Tag Archives: critical thinking

And so begins Term 3!

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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

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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

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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!’