In our topic we have been learning how to make group decisions when organising our treasure hunt for the other P1 classes. Sometimes we voted, sometimes we used tally marks and sometimes we stood in lines with labels at the front. We came to the group decision that we wanted to make an outdoor minibeast pictures scavenger hunt in the woods for the other P1 classes. Lucie and Cody found a minibeast list using a Google image search and used this to tell everyone which minibeast to draw. Everyone decided to laminate the pictures to protect them and to hang them from trees with string. Last Wednesday we set up our treasure hunt and explained to the other children what to do. They loved our treasure hunt!

We have been continuing to learn about minibeasts and trees. We have investigated minibeasts that live underground and in ponds. We compared different kinds of trees and found out that they had different shaped leaves, different bark and had different kinds of minibeasts living on them.

In Numeracy we have learnt that people working with money need to be able to work out change. We practised this by doing take away sums. We had to do hard thinking when we were challenged to find the next numbers in a sequence where the numbers increased or decreased in 2s, 5s or 10s. We have also learnt about the greater than and less than signs. Thinking about them as an open crocodile mouth helped us remember which sign was which. With Mr Paul we have been learning about seasons, months, calendars  and days of the week.

In Literacy we have been learning to read the tricky question words when, where, who, what and why.  Our consonant blends focus sounds have been cr, dr, gl and fl and we have been practising spelling words with these sounds. In writing we have been learning to use describing words to write about minibeasts. Last week we wrote clues and a friend had to guess the minibeast we were describing.

Every morning Mrs Cook has been greeting us in French by saying ‘Ca va?’ and we have been replying telling her how we feel saying things such as ‘Ca va tres bien’, ‘Comme ci comme ca’ or ‘Fatigue’. We have also been playing games to find fruit and vegetable pictures using their name, number and colour in French.

Ayleigh – Every day I practise French in the morning.

Andrew – I have learnt how to sound out words.

Christopher –  I have been learning about trees.

Cody – I have learnt how to make treasure hunts.

Ella-Rose – I have been learning about counting in 2s patterns.

Eryn – I learnt how to continue number patterns in 2s, 5s and 10s.

Ethan – I have learnt to do take-aways for change in money.

Euan – I have been learning how to make my own game in PE.

Frankie – I have liked sounding out words using flip flaps.

Konstancja – I liked setting up the treasure hunt for the other Primary Ones.

Kyle – I learnt about food chains.

Lucie – I have learnt how to write all the capital letters.

Luke – I learnt how to do change.

Nola – I learnt how to do months with Mr Paul.

Rebecca – I have been practising taking away and adding up.

We have had a fun few weeks since the start of term. In Literacy we have been learning to spell words with consonant blends such as br and st. We are getting very good at this! We are also learning how to write capital letters and how to use them at the start of sentences and for the names of things. In writing we have been writing stories with a beginning, middle and ending. In the afternoons we have been continuing to practise our literacy by reading treasure hunt clues, writing shopping lists, writing labels for drawings and finding out about minibeasts in books.

In number we have been applying lots of the skills we have been learning throughout the year by counting up money. We have learnt that it is easiest to start counting with the largest coin. We have also found out that there are lots of different ways of making the same amount. In our room we have a shop and we love playing at shopkeepers and customers! We have also practised our maths by doing an adding treasure hunt and time treasure hunt. Our assembly on Friday 31^st of May will be about numbers and we are looking forward to sharing our learning with everyone.

On Thursdays we have been visiting different teachers to learn some life skills. So far we have practised wrapping parcels, tying shoe laces and having good table manners. In health lessons we are talking about friendship. We worked in a team to label a person drawing with how different parts of the body could be friendly.

In our topic about treasure hunts we have tried out 4 different kinds of treasure hunt and talked about which one we liked best and why. Our next challenge is to make a group decision about the kind of treasure hunt we want to organise ourselves. We have also been learning about minibeasts. So far we have looked for minibeasts on the ground and in 3 different kinds of trees. We found out that each habitat had different minibeasts. We have been using a minibeast key and books to help us identify the creatures we find. The nursery kindly gave us some caterpillars as some of us wanted to learn more about butterflies. On Friday the caterpillars changed into chrysalises. We have compared the work of artists to photographs of insects and spiders.  We talked about what we liked and why. We were very good at this! After that we did some of our own minibeast art. Mrs Cook was very impressed with our attention to detail and creativity!

Ayleigh – I have learnt ‘ou’.

Andrew – I have learnt about capital letters.

Christopher – I have learnt about different treasure hunts.

Cody – I have learnt about sentence openers.

Ella-Rose – I have learnt to count up different numbers in coins.

Eryn – I learnt how to tie shoe laces.

Ethan – I can count up money.

Euan – I have learnt to count up money.

Frankie – I have learnt about beginning, middle and ending in story writing.

Konstancja – I have learnt that there are all kinds of treasure hunts.

Lucie – I have been learning to make amounts of money.

Luke – I have learnt that baby ladybirds don’t look like normal ladybirds.

Nola – I have learnt how to wrap a parcel.

Olivia – I have learnt to find bugs by shaking a tree over a sheet.

Rebecca – I have learnt ‘comme ci comme ca’ in French.

Welcome back! During the last few weeks of last term we were learning about the sounds oa, ie, igh, ou and ow. We liked making silly sentences with the sound oa such as: The goat and the toad can float in a boat! We also did role play pie making for ie and made a house for a mouse for ou. This term in literacy we will focus on recognising and spelling the common tricky words that cannot be sounded out and learning how to recognise and write the capital letters (see photograph below if you wish to be reminded about how we write them.) We will also be continuing to practise our sound blending with a focus on consonant blends such as fr, pl and nd.

In numeracy we have been continuing to practise understanding how bigger numbers are made of tens and units. We have also been practising skip counting in twos, fives and tens. This will help us when we learn about times tables in Primary 2. We especially like to do this as we do different exercises such as star jumps so it keeps us fit too! This term we will continue to work on number to 100 and then apply our knowledge of addition and place value to counting up money. In maths we have been doing lots of work on measure and will be moving on to time. This will include days of the week, months of the year, seasons and clocks.

After completing our transport topic the class talked about all their ideas for next term. The main themes suggested were creating our own treasure hunts, learning about trees and minibeasts and organising a picnic. There was some interest in dinosaurs as well so we did a mini two week topic on this just before the holidays. We practised our reading and writing as we labelled dinosaur drawings and made fact-files. Today we started finding out about treasure hunts and tried out a clues treasure hunt and a scavenger hunt.

Here are some of the interesting dinosaur facts that we found out:

Some dinosaurs eat meat. Konstancja

Carnivores eat meat. T Rex and Triceratops lived in the Jurassic period. Luke

The plates on a Stegosaurus are made from bone. Euan

A T.Rex can crunch through bones. Ayleigh

The Triceratops has horns to keep predators away. Ethan

A T Rex is 12 metres long. Kyle

A stegosaurus can hit others with its tail. Andrew

The babies come from eggs. Nola

They bury the eggs under the sand so no predators can eat them or stand on them. Lucie

Baby dinosaurs need to eat a lot because they grow fast. Ella-Rose

The very big dinosaurs with long necks shake the ground when they walk. Rebecca

A Stegosaurus uses its plates to knock others down. Cody

Some dinosaurs have horns to knock other dinosaurs down. Olivia

A Stegosaurus has plates on its back. Christopher