Please find details of the Aberdeen City schools telephone information service for parents/guardians. This is the Schools Information Line. The main...
The past couple of weeks Room 5 have been learning about and celebrating Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. We have engaged in Ramadan-themed sensology sessions during which we tasted dates, enjoyed the visual experience of looking through a telescope for the new moon and smelled incense, as well as other sensory experiences. We painted pictures to depict the new moon in a night sky and enjoyed baking ma’amoul (biscuits with dates inside commonly eaten during Eid).
Over the past few terms one of the pupils in Howes Hoose has been completing her National 2: Creating Materials for Display. She has created three beautiful pieces of work all based round the theme of the sun. Each of the pictures has been completed with different materials and worked on meticulously. They are displayed at the front door of the school and there have been so many lovely comments and questions about the art work.
In room 2, we have been enjoying looking at our reflections in various ways. The children have had lots of fun looking at their images in different postures in the mirrors all around the playroom.
We also engaged in arts and crafts. Painting and decorating CDs to reflect the sun shining into the playroom. The children have enjoyed looking at the decorated hangings. Making gloop in the mirror tray gave the children a lovely experience. They also explored lights and shadows.
We also extended our learning by setting up a hairdressing station. This was a hit among the children, sitting in front of the mirror, brushing their hair and some even saying, ‘hair cut’. We’ve had loads of fun this term.
In Room 9 we’ve been exploring how to bring more play-based learning into our routines. As part of this we introduced a wee “café”, which has been a massive success with our learners. From spontaneous imaginative play, social interactions with our peers, applying new communication skills to building fine and gross motor skills, the café has impressed us all. It has been so popular we have given it a name, and one pupil helped to design a banner to signpost our new classroom highlight!
We have also moved onto our final book study of the term. After several rounds of pupil voting, “Tiddler” closely won against “The Snail and the Whale”, so “Tiddler” is now our story for the next few weeks. We’ve enjoyed joining in with “Oh, no, he didn’t!” “Oh, yes, he did!” as we read along together, signing fish songs, exploring body percussion and rhythm in response to fish songs as part of our listening activities, and made our own fish for our reading records, choosing from painting or collage (or both, for some of our most enthusiastic artists!).
For World Book Day, the whole class team each dressed up as a different emotion from the story “The Colour Monster”, and we made sure to add some additional time for telling the story during the day. Between enthusiastic performances from the class team and fascinating props, engagement was really high throughout.
Room 17 pupils are working towards their First Aid SQA. We have been making and filling our own Room 17 First aid box. Today we were learning about what to do if someone had a bad cut. We enjoyed some sensory exploration of different types of dressings and bandages. We had fun being treated for our ‘cuts’.
Last week in assembly, we celebrated Random Acts of Kindness Day. We learned a new Makaton song from Singing Hands about being kind.
We also read a story about spreading kindness.
Following the assembly, classes were set a challenge to complete as many Kindness tasks as possible over the week. Lots of classes took part and we were delighted to have 2 winners – Room 9 and Room 16. They won a set of kindness books and colouring set.
We’ve also been noticing other acts of kindness across the school from both staff and pupils. Keep an eye out for some special tokens of recognition coming your way and keep spreading the kindness!
The S6 pupils in Howes Hoose have been enjoying using the local gym facilities in Sheddocksley. The pupils are excellent at independently scanning their gym cards when they arrive. They have been trying out a variety of the gym equipment and building their confidence and stamina. The treadmill and bikes are definitely the favoured choices! It is fantastic to see our young people out and about accessing their local community.
Room 5 have been taking part in a sensory art project. This is a structured hour once a week which includes mindfulness practice, sensology and art. We spent the first four weeks exploring different objects and materials in order to show our preferences and make choices. These will then be used going forward to be able to create art. This week we made our first pictures using a mixture of oil paint and poster paint. The oil paint will dry with a bumpy texture which is great for those of us who are tactile learners. We had lots of fun creating our pictures and will continue this project all term. We hope you enjoy seeing some of our work!
This week in our classroom, we embarked on an exciting journey into science, focusing on following instructions and sequences. Our thematic exploration led us to an intriguing experiment, “The Exploding Lunch Bag,” inspired by our ongoing theme of “The Snail and the Whale.”
As part of our scientific adventure, we delved into the fascinating realm of marine life, particularly exploring the unique characteristics of the puffer fish. We discovered this extraordinary creature’s remarkable abilities and peculiarities through discussions and a captivating video presentation.
To further enrich our learning experience, we tried to recreate the pufferfish phenomenon through an engaging experiment. Guided by careful instructions and precise sequences, our young scientists eagerly took on the challenge.
Here are the steps we followed in our experiment:
Put 1/2 cup of vinegar in the sandwich bag.
Add three teaspoons of baking soda to the tissue, then fold it up.
Zip the sandwich bag shut, but leave a corner open to fit the tissue full of baking soda in.
Slip the tissue in, quickly seal the bag, and step back.
Watch the bag slowly expand and explode!
Through careful execution of each step, our pupils witnessed the magic of science unfold as the lunch bag transformed before their eyes. The sense of wonder and excitement in the classroom was palpable as they observed the delightful “explosion” – a testament to the power of following instructions and understanding sequences in scientific experiments.
This hands-on experience encouraged curiosity and critical thinking and highlighted the importance of precision and attention to detail in scientific exploration.
We are proud of our pupils’ enthusiastic participation and interest throughout this experiment. Their willingness to explore, discover, and learn is truly inspiring.
We have been exploring water in room 8. We have had lots of water play where we have been melting ice and finding different ways to do this. When there was some snow we were able to melt the snow as well. To make the snow and ice melt we have used warm water, a hairdryer and sitting ice in the sun. We have also used water to make art, by putting watered down paint in spray bottles and spraying on paper. We made some sensory bottles with water too. We have also begun exploring what lives in the water, such as fish, jellyfish and octopus.
