Tag Archives: Cooperative learning

Astronomy for Remote Island Schools

Today we have been really enjoying a visit from Chris. He’s an astronomer and has been teaching us about stars, planets, moons and our solar system!

We’ve been using technology to learn more about each planet in our solar system, made scale models of our solar system using playdough, learnt more about the night sky and the star consellations we can see and P4-7 have been doing some work using robotic telescopes!

Here are some pictures of a great day full of learning!

Arches Challenge!

On Monday 12th February, we were set a challenge!

We began by discussing arches; how they are built and how they stand up. We looked at bridges which are created using an arched shape and where the pressure points are on these.

Then Mrs Kavagnah & Miss Jamieson armed us with a packet of crackers and a jar of peanut butter… and using these, we had to create an arched bridge!

Some groups had more success than others…

Our busy term

Term 1 has been a very busy term for us here in Cullivoe. We have learnt a lot and achieved a lot too. Here is what we have to say about our learning and our term!

Numeracy

Primary 2 – we have been learning our 2x table and what greater than and less than means and looks like. It was easy!

Primary 3 – We have been learning our 3x table and have worked hard in numeracy. We liked learning about place value.

Primary 4 – we have been learning the 8x table!

Primary 5 -we have been learning the 8 and 9x table. We have been playing beat my score which is really fun!

Literacy

We have all been learning about newspaper reports and the features of these. We have enjoyed learning about this and writing our own articles! We know that a newspaper needs a name, headlines, it has to be interesting, it is written in paragraphs, they have adverts in them, they are written in the 3rd person. We could give you more but that’s enough for now.

P5-7 have also been learning about superlative and comparative adjectives and looking at dictionary skills as well as recapping punctuation and developing comprehension and reading with expression.

Health and Wellbeing

We have been learning about the body and the organs. Here are a few that we have looked at: lungs, small and large intestine, pancreas, heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, bladder, gall bladder, oesophagus, rectum and the brain.

We have done an experiment which looked at the digestive system. It was really fun but also disgusting!

We had a couple of visitors in to talk to us about our topic. The health improvement practitioner talked to us about how to keep our body healthy. We had a scientist come in to talk to us about her work and different diseases/how to keep ourselves healthy.

The younger ones have been looking at throwing and catching in PE whilst the older ones have been learning about netball.

Other things within the school

Primary 4 have really enjoyed learning the recorder and have picked it up well.

We had our termly concert on Tuesday which was really good. The recorder players, both primary 4 and 5, all nailed their tunes which was fantastic!

The JRSOs have had a visit from a police officer to show them how to use a speed gun.

The pupil council have organised a coffee morning to support the charity Macmillan cancer support.

P4-7 have been learning about the global goals in eco this term. We have been picking topics to look at; life below water.

We have been learning to have a conversation in French and the older children have been looking at food.

Our feel good song we learnt this term was ‘Always look on the bright side of life.’

We focussed on article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which is: You have the right to the best possible health.

We took part in a STEM challenge to make a bridge for the three billy goats. We were in groups and had to design and make a bridge that would hold the 3 billy goats and the troll! It was really fun and we worked really well as a team. The bridges were all successful and held a lot of weight!

Out with school

We took part in the Harvest service and performed our Harvest Samba.

We had a lot of prize winners at the Yell Show AND Cullivoe Primary School have been awarded a trophy for the most prize winning entries!!

A few of the children have made the achievement wall this term due to passing their deep end test, winning medalsat various things. So a big well done!

 

Only 2 more days of school everyone! We are excited for the holidays and for Halloween.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bridge Challenge!

We’ve been working hard in our House Teams (co-operative learning groups) this afternoon designing a new bride for the 3 Billy Goats after theirs was destroyed in a storm!

We’ve worked together to look at different styles of bridges, design our own, consider our materials and discuss strengthening our original ideas. As well as being a valuable team member, we each have a role within the group. These are:
– Project Manager
– Resource Manager
– Peace Keeper
– Time Keeper
– Eco-Warrior
– Collection Officer

We’ve all started creating our bridges and can’t wait to finish them tomorrow afternoon! We will be testing them to see if they will withstand the 3 Billy Goats crossing them (how much weight they can hold!).

 

Cooperative learning

This afternoon we are working cooperatively to find out more about our organs. We have split ourselves into different groups and chosen an organ to research:

  • heart
  • lungs
  • liver
  • kidneys
  • intestines – both large and small
  • pancreas
  • gallbladder
  • stomach

We are researching what it does and why it is important. We are going to make a poster to show all our learning and research. Miss Jamieson and Miss Nicholson has found us videos on Twig to watch linked to each organ to help us, they were really interesting and fun to watch. Each group will then present their findings to the rest of the school so we all know about each organ.

Cooperative learning with Fetlar Primary School

During Term 1 and 2 Fetlar Primary School came in to work with us about Rights Respecting Schools as we both have our level 1 rights Respecting School award and are working towards our level 2 award. We did different activities all to do with why the war in Syria started, what is going on now and how this affects refugee children and their rights. It was really interesting and generated a lot of discussion which was great. We looked at various articles from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and thought about how these are being met/not being met for the refugee children, for example: article 9 states you should be looked after by your parents, unless this would not be best for you – it is sometimes in the children’s best interest to flee Syria (sometimes without their parents) for their own safety so this right is being met in a way. It is sad that their parents cannot go with them though, they must be scared and lonely. Article 10 states if a child lives in a different country  to their parents, they have the right to stay in touch with them and to apply to live with them. But this cannot always happen as some children have either lost their parents due to the fighting or do not know where they are as they have had to flee too/maybe gotten separated when getting out of Syria. Article 6 is about having the right to be alive and being the best that you can be – sadly not all children in Syria has this right as a lot of them have been killed due to the war or have sadly died trying to flee Syria.

Here are some photos from our cooperative learning days:

We have added our work from these days onto our Rights Respecting School wall: