On Wednesday, Class 1 had a very special visit from Miss Thompson.  Miss Thompson is a music therapist and she brought a big box of musical instruments with her.  To start, Miss Thompson sang the hello song.

David – I was singing with Miss Thompson. Singing “Going to the river”. Lewis and David were singing. The music stopped, shhhhh.

She asked all of the boys and girls to choose an instrument to play along with her.

Yolie – I played the cymbal.  It made a big loud noise.  I covered my ears.

Jayden – I pretended I was playing a guitar. I played loud.

Joe – I liked the cymbals best. They make a big noise.

Next Miss Thompson gave everyone a chime and a beater.  We had to listen very carefully to know when to hit the beater and when to stop.

Lewis – Everyone stops when Miss Thompson says ‘Stop’ and everyone plays when Miss Thompson says ‘Go’.

Gabriel – I said “Who is the boss?”. Should we listen to Miss Thompson or the boys and girls? I liked playing the tambourine. Sometimes we asked people what to do.

Miss Thompson is going to bring her instruments to class 1 every week.

Out and About

Class 1 have enjoyed our recent Out and About experiences.  We went to the supermarket to buy healthy snacks.  We each chose something healthy to help prepare, and to taste at snack time.  Yolie, Joe and Cameron were super at helping to pack our bags.

On Monday, we went to the post office.  We posted a gift to Mr Marsden, and bought a special thank you card for someone who has been helping us in class 1.  Jayden put the parcel on the scales and Cameron let the post lady know what service we wanted.  David was great at finding cards which said ‘Thank You’ on them.  Lewis waited in the check out queue, and helped to pay for the card. 

This week we learned that flowers can be used for lots of different things.  Flowers are used as decorations during wedding ceremonies, flowers can be given as a special gift, and they can also be used to make perfume.  We made our own perfume using rose petals.  We took the perfume home and gave it to a special person.

I made pink perfume.  I made my perfume in the sensory room with Miss Waddell.  I used red flowers to make the perfume.  I gave my perfume to mummy.  Mummy said ‘Oh what lovely perfume!’  Daddy said ‘Oh that’s lovely!’  My brother Iain said, ‘wow look at that!’ – Lewis

‘I was working with Miss Waddell.  I was tearing the petals, then I put them in the purple water, then I took it home. I gave the perfume to mummy.’  – David

On Tuesday, we went to the local flower shop.  We looked at the beautiful plants and flowers and chose some nice things to take back to class 1.  We bought two plants and a windmill.   The lady in the flower shop showed us a brochure with lots of pictures inside of flower gifts and bouquets.  On the way back to school, we passed by the church, there were lots of beautiful flowers for us to look at and smell. 

‘We went to the florist.  There are plants, flowers and windmills in the flower shop.’  – Lewis

‘We bought two plants and a purple windmill’. – David

Class 1 are looking forward to fitness fortnight.  Please look at your fitness fortnight timetable at home to remind yourself of the different activities that you will take part in.

In The Garden

This week we have been learning what plants need to help them grow.  We learned that they need water, sunlight and soil.  We have enjoyed taking care of our plants in class 1, we have been taking such good care of them, look how much they have grown! 

‘I have been learning how plants grow up and how babies grow up.  Plants need compost and water and sunrise.  Not too much water or it wouldn’t grow.  Babies need water, milk and healthy fruit and veg.’ – Cameron

My plant is growing up!’  – Yolie

They’re still growing.  Grow, grow growing like a beanstalk!’  – Jayden

Lewis created a poster to show what plants need to help them grow and what boys and girls need to help them grow.

Class 1 love spending time in the investigation area. 

 ‘We are learning about in the garden.  We have been learning about plants and flowers.’ – Jayden

‘I am holding a magnifying glass.  I am looking at the bee.  It is black and yellow stripes.’  – Jayden

‘I am doing the jigsaw’. -Yolie

 Yolie’s favourite thing about this week, was singing ‘Build Up’.  Yolie sings the song beautifully and remembers all of the actions.

‘In school this week, we have build up.  I like build up.  Build up one another!’ – Yolie

This week class 1 enjoyed planting peas.  We filled our pots with compost then added water.  We used a pencil to create a hole in the compost before adding our pea.  We have been estimating how long it will take until our plants start to grow.  Every morning we check to see if the plants are growing.  We will keep you updated on their progress!  We will be learning more about how to care for plants and what plants need in order to grow.

