Author: Miss Saunders

Shetland Magazines 

Pupils completed their Shetland magazines, which turned out to be absolutely fantastic pieces of work. Each group took time to read and evaluate each magazine, using the criteria they had been given at the beginning of the project. Lots of positive feedback was given as part of this process.

  

A – Z of Shetland 

Pupils had a great time creating their own ‘A-Z’ of Shetland. Some pupils did these with a partner and some individually. Everyone was brave enough to share their presentations with their class. Well done everyone!

Burns’ Supper

On the 25th January, we celebrated Burns’ Day by cooking and preparing a Burns supper. The menu was:

Main : Haggis, neeps and tatties

Pudding: Crannachan and shortbread.

All pupils tried at least one thing they had never tasted before. For many, it was crannachan, which lots of people enjoyed!

Around the World in 80 Days

At the end of January, we started our new topic, Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. We are reading the book together in class, as well as watching little snippets from the recent BBC series. We have lots of exciting things planned for our topic – check out our February posts for up to date learning!

 

Curriculum Overview term 3

 

Here we are in 2022!! It has been lovely welcoming the bairns back for their first full week of the new term….and we’ve been busy!

Maths

We’ve started learning about time, something that is nice and practical. The bairns are enjoying what we’re doing so far. This week has mainly been revision of previous learning, and we’re moving on to looking at 12/24 hr time, calculating time durations, reading timetables and then, for some, working with speed/distance/time calculations.

Literacy / Topic

We’re spending the first couple of weeks of this term looking at Shetland / Scotland. We’ve been focussing this week on Shetland. Pupils have been working throughout the week in groups creating a Shetland Magazine. These are now in their final stages and they are looking AMAZING!! Photos of the finished magazines will follow. Pupils have also been creating their own A-Z of Shetland, which they’re really enjoying.

We have just finished reading ‘Dodie’s Phenomenal Pheesic’, a translation of Roald Dahl’s ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ into Shetland Dialect. The pupils have loved listening to this short novel being read in dialect, with many saying they enjoyed it more than the English version. A lot of the pupils shared that they found it so interesting to listen to and loved hearing their own dialect.

Welcome to our weekly snapshots – I’m going to put one of these on our Blog every Friday, to keep you up to date with what we’ve been learning throughout the week. Some highlights from this week include:

Maths: 

P7s have been focussing on bearings and direction. They have been using protractors to calculate the bearing of one point from another, and have been writing these as 3 figure bearings.

P5 & P6 have been getting really good at using a protractor to draw angles, and they are beginning to learn about compass points and direction.

Writing:  

Pupils have been writing evacuee letters over the past 2 weeks, imagining they are evacuees and sending their first letter home to their parents. These are so imaginative, and some are really quite emotional. They are fantastic!

Topic / WW2 : 

Pupils have been focussing on the Battle of Britain this week, and they have been making really fantastic model planes – Spitfires and Mosquitos mainly. They have also made leaflets about the Battle of Britain to accompany their models.

Play: 

A kitchen has appeared in the garden….and it has been really well received. It comes with a sink….which now works, thanks to some of our P7s. The bairns are having a really fantastic time playing with it. Fingers crossed for continuing good weather, so they can get out to enjoy it!

We didn’t venture far out of the school…but we did leave the classroom, to give the pupils a hint of the evacuation experience. They were then lined up in the hall, as evacuees were, and chosen to go to new homes by the billeting officer. They have used this experience to write amazing imaginary letters this week, so it certainly had an affect on them….even though we were so limited in what we could do. It was a really fantastic day, and everyone got into the role play element of the day….even the other teachers and school staff!

As part of our ‘Evacuee Day’, the P567 pupils had a WW2 classroom. This included doing handwriting with chalk, an air raid practice, and some mental arithmetic practise…..they really got into the spirit of it!

Well done to all the P567 pupils for the effort they put in for our ‘Evacuee Day’. I think you’ll agree, they looked amazing!

     

On Friday 7th May, we took a walk along to the shoreline, so that we could test out our model boats. Pupils had set criteria that their boats had to meet. These were:

• balanced in distribution of weight
• buoyant
• stable
• able to take weight
• made of suitable materials

Some boats fared better than others! We had a brilliant time testing them, and have learned lots through the project.

P7’s enjoyed their visit to, and tour around the AHS. I enjoyed it too…it was really interesting to see all around the school and different classrooms in all the departments.

 

 

The pupils in P6/7 have been learning about the science behind floating and sinking. They have been learning about Archimides’ Principle, water displacement, the properties of materials, mass, density and buoyancy. Here they are testing whether things float or sink. They will be applying what they have learned to a boat design. We will test the boats when they are made!