All posts by Mrs Clyne

P2-1 Weekly Reflection 27.5.22

Although a shorter week, it has been a busy one and we still managed to fit in lots of learning.

In Literacy, P2 continued the Read Write Inc (RWI) Pre-Spelling programme in preparation for beginning the RWI Spelling Programme in Primary 3. This week we have learned that verbs are doing words and practised adding the endings –ing and –ed to different verbs. P1 continued to learn their set 3 sounds and enjoyed using the magnetic boards to build words with the ‘ure’ and ‘are’ sounds. We have also been practising our red words to help us build up our fluency in reading.

In Maths, P2 have been learning about arrays. We know that arrays have rows and columns and the children enjoyed making and discussing their own arrays using counters to help them. P1 have been skip counting in twos and working out the number before, after and in between.

In PE this week, we have been developing our tennis skills.

In Science we have been about the life cycle of the butterfly and the frog. We were super excited when the staff and children from the ELC came along to our classroom to show us their butterfly farm!

On Thursday, Primary 1 enjoyed some time in the playground with their Primary 7 buddies and look forward to meeting up with their buddies again next week.

This morning we listened to P2’s assembly about ‘Under the Sea’.

Here are some of the children’s highlights this week:-

Rory “I liked the Wellerman song at the assembly.”

Dylan “I liked learning about the life cycle of a frog.”

Poppy “I liked learning about the different kinds of spiders and I learnt that not all spiders do webs. I also liked learning about all the different kinds of sharks.”

Kaylan “I liked learning about spiders. The brighter the spider the more poisonous.”

Ethan “I liked the life cycle of the minibeasts. I liked all of them.”

Theo “I learned that there is a tunnel spider and when it hears something above it’s tunnel, it jumps out and grabs it.”

Cara “I enjoyed using the set 2 sounds to make words.”

Cooper “I learned the cycle of a frog.”

Hunter “I know that not all spiders make webs.”

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

P2/1 Weekly Reflection 20.05.22

This week we have been excited to welcome our P1 parents for our Peephole into Play sessions. The children really enjoyed welcoming you into our classroom and sharing their learning experiences with you. Here’s what the children had to say:-

Ethan “I loved my dad and mum coming to school and playing with me.”

Dexter “I showed my mum my train made out of lego and duplo.”

Jack “I was having fun playing the dog game on the laptops.”

Rory “I liked my mum coming. I made her food in the home area and we looked at minibeasts. Mum didn’t believe that butterflies have legs. ”

George “I showed mum around the classroom and did some writing.”

Kyle “I liked playing with the lego with my gran. We made a big lego house.”

Our learning about Minibeasts has continued this week with great enthusiasm and Jack confidently explained about metamorphosis when the pre-schoolers came to visit. The pre-schoolers told us they have caterpillars in the ELC playroom and we are excited about the possibility of going to see them. We listened to the story ‘Twist and Hop Minibeast Bop’ and discussed different kinds of minibeasts. You can listen to the story again here.  We were listening out for rhyming words and were very impressed with how well the pre-schoolers could identify rhyming words.

Cara reminded us that in writing we had to cut out the different stages of a butterfly’s life cycle and put them in the correct order before writing about what happens at each stage. Georgia said she enjoyed when we designed our own bee and butterfly gardens. A few of the children’s comments about our minibeast learning:-

Cara “I enjoyed making a bug hotel for all the lego insects.”

Dylan “I enjoyed looking at the minibeast bodies in the tuff tray.”

Theo “We have been learning about the thorax and the abdomen and the head.”

As Thursday was Outdoor Classroom Day we took some time to appreciate the outdoors and used our senses to tune in to the world around us. We sat quietly for 3 mins and then wrote a list of all the things we could hear. While in the garden we took some time to look at the P6s pocket garden. They have planted some mint and when you rub it your fingers smelled like mint. We talked about some plants that you can eat and some that you can’t. (Poppy)

Other comments about our learning this week:-

Minny “I liked learning how to count in 2s, 5s and 10s.”

