Welcome to P1/2.
22 pupils supported by Mr. Kaljee, Mrs Buxton (CT Thursdays and PE Tuesday), Mrs Mitchell (CA), Mrs Currie (CA), Mrs Bruce (ANA) , Mr Fleishfresser (CST Music Friday ) and Mr Davidson (CST PE Friday)
Here are some first impressions of our visit to Edinburgh Zoo. The staff was very impressed with the knowledge of animal groups that the class had learned at school.
The Primary 4/5/6 class took us on a river walk and showed us how to pond dip. We identified some of the creatures we caught in our nets. Thank you Mr Hutchinson and P4/5/6 pupils.
We have been learning about symmetry in maths. Here are some of the pictures we made showing one line of symmetry.
This week we learned about bar charts in the playground and we did some outdoor art during moving up morning. Our new P1 parents joined us for lunch.
Over the last three weeks our focus in Art has been animals. We modelled cats from clay and painted giraffes at sunset. See below.
This week Mrs Gunn was in our class while Mr Kaljee was meeting with Miss McKinnon to make plans for next term. On Wednesday next years Primary 1s came in and joined in with outdoor learning together with their buddies for next year.
The last two weeks we have been working hard in and around the poly tunnels, watering plants and planting vegetables for the school dinners. Mrs Buxton's HWB lessons involve extra PE outside. We are gathering information about the beans we have planted. For Whipman we have decorated flags in the countries colours and we have painted Common Wealth Mascots. We had visitors on Wednesday from SSPCA helping us to look after wild animals in distress and from Kenny from RBS teaching us the difference between needs and wants and the financial side of this. Finally we acted out scenes from Fantstic Mr Fox.
This week in art we discussed colour and pattern and how a tiger's stripes act as camouflage to help it sneak through long grass to catch its prey. See our oil pastel pictures below.
We have the results of our science experiment with potatoes. You can see in the photos below that the shoots all grew in one direction towards the hole where the light came in. This shows that plants need light to grow and will use energy to find it.
This week we are getting use to our responsibilities for our classroom jobs. We spend a lot of time outdoors learning through our lovely environment.
This week we enjoyed shared reading with P6, playing phonic games, working in the poly tunnels.
This week in art, as part of our topic on living things, we discussed insects and made these pictures of ladybirds. The background is a collage of cut paper. To make the (smiling) ladybirds we drew a template on a polystyrene pizza base and printed with them using rollers.
P1/2 visited Netherurd farm as part of our Living Things topic. We learned a lot about what lambs and cows eat and how they are looked after on the farm. The children all had a go at sitting in a tractor and on a quad bike as well as stroking little lamb.
Welcome to the summer term! Our topic this term is LIVING THINGS.
We have begun by looking at two of the things living things need to grow and survive: water and light.
We have set up 2 experiments to explore this. See below...
We have begun by looking at two of the things living things need to grow and survive: water and light.
We have set up 2 experiments to explore this. See below...
Our first experiment is to show how plants get water. We put white flowers into tubs of coloured water and our prediction is that the petals will change colour as the flowers draw the water up the stem. We are already seeing this happen after 2 days. Keep checking here for up-to-date results.
Our second experiment shows how plants get light. Each group put a potato (with shoots) from our polytunnel into a shoebox. Light can only enter the shoebox from a hole we cut in one side. We predict the shoots will grow towards the light. We will post the results here in a few weeks. The photos below show us setting up the experiment and recording it.
In art this week we read Arlo needs glasses by Barney Saltzberg and made our own Arlo the dog pictures.
We also all had fun trying on the glasses in the book.
We also all had fun trying on the glasses in the book.
Spring term
Part of our toy topic is to look at toys and games that were used in the past. We were learning some clapping games and went outside to play marbles. Some pupils are using ICT to improve their spelling, some use it to do quizzes on books they have read. This week it was the turn of the P2s to go out to the poly tunnels.
This short week due to the snow still had lots of learning opportunities. How to control a ball using our feet, dribbling and passing and receiving. Some snow fun building a snowmen, a slide and other structures. Learning to write instructions on how to use a Beebot and then following the instructions to make the Beebots travel to the right destination. Lots of compost gets added to the poly tunnels vegetable beds to prepare for the new growing season.
