Outdoor Education has been focusing on Force and Motion this week. Kites are super fun so we decided to make our own and decorate our windows!
Room 16 have been celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Day this week! Everyone took a turn to choose a familiar member of staff they wanted to give a treat to. All the pupils made very clear choices! We then went round school to find the staff members and deliver their treat along with a message using a Big Mack switch. We loved seeing everyone’s reactions to their surprise treats. We also took the opportunity to learn the Makaton sign for kind.
Room 17 have been continuing to explore shape. We have been identifying 2D and 3D shapes. We have been actively participating in exploring a variety of 2D and 3D shapes and using them in class. Last term we made some trash band instruments and explored the 3D containers we used to make these instruments. This term we have also had a tongue drum that we enjoyed exploring and playing. Some of us liked our own trash band instruments and some of us really liked the feel and sound of the tongue drum
Room 17 have been learning to be responsible citizens and help look after the environment. We have been reusing containers to make trash band instruments. We’ve also been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We actively participated in exploring the 3D containers we used to make our instruments.
Room 12 have been looking at snowflakes, since we are in the middle of winter and expecting some flurries!
We have learned Makaton signs for winter and warm clothing and made snowflakes using lolly sticks and resources we chose ourselves to decorate them.
We watched videos that showed how snowflakes are formed, the different shapes of snowflakes (more than we thought!) and saw some time-lapse clips of them.
Here are some photos of our science activity. We mixed salt and glue and made a snowflake shape on card with this substance. We let this dry overnight and the next day used pipettes and blue food colouring to slowly drip on to our snowflakes. We enjoyed watching the salt soak up the blue and spread all over – just like creating our very own time-lapse!
The Orchard Brae children have been reconnecting with each other by leaving muddy footprints on the walls between the classrooms!
A spot of brown paint and tickles on the feet!
Outdoor learning has been lots of fun
Room 16 have been learning about one of their favourite things – food! We have been talking about our likes and dislikes. The pupils have been practising asking each other what their favourite food using switches or using PODD. This will go towards one of our ASDAN awards. We are going to be learning about putting our information into a table to show others what we have found out as a class.
Room 15 have had a busy few weeks back at school. We have some new faces in the classroom and we are building our relationships together.
We had fun making some playdough this week. We measured out the correct amount of flour, salt and water into trays and then we mixed it all together to form the dough. Some even added some food colouring to make our playdough cool colours! Then we got to play with it so everyone got some and we rolled, squished, flattened and used cookie-cutters on it to make different shapes.
As Christmas fast approaches, it has been a time for me to reflect on my first four months as Head Teacher. It has been a wonderful time getting to know all the pupils and families better and despite the pandemic we have achieved so much in a short space of time. Following a very supportive visit from HMIE, we can now focus our attentions on driving forward with our improvement priorities. It has been a very busy term for pupils and staff, there been exciting learning and teaching, preparation for our winter festivities, appearing in concerts and making our wonderful digital advent calendar, all of which you will see on our website. Once again, a big thank you to Keith and Emmeline for their continued contribution to our musical endeavours!
Now, we move on to the holidays and I am mindful of the need to take time for ourselves over the Christmas period. We are still faced with the ongoing issues and potentially further restrictions that this pandemic brings. Therefore, it is important that we look after our health and wellbeing as we need to be reinvigorated for the year ahead. We want to be able to welcome our whole school community back in January.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all, pupils, parents, friends and staff of Orchard Brae for your continued support and wish you and your loved ones a restful Christmas and a New Year that brings health and happiness.
Elaine
Important dates
In room 13 we decided to make individual collages to illustrate what we get up to on a weekly basis. As you can see we are a busy lot and love a photo opportunity!
