P2AG had a really busy week this week! We performed our nativity twice and also took part in the cake and carols performance today.

Enterprise

This week we have been running the Sunnyside Post Office. We have been designing, selling and advertising our handcrafted stamps. We also have a team of pupils responsible for collection, sorting and delivering the Christmas cards. Whilst running our enterprise we have been able to use a range of our skills developed in primary two. Millie, who is part of the stamp making team, said “we have been designing stamps” – using our art skills. Evin, who is part of the selling team, said “we have been using what we know about money to work out change” and Rhys said  he has been “working out total costs” – using his knowledge of numeracy and addition.

Literacy

This week in literacy we have been developing our identity as a reader by listening and reading a variety of new texts. We have been learning to identify the elements of a front cover and use a contents page to navigate around a non-fiction book.

We also had a visit from P5AB on Thursday for our paired reading session. During the session, we discussed what we liked and disliked about the book we read with our ‘big buddies’.

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy, we have been revising the concepts covered during this term. We have focused on money, fractions, addition and subtraction this week and have been able to apply our knowledge whilst playing a variety of numeracy games (Reggie, Cole, Lilley-Mai).

We have also been learning to use our maths knowledge in different context this week. Evin was able to use his knowledge of coins and subtraction to issue change to customers who bought our stamps. In addition, Rhys and Nikola also used their mathematics skills to work out the total cost of stamps.

Nativity

This week, we performed in front of an audience. We projected our voices so the audience could hear us and we also made sure to follow the silent stage signals. We also preformed to an audience during the cake and carols event today. We have been learning to sign “We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” using Makaton, which is a type of sign language.

Primary 2 and Miss Gillon.

This week has been very busy and important for P1HD. On Monday, we rehearsed for out Nativity for the last time. On Tuesday, we did our first dress rehearsal in front of all pupils and staff. On Wednesday, we did the real thing and performed our Nativity to friends and family members. Miss Duncan was very proud!

“I liked the bit where we were singing Little Grey Donkey clipping clopping.” – Marcus

“I liked to sing all the songs.” – Angus

“We dressed up in our costumes. We had angels and villagers.” – Eilidh

“I had to do the actions for the Little Grey Donkey song.” – Noah

“I liked when my mum and dad were at my Nativity because I liked waving at my mum and dad.” – Harvey

“I liked the angels’ dance.” – Zayna

“I liked when we sung the angel song.” – Olivia

“I liked Little Grey Donkey because it’s my favourite song.” – Kai

“I liked the songs.” – Wallace

“I was an inkeeper and I had to wear a costume. I liked to sing ‘We’d like to tell you a story’.” – Alex

“I liked when Alex went up on the stage and I liked when we had to go up and do our angel dance.” – Malcolm

“I liked singing Down in the Stable.” – John

“I liked when I walked around the parents because I was Joseph.” – Jacob

Primary 2OD have had a busy week with not one, but two nativity performances! Here is what else we have been up to.

Maths:

We have been using coins to make different amounts from 1p to 20p.  We had to find different ways to make the totals. (Cailean)  We worked at different stations this week using iPads, a hedgehog, beads to make colour patterns, and dominos to help us count. (Leah, Amber T, Jiyana)

Literacy:

We wrote letters to Santa this week.  We told him our name, age, and where we lived.  I told him what I would like for Christmas. (Ashley)  In my letter to Santa I said I would leave him some cookies! (Kacey)  I said please and thank you to Santa. (Amber T)

Expressive Arts:

This week was our nativity.  I liked learning the songs to tell the story of the first Christmas. (Ayleigh)  My favourite part was being King Herod and having to do an evil laugh!  (Daniel)  I thought the camels were the most important characters because they carry royalty. (James F)

We learned the song We Wish You a Merry Christmas and used Makaton sign language while we sang it.  (Aimee)

We got to make Christmas hats with Mrs Neill this week.  (Erin) Mrs Cutherbert drew around her hands to make antlers for our hats so they look like reindeer.  (Catherine)  We will get to wear them at the Christmas party next Wednesday. (Harvey)

We’ve had a fun week this week!

Numeracy

Today we done game stations in numeracy (Keira). Our games let us practice addition and subtraction, rounding, division and symmetry (Danny and Eray).

