Category: Dundee

Dundee Clan have begun work on their new learning ‘Outstanding Olympians’.  We explored the origins of the Olympic games and how the competition has changed over time.  We let our creative side shine through by choosing a challenge to undertake to show our understanding.  Some of us created a new logo for the games incorporating the origins of the Olympics, some made a story to explain it with puppets, some of us have used technology to create presentations and some of us created a model of the Olympic stadium.

We have also been exploring the different food groups from the Eatwell plate and how each of these keep us healthy.  Following on from this we all had a go at creating a healthy snack – a pitta pizza.  We had a go at chopping onions and peppers to use as a topping for our pizza.  We will continue to explore healthy food options and what this means for our bodies and explore the healthy lifestyle of an Olympic athlete.

Dundee clan have been learning about what makes us all different and unique.

We began with creating our own unique fingerprint showing what makes us unique as a person.  No two fingerprints were the same!

We explored our similarities and differences further by working with others in our clan to find out what we share with each other and what is different.  We loved finding out more about each other – our families, religion, and languages spoken amongst many others.

We completed our learning with Autism Awareness Week, exploring autism to understand this further.

We created paper chain people, which we decided to link together and display in our clan, to celebrate our differences and how we are all unique.

 

As a clan we have continued to look at the Victorian era as this has really interested us.  After looking at jobs children did in those days, we began to explore inventions.  We found out that the Victorian era was a time of change and different things were invented to make life easier.  From this we explored the different inventions around the industrial revolution and the invention of toys.

We explored a timeline of toy inventions and had a go at creating our own Victorian spinning top with very little materials.  We came to realise that toys were very different to those we have now.

This led us on to our engineering project.  We looked at the job of an engineer and objects around us that may have been engineered.  From this we began to think about a toy we would like to create and began to come up with ideas and plan our inventions.

Finally, we made a final labelled drawing of our design along with a persuasive letter persuading an engineer to make our toy.  Over the next couple of weeks we will work on presenting our designs to our clan and one will be chosen to represent our clan at the whole school Dragons Den competition.

We have also been enjoying our new class novel – Rivet Boy, which is based in the past when the forth rail was being engineered.  We are really enjoying this story.

Please look at our sway to follow our journey.

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Dundee clan have immersed themselves in all things non-fiction.  We have been looking at non-fiction books and texts and exploring the features of these compared to fiction books.  We have begun learning about how to write an information report and explored examples of this type of text finding out about the purpose, the sections that make up an information text and what the purpose of these sections are. We will continue to explore this over the weeks ahead.  We have also started our new class novel ‘Rivet Boy’ which is based in the past, at the time of the construction of the Forth Rail bridge which links to our IDL learning about the Victorians and engineering.

We really enjoyed learning about jobs that children did in the Victorian times.  We learnt about the types of jobs they were expected to do for little money and with no safety laws.  We were very shocked at some of the information we learnt.  We had a go at putting ourselves in the children’s shoes by taking part in a ‘Hot-Seating’ Task.  This is where the children pretend that they are a child from the past and the rest of the group or clan ask questions about what life is like for them in the Victorian times and what it is like to work.  The children were very believable in their roles and got a real feel for what it must have been like for children in those times.

We have also really enjoyed learning our example information report text about ‘firefighters’.  We used visual pictures to support us learning the text and came up with some amazing actions to go with it and we all were able to say the text.  The whole clan loved learning this and are looking forward to learning more about this type of writing and having a go ourselves.

 

Dundee clan have been learning about how to stay safe online.  This week we took part in a live online lesson by BBC Teach for Safer Internet Day.  We became digital detectives and explored the exciting world of Artificial Intelligence.  The aim of the lesson was to support us in navigating our online world safely.

We learnt about:

Keeping our personal information private.

How to report concerns about content and contact, identify and assess risks and take steps to reduce them.

Use digital technologies to search, access and retrieve information and be aware that not all of this information will be credible.

Know how to ask for help when we need it from people they trust.

Be aware how to keep ourselves safe and secure

We were very surprised to learn that not all information on the internet is true.  We have to look-out for fake sites and information and now know to check information to ensure it is correct.

We created online posters to display our top tips to help others.

Dundee Clan performed their clan assembly, ‘Save the Rainforest’, today to the whole school and to our families.  Dundee clan have had a fantastic time learning all about the rainforest.  We have explored where rainforests are in the world, why they are so important, what the issues are affecting them and what we can do to support them.  We have loved exploring the rainforest and are sad that it is time to move on to new learning.  Some of the children are going to continue spreading the word and learn more, and have started a club together.  We hope everyone enjoyed our assembly today.  We enjoyed preparing it and performing it for everyone.  I wonder if our song is still stuck in your head!  We can’t stop singing it!

Dundee Clan had a fantastic time at their Christmas party.  We created a playlist together with all of our favourite party tunes and loved dancing to them.  We played musical bumps and corners which was great fun.  We enjoyed some food and a drink together in the café which was well-deserved after all that dancing.  We are well and truly in the Christmas mood.