Category: Primary 1 Blog

Yayoi Kusama Study

Here is the finished display showing our work surrounding the artist Yayoi Kusama.

Properties of 3D shapes

We’ve mastered the names and the 2D shapes we can see in the faces – now we are finding our the properties of each shape. Can it stack? Can it slide? Can it roll?

Below: sorting shapes into ones that can stack, and ones that cannot. Having fun creating towers like Inch and Grub!

Collective Art Gallery

Below are some photos of Primary 1 exploring Katie Schwab’s exhibition ‘The Seeing Hands’.

Tactile Hangings

Katie has also collaborated with designer Maeve Redmond to produce a tactile resource which asks: how many textures can you create using paper?

Below are our investigations. This was an excellent activity to promote and develop adjective vocabulary.

Parent open morning

A big thank you to the parents who were able to visit on Friday morning. We loved sharing our space with you!

Bonfire Play

In honour of bonfire night, Primary 1 were challenged to collaboratively build a bonfire then make a ‘seat’ to sit around it. Staff rewarded the class with a mug of hot chocolate and a biscuit for all their hard work so far this year!

Book Box

Our Book Box library is starting to look a bit sparse… Please remember to return your books, thank you!

New Staff

We are happy to welcome a 2nd year, Queen Margaret University student who will be observing and supporting our class for 4 weeks this term and 6 weeks after Christmas.

Welcome, Miss Laing!

Upcoming Art Trip

On Wednesday 2nd November, Primary 1 will be leaving school promptly to walk up Calton Hill to visit the art centre Collective, where we will be looking at at exhibition called The Seeing Hands by Katie Schwab.

We will be encouraged to play freely with all of the materials in the space safely. This is not a ‘do not touch’ art gallery!

As always for class trips, please wear school clothes with sturdy shoes and pack a waterproof coat. We will be having snack at Calton Hill then returning to school for lunch as normal. Snack should be 1 item which can be carried easily. No food items which need a spoon or fork, please.

Pumpkin Art – Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama is a 93 year old Japanese artist who loves dots and pumpkins. Listen to the story, Yayoi Kusama covered everything in dots and wasn’t sorry by Fausto Gilberti to learn more about her.

Here is some of her art

• We used our fine motor skills and team work to cover the pumpkins in spot stickers.
• We practised our scissors skills cutting different sized circles for the wall display.
• We used Lego, plastic cups, and fingers to print patterns for the background of our paintings. We then used 3 different implements to create large, medium and small spots for our pumpkins. Finally we cut out the pumpkins and stuck them on the backgrounds. We asked the class if they liked her art work and if they liked their own work.

Check back next week to see the finished display…

Potion fun!

Inspired by Halloween, primary 1 enjoyed developing their fine and gross motor skills, creativity and language with this tuff tray of goodies. A pipette squeeze of food colouring and vinegar with a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of pepper and glitter made for exciting eruptions.
“This is so much fun!” “it is erupting!” “smell this!”
I was very impressed with the support pupils gave each other, politely sharing resources and taking sensible amounts so there was some left for others. Well done!

Maths Week

We loved taking part in the activities which Ms Brunner and the pupil group Internet Empire created.

Primary 2 pupils Helena and Adela created colour by number worksheets and Eddy completed both!

We enjoyed playing hop scotch with our P6 buddies, writing, reading and counting numbers.

We learnt how to scan QR codes and had lots of fun playing the maths games below. Can you have a go at home?

Kite craft

A request stemming from learning about the letter K, Primary 6 helped us make kites!

Red Spelling Books

Letters

When asking your child to write a letter, remember it is important to say the sound and for them to form this correctly. See above for formation.

Green words

These are words they can sound out.

In school we use ‘Fred-fingers’ to help to spell green words (word containing sounds we already know). This is the process children are taught to use to help them write words.

1. Hold up the correct number of fingers for the sounds (ie. 3 for t/o/p, 4 for sh/o/p)
2. Say the word e.g. top.
3. Say the sounds as you pinch each sound onto 3 fingers: t-o-p, look at your own fingers as you do it.
4. Ask your child to repeat it.
5. Say the letters again then swipe your finger across to say the whole word
6. Ask your child to repeat then write down each sound
7. Ask your child to point to each letter written and read the sounds and whole word.

Red words

Red words are also known as tricky or sight words. You just have to learn them so you can write and read them at sight. Below is a catchy song which can help!

For more help, see the help video below

Mental Agility Update

Any questions, please email admin with the
title ‘For Miss Copeland’

Literacy Fun!

Learning about the letter c sparked some fun craft requests from our class – crown creating and castanet constructing!

https://videopress.com/v/sRGoXrWK?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Amina in Primary 2 knows a lot about Australian animals. When learning about the letter k, she popped in and read us a story about a Jeremy, a baby Kookaburra. Thank you, Amina!

Flick through the slide show below to see our other literacy activities

Construction

This week we found an increased confidence in using height. Some were inspired by Inch and Grub, a book where two cavemen build very tall, but wobbly, towers!

P.E – Racket skills – Tennis

Balancing and bouncing bean bags, balls and shuttlecocks. We have been strengthening our arms and core in order to hold and use rackets. We have been practising coordinating dropping the ball to serve and moving our bodies to be able to return. Lots of concentrating going on below… and lots of fun!

Shades of colour

We have dark green and light green hooks for our coats but how do you make light and dark green? This question from a group of curious girls lead us to investigate using black and white to mix different shades.

Patterns

Repeating patterns in shape, colour and line. Spotting patterns in the environment inspired us to look at animals. We recognised lots of animal names such as zebras, tigers and giraffes when looking at their patterns.

Maths – Shape

We have been talking about shapes. With 2D shapes we need to know the…

• Name of the shape
• How many corners it has
• Sides – Are they curved? Straight? How many are there?

With 3D shapes we identify

• How many faces
• What shapes are the faces
• If the faces are flat or curved

Instrument investigation

What is sound? How do we hear it? Can we see it? How do we change sound?

• Sound travels in waves, just like dropping a penny into water
• These waves travel into our ears and our ears send a message to our brains
• Sound can vary by pitch and volume
• We learnt about different types of instruments and how they are played
• We used our problem solving skills to create shakers with recycling and lentils
• What happens to the sound of a bottle if we add more water?
• Can sound travel through our cup and string telephones?

Self Directed Learning