Category: Outdoor Learning

Outdoor Learning

A Walk Through Nature With Room 7

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Some pupils from Room 7 enjoyed a walk in the countryside today. We headed along the countryside path towards Kingswells and saw lots of exciting things. We took pictures of some of the animals and when we got back to school we used our Pixon and core vocabulary boards to talk about what we saw. We also practised our maths skills by counting aloud the number of animals. We saw 3 deer and 7 brown and white horses and far too many sheep and crows to count!!!

 

Room 16: Working Towards the John Muir Award

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In Room 16 we have been working on our John Muir Award all year. This focuses on Outdoor Education.

In order to achieve our Bronze Award, we have to do 4 days work in our chosen outdoor space.  We chose our playground, as we felt it was a bit bare and it was readily accessible to us.

Our plan was to blur the boundaries between the indoor and outdoor spaces.  Here’s what we’ve done so far:

  • Learned about the Scotsman John Muir and his work protecting natural spaces in North America.
  • Explored our playground in different seasons and from different perspectives.
  • Planted lots of bulbs, seeds and seedlings in science lessons.

 

  • Planted flowers.
  • Experimented with flowers in science lessons

 

  • Used natural and recycled materials in craft projects.

 

  • Been for lots of walks in the local community, to the shops, duck pond, parks and outdoor fitness area.
  • Fed the birds (ducks, robins and sparrows) at the local duck pond.
  • Decorated milk bottle plant pots for house plants in our classroom, which the pupils look after.

  • Made a sound sculpture with pots and pans in the playground, for pupils to play with.
  • Hung up a large thermometer in the playground for everyone to use.

But we are not quite finished yet.  We are in the process of making some more interactive and noisy sculptures for the playground.

We would like everyone to be able to enjoy using the outdoor spaces in school more, so here’s hoping for some dry weather!

Planting Time in our Afternoon Nursery at Howes Road

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It’s that time of year again to look out the gardening gloves, trowels and spades and to start growing. Firstly we examined our sunflower seeds, then we filled our little containers with compost, poked our little seeds under the soil and finished off by watering them. Now it’s time to tend our little seeds and watch them grow.

Improving the School Grounds with Howes Hoose

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In Howes Hoose, our work with Daniel from Aberdeen City Council Parks Department has continued. As part of our SQA Personal Achievement Award we are working on a Community Activity. With support and guidance from Daniel, we are working to develop our school garden and grounds. We’ve been extremely busy and have planted 3600 seeds! We have planted peas, beans, pumpkins, radishes and cornflowers. We look forward to seeing them brighten things up and tasting our wares when they are ready!

 

Earth Day in Room 6

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Monday the 22nd of April was Earth Day.  Class 6 took part in a scavenger hunt to see how many different items we could find when we were out in the community, relating to caring for the environment.  We also managed to find a few in school too!

Room 13 Explore Aberdeen Nuart

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As part of our Interdisciplinary theme ‘Our World of Rights’, one of our pupils has been out and about on public transport locating the Nuart in the city centre.

He has seen how the art work is carried out using “cherry pickers” for the artists to reach the highest points of their art work.

He will keep a photographic progression of the art work and exhibit his findings on a notice board in the school for all to read, enjoy and gain information from.

Birdwatch Week in our afternoon nursery at Howes Road

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We learned all about birds during Birdwatch Week. We started by making pictures of birds with colourful feathers and we listened to a sensory story called ‘Learning to Fly’ – we had such fun with the bird puppet it made us laugh and we touched a little egg in a nest. Most of us loved exploring the texture of birdseed and then we made mixed it with lard to make birdcakes. We had a bus outing to Hazlehead Woods where we collected twigs to make nest pictures,  listened to the birds while exploring the woods and set out the birdcakes for the birds.

Room 5 Feed The Birds

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Room 5 went on a trip to ASDA to buy the ingredients to make bird feeders. We made them using nuts, lard and seeds. They were very smelly and felt slimy!!

We took them down to the duck pond and hung them from the trees for the birds. We hope they enjoy them!!!

 

 

Sensory Gardening With Room 4

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Room 4 have been experiencing gardening.

We are so lucky to have our own planter containers right outside our classroom. 

We dug, moved and patted the soil as we planted the crocuses.

 

Duke of Edinburgh Awards Ceremony

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On Tuesday we were delighted to see our first ever Duke of Edinburgh Award winners receive their Certificates at the Aberdeen City Award Ceremony. These young adults have now all left school however it was a pleasure to catch up with them and see how the confidence gained by completing their Bronze Award has supported them as they have moved on from school life.

We have another group of 6 S5 and S6 pupils working hard to complete their Bronze Award this year, culminating in their Excursion section at Whiston Lodge. They are all making excellent progress with their Skills and Volunteering Sections and enjoying all the practice sessions that will support them to complete their Excursion.