Mohnish “I enjoyed the lego and building a cafe.”

In PE we have been learning tennis. Kaylan said “It’s kinda tricky trying to bounce the ball with the racket.”

Cara “I enjoyed tennis.”

Kade “I liked playing Galactic Pugs.”

Theo “Mrs Fraser taught us about equal groups.”

P2-1 Weekly Reflection 13.05.22

It’s been an exciting week as we have begun to learn about Minibeasts. We have been learning the different parts of an insect and know that an insect’s body is made up of three parts; the head, the thorax and the abdomen.

We thought about the different habitats where we might find minibeasts and matched minibeasts to their habitats.  We also learned some new vocabulary when we learned that minibeasts are cold blooded and sometimes go into a state of diapause which Poppy told us “means the insects stop being active until it is warmer again”. We understand that Metamorphosis is the process when an insect changes from a young insect to an adult. A good example is when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly and Theo explains this beautifully when he said “They wrap themselves in a chrysalis and then change into a butterfly. It needs to pump the liquid into its wings to make them strong enough to fly.” We learned how to use a classification key which involved lots of great discussion as some of us didn’t know that butterflies had legs. We particularly enjoyed singing this song, perhaps you could practise it again at home!

In  phonics P1 have been learning the sounds ‘ai’ and ‘oa’ and enjoyed playing a robot game to practise these sounds. The children were also very good at identifying rhyming words with these sounds. P2 were learning about alphabetical order and were putting lots of different minibeasts in order according to their first and second letters.

This week we have been practising our handwriting and been working hard to form upper and lower case D and E correctly.

In maths we have been learning about volume and capacity and are now confident to measure and compare the volumes of different containers.

We enjoyed listening to P1s assembly all about their journey through play. Minny was impressed with how confident they spoke into the microphone.

Here are a few of the children’s highlights this week:-

Poppy “I liked learning about minibeasts and I didn’t know that butterflies had feet and I liked learning about volume. I know volume is about how much liquid can get into the glass.”

Theo “Labelling the parts of an insect was pretty hard.”

Kade “I enjoyed learning about volume and capacity.”

Rory “I liked playing in the building area and building a castle and a camper van.”

P2-1 Weekly Reflection 29.04.22

We’ve had another busy week and are looking forward to the long weekend, please remember school is closed to all children on Monday. We are also closed to school children on Thursday as staff have an in-service day.

This week P2 have begun the Read Write Inc (RWI) Spelling Pre-Programme in preparation for beginning RWI Spelling Programme in Primary 3. This week we have focused on singular and plural and consonants and vowels. We have also learned that there are 26 letters in the alphabet and 44 speech sounds in the English language. We all enjoyed singing along to this song. Primary 1 have continued to learn their set 3 sounds and are becoming much more confident with blending these sounds together to build words.

In Writing we wrote about what makes us happy and Mrs Clyne was impressed with how well we were able to self-evaluate our work and identify our next steps.

In Maths we have completed our length and height topic and have begun to investigate mass. We have been measuring the mass of different items and then comparing the mass of objects using ‘lighter’ and ‘heavier’. We have also been practising our number word sequences to 50 and enjoyed singing along to this song.

In PE this week we have been developing our fitness through mini-fitness stations and running laps of the school field.

Miss Whigham set us a challenge to build a bridge from lego. Some of the children worked co-operatively and with a very focused approach constructed a strong and stable bridge, unfortunately we missed the opportunity for a photo before someone kindly tidied away the lego!

In our Health and Wellbeing lesson we had a super discussion about People Who Help and Look After Us. We talked about all the different people who care for us and all the specific things they do to show they care for us. We remembered our Trusted Adults that we have in school for times when we are feeling worried and we linked our learning to Children’s Rights as it is our right to be cared for.

Have a lovely holiday weekend and we look forward to seeing the children back on Tuesday 3rd May.