We completed our addition and subtraction hinge question this week (Jaxon). We then started to learn about co-ordinates (Megan). We learnt how to lay out a co- ordinates grid (Danny). We also learnt how to read along a y axis and x axis (Brandyn).

Literacy

This week we wrote a story about the man on the moon (Brooke). We watched the man on the moon advert (Emma). Then we planned our stories, our plans included the eight key events and how we thought the characters were feeling (Alexandra).

We left our class novel on a dramatic cliff hanger, then we predicted what was going to happen next in the story (Ruvimbo).

IDL

This week we went on a trip to Camera Obscura! We went on a coach to get to our trip (Marcus).  While we were there we went through the mirror maze (Erin). We also went through a vortex tunnel (Marcus). We got to go to the top to the Obscura and spy on people in Edinburgh (Megan). One final thing we done was go on the roof terrace, we used binoculars to look at the Christmas market and Edinburgh castle (Eray).

Today we sang the cake and carols event, we were nervous but it was fun (Brandyn).

Thank you for reading our blog,

Haris  (P4/5’s digit leader) and P4/5EG.

We had a very full week this week and even found time to fit in a school trip.

Literacy

In writing, we wrote a story called Mog’s Christmas Calamity. It had been a Christmas advert a few years ago so we watched it and retold the story to it (Michael). When planning our story, we created a planner that told the main events in the story. We watched the advert a few times to remember the order of the events and picked out 8 main ideas (Sophie). Our success criteria included 3 emotions, 3 WOW words and 3 movements per paragraph (Grace).  The advert was originally a Sainsbury’s one and we hope they would be happy with our stories (Scott S).

Maths

We were learning about co-rdinates this week. You often find them on maps (Adam). We drew a 10 x 10 co-ordinates grid then a 15 x 16 grid then a 8 x 14 grid to mark co-ordinate points (Lily). Once we understood how to read co-ordinates and plot points, we followed a set of instructions to make a picture using co-ordinate points (Jorja).

IDL – School Trip – Camera Obscura

On Wednesday we went on a school trip to Camera Obscura in Edinburgh. The building was a big tower with 6 floors (Leah). We started on level 4 and saw hologram pictures.  One of the items was a hologram of sweets and when you tried to pick them up, you couldn’t (Karis). There was a fake fruit bowl on top of a cube covered in mirrors. You could put your head through it and it looked like your head was on the plate but your body disappeared behind the mirrors (Lily). On floor 5 there were lots of electric items. There was a green wall that we stood in front of and pressed a button. When it flashed, our silhouettes remained on the wall. When we got up to the camera obscura we saw the streets around central Edinburgh and got shown a trick where you could pick up people with a piece of card (Airingas). On floor 3 there were CCTV cameras and we could move them around so that we could spy on people in Edinburgh (Grace).  There was a room we went in to show us how hot or cold we were. The hottest parts were pink and red and colder parts were blue and green (Sophie). Finally on floor 2  there was a mirror maze. We had to wear plastic gloves so we didn’t mark the mirrors and it was hard to find a way out (Jack). We went through a tunnel to cross a bridge but the tunnel was spinning, making us think we were moving. It was really hard to walk through and I fell over lots (Karis).

We had so much fun on our trip and would recommend it to anyone else.

Achievements

Grace and Rebecca represented our school at the First Lego League competition and we are so proud that they returned to school with a trophey.

At judo, Sophie got her red belt with a black stripe on it. She is working hard on her next belt.

Leon and his cousin have been working hard to build a Lego set with 1000 pieces. It is finally finished!

We have had a very musical week in P7JB, practising for both our ‘Coffee and Carols’ performance and the Scottish Opera project we are taking part in. We have also begun to think about a plan for our P7 party next week, including learning more Scottish ceilidh dances, and have been consolidating our learning in numeracy and writing.

We started to explore a new picture book called ‘Mooseltoe’ this week and are learning about the literary techniques of repetition, rhyme, alliteration and humour. Hopefully this will help us improve our own writing!