The In P1/2 we were building push toys from LEGO and tried to design a car that would travel as far as possible from a ramp. We noted down the distances. The children then could change their design to see if they could get it to go further. We noted the second results as well. Some children started to bring in toys for display or to play with. Callum is demonstrating his keyboard skills and we have engaged in outdoor learning. We did some number work and we worked in the poly-tunnels and looked for signs of spring. The school had a visit from the West Linton Fire service who taught us how to make a 999 call and what to do when a person becomes unwell.
Painting peacocks in art.
This week in art we read 'Three hens and a peacock', by Lester L. Laminack. The story reminded us that we are all good at something and we all have different talents. It took us two art sessions to make our peacock pictures.
We used rollers and brushes to paint hot and cold colours on the tail feathers. We printed with stamps and made patterns in the paint with the pointed end of our brushes. We used oil pastels for the eyes. Any ideas how we printed the head? See the photos below for the answer!
We used rollers and brushes to paint hot and cold colours on the tail feathers. We printed with stamps and made patterns in the paint with the pointed end of our brushes. We used oil pastels for the eyes. Any ideas how we printed the head? See the photos below for the answer!
After much fun and hard work, we produced these....
Well done to all the p1/2 pupils for performing their Scots Poem in class on Monday. On Wednesday 3 pupils from each year group were asked to represent our class in the Burns Assembly. Their pictures are below.
P1/2 have been busy over the first few weeks of the year. We have been playing maths games to consolidate our number skills, playing board games to help with our social skills, using magnetic letters to develop our phonic skills (P1), typing skills (p2) and looking for worms in our compost and getting our poly tunnels ready for new growing.
Snow activities (if the school is closed because of snow)
Draw or make a picture of a piece of snow art you made outside and write/scribe a sentence (p1) or three sentences (p2). Count how many different types of transport you can see or use and make a list. Make a graph of the number of cars, walkers, cyclist you see when you are outside. There are other ideas on the back of this sheet.
GENERAL ACTIVITIES FOR ALL CLASSES
Sledging and science
Courtesy from Mrs Wyllie
1 Measure the distance from the top of the hill
2 Time how long it takes to sledge the distance
3 Work out the speed the sledge was going at (in meters/second)
Snow based activities Make a bird feeder and watch the birds that come to visit.
A Headless Snowman Make a snowman without a head. Then take turns to stand behind the snowman as if your head belongs to the snowman. Have a range of props such as wigs, hats, scarves, sunglasses to wear. Take photos of each other doing different poses.
Snowballs Can you make a pile of snowballs one metre tall?
Roll it up Make the biggest snowball possible whilst creating a maze or interesting pattern of grass to follow afterwards. Does the size of the snowball relate to the length of the path created?
Guess the object Look at different things covered with snow and guess what they are. Go back once the snow has melted and see if you recognise the feature. Snow Sculptures Make a snow dragon, or a monster instead. The possibilities are endless. Build a miniature yeti or just his giant pair of shoes to stand in.
Funny footprints Think up new and different footprint tracks in the snow. Instead of walking along, try jumping with both feet together or hopping. Do the hop-scotch. Walk sideways. Skate along and try not to leave a gap between your footprints. Do a funny dance. Is it possible to create an asymmetric pattern when you use both feet?
Track animals –Become a Snow-tective!
Happy New Year!
Our art this term comes from children's literature. Each week we will do a different art activity (painting, drawing, printing, 3-D, collage) based on a different book.
We started this week with Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl. We discussed the different features of the fox and exaggerated the pointy face and bushy tail in our oil pastel drawings.
Our art this term comes from children's literature. Each week we will do a different art activity (painting, drawing, printing, 3-D, collage) based on a different book.
We started this week with Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl. We discussed the different features of the fox and exaggerated the pointy face and bushy tail in our oil pastel drawings.
Our Christmas party with a special visitor.
Here are the pictures from our P1/2/3 Christmas show! You are a Star.. Let it Shine!
