Author: Mr Cormack

January Blog Post P 1 – 5

Literacy

We have been doing some fantastic writing this last week.   We are looking at adjectives and using interesting words. Some of us are learning more new sounds and what words begin with these sounds.  We are also all developing our reading skills.  We are using a range of different strategies.  Children who are more fluent in their reading are looking at different punctuation to add expression into texts.  This term for our speaking and listening focus we will be doing our Scots poems.

 

Numeracy

We are continuing to learn about different strategies to carry out addition sums.  Some of us are learning to complete chimney sums.  We are continuing to practice our times tables – both speedy recall and how we can use this in real life situations. For some the focus is learning different maths language one more/one less than. We are also learning about patterns.

 

Topic

We are carrying out an Enterprise project this term. The children have come up with super ideas about how to make us some money!! You will hear about this in due course. The children are also learning about the United Kingdom.  They will be reading maps, learning about different places and learning about Scottish traditions.

 

                                     

P5-7 December Update

Numeracy

Over the past term, we have been using our knowledge of the times-tables to help solve division problems. We can also use a variety of mental and written methods for multiplication and division.  An example of which is the grid method below which has helped some groups to multiply 3 digit numbers by a single digit.

If you would like to support your child’s learning at home, please encourage them to spend some time each week practising their times-tables – we continue to do this daily in class as well.  Here are some links to games which your child has enjoyed playing in class to develop their knowledge of the times-tables:

  1. https://www.mathplayground.com/math_racer_multiplication.html
  2. https://www.mathplayground.com/math_monster_multiplication.html
  3. https://www.mathplayground.com/multiplication_snake.html
  4. https://www.mathplayground.com/math_monster_division.html

Literacy

Over the past few weeks, we have been continuing to develop our ‘reading for information’ skills.  We have been taking part in ‘Blankety Blanks,’ of which you can see an example of below.  These tasks help to stretch our vocabulary and encourage us to search for synonyms.  Blankety Blanks also encourage teamwork and the discussion of context within short stories or extracts as they are completed in pairs or trios.

   

Health and Wellbeing

This term, we have continued to use the SHANARRI indicators to shape our Health and Wellbeing and Drama lessons.  In November we focused on being ‘Active’ and December, we moved onto ‘Nurtured.’  Our most recent lessons have allowed us to discuss the important ingredients that build positive relationships and recognise and talk about how positive relationships can make us feel.

In PE, we have been having fun experiencing dances from different cultures – we are now focusing on Scottish Country Dance for the weeks leading up to Christmas.

 

 

Blog Post P 1- 5 – December 2021

Literacy

In Literacy we are continuing to work on new sounds.

Some of us have been looking at dictated sentences using all the technical targets we have been taught – capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

 

 

Numeracy

In numeracy we have been looking at addition.

Some children have been concentrating on addition within 5, some within 20 and some within 100.

We are looking at different mental strategies to help us with this.

 

Singing

We’ve been super busy learning our Christmas Songs for our School Christmas Performance.

We hope you enjoy the show.

 

P5-7 Blog – 19.11.21

Literacy

For writing this term, we are writing and creating our own Christmas Story books.  We have been discussing how to structure a story that contains two different dilemmas that will engage our readers.  We have been looking at Pie Corbett’s Story Mountain to help us plan.  We have also been thinking about how to grip our readers from the very first sentence.  Once we have created our books, we will be taking them home to share.

 

Numeracy

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at negative numbers.  We have created numberlines that contain negative numbers and been calculating the difference between two numbers on the numberline.  Next week we will explore where negative numbers are used in real life.

 

 

Climate Change 

Linking into COP-26, we have been discussing climate change by mainly looking at our Carbon Footprints.  We looked at the 5 different areas that make up our Carbon Footprint.  After looking at the different areas we thought about our school and ourselves, and we created 3 goals that we would like to work on to help reduce our footprint.  We have displayed these in the corridor.

