Category Archives: P2/1

Creativity, P2/1, STEM, Technology

P2/1 Lots of new photos! – 30th March

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We have been even busier than usual over the last few weeks especially with our fundraising for Comic Relief and our visit to Almond Valley.  Thank you very much to our parent helpers for coming along too!  Below are just some of the photographs!

We have also been taking part in the Primary Engineer Challenge and last week we had a visit from Jemma Quin.  Jemma works as an engineer for a company called Morgan Sindall  and she told us all about her job and the things that she has designed and built.  We asked Jemma lots of questions!

Back in class we read some stories all about robots.  Our design challenge was to draw our own robots and write a little bit about what they could do.  We have sent our pictures to Jemma and hopefully we will soon receive our awards for being young engineers! Below are just some of them.

We have enjoyed taking part in lots of Spring and Easter activities this week – thank you to the parents who helped us with these!

 

 

 

Creativity, P2/1, Science, Technology, Thinking Skills

P2/1 Three Little Pigs House Challenge

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Today’s challenge was to build a house for the three little pigs.  We made sure that all of the teams had exactly the same resources even though our finished houses looked quite different.

The three toy pigs had to fit inside the house and then Miss McDermott tried to blow it down with the big bad wolf hairdryer! Great fun and lots of great designs today!

Creativity, P2/1, Problem Solving, Science, STEM, Technology, Thinking Skills, Uncategorized

P2/1 Cows Jumping Over the Moon amongst other things!

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This morning we were very fortunate to have Mrs Lowe, one of our parent helpers, in class.  She helped us plant nasturtium seeds whilst Miss McDermott worked with the maths groups.  We learned that nasturtiums are unusual because you can eat their flowers! We know from Mr Hogg that we will need to water our seeds carefully and we are going to have a rota for doing this.

After break we wrote instructions for planting seeds and discussed how instructions are another kind of non fiction text.

In the afternoon, we learned about another Scottish inventor.  Here are a few of the pictures that we have drawn so far.

Then we worked with a partner for today’s challenge – to try and make a cow jump over the moon!  We had lots of fun trying to make catapults and pinging toy farm animals all over the classroom!  Like many of the challenges we do it was not easy but we are getting much better are not giving up and helping each other to do our best.

 

 

 

Literacy, P2/1, Problem Solving, STEM, Technology, Thinking Skills

A very busy Monday in P2/1!

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This week we are focusing on non fiction texts in literacy and the children are choosing their own reading books to share at home.

In the morning we learned about different types of non fiction texts and we have a lovely selection of magazines in class which all the groups will have time to read over the week.  Some of the children have suggested we link this to our data handling learning and do a survey of our favourite magazines at the end of the week.  Watch this space!

A few of the children searched the newspapers to look for things that might interest children.  As you can see from these photos, they did not like getting their hands covered in newsprint!

To celebrate British Science Week, we are learning about a different Scottish inventor each day.   As you will know if you read our blog regularly,  we love designing and making things in P2/1 and this week we will be doing some team challenges that have both a design and a farm animal theme.

We have read the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and acted it out using puppets and masks.  Today the challenge was to design and make a raft or boat to carry the three Billy Goats Gruff safely across our water tray.   This was not as  easy as it might look as some of the containers that Miss McDermott gave us had holes in them!

Mathematics, Numeracy, P2/1

P2/1 Numeracy Learning

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This week we have been practising counting and recognising numbers up to 100 and to help us, we have been playing our new snakes and ladders games.  Here is a link to an online version of snakes and ladders that you can play at home.  You can either play against the computer or an opponent.

http://www.counton.org/games/virtualmathfest/snakesladders.html

Some children have also been doing some measuring in the hall.  We need to know how much bunting to make for the front of the stage for the red nose day assembly.  Obviously as an eco-school we don’t want to waste resources and make too much!

Food Technology, P2/1

P2/1 learn about farming crops with Mr Hogg

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This afternoon P2/1 were delighted to welcome Finlay’s grandad, Mr Hogg into class.  He showed us a short video all about the farm he manages in East Lothian and we learned all about planting, growing and harvesting crops such as brussel sprouts, potatoes, carrots ,parsnips and cabbages.

Mr Hogg brought lots of things with him for us to look at including the tiny seeds that grow into the crops as well as some freshly harvested crops which most of us enjoyed tasting.

We had lots of fun investigating the crops and seeds and playing with them in our own farm shop.

We asked lots of questions all about farming and were very surprised to learn that the brussel sprouts only take four 4 months to grow from a tiny seed into a large plant ready to harvest and eat.  As you can see the plant is nearly as big as a P1!

Thank you very much to Mr Hogg for coming to spend the afternoon with us and for giving us all our very own bag of sprouts to take home!

Library, Literacy, P2/1

P2/1 Visit Linlithgow Library for World Book Day

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This morning P2/1 headed off in the sunshine to visit Linlithgow Library.  Some boys and girls were already members and some children joined for the first time.

We enjoyed looking at the lovely books and lots of children chose books to take home.  We used the self scanning machines which are quite similar to the new scanner in our school library.

Thank you very much to Mrs Crook and Mrs Simcox for coming along with us and helping us to stay safe when crossing the very busy roads in Linlithgow (and thank you also to Mrs Smith who gave up her tea break this morning to come with us too!)

P2/1, Parents, Uncategorized

P2/1 Lots happening in March 2017

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P2/1 – Lots Happening in March 2017!

Weds 1 Mar

P2/1 sales teams will start selling red noses to classes in school.

Thurs 2 March

World Book Day – we will be visiting Linlithgow Library so children need to be dressed suitably for the weather. If your child is already a member he/she can bring his/her membership card and choose a book to take home.  If your child is not already a member you can complete the enclosed application form and we will take these to the library when we go.  Adult helpers required 10.30am – 12.25pm.

Mon 6 March

Visit from Mr Hogg (Finlay’s grandad!) to talk about farming.

Thurs 23 Mar

Class visit to Almond Valley in Livingston.  Please remember to return green EE2 form and pay £10.50.  Thank you to the ladies who have volunteered to join us – we now have enough help for this trip.

Fri 24 Mar

Achievement and Red Nose Assembly – children can dress in red or wear Comic Relief T shirts, red noses etc.  They do not have to bring any money as most will have bought red noses.  This is not our class assembly however all of the P2/1 children are going to say something about Red Nose Day or tell a joke.  You are more than welcome to come along.  Assemblies are at 9am and 9.45am. Each child will only speak at one of these assemblies and I will inform you nearer the time which one that will be.

 Weds 29 Mar

Easter activity afternoon – this will be a similar format to Halloween afternoon – a mixture of craft and games including hopefully some outdoor activities. Adult helpers required 1.15 -3.20pm.

 Help! Big Scarecrow Team Challenge

I am planning a team challenge with the assistance of Mr Ross and Mr Fagin our school janitors which hopefully will take place just after Easter and will conclude our farm topic.

As part of this we will need to collect old (adult) clothes and newspapers which will be used to make 2 life size scarecrows.  Any materials that we do not use will be recycled in line with us being an eco school.  These can be sent in at any time along with anything else that you think might be useful for scarecrow making!

Adult helpers will be needed for this challenge but I am not quite sure of dates and times at the moment.

 

Thank you to everyone for your continuing support and please remember if you have questions, queries or indeed good ideas – come and speak to me!

Deborah McDermott  Class teacher