We made Mixed fruit jam with Mrs Mitchell. We talked about the cost of the ingredients and what price to ask for it so we could make a small profit.
Father Christmas collages
We read a lovely story about a little girl's letter to Father Christmas and made our own Father Christmas faces using paper, cotton wool and doilies.
Our language skills expressed in different ways, painting, play dough modelling and using magnetic letters.
Our visit to Penicuick. Tesco and other shops.
Monday : Gill Eastgate the author of Tzu Kingdom visited our school with her Tzu called Stanley. The children loved the dog and the story. Tuesday: Halloween.
Wednesday :Visit from the fire service , explaining how to be safe with firework whilst enjoying the the excitement of colourful displays. We also started with the preparations for our December concert...
Wednesday :Visit from the fire service , explaining how to be safe with firework whilst enjoying the the excitement of colourful displays. We also started with the preparations for our December concert...
Bonfire night art
We drew and cut out rooftops then added curved lines and spirals above them with pastels to make exploding fireworks in the night sky. The finishing touch was a splattering of white paint (with a toothbrush) and a sprinkle of glitter.
We drew and cut out rooftops then added curved lines and spirals above them with pastels to make exploding fireworks in the night sky. The finishing touch was a splattering of white paint (with a toothbrush) and a sprinkle of glitter.
We were learning numbers to 100 using tens and units and counting to 20 using one more and one less whilst counting leaves. P1 starting to use their phonic skills to make their own words.
We read The bumpy, little pumpkin by Margery Cuyler, a story about helping and seeing the best in everyone.
We then put our cutting and pasting skills to good use to make our own bumpy pumpkins.
We then put our cutting and pasting skills to good use to make our own bumpy pumpkins.
The amazing flying machine
We have been learning about perspective in Art. We drew a cat looking at the view from the classroom window. We made the cat bigger than the sheep in the field, as it is nearer. We made the sheep up the hill smaller than those in the field, as they are far in the distance.
P1/2 have been drawing different types of houses in the playground, harvesting potatoes and other vegetables for the fair and counting to 10 using leaves and sticks (p1) as well as working with Mrs Mitchell to do HTUs.
We made wax resist houses in Art. We added detail in oil pastel then brushed watery paint over it and watched the oil pastel resist the paint and show through.
This week we have been busy with our new sounds and counting up to 10 and back and adding up to 10 as well. We took our chalk for a walk and worked on tens and units (p2) and found sounds in the playground (p1). P2 continued with tens and units on the computer and even tried their hand at hundreds tens and units. Finally we looked at flowers from the poly tunnel and did some observational drawings (P2) and some inspired flower drawing (p1).
Everyday there is time to play in P1/2. We play with houses and castles, we build houses and we play in our house corner. P1 learned new sounds p and n and used magnetic letters to make our first words and read them too. P2 are working on vowel diagraphs such as ee and ea ( the same sound can be made with different codes/letters)
We practised our catching skills with balloons, learned to make jigsaws and worked in the polytunnerls.
We practised our catching skills with balloons, learned to make jigsaws and worked in the polytunnerls.
On Tuesday we walked into Romannobridge to look at different types of houses. We saw terraced, detached, semi-detached, caravans, bungalows and a cottages.
We had a busy second week with lots of activities. Building houses together, writing a personal account about the weekend, harvesting from the poly tunnels and eating it in class.
Regular and irregular shapes
Today we discussed regular and irregular shapes. We worked with a partner outdoors and recorded all the objects we saw which were squares, rectangles, triangles or circles.
Then we read The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl and drew crocodiles using regular and irregular shapes. Can you spot the triangles, circles, rectangles and squares?
We mixed yellow and blue paint to make different shades of green.
We mixed yellow and blue paint to make different shades of green.
P. 2 read The Mixed-up Chameleon by Eric Carle. We used the salt watercolour technique to paint our own chameleons and learned from the story that the best thing to be in life is YOURSELF!
We are P1/2. We had a great first week. We played lots of games, a tower build challenge and helped Mrs Currie in the poly tunnel. We tasted our own tomatoes, yummy! Next week we will taste the corn on the cob we harvested today.
