Tummel Clan have been very busy exploring their namesake habitats, the Tummel River and Loch. To consolidate our learning, we upcycled materials to make a three-dimensional model of a scene called a diorama. We had to apply what we had learned about the habitat such as the climate, plants and animals. We also had to plan, share tasks and collaborate on the construction as we worked together in groups to complete our dioramas!
This week, we learned about a famous artist called Wassily Kandinsky. We learned that he is well-known for creating abstract paintings using shapes, lines and colour. In Numeracy, we have been exploring place value, with pupils learning to build numbers to 1,000 and 10,000. Inspired by Kandinsky’s “Several Circles”, we created abstract art using size to represent our chosen number, broken into its individual place value parts.
We also had a lot of fun creating our own origami animal bookmarks to celebrate this year’s Maths Week theme, ‘Maths Tales’. Origami involves turning a flat piece of paper into a 3D object, requiring lots of spatial awareness! We also discussed the fractions involved as we folded the paper into halves and quarters. As we creased the paper, we realised how important the relationship between the lines and angles created are to the final design of the origami creation!
In Tummel Clan, we have been learning how to write a quality description. From our prior learning, we were able to discuss elements of the describing bubble which is used as a prompt to help us add interesting detail to our writing.
As Calderwood Clan Explorers investigating the meaning behind our clan name, we are beginning to learn about Loch Tummel. We listened to the story of “Gloomy the Misty Loch Monster”, making sure to listen to all of the words so that we could draw a detailed picture of Gloomy from the description. We decided we wanted to imagine our own sea creatures which we did, then described them to our partner to see how accurate their drawing would be!
Afterwards, we described our sea creature as a cold piece writing assessment. We were then able to reflect on what went well and think about what personal targets we could set to make our writing even better next time.
We have had a wonderful time getting to know each other in Tummel Clan!
As we begin to build our clan community, we explored the story “Our Clan is a Family” and discussed its meaning. We agreed that our clan room should be a safe place where everyone feels confident to be themselves and make mistakes. We recognised that we each have similarities but that we are all unique and should respect each other’s differences. We talked about what makes a good friend and had fun creating friendship bracelets for those closest to us!
In Aberdeen clan, we have been learning about the ancient origins of the Olympic games through our IDL focus, “Outstanding Olympians”. We were interested to learn that the upcoming Olympic games in Paris were inspired by the ancient games held in Olympia around 2800 years ago! We designed modern Olympic logos to represent the ancient beginning of the games and created short performances to re-enact a significant moment from the history of the games. Some clanmates also chose to build miniature Olympic stadiums inspired by ancient Greek architecture.
We have also enjoyed learning about some of the sports included in the Olympic games. In P.E., we have been perfecting our shape, balance, rolls and jumps in gymnastics. This week, we loved demonstrating our precision and agility on the balance beam!
In Aberdeen, we have been learning to respect each other’s differences. To celebrate Autism Acceptance Week, we discussed what autism is and shared our experiences. We understand that everyone is unique and we try our best to treat everyone with kindness. We created people paper chains and tried to include as many differences as we could. Our people paper chains will remain on our wall as a reminder to respect each other’s differences and treat people with kindness.
Through our topic, Voracious Victorians, Aberdeen Clan have learned about the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the many advancements in engineering made during this time. We have been learning about what life was like for a young brigger working on the Forth Bridge during the Victorian era through our class novel, Rivet Boy by Barbara Henderson. We have also investigated and compared toys from the past to the toys which we play with today.
We decided to design our own brand new toy designs for the Engineering Leaders Award Competition. We had to consider which problem our design would solve, how it would work, what materials would be used, and what it would look like. We then had to explain our design and write persuasively to convince the judges!
Aberdeen Clan are learning to compare our modern lives with the lives of children in the Victorian era. We learned that many children had to work to support their families during this time and we looked at the different jobs a Victorian child may have had to do. We then each had a chance to sit on the “hot seat” where we had to act as though we were a working child from the past and answer questions from our peers. We loved getting into character but we agreed that we would rather be in school!
Aberdeen clan celebrated Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 6th February. We watched a BBC Live Lesson which focused on technology of the future and provided an insight into the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We were amazed by the concept of driverless cars! We made notes and then created posters to share our new knowledge.
Aberdeen Clan have been learning about the history and recent changes to our local area. We enjoyed sharing our knowledge of East Calder landmarks and places of interest before plotting them on a map. Next, we will be using historical evidence to explore different types of housing in the area and compare the lives of people in the past with our own.
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