Month: November 2021

P6/7 November 2021

In Literacy this term, we have written a recount of our October Holidays. I will assess this piece of writing, and then each child will set themselves writing targets to work towards in future writing lessons. The children wrote fantastic acrostic poems to mark Remembrance Day.

 

We have continued to focus on a new spelling rule each week, and the children have practised this in their homework and through spelling activities in class.

In Grammar, we have learned about Similes and Metaphors. We wrote a short piece of writing about a Haunted House, using similes and metaphors to bring our writing to life in the reader’s mind – this was very effective, and the children produced great pieces of writing! Later this term we will learn about more figurative language like personification.

After the holidays we continued with our topic of 2D and 3D shape in maths. We learned to calculate the area of different shapes using the correct formula. We learned about the properties of 3D shape by making posters with a partner, and to learn about the nets of 3D shapes we are currently building cities with nets in groups. Next week we will revisit multiplication and division before moving onto money.

 

In Health and Wellbeing, we have revisited topics of Friendship and Bullying. We learned about the 6 roles in a bullying situation, and some children shared their own experiences of being part of this. In PE, we have been learning about Netball on a Tuesday, and on a Thursday the children have been working to plan and deliver their own lessons to the class with a partner.

Our topic this term is Water and Chemical Reactions. We have so far learned about The Water Cycle, and have begun to explore how some countries do not have access to clean, safe drinking water and toilets. We calculated that we use, on average, 4095 litres of water per week just from flushing the toilets – the children were quite shocked!

 

 

To tie in with Bonfire Night and COP26, we created Glasgow Skyline artwork. We focused on creating the textures of the River Clyde with watercolour paint, then drew the reflections of the skyline on the water. We used different techniques to get the effect of fireworks in the sky.

 

P1/2 November Update

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful response to our Harvest Collection. The P1 children did an excellent job of sending letters and  collecting and sorting the donations. They  also made a card for every household. Primary 6/7 came to help the class to carry the bags of food over to Queen Elizabeth Court as we had far too much to carry by ourselves. The residents were very grateful and  all signed a lovely thank you card. To finish off our Harvest topic the children have also been learning about how Jewish people celebrate Sukkot. Next they will move on to finding out about Festivals of Light in different religions.

In Literacy the children have revised all the sounds they have learnt so far, begun the next set of sounds, and practised reading and making 3 letter words. They also learned about leaving finger spaces in between the words. All the children are taking reading books home now, and we are grateful that you are helping them to practise their reading skills. They are also practising reading their books  to their reading partners from P.6/7 . For this to work well, we need everyone to return the books to school the next day so that they can be used or changed over. We have been doing a variety of activities around the books that are in the Primary One Bookbug Pack, and later this term, the Librarian from Mearns Community Library will be coming to present these to the children.

 

In Numeracy the children have revised all numbers to 10 , practising counting and writing. They have had a hopping challenge to see how far they can hop and count accurately. They will be bringing home a tub with number words in it to practise reading and recognising. They have worked on the language of measurement, and used it in drawing different sizes of items, which was quite a challenge.

Our topic this term is ‘Toys Old and New’. Together the children sorted toys into old and new, made their own timelines to give them understanding of old and new, and discussed the materials that toys are made from. Next they will go even further back into the past and explore really old toys, so if you have any at home they would like to bring in to show the class, they may bring them in for Show and Tell on any day. Miss Robbie will be teaching the class about forces as part of this topic, while Mrs. Smith teaches the P6/7 class  Russian as their 3rd language. They have also being taking part in Drama related to the topic, using their bodies to move in different ways. So far they have successfully turned themselves in to teddies and very disciplined marching soldiers.

Keeping the pulse in different ways has been the focus of our Music lessons and we will be moving on to practising Christmas Carols. In Art we have worked on some Christmas activities that had to be prepared in advance, and will be moving on to using chalk and paint. Some children have still to bring in an old t-shirt or shirt to use as an apron, this is important when we are using these messy materials. In PE, ball skills has been the focus.

