Our Weekly School News – Sharing our learning with the school Community
Please have a read and a chat about what some of our Classes have been up to this week.
Primary 1a
We’re all enjoying being back at school and we are ready to learn! We’ve been busy the past two weeks with lots of interesting jobs!
This week we’ve learned ‘b’ and ‘y’.
Skye: I like learning my sounds. I liked learning the ‘b’. We were drawing on balloons and bananas!
Iris: I like doing sounds too. ‘b’ was fun!
Charlie: We were watching Geraldine the Giraffe for our sounds. She’s really funny, sometimes she’s naughty when she finds the things in her house beginning with the letters.
Ayla: I like reading the stories and reading with buddies!
We’ve finally reached number 20 in Ten Town!
Kaci: I like the Tia Ten Show. My favourite number so far has been 17. They were making 17 rolls of bread!
In our class we’ve started making our role play area into Castle Douglas. Our topic this term is going to be My Community, My World.
Murry: I liked making the road and the cars for the road.
Abby: I made The Mad Hatter café to go in our town.
Ted has been going on lots of adventures recently. Miss Conacher took Ted home for Christmas and he shared his holiday adventures. Riley also took Ted home last weekend.
Riley: I let Ted nap with me and we were playing together. He met a new friend, Buddy the Elf.
Reminders
Next week we’ll be sending home our Scots Poem to learn! Look out for the poem in next week’s homework. Also, thank you to everyone who has sent back CAPER letters. We’ll get back to you soon to confirm information.
Primary 1b
What a super start we have had to Term 3 and it is great to be back.
There has been some wonderful imaginative play happening in the classroom, all led by the children and their fantastic imaginations. We have had tents and dens made from chairs and blankets, with the children working as a team and problem solving as they go along. We have re-organised our dressing up box which has led to some super role play and story telling. Our builders yard has turned into a Hardware store called ‘TAS’. The children discussed what is sold in a hardware store:
Kai “hammers”
Flynn “screws”
Eryithsyai: “tools”
Hannah: “you’ll need money”
We wanted to link it to Castle Douglas as our new topic is ‘My Community/My World’. We will be looking at and learning about our local area but also the wider world; thinking about facilities, jobs and also how we can help to look after our environment. We will be using our new role play area to help us learn about money – recognising the different coins.
We enjoyed our Forest Friday session where we continued to make dens but with wood and grass. We had great fun climbing trees in the Nature Garden and adventuring – being pirates!
We had great fun writing on bananas this week as part of our phonics sessions.
We made bird feeders using toilet roll holders and twine.
Ziya:” I liked playing with my friends; building things”
Mya: “I liked playing with my friends”
Eddie: “playing in the craft area and making tents and making stuff for Brodie’s zoo”
Kai: “me and Zane did a birthday card for my Dad”
Hannah: “I liked playing with my best friend Angus”
Charlotte: “I liked colouring the yogurt pot”
Ellie: “I love playing inside and outside”
Beth: Miss Gainford teached us what’s not alive – a coat’s not alive”
Eddie had great fun with Ben last weekend – Ben went to football and had a picnic.
Mya is taking Ben home this weekend – have fun Mya and Ben!
Reminders
Next week we’ll be sending home our Scots Poem to learn! Look out for the poem in next week’s homework. Also, thank you to everyone who has sent back CAPER letters. We’ll get back to you soon to confirm information.
Primary 2
We have been learning about quarters and halves in Maths.
Oona – each quarter is the same size.
Clay – you can share your cubes between two people.
We have a mini weather station. We are going to be measuring the weather for the next four weeks. We looked at a thermometer and we are going to be using this to see how hot and cold it is.
We learned a dance about threading a needle in P.E.
Noah – It was really funny
Rory – I liked using the heavy steps best.
Primary 2/3
We have been learning about fractions in maths.
Lewis – I have learned about halves and quarters.
Eamon – I have been doing different quantities in fractions.
We started work on a piece of art to go with our poem. We were mixing colours and creating textures to use for our crocodiles.
Summer –We are learning to use the turtle on textease.
Jack J – Now we take our Accelerated reader books home.
Reminders
We have started to learn our Scots Poem, The Crocodile. A copy came home with homework this week. Please keep practising at home too.
Please remember PE kits for Monday.
Primary 3
This week. we have been learning about different species of trees. In a group, we used the search engine on the computer to find out information about a specific tree.
Cara – ‘We used bullet points for our facts. We put them on a poster’.
Imogen – ‘We presented our poster to the class. We spoke loudly and clearly’.
We discussed the importance of trees in our community.
Morgan – ‘Trees give us fresh air to breathe.’
Struan – ‘The roots of the trees are so good for the soil’.
