Tag: creativity

Future Oscar Winning Actors in East Calder Primary!

We have started the term with a very busy few weeks in Drama. It has been lovely working with every class and the children should be so proud of how much they have embraced their new learning opportunities in Drama, with a positive attitude and eagerness to learn. Well done everyone! Below are a few examples of some of the learning in Drama so far this term. We always start every Drama lesson with a game to get us warmed up and ready to learn.

Primary 6 pupils worked hard to create a short improvised drama using role-play cards and performing it for the class. We have been working on using a variety of facial expressions, projecting our voice and diction. We gave feedback on each performance linked to our co-created Success Criteria. 

Primary 5 have also been working on short improvised dramas using Improv cards. Well done to these two fantastic learners who presented their short drama to the class using facial expressions and voice. In Primary 5 we are working on diction to make sure we speak clearly.

We have also started exploring the features of a script and we are learning to analyse scripted language. We are also practising reading from a script and we are excited to perform for the class using the Drama techniques we have been learning.

In Primary 3, we are learning to take on roles and use facial expressions, voice and movement in role-play. We have recently been engaging in “hot seating” in characters from stories. We have also been using freeze frames to act out chapters from “I Don’t Want To” by Bel Mooney. We have been in character and have been learning to use fantastic facial expressions to show different emotions.

In Primary 1, we have been playing games to practise using our voice, actions and facial expressions. We are starting to use our learning to act out stories. We have particularly enjoyed re-telling stories using puppets.

Watch this space for more regular updates about our learning in Drama! There are definitely some future performers in our school. Well done for all your hard work so far everyone!

Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.

Learning in P3/2

 

We have been so busy over the last few weeks and we have been really enjoying our learning. This is a summary of some of our learning highlights which we would like to share.

 

Topic – Ancient Egypt

We are really interested in our Topic, Ancient Egypt and we have enjoyed leading our learning. We wanted to learn more about the Pyramids of Giza and we started off by following a tutorial to create picture of the pyramids. They look great and we were so focused on our learning.

We also learned more about how and why the pyramids were built. We have been reading books and watching videos in class to support our learning. One of our favourite recent learning activities was a STEAM Challenge (Science, Technologies, Engineering, Art and Mathematics.) We had to create a 3D model of the Pyramids of Giza. This was fun because we worked in partners and we chose how to create our model. Some of us used paper, some of us used construction or other strategies.

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We loved talking about our strategies and the tools we chose to use. Creativity was one of the main skills we identified as part of our Success Criteria. We also had to use great teamwork with our partner to be successful. We currently have our pyramids displayed in our classroom and we love to show them to anyone visiting our classroom.

 

Numeracy and Maths

We continue to engage in Number Talks every day to consolidate Numeracy skills and to talk about different Numeracy strategies. We also engage in Numeracy every day and one day a week, we focus on a Maths topic. At the moment, we are exploring fractions in Maths, and in Numeracy, we are learning division strategies. We are starting to understand the link between fractions and division. The following learning activities are examples of our learning from the last few weeks.

Using arrays to divide numbers and consolidate multiplication.

 

Using Numeracy Tools to make equal groups and write the algorithms in our Maths and Numeracy jotters.

 

Working in random partners and in groups to solve division calculations by making equal groups. We always share our strategies and help each other. We love talking about our learning.

 

Literacy – Writing

 

We are working vey hard in Writing. Primary 2 are moving on to writing a Procedure and Primary are continuing to work on writing explanation texts. We are still splitting into two groups for Writing at the moment due to P2 and P3 focusing on different genres. Mrs Robertson will soon work with P3 pupils, and P2 pupils will work with Miss Marra.

We are excited to share more of our writing with you. Watch this space and we will share more examples of our writing.

We recently peer-assessed our writing again to give each other feedback and identify next steps. We were very focused and used the skill “communication” to talk about our ideas and listen to others in our group.

 

Literacy – Grammar

We are learning to identify and use past and present tense verbs in Grammar. We are consolidating our learning and applying our learning in different contexts. We recently engaged in a learning activity that we loved so much, we asked to do it again! Miss Marra gave each of us a card with verb on it. Some verbs were past tense and some were present tense. We had to find the person who had the same verb as us in a different tense e.g. walk – walked. This is how we were split into random partners. We then wrote a sentence for each verb on our cards. Mrs Mitchell worked with a group, and Miss Marra supported us with our learning. Our challenge was to make up our own sentences with past and present tense verbs which we really enjoyed, especially when we made up silly sentences.


