Category Archives: Listening and Talking

The Eco-Committee

The primary 1/2 class are the Eco-Committee for this term. They shared their plan in assembly last week of how they were going to involve the whole school in planting and growing their own food in the Polycrub this year.

Each class have been given a section of the polycrub to be responsible for planting in. There is also a rota for watering and looking after the plants throughout the term.

There have been lots planted already – tatties, peas, radishes, carrots, lettuce, beetroot, to name a few.

The children have also planted sunflower seeds and tomatoes in little pots which will need careful looking after and re-potting oncce they grow a little bit.

Each class is responsible for not only looking after the plants but keeping the polycrub tidy and organised for the next class or group of children who come in.

it is also a great space outdoors at Whiteness Primary to play. The children took a break from planting to work on their teamwork skills and have a lot of fun on the hill.

World Book Day

The children, and staff had so much fun on World Book Day. So many great character costumes and books were brought in.

They loved listening to stories, acting out stories, reading and making books.

They painted their own book covers and wrote stories inside. They loved using their favourite stories to help. So much excitement and enthusiasm for reading- it was so lovely to see,

The Pet Popper-Upper

As part of their learning about looking after pets the children listened to the story of the Pet Popper -Upper. They then had to set to work creating their own one.

The ideas and creativity was amazing and the children loved coming up with new ways to make the pet pop up. it was good to see their confidence growing as they tried new modelling techniques and practiced craft skills.

At The Vets

The children were talking about how much they loved animals and telling each other what pets they have.

We spoke about how to look after pets and then decided we needed a Vet area in the classroom. They have loved making sure all the pets are well cared for and looking after them if they need a visit to the vets.

They all painted their favourite pets, which they shared with the NGUHA Jarl Squad as part of their quiz.

How many dogs can you see?

Hickory Dickory Dock Clocks

The children loved the story of the Hickory Dickory Dock Clock and set to work creating their own versions.

Their clock needed tp have numbers, hands, switches and passcodes to work.  The final Clocks were great and the children loved showing  them to the class.

Many of the children wrote about their clocks and how they had made them.

First Day of Term 3

The children had a great time today exploring and playing with the new resources ready for them in the classroom.

The vets area was really popular and the children worked together to plan out what they would need in the vets to look after the animals.

They collaborated and worked well together to build the train set. It was great to listen to their conversations and how they shared their ideas. The children also loved investigating the snow and ice in the water tray.

Lots of great vocabulary and science going on.

They spent part of the day outdoors, making the most of the snow. It was amazing to see the friendships, teamwork, problem solving and creativity going on. They had so much fun.

Just before they headed back indoors it was time for a photo with their igloo and snowman.

 

The Build Up to Christmas

The children loved the lead up to Christmas in the classroom. There were lots of opportunities for craft, writing  and number activities every day.

They enjoyed hearing the story about the birth of baby Jesus and of course did an amazing job performing at the Christmas Concert.

Every week the children have french lessons so they learned a little bit about french traditions and how children in France celebrate Christmas.

Here, the children played ‘Christmas in France’ and have left their shoes under the Christmas tree for Father Christmas to know where to leave the presents.

On the final day of term the children played Christmas Party games.

Bingle Bongle Bit Bots

After listening to the story of The Bingle Bongle Bit Bot and how he fixed everything the children set to work making their own Bingle Bongle Bit Bot robots.

They learned some new techniques for joining the different parts of their models to ensure they held together.

They had to make sure the robot had switches and buttons for different purposes. Some even had docking stations for charging and different compartments for storing things in.

 

Birthday Months

The Primary 1’s and their school buddies get together every week. They have been learning about dates and months in class and created these beautiful birthday cakes to pop their birthday candles in. they are absolutely beautiful and really brighten up the school corridor.

Making a Magic Potion

Haggis the witch made a magic potion in the cauldron with the help of the children.

They had so many ideas for disgusting things that could be included in the mixture…….wizards ear-wax, slugs slime, fish scales etc.

