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 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.
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
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!
Today the children came to school dressed in red and learned a little bit about Comic Relief and the fundraising they do.
it was lots of fun playing games and doing activities that the p7 pupils had planned.
In the afternoon they watched as the p7’s got a soaking in the stocks followed my Miss McLoed and Mrs Colclough.
The children were excited to get back out to the polycrub and have a think about what they are going to be planting this year. The raised beds are all ready and the water butts are full.
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 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.
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!
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.
