All posts by Mrs Forsyth

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Science, Social Skills, Social Studies, STEM, technology

Learning Out in the Snow

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Opportunities for using loose part to create dens. Great for developing problem solving and teamwork skills.

Collecting the melting snow from icicles dripping from the roof. Great science and STEM opportunities outdoors.

Some of the melting ice was collected in a different way!

 

 

Deciding which containers are best for different purposes. Evie’s snowman needed three different sized containers.

Opportunities to develop creativity, confidence and take risks- so many skills being developed.

Collaboration, choice and commitment in play develops so many social skills and friendships. It can also be exhausting!

 

Testing to see which snowball goes fastest- big or small? Does lifting the guttering higher or lower? So many opportunities for conversation, developing vocabulary and communication skills outdoors.

 

 

Checking out footprints and the different patterns boots make in the snow.

 

 

 

 

Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Social Skills, STEM

Data Handling

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The children have been doing a lot of data handling recently in maths. These lessons are always really active and busy so its difficult to capture on camera how much learning has taken place.

The primary 1’s have been learning about different ways to sort items and explaining the criteria they used to put items in different groups.

The primary 2’s have been doing a lot of surveys in the class and in the other classrooms too. They have been using this data to create graphs and diagrams.

The primary 1’s have also been creating graphs using practical materials.

by sorting the information they have they are getting good at answering the types of questions necessary to explain their data.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, STEM

World Book Day

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The children all looked amazing today and had great fun listening to and reading stories.

Several of the staff joined in as characters from the book The Day the Crayons Quit.

The children loved sharing their books and explaining who their characters were.

Ellis dressed as Greg from Diary of A Wimpy Kid and Mrs Moncrieff was the white crayon to colour him in.

In the afternoon the children became authors and publishers and wrote their own books! They were so enthusiastic and the independent writing was amazing.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, Social Skills, Social Studies

Viking Warriors

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The children love learning about the Vikings and have been enjoying role play opportunities in the classroom. It is great to see them all getting on so well together using what they have been learning in their play. Below is a snapshot of Wednesday afternoon’s adventures.

The galley is now finished and they have been taking turns and sailing around the world discovering new places to settle.

Sometimes,  just their imaginations are enough. They set out chairs and rowed their longship – even before it was built.

Once in their new lands the children have been learning how Vikings trade items to get what they need. Their are jewels, gems, furs, food and  jewellery to swap, using the scales and balances to work out different amounts.

They would also need to cook over an open fire in the middle of the longhouse using foods available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These viking warriors are getting ready for another attack.

 

The children are enjoying using the Viking longships in the water tray to set battle scenes and talk about their topic.

 

 

Listening and Talking, Social Skills

A Special Show and Tell

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River’s dad was in the Lerwick Up Helly Aa Jarl Squad. He came in as River’s Show and Tell which was really exciting.

He told the class about how his suit was made and all the different jobs people did to make the different parts. The children got to hold the shield, the axe and the dagger. The helmet was amazing and he shared lots of information about the detail and feathers on it.

River loved having his dad in and it was super to have a ‘friendly’ viking in to class before the arrival of the fearsome NGUHA jarl squad.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Social Skills, Social Studies

NGUHA

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The children were already for their visit from the Nesting and Girlsta Jarl Squad.

In class they made axes, shields and helmets with Viking runes and designs on them.

The children all designed individual shields and they voted for the best one which was enlarged and put on the Jarl Squad’s galley. Esme won this and her shield looked amazing.

The Jarl Squad came in singing and cheering. The Jarl enjoyed his quiz which the children helped prepare and then everyone enjoyed a Boston Two Step with the jarl Squads’ band.

 

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, Social Skills

Dancing

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There have been a few sessions of traditional dance this term. The class have been learning the Grand Old Duke of York. The Circassian Circle, The Grand March and the Boston Two Step.

Lots of great listening to follow instructions and keep time to the music.

They also had a session dancing with their Buddies. The Primary 2’s got P6 buddies for the dances. It was so much fun.

Then we had a whole school dance which included the Early Years children and school staff.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Science, Social Skills, Social Studies, STEM

Our Big Dino Build

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The children started by selecting suitable boxes/junk to make their model dinosaur. They worked in pairs so there was a lot of discussion and collaboration to find the parts and join them together.

We spoke about how to make their model strong by creating different types of joins in using PVA and sellotape.

The next stage was seriously messy. They used papier mache to cover the dinosaur, focusing on the joins and making sure the newspaper strips went from one part of the model onto an adjoining part.

Once the models had two coats of papier mache it was time to choose colours for their dinosaur.

Once the paint was dry the children thought about the detail they wanted to add- eyes, teeth, claws etc.

The primary 2’s have been working on adjectives in their literacy work so this was a great opportunity to apply that learning to describing their dinosaur.

The writing was read out in class for the others to guess which model the description matched.

Their is now a little Dinosaur Exhibition set up in the school for the other classes and staff to visit to see the models and the writing.

Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, technology

A Burns Supper

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Today we were learning a little bit about Robert Burns and how people celebrate Burns Night.  The children prepared tatties and neaps to go with the haggis. They were very careful with the peelers and knives listening well to instructions.

They all got to have some of the Burns Supper they had cooked. A few loved it, some liked it and quite a lot of children did not like it at all but had a try.

Listening and Talking, RME, Social Studies

Chinese New Year

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The children have been learning about Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of the Rabbit and they loved hearing the story about how the Emperor decided how to name the years after animals.

They have been counting to 10 in mandarin and having a go at using chopsticks in our little chinese restaurant.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Social Skills, STEM

Buddying

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Every week the Primary 1’s meet up with their buddies in Primary 7. This is always exciting and the bairns really look forward to it. They do lots of fun things together inside and outside during this time. Below are just some of the things they have been enjoying doing together.

Parachute games

Robots with Rectangles

Plasticine Creations and Presentations

Puppets and Puppet Shows

Name Collages

Art and Craft, Listening and Talking, literacy, Science, Social Skills, Social Studies, STEM

Long long ago

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As part of their topic this term the children have been learning about how we find out about the past. They made salt dough and created their own dinosaur fossils.

They have also been having a go at being archaeologists using tools to carefully search through the sand for important clues to the past.

Art and Craft, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy

New Years Resolutions

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The class recycled old Christmas cards to make these stars to hang in the classroom.

On the back they wrote their New Years Resolutions. It was lovely to hear what the children would like to get better at and their wishes/promises for 2023.

Here are a couple of ideas of the kind of things they were thinking about.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, literacy

Cards for the Community

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All the children in the school made Christmas cards for the over 80’s who live in the community. The primary 1/2 class uses tatties to print penguins then put on details with cut paper and pens. They looked fantastic. I am sure the recipients were delighted with these precious cards.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, Social Skills, STEM

Our Christmas Concert

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We only managed a few rehearsals in school before the snow came and we had to close. The children were so good at listening and following instructions. They made their own props and practised songs as often as possible.

The children did so well remembering their lines and singing their songs on the big stage. It was a great experience for them performing in front of such a big audience.