All posts by Mrs Smith

Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 2, Sciences

Dinosaurs

September 11, 2017 Mrs Smith Leave a comment

Today, as part of our new IDL Topic, Primary 2 went to the National Museum of Scotland to learn about Dinosaurs.

We began by learning about the work of a Paleontologist, and we heard how they uncover clues which help them to learn new things about different types of dinosaurs. We looked at some of the different shapes and patterns of fossils and heard how they were formed a very long time ago. We soon spotted some of these shapes and patterns on the floor beneath our feet, so we went on our own little fossil hunt!

In smaller groups, we settled down to explore some dinosaur related items. We learnt that some dinosaurs were huge, but others were really quite small. Some dinosaurs were herbivores and others were carnivores.

There were replicas of different dinosaur parts for us to handle and to make clever guesses about what they were, and what they could tell us about the dinosaur they belonged to. We carefully handled the spike from the end of a tail, a thumb, a jawbone and even some dinosaur poo! We all managed to stand together on an enormous dinosaur footprint too.

Class Community Contracts, Health & Wellbeing, Primary 2, Uncategorized

P2 Class Charter

September 4, 2017 Mrs Smith Leave a comment

Primary 2 have been very busy over the last 2 weeks, working together to plan and create our Class Charter. We took part in lots of discussions with partners, and in small groups to share our ideas about what we wanted to include. We considered how we could include some aspects of the Rights of A Child as well as our School Values. Finally, after enjoying one of the Elmer stories by David McKee, we decided on a theme to display our ideas.

Hopefully, as we continue our journey through Primary 2, our Charter will help us, and remind us how to work together to ensure our classroom is a safe, happy and productive place to be.

Maths & Numeracy, Primary 1, Uncategorized

P1 Time

June 28, 2017 Mrs Smith Leave a comment

This week we have been reflecting on our learning about Time.

LI We are learning to read o’clock times

SC I can recognise the o’clock time on an analogue clock face

I can recognise the o’clock time on a digital display

We talked about why it is important for us to know about time, and to be able to tell the time. Here are some of our ideas –

You need to know the time so you’re not late for school.

We need to know when it’s bedtime.

We don’t want to be late for going outside to play.

As part of our learning we made clocks, used plasticene to show the time on clock faces, played matching games, played bingo games and played Stop The Clock on the Smartboard.

We are getting very good at reading the time on the clock in the classroom, and we can remind Mrs Smith when it is almost lunch time, and when it is time to tidy up at the end of the day!

Sometimes we are even beginning to recognise ‘half past’ times too.

Early Level, Nursery, Primary 1, Primary 2, Transition

P1 and P2/1 Transition Challenge

June 27, 2017 Mrs Smith Leave a comment

Last week Primary 1 and Primary 2/1 worked together to prepare a presentation for the Nursery children who are coming into P1 in August.

The first part of our challenge was to discuss what we thought the Nursery children most needed to know about being in Primary 1. There were lots of ideas and suggestions put forward and here are a few of our suggestions:

“To be confident and make new friends.” (Grace)

“You need to be kind to each other.” (William)

“Sitting still, looking at the teacher, lips closed and open ears.” (Cayla)

“Do your own work.” (Lacey)

“Don’t push. Use gentle hands and feet.” (Jake)

Next, we organised these ideas under the headings of routines, rules and expectations, learning, playing in the playground and friendship. We took photographs to include in the presentation because they helped to demonstrate some of our ideas.

When the Nursery children came over, we took turns to talk to them. The Nursery boys and girls listened very well, and at the end, they asked some good questions which we tried hard to answer.

We are looking forward to working with and playing with the Nursery children when they become our new Primary 1 classes.

Welcome to P1 and P2/1 Transition Challenge from midcps

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2017, Primary 1, Technical Troopers, Technologies, Uncategorized

Digital Learning in P1

May 20, 2017 Mrs Smith Leave a comment

This week we practised logging on and off the netbooks independently.

Logging on can still be quite tricky as we need to recognise both lowercase and uppercase letters. Logging off correctly means that the netbook is ready for the next person to use.

The Technical Troopers came down to support us with all of this which was very helpful. Once we had all logged on successsfully, we discovered that the Technical Troopers had planned a Purple Mash activity to help us consolidate some of our learning about pirate ships.

As we painted each part of the ship we were able to name the part and say something about its purpose. We were then shown how to save our work too, so we can share it with our families at home.

A very big thank you to the Technical Troopers for helping and supporting our Digital Learning this week. We loved having you in our classroom.

We also used the netbooks and i-pads this week in Literacy and Numeracy tasks. A very popular game that helped us to recognise and read words was the Poop Deck Pirates game.

