It is always so exciting once the plants start to appear! The bairns are doing a great job of looking after them and thankfully the weather is improving and there is a bit of warmth and sunshine.
Poly Crub
Category Archives: Social Skills
Our Kindness Trail
Kindness is one of the schools’ Core Values and we feel it is the most important. It is always on the agenda but it is good to make it a focus and spend time discussing with the children different ways of being kind and how it makes us and others feel.
The children listened to stories, watched clips and had discussions about kindness. We also had little role play scenarios to act out and discuss.
Any children who were noticeably kind could choose a smiley face and add it to the Kindness Trail which is making its way around the school corridors.
Lots of parents have emailed in Acts of Kindness that they have seen the children doing at home. They loved hearing the different ways their peers have been kind and it has really spurred them on with their efforts.
All adults in the school are noticing their kindness and commenting on this with them. The cooks are well impressed with the good manners at lunchtime with lots of pleases and thankyous.
Voar Redd Up
On Friday the tide was low so the bairns went to the Taing beach to take part in the Voar Redd Up. They mostly found bits of rope and plastic but the more unusual finds were a toorie and cans and bottles in the grassy area between the school and the top of the beach road.
There was also time to go exploring and find shells and crabs.
Polycrub update
A huge thankyou to the parents who helped to water the plants throughout the Easter holidays. They have fairly shot up. The sunflowers were ready to be re-potted into bigger pots so the children have been busy doing that and lots of watering this week.
As part of their literacy this term the children have been learning how to write instructions. Lucy-Jo was very clear on how to plant a seed.
Grandparents
It was lovely to welcome lots of Grandparents into the school and classroom again. The children were so delighted to be able to share their learning and show them what they love doing at school.
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.
The T-Rex Who Lost His Specs
We read the story of the T-Rex who Lost his Specs in class. The children then went on to create their own specs. There were lots of opportunities for creativity and problem solving. They look fantastic and it was a lot of fun.
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.
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.
Hedgehog Homes
As part of our learning around seasons and Autumn the primary 1 children set to making cosy hedgehog homes using the loose parts.
They had such great ideas and made the homes as comfortable as possible for the hedgehogs.
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.
Daily Check-in
Every morning the children use the Zones of Regulation area to indicate how they are feeling. There are opportunities to talk about their feelings and there are ideas for self-regulation. There are little activities and resources to support the children’s understanding of different emotions.
This is also a nice little area to just chill quietly or chat.
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.
