Category: Outdoor Learning

Outdoor Learning

Out and about with Alan in Outdoor Education

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Room 8

Room 8 took part in a scavenger hunt at Duthie Park.  We were looking for various items, including fish, flowers and the big frog in the pond.

Some pupils were able to read the words and reinforce their numeracy skills by counting what they had to find.

Sadly, the turtles were being shy and we only saw 3.

 

Room 10

Room 10 pupils were exploring a farm path near Orchard Brae.  We were exploring to see what we could find.  Some of the pupils loved splashing in puddles so it was just as well they were wearing wellies!

 

Room 14

It was too cold to go out, so we did our outdoor learning indoors!

We looked at pictures of trees of trees silhouetted against a winter sunset, and then tried to recreate this on paper, using natural materials.

We used charcoal to rub over leaves and twigs to create the trees, then used various materials to make clouds.  We stuck this down on a dark blue background, which looked very effective!

 

Room 18

Room 18 have been helping to dig over the sandpit.

The sandpit needed to be raked and dug over.  We also needed to brush sand from the playground.  The class used rakes to move sand, and the progress was amazing. Sand was moved from the edge back into the middle, where it was needed.

 

Room 6 Explore The Local Community

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Room 6 have been enjoying exploring the community this term.

We walk to the ducks daily and have seen the number of ducks increase from in the teens to 34.

We have a weekly visit to the library where we enjoy investigating the DVD’s, sensory box and looking at books.

We enjoy playing on the toys at the park in Sheddocksley and have enjoyed exploring the ice when walking to the horses.

 

Noodles, Reindeer and Remembrance in Outdoor Education

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Room 19 have been looking at preparing food for our Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award.  We tested 2 different brands of noodles, and enjoyed eating them both.  Even those who were not sure, once they tried them, discovered that they were nice to eat.

We assembled and used a Trangia stove to boil water, and add then added to the dried noodles.  Part of our assessment will be making a hot meal, from scratch, using a stove.

We have also cooked sausages outside which were very popular.

This week we even made hot chocolate, heating up chocolate milk on a stove.

We all agree – food tastes better when cooked outside!

 

Outdoor learning has looked at using natural materials like grass, beech nuts and twigs to make textured animals.  We have made spikey hedgehogs from twigs. We also made soft fluffy reindeer for their fur, and small twigs to make their antlers.  Some of our reindeer also had a shiny red nose like Rudolph.

 

We also made poppies to celebrate Armistice Day out of heart shaped pieces of red paper.  We were using scissors, paint, different colours to recreate poppies in the wild.

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in Room 19

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Room 19 are working on their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award this year. So far, we have chosen our physical activity and are working on basketball, table tennis and yoga.

For our skills section we are fundraising through our sandwich enterprise. We are also volunteering by helping out in classes with younger pupils and supporting an older gentleman in his home and garden.

In outdoor education, we have learned how to use fire sticks to light the gas for cooking with the trangia stove, all in preparation for our residential expedition next year.

Outdoor Learning: Transforming our outdoor learning space

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Outdoor Learning space

Last term we asked the council to come and cut down the weeds, to make an area where we can set up outdoor learning.  They then delivered a large load of bark, which the pupils helped to take down to the newly cleared area.  This area will now be developed over winter, to have bug hotels and hedgehog houses.

 

Making animals with natural materials

We used beech nuts and twigs to make scary spiders for Halloween.  We used string to make the web, and then added our spiders.

 

Room 16 Make Bird Feeders

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In October we made eco bird feeders, by coating pine cones in bird seed. It was a sticky job and took a lot of concentration.  The next day we hung some in the school playground and took the rest to hang up at the duck pond.  We then gave the leftover bird seed to the ducks.

A Trip to the Beach With Room 4

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Room 4 have been reading ‘The New Friend’ by Alex Scheffler for their book study this term.

In the book, the main characters Pip and Posy make a new friend at the beach and they work together to build a sandcastle.

We enjoyed the book so much that we thought we would have a go at making our own sandcastles!  We visited the beach and worked together to build our own sandcastles.  We thought we did a good job.  What do you think?  We even made our own new friend when we went looking in the rock pools!

 

 

 

Looking Back And Moving Forward With Room 8

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The beginning of summer is upon us! As we head into the final stretches of the school year, everyone should take time to reflect on the highs and lows of the year. What worked? What flopped? How can you improve for next year? What from your old job will you bring to your new one? What must you definitely leave behind?

However, when we take time to reflect on our year and take stock of how we’ve grown and changed, we are more able to acknowledge the gifts of this passage and harvest our own learning for the future.

Let’s find out together our best moments.

Kids Out 2019

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Some of our primary pupils took part in a very special outing on Wednesday at the SRUC Aberdeen Campus at Craibstone, participating in a range of activities organised by various Rotary clubs in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire for their annual Kids Out fun day.
Despite the gloomy weather, we all had a fantastic time. Some of the highlights of the day included bouncy castles and face painting, magic shows, Aberdeen Science Centre, a disco and the very noisy police van and fire engine. However, the best bit of the day for many of our pupils were the animals and there was great excitement over the numerous pony rides, bird displays and Therapet dogs.
Thank you so much to everyone in the local Rotary clubs for organising such a wonderful day and we can’t wait for next year.

Yarnbombing with Room 12

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Our class have been looking at the amazing NuArt all around Aberdeen and wanted to come up with our own contribution for an outdoor piece of artwork. We looked at some videos that showed yarnbombing all over the world and thought this is something we could adapt and put our own stamp on.

Yarnbombing is a type of street art that shows displays of knitted or crocheted wool, yarn or fibre. It can also be called yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting or graffiti knitting.

We started with some knitted backgrounds and chains that Allison, our EYP made and then made some wool wrapped twigs, learned how to use pompom makers and made tassles and attached them all to the trees outside our window. We think they make a lovely display. It’s a work in progress – there are many trees in our playground we can yarnbomb!

Official Yarnbombing Day is 11th June.