Theo “We had fun watching the video about the Magic Key.”

Poppy “We were measuring weight and we were learning about what’s heavier or lighter.” I enjoyed using the measurement toys.”

Dexter ” I enjoyed doing the bridges contest because it was fun.”

Minny “I had fun when we had the measurement toys out.”

Kade “We learned that singular means one and plural means more than one. Me and Theo were building a Jurassic world out of lego.”

Cooper “I enjoyed helping build the Jurassic world monorail. The monorail is like a train but not a normal rail. It goes on tracks which are inside water.”

Ethan “I liked building the monorail with Cooper.”

P2-1 Weekly Reflection 22.04.22

Welcome back, we hope you all had a lovely Easter break. This week the children have enjoyed sharing their news from the holidays. It has been lovely to see their confidence when talking to their peers as they shared their news. We also held spontaneous talks about our family.

In Phonics P2 have been learning about silent letters with a particular focus on and b. Mrs Clyne was impressed when Cara spotted some silent letters during one of our reading sessions. P1 have been continuing to learn set 3 sounds and focused on oa, a-e, i-e, o-e and u-e. They were successful learners when they used their knowledge of phonics to build words with these sounds.

In Maths P2 have been continuing to develop their understanding of length by measuring using centimetres and considering length within addition problems. P1 have been further developing their understanding of number bonds to 20 and enjoyed exploring these using Numicon.

As a school we have been learning about Children’s Rights and on Tuesday some of our class joined children from across the school to take part in an interview about our work on Children’s Rights. We were all delighted to hear today that the school had been awarded Silver Level accreditation for the Rights Respecting Schools Award.

Today we had a whole school assembly where we learned about Earth Day. Earth Day was founded to make people think about the Earth and how to look after it. This year’s theme is Invest in Our Planet. We talked about lots of ways we can help to look after the Earth including planting more trees, walking to school, litter picking and recycling. We also enjoyed learning a new song about how we can make a difference.

During our assembly Mrs Smith told us about World Vision  and their Child Sponsorship programme. Over recent years, the school has been supporting a boy called Mulageta but he has now grown up and does not need our help anymore so we have a new sponsor, a 5yr old boy called Amza Augustine. We will be thinking about different ways that we can raise money to support Amza, his family and the village where he lives.

Today some children were acknowledged for their excellent treehouse designs for the Chief Forester’s Challenge STEM Competition 2022. Here is the picture of those who received certificates in our class.

We hope you have had a lovely week and enjoy a restful weekend.

Miss Whigham and Mrs Clyne

P2-1 Weekly Reflection 01.04.22

Today marks the end of another busy term and we had great fun participating in our 2nd Digi Day. Thanks to our Digi Champs for planning such fun activities and to our P7 leaders for supporting us in our play. We have been playing Sumdog on the iPads and laptops, feeding Easter eggs to the teddy in the game Teddy Numbers on the Smartboard and tried to build a tower to hold an egg. We also had a visit from some P5s who had been busy building a vehicle and let us try it out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week we have been learning about Needs and Wants and considering Children’s Rights. We know that we need clean air, water, clothing, shelter and medicine to survive so these are the things we need. We discussed the things we would like to make life more comfortable and some of us wanted tvs, phones and computers. I wonder how many of us could live without these if we had to?

Our P7 leaders came to talk about Sustainability Goals and in particular Zero Hunger, they gave us a super presentation. We discussed that some people do not have much food and that we should be grateful for what we have to eat and not waste food. We talked about how some people do not have much food and need to use Foodbanks, we can help by giving donations to the Foodbank if we are able to.

In Literacy, we continued with revising set 2 and set 3 sounds and the P2s were practising words with consonant blends. In Numeracy, we have continued to practise our number bonds to 20 and we have begun to explore measure using a ruler.

