Tag Archives: Continuation

Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, maths, Science

Polycrub Progress

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The radishes were the first thing to be ready for harvesting. They have grown really fast. The children got to take some home and the cooks at school chopped somefor the children to try at lunchtime.

The sunflowers are getting very big. The children have re-potted them and are keeping an eye on the flowers at the top to see which ones bloom first. They are measuring Laurie’s one everyday as it is the tallest at the moment.

 

They have also cleared out all the spinach. They got a little bag of leaves to take home and try and the rest has been frozen ready to add to a recipe soon.

Willum did a great job of tying up peas onto the canes. It is really exciting seeing the peapods growing now. The children are desperate to start popping them open.

The children finally got to try some peas today. So many growing now.

The polycrub looks amazing and the children work hard to water and look after the plants daily.

Art and Craft, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, maths, Science, Social Skills, STEM

Kites STEM Challenge

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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.

Listening and Talking, literacy, Science, Social Skills, STEM

Water Experiments

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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.

 

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

literacy and magic e

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The p2 children have been learning about Magic e and practising reading and writing words. It is great revision and consolidation for the p3’s who have loved all the games and different ways to practise the spelling patterns

Recently the children worked in groups to create a map which they then went on to write about. It was great to see them supporting each other and being so engaged in writing tasks.

There are lots of spelling and literacy games in the classroom which the children play. The p3’s love the opportunity to be the ‘teacher’ in these games and take on the organisational roles.

 

 

It is such a busy environment so often difficult to capture photos of all the amazing learning that happens in the classroom.

 

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

Drawing Club

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We have a go at Drawing club usually about twice a week.

Below are 3 examples of stories we have used this term to inspire wonderful drawings by p1,2 and 3.

It is not just about the drawing though, there are so many skills being developed through not only the delivery of the story but new vocabulary, maths concepts,  phonological awareness, spelling and rhyming patterns etc. It is also a great way to focus in on the children who may need a little bit of extra help building their confidence with pencil grip, fine motor skills and forming shapes, numbers, letters etc on paper.

The children draw with me in little groups to be able to hear repeated vocabulary and have a go at creating their own masterpieces. They love it and get very excitied about Drawing Club.

Art and Craft, Listening and Talking, maths, numeracy, Social Skills, Uncategorized

Numeracy in P1

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The Primary 1 children have been so busy this term practising number formations, playing number games and learning through so many  fun, active and practical ways.

With each new number we focused on they enjoyed a story and also  a practical activity, game or craft activity to go along with it.

I have only managed to get photos of some of the ways the children have been learning  about the numbers as it is a very busy environment with so many exciting things going on.

There are always maths activities in the classroom and shared area. Below are some examples of children measuring weight and volume in the tuff trays and water tray and there are also opportunities to learn about time and money in the classroom.

 

Listening and Talking, numeracy, Science, Social Skills, STEM

Making Boats Float

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After looking at different types of boats and discussing what it is that makes them float the children had the task of making their own ones. They focused on making a hollow shape that could balance in the water.

They worked in pairs to make their designs.

Then each boat was tested to see how well it could float as the load got heavier.

They practised counting the marbles that each boat could hold.

These are the results next to the names of their boats…….

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, Science, Social Skills, STEM

Busy Bodies

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Through role play the children have learned a lot about how to look after their bodies and what it would be like to be  a patient or a nurse/doctor in a hospital.

The children learned about their bones and loved having Bob the Skeleton in the classroom for a visit.

They created wonderful skeleton pictures using art straws and had to think carefully about where there were joints.

They also had a torso in which had removable organs. It was like a puzzle to get everything to fit in and a great way to learn about some of the different parts inside their bodies.

They learned a little bit about their heart and lungs and completed some exercise challenges to see how this effected the different parts of their bodies.

The children worked in groups to create these amazing posters spending time learning about the different things they need to do to look after their bodies.

There are so many aspects of their school day which lend themselves to the Busy Body topic this term. working in the Polycrub, growing their own food, snacktime and lunchtime are also perfect opportunities to discuss healthy food and a balanced diet and outdoor play really provides lots of exercise and fresh air.

 

Listening and Talking, maths, Social Skills, STEM

Measuring

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The children have been measuring length using different body parts, uniform objects and moving on to metres and half metres. They have really enjoyed these practical fun activities and challenges. I just haven’t managed to get many photos.

Following on from length and capacity the children have been learning about weighing objects.

The children worked really well in pairs to weigh small items using uniform objects like cubes and pegs.

They were very good at estimating and recording their answers.

They went on to use kgs and half kgs and enjoyed estimating each others weights and the adults too.

The Primary 2’s have also been learning about Area and how to cover a surface with different uniform objects and then moving onto squares.

 

 

 

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, 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.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, literacy, Science, STEM

Halloween Fun

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The bairns have had so much fun being back at school with a Halloween theme in the classroom. They have been enjoying dressing up, reading stories, making potions and spells,  hocking out pumpkins and finding spooky creatures in some very disgusting blue goo amongst other things.

After reading the story Funnybones the children had a go at drawing skeletons. They loved learning about the different bones and feeling for them inside their own bodies. The drawing were excellent.

 

The children helped Grizelda the Witch with her spell. They put in lots of gruesome, unusual and scary things.

 

There was great excitement as the mixture began to bubble up and the children said their magic words.

The mixture bubbled over and the children thought of wonderful things their spell could do……..

The children completed some writing using their favourite ingredients for the cauldron. These are from Primary 1’s.

They loved the opportunity to scrape the seeds out of the pumpkins and get them ready for carving. This created lots of discussion, fun and mess.

 

 

 

Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Science, STEM

Dying with Beetroot

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The children pulled up the beetroot from the Polycrub. They washed it and chopped it and put it on to boil.

 

They cut a square of material and put it in a pan to boil with vinegar.

Once everything had boiled the beetroot was drained and the material put into the purply red juices.

This is Sophie’s instructions describing what we did.

 

Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Sciences, Social Skills, STEM, technology

Making Soup from Scratch

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The children  used vegetables they grew in the polycrub to make soup. They pulled up carrots onions and snipped some coriander leaves to take indoors.

They washed, chopped and prepared the vegetables. The children listened so well and were very careful with the vegetable knives.

 

The vegetables went in the pan with a stock cube, the coriander and some salt and the classroom smelt wonderful.

 

 

 

A few of the children liked the soup but lots of them said they didn’t- at least they gave it a go.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, numeracy, Sciences, Social Skills, STEM, technology

Day One At School

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The children had a super first day back at school and loved exploring the play provision in the classroom and shared area.

It was lovely to spend time chatting with each child to hear what they had been doing in their summer holidays and what they are looking forward to doing at school this year.

They had snack in the class and then went out to play with all the other children in the school.

After playtime they met Mr Travins the new music teacher. It was lots of fun and they sang and danced along to lots of cool songs.

We had a chat about the Zones of Regulation and the emotional check in system we use throughout the school and the children showed me all their happy, sad, angry and worried faces!

Everyone managed really well at lunchtime lining up and telling the cooks what choices they would like. Lots of clean plates and great manners.