This term our learning has been focussed on Scotland.

In writing, we have been learning how to write Haiku poems.  After learning and practising the rules, we decided to write Haiku poems based on a Scottish theme.  We created a tartan design as a background to our poems, taking care to follow the line patterns and shapes commonly found on tartan.  These are displayed on our clan area wall and we hope to share them with you when you come to visit us next week when we share our learning.

In reading, we have listened to and read lots of Scottish stories and texts and have been understanding and reciting Scottish Poems for our poetry competition. We have learnt a variety of Scottish words such as dreich, bairn and fankle.  We gathered a list of words together and matched them up to the correct meaning.  Some of the scots words have made us really laugh like bahookie, crabbit and keek.

In P.E, we have been working together with Bluebell clan to learn Scottish country dances.  We used skills in resilience, tolerance, co-ordination and stamina to support us in learning these dances.  We have learnt the Canadian Barn dance, Gay Gordons, St Bernards Waltz and the Flying Scotsman.  We have enjoyed this learning and have realised it is fun but exhausting too!

In outdoor P.E, we have been learning to play traditional outdoor games such as rock, paper, scissors, hoop and Peevers.  We are learning to play games that need as little resources as possible that we can play together at school or home and we are using our creativity skills to come up with new rules and games.  We have loved learning and playing these games together and have shown great sportsmanship, teamwork and creativity.

We have been learning about the life of Mary, Queen of Scots and have been investigating all the key moments in her life.  We learned about where and when she was born, about James V, how she became Queen at a very young age and about her life in France.  We worked with Bluebell and thistle to learn about her early life.  We have used our researching skills to find out more using devices and books we have borrowed from a local library.  We have been creating a timeline of all the important events in Mary’s life and have chosen different ways to share what we have found out.  We have chosen to draw pictures, build models, write birth/death announcements and created drama freeze frames with added captions which we have then collated and added to our timeline displayed in class.  We are enjoying the freedom of choice in sharing our learning in different ways and seeing our work added to the timeline as we learn more about Mary’s life.