Reminders
Doach Woods – Tuesday 22nd January
Primary 4
We have started our Term 3 topic, ‘The Vikings’. We thought about all the things we wanted to know then got to work planning our learning together. We formed new Viking themed table groups. We will work together each week to earn the table mascot that we have decided to name Viko. In art we are designing traditional Viking shields. We learnt about the boss at the centre of the shield as well as the colours and symbols used.
P4 have been swimming at the pool 3 times a week. Each group has been focusing on different skills in the water. Kelvin: “We have been pushing, gliding and kicking. We were practicing floating today, my favourite was the mushroom float. You bring your knees to your chest and put your chin on your chest”. Rylan and Alex have impressed their instructor with their bravery and confidence to try new things.
Wider Achievement:
Riley went up a level at swimming, he was moved up to the deep end. Sam won a gold medal at Judo. Isla was chosen to demonstrate gymnastics for new members at her Stewartry Gymnastics Club.
Reminders:
Last week of swimming Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Primary 4/5
This week we have been playing dodgeball in PE. We have been practising our passing, dodging and target throwing skills. Learning and remembering the rules has been tricky but good fun. Next week we are going to have a class dodgeball tournament.
Lily – Dodgeball is really fun!
Brooke – I’m getting good at throwing the ball.
Ollie – I’m good at dodging the ball.
In maths we have been creating number statements that are greater than and less than. We made a game using greater than and less than dice.
Coll – If the arrow faces left, it means less than. If it faces right, it means greater than.
We have also started our new topic. This term we are going to be learning all about Scotland’s landscape, including physical features and famous Scottish landmarks. Our class novel this term is called Light on Dumyat by Rennie McOwan. It is all about adventure in the Scottish countryside.
Hugo – I have been learning about where places in Scotland are on a map.
Callum – I have learned what a key is on a map.
Alannah – When the brown lines on a map are close together, that means it is a steep hill.
Our Scots Poem this year is Fireworks aff the Castle by Matthew Fitt.
In health and wellbeing we have continued to learn about keeping healthy. This week we looked at personal hygiene.
McKenzie – You should make sure your clothes are washed.
Brooke – Personal hygiene means that you need to keep clean.
Chloe – Always remember to wash your hands after you have been to the toilet.
Hugo – You should shower or take a bath regularly.
Freya – Remember to brush your teeth twice a day.
Primary 5
We have been continuing our work on multiplication in SAMSON and children came up with songs to remember the 9 times table. We have also revised fractions and are continuing work on measurement.
In literacy we have listened to ‘A Dug, A Dug’ and translated the meaning of Scots words within the poem.
In P.E. we have continued learning about dodgeball skills and techniques – this week we looked at experimenting with space and dodging techniques such as ducking, jumping and dipping. On Wednesday we went orienteering.
We all had a great day out at Dalbeattie forest learning about orienteering.
“We learned how to read a map.” – Alper
“We had to pay attention to the people telling us what to do.” -Jack
“We learned how to find different locations using a map.” – Eilidh
“We also used what was around us as landmarks to work out where we were.” – Anna
“We now know about different walking routes in Dalbeattie forest if we wanted to visit again with our family.” – Lucy
“We learned how to use the punch cards for hole-punching our tickets.” – Anna
“We learned how to work out the answers to the different challenges.” – Freya
Well done to Alper, Finlay, Isla, Sebastian, Hanna, Jack, Skye and Ellie-Jay for receiving certificates for their continued progress on the Reading Wise programme.
Reminders
Children will be reciting ‘A Dug, A Dug’ for the poetry recital in February. They will do this in pairs and we will go over it in class. The children have been given a copy of the poem to continue going over it at home.
Children who feel they need extra practice with their times tables can use the challenge booklets they received last term to go over any that they are unsure about.
Primary 5/6
Please see our Twitter feed for our class news 🙂 https://twitter.com/mr_coulthard
Primary 7
Class Activities and Pupil Comments
Daniel P – We have been working on our artwork to go with our Burns poem. I am going to be using oil pastels.
Jayden – This week we have been learning the second verse of our Tam O’Shanter poem. We also did a sequencing activity for the whole poem.
Katherine – We created questionnaires to find out about people’s energy usage. We found that most people leave their phone chargers on overnight!
Rory T – I got 11/11 on my spelling test this week. I was quite happy!
Ollie – The belts and tags we ordered for tag rugby came this week. They are helping us to develop our tag rugby skills.
Charley – We made a Scottish word bank. We are going to be writing our own Scot’s stories.
Well done to Connor who was this week’s Class Dojo winner.
Wider Achievement
Good luck to Ryan in his Chariots competition in Penrith this weekend.
Reminders
Pupils have verse two to learn for Monday.
National Sumdog competition begins Friday. Pupils can play at home.
Word of Work trip to Cream of Galloway 11th Feb.
