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.

This week we learned about using alliteration and applied this learning to our writing. The children did well to make their writing more interesting using figurative language.

To create our script for the Christmas Carol Concert, we made a storyboard showing the Christmas Story. We have also written imaginative Christmas stories using story starters – the children had to continue writing in the style the way the author had started the story; this was very effective!

Last week in maths, some of the children in the class taught the other pupils how to do long multiplication – feedback from the children shows they enjoyed being taught by their peers!

We have now completed our Money topic in maths, where we learned about adding, subtraction, multiplying and dividing money values, profit and loss, credit and debit cards, and how money can affect our feelings.

 

A few weeks ago, we had a visit from a local police officer to talk about online safety and bullying. This theme has continued in our Health and Wellbeing discussions, and we are continuing to work on how we interact with our peers.

This week we made Christmas trees with baubles showing what we are grateful for.

With Miss Davie, the P6/7 have been learning to play Deck The Halls on the xylophone. We have been practising for our Christmas Carol Concert, and we hope to see lots of you there!

In our topic, we have been researching the importance of water conservation, and we made posters to encourage others to save water. The children focused on using persuasive language to create an eye-catching poster. Next in our topic, we will carry out some simple chemical reactions.

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.

 

Over the last 2 weeks we have been planning and writing a newspaper article on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. The children have taken on the role of a journalist, and we have learnt about the key features of a newspaper article. When the children have completed their final draft, I will send a copy of the newspaper articles via Marvellous Me.

For our comprehension work this week, we focused on the ‘Metalinguistics’ reading strategy – this means we explored new words and researched the meanings. This helps the children develop a greater understanding of the text.

In maths this week we have focused on multiplication. Most children have focused on mental multiplication, and we have learned about the halving and doubling strategy to aid us when calculating multiplication problems. Here is the link to the video that we watched which explains the strategy – Multiplication Strategy: Doubling and Halving – YouTube

Some children have been working on long multiplication word problems.

In Health and Wellbeing, we discussed our emotions and our emotional needs. In pairs the children created different characters. I gave the children a range of scenarios, and they discussed whether or not their emotional needs were being met. The children came up with lots of positive coping strategies that we can use if we feel upset or down.

 

We learned about earthquakes for our topic this week. The children researched facts on the chromebooks to answer a range of questions about earthquakes and why they happen. This afternoon we carried out an experiment using jelly, marshmallows and straws – we tried to create an ‘earthquake-proof structure’ that would withstand 30 seconds of shaking in the jelly!

In Literacy we have continued to focus on our class novel – Holes. For our writing, we focused on creating a detailed description of the yellow-spotted lizard from the book. The children used expanded noun phrases to build up a picture of the lizard in the reader’s mind. This week we have started writing informal letters from the perspective of Stanley, the main character in the book.

Each spelling group is focusing on a different spelling pattern/rule each week, and we have been practising our words in lots of active ways!

In Maths last week, we were learning about place value to 1,000,000 and beyond. We learned how to round whole and decimal numbers. This week we have moved onto addition, and over the next few weeks will revise subtraction, multiplication and division.

On Monday we were very lucky to take part in a Health and Wellbeing workshop delivered by SCARF. This focused on physical and mental wellbeing – there was lots of great discussion about how we can keep our minds and bodies healthy.

We are continuing with our theme of friendship in health and wellbeing lessons, as well as having circle time discussions on responsibility and trust.

This week for topic we learned about Volcanoes. We focused specifically on the structure of a volcano, and after learning about it the children were tasked with creating a poster showing what they learned. We worked in groups where each child had a role, and we only had 30 minutes to complete the poster. As you can see, the children did a fantastic job on this task! Next week we will be learning about Earthquakes.

 

We have had a busy 2 weeks in P6/7 and the children are settling very well into routines.

This week we started our new class novel ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar. As we explore the book this term, we will be learning about different reading comprehension strategies to help us develop a deeper understanding of the texts we read. We have analysed the front cover and the blurb to make predictions about the book – the children had some very interesting ideas

We have started the new term by focusing on Place Value in maths, initially on whole numbers to 1,000,000. Next week we will be learning about rounding whole and decimal numbers. We will also be covering shape this term.

On the first week of term P6/7 explored Children’s Rights and Responsibilities (UNCRC). As a class we agreed on the most appropriate Rights and Responsibilities we would like to focus on in the classroom, and this has formed our class charter.

This term in Health and Wellbeing, we will be focusing on making and maintaining friendships, as well as emotions.

In PE, we are focusing on golf with Miss Davie.

The children created fantastic self-portraits to display in the classroom. We created a mindfulness-inspired background, focusing on using lots of different patterns – we think they look great!

This term our topic will be Natural Disasters. We will complete a KWL to gather information about what the children already know, and what they want to learn.

If you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to contact me: erin.robbie@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Literacy – The class have been practicing researching, note taking, planning and writing discursive pieces or balanced arguments. We have discussed a lot of current affairs in class in line with our topic and have argued points such as ‘should we try to cut down on single use plastic?’ and ‘are zoo’s ethical?’ The children have enjoyed doing the research into the topics and writing arguments both for and against each, to try to engage the reader. The children have been self and peer assessing their writing against our steps to success and using this feedback to improve their pieces.

Numeracy – The class have been revising different topics in Maths during the last few weeks we have gone back over operations, money, and time to name a few! The children said they are benefitting from a little refresh of the things we’ve covered across the year (some as far back as term 1).

Topic – P6-7 Had an in-school election last week. Our candidates were:
Roisin Brown – Representing Children’s Party
Findlay Armstrong – Scottish Health and Environmental Education Party
Ryan Mears – The Thistle Party
Sophia Leon – Scottish Children’s Voices Party
Rose Greengrass – Scottish School Party

The rest of the school cast their votes on our ballot papers and posted them in the ballot box on Friday 4^th June.

Congratulations to Sophia, who won the election and is now our class ‘First Minister’ and her party are in power for the rest of the term!

Well done to all the candidates who took part, your manifestos were all fantastic!

Sports Challenge – The sheer grit and determination the children put into choreographing and learning their dance and the creativity they showed in designing their obstacle course was just fantastic. Miss Davie and I are so proud of all the children, as I’m sure those of you who made it along to watch will agree!

Thank you to all of P6-7 for all your hard work this year. I know it’s been a crazy one, but I have loved every minute of being back in the classroom with you all and I feel very lucky to have been your teacher this year.

I hope everyone has a relaxing summer break and we have lots of sunny days during the holidays!

For the last two weeks P1/2 have been working on fractions. We have been dividing shapes into halves and quarters. We linked this with doubling and halving numbers. We have also been working on money, P1 working on subtraction within 10p and £10 and P2 using the 50p coin.

P1 have been learning ‘ck’ and ‘ai’ words and writing capital letters. P2 have begun to work on their own imaginative stories. So far we decided on characters and wrote the opening part. We will continue to work on this for the next couple of weeks. We have also been learning about speech marks and thinking of different words to use instead of ‘said’.

We have been working through the list of common words and using movement and paired dictation to help us with quick recollection.

Outside we worked with a partner to create art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy, but sadly, nobody else can see it, as we put everything back where we found it, following our 4^th rule!