The children walked down to Taing Beach on Friday and had fun exploring in the ebb.
They found lots of shells, whelks, crabs and even a sea cucumber. It was so great seeing how curious and excited the children were about their finds.
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.
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.
The children have been learning about tally marks and this has really helped improve their ability to count in 5’s.
The primary one’s collected flowers sticks and stones and created this pictograph together outside.
The children have loved carrying out surveys and asking each other questions.
The primary ones practiced sorting objects using different criteria. It could be by colour, shape or size.
They worked really well with a partner discussing how they were going to sort the objects and taking turns at different stations.
As part of our On Our Doorstep IDL we went to explre the areas nearby the school and find different colours of plants.
The children were vary careful and only picked what they needed to work in their IDL groups to create Colour in Nature pictures. They talked about and named different types of flowers and plants they found.
The results were beautiful…….and fun!
The children went out and looked at dandelions in the nature garden. They saw them at different stages of their lifecycles.
They looked at the dandelions using magnifying glasses to see the different parts and especially the little seeds. They watched the seeds float and fly around and learned about wind dispersal and self seeding.
They created these wonderful pieces using cut paper and paint.
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.
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.
At the end of last term the children sowed wildflower seeds into pots. These have been looked after in the polycrub and were now ready to be transplanted outdoors in the wildlife garden.
Every child in the school helped to sow seeds and many of them helped to plant them out amongst the trees in the afternoon.
Today the children went down the road to the beach to do the Voar Redd Up.
They found lots of sweetie wrappers and lots of net but really not a lot of rubbish to collect which is great news for the community.
As part of our ‘Changes’ IDL learning the children loved the activities around lifecycles and metamorphosis. It all started with a visit to our school pond when we spotted several frogs.
The children worked in groups to create a 3D collage of a pond showing the different stages fo the lifecycle of a frog. it was lovely to see them collaborating and supporting each other with this.
The final ponds looked fantastic……..
As part of their learning about lifecycles they discussed the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. It was so much fun learning this through drama.
These are the eggs!
Out of the eggs hatch the little caterpillars
The chrysalis/cocoon/pupa hangs while the caterpillar transforms inside.
The butterflies emerge from the cocoons, dry their wings and fly away.
Then they lay eggs!
The children are learning about what is ‘On Our Doorstep’ this term so every Monday we are heading out to explore.
Our first trip out was down to Taing beach.
During each trip out the children have a little challenge or activity to do in mixed age groups of four pupils. For this first visit the children had to collect 10 shells each and work together to create a design.
it was great to see the pupils of different ages working together on this task.
The children had a choice of whether to re-cycle their bags into something new or to design a new Bag for Life to re-use.
There were so many amazing designs and such creativity from all the classes. It was difficult for the p123 Eco-Committee to judge but well done to Evie, Freyja, Ella, Merryn, Eve and Aylee.
The p123 did a presentation in assembly two weeks ago about how we can re-use, re-cycle and reduce waste to help the environment and announced the competition then. They showed off all their examples of how they have re-used and re-cycled their bags.
It is great to get outdoors so much with the amazing weather we have had recently. The children have such a great space behind the school and enjoyed creating some seating areas and places to sit and have their snack.
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.
Another beautiful morning in Whiteness so we set off along the Strom Road for a walk and a little adventure.
The children were so sensible when crossing the road and listened really well as we chatted and played games as we walked.
We listened for the yeti’s belly rumbling and the children had great imaginations for where he would have a bath or shower and where he lived.
We headed to the ‘mountain’ where the children loved climbing and exploring.
What a beautiful place we live in. The children took time to look around them and be aware of the plants, animals, colours and landscape in front of them.
River and Willum were first to the top of the ‘mountain’.
But we all got there eventually.