In Maths and Numeracy we used Hit the Button and Dino Park Maths to practise our addition and subtraction.

Maths & Numeracy, Primary 1, Uncategorized

Fractions in P1

May 6, 2017 Mrs Smith Leave a comment

This week P1 have been exploring fractions.

LI We are learning to recognise half of a shape

SC I can recognise 2 equal parts of a shape

I can name each equal part as a half

We began by talking about our experiences of sharing things like a piece of fruit or a pizza between two people. The children were very adamant that to be fair each person should have the same amount. This meant that each piece would have to be the same size. We learnt that this is called making equal parts. We looked carefully at different shapes and decided if they showed equal parts or not. When a shape had two equal parts we called each part a half. We practised folding and cutting different shapes into two equal parts. We labelled each part one half or 1/2.

LI We are learning to recognise half of a quantity

SC I can make 2 equal parts by sharing

I can say how many there are in each half

Next, we wondered if we could half a group of items. We discovered that if we shared a group of counters equally between two children, each child got the same number of counters, so each child had a half. We practised this a few times altogether, and then we worked with a partner sharing out dinosaurs, cubes, counters and elephants.

Soon, some children began to use their knowledge and understanding of doubles to help them work out half of a number. A great job P1!

Community, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 1, Technologies

Building Site

April 2, 2017 Mrs Smith Leave a comment

This week, as part of our IDL STEM Topic, Primary 1 went to visit the Robertson Homes Building Site.

We set off from school and walked all the way down to the building site. Although it was a long way, everyone did very well. At last, we saw our destination up ahead, and our excitement grew. On reaching the site, we climbed up into a cabin and gathered in the meeting room where we met some representatives from the site. They were to be our guides for the morning.

First of all, they spoke to us about the kind of things we might expect to see and hear on a building site. They asked us about possible dangers too, and talked about the kind of things we would have to look out for as we walked around. Mrs Smith was very impressed with the answers we gave, and with the questions we asked too!

Next, we put on our orange hi-vis vests and hard hats, and set off to have a look round. We correctly identified a number of different vehicles and machines as we walked over to see the digger digging out some foundations. Then we looked across to see a house that was a little bit further on in the building process. It was surrounded by scaffolding, and we discussed how the scaffolding helped the builders work at higher levels.

Finally, we went inside a house that was almost finished. Here, we learnt about insulation-what it is and why it is important. We also talked about the materials that were being used for different parts of the building. Again, we were able to make lots of connections between our learning in the classroom, and what we could actually see around us.

Looking around, we could see that the skills of plumbers, electricians and painters would all be very important over the next few weeks too.

All too soon, it was time to leave and head back to school. We would like to say a huge thank you to the Robertson Homes staff, who gave us such an interesting and informative tour of the site. Thanks also to the adult helpers who kindly came along to help and encourage us during the visit.

Primary 1, STEM 2017, Technologies

Building in P1

March 4, 2017 Mrs Smith Leave a comment

We are learning that buildings are created for a variety of purposes

We are learning that different materials are used for different parts of a building

I can name different types of buildings
I can name different parts of a building
I can describe the different materials used in a building and say why each one is effective

We started our new IDL by reading and talking about the story of The 3 Little Pigs. We explored the materials used to build the houses in the story, and decided why the straw and the sticks were not particularly suitable. The bricks were definitely the best choice!

We then watched a video clip about building a house, and considered some of the materials suggested for the different parts of the building – jelly walls? hair roof? newspaper windows? We could give very good reasons why these materials would not be appropriate, and we suggested much better alternatives. There were lots of examples of these building materials all around us in school- eg bricks, concrete, wood and glass.

We decided that these materials would probably be used for other types of buildings too.

We have now set up a Site Office in our classroom, and we are going to keep an eye on the progress that is being made with the Nursery next door. Now, we plan to investigate some of the different types of work carried out when a new building is created, and we would also like to explore the various roles that people have throughout the process.

Junior Leadership Teams, Uncategorized

Fairtrade Fortnight

February 27, 2017 Mrs Smith 1 Comment

This year Fairtrade Fortnight takes place from 27th February to 12th March.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2017 is all about Fairtrade Breaks.

The Junior Leadership Team have been learning about Fairtrade, and would like to encourage others to participate in this event.

To do this, they have created a competition for all Primary 1-7 classes. This involves collecting as many Fairtrade labels as possible over the two week period. The class with the most labels will win an extra Break time.

They also suggested having Fairtrade Fridays during these two weeks. They would like to encourage as many people as possible to bring a Fairtrade snack for Break time on both these Fridays (but no nuts please).