In RME we were learning about why we celebrate Easter.  Theo reminded us that “Easter is a celebration of Jesus’ sacrifice” and Ethan told us that people celebrate by having egg hunts. Cooper reminded us that “the egg is for the stone that was rolled away”.

Our Almondell House winners enjoyed a lovely egg hunt in the school garden and also enjoyed some Easter crafts in the gym hall.

Miss Whigham and I would like to wish all our children and families a very happy and safe Easter and we look forward to seeing the children back on Tuesday 19th April.

 

P2-1 Weekly Reflection 25.03.22

Today we were very excited to lead our first ever class assembly. We chose the theme of Mother’s Day because this Sunday is when we celebrate Mother’s Day in the UK and we can say thanks to our mums for everything they do for us. We drew some lovely pictures of our mums and told our audience why our mums are special to us. These are just some of the reasons we gave.

“My mum is special because we do lots of fun things together.” Cara

“My mum is special because she is kind to me.” Mohnish

“My mum is special because she cuts my hair and she is the best cook ever. She gives me brand new toys.” Dexter

“My mum is really funny. She plays pranks on me and tells me jokes and it makes me laugh.” Ethan

“My mum is special because she takes care of me and my family.” Dylan

“My mum is special because she makes yummy breakfast for me.” Jack

These are some of the beautiful pictures we drew of our mums.

As part of our assembly we learned some new songs but our favourite one was The Mother’s Day Song, have a listen and you’ll see all the great ways (or not!) we can help our mums. We have also been busy creating a special surprise for our mums which we are sure they are going to love!

In Numeracy this week we have practised odd and even numbers, revisited number bonds to 20 and begun to explore measurement by considering length and height. We had great fun trying to find items which were shorter and longer than a spoon and then we practised measuring different items in the classroom using non-standard units from around the class.

In literacy we have been revising our Set 2 and Set 3 sounds with a particular focus on consonant blends ng and nk for P2 and the split digraph i-e for P1. We have also been practising our red words to build up our fluency in reading. If you have time please practise these at home by clicking on this link, red-words.

This week we have been enjoying the lovely weather and we hope the sunshine continues over the weekend for our Mums’ special day! Have a great weekend.

P2-1 Weekly Reflection 18.03.22

It’s British Science Week and we’ve had great fun developing our knowledge and understanding of magnetism, minibeasts, growth and human blood.

We developed our understanding of magnetism by exploring a variety of different materials. We made some predictions about which items would stick to the magnets and which items would not. We concluded that metal items would stick but Dylan reminded us that not all metal things are magnetic and we decided that plastic things and items made from paper are not magnetic. We were interested in why sometimes the magnets push away from each and would like to explore this further.

On Tuesday we participated in the National Farmers Union’s Science Farm Live lesson Fantastic minibeasts and where to find them. We learned all about minibeasts, their habitats, and the important jobs they do for British farming. We developed our understanding of lots of new scientific vocabulary including the terms habitat, pollinator, exoskeleton and larvae. We hope to go on our own minibeast hunt when the weather gets a bit warmer.

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday our Young Stem Leaders from P7 led our learning and taught us about growth when they helped us to complete the Handy Garden activity. We planted a different seed in each finger of a glove and discussed what the seeds would need to grow. The gloves are taped to the classroom window and we are excited to see which seeds grow the best.

Mrs Clyne has been introducing us to the world of engineering and on Thursday we learned about Ameya who is a biomedical engineer. He likes to help people stay healthy and designs blood tests to see if people are ill. We read a story called A Drop of Blood by Paul Showers and made our own blood in class. We learned that our blood is made up of red blood cells which carry oxygen around our body, white blood cells which protect us against diseases (they wrap themselves around the germs and eat them) and platelets which form a plug to stop the bleeding when we cut ourself. 

Today we celebrated Red Nose Day with a whole school assembly and crazy hair. Thanks to all who gave a donation, it is much appreciated and will be sent off to support Comic Reflief and their funding efforts to help the organisations that are supporting people in the Ukraine just now.