Primary 2 and 3 got to visit our local library this morning.  Thank you to Bronagh for making us feel so welcome!  First of all, we acted as librarians putting authors surnames into alphabetical order.  Then we had some time to explore the books in the library.  Lastly, Bronagh read us a lovely story.  📖

After learning all about the journey of bread, we decided to make our own bread in class.  The children followed a simple recipe step by step, making sure to weigh and measure the different ingredients accurately.  When it was baked, we got to taste it.  The majority voted that the bread was good! 😀👍

As part of our bread topic, the boys and girls observed how mould can grow on bread over time.  To do this, each pair got two pieces of bread.  First they had to rub their ‘unwashed’ hands over the first slice.  Then they had to thoroughly wash their hands and rub their clean hands over the second piece.  Both pieces of bread were then put inside separate zip-lock bags and left in a warm, dry place.  The boys and girls ensured to check on their breads each day and record their findings.  It was very interesting because the breads seemed to stay quite fresh, showing no mould for over a week! Eventually, the bread that was touched with ‘unwashed’ hands started growing mould sooner than the other. 

Today Primary 3 were introduced to the metre stick.  We used it to measure objects around the classroom, including our friends! We then decided if each object was longer, shorter or about 1 metre in length or height. 

As part of our Bread topic, today we observed and investigated brown and white bread.  We used our senses to look, smell, listen, touch and taste as well as think of ways to describe them.  We then finished with a Taste Test were some children volunteered to be blindfolded and guess if they were eating brown or white bread.  

During Literacy Week we carried on our Gruffalo theme and made a wanted poster on Just 2Easy.  We then searched through non-fiction texts to find some facts about different topics.  For Art we created characters from the Gruffalo story to decorate our classroom door.  Then on Friday we participated in a buddy read where some of the older boys and girls read to us.  

Everyone looked fantastic dressed as their favourite character! 

This week our focus text in Literacy is ‘The Gruffalo’.  This story is filled with lots of rhyming words.  After  spending some time together finding the rhyming words and thinking of rhyming strings, we played a rhyme matching game in small groups.  

We have spent some time building up our mouse control skills.  We began the week by practising the skills ‘click and drag’ through various online games.  We then put these skills to use by using Just2Easy to paint a picture of a penguin.  

As part of our World Around Us, we have been learning about the history of the Winter Games.  Today we worked with a partner and used an atlas to find countries that have held the winter games over the years.   

This week in literacy we have been learning all about instructions and how they tell us what to do.  As our topic is winter, we decided to write instructions for building a snowman.  First, we worked in small groups to think of ‘bossy’ verbs.  Then we wrote a set of instructions and followed them by making snowmen from paper.  This was a lot of fun! 

As part of our gymnastics topic, we have been focusing on various skills such as making shapes, travelling and balance.  Today we worked on our balance, moving forwards, backwards and sideways on different surfaces.  

During our winter topic, we discovered how difficult it can be for birds and others animals to find food.  Primary 2 and 3 went outside and observed lots of birds in our area.  We then decided to make bird feeders and place them around our playground.  We hope the birds enjoy them! 

This week in Literacy we have been learning to write lists.  P3 have also been learning to add commas to their lists.  We had great fun writing on our desks and using pasta for the comma! 

Christmas Story ✨

The children used the Just 2 Easy app to illustrate and type part of the Christmas story. 

Describing Fruit 🍊🍋🍍🍌🥑🥭

The boys and girls used their senses to describe some of the fruits from the book Handa’s Surprise.  We thought of lots of great adjectives such as bitter, sour, smooth and bumpy to name a few.  

USPCA VISIT 🐕‍🦺

A big thank you to Lauren for visiting primary 2/3 to tell us all about the amazing work they do in our local area.  It was lovely seeing photos and videos of some cats, dogs, wildlife and birds they have rescued and rehomed. 

Gardening with Kieran! 🧑‍🌾

A big thank you to Kieran for sharing his wealth of knowledge on bees and flowers. He then helped the boys and girls pot some flowers which they got to take home.  What a fabulous experience! 

Float or sink! ⛴🛳🛶⛵️
To bring our transport topic to a close, the children worked together to design and build a boat that would (hopefully!) float.  We used a range of junk art materials to make our boats then tested them at the water tray.  It was interesting to see which everyday household objects would stay afloat! 

Annie Londonderry 

As part of our transport topic, P2/3 have been learning about Annie Londonderry.  She was the first woman to cycle around the world.  We used the app ‘Chatterkids’ to take a photo of Annie then recorded our voices pretending to be her.  This was a lot of fun!  Have a listen to some of our recordings. 

ART

This term we are looking at how colours can blend and mix together.  For the first session, we added water to skittles and watched the them blend together.  Then we used pipettes to drop water on felt tip pen which also made the colours blend together.  We had lots of fun partipcting in these experiments. 

Play Based Learning - Transport 🚙✈️🚛🏎

P.E.

This term we will be focusing on our handling skills.  This week we were using beanbags to throw and catch and balance them on various body parts. 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏼