Tag Archives: play based learning

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, Science, Social Skills, STEM

Lifecycles

April 20, 2024 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

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!

Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Social Skills, STEM

measuring length

April 20, 2024 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The children have been having fun learning about length. The Primary 1’s created these flowers and talked about longer, shorter, taller, tallest, smaller etc. Lots of great discussions and vocabulary used.

They used their ‘magic sticks’ to compare the size of objects outdoors.

All the children used different body parts to measure objects eg. ‘heel to toe’ steps, and handspans. They loved doing this and got good at estimating their answers before actually measuring to check.

The Primary 2’s used different units to measure objects in the classroom and outdoors. They then went on to learn about metres and half metres.

They worked in pairs to create a snake which was exactly 1 metre long.

The primary 1’s showed their buddies how to measure objects using their sticks and the p7’s recorded the answers.

They have had fun using the playdough to make long and short worms.

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

Changes In Me

March 5, 2024 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

There have been visits from local babies Daniel, Kit and Orla this year so it has been great to chat about how the children have changed since they were babies.

They love playing with the babies in the role play area of the classroom and are very good at looking after them.

It was great fun to chat about and compare all the things they can do now that they couldn’t when they were babies.

Thy have also been learning about the different parts of their bodies and about how they will continue to grow and change as they get older.

Listening and Talking, maths

Numbers to 20

March 5, 2024 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The primary 1’s have been completing lots of different games, puzzles and practical activities to learn about the numbers to 20.

They can count, sequence, order and sort all these numbers using lots of different materials.

They have also been learning about addition and subtraction, again with lots of practical resources and games as well as using technology.

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

Water Experiments

January 23, 2024 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The children have loved setting up and learning about the properties of water experiments.

They had great fun doing evaporation experiments and talking about the results.
They froze little creatures and dinosaurs into ice blocks and spent time chipping away and getting the ice to melt to get them out again. Learning that water can be a solid, a liquid and gas called water vapour from the earlier experiments.

They have enjoyed investigating ice and creating habitats with the polar animals.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, numeracy, RME, Social Skills, STEM, technology

It’s beginning to feel festive

December 8, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

Lots of opportunities for maths and literacy throughout the classroom linked to Christmas.

Busy Elves in the Christmas Corner

The Class Advent Calendar

Christmas Jumper Day

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

Divali

December 8, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The children have been learning about Divali this term. They made lovely little diva lamps and used coloured rice to create this Rangoli pattern on the wall.

They used loose parts, peas and beans, Numicon and counters to create Rangoli patterns which tied in nicely with our work on pattern and symmetry.

The Primary 1’s created this collage of Ravani, the 10 headed demon god from the story of Rama and Sita. He looks pretty scary!

Art and Craft, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, numeracy, Social Skills, STEM

Children In Need

November 17, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

Well done Primary 123 who raised an amazing £331.29 for Children in Need today.

They organised a coin collection in the school and got everything ready for other classes to come and sort their coins into the different tubs.

The children did really well and had to ensure the correct coins went into the correct buckets.

They had spent time the day before in pairs and small groups preparing the buckets and learning about the different coins as well as where the money collected is going to.

The buckets looked fabulous!

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

Fireworks!

November 12, 2023 Mrs Forsyth 1 Comment

The children listened to the story of Guy Fawkes and also had a chat about being safe on bonfire night.

The children used junk modelling techniques to create their own firework to go above the London skyline.

The primary one’s used 2D shapes to make the rockets with their names on them.

They loved using the beads to make firework patterns. They also made a really good firework noise on the plastic tray!

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

Halloween Fun

November 12, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

Halloween is always so much fun and lends itself so well to the classroom with exciting fun learning opportunities. Below the children created a potion with many disgusting ingredients, using magic words and actually getting it to bubble up and overflow the cauldron. The potion made lots of weird and interesting things happen. Children are so creative and imaginative.

They wrote out their chosen ingredients and shared spells with each other.

The primary ones had to use their phonic sounds and choose the correct ingredients to read magic words.

The classroom has a Haunted House area with lots of Halloween creatures and costumes to use.

There have been a few disgusting days in the water tray with slime and goo, full of spiders and snakes. And other opportunities to measure weigh and create bottles of potions with different materials.

The children can’t wait to scare their parents with these ‘teethy’ symmetrical pumpkins!

and the spooky bat prints!

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

literacy and magic e

October 21, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The p2 children have been learning about Magic e and practising reading and writing words. It is great revision and consolidation for the p3’s who have loved all the games and different ways to practise the spelling patterns

Recently the children worked in groups to create a map which they then went on to write about. It was great to see them supporting each other and being so engaged in writing tasks.

