The children have been out a few times getting the polycrub started for the growing season. So far they have planted tatties, radishes, sunflowers, parsley and some flowers.
If anyone has any spare pots, compost, seeds or plants they would like to donate to the school polycrub that would be fantastic.
I shall keep you updated with the progress. Just a lot of soil and digging at the moment!
The children learned how to make pancakes for Pancake Day. They measured, sieved, poured, cracked and mixed all the ingredients themselves. They learned the names of the utensils and how important it is to read a recipe correctly.
They watched for the bubbles in the mixture to know when to flip the pancake over and cook the other side.
The best bit was choosing their toppings and eating them at snacktime.
The primary 2’s wrote out the recipe so they can make them at home. This is Ollie’s beautiful writing.
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.
The children have been learning about the ‘j’ sound this week and were delighted the jelly begins with j and they got to make some!
They did really good listening and following instructions to measure out the water and then cut, mix and dissolve the jelly.
The waiting bit was the toughest as it wasn’t until the next day that they got to eat it after it had been in the fridge overnight.
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.
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.
The children, and staff loved coming to school dressed in their pyjamas or in spots or yellow.
They learned where the money raised goes and what it means for Children In Need. Many children just thought of it as Pudsey Day and weren’t sure what it was really about.
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………
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.
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.
The children were delighted to find a hospital area in the classroom to play in. Lots of jobs to do and great fun. Lots of the new p1’s told us last year that they are keen to be doctors or nurses when they grow up.
We got some time to play outdoors in our ‘Zone’. The weather was lovely and there was great excitement watching the tractor cutting grass in the field behind the school.
A few snaps of the children having their lunch. A great success and what lovely manners.
The children loved having the opportunity to explore and play with all the lovely things in the classroom. We are very lucky at Whiteness to have such an amazing learning space.
I loved all our class photo shots so thought I would just put them all on here rather than choose just one.
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.
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.
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.
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.
They presented their idea for fruit pots in assembly a few weeks ago and designed pot shaped adverts to display on the Health Committee board.
Today the children were very busy……washing, chopping and sorting fruits into little pots.
The children were very excited to welcome all the classes and staff to come and get a fruit pot at breaktime.
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.
As part of our IDL about ‘On Our Doorstep’ the children practiced using a compass and looking for different landmarks in different directions.
They worked in their groups of four to complete the task and had great fun.
There was time left before heading back to school so they had a giant whole school game of ‘Octopus’ at the Strom Pitch.
The children have been learning about weighing recently. They worked in pairs to compare objects and then use non-standard units to weigh items from around the classroom.
The primary 2’s then moved on to learn about kg and 1/2 kg and had great fun trying to estimate each others weights.
As part of our IDL topic this term the children have been out and about again………
Today the children set off up the hill to explore and appreciate the amazing views which are just ‘On Our Doorstep’.
Once at the top they found ‘First Base’ and then they went into their mixed groups to complete their task. They had to find all the markers with letters on them and put them together to solve a puzzle.
It was great to see the children helping each other and working in their groups. There was time for a little rest at the ‘second base’ before heading back to school.
Going down the hill was much easier than going up.
Last Monday the children all went over to Strom Park. This time in their groups they used some sports equipment to practise some activities for Sports Day.
in their groups they had to decide what activities to practise and set it up themselves. It was amazing to see the inclusion of all pupils of mixed ages.