Look at our wonderfull butterfly display.  Please take time to read our butterfly poems as you pass by in the corridor.  We created a flower display of what we already know about the garden, and the different things that we would like to learn during our topic.

Thank you to everyone in class 1 for completing your home learning to such a high standard.   Cameron brought in ‘The Very Hungry Caterpiller’ DVD for us to wacth.  Miss Barrie was so impressed as everyone in class 1 was able to describe what was happening at the different stages in the life cycle of a butterfly.

This week class 1 have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly.  We watched an amazing class clip which shows how a caterpillar hatches from a tiny egg.  Did you know that the caterpiller eats the egg that it hatches from?  We watched carefully as the caterpillar transforms into a chrysalis, and then how the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis.   Miss Barrie had the most fun of all, watching our facial expressions during the class clip!

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

‘The egg is on the leaf.  The egg is tiny’ – Joe

‘The egg hatches and then it hatches more and more and more.  A caterpillar comes out’ – Cameron

‘The caterpillar likes to eat the egg’ – Yolie

‘The caterpillar eats leaves’ –  David

‘Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar is busy and will turn into a butterfly’ –  Lewis

‘In Jake and The Neverland Pirates the golden caterpillar turns into a golden butterfly’ – Jayden

‘Out of the chrysalis comes a butterfly’ – David

We created life cycle posters by sticking the different stages of the life cycle in the correct order.  We also demonstrated our understanding of the life cycle of a butterfly during drama. 

Miss Waddell taught us a butterfly dance; we tried hard to remember the steps and used colourful scarves as props, to represent our wings.  We enjoyed recording and watching our dance routine to help us self-assess our work.

Class 1 have had a lovely start to term 4.  We enjoyed an extra playtime on Thursday, as Bruce House earned the most house points.  We also had a thank you party for Mrs Nicol, who is now going to work with other boys and girls around the school.  Some of us enjoyed going to Dance Club on Tuesday.  David demonstrated some his cool street dance moves.  Thank you to the P4 girls, who organised the Dance Club.  We had lots of fun!

We enjoyed sharing our home learning, and finding out what our friends discovered on their Spring nature walks.  Joe brought in a box of Spring items which he had found.  We enjoyed looking inside the box and exploring the different items.  We found feathers, twigs, pine cones, flower buds and seeds!

We have started our new topic ‘In The Garden’.   We enjoyed exploring our school garden with Miss Waddell.  We made a senses poster and noted down what we could see, hear, smell and feel in the garden.

Look at our beautiful butterflies!  We made these using paint, glitter and sparkly gems.  It was very funny putting our own faces on the butterflies.  We discussed the different things that we would do if we were butterflies.  We wrote poems about being a butterfly using our ideas from our discussion and from our home learning. 

What would you do, if you were a butterfly?

English and Literacy

We enjoyed reading our books in the dark den this week.  We had to use the light from the torch to help us to see the pictures and words.  We had to follow the words carefully with the torch.

‘I was reading The Bears and the Honey’ it was very very very good’.  Lewis

We enjoyed writing magic words with Miss Cameron.  We wrote our words on paper using white wax, and then painted on the paper to reveal the hidden word.

Building a word wall was good fun.  We put on our builder clothing and used our word bricks to build a word wall.  We had to read the words aloud before adding them to the wall. 

Joe and Yolie enjoyed selecting stories to read on the iPad.  Joe enjoyed reading the Three Little Pigs.   We enjoyed playing a game on the iPad which helps us to listen to and identify medial sounds in words.

Art and Design

Class 1 have been very busy creating Scotland themed art work.  We made a Loch Ness Monster collage and are in the process of making Loch Ness Monster clay models. 

Our home learning task was to write about our favourite things to do in Scotland.  We enjoyed discussing this in class and have been busy creating art work based on our favourite thing to do.  We selected our own materials and thought about the techniques that we would like to use. 

We have been learning to respond to the work of artists by discussing our thoughts and feelings.  We looked at lots of different paintings by Scottish artists.  Our favourite painting was Sore Finger by Vicky Mount.