There are lots of spelling and literacy games in the classroom which the children play. The p3’s love the opportunity to be the ‘teacher’ in these games and take on the organisational roles.

It is such a busy environment so often difficult to capture photos of all the amazing learning that happens in the classroom.

Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, literacy, Social Skills

Phonics in p1

October 21, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The primary 1 children have been doing agreat job learning their phonic sounds. They listen to a little story and learn a song and action to go with each new sound they learn. There are then opportunities to practise the letter formation eg. on the big whiteboard, in sand, shaving foam, chalk, little whiteboards etc. They also have daily practise through ‘Speedy Skills’.

They also play lots of games using the new sounds learned eg, Sorting words beginning with phonic sounds into hoops, Whiteboard games, Bingo, Treasure hunts, Lotto, pairs games, matching games, splat the sound with fly swatters, etc.

‘s’ for snakes, spiders and slugs in spaghetti

different ways to practise letter formations

There are also opportunities to explore and chat about their sounds as they play in different areas of the classroom.

Art and Craft, Listening and Talking, maths, numeracy, Social Skills, Uncategorized

Numeracy in P1

October 4, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The Primary 1 children have been so busy this term practising number formations, playing number games and learning through so many fun, active and practical ways.

With each new number we focused on they enjoyed a story and also a practical activity, game or craft activity to go along with it.

Spiders webs for 8 legged plasticine spiders

I have only managed to get photos of some of the ways the children have been learning about the numbers as it is a very busy environment with so many exciting things going on.

There are always maths activities in the classroom and shared area. Below are some examples of children measuring weight and volume in the tuff trays and water tray and there are also opportunities to learn about time and money in the classroom.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, Modern Languages, numeracy, Social Skills

French in term 1

October 3, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

French lessons are very active and the children have a lot of fun.

There are two groups for lessons – p1/2 in the first group and p3/4/5 in the second group.

The children dance, play musical games and practise short conversations with each other.

They listen to french songs and stories. They love when Patrice(the puppet) speaks to them and gets up to silly stuff to keep them entertained and keen to have a go at speaking in French.

They practised the names of the colours in french by playing games, making artist pallets with paint and colouring ‘arc de soleil’ images.

During each lesson the children learn a few facts about France. They enjoyed using google maps and online sites to research information. The younger children made a start to Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe pictures using artstraws and the older children added more detailed parts.

Sophie even made an Eiffel Tower out of Lego

The younger group have been learning numbers to 10 and the older group numbers up to 20 by listening to songs, active games and playing Bingo.

Art and Craft, Expressive Arts, Listening and Talking, literacy, Social Studies, STEM

The Three Little Pigs

September 22, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The children loved hearing the story of the three Little Pigs.

The children worked in groups to create houses made of straw, sticks and blocks. They had to decide how to join the different materials and make it as strong as they could.

It was great to listen to the children sharing ideas, chatting about the story as they made the different parts of the houses. The three versions look great.

The primary 2 and 3 children used the story for writing practise and have written books of their own. below are examples of writing from three different primary 2’s.

The Primary 3’s have been focusing on extending their vocabulary and including different connectives to lengthen their sentences.

The primary 1’s and 2’s loved using the story for Drawing Club. It is amazing to see the progress in the P1 fine motor control.

The have also been using stick puppets and masks to role play the story and make up their own adventures too.

Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Social Skills, STEM

Rapunzel’s Towers

September 14, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

The children had to build towers as tall as they could manage using a variety of different construction materials. Some children chose to work in pairs or in a small group and some wanted to build their own ones.

Willum’s tower was the tallest and he only used three blocks! Good thinking Willum. The children quickly learned that they needed to make the base of the tower larger and get smaller as it got higher for it to be more stable. Lots of great discussion and problem solving going on.

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

Loose Parts in the Sun

September 5, 2023 Mrs Forsyth Leave a comment

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.

lining up the pipes to ensure a good downward flow

Art and Craft, Listening and Talking, maths, Science, Social Skills, STEM

Make it fly

August 30, 2023 Mrs Forsyth 1 Comment

The children had a STEM activity this afternoon after discussing how birds fly.

First they had some simple instructions to follow . It was lovely to see the children helping each other with the tricky bits.

once they had made them they went outside to try them out.

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

Shoes!

August 28, 2023 Mrs Forsyth 1 Comment

Today the children enjoyed listening to the story of ‘The Elves and The Shoe Maker’. Last week in library time we read ‘Don’t Chew the Royal Shoe’, which was really funny.

So after some discussion about different kinds of footwear the children had a go at making their own using various materials.

The children worked in pairs and had to help each other complete the task of having a pair of shoes each. They did really well and we spoke about co-operation and helping each other.

They were so chuffed to wear them when they were finished and we now have a bit of a shoe shop developing in the classroom.