Author: Miss Copeland

It has been a very busy term for us! Here are some of the things we have been up to…

Maths – Data Handling

We have been collecting data and displaying it as Pictographs.

Pictographs need…

• Title
• Key
• Pictures! (data)

We used sticky notes to represent each person in the class. We can now use the pictograph to write statements.

• Pink is the most popular colour.
• Yellow is the least popular colour.
• There were 13 children in the class.
• Two more children chose green than yellow.
• three less children chose orange than pink.

We enjoyed playing the game below, which displays the data as a pictograph. Click the image or link to play http://toytheater.com/fruit-fall/

Some children played a trickier game – https://www.softschools.com/math/data_analysis/pictograph/games/

Numeracy

We have been using our fingers to support subtraction/take away. Sometimes we call this ‘counting back’. This means that we start at a number and we count backwards until we find the difference.

Below is a helpful image to explain how we do this.

Addition games

• Counting to 10
• Robot more or less
• Robot addition
• Addition to 10
• Counting on

PANTS

Through the Scottish RSHP programme we learn the names for the body parts including penis and vulva. This is important so we all have same vocabulary for if things are hurting or if they need to share information with us. We also learn the NSPCC’s PANTS rule.

PANTS stands for…
• Privates are private.
• Always remember your body belongs to you.
• No means no.
• Talk about secrets that upset you.
• Speak up, someone can help.

Through discussing this, we aim to teach our pupils the following…

• Consent and your child’s right to say no regarding their body.
• Who your child can turn to if they ever feel upset or worried.

“Pants cover up your private parts”
“Pants cover up your vulva”
“Pants cover up your penis”
“You can go in a private place so nobody sees your private parts if you need a wee”
“We close the door when we go to the toilet”
“Someone might need to ask to see it if it is hurting but they have to ask”

If you would like to know more about the NSPCC’s campaign, more information can be found at nspcc.org.uk/pants. If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Art Gallery

For our first frame we have focused on still life.
We listened to the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth and thought about the shapes and colours we see in daffodils.

• Draw/paint only what you see
• Use suitable colours
• Use the space available
• Keep looking and add details

Here is the finished frame with the art pieces selected anonymously by the after school cleaners!

Our second frame was a collaborative piece. Everyone was invited to add something that reminds them of Spring

• Lola – Hill and flowers
• Aiden – Waterfall, pond and tadpoles
• Sidrah – Rainbow
• Eddie – Sun
• Loai – Flowers
• Clay – Daffodoils
• Zoe – Cherry blossom tree
• Sarah – Flowers and ladybird
• Mustapha – Butterfly (blue wings)
• Mohamed – Bees
• Yasmine – Butterfly and tree with red flowers
• Jana – Three stem flowers (purple and orange)
• Daniel – Crocuses

Caption Writing

Pysanky Eggs

Primary 1’s Class Assembly

On 24th March, we spoke, sang and danced our hearts out, showcasing all of our knowledge and skills all about our topic The Body. From gymnastics balances to talking about our senses, singing in English and Spanish and dancing at the same time! Well done, Primary 1!

Braille

After learning about our senses, P1 learnt about how people whom have impairments can be supported. From hearing aids for the deaf to wheel chairs for people with movement difficulties.
We created our names using gems to be able to touch what our name would feel like in Braille!

Forensics!

We have been learning about how the police catch criminals. We looked at footprints and fingerprints and how fingerprints are unique to us!

Germs!

We know it is important to wash our hands but this experiment proved why soap is an important step in washing hands – you cannot ‘wash’ your hands with just water!

Edinburgh Science Festival

WOW! We had SO much fun exploring the different activities. We watched some science magic, learnt about renewable energy and created our own wind turbines, and then created cool houses in the imagination playground!

Building Resilience – Get Active

Recognising how to recharge your batteries is one way to build resilience. Taking the time to be active can help you feel good. Primary 1 enjoy playing in the park, swimming, using scooters and bikes and running!