David:

I see: A girl sitting on the wall.  Curtains and a dog.  She has got a plaster on her finger.  She has shoes on.

I think: She was falling down.  She is feeling disappointed because she was going to the hospital.  I think she lost the ball.

I feel: I love the painting.

Lewis

I see: I can see her finger cut.  A plaster on her finger and she is wearing a kilt.

I think: I think she has a sore finger.  That made her very sad because she cut her finger.  She eats Scottish food.  I think she needs a cuddle.  I think I will give a cuddle for her.

I feel: I feel happy because I like the painting.  I like to copy the little girl’s face.

We would like to know what your think of the painting.

http://www.minigallery.co.uk/Vicky_Mount/art50773/

Learning Across the Curriculum

As you know, class 1 have been learning about Scotland.  This week we have been learning about the Loch Ness Monster. 

We went on an underwater adventure, in search of the Loch Ness Monster!  We had to put on our wet suits, and then swim through the dark murky water.  Look what we found!

‘I go swimming to find the monster’.  Yolie

‘I had fun swimming and finding the Loch Ness Monster.  I think the Loch Ness Monster is pretend’.  Jayden

‘I think the Loch Ness Monster is real’.  Cameron

The children and adults in class 1 are enjoying their Scotland topic.  We have been learning about Scottish food.  Last week we made Shortbread.  This week we made bread. 

‘Some people call it bread and some people call it breid.’  Cameron

We found the breid recipe in Maw Broon’s cookbook which Cameron brought in for class 1 to borrow.  It was very exciting to see the dough rise before we put it in the oven.  Everyone in class 1 liked smelling the bread when it came out of the oven.  We enjoyed tasting it and took some home for our parents to try.

David made some delicious tablet with mum at home. David thinks tablet is very tasty.  He brought in his tablet recipe to show us (Miss Barrie is going to photocopy David’s recipe and try it at home this weekend).

Learning Across the Curriculum

Class 1 have been learning about Scotland.  This week we have been locating Scotland on the world map. We have also been learning about traditional Scottish clothing.  We designed our own Scottish outfits on the SMARTboard and enjoyed trying on kilts.

Miss Cameron taught us how to weave paper to create our own tartan.  We selected our favourite colours and were careful to weave the paper under and over. Look at our fantastic work!

We have also been learning about Scottish food and this week we made some delicious shortbread.  We read the recipe very carefully and measured out the ingredients.  Some of our P2 friends helped us to make the shortbread.  We enjoyed tasting the shortbread when it was ready and took some home to share with or family.  We are looking forward to more Scottish cooking in class 1.

Numeracy and Mathematics

We have been trying very hard at maths time.   We have been investigating with non-standard units of measurement to measure height and can order and sort objects according to their height.  Here we are, hard at work…

Happy New Year!

Class one have had a very busy start to term 3.  We celebrated our first day back to school with a New Year’s party!  We enjoyed learning about New Year celebrations in Scotland.  We tried on kilts, watched the famous Edinburgh fireworks display, counted down to zero and wished each other happy new year.  Mrs Nicol and Miss Barrie taught us how to link hands and dance to Auld Lang Syne.

We discussed and wrote about our new year’s resolutions.

Cameron – ‘I would like to make lots of Valentines Day and birthday cards in 2014’.

David – ‘I would like to sleep in my new tent’.

Joe – ‘I would like to get better at dressing up as a vampire’.

Learning Across the Curriculum

Our new topic is ‘Scotland’.  We have been talking and writing about where we live and who we live with.   The children in class 1 have been sharing what they already know about Scotland.

Cameron – Nicholas from the X Factor is Scottish.  We talk Scottish and some people say ‘aye’.

Yolie – Balbardie Primary School is in Scotland.

David – I live in Scotland.

Joe – They love kilts and there are lots of houses in Scotland.  The flag is blue and white.

Lewis – My house is in Scotland.

Jayden – Me, Mummy and Daddy live in Scotland.  The flag is blue and white.

This week we have been learning about the flag of Scotland.  It is called the Saltire and the colours are blue and white.  We painted Scotland flags and were very careful to paint within the lines.

