Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

We have had a very busy last week of term in P2B!

On Monday afternoon we went litter picking with some of the P7 Buddies. We were pretty shocked to see the amount of litter left in our playground. On Tuesday we learned about why litter is bad and we decided to create posters to encourage people not to litter. We created fantastic titles and drew interesting pictures. On Wednesday we added facts about litter and used colour to make our posters eye-catching. Miss Harrison was very impressed with our work. We are going to display our litter posters around the school to encourage people to keep our playground clean.

This week we have been learning the sounds ‘gr’ and ‘pr’. We made ‘gr’ and ‘pr’ words on our magnetic boards, wrote ‘gr’ words to match pictures and made prisms using construction materials. Some of us also revised the sounds ‘ai’ and ‘ay’.

In Numeracy and Mathematics, we have been learning to compare numbers to 100. We have been finding the smaller or larger number when given two numbers and we have been finding the smallest or largest number when given a group of numbers. This week we also learned to order numbers to 100. We played ‘Eggs to Order’ and ‘Caterpillar Ordering’ on our Promethean board. In Number Talks, we have been continuing to solve ‘Esti-Mysteries’. We are getting really confident with making our estimates and after each clue, making new estimates.

On Tuesday, we learned about lighthouses in the past and present and how lighthouses are designed. In groups, we worked together to plan and build lighthouses using wooden blocks. Our STEM challenge was to create the tallest lighthouse! We talked about the stability, balance and shape of our lighthouses. Afterwards, we discussed what went well and what we could do differently next time.

On Thursday, we looked at photographs of lighthouses and discussed the shapes and lines that we could see with our learning partners. Afterwards we used paint to create seascape backgrounds. Later in the afternoon, we drew lighthouses and once our backgrounds are dry, we’ll add our lighthouses. We really enjoyed creating our lighthouses and we are very proud of our work.

On Friday we had our first Be Excited About Reading (BEAR) event. We brought our favourite books from home, a teddy, cushions and blankets! We got comfortable in our classroom, read our books, shared our favourite books with our friends and had some hot chocolate! Afterwards we worked in pairs to complete a short read activity. We highlighted the key information in the text and then we used the key information to help us to draw a picture. To conclude our BEAR event, we went to the school library and picked a book to take home. We will be going to the school library every Friday.

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a happy and safe October break.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

We have went Lighthouse mad this week in P2A! Miss Muir set us a STEM challenge: build the tallest lighthouse. In teams we had 10 minutes to construct a lighthouse which could stand on its own using wooden blocks. We all had the same amount and size of blocks so that it was fair. We then measured our lighthouses to see which one was the tallest. All of them were higher than 55 cm! After we built our lighthouses we reflected on the challenge. We discussed if the blocks were a good material, how we worked as a team, what we used the blocks for and what we could do next time. It was lots of fun.

In Expressive Arts we created our own lighthouse pictures. As a class we looked at and discussed what a lighthouse looks like: shape, colour and lines it has. Some of us were even able to describe a time when we had seen a lighthouse. We then looked at the landscape of where lighthouses are set. To create our picture we painted the background first. This was our sky and sea. We were able to explore the mixing of colours to create our backgrounds. On a separate piece of paper we drew an outline of a lighthouse then used either pen, crayon or pencil to add colour. We then cut them out. We are very pleased with our work so far and can’t wait to finish them.

In Numeracy and Mathematics we have been comparing and ordering numbers within 100. We were able to put a range of numbers in order from smallest to largest and largest to smallest. During Number Talks we have been taking part in ‘Esti Mysteries’. This is where we look at different objects in jars and estimate how many objects there are. We are then given clues as to what the number will be. We then change our answer depending on the clues until the answer is revealed. During free play we have enjoyed estimating how many fuzzy balls there are in the jar and are excited to find out the answer. Miss Muir doesn’t even know how many there are!

Last week we went out litter picking with some P7’s and read a story called the ‘Messy Magpie’. We thought of what we could do to stop people littering. We came up with the idea to create posters. We thought this would be a good way of spreading the message. We looked at what would make a good poster. We had to make sure it had a title, some sentences of what litter can do to the environment and be eye catching. Miss Muir was impressed at how hard we worked to make sure the posters looked their best. We really enjoyed making these. Some of us during break and lunch have even been litter picking.

In P.E we were improving our balance and control on Tuesday with Miss Muir. There were different activities such as hopping, passing/catching a ball to a partner, bean bag throw and pass the hoop. We worked well together in our pairs and teams, helping each other develop our skills.

We hope you have a lovely October break! P2A and Miss Muir 🙂