught the wee ones how to make s’mores safely, we partnered up and used home made compasses to draw circles and we done some gardening, I enjoyed planting the wildflowers and I also enjoyed the fire pit, I enjoyed leading games with my peers and I enjoyed explaining the games to the wee ones. Yesterday I think I used the skills, Leadership, Communication, Planning and Organising and much more. I liked being outside for the day and it was really fun to do those different activities all day, outside.
Olivia

I enjoyed everything. Apart from the tired legs and soaking things of course. Another thing I didn’t enjoy about is the fact I couldn’t finish the gigantic circle. But I feel brilliant about the good comments of the dry s’mores we roasted over the fire.
The planting was very enjoyable, especially the bug saving. I found an adorable centipede. I hope the willows grow nicely.
Nathaniel

I Liked doing games with the wee ones & making s’mores with them. I Also liked spending time with them, planting the willow trees was a little hard because of the shovel but I liked it. I Really liked making the wild flower beds with Alex & Lexi I thought it was really fun. I liked being partners with Faith for the circle art and the rest of the day!
Chloe

Autumn Haiku

After reading Write Out: Gathering Sensory Details for Haiku on Kevin’s blog I though we could join in. We are a little late for Write Out which inspired this, on holiday last week.

We watched the video embedded on Kevin’s blog and looked at his classes examples. Then we went out into the playground. A cold breeze and some drizzle did stop the Biggies gathering words. Back inside we polished these a little.

Hand written Haiku
The Crispy Leaves
The Birds are chirping loudly
I'm cold everywhere

nights getting darker
A full moon calls for werewolves
marks hallween's start

Junior Leaders

On Monday last week Julie from Active Schools came in for our first session of Junior Sports leaders. The class had a great time and are looking forward to working with the wee ones in the playground to keep them active.

Outdoor Learning Day June 2023

We started the day by going to the woods to gather a bit of firewood and different things to test as tinder.

The woods have changed quite a lot since our last visit, the grass & bracken is a lot higher. Down by the Gladstone we saw a woodpecker and later on a frog.

Back in school we tried different items as tinder with our flies and steels. not much success. The only thing that really caught was some bog cotton we had picked on our previous visit.

Next we mixed up some dough to cook over the fire later on in the day.