P2/3 Update – November 2021

In literacy last term we were extending our writing skills and were focusing on linking sentences using ‘and’ and ‘because’.  The children used their skills to write about their families, hobbies and our favourite toys.  This term we have been looking at formal and informal letters and the children have identified key features of a letter structure to help them construct their success criteria.  They have written a letter to their friend/family and a thank you letter to our dinner ladies thanking them for the lovely lunches they prepare for us every day.  We have also begun our Scottish Reading Challenge to increase our reading for enjoyment.

In numeracy some of the children have been learning to count in twos and identify odd and even numbers; some children have been learning about place value and have been adding hundreds, tens and ones; whilst others have been learning to write number names and ordinal numbers.  We have been building on our mental agility through beating our class scores on ‘hit the button’.  This can be played at home also, here is the link: Hit the Button – Quick fire maths practise for 6-11 year olds (topmarks.co.uk).

In expressive arts we have been learning about pointillism and have created different pictures using the pointillism technique.  We have also begun learning music through Charanga which is an online music resource.

Our Topic this term is keeping healthy.  We have thought of all the ways we can keep healthy and we have designed posters to share with other classes to remind them of the importance of hand washing to keep germs away.

Nursery update – November 2021

A few of the activities taking place in Nursery.

Literacy

This week is Scottish Book Week and the children have been sharing their favourite story books with the staff. We have been talking about the characters, their favourite part in the story and using the pictures to support them to retell the story.

Gym

This week we had great fun in Gym, with balloons. We practiced a range of skills throwing, catching and kicking the balloons. The children also shared with each other how they used other parts of their body to play with their balloon.

We then had a challenge to see how many times they could hit the balloon back and forth with a partner. The highest score was 7! We also had a balloon race where the children had to pass the balloon back under their legs. The last person ran to the front and the first group to the end of the Gym Hall won.

Numeracy

Our current focus is on measurement. We have been doing lots of measuring in nursery and have taken our learning into Fettercairn Woods. In the woods the children had fun finding sticks that were taller and shorter or longer and shorter than the ones the teachers found. We were also comparing the size of different objects and introducing putting them in order from smallest to biggest, shortest to tallest and shortest to longest. The children were also hugging trees and found that they were different widths. They came up with the idea to get others to join them linking arm spans around different trees to see, which was the widest tree in the Forest.

As a home school link to support the children’s learning at home. We sent home a measuring challenge. Included was a piece of ribbon 1m long. The children had to find things that were taller and shorter or longer and shorter than 1m. They have enjoyed sharing their findings with their peers and the teachers.

P4-5 Blog Update November

Literacy

Primary 4-5 have finished their final persuasive pieces of writing and we worked on a ‘final draft’ for these. They wrote a first draft which they checked against our steps to success and then edited it until they were happy that it was their best version!

The class are now learning about the features of a newspaper article and familiarising themselves by reading these before creating their own.

 

Modern Languages

P4-5 have been busy with both Spanish with Miss Davie and French with Miss Riley. In French, we are learning to give our opinion on different foods by saying ‘I like/dislike…because…’

 

In Spanish, the class have been creating amazing comic strips while learning about Spanish greetings and asking ‘how are you?’

 

Numeracy

The class have been working on Addition/Subtraction and have now moved on to multiplication and this will be followed closely by division. P4-5 practice their times tables every week for our ‘morning challenge’ (forwards, backwards and jumbled up) and this has had such a positive impact on their solving of multiplication problems as we got off to a flying start!

We are trying to find rules for our tables to make remembering them and using them easier for us.

 

Topic

The children really enjoyed our Scottish Geography and Landscape topic and finished off by making PowerPoint presentations after doing research about flooding in Scotland.

This term, our topic is inheritance so the children may come home asking questions about why they have blonde hair or are left-handed!

 

 

Health and Wellbeing

The class participated in a BBC live lesson for anti-bullying week and we identified the 6 roles that can be adopted in a bullying situation and what we can do to help – or ensure we don’t take on one of these roles without even realising we have!

In PE this term, the class are doing a block of fitness and we have been doing circuits. The children are working for one minute with a 45 second rest and trying to perfect their form or increase their reps each time. We are tracking our progress each lesson and the children love seeing their improvements each week!

 

Thanks so much to everyone who came to meet me last term for parents’ meetings. As always, if you need me, I’m always just an email away and you can get me on jodi.riley@aberdeenshire.gov.uk