This week the children will be coming home with their Bookbug Bags. They have loved reading the books in class and The Eyebrows of Doom was a favourite…….
…….we all got carried away and made our own eyebrows of doom to change moods and make mischief.
The children have had great fun using different materials and resources to create symmetrical designs. They have been using mirrors to check for symmetry indoors and outside and also painted wonderful symmetrical abstract designs.
They have also been learning about the 2D shapes and practised counting sides and corners. They designed their own pictures using different shapes.
We are very lucky at Whiteness to have so many fantastic resources for the children to use…..some modern technology mixed with some very old puzzles.
The Primary 2’s have been learning about which shapes can tile and which ones can’t. they found examples in and around the school and might find examples at home too. They investigated tiling using the different shapes they had been learning about.
The children have also been learning about 3D shapes and using their knowledge of 2D shapes they can describe the faces they can see. They have been learning about flat and curved faces as well as counting the vertices on the different shapes. They loved using the ‘feely box’ to describe and guess the shapes.
Again we found lots of examples of 3D shapes in the school and outdoors.
They used shapes to build models and the p1’s practiced sorting shapes into ones that could roll or not roll and ones that could stack or not stack.
The classroom has changed around a bit and they are very excited and enjoying the Halloween Shop and messy activities set up for them this week.
The children have been having fun playing literacy and numeracy games and going over some of the learning from last term.
As part of last terms topic learning about different materials the children created these beautiful magpie collages. They loved adding the shiny bits to the magpies nest to represent the treasures he found.
They also loved using magnets and finding out about how they reacted to different materials and to each other.
Most Friday mornings in Term One have been spent outdoors in our Loose Parts Zone. This gives the children opportunities to develop so many skills like co-operation, problem solving, teamwork, collaboration, etc.
Each time we go out there are different ideas, children go into different groups, different friendships develop, they get more confident using the materials available and allow their imaginations and creativity to take over.
The parent council provided us with some new resources, including half round guttering pipes and some very sturdy stands to support the pipes at different levels. This has led to some amazing problem solving and water courses in the playground.
The tree area is great for the children to learn about taking risks but being safe. They love building Dens and climbing in the trees.
On these mornings we usually have our snack outdoors which has been lovely while the weather has been good this term.
And we get to play too………
The children started building houses in the junk modelling area and got really into it, making floors, rooms, furniture etc. They began including ‘mini-me’s into the houses too.
From this they decided to make a big town with roads between the houses.
They then began to create other buildings and areas in their town. There was a park, hospital, school etc.
The toy cars were brought out so they then built garages and even a multi-story car park.
They worked in pairs to draw plans of their towns and include all the buildings they thought should be included. It was great to see the primary 2’s labelling parts of their plans and writing names on their buildings.
The children have also been learning about different aspects of safety, including crossing the road. They did some role play in the games hall and had turns at being the lollipop person.
They then re-played crossing the road safely in their ‘town’, using the toy cars and mini-me characters.
The children have been learning about the changing seasons and have been out looking for signs of Autumn.
They loved learning about hedgehogs and making cosy nests for them to hibernate in out in the wildlife garden. They even found lots of slugs to feed them with.
They were really excited and worked together to make hedgehog ‘houses’ to create a hedgehog village in the shared area. it has been played with so much this week.
They used lots of different materials to make the houses nice and cosy for the hedgehogs. Some had sleeping bags, fridges, to keep the bugs fresh, alarm clocks to let them know when Spring had arrived- the children’s imaginations are amazing.
They even made a campfire and toasted marshmallows.
The primary 2’s wrote about their houses.
They also wrote some hedgehog facts and added them to a class display which they had made.
Friday was a really warm day and the children have been learning about sun safety. They got onto discussing drinking plenty of water and staying cool. This got onto the subject of paddling pools and outdoor hot tubs. The class decided they would have a go at making their own paddling pool as we were heading outdoors.
They worked together to roll tyres into position to make a big circle. They then helped to get the tarpaulins over the top and pegged them down.
Once the tyres were in position and the tarpaulins on the top the children worked together to fill their pool with water. They used lots of different containers to fetch water from the water trays at the other end of the play area as the hose only reaches so far.
Once there was enough water it didn’t take long to get wellies and socks off and get in for a little paddle. The chairs made it a very comfortable place to sit and cool off. The children were so happy and excited with what they had built together.
There was a ‘changing room’ created for the children to dry their feet and get their socks and boots back on.
Children are often asked what they would like to be when they grow up. These ideas often change as they get older, but for now these paintings show what job they would like to do.
They were so good at painting in the classroom. Really great listening and careful work.
They have been enjoying role playing a few different jobs through play in the classroom and outdoors. A lot of different jobs in the hospital area, builders in the blocks, sand and Kapla and a spot of fishing in the water tray are just a few examples.