 

P1-5 November 2021

Literacy

In Literacy we are continuing to learn new sounds.  Some of us single sounds and some of us blends.  We are learning both to read tricky words and some of us to make sure we are spelling them correctly in our writing. Our main focus in writing this term is to write super sentences this could be including a connective or using an adjective. Some of us will be learning what a sentence is.

Numeracy

In numeracy this term we will be working on both adding and multiplication.  We will also be looking at different 2D or 3D shapes.

Topics

Each week we will be learning about a festival or celebration that is on.  We created lamps for Diwali and wreaths for Remembrance Day this week.  Next week is Anti-bullying Week.

P5-7 Blog Entry 24th September 2021

Literacy

In writing, we are looking at how to write and structure newspaper reports.  Linking in with our Polar Lands topic, we are going to be creating newspaper reports based on Robert Falcon Scott, an Antarctic Explorer.  This week we have been researching the information and next week we will be writing the article.

 

Numeracy

Over the past few weeks, we have been focusing on addition and remembering how to layout our workings.  This week, we have been looking at number challenges using addition.  We particularly enjoyed the Hexagon Puzzles and the Magic Squares.

 

Interdisciplinary Learning

When planning our project this term, the children really wanted to focus on Polar Region animals.  Therefore, we are going to be creating TV documentaries on a chosen animal.  We will be recording the documentaries using iPads and possibly a green screen.

P1-5 September Blog Post

In literacy we have been learning all about The Alphabet. Some of us have been looking at lower case letters, some at capital letters and some at alphabetical order. We must remember that all capital letters sit on the line. Alphabetical order is very tricky but we’re now even putting words into alphabetical order.

In numeracy we have been learning all about numbers. We’ve been thinking how they are constructed, how to form them correctly and talking about the language related to number e.g. bigger, smaller, 1 more, 1 less.

We had a Virtual Lesson with Susan Rhind, our ALEC Educator. We discussed how different feelings affect us and how to deal with them. We took part in activities that showed us how to help others when they are upset or feeling left out.

September 2021

The pupils have been learning about how to write a letter.  They have looked at the important parts of a letter such as the address, date and the informal greeting. They have written a letter to Mrs Rabbit and have received one from Max who works at the museum.  Our topic this term will be Castles.

In numeracy we have played lots of games, used HTO materials, numicon and diennes to help continue with our understanding of numbers.

We created our class charter to help us understand what is expected behaviour of us in class.  We have to always remember to be ready, safe and respectful.

Week Beginning 6th September.

Health and Wellbeing

During our Health and Wellbeing lessons, P5-7 have been focusing on the Shanarri indicator ‘Safe.’  We spent some time dealing with risks and how best to handle a variety of situations – this crossed into our Drama lessons which allowed the children to act out a variety of scenarios and think about the steps they would take if they were to be in a similar predicament.  We have now moved on to on-line safety and have been learning about the benefits and disadvantages of the Internet.  We discussed and learned about when, how and if things should be shared on-line.  The children are now developing their learning by creating information Power-points designed to teach children in P1-5 how to stay safe on-line.  If you would like to discuss staying safe on-line with your child, they can show you the website we have used to inform some of our lessons:

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/watch/

In our PE sessions with Mrs Hutton, we have been enjoying progressing our Basketball skills.  In the coming weeks, we hope to challenge each other and take part in a mini class basketball tournament.

Numeracy

In Numeracy, the children have been refreshing their knowledge of the place value of numbers from 10,000 up to and beyond 1,000,000.  We have been reminding ourselves of the importance of reading questions carefully and pulling out important information to help solve number problems. A Marvellous Me post will be sent home in the coming weeks which will detail what your child has specifically been focusing on during Place Value.

Literacy

During some of our literacy sessions, we have been focussing on reading for information and how this skill is important for life.  If you would like to encourage your child to develop this skill, you could spend some time asking them about books and non-fiction pieces they are reading at home to see if they understand what they are reading.