Primary 3 and 4 took part in Shared Education this year with Mrs Mc Cusker's primary 3 and 4 class from Donemana Primary School. We were already familar with most of the children as we have been working together for the past 4 years.
Due to Covid, we were restricted as to how we could deliver our shared lessons, so we decided that we would complete the work in our own classes and then meet up virtually on screen through Collaborate each week to discuss how we got on and what we learned. Our first meeting was socially distanced in DPS playground to hand deliver our pen pal letters which we wrote the previous week. The children also played a game together with Mrs Mc Cusker which they really enjoyed.
Our topic was Animals in Winter and the children were very enthusiastic as they all loved finding out about different animals from all over the world.
In our mixed groups, we went outdoors for a Scavenger Hunt around the school grounds and made Pic collages of the things we found. We used ICT and non fiction books to research different habitats including Antarctica and the sea, how animals use camouflage and why some animals are becoming endangered. We used different materials to make animals found in Antarctica and used them to create an antarctic wall display. We researched our animal and filled out a fact file on them. We then used this information to write a report about them on the computers and ipads. After looking at adjectives and how they can be used to describe things, we used adjectives in poems to create our animals poems.
We looked at the weather and how it affects our daily lives and kept a weather diary for one week in February. We watched videos and powerpoints explaining different types of weather and used this information to write a few facts about this. We also painted weather pictures. This was another topic the children enjoyed learning about. The ice egg experiment was also great fun as they discovered the properties of ice.
There were some fantastic pieces of art and written work completed by all the children so it was a very worthwhile topic. Both Mrs Mc Cusker and myself were very proud of how our children were totally engaged in the project and their participation in both the online and face to face meetings.
We are thoroughly looking forward to our day at the village play park and our trip in June where we can meet up socially and have fun together, sharing our thoughts about what we have learned and seeing the many varieties of animals.
The photographs and video showcase all the learning that took place and I hope in the near future we will share some photographs capturing all the fun and excitement of the Shared Education trip to Tropical World.
