Tag Archives: Co operative learning

Programmers of the future?

2 Comments

What a busy day we’ve had in P2/3 today – our first school swimming lesson of the year and learning how to code for the afternoon!

There was a lot of excitement this afternoon as we got the chance to work in pairs and try to write a code for our very own robots! After discussion and onboard demonstrations on how to make their robot change it’s appearance, make a sound and move, the pupils were set off to see if they could write their own code. We then shared this with the rest of the class.

There was a lot of learning that took place and because it seemed like a game (with the use of a robot) the class took it all in their stride and did amazingly well – I’m very proud of them all!

We were working with the Makeblock Codey Rocky robots which uses a Scratch platform. This is a great way to introduce young or old into coding as it uses a simple block based system which is very easy to understand and provides a quick result. Not only was every group able to get their robot to perform the three key actions that we had learned but they could all present their code to the class and explain what they thought it should do. They were also able to share this onto the big screen from their iPad by discovering the ‘screen mirroring’ option!!

 

We are all looking forward to developing our coding skills further in the future!

Our wellbeing calendar class story!

1 Comment

Our activity for the class wellbeing calendar yesterday was to create a class story relating to Christmas. We took turns for each pupil to contribute a sentence, we were enoying the adventure so much that when we returned from lunch break the pupils wanted to have another go at adding a sentence.

It was great to see and hear some of their excitement when the story started to take shape and as I typed it onto the screen they were amazed by how much they had written – especially in such a short time! It was a great opportunity to show what can be achieved with the support of friends and when we work as a team.

If you would like to read the story they produced I have copied it below. The words are exactly as the pupils wanted them to be, it was interesting to see the difference in word choice when they were talking about the story rather than having to write it themself.

 

   Once upon a time when it was Christmas Eve, when the snowflakes fell, the children were playing and having joy. They were making snowmen and snow angels in the snow. In their houses they were opening presents from under the tree.
   As night time came they had a party with their family and friends. They ate some food and put their stockings out for Santa. They go to bed excited and try to fall asleep hoping that Santa will come. They wake up when they hear Santa coming, they try not to giggle in case he hears them. The children get out of the bed quietly and they sneak downstairs and see Santa and they give him some snacks for himself and his reindeer. Everybody smiles when they see their presents. The children peak through the curtains and watch Santa delivering presents to the other houses and then he dashes off into the night on his sleigh shouting, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” as he flies away.
   Santa crashes his sleigh because one of the reindeer had a sore leg and couldn’t fly properly. Luckily Santa had his phone in his pocket and rang through to the elves so they could bring some magic dust. The elves rushed through with the magic dust and poured it onto the reindeer, but they put too much on. The reindeer went crazy and crashed into a famous tower! The tower fell over and the elves had to fix it quickly before anybody noticed. The police came when they heard what was happening and Santa had to explain. The police were not happy and thought that it wasn’t the real Santa and he was taken to jail, which was really dark and damp. The reindeer and the elves had a good idea and tried to break Santa out of jail. The reindeer tried to bite the bars and one of them broke in two. The reindeer freed Santa and the police caught him again. The reindeer and the elves free Santa again without the police noticing. When Santa was free he was able to deliver the presents to the rest of the children in the city.
   The elves and the reindeer built the tower back up brick by brick. The police returned to the tower and found the reindeer and they sent them through to animal control. Back at the house, it was morning, the children and their family were busy opening their presents that they got from Santa. The children smiled at each other in joy as they had seen Santa and he still left them presents. They opened their toys and started to play with them, crying out happy tears.
   Santa went to animal control to try and free his reindeer but he was spotted by the security camera, he quickly opened the gate with his magic and they all sneaked out. They all flew off in their sleigh laughing merrily as they made their way back to the North Pole.

THE END!!

 

We have all really enjoyed the activities that the class chose for their wellbeing calendar and it has been heartwarming to see them embrace it so well!

A very Happy Christmas to all in P2/3, I hope that you have some lovely family time throughout the break and I will look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!!!

Chalk it up!

1 Comment

Today, through our well-being calendar , we have been sharing the Christmas joy with the rest of the school by writing some messages for our peers on the playground!
What fun we’ve had thinking of meaningful messages to write and then how to present it to the rest of the school. I have been very impressed with the words and phrases that they chose to share – they have created some very meaningful messages for the school. They also worked really well in their pairs to complete the activity and were very encouraging and respectful when looking at the finished products.

Another day where we have shown what a caring and considerate class we can be – keep it up P2/3!!

The messages read:

’We are a nurturing school.’

’We are loved, we are nurtured.’

’Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Be brave.’

’You are fantastic, cool and amazing. Don’t stop!’

’Be a buddy, don’t be a bully.’

’Merry Christmas. Be happy. WOOHOO!’

’You are awesome!’

’Thank you for being a lovely school.’

’You are kind. You are helpful.’

The day after the night before (concert day)

Leave a comment

After the excitement of our Christmas concert yesterday – and the resultant tiredness – we used some time today to catch up on our Christmas wellbeing calendar. We still needed to action our ‘Art for a friend’ and ‘Always thankful’ activities …

Yesterday we discussed which members of staff we thought were in need of a note of thanks, the pupils then split into groups to focus their efforts on that person.  We have then delivered our letters to some throughout school.

It has been lovely to see how much thought has gone into who they should write their letter to and what they would like to say – we have a very thoughtful bunch in P2/3!

Our first try with the laptops

1 Comment

Today P2/3 ventured up to the ICT Suite to use the laptops. There was much excitement, as for many this was their first time.

Yesterday they were split into 5 groups, each group focusing on researching information for 1 food group. They then wrote this up in their own words and today we were going to learn how to put this into a word document!

The whole class worked so well to ensure that they were able to listen to the instructions clearly – there were a lot of new words and actions introduced today. Everybody was able to open a word document, use capital letters, spaces and full stops and change to a new line. Some were even able to look at changing the font of their text and it’s size. At the end of their session we looked at saving our document in our very own folder on the school network.

Considering this was their first trip to the ICT Suite they did a fantastic job and worked well on ensuring that they were not interrupting the classes next door. A lot of learning took place today and I’m very proud of what they have all been able to achieve – well done to all in P2/3!