Month: January 2022

P6/7 Update – January 2022

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our focus in literacy since returning to school after Christmas has been on Scots Language. We listened to The Gruffalo in Scots before unpicking some of the Scots words used. We created individual Scots word banks to keep track of all the new words we are learning! This week we explored the first chapter of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stane’. We then tried to re-write a passage written in Scots to English. I know lots of children in the class have been enjoying practising their Burns Poems at home!

In grammar we have been learning about more figurative language – we have now explored similes and metaphors, alliteration, onomatopoeia and personification. We have discussed how using these literary devices in our writing can really improve the experience for the reader as they will have a clearer picture in their head of what is being described.

In maths our focus has been on Fractions. We have learned how to find equivalent fractions, as well as how to simplify fractions to their simplest form. This week we have learned how to calculate the fraction of a number. Some children have moved onto ordering and adding and subtracting fractions.

Next in maths we will be moving onto information handling where we will explore charts and graphs.

In Health and Wellbeing at the moment we are discussing the dangers of smoking. P6/7 were very shocked to learn about the substances found in a cigarette! We learned about the effects smoking can have on all our major organs.

         

We have been using the worry box more in class, taking lots of time to talk through anonymous worries and offer advice – it is lovely to hear the children supporting one another.

In the coming weeks we will be looking at self-esteem and body image.

We have now finished our Water and Chemical Reactions topic. We carried out a science experiment using Vitamin C tablets – we put the tablets in a bottle with water and put a balloon on top. The children loved watching the balloons inflate with carbon dioxide.

Our next topic is Energy and Sustainability, which we started this week. So far we have learned about what being sustainable means. The children would like to learn more about climate change, greenhouse gases and how we can help to make our planet by being more sustainable.

P1 Update – January 2022

Primary One have completed the sounds of the alphabet and are working hard on their reading and comprehension skills and learning to write a dictated sentence. Thank you for supporting us with their homework and going over their reading books.

In numeracy we made a great start in addition, concentrating on vocabulary such as add, altogether, more than, plus, equals, gives, makes. In Maths we are working on time, and have been talking about the calendar, seasons, months, and days of the week. Please take every opportunity to talk about what you are doing on different days and revise order of the days at home. We will move on to reading analogue and digital clocks and telling the time on the hour.

We have been discussing weather, looking at the BBC weather website, and writing a weather report.

In PE with Miss Davie we have been doing Scottish Dancing. We have been working on pas de bas, skipping and continuous dance sequence such as Military 2 step.

The children have been to keen to practise greetings in French. In Science we have been learning about electricity. Vicky Armstrong also came to lead an art lesson on the theme of Electricity. The children got a chance to film each other making light pictures with torches as inspiration for wire sculptures, and also made electric circuits with salt playdough. In RME we are looking at themes from story of Noah’s Ark such as trust, obedience and promises.

Nursery blog 19.01.2022

We have welcomed 6 new children into Nursery so we have lots of new friends to play with.

The children have enjoyed recalling their Christmas holidays, we have done black pen drawings and the staff have scribed for the children.

We have also enjoyed leaning about our new children through their all about me  bags.

We are looking at the weather, the children have taken a weather diary to fill in at home and we are recording the weather in Nursery. We have frozen dinosaurs and investigate how they melt this has led on to making chocolate crispies and marshmallows on the firepit. Lots of opportunity to discuss solids and liquids!

We are covering Numeracy through games, activities, and roleplay. The children have asked for a café and shop in our roleplay corner. So there will be lots of opportunities for maths and mark making.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks …

  • Burn night
  • Scottish dancing and Burn s night supper snack.
  • Chinese New Year, Chinese writing, Chinese zodiac, and Dragon dancing

 

 

P2/3 January Update

To incorporate Burns Day within expressive arts we have been learning some Scottish country dances such as the Canadian Barn Dance and the Happy Gordons and in art we have been learning about the Scottish artist Steven Brown.  The children have discussed the artistic features of Steven Brown’s art work and have created their own McCoo’s.  The children have also created their own tartan, focusing on the repetition of their pattern.

In literacy, the children have chosen their new class novel and they have chosen The Bfg.  They have carried out a listening activity and illustrated the Bfg, focusing on the detail that they were given within the story.  Within writing the children have been learning about poetry and have created their own acrostic poems and are now learning how to write rhyming poems.

In numeracy, we have moved on to addition within 10, 20, 100 and 1000.  We have been revising our number facts and have been using lots of concrete materials to support us.

Our focus in topic this term is Fettercairn countryside.  We have discussed all the amenities in and around Fettercairn and have mapped out where our house is in relation to the Fettercairn Square.  The children have expressed they want to find out more about the Royal Arch and therefore we will be focusing on this as part of our learning.

P4-5 Blog Update – January

Hello everyone, Happy New Year! P4-5 have settled well back into school life after a very excitable and busy Christmas term.

We have re-established our class charter based on the school’s visions, values and aims. We also looked at the UNCRC children’s rights and used some of these to form the basis of our charter too. The two pupil council reps, Helena and Aiden (who were voted in last term) have been looking at ways to feed forward ideas from the class in their meetings.

                         

Literacy

The children have been studying different types of poetry with Miss Davie and they have been learning to use figurative language such as alliteration, personification, and onomatopoeia in their poems!

We will be studying ‘Cosmic’ by Frank Cottrell Boyce, in line with our new topic this term which is space. The children are continuing to practice their reading and spelling throughout the week in class.

Maths

In maths, the children have started learning about fractions with Miss Riley. We are finding out fractions of amounts of things and working out what to do when the numerator is more than one. Primary 4/5 are finding this tricky if they are not confident with their times tables. If you would like some extra practice at home, you can visit https://www.timestables.co.uk/

The children are also continuing with weight and volume with Miss Davie, who is really enjoying hearing about the class baking and cooking at home to reinforce these skills!

Health and Wellbeing

This term, we are working on finding out what our internal and external motivators are and using these to ensure we can reach our goals! We are trying to set long term goals for our lives, and short-term goals for a hobby, interest, or school subject.

PE – In PE, we are learning a range of Scottish Country Dances! The children can not believe how tiring it is!

Other Curricular Areas

Music – We are learning to sing and play some reggae music. The children were interested to find out more about the history of reggae and how it became a well-known music genre in the 1970s.

RME – The children are studying humanism.

Languages – Primary 4-5 are learning how to say their birthday, and to ask someone’s birthday in Spanish. We are revising saying and writing our numbers in French.