This week we have been learning to write personal accounts of time of the Titanic. We have been ensuring we have used the correct tense and written it in a diary form.

We have also been learning about how to limit the spread of germs and how to keep our selves safe. We learned about the role of antibiotics and the impact they have had on our lives.

In maths we have been revising addition of large numbers, subtraction using decomposition and multiplying and dividing HTU. We have realised the importance of knowing our times tables to help us with these skills.

We have been working on our presentation skills by creating a design brief for a vessel that can float. We applied out scientific knowledge to ensure our designs would work. We will be applying our knowledge in practice next week when we help the primary 2 classes to learn about properties of floating and sinking.

We have also been working together to create a modern and a traditional advertisement for going on the Titanic. Half of us have been making old style poster and the other half are writing scripts to film  a modern advert using technology. ( more will follow next week!)

This week we have been busy learning about micro organisms and how they impact on our lives. We researched what micro organisms are and found they fall into 3 categories, viruses, bacteria and fungi. We used glitter to demonstrate how easily germs spread and used lavender oil and an “air blaster” to show how far a sneeze carries we then set up and experiment to find out what conditions fungus grows best in and how quickly it grows on different foods. We placed different food types in bags and we are going to observe what happens over the next few weeks. The blackberries are already going mouldy!

We have also been learning about fractions and working out some tricky calculations like simplifying, adding fractions / subtracting and    ensuring the denominator is the same.

In literacy we have been making links with the Titanic topic and have been writing in a personal style. We have designed diaries and are practicing writing in the correct tense to reflect the life of the different classes of passengers.

We have been practicing reading for information, geography skills and improving general knowledge by following the rugby World Cup. By creating a  fact file on Japan and other countries playing in the competition we will increase our knowledge an understanding of these countries and develop our research skills. 

Dear Parent/Carer,

I hope you find the following information useful.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

General Information:

Welcome to the start of new session here at Redwell. I am looking forward to continuing working with you and your child throughout the year. I’m sure P7 will thrive on the challenges and responsibilities that their final year in Primary will bring. They have already settled into our daily routines and have impressed me with their positive attitudes to learning and working with others.

P7 continue to have two 45 minute sessions of P.E each week, one on a Monday and one on a Friday. They will also have an extra 30 minutes of P.E. with me on a Thursday. The pupils will have Art with Mrs Barron, Food Technology with Miss Robinson or Music with Mrs Pennie every Tuesday, on a rotational basis. A reminder that Golden Time is on a Friday afternoon and a selection of activities will be available. Please ensure your child returns their Golden Time Diary on a Monday.

Topic/Learning Context

After consultation with the pupils, we have decided that our Learning Context for this term will have a history focus and will look at The Unsinkable Ship, The Titanic. We have started to look at the construction of the Titanic and the passengers onboard. We have created biographies for the passengers. Next week, we will look more closely at the class system used during the time of The Titanic.

Through this topic we will:

• Look at the timeline of events in the construction, sinking and discovery of The Titanic.
• Look at floating and sinking objects and use this knowledge to design and construct model boats to float (or sink) in the school pond.
• Research the class system on The Titanic and use ICT to create fact files of different passengers.
• Research the length of The Titanic and other famous ships and use this knowledge to create scaled drawings (1cm to 1m) in the playground using chalk.

Core Literacy

• Continue to improve our written work and story writing skills through focusing on some of the technical aspects of our writing, for example punctuation and grammar, as well as maintain the development of engaging our readers through word choice and descriptive phases.
• Develop and produce a variety of imaginative writing and organise writing with a clear structure and logical sequence ensuring we are referring back to our plan.
• Continue to work on comprehension skills during our Reading, Language and Interdisciplinary activities.
• Continue to learn spelling rules and participate in a variety of activities to promote and help develop our spelling.

Core Numeracy

• Consolidate an understanding of place value – that the individual digits that form a number each have a value and to build and describe numbers in a variety of ways.
• To further work on all multiplication tables and develop memory skills for these.
• To develop our understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages. Currently we have been focusing on fractions: learning how to calculate equivalent fractions, how to simplify fractions fully, find fractions of a product and add and subtract fractions with the same denominator.

Thank you for your continuing support!