John Muir Explorer - Day One

We headed up to Craigmillar Castle Park for a jam packed day, full of exploration. In class we had already thought about what we would like to do and the things we would like to learn and we have also started to learn about life cycles so we will understand better about the different stages animals and insects may be going through when we discover them in the forest.

Our activities in the forest were:

1. Find a wild place, that we will return to every week
2. Complete a treasure hunt with a parntner
3. Tree Identification - use pictures of leaves to try to look for the different trees in the wood.
4. Nature Alphabet - colelct different items to then create a message or make your name with.

We were lucky with the weather which always helps and although the wind picked up we were fairly sheltered in side the forest. We even spotted a kestrel on our walk home, hovering in the sky looking for it's prey and could hear but not see pheasants lurking in the forest where we were.

FINDING OUR WILD PLACES

 

 

INSECT DISCOVERY

 

 

 TREASURE HUNT

 

 

TREE IDENTIFICATION

 

 

NATURE ALPHABET

 

A very successful first day had and we are looking forward to heading out again next week.

 

John Muir Award - Trips Out

P6 are taking part in the John Muir Award again this year. We are hoping to achieve our Explorer Award this year which involves lots of learning in class as well as getting out and about to explore over 8 days.

The dates that we will be out exploring are below and the class need to come prepared each time with the following:

1. Packed lunch
2. Juice
3. Rucksack/Bag to carry lunch in
4. Suitable clothing for the weather e.g. waterproof jacket
5. Suitable footwear e.g. trainers or welly boots if it has been raining

Tuesday 24th May
Tuesday 27th May
Monday 2nd June
Tuesday 10th June
Monday 16th June
Tuesday 24th June

Our 8 days will also include our school trip on Wednesday 25th June and hopefully an activity day in June. We are waiting on confirmation of this.

It would also be great if, as a family, you could get out and about and enjoy the local area, heading out to explore. We are very lucky to have so many parks on our door step or only a short journey away. Arthur's Seat and Craigmillar Castle Park are two great examples.

A great APP to download that gives you lots of ideas for easy activities to do outside is WILD TIME.

I hope to hear lots of exciting stories from the children about all the outdoor activities that they have been up to in the evenings and at the weekend.

John Muir Festival

On Wednesday 23rd April we attended the John Muir Festival along with P3. It was a celebration of John Muir's approach of experiencing the great outdoors. It was also to commerate his birth which was on Monday 21st April, 1838 and the opening of the new John Muir Way.

 

The festival took place on a section of the new John Muir Way, stretching 134 miles from Dunbar, his birth place, to Helensburgh on the West Coast of Scotland.

 

We walked for a mile along the Edinburgh Canal before taking part in a selection of activities where we observed and documented the sights and sounds around us. It was a very successful and enjoyable morning and a great way for us to kick start our work for the Explorer John Muir Award which we hope to complete before the summer term.

 

 

Walking a mile in John Muir's shoes



Walking a mile on the new John Muir Way



John Muir shares his love for nature as we walk




Creating seed bombs



Mixing the seeds with the soil



Moudling it in to a ball to create the seed bomb




Catapulting the seed bombs in to the prepared soil




Shooting the seed bombs



John Muir talks about one of his inventions




It was a water clock



10 minutes to record all that we can see around us

Time to draw what we see above us in the sky

Lots of different shapes and figures were spotted

Thinking of different ways we can move

Finally a centipede was created through movement

Skiing - Lesson 6

Our final lesson today at Hillend and although pretty foggy we had a great last lesson.

We have worked hard over the last 6 weeks and many of us have gained our Level 1 in skiing intruction with the rest of us receiving an Introduction to Skiing certificiate.

Offer the 6 weeks we have learned to:

• Control our snow plough
• Control our speed
• Stop while going down hill
• Use the tows confidently
• Turn as we move down the slope

Each week we moved further up the slope and with this everyone's confidence increased as well.

We are all very proud of our achievements.