Moving Up Day (technically last week)

Leaver’s Assembly

Burn Trip

Cunningsburgh Cafe Morning

Piano Concert

Wow, what a great sports day we had yesterday.  The kids all did amazing.  It’s so nice to see how far they have come in just a year.  In the gym we have finished the year off with athletics and rounders and cricket games.

Here are some quick snaps from Sport’s Day.  The kids did a brilliant job, they were happy, successful, engaged and nurturing towards one another.  I was very proud of them. Many thanks to Mrs Ritchie for organising a great afternoon.

P.4-5 have been doing some composing using word rhythms that they chose themselves and then they notated their music using the knowledge that they gained doing the stave notation unit. Well done!

P.4-5 have also been developing their tuned percussion skills and techniques and have been trying to use two beaters when playing.

Playful Pedagogy

In Cunningsburgh we have a strong commitment to play and playful pedagogy in the learning of all pupils.  There are two examples of what that can look like at this stage.

Energy Experiment

In our class we have bands on all the chairs.  The purpose of the bands is to provide a sensory outlet for those who need it and I try to ensure that all accommodations are accessible to all, where possible, rather than only those with identified needs.  This week one of the bands broke (not because anyone did anything), the kids then wondered if it would make a good catapult.  We planned and carried out a fair experiment to test how far we could catapult a bean bag using the broken band.  The kids all had a turn and each time we stretched the band slightly further.  We then had a discussion about potential energy, kinetic energy and gravity.  It was a fantastic learning opportunity led entirely by the kids!

Concrete Spelling

This week we practiced our spelling using concrete materials.

Assembly

Today P4/5 Hosted a Talk Show themed assembly to share their learning about natural disasters.  Each group were experts on a different type of disaster and we asked questions by the three hosts. There was lots of information, fun facts, quizzes, artwork and even an exploding volcano.  Of course the funniest moment was in the rehearsal when Mrs J was very silly and shook up the volcano ingredients causing it to explode all over Mrs J’s hair, face and clothes, fair to say that the kids were no longer nervous after laughing hysterically at me!

I am so proud of each and every one of them, they did a brilliant job!

Planting with Mrs Bannister

Check out the gorgeous planters that the kids planted up, with some help from the lovely Mrs Bannister.

Discovery Club Project – The Animal Olympics

P4-6 have been working on a project this week imagining what the Animal Olympics would be like.  They have worked so hard, developing skills such as creativity, problem solving, communication and team work.

Visiting the Sumburgh Airport Fire Station

The kids had an absolute ball visiting the fire station. Thank you so much to the wonderful fire fighters and air traffic controllers who showed us around and many thanks to the lovely Trevor, Kay and Miss Baronet for accompanying us and making this trip possible.

It has been wonderful weather this week so today we have taken our learning outside! The kids had ana amazing time soaking up that vitamin D.

Maths – Blue Group

Have a look at the fantastic tiling patterns the blue maths group created.

Writing

This week the class wrote stories about Adventure Bear.  I didn’t take any photos but you can read their stories via their Office 365 on Glow.  We had two lots of visitors during writing time (One from a QIO at Hayfield and one from a QIM at Hayfield accompanied by the Head of Education Scotland) and both commented on how lovely, independent and engaged your children were in their learning.  I was really proud of them as they were all able to speak eloquently and enthusiastically about what they were learning and how it has helped them improve their writing skills.

Edinburgh Science Centre – Electricity Workshop

We had a phenomenal visit from Jamie and Teigan from the Edinburgh Science Centre.  They took P4-6 through a workshop looking at how electricity is generated. The kids got to make their own electricity, experiment with the factors that make more/ less electricity and finally use the energy they had generated to power a hex bug for a race.  It was a brilliant workshop full of fun and learning.

P.4-5 have been learning about Stave Notation in music. They made themselves into human notes on the big stave sheet and used it to spell out words using the letters in the musical alphabet. They enjoyed singing the Notation song ( Learn Notation Song! – YouTube ) and got very competitive playing the ‘mat game’ where in teams they had to find the notes on the stave quicker than their opponents could. The Stave Notation Unit concluded with a short assessment which everyone was able to complete confidently and they were able to show the knowledge that they had gained over the last few weeks.