Tag Archives: outdoor learning

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

Voxter and Soft Play

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The children were so excited heading out on the bus to Voxter Woods for the morning.

Being in the trees was so much fun. There were swings, balancing ropes, a saddle swing and a zip line to play on. The children were really good at taking turns and helping each other on these.

There were trees to climb, dens to build or add to, bugs to investigate and lots of places to explore. What a fantastic place for children to exxperience.

They had snack in amongst the trees.

We all went to the top of the hill and got a class photo before heading back to the bus.

By the time we got to the Soft Play in Voe it was time for lunch. The children enjoyed their packed lunches which the school had provided.

The children spent the afternoon playing with their friends in the Soft play. There was so much to do and they never stopped.

There were some very tired bairns on the way back to school on the bus, but what a great day out.

 

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

Strom Beach

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P1/2 are making the most of the fine weather and getting outdoors to explore the local environment.  On Friday we all headed along the road and down the hill to the beach in the Strom Road.

The children were so engaged and really enjoyed themselves. There was so much to do. Lots of digging, making dams, finding treasure and great excitement finding little creatures that live in and out of the water.

The children brought their snack to the beach with them to allow more time there for exploring and playing.

There were opportunities to develop those gross motor skills by climbing and balancing safely on the rocks.

 

Most of the children managed to go over the top of their wellies at the edge of the water so there were lots of soggy socks and trousers by the end of the morning. To be fair to them their wellies aren’t very tall.

These three had a great idea and took off the soggy socks to go for a paddle.

None of them complained though.

The sun stayed out for the whole morning and the children had a great time. The sheep were very entertained by the children on the walk back.

We hung out some washing to dry for a bit back at school.

 

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.

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

First Day

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What a busy and fantastic first day you the children have had. Here are some activities captured on camera today for you to see.

……….building, problem solving, co-operation

…….fine motor skills, focus and concentration, patterns

Counting, number bonds , creating Penguin One for number formations,

outdoor fun, collaboration, mark making, following instructions

Imaginary play, dinosaurs, curiosity, interactions, communication

Routines, structure and lots of listening

The children also had a music lesson today and the activities in the photos just show some of what the children were doing during their first day of school this session. They are a busy bunch.

 

 

Listening and Talking, maths, STEM, technology

Directions in Maths

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The children have been learning about the information needed to give directions, including turning right and left as well as forwards and backwards.

In these photos the children worked in pairs where one of them was a robot and the other had the control panel to give instructions.

There were also sounds, actions and additional instructions to follow, which made this activity a lot of fun.

Back in class the  children used the Beebots, a programmable toy, to program short journeys on the mats.

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, Listening and Talking, literacy, Science, Social Skills, Social Studies

Life Cycles

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A few weeks ago we all went for a walk up the Strom Road to find frogspawn and tadpoles. The bairns were so excited to see them and wanted to bring some back to school.

They loved watching the tadpoles swimming around and using the magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the frogspawn.

The frogspawn and tadpoles were returned to the outdoors to grow into froglets and then frogs.

The primary 1’s made these collages demonstrating their understanding of the life cycle of a frog.

As part of their work on lifecycles the Primary !’s made these beautiful models withe their buddies after reading ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ story.

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

Voar Redd Up

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Today we went down to clean up the Taing Beach as part of the annual  Voar Redd Up.

The children found lots of rope and netting tangled in the seaweed and amongst the rocks. There were also a few bottle and cans and some food packaging amongst other things.

The children did a great job and were very proud to be helping look after the local environment.

Art and Craft, Listening and Talking, literacy, RME, Social Skills, STEM

Easter Egg Fun

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The Children enjoyed listening to the Easter Story today and watching a short animation about it.  After discussing the reason we roll eggs at Easter time they got to work painting and designing their own egg ready for rolling later in the day.

It was p1 versus p2 in the Egg Rolling competition. The egg that travelled furthest after two shots and had no cracks was Ollie’s.

After lunch the children enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt in the School grounds. It’s great to be back at school.

 

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

Planting in the Polycrub

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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!

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

Hopscotch Words

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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.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, numeracy, RME, Science, Social Skills, STEM

Back to School

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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.

 

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………

Health and Wellbeing, Science, Social Skills

Taing Beach

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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.

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

Our Own Paddling Pool

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Friday was a really warm day and the children have been learning about sun safety. They got onto discussing drinking plenty of water and staying cool. This got onto the subject of paddling pools and outdoor hot tubs. The class decided they would have a go at making their own paddling pool as we were heading outdoors.

They worked together to roll tyres into position to make a big circle. They then helped to get the tarpaulins over the top and pegged them down.

Once the tyres were in position and the tarpaulins on the top the children worked together to fill their pool with water.  They used lots of different containers to fetch water from the water trays at the other end of the play area as the hose only reaches so far.

Once there was enough water it didn’t take long to get wellies and socks off and get in for a little paddle. The chairs made it a very comfortable place to sit and cool off. The children were so happy and excited with what they had built together.

There was a ‘changing room’ created for the children to dry their feet and get their socks and boots back on.

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.

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, Science, Social Skills, STEM

On Our Doorstep

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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.