They repeated a little rhyme while stirring in the ingredients and of course said some magic words to make it work.

They thought of lots of ideas for what the potion would do and finally it started to bubble……

the children completed some recipes for magic potions in their writing jotters. There were so many great ideas.

New Term

The children arrived back at school today and were delighted with a bit of Halloween fun in and around the classroom.

 

Many of the children loved the dressing up and Witch’s kitchen area.

 

During art they followed instructions well and made little pumpkin collages.

 

It was such a nice morning that the class went out and did a scavenger hunt for spooky images hidden around the school grounds.

In the afternoon they listened to a story and all took part in Drawing Club.

In between times there was practical maths lessons and reading activities so a very busy first day back.

STEM Committee

The p1/2 children have been the school’s STEM committee this term so they set a challenge to the pupils in the whole of primary.  The children presented the task to the older children and provided them with the resources required.

The children were put into mixed age groups of 5-6 pupils. They were given a set of materials and had to work together to create a paper chain. There was a time limit and limited resources.

There were prizes for the longest chain and for the team who demonstrated the best ‘teamwork’. It was amazing to see how the children collaborated and shared out the different jobs within their groups.

The final chains were laid out and measured against each other to find the winner.

Number Formations

The Primary One children have been learning the letter formations this term. This begins as a character in a story, a little rhyme, some creativity and lots of practise.

For number 1, the children made penguins like the character in the story. This was great for practising those scissor skills and listening to instructions.

For number 2 the children made little nest models with two eggs made of plasticine, they also had two feathers for tickling each other like the character in the story. They worked with a partner to collect outdoor objects (two of each) and create a picture together.

 

Number 3 was a butterfly so the children added lots of ‘3 things’ to their pictures

 

For number 4 the children made these beautiful peacocks and learned a few facts about them.

 

Number 5 was a jumpy kangaroo so the children made jumps out of lego. Great for their fine motor skills.

For number 6 they used 6 sticks to make their own shapes and designs. They also used plasticine to make a swamp scene with 6 snakes, 6 rocks etc. This was a great opportunity for communication for collaboration.

 

Number 7 is a giraffe with 7 little birds on his back, 7 spots, 7 leaves etc.

 

 

 

For number 8  the children made spiders with 8 bendy legs and spider webs with 8 ‘spokes’ and 8 flies on their paper collage.

They also used plasticine to make ball shaped spider bodies and strengthen those little hands. Matchsticks were used as legs.

Number 9 was great fun practising in the shaving foam.

Tiger 10 was a favourite and the children made masks. They all had ten whiskers.

Afore Noo

As part of our IDL this term the children have been finding out about items from the past. We got a selection of items from the Lerwick Museum to investigate which were fascinating.

There were lots of opportunities for discussion, investigation and figuring out what some of the items were.

They particularly loved the old typewriter. They got to try and type some messages and loved the mechanical element of it.

They made their own typewriters in art with Miss Whelan and decided what the paper would have typed on it as it came out of the top.

They had great fun learning how listening to music has changed over the years. The record player was great for listening to and swaying to some Bing Crosby tunes. They also looked at cassette tapes and CD’s which some of the children had seen before.

They practised drawing and cutting circles to make their own records for display in the classroom.

Ms Sinclair also brought in an old gramophone and gave a demonstration of how to work it. The children got a chnce to wind up the handle to get the turntable moving. There were some scottish dance tunes to dance to this time.

They loved hearing about how watching TV has changed over the years with limited channels and black and white images. They made their own old style TV’s and made themselves the stars of the show.

 

Grandparents

Lucy-Jo’s grandad Nigel and Ashton’s great granny Ann came in to talk to the children about how things were different when they were children

The children loved hearing about what school life was like, what kinds of toys they used to play with and how technology has really changed over the years. It was good for them to hear how lucky they are nowadays with all their lovely activities, clothes, food and opportunities as life was much harder when Nigel and Ann were youngsters.

The children asked really good questions and were so respectful and attentive during Nigel and Ann’s visits.

Thankyou so much to our special visitors.