Happy Term 1. We have had such a busy week for the last week of term 1.

Shetland Youth Orchestra. This week we had a visit from the Shetland Youth Orchestra who treated us to different spooky tunes. The whole class really enjoyed some familiar music as well as the stories behind some of the new pieces we heard.

Famous Sportspeople Homework. The whole class had an opportunity to share their homework projects this week and I was so impressed with what everyone had done. It was lovely to see the learners full of confidence and able to share their research clearly with the class.

Salt Crystals. A couple of weeks ago we set up an experiment, when learning about separating materials, to grow salt crystals. The results have been really interesting and different results occurred depending on a range of factors, so it led to a lot of rich discussions around fair experiments.

Big Question. Our Big Question this week has been focusing on different religious festivals that take place at this time of year. We looked at harvest and why this is important for Christians. We also learned about Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and how this is celebrated within Judaism. We watched a couple of video of people explaining how they celebrated it and then discussed the similarities and differences between our own New Year celebrations. The class also got to taste some different foods that are eaten at a Rosh Hashanah celebration. Our ‘Big Question’ wall is now finished for the term too.

100 Club for writing. As the class achieved 100% in their writing once again, we celebrated with a hot chocolate. Well done P6/7!

A Whole New World. This week the task was to build a new habitat for an animal of their choice. The class all made some excellent new habitats and certainly had a lot of fun playing with the animal figures.

End of Term fun.  We’ve had a very busy but fun end of the week for the last few days of term 1.  We got to do some baking, making truffles with Carrie-Ann and pancakes with Mrs. A. We have also had ‘Big Play’ and a movie with popcorn to end the week.

Learner Led Event. Here are just a few snaps from our learner led event last week. Thank you to everyone who came along and took part in the different learning activities within the class.

Floppy Fingers Fun. To practice our times tables, the class played a new game this week called ‘floppy fingers’. There was a lot of laughter and competitive spirit on show but it did make practicing quick recall of tables facts lot of fun. See if your child can teach it to you at home.

Lemon experiments. This week we continued to look at batteries and circuits. We tried to make  our own batteries this time using a lemon. Unfortunately this wasn’t successful as the battery didn’t work to light the bulb. However, I was so impressed with the class, especially their resilience and problem solving skills as they tried many different combinations to get their lemon batteries to work. A great lesson in what we can do when things don’t go as planned.

A Visit from Mrs. Meadows. On Tuesday, Mrs. Meadows came to speak to the class about having a baby. She spoke about how she is feeling and things she is doing to keep her and the baby safe. Mrs. Meadows also brought two large water bottles and let the class see how much extra weight a pregnant lady can carry around. She also showed us her scan picture so that we could see how the baby is developing and we got to look inside her baby box too. We had a lot of fun and got to ask some questions of our own too.

Cooking with Carrie-Ann. Over the last 4 weeks, the class have gone in groups to work on some cookery skills with Carrie-Ann. They have made tomato pasta, macaroni cheese, vegetable soup and pizza. They have all worked so well together to create their dishes and certainly enjoyed the results of their cooking.

This term in PE we have been doing activities from the Better Movers and Thinkers programme.

“Better Movers and Thinkers (BMT) is an approach to learning and teaching in physical education designed to develop the ability of all children and young people to move and think in a more cohesive way with a specific focus on developing, enhancing and fostering Executive Function (EF) skills within the learning process.” Better Movers and Thinkers Resource Pack.

Although our main focus has been on Coordination & Fluency, we have worked on many different Specific Aspects of Learning including, kinaesthetic awareness, gross and fine motor skills, communication,  decision making and stamina are just a few.

The following videos show the class, in 2 groups, performing a sequence.  The activity started with each person creating their own sequence.  The second stage was to pair up and choose one of the sequences to perform together.   5 pairs then grouped together to, again, choose one of the sequences that the whole group learnt and performed together.    The pupils used lots of skills to be able to perform the final sequence, including communication, cooperation, decision making and respect & tolerance.