On Friday 3rd March we got to dress up or dress down for World Book Day. We also read books and wrote some stories of our own. We then used the spinner which chose three people to read their stories out to the read of the class.
Category: Class Learning
Snapshot of Learning in P3B
We have been taking part in “choral counting” in Number Talks. We count together as a class, usually skip counting, and then we look for patterns. Miss Marra asks us the questions “what do you notice? What do you wonder?” This gives us the chance to talk about patterns and share our strategies. In this choral count, we were skip counting in 3’s.
I noticed all the number going up in order, adding 3 each time. Lexi
The first digit of each number gets higher to show that the numbers are getting higher e.g. 1, 2, 3. Struan
I noticed that in the bottom row when you add the digit in each number together, they make either 6 or 9. Finlay
We are continuing to practise reading and writing Fry’s words in class. On the weeks when we are working on a Phonics sound, we still practise reading and writing Fry’s words during Smart Start. We love writing our words on the desks because it is a fun way to write them and it helps us to practise spelling them correctly.
We are enjoying our Ancient Egyptian Topic and we have been provided with opportunities to lead our own learning. We asked Miss Marra if we could learn more about mummification so we watched a video, explaining the process and then we had a go ourselves. We mummified dolls and we even had a go mummifying our partners. Luckily no organs were removed! We remembered to start from the head down. Two of the most important skills we had to use were communication and teamwork. This is what we said about our learning.
I loved it so much because it was so much fun! Aria
That was so good. I remembered to start at the head. Tyler
I started at the feet by mistake but then I started again and remembered to start at the head. Isla
I’ve learned more about what mummification is and how they do it. Emmi
I already knew lots of facts about this but I liked sharing what I know. Peter
Article 13: We have the right to find out things and share what we think with others.
P3B Judo
We were so excited to participate in a taster session with Destination Judo on Wednesday. We had to use some very important skills such as teamwork and resilience. Some of the moves were quite tricky but we worked hard and helped each other.
Some of us enjoyed the session so much that we would like to start going to Judo in East Calder each week. We can certainly say it was a success! Miss Marra was also very impressed with our listening skills and we were all so focused. Well done everyone!
Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.
Community Hub
It was great to be able to visit The Partnership Centre today. After a long wait due to covid restrictions our Hub group has finally had the opportunity to make links with the community again. We had a great time visiting the library,completing quizzes,questionnaires and even had a storytelling session. It has encouraged us all to grab a library card and make the most of this great resource right on our doorstep! Many thanks to the Library and Debbie for opening early for us. It was fantastic to have the whole library to ourselves. Keep an eye out for our next Community Hub visit!
P3a Sharing the Learning
Our adults came into class to see what we have been learning. We showed them our Numeracy skills by working through an Esti-mystery. Then we got out lots of different concrete materials so we could show them how we use them. We had thousands, hundreds, tens & ones blocks and rods out to make numbers up to and beyond one thousand, counters to show our division work, iPads to show how we work on our tables online and a Maths table with shapes, money and geo-boards to work with. We introduced our adults to some different resources. It also gave them time to read what is on the walls in our classroom.
Learning in P2/1
Last week was story-telling week and we had great fun listening to stories in our class library. We scanned QR codes to watch our choice of story on the iPads.
We’ve been learning about Scotland and used our problem solving and teamwork skills to design a Scottish castle. We had a choice of junk modelling with boxes, iPads or Lego. We presented our designs to the class. One our castles even had a hot tub!
We are looking forward to sharing our learning with parents/carers on 2nd March.
RRS Article 28: We have the right to learn. Article 29: We have the right to develop our skills and abilities.
P3a Problem Solving
Today we were set a task to find out how many different towers we could make using one green, one yellow & one red block. We used the cards to get into random partners. We got out the blocks and worked together on the towers. We came up with our success criteria together. We needed to –
- work together
- try
- Used different colours of blocks
- write / draw our answer
- have same answer as partner
Once we had found a tower we had to record it on our sheet. We discussed our strategies and shared how we got our answers.
Once we had found as many towers as we could, we thought about what would make it harder. We decided to add another block, this time a blue one.
P3B Numeracy
We are learning to divide numbers and make equal groups. We use counters to share equally and then we write the division calculation. We have been working with a partner to practise dividing by 2 and 3. We have been taking part in whole class learning activities and stations. We love sharing our strategies and we have learned some new vocabulary to add to our Numeracy and Maths Working Wall. Tyler should be proud of himself as he used the word “equal” when talking about his division strategy. We added this word to our wall to remind us that is an important word that can help us with division.
We have also been working hard to practise skip counting. We are learning to understand the link between multiplication and division. We use the ipads on a regular basis in class and we love using them to support our learning in Numeracy. One of our favourite games is “Whack a Mole” where we can practise skip counting. We can also alter the settings so we can challenge ourselves by skip counting in different numbers.
This group of amazing learners demonstrated great teamwork skills as they completed a five times table pencil task. They listen to each other’s strategies and they were able to confidently share the tools and strategies that helped them.
We take part in Number Talks daily where we engage in lots of learning activities to talk about numbers and share our strategies. We recently took part in “String Questions” to practise addition strategies.
“To work out 5 + 25, I added 5 + 5 which equals 10. Then I added another 10 to make 20. Then I added another 5 to make 25.” Finlay
“To work out 25 + 15, I started adding 25 + 5 = 30. Then I did 30 + 10 = 40. So 25 + 15 = 40.” Sophie B
Article 12: We have the right to be heard.
Article 28: We have the right to learn.
P3B Literacy
We are learning to write an explanation text. We have been working hard to explore the features of an explanation text and this week, we created our own. We used our “magic box” to choose a random partner and we wrote our first explanation text on the desks. We love writing on the desks with white board pens.
We explored “why a police officer’s job is important.” We worked together as a class to create each section of our explanation text and we wrote our sentences with connectives and the correct punctuation. We also took pictures of our writing and displayed them on the smart board to help us talk about our learning. We are excited to plan and write a new explanation text in our Literacy jotters next week.
Article 13: We have the right to find out things and share what we think with others.
We take part in Guided Reading on a regular basis throughout the week in P3B. Sometimes, we work with Miss Marra in our Reading group and we take part in “Echo Reading” or “Choral Reading.” We also identify words in a text and ask and answer questions about the book. We also love taking part in Paired Reading with a partner. This helps us to develop our independence and support each other with reading. We read our reading book; however, we sometimes choose a book of our choice too.
Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.
Learning inP2/1
This week has been Scots Week at East Calder. P2/1 have enjoyed listening to stories about Katie Morag. We were really surprised and excited to receive a letter from her! She was asking us to design a new tartan skirt. Her one had been ruined when she was trying to deliver the mail. We used our fine motor skills to use a ruler and created these fantastic tartans.
In music we’ve been learning to keep a steady beat by clapping and dancing along to Scottish music. This is our favourite song:
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/songs-and-rhymes/katie-bairdie-audio
We did a brilliant job of reciting our poems in Scots and are really looking forward to hearing all the winners at our Scots school assembly next Friday.
(Article 28: We have the right to learn. Article 29: We have the right to develop our skills and abilities.)
