Mid Term Update

So far this term, Primary 2 have been a flurry of activity!  Here we are getting outside to take advantage of some sunshine (and still manage some learning!)  As part of learning about our town, we took advantage of our lovely views and sketched Stromness from the school.  We also measured our shadows to see how much the Earth turns in 2 hours; linking back to our Night and Day topic from term 2.  This really helped a lot of children understand how it is not the sun that moves.

We had even more learning about space - we got a sneaky peek inside the solar system dome.  Inside we got to take a journey through the solar system, visiting each planet in order.  The phases of the moon looked really cool too! (Please excuse the poor pictures - We were in a very dark dome!)

Our maths target had been "I can sort items using my own criteria or the criteria of others"

Hot Chocolate!  We used this a stimulus for writing.   Each child had to make sure they had each step in the correct order and label their equipment.  Some even added safety advice to make their writing more interesting.  We used these photos to help us.

Last week we had beautiful weather for our trip to the Stromness Museum.  The children had to find the photos of themselves and find out why they were in the museum.  Our John Gow character was delighted and has sparked a lot of pirate play in class.  Thank you very much to our parent helpers who helped the children to read about their characters.

End of Term 3 Update

Maths:  I can add smaller numbers to make one big number (the beginning of times tables).
I can take a smaller number and share it equally (the beginning of dividing).
Here are some fun activities that have helped P2 to meet their maths targets:

We have done lots of work looking at what makes a good book.  The class picked their favourite authors to share with the class and could tell us why they chose them.  We talked about why the stories were so good and will be using these ideas to make our own book!  

The whole school has been working on Conflict Resolution.  We have used drama to help us learn about this and Mrs Linklater came in to work with us.  P2 acted out situations when they fell out with friends and came up with ideas to make it better.  I really like some of the faces! Some serious acting going on here.  

Term 3 update

Primary 2 have been very busy this term.  Our literacy and topic work has been based around the Scottish Children's Book Awards.  We have been looking closely at what an author and illustrator does and have been voting for our favourite stories.
Spelling so far this term has focused on learning the long vowel sounds made when you add a magic e.  Along with this we have been learning to type!  The class have really enjoyed using the BBC typing dance mat - you may have been asked to use this at home.

The first part of this term has focused on learning about tens and units in maths.  We have also been learning  the various ways to represent a number - tally marks, pictures, digits, words and tens and units.  

Our other exciting event was having a cosmic classroom! We did a live link up with the International Space Station and saw Tim Peake doing science experiments in space.
Here we are with our 'Mission Patches' on.

P1 and 2 Christmas party

Just a reminder that the P1 and P2 Christmas party is on Monday afternoon.  I look forward to seeing you all show off your dancing skills!

Still managing some learning!

P2 did very well today with science and literacy.  We have been using consonant blends to make words.  Here are Hanna and Ena making some out of play doh.

We have been sorting materials by their properties today.  I saw lots of good teamwork in this challenge, well done P2!

Whoops-a-Daisy Angel

Well done to all our little actors and singers!  Here are some pictures from our dress rehearsal on Wednesday afternoon.

Rhyme time!

P2 were able to choose their literacy activity this morning.  We had snakes and ladders (numbers have been replaced with 99 sight words to practise), a selection of books to read independently, making up words with initial blends - we have a word wheel to make these and there was a rhyming game called 'Slug in a Jug'.  Magnus K, Magnus G and Fraser chose this game and had lots of fun.  They were able to match all the rhyming words and then made silly stories with them; "The string was on a swing where the King was wearing a ring!"

Christmas Lunch at SPS

We all had a fantastic Christmas lunch today - my favourite was the Malteaser cheesecake for pudding! Well done and thank you very much to the kitchen staff for a lovely meal.

Banana squishing scientists

Today we looked at the properties of a banana.  We peeled and weighed it then squished it up to weigh it again.  We had to predict if the the weight would be more, less or stay the same.  We also had to find out if we could put the banana back together again.  It was messy and fun, here are some pictures of the activity.

Materials

Materials is our new topic in P2.  We have looked at the properties of materials (are they hard, soft, squishy, sturdy, slippy etc) and have thought about how they are useful.  Last weeks challenge was to build a boat for a tiny teddy.  We had lots of fun building and testing our boats.

Thank you to everyone who came to support the Christmas craft afternoon - or Crafternoon as we are now calling it.  There were a few activities on offer but everyone's favourite was making a Rudolph cupcake!  Thank you very much Kerry (Ena's mum) for bringing this in for the kids, we absolutely loved it.

Ena's dad came to visit us too last week! What a helpful family!  Scott came in to show us the chicks they have.  Primary 2 got to have a hold of them and could ask question about how to care for chickens.  Ena knows lots about this and has been able to help us.

overdue update

Goodness me, it has been far too long since I have given you an update on this blog!  I'll certainly try to do this more often.

We have been learning about money: how we use it, how we earn it, what the coins are like and different ways to make totals.  In class we made our own 'shops' so we could buy things to use in choosing time.
There was a stationary stall, a games stall and a photo booth - P2 had lots of fun!

In writing lessons we have been learning to mark each others work and to come up with targets to make our work better.  We put things we are doing well on the 'thumbs up' and targets to work on are stuck to the pencil

P.E has been lots of fun so far this term!  Primary 2 have been practising gymnastic skills and balancing.  They love using the ropes and climbing frames! 

We've had lots of fun doing out Day and Night topic, using art and technology to learn and get messy!  We made space play doh, moon sand, a giant sun and a model of the Earth.

Crazy sums!

We have been learning to speedily add the partners to 10.  Now that many of us can do this we extended ourselves to the partners to 20.  Some children noticed a pattern and were able to apply what they knew to really hard sums!

Alphabet challenge

In small groups we have been making our own alphabets out of play doh.  We have colour coded the letters to help us remember which letters are at the beginning, middle and end of the alphabet.

Sunny days!

We have been making the most of the bonny weather and having some of our lessons outside.  We have been using chalk for pavement art and moved the sand tray outside for measuring capacity.

Macmillan Coffee Morning in P2

Thank you to everyone who baked, donated and came to join in with our mini enterprise.  Mrs Gorn ran a coffee morning in the staff room so we have added this to our total. We still have some money coming in but at the moment we have just surpassed the £300 mark!
Primary 2 were excellent hosts, used good manners and were very helpful.  Well done Primary 2 :)

Exciting visitor

Primary 2 were very lucky today, we got to meet Joe's Grandad and his guide dog Bilbo.  The children had the chance to ask questions and even got to pet Bilbo. What a lovely end to the day - Thank you Joe for a fantastic show and tell.

Macmillan Coffee Morning in P2

Hello everybody, Primary 2 have been working on decorations for this Friday to make the class look nice.  We will be setting up a little cafe for families to come to where they can buy a cake and have a cup of tea or coffee (or diluting juice for wee ones).  

Cakes will be prices at 5p, 10p, 20p, and 50p but we will also happily take any other donations.  

If you are able to bake something for us, please drop it off before 9.30am on Friday.  

The P2 cafe will be open from 10.30-11.30 on Friday 25th September.  Hope to see lots of you here :)

Capacity

We have been learning that capacity is 'how much can you fit in' a container.  Sometimes we use liquids but really you can use anything.  We had a shot a using counters, lentils, rice, sand and water.  It was pretty messy but luckily we had some great helpers to tidy.

P2 literacy

P2 have been showing that they can match capital and lower case letters together.  Here are a few different ways the class chose to do this
1. Design your own colourful alphabet
2. Match the flowers to the pots
3. Join up the puzzle pieces
4. Use the big letter cards.