Tag Archives: problem solving

Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Sciences, Social Skills, STEM, technology

Go Furt Fridays

Leave a comment

Go Furt means get outdoors………It was a chilly 3 or 4 degrees on Friday morning but the children were still keen to get outside to build shelters and play together.

We will be heading out every Friday to make the most of our wonderful outdoor space at Whiteness. There is a shed full of loose parts which the children use to develop so many important skills including problem solving, cooperation, teamwork, etc.

It is fantastic seeing them having so much fun together and there imaginations are just the best!

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

Kites STEM Challenge

Leave a comment

The children worked in pairs to create a kite using a variety of materials. Lots of skills were being developed through this activity – for example collaboration, co-operation, problem solving, listening etc.

The wind was blowing so it was great to go and test the kites. The children soon found out that in order to fly the kites well they had to work together.

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

The p123 Eco Committee

Leave a comment

Today the winners of the Eco- Committee competition were announced in assembly.

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.

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

Fireworks!

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!

 

Listening and Talking, maths, numeracy, Social Skills, technology

Numeracy in p2/3

Leave a comment

The children are very good at using lots of practical materials to help understand place value and number concepts.

The p2’s have been working with numbers up to 100 and the p3’s learning about bigger numbers up to 1000.

There are lots of practical lessons, using materials, playing games, using technology, discussions on ‘how’ they are working out their answers and demonstrating their learning to each other.

The children are encouraged to use materials to continue to consolidate understanding. They are also very good at finding what they need themselves to work out their answers correctly.

The p2’s have been practising ways of organising items to ensure they count out the correct number. They are making a number from a card and grouping items into 10’s to count them easier. They then swap around and check each others numbers.

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

Numeracy in P1

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.

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.

 

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

Making Boats Float

Leave a comment

After looking at different types of boats and discussing what it is that makes them float the children had the task of making their own ones. They focused on making a hollow shape that could balance in the water.

They worked in pairs to make their designs.

Then each boat was tested to see how well it could float as the load got heavier.

They practised counting the marbles that each boat could hold.

These are the results next to the names of their boats…….

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

The Three Little Pigs

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

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.

 

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

Making Glasses

Leave a comment

The children had so much fun making glasses today. They enjoyed hearing about the Dinosaur who Lost his Specs and decided what their glasses would enable them to see. Some glasses made everything invisible, or a particular colour, and some even made everything fly or even gave the children super powers!

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

Loose Parts in the Sun

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.

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

Make it fly

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!

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.

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Listening and Talking, literacy, maths, Science, Social Skills, Social Studies, STEM, technology

Learning Out in the Snow

Leave a comment

Opportunities for using loose part to create dens. Great for developing problem solving and teamwork skills.

Collecting the melting snow from icicles dripping from the roof. Great science and STEM opportunities outdoors.

Some of the melting ice was collected in a different way!

 

 

Deciding which containers are best for different purposes. Evie’s snowman needed three different sized containers.

Opportunities to develop creativity, confidence and take risks- so many skills being developed.

Collaboration, choice and commitment in play develops so many social skills and friendships. It can also be exhausting!

 

Testing to see which snowball goes fastest- big or small? Does lifting the guttering higher or lower? So many opportunities for conversation, developing vocabulary and communication skills outdoors.

 

 

Checking out footprints and the different patterns boots make in the snow.

 

 

 

 

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

Our Big Dino Build

Leave a comment

The children started by selecting suitable boxes/junk to make their model dinosaur. They worked in pairs so there was a lot of discussion and collaboration to find the parts and join them together.

We spoke about how to make their model strong by creating different types of joins in using PVA and sellotape.

The next stage was seriously messy. They used papier mache to cover the dinosaur, focusing on the joins and making sure the newspaper strips went from one part of the model onto an adjoining part.

Once the models had two coats of papier mache it was time to choose colours for their dinosaur.

Once the paint was dry the children thought about the detail they wanted to add- eyes, teeth, claws etc.

The primary 2’s have been working on adjectives in their literacy work so this was a great opportunity to apply that learning to describing their dinosaur.

The writing was read out in class for the others to guess which model the description matched.

Their is now a little Dinosaur Exhibition set up in the school for the other classes and staff to visit to see the models and the writing.

Art and Craft, maths

Tiling in p2

Leave a comment

The primary 2’s went outdoors to search for tiling patterns around the school. The found lots of great examples.

Back in the classroom they spent time investigating with flat shapes to see which ones tiled and which ones didn’t.

They had a go at creating their own tiling designs usisng the 2D shapes they have been learning about,