This is Blair’s past and present tense verbs with her sentences above which she created with a partner. She confidently shared her sentences with the class and could talk about how she knew which verb was past tense and which verb was written in the present tense.

 

 

Music

We look forward to our music workshop with Dave every Wednesday. We all had the opportunity to play instruments this week which was amazing! Miss Marra forgot to take photos, so we will share some photos of us playing instruments next week. We learned to make loud and quiet sounds with our instruments to tell a story.

 

Last week, we used sound and learned how music can be used to tell stories. We also took part in acting out the story to help us understand it better. Some of us were even talking about the links with Guided Reading and Reading Comprehension. This role-play activity in Music helped us to understand the story.

Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.

 

 

We are working hard in P3/2!

 

In Numeracy, we have been learning to use subtraction strategies and we have been learning to find the most efficient strategy. We have been using our Numeracy Tools to support our learning. We love sharing our strategies with each other.

Our first calculation was 23 – 13. One group worked with Miss Marra and we also worked in random partners. Even though some of us knew the answer straight away, we still used the Numeracy Tools to demonstrate our understanding and share our strategy.


We were challenged to keep making our starting number ten more and we had to keep subtracting 13. Some of us were eventually starting with a three digit number which was a fun challenge.

Innes was provided with 213 as his starting number and he kept subtracting 13 until he reached the smallest number he could. This was how he shared his strategy, he chose to write it on the desk using white board pen. He also taught his partner column subtraction.

 

This group worked well together with Miss Marra and they used the cubes to support their learning. They counted the cubes to ensure they started with 23 and they subtracted 13, they then wrote the calculation on the board.

 

 

As always, we co-created the Success Criteria. One of the skills we decided we had to use was “teamwork.” We thought it was very important to work together with our partners in order to be successful in our learning.

In Literacy, we have continued learning about question marks in Grammar. This links closely with our learning in Writing and Guided Reading. This term, in Guided Reading we are focusing on questioning to develop our comprehension skills.

 

This week, we  co-created the Success Criteria as always and we also identified the missing punctuation in The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The story was displayed on a power point on the smart board and we had to add missing full stops and question marks. We also identified missing speech marks when a character was speaking.

We also focused on question words and identified these words on our Literacy Bump It Up Wall. We often use these to support with questioning in Guided Reading.

We then worked in random partners to complete a pencil task in which we had to complete the sentences by adding the correct question word at the beginning, and writing a question mark at the end of each question. Some of us worked with Miss Marra and we were so good at identifying the correct word because we worked so hard. We were very focused on our learning too. It was funny when we tried to say the questions aloud with the wrong question word. We shared our learning during our Plenary and we peer-assessed two pupils’ work using our Success Criteria.

In Art this week, we worked hard to design our own bookmark for the Book Week competition. Although Book Week is next week, we started our bookmarks early so we can send them to Mrs Robertson. We were very focused on our learning and made sure we did our very best work. We used our creativity and got some ideas from examples of bookmarks that Miss Marra showed us. This helped us to create our Success Criteria. We can’t wait to share more Book Week learning next week.

Lego Club

A great time was had by all at the first session of Lego Club. We have been very lucky to acquire 10 brand new Lego sets. Pupils worked in their choice of individual, pairs or threes. They used their problem solving, communication and collaboration skills to build the new models. Some chose to free build from the huge box of blocks in the class. Roll on next week when they get the chance to do it all again!

Primary 3 Learning

In Money this we took part in different activities to help us improve our knowledge of coins and how to pay. It has been difficult as nowadays we use less and less actual coins and notes to pay for shopping. Most people pay with cards now but it is still important we learn about money as it is life skills.

The title of our description this week was A Bus. We learned lots of information about buses, used key words on our planning sheet and then wrote our description. This week was our first time in P3 using a self assessment sheet. On it we had to colour to show how we felt we had done on each point. On the whole we did really well, just a few people needing to remember their word logs or finger spaces. Next week we get to choose our own title and what we are going to write a description about.

