Lollipop Bill is retiring

We are very sad to announce that our much loved and respected lollipop man, Bill Robinson has decided to retire!

As a school we feel we cannot let him go without acknowledging his service and how much we have appreciated him helping the children of  the local community over the years. Which is why we will have a special presentation for Bill during our whole school assembly this Friday.

We wish you a long, healthy and happy retirement Bill from all the pupils and staff at Mount Carmel Primary!

SCIAF

Every year during Lent, SCIAF launch their  WEE BOX, BIG CHANGE appeal and ask people here in Scotland to donate to their life changing work around the world. This year’s appeal focuses on SCIAF’s work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Central Africa.

DR Congo is home to over 85million people. It is the third largest country in all of Africa. It’s also one of the poorest countries in the world. SCIAF are working with partners in DR Congo to help the people live in peace, to recover from the war and rebuild their lives.

Thank You.

Aladdin Cast

The cast for the senior summer show ‘Aladdin’ was announced this afternoon. We are very proud of all the pupils who auditioned for parts and the teachers found it difficult to cast the show as the talent was so high! The pupils know that all the parts are important and we can’t wait to start rehearsals.

Scripts will be given out in due course and rehearsals will start shortly in school.

Thank you!

 

 

Lenten Fundraising Activities 2020

  Thursday 5th  March World Book Day;

All children can    dress up as a character from a book.  £1 donation via Parent Pay please.

9th-12th March:  Guess the Bear’s Birthday

– 50p per guess-please bring your money into school for this activity. Winner announced Friday 13th March.

 Friday 20th March- Crazy Hair Day

£1 donation via Parent Pay please

  Friday 27th March – Fun Zone

 For all classes to enjoy a session!- £1 donation via Parent Pay please.

  Thursday 2nd April- Easter Bonnet Parade/Easter Raffle 

There will be a special Easter prize -one winner per class, £1 donation via Parent Pay please. Our Grand Easter Raffle will also be drawn today with one lucky pupil winning an Easter treat!! Raffle tickets will be 20p per ticket…….Good Luck!

Whole school Science Centre visit

On Wednesday 11th March we will be going on a whole school trip to the Science Centre in Glasgow, where they will participate in a range of activities.  Letters have gone out to children today along with a permission form which must be completed and returned to the school no later than Wednesday 4th March please. There is no cost for this outing

Please ensure your child comes to school on the day with their school jumper, suitable footwear and comfortable trousers/leggings.

The kitchen will provide a packed lunch for children if you wish, but they are also welcome to bring their own if preferred.  There is a tear -off portion on the letter where you can indicate if a school packed lunch is required or not.

Buses will leave the school at 8.30am sharp, unfortunately, anyone not in school by this time will be unable to attend.

Swimming Success!

Well done to all primary 6 and 7 pupils for completing their swimming lessons! Every child made personal progress and massively enjoyed the experience.  There are lots of family swim sessions available across the authority for parents to admire their skills!

The Galleon staff made a point of telling us that the behaviour and manners of our children was exemplary!   Well Done Team Mount Carmel!

Confirmation arrangements-Primary 4

Can parents and P4 pupils attending on Monday Night please be at the church no later than 6.30pm. On arrival at the church, pupils should make their way down to the front rows with their sponsors.

Children should wear something smart,  no school uniform please.

A warm welcome is extended to those who wish to join us at the school for tea/coffee/refreshments after the service.

P7 Homework

As this is a two day week no homework will be assigned to Primary 7.

Auditions for our senior summer show ‘Aladdin’ will be held on Monday afternoon. Pupils who stated they would like a speaking or singing role have been given part of the script to practice at home.

Happy Practicing!

Miss Mudge

 

Practical Cycling Sessions – P6

Primary 6 cycling sessions will take place on a Tuesday beginning on Tuesday 25th Feb and  are as follows:

  • 25th Feb -The Roads Alliance Team will be carrying out initial safety checks on all bikes and helmets on this date.
  • 3rd March, 10th March, 24th March, 31st March.
  • 21st April, 28th April.
  • 5th May, 12th May.

****Please note there will be no session on 17th March****

Children are required to have their bike and helmet with them on the above dates. If your child does not have a helmet, one can be provided for the activities in school.

