Tag Archives: connection

Shapes

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.

 

Materials and Magpies

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.

Go Furt Fridays

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………

Our Towns

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.

 

On Our Doorstep

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 Crow and the Pitcher

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.

Colour in Nature

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!

Dandelion Art

The children went out and looked at dandelions in the nature garden. They saw them at different stages of their lifecycles.

They looked at the dandelions using magnifying glasses to see the different parts and especially the little seeds. They watched the seeds float and fly around and learned about wind dispersal and self seeding.

They created these wonderful pieces using cut paper and paint.

Capacity Fun

The children have been learning about capacity. The primary ones have been great at working in pairs to measure different containers. They were great at estimating how many cupfulls it would be before they counted and checked.

The Primary Two’s compared different containers and measured them using non- standard units. Againthey were excellent at making estimates before measauring.

They then went on to learn about using litres and half litres. It was great to be outdoors for this as they loved measuring the big containers.

It was great timing for the oil delivery to the school as the children were able to see the dials and put this learning into a real life context. We had 5000 litres delivered.

Sowing Wildflowers

At the end of last term the children sowed wildflower seeds into pots. These have been looked after in the polycrub and were now ready to be transplanted outdoors in the wildlife garden.

Every child in the school helped to sow seeds and many of them helped to plant them out amongst the trees in the afternoon.

Lifecycles

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!

 

Go Furt Fridays

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!

World Book Day

It was great to see the children dressed up as all different characters or wearing their pyjamas to school last week.

It was also wonderful to see how enthusiastic they were about stories and books.

During Buddying time they got to share some of their favourite books with their buddies and draw some favourite characters together.

Red Nose Day

Today the children came to school dressed in red and learned a little bit about Comic Relief and the fundraising they do.

it was lots of fun playing games and doing activities that the p7 pupils had planned.

In the afternoon they watched as the p7’s got a soaking in the stocks followed my Miss McLoed and Mrs Colclough.

 

Kites STEM Challenge

The children worked in pairs to create a kite using a variety of materials. Lots of skills were being developed through this activity – for example collaboration, co-operation, problem solving, listening etc.

The wind was blowing so it was great to go and test the kites. The children soon found out that in order to fly the kites well they had to work together.

Measuring Rainfall

The children worked in mixed groups to make rain gauges to measure rainfall.

They then had to find a suitable position outdoors to place their rain gauge and dig a hole to place it in to keep it stable.

There was a lot of excitement around the pond as they all spotted our very large resident frog!

We will go out at regular intervals to check on the rainfall and record the results in class.

Squad p1/2 – Peerie Vikings

The bairns were so excited today and were all ready for the Nesting and Girlsta Jarl Squad coming this morning.

They had painted a galley and all the children in the school made themselves into Vikings to go inside and around it. It looked great in the school hall.

The children also made collage pictures of Viking longships on the sea. They used paint, torn paper, foam shapes, pens, wooden sticks and card for all the different parts. They are so colourful and look amazing.

Water Experiments

The children have loved setting up and learning about the properties of water experiments.

  • They had great fun doing evaporation experiments and talking about the results.
  • They froze little creatures and dinosaurs into ice blocks and spent time chipping away and getting the ice to melt to get them out again. Learning that water can be a solid, a liquid and gas called water vapour from the earlier experiments.

They have enjoyed investigating ice and creating habitats with the polar animals.

 

Changes

This is how the children began planning for this terms topic on Changes. They thought of lots of possible ideas of things that can change and were very excited to be involved at this stage.

This created a lot of discussion and great questions from the children who worked in little groups to come up with the ideas.