Tag Archives: challenges

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.

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.

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, 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.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, maths, Science, Social Skills

Symmetry

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The children have just begun a topic on symmetry and have really enjoyed the first few activities. They had fun looking at reflections and using mirrors to make pictures complete.

They worked with a partner to create a giant symmetrical design using classroom objects.

They made symmetrical body shapes with their partner.

They had great fun investigating symmetry with the little mirrors.

The children had a go at painting symmetry butterflies. They make a very colourful corner in the classroom.

They then had a go at creating their own symmetry paintings for their gallery.

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

Around The World

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This terms whole school topic has been  ‘Around The World’ which included a little bit about the World Cup. The primary 1/2 class showcased some of their learning in assembly last Friday.

They loved learning about different countries in the World and keeping tabs on who is playing and still in the World Cup.

Archie loved matching countries and flags and finding places on the maps

 

 

As part of the project the children worked in pairs/small groups to create their own imaginary country. Whether it was hot or cold? Where the cities, forests, mountains etc would be, what animals lived there, what was the country called and design a flag for it.

Art and Craft, maths

Tiling in p2

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The primary 2’s went outdoors to search for tiling patterns around the school. The found lots of great examples.

Back in the classroom they spent time investigating with flat shapes to see which ones tiled and which ones didn’t.

They had a go at creating their own tiling designs usisng the 2D shapes they have been learning about,

numeracy

Numbers in P1/2

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The primary ones have used a variety of materials to learn more about the numbers to 10.

They have been learning about adding and subtracting and loved making these addition towers.

The Primary 2’s having been learning about number bonds and how numbers can be constructed in different ways.

We still try to head outdoors to do maths when the weather allows us. Here the children were practising ‘Counting On’ skills and had to find the washing which was pegged out amongst the trees to be their starting numbers.

They have also been learning about the connection between the addition and subtraction processes and creating lots of ‘fact families’. They again use lots of different materials and different activities to practise this.

literacy

Making Words In Primary 1

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It is so exciting to see how the Primary 1’s are using their phonic sounds to build words. Everyday we practise their sounds and do lots of games and activities to practise blending letters to read and make words.

They loved playing hopscotch in the classroom using wordcards.

Listening and Talking, literacy, Science, STEM

More about Autumn

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This little area of the classroom is all about Autumn. The children have been thinking about all the changes that happen with this season and about animals who hibernate – focusing on hedgehogs in particular. 

They have been making little hedgehog homes\nests using the loose parts.

We have been outside again spotting signs of Autumn and having discussions about  the changes we see and things we find.

numeracy

Numbers to 100

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The primary 2’s have been working with numbers to 100. They are learning about place value and how these numbers are constructed using Tens and Units(ones)

They have been playing games and sorting numbers to understand their values and order.

Our class ‘Speedy skills’ have been a great way to practise different skills learned using cards and instructions.

They use the class whiteboard, games, resources and this interactive wall display as a reminder of these numbers and how they work.

Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Science

P for Petals and Perfume

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The children had great fun making perfume using petals from different flowers. There was honey suckle and fuschia as well as flowers from the school polycrub to make fantastic smells with.

They used small scissors and tiny spoons to create their perfumes in little glass jars and containers.

They were very proud of their final products. They named their perfumes and made labels for the little bottles.