We have been learning a Scottish song called ‘Three Craws’.  The children in class 1 have worked very hard to learn their words and actions.   We created fantastic props for our new song.  We made lollipop puppets and craw hats. 

Science

We celebrated Joe’s birthday this week.  We had a party and enjoyed dancing and playing musical bumps.  We also made strawberry jelly!

We all helped to make the jelly and had fun investigating how water can change from one form to another.  At first the jelly was a solid. It was very tricky to cut into small chunks as it was hard and wobbly.  We watched as the kettle boiled the water.  We could see the steam coming out of the top of the kettle.  We know how to be safe around hot water and understand that steam is very hot too. 

‘When we added water, the jelly was gone’ Lewis.

‘The jelly looks like a drink now’. Cameron

We put the jelly in the fridge and when we took it out, the jelly was solid again.

‘It’s like a statue now’. Joe

We enjoyed smelling and tasting the jelly.  Everyone liked the smell of the jelly.  Some of us liked the taste and some of us didn’t.

Santa’s Little Helpers

Thank you everyone for completing your home learning.  You drew and listed lots of things that you thought should be included in our Santa’s Workshop!  Now we have a fantastic Santa’s Workshop in class 1.  We can wrap presents, design new toys and build wooden toys!  Cameron’s favourite thing about Santa’s Workshop is everything!  Joe’s favourite thing to do in our workshop is wrapping up presents.

Toys Toys Toys

We have been learning about toys.  This week we went to the Bennie Museum.  At the Bennie Museum we saw lots of old toys.  We saw a rocking horse, a pram, old dolls and old train sets.  We learned about a toy called a boggie, which is a bit like a go-kart, except it is made from wood and you have to pull it with a piece of rope.  Jayden really enjoyed looking at the toy trains. 

We sang some songs at the museum and took lots of photographs of the old toys.  Miss Barrie and Miss Cameron are very proud of everyone in class 1.  Everyone listened carefully and took care not to touch the old toys. 

Story Time

We enjoy taking turns to read to our classmates at Story Time.  Joe read ‘The Gruffalo’ this week.  He used fantastic expression when he was reading.  Thank you Joe.

Art and Design

We created beautiful Winter scene paintings.  We looked at the colours of the winter sky and selected colours for our paintings.  We used masking tape to make a tree.  We know that trees lose their leaves in Winter, so we used the masking tape to make the tree trunk and branches.  We painted over the masking tape, and when our pictures were dry, we peeled off the tape.  We will upload a picture of our finished work  next week.

I am Brilliant

Everyone in class 1 has an ‘I am Brilliant’ book.  We think, talk and write about the things that we are brilliant at. Sometimes we draw pictures in our books and sometimes we stick photographs in. 

‘I am brilliant at wrapping.’ Cameron

Christmas Party

Class 1, 2 and 3 had a wonderful time at their Christmas Party on Monday.  Everyone looked very smart in their party clothes.  The children in Class 1 liked looking at the shiny lights which covered the walls inside the party room!  We had lots of fun playing and dancing at the party.  We have been looking at our Christmas party photographs and speaking about what we enjoyed most about the party.

‘Dancing at Gangnam Style!’ Joe

‘Gangnam style as well.  I liked dancing and falling.’ Jayden

‘Playing with my car.’ Lewis

‘Playing with playdough and dancing.’ Yolie

Christmas Activities

We have been busy making Christmas decorations for class 1.  We made fantastic decorations using strips of paper and glue.  Cameron and Jayden created a repeated pattern using three different colours.

Christmas lunch was delicious!  We enjoyed eating our lunch, wearing party hats and pulling crackers with our friends. 

Cooking time on Wednesday was lots of fun as we decorated gingerbread tree decorations.  We took them home to show our family.  Miss Barrie and Miss Cameron wonder whose decoration will end up on the Christmas tree and whose will end up in their tummy!

Health and Wellbeing

Fruit Smoothies!

On Tuesday we made a fruit smoothie.  We each chose a fruit to add to the smoothie and chopped it up into small pieces.  The children in class 1 are great at preparing food and understand how important it is to wash our hands before touching food.   Miss Barrie is very pleased that the children in class 1 have been trying hard with their cutlery skills.