Block Play

We are becoming increasingly confident with using height in our play! Can you spot the gym, DJ and house?

World Book Day

This year we dressed up as adjectives. Colours, appearance, personality, physical attributes are all adjectives!

Did you know that there is a grammar rule that explains adjectives should only be used in a certain order?
That is why the red, round, big ball sounds wrong and the big round red ball sounds right!

Buddy Reading

The buddies worked together to make their own reading dens! Primary 6 read to Primary 1 and Primary 1 also read to Primary 6!

Reading together should:
• Improve confidence in reading aloud and develop questioning skills.
• Develop nurturing and leadership skills in older pupils through the
opportunity to act as role models.
• Develop a love of reading in all individuals involved.
• Enable all pupils to participate regardless of learning ability, allowing less
confident pupils to shine.
• Encourage friendships between younger and older pupils and aid school
cohesion

Writing our own books

Writing a book is a long process that involves lots of different stages. This week we have…

• Created our own character and used adjectives to describe them
• Created a setting
• create a climax or ‘thumbs down’ section as we call it
• decide on a solution and end – or as we call it – the ‘thumbs up’ end!
• choose a story opener e.g one day, early one morning, one dark and gloomy night
• Decided on a title

Next week we will be using all of our notes to create the book including an ‘about the author’ section and price/barcode, stay tuned!

Building Resilience

We have been learning that Talking Things Over with my Back-up Team can help me build resilience.

Below we have drawn who is in our back-up teams.

Pancake Day Fun!

We have been learning about the origins of pancake day – Shrove Tuesday.

Below are some of the things Primary 1 would give up if they were participating in Lent, which started on Ash Wednesday. We chose things that we want but don’t need.

• Ps4 – Clay
• Playing on my iPad – Aiden
• Watching YouTube – Mustapha
• Watching TV- Lola
• All my toys – Sidrah
• Watching things on the phone – Sarah
• My purple tablet – Yasmine
• Watch tv – Eddy
• Watching tv – Jana
• Biscuits – Mohamed
• Chocolate – Loai
• Strawberry jelly – Daniel

Addition

Below shows how we use our fingers to help with counting on

We also find it helpful to tap the dots or images with our pencil and count as we touch them

Gymnastics

We will be celebrating World Book Day on Friday 3rd March 2023.

Children are invited to wear something that describes an adjective; a colour, spots, stripes, big, short etc.

Below are some examples!

Building Resilience – Talk Things Over

After listening to The Huge Bag of Worries Primary 1 discussed what a worry is, what it feels like and what sort of worries we have. We then drew our worries on a bubble to share them and let it float away…

Here is the home activity for this period of the Building Resilience Programme

Internet Safety

Tuesday was Safer Internet Day . We discussed what we use to access the internet such as a phone, tablet, iPad, TV, XBox, as well as what we use it for. We used a questionnaire called a Menti to collect the information. You can see the class’s collective answers below. Thinkuknow is a brilliant website which has fun and catchy videos designed for children aged 4-7. I would thoroughly recommend a watch!

Our Families

Following the Scottish RSHP programme, this week we have been discussing families; which people make up their families, what we call those people, what love is and how this can look different for different people. We also focus on the UNRC rights of the child, and how all children have the right to be safe, cared for and healthy. Primary 1 did some excellent writing around this topic – drawing and labelling their picture, as well as writing the title and information about their family. All pupils progress at different speeds and we were incredibly proud of the effort that each pupil put into this work, well done!

Numeracy

We enjoyed creating number pages, finding objects from around the room which matched their number. The pupils selected their picture and photographed their own work so we can see what they were doing when working independently.

Using Dienes blocks to make numbers. Try practising your skills at home with the following 2 games

Basketball Place Value – https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/place-value-basketball

Shark Numbers – https://ictgames.com/sharkNumbers/mobile/index.html

Number are everywhere, even in books!

This song is very popular in our class, you can hear the pupils singing it, even at lunch time!

Wishing you all a very happy half term and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday 20th February