The children have been working hard in art these past few weeks and have produced these stunning collages based on Rousseau’s Tiger.
Rousseau’s Tiger
Tag Archives: engagement
World Book Day
The children have had a great day today. They are so excited by books and reading, which fantastic. They were keen to share their favourite books they had brought from home.
They looked so lovely in their costumes and pyjamas at school today.
They enjoyed World Book Day activities in the classroom.
The afternoon was really special as the whole school came together and shared books in a paired reading session. There are photos on the School Blog.
The adults had a lot of fun too!
The Scream
In art the children have been learning about the Artist Edvard Munch and based their own work on his painting called ‘The Scream’. They look fabulous.
Baby Photos
As part of the children’s HWB lessons this session they have been learning about looking after a baby. They have really enjoyed discussing what they can do now that they couldn’t do when they were a baby.
They have really enjoyed doing Show and Tell with their baby photos. The children in all the other classes have loved guessing who is who.
Do you recognize all these cuties?
Nesting and Girlsta Jarl Squad Visit
The children have been building up to this visit. They have made shields, axes and helmets for their own class squad and have been practicing marching and singing in class. Some of them made this amazing galley boat with the loose parts and have enjoyed Viking related play options in class.
They looked and sounded fantastic when they all grouped together for this photo.
They were really excited about doing their quiz which they had prepared for the Jarl. They drew big posters of things linked to the Jarls real life and then had fun choosing random things to draw for the answers to questions.
We managed a quick rehearsal before the Vikings arrived.
We didn’t manage to get many photos during the visit. I shall add more if I get any.
Lerwick Jarl Squad Visit
This was a very special visit form the Lerwick Jarl Squad to Whiteness School. Many of the Squad member were ex-pupils of the school, including the Jarl Callum Grains.
They sang and cheered and the bairns loved it. Afterwards the children got a chance to meet some of the vikings and try on helmets, hold axes and shields and pose for photographs.
The children had decorated the hall for the Vikings coming and their artwork looked amazing
Hopscotch Words
It was great to take advantage of the beautiful morning and get outside for some literacy fun. The primary 1’s had great fun playing hopscotch with words and writing with chalk on the tarmac.
Gym with Mr Kirkness
The children were so excited when they saw the set up in the gym hall today. This term they are exploring balance, rotation, travelling, jumping and flight in different gymnastics contexts. They are using a variety of different apparatus and floor situations to build confidence, resilience and improve their skills.
So many skills are being developed during their PE lessons, including creativity, communication, core stability and strength and collaboration etc. They learn to take risks safely and build confidence to try new things.
Promises
The children loved the story about Noah’s Ark. The story tells of God’s promise to never again flood the Earth and his creation of a rainbow. The children made their own promise, or New Years Resolutions, which they wrote on clouds at each side of their rainbow.
The primary 2’s sequenced pictures from the story and then re-wrote it in their own words. They have done amazing and they are all so proud of what they have achieved.
The children are enjoying playing with the animals and the ark in the classroom. They also have books and puzzles linked to this story and have had a go at Drawing Club too.
They have also enjoyed listening to another Bible story called Jonah and the Whale. They made these really cool expanding pictures and watched a little video of the story as well.
un village enneige en France
The Primary 1 and 2 class created this beautiful frieze of a village in winter using coloured paper and pens.
As part of their French lessons the Primary 3,4,5 class have been learning vocabulary relating to seasons and places. They added labels to the picture and also drew their own villages to label in class. Turning the frieze into a snowy village in France.
Back to School
The children were delighted to be back at school this week. They are always excited to see what is new in the classroom but mostly they are excited to see their friends.
The train set is always a huge hit in the classroom. The children work together to build some really good layouts and play together so well with the trains
As part of their numeracy work the primary 1’s have been learning about Ordinal Numbers. They did this with the primary 2’s lined up and then they had their own little tub of objects to set out in an order of their choice. They practiced using the words 1st, 2nd, 3rd …….10th to say the positions of the items in their lines.
This term the IDL topic is titled ‘Here, There and Everywhere’. The children worked in groups to discuss and plan what they would like to learn about this term. Their drawing show lots of fantastic ideas and they are very excited about leading their learning through this topic.
Icy Spelling
The children loved practicing their spelling words in the snow last week.
It is great to see the interactions between the children. Seeing how they support, encourage and help each other is just lovely.
Swimming Lessons
The classes have really enjoyed their lessons at Scalloway pool this term. Mr Kirkness was impressed with their listening and effort and both classes have made lots of progress with confidence and skills.
Each week the classes take turns at going in the pool so while the p2 group are in I teach the p1’s at the poolside and vice versa. It is quite a productive time and the children are kept very busy with maths and literacy activities.
A huge thankyou to all the parents who volunteered to come along each Tuesday. I am very grateful for all your help.
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.
To Start the Term…..
The classroom has changed around a bit and they are very excited and enjoying the Halloween Shop and messy activities set up for them this week.
The children have been having fun playing literacy and numeracy games and going over some of the learning from last term.
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………
Spelling Headbanz
This is the primary 2’s favourite spelling game. They work in pairs to read and write the words on the cards.
Beginning Phonics in primary 1
The children learn phonic sounds and practice letter formations every day. They listen to a story and a song linked to the sound they are learning and play some games on the big whiteboard.
They then spend some time practicing the formations, in sand, on whiteboards, on infinity pads or with chalk, spaghetti or in shaving foam.
The children made tea and enjoyed investigating teabags and chatting about things beginning with ‘t’. They were also outside for a ‘t’ search which was great fun. their favourite game on the whiteboard is popping the ‘ t’ balloons as they appear on the screen.
The children loved investigating the effects of mixing ink and water when they were practicing the ‘i’ sound.
The children like matching the letters to the pictures initial sounds on the big whiteboard.
A visit from Becky
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……
