The children have been learning about Divali this term. They made lovely little diva lamps and used coloured rice to create this Rangoli pattern on the wall.
They used loose parts, peas and beans, Numicon and counters to create Rangoli patterns which tied in nicely with our work on pattern and symmetry.
The Primary 1’s created this collage of Ravani, the 10 headed demon god from the story of Rama and Sita. He looks pretty scary!
The children have had great fun creating these aliens after reading a story in class with Miss Jamieson. There was a lot of discussion and many amazing descriptive words about their characters. The Primary two’s practised their ICT skill by typing and printing out fancy lettering for words to add to the display.
The children listened to the story of Guy Fawkes and also had a chat about being safe on bonfire night.
The children used junk modelling techniques to create their own firework to go above the London skyline.
The primary one’s used 2D shapes to make the rockets with their names on them.
They loved using the beads to make firework patterns. They also made a really good firework noise on the plastic tray!
Halloween is always so much fun and lends itself so well to the classroom with exciting fun learning opportunities. Below the children created a potion with many disgusting ingredients, using magic words and actually getting it to bubble up and overflow the cauldron. The potion made lots of weird and interesting things happen. Children are so creative and imaginative.
They wrote out their chosen ingredients and shared spells with each other.
The primary ones had to use their phonic sounds and choose the correct ingredients to read magic words.
The classroom has a Haunted House area with lots of Halloween creatures and costumes to use.
There have been a few disgusting days in the water tray with slime and goo, full of spiders and snakes. And other opportunities to measure weigh and create bottles of potions with different materials.
The children can’t wait to scare their parents with these ‘teethy’ symmetrical pumpkins!
and the spooky bat prints!
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.
The children loved hearing the story of the three Little Pigs.
The children worked in groups to create houses made of straw, sticks and blocks. They had to decide how to join the different materials and make it as strong as they could.
It was great to listen to the children sharing ideas, chatting about the story as they made the different parts of the houses. The three versions look great.
The primary 2 and 3 children used the story for writing practise and have written books of their own. below are examples of writing from three different primary 2’s.
The Primary 3’s have been focusing on extending their vocabulary and including different connectives to lengthen their sentences.
The primary 1’s and 2’s loved using the story for Drawing Club. It is amazing to see the progress in the P1 fine motor control.
The have also been using stick puppets and masks to role play the story and make up their own adventures too.
The children had to build towers as tall as they could manage using a variety of different construction materials. Some children chose to work in pairs or in a small group and some wanted to build their own ones.
Willum’s tower was the tallest and he only used three blocks! Good thinking Willum. The children quickly learned that they needed to make the base of the tower larger and get smaller as it got higher for it to be more stable. Lots of great discussion and problem solving going on.
The children had so much fun making glasses today. They enjoyed hearing about the Dinosaur who Lost his Specs and decided what their glasses would enable them to see. Some glasses made everything invisible, or a particular colour, and some even made everything fly or even gave the children super powers!
We are very lucky at Whiteness Primary to have such excellent outdoor spaces that provide rich environments for learning. Today we focused on using the loose parts in the shed to build, experiment and play. It is amazing seeing how the children use the various resources to create, solve problems and develop more flexible thinking.
Firstly the children thought about what they needed and took the materials they needed to an area they wanted to play/develop.
There was lots of discussion, collaboration and physical work to gather materials.
The children worked together to solve problems, develop ideas and negotiate. The spaces they created were fantastic and they had so much fun.
We also had snack in the new polycrub, which was lovely but quite hot.
Lots of the children were involved in using a series of pipes and guttering to get water to flow down a slope. There were so many peerie engineers helping and coming up with ideas and solutions to problems. They were so excited when each new section worked and they just wanted to make it even longer.
Today the children enjoyed listening to the story of ‘The Elves and The Shoe Maker’. Last week in library time we read ‘Don’t Chew the Royal Shoe’, which was really funny.
So after some discussion about different kinds of footwear the children had a go at making their own using various materials.
The children worked in pairs and had to help each other complete the task of having a pair of shoes each. They did really well and we spoke about co-operation and helping each other.
They were so chuffed to wear them when they were finished and we now have a bit of a shoe shop developing in the classroom.
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.
The Primary 1’s look forward to meeting up with their buddies every week. The p7’s plan a variety of fantastic fun activities to do together and recently completed this collage based on the Hungry Caterpillar story.
The children had a great morning at the beach and they loved searching in the seaweed and amongst the rocks for crabs and shells.
Carina made this wonderful pattern with lots of similar sized whelks which she had collected on the beach.
We stayed at the beach for snack which is always a treat.
We do live in the most beautiful place with fantastic opportunities for learning outdoors.
The children have been learning about about flowers. They have been finding out about the different parts of a flower and how they grow and change.
They have been investigating and naming the different parts of flowers and learning about how dandelions use the wind for seed dispersal and bees take the pollen to different flowers.
This all ties in with discussions about Spring in the classroom and when we are outdoors.
The Primary Two’s used lots of verbs to write poems about Spring. They did a great job of making a good copy to display on the wall using ICT skills they have been practicing recently.
We are so lucky to have wonderful places to walk to from our school.
There is always plenty to chat about, investigate and be curious about on our walks.
Once we got to the beach it was time for snack! It is always quite exciting having food outdoors with friends.
the sun came out for us and there was plenty of interesting finds on the beach.
The longer we stayed the more curious and creative the children became. Some of the children began re-routing the water flowing across the beach and building dams and new channels.
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.
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.
The children love learning about the Vikings and have been enjoying role play opportunities in the classroom. It is great to see them all getting on so well together using what they have been learning in their play. Below is a snapshot of Wednesday afternoon’s adventures.
The galley is now finished and they have been taking turns and sailing around the world discovering new places to settle.
Sometimes, just their imaginations are enough. They set out chairs and rowed their longship – even before it was built.
Once in their new lands the children have been learning how Vikings trade items to get what they need. Their are jewels, gems, furs, food and jewellery to swap, using the scales and balances to work out different amounts.
They would also need to cook over an open fire in the middle of the longhouse using foods available.
These viking warriors are getting ready for another attack.
The children are enjoying using the Viking longships in the water tray to set battle scenes and talk about their topic.
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.
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.
