Category Archives: Early Level

ART WINS in our STEAM SCHOOL

Art Winners who all were shortlisted to enter, along with 7000 others, the National Tesco Bank Art Competition at The National Galleries in Scotland  a few months ago were celebrated today at our Assembly. They created these imaginative artworks over a few weeks. They were judged by the PSWs who chose exactly whom I would have!
P1 – Oliver  created an eye-catching blue cat with spots. He has an excellent eye for detail and painted a colourful background in acrylics. He always makes very interesting choices for line and colour that are sometimes unexpected.
P4 – Isla W designed a bright, vibrant Pop Art drawing in the cat theme with bold geometric shapes. Her artwork made the judges smile with her two cheeky cats. She has shown very detailed and thoughtful drawing skills and some interesting stripy-coloured cats against a multi-coloured sky background.
P6 – Mhari  started her magical dragon with an exquisite line drawing in graphite and pencil. The theme was Makers of Magic. She drew all the scales and texture of the creature and then added some pearlescent colours such as emerald green. We all agreed that she created a beautiful beast.
All of our fabulous finalists are all on display on three boards around the school with one school-chosen WINNER on each board. Please tell us what you think. Perhaps you would have chosen another winner. Can you explain why? Why do some artworks shine for you?
As we continue to develop our art skills we hope next year to go on and win in the competition. The winners are on display at MOD 1 in Edinburgh off Belford Road. I hope to take the new P5s to see this in September 2018 as part of their outdoor workshop there. A little inspiration is all we need to BELIEVE, ACHIEVE AND SUCCEED! Let’s go from STEM to STEAM. STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.

P1P get Digital! #NDLW18

As part of National Digital Learning Week P1P have been using digital technologies to enhance their learning accross the curriculum.

We started the week with a fantastic session from P7. We were introduced and shown how to use VR Headsets! We were able to explore emersive virtual tours of castles which linked brilliantly with our Castle IDL context. P1P loved how the VR Headsets made them feel like they were really in different locations. We also used Purple Mash to digitally paint castle related images using different textures.

We have continued to share our learning on our class Sways that you can find on the blog and our twitter. In class, we independently scanned QR codes linked to our Sways to recap and discuss our previous learning experiences. We love looking at pictures from our previous lessons.

The Technical Troopers also visited our class to introduce us to a new app ‘Puppet Pals’. We loved animating the different characters and adding our own pictures and voices to our stories. Some of us were able to record our digital puppets and show it the rest of the class through mirroring on our Promethean Board.

This week we have also continued to develop our reading skills on Teach Your Monster to Read, practise our numeracy and maths on Sumdog and explore coding on Scratch JR.

Ready, Steady, Spread with P1P!

LI: We are learning about preparing and handling food.
We are learning to follow a recipe.

SC: I can help prepare some foods as part of our food tasting afternoon.
I can taste some farm products, for example milk, cheese and vegetables.
I enjoy working with others as I prepare food.
I can work as an effective part of group.

P1P were learning all about sandwich making in class yesterday. To begin with we discussed the different ingredients we would need to make a simple ham and cheese sandwich and where these ingredients came from on the farm.
We worked together in small groups to make our delicious ham and cheese sandwiches. Some of us tried a bit of our sandwiches in class, and others took it home to show to and eat with their families.
The were super tasty!

Primary 1’s trip to Almond Valley Farm

As part of our ‘On the Farm’ IDL context, today Primary 1 visited Almond Valley Farm. Although the weather was not the best we didn’t let that stop us having a FANTASTIC day! We were given a super session on ‘Farm Life’ where we were introduced to some of the very interesting and cute animals that live on the Farm. We learnt lots of new facts about life on the farm and were also able to share what we had been learning in class. We then spent the afternoon exploring the Farm and playing in the Adventure Playground.

We would like to thank our amazing parent volunteers, Mrs Combe, Miss Anderson and Nikki for their help on the trip, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Have a look at our Sway below with all our pictures from the trip.

P1P Get Squeaky Clean!

LI: We are learning about the importance of cleanliness.

SC: I can demonstrate how to wash my hands thoroughly.
I know that I have to wash my hands after touching an animal, and before preparing or eating food.
I can talk about key points in the day when I have to wash my hands.

This week in P1P, we have been getting prepared for our farm trip next week. We discussed the importance of washing our hands after touching animals and before eating or making food to prevent the spreading of germs.
We took part in germ experiment. Miss Prior squeezed glitter paint into our hands and we then had to shake hands, hi 5 and pass a pencil between us to show how easy it is to spread germs. We found that the group that washed their hands straight away didn’t spread any germs. We then made safety posters to let other people know how important it is to wash your hands.