Author: gw14andersonclare@glow

We did maths outside yesterday. We have been learning about tally marks so we went outside to record the variety of coloured cars we could see. To record it clearly and accurately we used tally marks. We have been learning that it is important to use a finger space between each group of 5. We know we can read it clearly if it is neat and has a space. We saw lots of white cars! And hardly any pink, purple or brown cars.

Meta skills we covered were focusing, communicating, curiosity and collaborating.

We had a visit from Cheryl and Naomi from Morgan Sindall to speak to us about plants. The pupils loved the videos of the exploding seeds. We saw tiny seeds and a picture of a coconut as that is the biggest seed.

They have left us resources so we can do our own planting in the next few weeks. Thank you!

We had outdoor plans for Thursday afternoon but it was REALLY wet so we decided to have an afternoon of games. What a lovely idea for a rainy day.

We read this lovely story today. It is called Amazing Me Amazing You by Christine McGuinness.  We spoke about how we are all unique and we have some similarities and some differences but we all like that we are our own people.

We loved getting fruit for snack! Lots of pupils were trying blackberries, cherries, kiwi, melon and plums for the first time. I was so impressed with how keen they all were to try new fruits.

Thank you to Grays and Tesco for the yummy fruits!

We have been making Road Safety posters in P2a.

We looked at this website first to have a go at the challenges and watch the videos to remind us of what we learned in term 2 about Road Safety.

Click on the link below to have a look at the useful website and play the games.

First (P2, P3, P4) – Road Safety Scotland

 

We had a great time orienteering in the wildlife area today. We had to look for 8 fruits and could only do one fruit at a time. We all had fun! The winners were Conan and Tymon finding all the fruit fastest!

This kind of task certainly covered a few of the meta-skills we are thinking about at Sound School. We were focusing, adapting, using our initiative, communicating, collaborating, leading, sense-making and critical thinking.

What a glorious day!

We went up the Sound Brae and cut in to the Quoys Burn and walked down it. We took time to listen to the relaxing sounds, to smell the amazing variety of smells and to really look around at all the different colours and things we could see. It was very chilled out. It is a private garden so we had to be respectful and use quiet voices, this helped add to the excitement of it all.

Then we went to the playpark and the bairns had some crazy time running around! After a little play we walked down to the road and saw where the water goes under the road. We took time to blow dandelion clocks. We followed the burn down to the stoney beach and talked about where the water started and where it ended up.

A big point that I made to the pupils is that they should always have a grown up with them when visiting the beach or the burn as playing beside the water can be dangerous. 

Our outdoor learning sessions we cover a lot of areas of the curriculum and give experiences to the children that are just not the same as learning in the classroom.

We have been looking at Meta-skills at Sound School. Some of the Meta-skills that this walk included are:

• focusing
• communication
• collaborating
• feeling
• curiosity
• sense-making
• critical thinking

One of our school values for this term is happiness. There were certainly a lot of happy bairns today.

We have been collaborating in experiments on different ways of producing sound from vibrations, we looked at how to change the pitch of sound. We used cups on string as phones to talk to each other and made harmonicas using elastic bands, straws and lollipop sticks. It was tricky to get the vibrations right to make the sound.

We went on a trip to the stoney beach.

The children highlighted the benefits of outdoor learning:

• You can find things.
• Enjoying being outside and being able to skip and run around.
• You can find a lot of stuff in the sea and can play with what you find.
• You can explore the different areas including the rock pools and paddle in the water.
• Exercise while walking there and back.
• We  saw lots of animals including sheep.
• We saw some dead animals including the whale, sheep and crabs.
• We saw a sea anemone and a star fish.
• We had to balance and be careful when walking over the rocks.
• We shared what we found with each other and the other class.

 

Here is what we will be learning in term 4.

P2a Term 4 Curriculum Info

We have been learning about doubles in the classroom. We have done games, whiteboard work, practical activities, laptop games and written work on doubles. We then went outside to see if we could see doubles in nature. We spotted trees with double branches, bunches of daisies that were doubles and we used sticks to show doubles too. It was a lovely sunny day and we enjoyed exploring numbers in nature in the sunshine.

We went on a trip to the museum to learn about Lerwick in the past compared to Lerwick today.

This trip helped develop 7 out of the 12 meta-skills, including:

• Sense-making
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Integrity
• Adapting
• Initiative
• Communicating

The class were absolute superstars and listened so well to Ailish and Donna. They asked and answered lots of questions. They even impressed Donna by knowing that Arthur Anderson was the founder of the Anderson Educational Institute. They recognised the motto Dö weel and persevere! 

We learned that we know information about the past from maps, pictures and plans.  They enjoyed seeing pictures of the Sands of Sound beach from a long time ago, before the grey house was built. They did not enjoy learning about what happened to waste before there was toilets and a sewer system in place, there was lots of screwed up faces at that part.

Sands of Sound with croft houses instead of the big house.

Most people recognised this building but said it looked a bit weird.

The pupils wondered what the big building was in the car park.

We have been making maps in class. We went to visit the Clickimin Broch before we made our own Lerwick maps. We then added in Tesco and Sound Service Station. The following week we looked on Google maps at where the Anderson High School is located and looked at the buildings at the Clickimin. It was quite tricky but the pupils added these areas on to their maps, some even added on the running track. Our last lesson on maps involved adding Sands of Sound so we decided to go for a walk first, to see with our own eyes, the size and shape and location of the beach. We walked along from the school to the stoney beach then over the fields to the Sands of Sound. We discussed the bays and Ness of Sound and pointed out the Grottie Buckie and Dinghy Beach.

We discussed the benefits of going outdoors to look at the area and the pupils shared these answers with me:

• We could see the actual shape of the beach and where everything is.
• We could see how much water and sand there is and we could see how big and where the island is.
• We could see the waves.
• Easier to know the route to the beach once we had been there and back.
• We got fresh air.
• We enjoyed the relaxing water.
• We were exercising our bodies too, it was hard climbing the hill, we were huffing and out of breath.
• We now know where the beach is, how to get there.
• Outdoor lessons are more fun.
• We learn better when we are busy and outdoors.
• It was nice going together with the people in our class.

Chloe from the Shetland Library came in to do a bookbug session with P1 and P2. We did the hello song in dialect, sang songs using Shetland words and heard the Shetland version of The Gruffalo.

All the pupils enjoyed getting to pick a book from our book swap.

We are learning o’clock and half past. We have been playing time bingo, using mini clocks and matching up the correct times.

Game used in class – Clocking In (educationcity.com)

Video to help explain time – Telling the time – o’clock and half past (youtube.com)