Reading

We were in groups of 4 or 5 and we were reading a story called ‘Mooseltoe’ about a moose who was so busy and he had so much stuff to do on his to-do list. He decorated the house with Christmas stuff but he forgot to put up a Christmas tree. So he put lots of decorations around him.
At first we had to try to guess what the story was from the front cover which had shapes over it. We could see a star, some decorations and a candy cane and guessed it was a festive themed book. (Husnain)

We were learning to find clues in the picture to tell us about Moose. We had to write what we liked about the book. He used himself as a tree. (Thomas)

Writing

This week we were writing our story of ‘Man on the Moon’ from our plan. We had to include WOW words and we had options; 2 WOW words, 4 WOW words or 6 WOW words per paragraph. I feel like I got on well with it because I included lots of description. The man on the moon is lonely and doesn’t have anyone to talk to because he lives on the moon and everyone else lives on earth, but one day he gets to contact a little girl. (Eva)

Numeracy

In numeracy we’ve been doing Christmas code crackers. Around the class there’s paper stuck on the walls with different subtraction and addition sums and then whatever the answer is has a letter that goes with it and it’s either a pun or an answer to a joke. You have to find out what it is. We had to know how to subtract and add, and had to double check it because the answers might not make sense first time. (Ellie)

“What do you call a Christmas detective?”

“Santa Clues!”

IDL

In IDL we’ve been practising for our Opera performance and today everybody got together (all the P6s and all the P7s) so we could hear how everyone was doing. It went quite well for my group because I think we were loud enough and we knew the words for the song. The rehearsal was better than I expected. (Kate)

HWB

We’ve been learning songs for ‘Coffee and Carols’ and we will sing them to the parents. We had to learn 3 songs, ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’, ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ and ’12 Days of Christmas’.
We’ve had to be positive, take part and use our vocal skills. I feel fine about it and not nervous because we did it last year! (Logan)

Lots of us earned marathon certificates and four people have now completed their second marathon, including me! (Ahmed)

With Christmas just around the corner,  things are getting exciting in Primary 7! We have been working hard to cram in as much learning as possible before we ring in 2019, so here is an insight into what we have been up to this week…

Maths – In Maths this week we have been learning the different ways you can pay for items. We learned you can pay for items using cheques, credit cards, debit cards, cash, PayPal accounts, mobiles, vouchers and gift cards. We have been learning that there are pros and cons to using a credit card. We are beginning to create texts, including PowerPoints and informative ATM machines, to demonstrate these. We have also learned to calculate APR and investigated pay day loan adverts and discovered that you have to read the small print when getting a loan as you could have to pay back a lot more than you realise. To improve our learning,  we feel that we would like to investigate credit cards further to understand the rules of credit card companies to help us avoid getting into debt in the future. Miles, Brooke, Connor, Casey and Megan

PE – We were learning to remember the dances for social dancing. We have been learning to be mature as we had to hold hands with our partners without complaining. We learned this by watching carefully, listening to instructions and performing the dances ourselves. We need to improve one dance in particular as some people were finding the moves tricky and some are new to us this year. Agata, Rebecca, Harry and Lennox

Scottish Opera – We have been learning to remember the songs for our Opera performance. The Spanish group have also been learning some simple Spanish phrases. We have had to memorize all the different songs and practise them. We need to listen to the music carefully to make sure that we are singing in time with the music and not going too fast or slow. We are working on our volume before the Scottish Opera performers come and visit us on the first week back after the holidays. Izzy, Marek, Josh, Lila and Breagh

Reading – We have been learning to improve our prediction skills. The book we have been working on is a Christmas book called ‘Mooseltoe’. It is a book about a moose who is trying to get everything ready for Christmas but forgets to buy a Christmas tree. He can’t find one on Christmas Eve, so he decides that he will be his family’s Christmas tree and so they decorate him with baubles, tinsel and lights. We discussed this book using the 3 Sharings – Puzzles, Patterns and Connections and Likes/Dislikes. We will look at the literary techniques in this book next week. Ronin, Aria, Ray and Callum

Writing – We have been learning to write a story about a lonely man on the moon and a little girl who tries to get in touch with him from Earth. We have been trying to include exciting openers, pathetic fallacy, WOW words and similes to add plenty of detail and description to our work. We are ensuring that we are writing in paragraphs. We will finish and edit these stories next week. Skye, Rhigan and Alan