As the term goes on we will be discussing more jobs and having some parents in to tell us about their work.
The children were delighted to find a hospital area in the classroom to play in. Lots of jobs to do and great fun. Lots of the new p1’s told us last year that they are keen to be doctors or nurses when they grow up.
We got some time to play outdoors in our ‘Zone’. The weather was lovely and there was great excitement watching the tractor cutting grass in the field behind the school.
A few snaps of the children having their lunch. A great success and what lovely manners.
The children loved having the opportunity to explore and play with all the lovely things in the classroom. We are very lucky at Whiteness to have such an amazing learning space.
I loved all our class photo shots so thought I would just put them all on here rather than choose just one.
Another Monday afternoon exploring our amazing local area. A walk in the Strom Road and down to the little beach to complete todays task…….’what can you make?’
Some groups decided to do dam building…….
Others diverted the water flow into new channels….
the children came up with so many different ideas………..
There was also time to explore the shoreline and find out what lives there.
The best way to practice counting out loud is to have lots of fun while doing it. The primary 1 children built an obstacle course and took turns at being the leader and counting to 30, controlling everybody who was running around, under, through, behind, over obstacles.
The children loved the Aesop’s fable called the Crow and the Pitcher. The primary ones made crow puppets and used jugs and glass pebbles to retell the story. They loved being videoed on the class ipad and watching it back.
The primary 2”s wrote the story and then read it to a partner who acted it out using props. This is Conans story. He did a fantastic job of spelling and remembering to include all the important parts of the story in sequence.
As part of our On Our Doorstep IDL we went to explre the areas nearby the school and find different colours of plants.
The children were vary careful and only picked what they needed to work in their IDL groups to create Colour in Nature pictures. They talked about and named different types of flowers and plants they found.
The results were beautiful…….and fun!
As part of our IDL about ‘On Our Doorstep’ the children practiced using a compass and looking for different landmarks in different directions.
They worked in their groups of four to complete the task and had great fun.
There was time left before heading back to school so they had a giant whole school game of ‘Octopus’ at the Strom Pitch.
Great teamwork from the children working together to create a ‘hot tub’ which became a ‘chocolate flavoured hot tub’ with the addition of some mud!
The children had a snack area and enjoyed sitting together outdoors in the sunshine.
Lots of engineering going on to make the water flow around bends and pour into different containers. Also using the water as a force to push objects down the pipes and figuring out how to make the water flow faster and slower.
Children’s imaginations are wonderful….these vehicles were taking them all over the world and beyond!
And there is always time to do a bit of climbing amongst the trees. The children learn how to do this safely and are really good at helping each other.
As part of our ‘Changes’ IDL learning the children loved the activities around lifecycles and metamorphosis. It all started with a visit to our school pond when we spotted several frogs.
The children worked in groups to create a 3D collage of a pond showing the different stages fo the lifecycle of a frog. it was lovely to see them collaborating and supporting each other with this.
The final ponds looked fantastic……..
As part of their learning about lifecycles they discussed the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. It was so much fun learning this through drama.
These are the eggs!
Out of the eggs hatch the little caterpillars
The chrysalis/cocoon/pupa hangs while the caterpillar transforms inside.
The butterflies emerge from the cocoons, dry their wings and fly away.
Then they lay eggs!
The children are learning about what is ‘On Our Doorstep’ this term so every Monday we are heading out to explore.
Our first trip out was down to Taing beach.
During each trip out the children have a little challenge or activity to do in mixed age groups of four pupils. For this first visit the children had to collect 10 shells each and work together to create a design.
it was great to see the pupils of different ages working together on this task.
The children have been having fun learning about length. The Primary 1’s created these flowers and talked about longer, shorter, taller, tallest, smaller etc. Lots of great discussions and vocabulary used.
They used their ‘magic sticks’ to compare the size of objects outdoors.
All the children used different body parts to measure objects eg. ‘heel to toe’ steps, and handspans. They loved doing this and got good at estimating their answers before actually measuring to check.
The Primary 2’s used different units to measure objects in the classroom and outdoors. They then went on to learn about metres and half metres.
They worked in pairs to create a snake which was exactly 1 metre long.
The primary 1’s showed their buddies how to measure objects using their sticks and the p7’s recorded the answers.
They have had fun using the playdough to make long and short worms.
Go Furt means get outdoors………It was a chilly 3 or 4 degrees on Friday morning but the children were still keen to get outside to build shelters and play together.
We will be heading out every Friday to make the most of our wonderful outdoor space at Whiteness. There is a shed full of loose parts which the children use to develop so many important skills including problem solving, cooperation, teamwork, etc.
It is fantastic seeing them having so much fun together and there imaginations are just the best!
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