Tag Archives: DYW

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, Social Skills, STEM

Go Furt Fridays

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The children get a focused loose parts and outdoor play session on Friday mornings. The water trays with pipes, half pipes, containers and connecting parts are always popular. The skills the children demonstrate here are fantastic.

They also learn how to climb and play safely in the trees together.

Imaginative play outdoors creates so many opportunities for developing social skills. it is particularly important for developing and establishing new friendships amongst the children.

Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, Science, Social Skills, Social Studies, STEM

Polycrub Success

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This week, the final week before the school holidays is when we need to clear out the polycrub. The children have been so excited. Especially seeing what has been growing underneath the soil.

There has been extra excitement as there has been a little mouse making frequent visits to steal peapods. The peas were the first thing we picked. There were hundreds of them. Every child had bag of some to take home or eaten, and all the other children in the school got ones as well.

Along with the peapods the children pulled up the onions, which have done really well this year and brought in the pots of basil they have been looking after.  They could be re-potted at home into larger pots and keep it growing or lots of the children are keen to make pesto pasta and use the basil now.

The children grew some nusturtium flowers this year. They added a lovely pop of colour to the polycrub

And as you can see in the photos, the cabbage is doing amazing. #

Yesterday the children also took home some of the plants that were still in pots. Lots of Strawberry, cucumber, marrow, courgettes, tomatoes as well as some sunflowers.

They are keen to keep them growing at home. The children have been learning how to re-pot plants once they outgrow the pots they are in so should be good at this. I hope they continue to grow and produce some fruit/vegetables at home.

Today they dug up the tatties, carrots and beetroot. A mixture of successes but such amazing learning opportunity for the children.

I hope they enjoy these at home and have a little try of some of the things they have grown themselves.

 

Listening and Talking, maths, Social Skills

Measuring Capacity and Weight

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The primary 1’s loved using non-standard units to measure the capacity of different containers. Unfortunately it was too windy to take this learning outdoors this year so the mop was used frequently.

The primary 2’s moved on to understand the need for standard units of measurement and learned about litres and half litres, measuring the capacity of some quite large containers.

The children have been using the language for comparing weights to compare objects using the scales, finding out which objects were heavier/lighter than and heaviest/lightest.

They then used non-standard units, such as cubes, beads or pegs to weigh a variety of classroom objects.

The primary 2’s moved onto learning about kilograms and half kilograms and really enjoyed estimating and weighing heavier objects, including each other.

 

Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, Science, Social Skills, Socila Studies

Science Workshop

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The children were treated to a fantastic science show from ‘Sunbeam’ and ‘Raindrop’ from the Edinburgh Science Centre.

They spoke about the different kinds of weather in the different habitats around the world. They explained how the earth has many layers and how the atmosphere protects the earth.

They demonstrated the importance of the Ozone Layer and spoke with the children about how we need to look after our planet.

The characters of Raindrop and Sunbeam were really engaging and the children loved the experiments and interactive parts of the show.

The parachute became the atmosphere and all the children are inside. It got quite hot in there with all the p1-3 children tucked in nice and cosy. demonstrating how the atmosphere holds the heat in.

The children also got to play games using the information they had been learning about.

Listening and Talking, maths

Measuring Length

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With the lovely weather the children have been outside doing some measuring as part of their maths lessons. They have been comparing objects

There have also been lots of opportunities in the classroom for measuring using different non-standard units and activities on the Interactive Whiteboard.

The Primary 2’s have been learning about metres and have also enjoyed being outdoors to do their maths this week.

They have made their own metre strips to take home. These will be helpful for next weeks homework.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Social Skills, Social Studies

The Class Airport

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The children have really enjoyed creating an aeroplane and airport to play in this week. They have been talking about all the different jobs and have been really good at taking turns and playing together in this area.

They love being the pilot and co-pilot and its good to have cabin crew ready to help passengers with safety and snacks. They have made tickets and passports to take on their flights with them.

Air traffic control have been guiding the plane safely and they are taking the security very seriously. They have been asking the passengers lots of great questions to see where they are going on holiday and what they have packed in their suitcases.

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, Social Skills, STEM

Go Furt Fridays

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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………

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

Our Towns

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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.

 

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy

A visit from Becky

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We were so lucky to have Becky in visiting the class to tell us about her job as an author. She told the children about writing the stories and shared lots of great vocabulary with them. They loved listening to the story and finding out about the characters on the pages of the book.

Her latest book is amazing and tells a really great story about a little girl who is a bit of a rebel. Her illustrations are beautiful and the children had the challenge of coming up with ideas for the last part of the book for her.

These are their ideas……

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

When I Grow Up….

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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.

Health and Wellbeing, Science, Social Skills

more polycrub produce

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The beetroot is amazing this year. The children pulled it up and it has been picked and put in jars. They will get a taste after the holidays.

The carrots – not so amazing. They didn’t get the attention they needed and didn’t get thinned out as the seeds had been sown too close together. The children enjoyed laughing at how small they were but did manage to crunch a few of the bigger ones.

All the children got a sunflower and tomato plant to take home and there were plenty for some of the other classes too. More peas have been eaten and the other plants are getting cleared out before the end of term.

The children thought that next year they would like to have a plant sale and raise money to get some new trowels and tools for the polycrub.

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, Social Skills

Emergency!

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the children have been learning about the Emergency Services and how to get in touch with them.

In small groups they created little plays about an emergency when they needed to dial 999 and ask for the Police, Ambulance, Fire or Coastguard.

They have loved playing with Emergency vehicles in class, especially the ‘Oscar Charlie’ helicopter.

Health and Wellbeing, Science, Social Skills

Sunflowers and Peas!

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Huge excitement today in the polycrub as the children discovered several of the sunflowers had opened up.

A lot of the peas were also ready to be picked. The children tried a few and Conan brought a tub back to the school canteen. The cooks were delighted and will serve them up with the picnic lunch on Wednesday.

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.

Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, Science, Social Skills, STEM, technology

Outdoor Learning with Loose Parts

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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.

Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Science, Social Skills, STEM

Loose Parts in the Sun

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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.