We used kiwi, apple, pear, grapes, watermelon and orange juice to make our smoothie.  We took turns to add the ingredients and press the button on the blender.   Some of us liked the taste of the smoothie, and some of us didn’t.  Cameron and Miss Barrie loved the smoothie!   There was some fruit smoothie left over for Cameorn’s mum to taste but Cameron loved it so much that he drank it himself!

This week for Home Learning, we have to list or draw the ingredients that we would use to make our own fruit smoothie.  We will share our smoothie ideas with our classmates and maybe get to create some more smoothies in class 1!

At snack time, we have been talking about our favourite fruits and learning that fruit and vegetables are good for our bodies.

Dance Club

During Tuesday playtime, some of us chose to go to Dance Club.  The girls in P5 helped to teach us some new moves.  We especially enjoyed how technology was used to help us learn.  The dance video was projected onto the wall in the gym hall.  This made it easier for us to see and copy the moves.  Miss Barrie and Mrs Stewart enjoyed joining in too.  Maybe we will try some of our new dance moves at the Christmas party!  

Swimming

Miss Barrie, Miss Cameron and Miss Robertson are so proud of everyone in swimming group 1.   Everyone has been trying very hard with dressing independently.  This week the adults were so impressed, as everyone participated in the big pool swimming lesson.   Some of us felt a little nervous at first as our feet couldn’t touch the floor, but after a while everyone was too busy having fun to notice! 

A Very Special Visitor!

On Wednesday, we had a very special visit, from a very special baby!  Jayden’s little brother came to visit class 1.  We were so excited to hear that Baby Jenson was coming to class 1.  Jayden was great at introducing his friends and family.

We know how to care for babies so we made sure to use quiet whispering voices as he was fast asleep, and we didn’t want to wake him up.  We enjoyed looking at Baby Jenson’s tiny face.  Lewis and Cameron thought that he looked just like his big brother!

‘His face is just like his face!’  Cameron

We enjoyed touching his soft blanket.  We know that babies like soft things.  We sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Lewis even read his favourite story to baby Jenson.  We asked lots of great questions.

‘Does baby Jenson have a buggy?’ Cameron

Miss Cameron and Miss Barrie feel very proud, as the children in class 1 are always very well mannered, and make visitors feel very welcome.

Have a nice weekend and remember to read over your Christmas Party story.

Maths

We have been working very hard with Miss Cameron at maths time.   We have been learning to read our monthly calendar and locate specific dates and events.  Miss Cameron taught us a new song to help us remember the order of the months of the year.   We enjoyed singing our song for Mr Welsh, who was very impressed!

Congratulations to Cameron, who got a certificate this week for his fantastic work at maths time.  We are all so proud!

Music

We have enjoyed learning a new song ‘Who Can it Be?’  We try to do all of the actions and sing in time with the music.   We love to record ourselves singing as a group and then watch the video on the SMARTboard.  This helps us to see how great we are at singing as a group and recognise actions that we need to practise. 

We have also had fun using the Skoog this week; we enjoy selecting our own instruments and creating our own music.

We have been listening to some classical music and spoke about how certain songs make us feel.  Cameron and Joe’s favourite piece is ‘Symphony No 5 (Beethoven)’.   David likes listening to ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Tchaikovsky)’ it makes him feel happy. 

Reflection Time

We have been thinking about what makes us happy at school.

‘I like to make certificates for my friends.’ Cameron

‘I like to write a card for Miss Cameron.’  Jayden

We have been busy discussing our favourite toys and writing about them. 

Jayden wrote about his favourite toy Mickey Mouse.

My favourite toy is Mickey Mouse.  He is soft.  He has big ears.  He is black and peach.  I like playing with Mickey.

We have enjoyed listening to Harry and the Robots and even made our own robots using lots of different materials.  We gave our robots a name and have been writing about the special things that they do!

We have our own Balbardie Toy Shop in class 1.   It’s important to keep our shop looking tidy so we make sure to sort the toys into groups to make it easy for the customer to find what they are looking for. 

We have been working very hard with Miss Camer0n to create wonderful still life drawings of toys.  We have to look carefully at the size and shape of the toys.  We have also enjoyed mixing primary colours to create new colours.  We used our drawings to create a great toy box display!

We had fun wearing our pyjamas to school to raise money for Children in Need.