critical thinking – Primary 2A 2024

A week in the life of P2A!

What a week in Primary 2A! We’ve been busy with symmetry, subtraction, storytelling, and even some outdoor learning!

Maths & Magic

The children have been creating beautiful symmetrical patterns during play using loose parts.

Pupil Voice:

“I am making a teddy bear rainbow”

They also became number line ninjas, jumping backwards to master subtraction. “Jump back like a frog!” said one pupil.

Storytelling with a Twist

Our fairytales took a creative spin this week. We have been creating our own characters and changing the ending of old-fashioned fairytales! We have had fairytales involving the Northlink, Pokemon and Vikings!

Learning Beyond the Classroom

We took phonics outside, writing words with chalk and hunting for sounds in nature. “I like being outside when the sun is out!” said a pupil. We also had a virtual tour of Lerwick using Google Maps, spotting different types of houses and discussing what makes each one special. “I saw a house just like mine!” someone excitedly shared.

Shooting Hoops & Daily Mile

We kept active with our Daily Mile and had fun attempting to score hoops. I think we all need some practice though. Only Mrs Henry got one in the net!

Metaskills in Action

From creativity in stories, collaboration in games, sense-making in maps, to critical thinking in phonics, we’ve been learning in so many ways!

Primary 2A Blog – A Week of Magic, Vikings, and Pancakes!

Wow! What a week we’ve had in Primary 2A – we’ve been busy learning, creating, and having so much fun! Here’s what we got up to in our action-packed week:

🥞 Flipping Fantastic Pancakes! 🥞
We started the week by making pancakes, and let’s just say, some of us have a real talent for flipping (and some of us need a little more practice!).

Pupil Voice: “I was really proud of my pancake because I flipped it without dropping it!”

It was a great way to practise our hand-eye coordination and patience – important skills for life!

📚 Book Week Bonanza! 📚
It was Book Week, so we spent lots of time reading in the classroom and sharing our favourite stories.

Pupil Voice: “I loved reading with my friend because we helped each other with tricky words.”

On Thursday, we dressed up as our favourite characters, and the classroom was full of wizards, superheroes, and fairytale creatures. Even the teachers got involved !

🚪 A Magical Door to Fairyland! 🚪
We designed and created a magical door into Fairyland using our creativity and teamwork. This activity helped us develop our imagination and problem-solving skills, as we worked together to decide what Fairyland might look like. The children did a great job and P2A even won the door display competition!

🔎 Character Hunt & Classroom Play! 🔎
We had a character hunt around the school, spotting famous storybook characters hidden in different places. This was a great way to practise our observation skills and teamwork with our families. After, we came back to the class and had a play with our friends.

🛡️ A Viking Invasion! 🛡️
To top it all off, we had a visit from the Bressay UP HELLY AA squad! The whole school joined in, singing Viking songs with real energy.

What a week, Primary 2A! We used so many metaskills – from creativity and collaboration to resilience and confidence. Now it’s time to rest (and maybe practise a little more pancake flipping) before another week of adventures!

P2A’s Busy Start after Half Term!

We are back from our half-term break and have jumped straight into some exciting learning in P2A!

In Numeracy, we have started the Numeracy Project, focusing on telling the time. Right now, we are learning about o’clock and half past, and the children have been showing great enthusiasm in mastering this new skill. It’s been fantastic to see them so engaged and eager to practice telling the time throughout the day!

Another highlight of our week was taking part in our Leadership Assembly. As Kindness Officers, we shared how we have been spreading kindness in our school. We wrote our kind actions on sticky notes and read them out at the end of the day, reminding each other of the importance of being kind. We also created a kindness flower, writing ways we can be kind on its petals. Our class made beautiful posters with messages like “Kindness makes us happy” and “Kindness is respectful”—a wonderful reminder of the positive impact kindness has on everyone.

Pupil Voice;

“Kindness makes us happy”
“Manners are kind”

“O’clock at the top”

And so begins Term 3!

Back to School: Crafting, Creating, and Counting in the Cold!

The first week back after the holidays is always an adventure, but this one came with a frosty twist! With icy playgrounds keeping us indoors, we traded snow boots for glue sticks and got straight to work on some exciting indoor activities that kept our hands busy and our imaginations soaring.

Up Helly Aa Fever!

Excitement is building for Up Helly Aa as the children gear up for the big events later this month! This week, some students got messy with paint, using their hands to create fiery designs for a special display outside the classroom. The buzz around torches, Vikings, and celebrations is contagious – everyone is looking forward to the festivities!

Building the Perfect Home

Meanwhile, another group of budding architects turned their attention to making houses. With the precision of master builders and the creativity of true artists, they assembled and decorated their own homes made from loose parts.

Counting in Cozy Corners

Math enthusiasts spent part of the week brushing up on number bonds. There’s nothing like revisiting these foundational skills to start the term strong. From colorful counting cubes to engaging group games, the children found fun ways to master their sums.

Block Play

Look at our fantastic block play models from the year so far. The pupils block play has been progressing all term. Pupils are now really motivated to build at height, to make patterns with loose parts and to create stories around their buildings.

So many meta-skills are observed in block play in P2A, communicating, focusing, collaborating, initiative, critical thinking to name a few. Pupils are beginning to link their play to the meta-skills themselves here are some pupil quote from today:

‘We made a castle, with a pool and a rainbow bridge for diving in. Me and my friends were being focusing Fergus a – we couldn’t figure out how to balance the bridge then we moved some blocks and it worked!’

Lego Marble Runs – STEM

P2A were using their communication and critical thinking meta-skills to plan and build marble runs with a partner. They evolved quickly and included: mazes, dead ends, slides, flumes, tunnels, bridges.

We have been focusing on communicating as a group. Learning to use eye contact, turn take and share ideas. Our weekly STEM challenges are great for practising these skills.

Pupil Voice: ‘Look this is a false end so then you have to go back and through the tunnel to get to the end.’
‘We were using our communication Cate meta-skill by sharing our ideas with each other and he used eye contact when speaking to me!’