Friday Funtime has replaced our Golden Time on Friday afternoons and runs in 4-6 week blocks. To kick start the first block in January, pupils wrote down their interests and wonders on slips of paper with their class teacher. I collated this information into subjects and as a staff identified areas to develop depending on the interests of the pupils. Pupils were then offered a selection of choices and had to choose in order of preference then I gathered in all the information and sorted pupils into groups. These groups ran for 4 weeks and for the final week, the groups wrote a reflection for the blog and wrote down their ideas and interests for the next block. And the whole process starts again. This new initiative really links well to our school vision, values and aims as it’s promoting creativity, responsibility for their learning, developing skills, learning together in mixed ages and enjoyment.
Miss Irvine
Block 1 Reflections
ICT P1-3
Stop Motion animation was good. We used playdough to make creative characters. We made amazing backgrounds and then added in lego cars and robots. It was awesome. Everyone used Stop Motion app on the iPads. To get an animation you have to take lots of photos one by one. It is important to keep the iPad still so the photos are not blurred. Don’t get your hands in the way. To get one second of animation you need at least six still photos. We all really liked doing this Friday Fun activity.
P4-7 ICT
For Friday Funtime we have been doing Scratch. Scratch is a coding game where you can make games, stories and animations.
To use Scratch you build up sets of blocks to control a sprite which is your character. You can add backgrounds to your stage, change sprites costumes and make your own sprites.
We have learned to code, debug, follow tutorials and have patience!
“I’ve enjoyed it!” said Alice,
“Too easy!” says Robbie,
“Fun!” said Neve, Joe and Brooke,
“I’ve learned something new,” said Lori.
Lego/Games
I enjoyed…
‘playing games with differnet people that I wouldn’t normally play with’
‘I liked playing challenging games’
‘ I like to share things from home’
‘ I let people play with my games’
‘ I like the lego because you could create things’
‘It was nice to share’
‘I would play new games again’
‘I learned how to play different things’
We had a brainstorm about what we would like to do next block and came up with the following:
Science – How do flowers, trees grow? How does snow fall? How do you make cheese? Learn about volcanoes.
Games and board games
Woodwork – building or craft
Papercrafts – boats and aeroplanes
Pottery/ Model making
Clay Modelling
Every Friday we have been experimenting with different modelling tools.
In week one we made our own clay using cornflour and bicarbonate of Soda. It was air-drying and stayed white so it was easier to decorate. In week two, we used air-drying clay and we made pots. For the next two weeks, we decorated our creations using sharpies and acrylic paint.
“It was really fun, I liked making the pots.” Mackie
“I liked when we painted the pots with the metallic colours” Megan
“I liked when we made the air drying clay.” Angela
“I liked experimenting with all the different clays.” Flora
“I liked colouring the clay” Harvey
“I liked painting it.” Alan
“I found it fun using the sharpies to colour the clay.” Summer
“”It was aa very fun!” Ria
Weaving
In the first week, we got to choose coloured yarn to weave in and out on our small weaving boards. It made a stripy pattern. It was good that the older bairns and younger bairns got to work together and the older ones could help younger bairns when they got stuck. It was bonding time with others and we got to work with a new teacher. We liked using the colourful yarn and seeing how our work was growing into something. If we finished we could go and do more things with yarn. We ran out of time and got to take them home to finish.
“It was a bit hard at first but it got easier as we worked on it.” “I thought it was a good thing to learn to do.” “It was relaxing.” “It was good to be with new friends.”
P1-3 Science
In the first week we tested mixing liquids with bicarbonate of soda. We used hot and cold water, lemon juice and fairy liquid.
“It was amazing.”
“It was good when it fizzed with the lemon juice.”
In the second week, we were trying to clean coins. We tested Lemon juice, fairly liquid, syrup, tomato sauce, soy sauce, salt water, ginger ale.
“maple syrup as the baddest, it made it sticky.”
“Red sauce was the best.”
In week 3, we tested our feet, legs and eyes to see if you were left, right or ambidextrous. Mrs Hutchison helped that week. We tested throwing and kicking the ball. We had to write with both hands and that was hard.
Last week we made greenhouses and helicopters. We used pumpkin seeds. Mrs Porter helped us to put the wet papertowel in the bag. We put seeds in and they are on the wall in the porch.
We also made helicopters from card and a paperclip. We got to stand on the couch and drop them.
“I liked the helicopters because I made an army helicopter.”
“I liked everything we did.”
“I made crystals at home.”
P4-7 Science
Week 1 – Discussed what we wanted to do then looked at optical illusions
Week 2 – We created parachutes of different sizes
Week 3 – We created a volcano then used a mixture of ingredients to watch out own volcanic eruption
Week 4 – We made oobleck slime
Liam – My favourite activity was the oobleck slime
Evie – I liked creating the volcano eruptions because I liked seeing what happened when we mixed the vinegar with the fairy liquid and bicarbonate of soda
Effie – I liked the optical illusions because I could trick Mum and Dad
Isla – I enjoyed the parachute because you could how the size affected the time of the fall
Matilda – The oobleck looked like liquid but it was a solid when we played with it.
