Technology Week

All the children have had opportunities to take part in Technology Week.  Callum, Marc and Ethan were joined by Jack and Connor to work on pushes and pulls.  They enjoyed pushing and pulling the tabs on one of our favourite books - The Wheels on the Bus.

 It has lots of moving parts including wheels that go round and round and passengers who move in and out of the bus.  




They then  followed plans to make a bus before making their own vehicles and following other plans.
      



 We used our usual format of PLAN - DO - REVIEW to help us decide what we would make and check if we followed our plan when our models were complete. 
        

Finally we tried out our models to see how far they would move with big and small pushes.



All the boys made great progress this week and using mobilo and other construction toys is something we will continue to  focus on at least once per week as they enjoyed it so much.


Sophie joined P1/2 and Room 2 and 4 children to make catapults and conveyors.  Check out the main school website blogs for more information.

Sophie also joined Room 3 for science where she is learning about changing states of water. 

                 
  This week we looked at how things can dissolve in hot water and started collecting ideas of how we use water.  We hope to get to 100 uses for water by the end of the topic.

Culture fortnight

Culture fortnight came to an end on Friday with a whole school assembly.  It was great to hear the children from other classes speak and sing in French and in German. In Room 5 the children had opportunities to  try out French food such as baguettes, quiche and Brie.  Ethan was very keen to try most of them. 



All the children had the chance to make croissants - adding chocolate to some to share with family.  Hope you enjoyed them if they reached home! Sophie joined Room 3 to try out some french words.  She recognised 'bonjour' and also learned to have a short conversation asking how others were feeling and answering the same question.

We also tried out some sensory gloop - a mix of cornflour and water - which is fun to squeeze in our hands as it changes from a solid to a liquid. We added yellow colouring to link in with our work on colours this month.

All in all it's been a VERY messy week- even with aprons to protect clothes!








Callum has been enjoying sharing books and also making choices at the cafe during our social skills outing.

Monday sees the start of technology week and the children will be hard at work making things that move with pushes, pulls and sliding mechanisms. If you can't make it in to our sharing event on Friday then catch up with us here next weekend.

Knights and Castles Topic

We are coming to the end of our Knights and Castle topic.  Here are a few photos of our jousting practice with Room 2 and Room 4 children.
 
Sophie and Ethan wear their tabards as they joust.

Callum loved jousting too!

Next week the children will keep scores as we compete. It should be a fun way to work with numbers. 

Check back soon to see more of our work.

Our trip to Stirling Castle

We visited Stirling Castle last Friday as part of our Knights and Castles topic.  The children explored turrets, were fascinated at what they found in the King and Queen's palace and had lunch in the splendour of the Great Hall.  
Later we visited the kitchens, counted cannons and made music in the minstrels room.  Lots of fun and opportunities for the children to apply their learning in class in a real life context.

Here are a few pictures from our day.

Xander and Sophie dress up as royals.

Sophie and Ethan talk to the Queen's servant.

Callum found the Knight in armour interesting.

Xander at the biggest fire in the Great Hall

Callum loved the jester and his puppet.

Ethan liked the large sword.

Sophie and Jessica compare dresses and headdresses.

Stirling Castle website has some fun games and activities which the children can access by visiting the Stirling Castle website  at http://www.stirlingcastle.gov.uk/

or you can play a matching game by following this link:-

http://www.stirlingcastle.gov.uk/learn/fun-games/matching-pairs/?score=42&time=00:01:08

The end of Autumn

We completed our topic of Night and Day and Seasons just before Christmas.  Here are a few pictures of the children taking part in activities during the Autumn term.

Sophie and Ethan have enjoyed playing together.

Xander helps deliver our scarecrow to Ardardan.