In art we used our imagination and creativity to cover up a mistake. We were all given pieces of paper that had accidentally been splashed with black paint. Everybody’s was different. We had to think about how best to cover them up. We came up with lots of ideas from a mermaid’s tail to an eyebrow!

UNCRC in P3/2

We are learning about the UNCRC – United Nations Convention on the Rights of Every Child as our Topic this term. At the beginning of the term, we learned about the Rights to help us create our Class Charter and we have been exploring what the rights mean to us. We used play dough to create a Right of our choice. We watched a video about the Rights of the Child and identified the Rights we already knew. We enjoyed learning some new Rights too.

 

This amazing learner is showing Article 27: We have the right to a safe place to live.


Article 31: We have the right to relax and play.

   

We were very focused on our learning and we identified this as one of the skills we had to use to be successful learners.

Primary 3

Although it has been a short week we have still learned lots. We looked at a picture and had to predict what we thought was happening. Then we wrote sentences about it.

We continued to work with money and started giving each other different amounts. Some people could work with coins to 10 pence while others could give amounts up to £10. We will keep challenging ourselves with our learning.

Last week was International Dot Day. We read the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. We were then given a black dot sticker to put anywhere on our piece of paper. Then we had to use our imagination to create a picture using the dot. We came up with lots of different ideas. Come look at our Art Board to see some of our creations.

 

 

 

 

 

P3 Skills

We have been working hard to focus on our work. We often work in random partnerships so communication is important as is working as a team. We take part part in a Friday Challenge most weeks and have to use our creativity and problem solving skills. We also use lots of different skills when we play. In these pictures you can see use problem solving, focusing, creating, communicating and working as part of a team.

First Week in Primary 3/2

Article 28: We have the right to learn.

This week we have been getting to know each other and we have done so well settling into our new routines. We have had opportunities to explore our new toys, talk about our likes and dislikes and we created our Class Charter to help us follow our three School Rules, Ready, Respect and Safe. We will share a photo of our Charter when our display is completed along with the rules that we created together.

 

We have investigated Literacy and Numeracy Tools that we are going to use to support our learning.

In Literacy, we practised reading and writing Fry’s words and used different strategies. We read words on Fry’s word cards and used our knowledge of spelling rules and sounds to help us. We then wrote the words on the table with a white board pen. This was very exciting! We love using our tables as big white boards.

We also made Fry’s words and other words of our choice using magnetic letters and letter cubes. This learner was very proud that she remembered to spell “cheese” using the “ch and ee sounds.”


We also played a “Pop Corn Fry’s Words” game. This group are showing great teamwork and one learner identified this as an important skill we need to use when we play this game to help us be successful.


These learners challenged themselves when playing this word game. “We made up a game where we had to try and find cards that we can match to each other, like goat and cheese or hand and bag. It was fun!”

 

We enjoyed exploring the Numeracy Tools we have in our classroom. This amazing learner made a robot using the Numicon. She used addition strategies and could identify that she had made 28. This was her strategy:

“I started with 10, and then I added 6+6 which made 22. Then I added the two’s which made 28.”

   

The learner was then challenged to make a new robot using eights. She used six groups of 8 and shared that she “started on 8 and then kept adding 8 so I was counting on. I kept adding 8 until I counted them all and I realised I had 48.”

 

We investigated the Dienes materials and we started to recognise that they represent numbers. Some of us were counting in tens using the “tens rods” and some people made models and could talk about the numbers they used.


We explored the geo boards and used our curiosity to investigate different ways we can use this tool to support our learning. This learner was making patterns and numbers on her board.

Another learner also recognised that some “shapes were starting to come together” on her board. She could talk about how we could use the geo boards to help us learn more about shapes and identified that she has made circles, squares and triangles.

We enjoyed building and creating models with the tools to investigate and explore how we can use them. This learner built a tower and explained that this tool can be used to count, add and subtract. He also estimated that he had made the number 100 here because he had so many.

 

We explored the reckenrecks and knew that each reckenreck has 20 beads. This learner used eight reckenrecks and explained that she made 140. Her strategy was counting in 20’s. She was very focused when counting which is a very important skill.

We can’t wait to share more of our learning. What a brilliant first week!

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