 

 

P7 Hoodies

Our Mount Carmel Primary 7 hoodies are available to purchase again this year! The cost of the hoodies is £10 with the additional costing being kindly covered by FOMC.  They are available to buy now via Parent Pay.

If anyone has any concerns regarding payment for the hoodies please do no hesitate to contact the school to discuss this. FOMC will provide the school with sample sizes as soon as possible.

February Update

Both our Willow and Oak nurture rooms are established and running well, giving pupils the opportunity to make connections and develop friendships with their peers. Children are happy and participating well in tasks and activities aimed at developing their health and well being.

In the Willow room, our focus for our Welly Wednesdays will be to have more opportunity to explore the great outdoors. We will primarily explore our immediate environment, but may explore areas further away from the school. The children will partake in a Wild Challenge, completing 6 activities linked to the RSPB challenge, which will encourage exploration of the natural habitats of small animals and insects from our local environment. Children will be encouraged to work in small teams, to create housing and gain knowledge of these animal habitats.

The focus for some of our children will be preparing for full time attendance in their primary classroom, reducing time spent in the Willow Room and helping the children find strategies and tools to support them throughout this period of change. For the children remaining in the Willow Room, they will need to time to adjust and chat about the changes taking place and how it makes them feel.

In our Oak room, the discussions and activities supported in the connected classroom materials, will continue to be our main focus, looking at different emotions, the impact these have on our bodies and how to manage big feelings. With time for discussion and sharing of experience, children will develop tools to help them manage feelings and see a positive outcome.

As always, if parents have any questions or would like to chat about any aspect of our nurture provision, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Mrs Travers

Primary 5 -Term 2 Update

Literacy

This term in literacy we will be learning to improve our note-taking skills to aid with our comprehension strategy of summarising and paraphrasing.  As well as continuing with our Bug Club readers this term,  we will also be looking at non-fiction texts to support note taking and apply this skill within in our writing lessons where we will focus on producing a fact file and report. In addition, we will continue work on our phonemes through our Active spelling programme.

Numeracy & Maths

In numeracy, groups will focus on the following :

  • Fractions, Percentages & Decimals
  • Division
  • Subtraction

All groups will work on mental maths revision and problem solving across all areas every day through number talks, interactive challenges or ‘fast five’ activities. Beyond number, P5 will be looking at ‘Time’ and ‘Money’ .

Health & Wellbeing /P.E

This term we are continue to work through our PATHS programme with a focus on different types of feelings, as well as ‘Pupil of the Day’.

In P.E, we will be working on ‘Gymnastics‘ and ‘Basketball‘, building necessary physical skills within these sports such as co-ordination, control, precision and balance, as well as teamwork strategies. A kind reminder :  P.E days are Wed/Fri and we would ask that your child comes prepared with a kit,  a change of shoes (indoor) and without wearing jewellery if possible as not coming prepared can often result in reduced lesson time.

Topic

We have started our exciting new topic this term where we are travelling around the globe as we look at ‘Continents’.  We will be exploring and finding out lots of interesting facts about Asia, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica,Europe, North America and South America. This will include using our new note-taking skills as we learn facts about landmarks, physical features (Rivers, mountains), Countries & Capitals including mapping skills.

R.E

Jan/Feb – We will be looking at ‘Judaism’ and ‘Life in the time of Jesus’ in first century Palestine.

Feb/Mar – Preparations for Lent.

P5 Homework 5/2 – 19/2

As we are on holiday this Friday and next week, homework can be accessed online until Wednesday 19th February when it will be reissued.

Literacy –  All groups can access their Bug Club group readers/independent readers.  Read a non-fiction text and identify common features. (caption, pictures, diagram, heading, sub-heading, glossary etc…)

Anagrams –

I T O N N A M U   –    Can you unscramble the letters to find the word.

A E H N O R T    –   Can you unscramble the letters to find the word.

Extra challenge : If you have unscrambled the second anagram successfully, How many words can you find hidden within this word ?

Maths – Wednesday

Circles/Rectangles Time differences – Click on the links below then scroll down to the game with the panda at the bottom right of the page . Click arrow to play, then choose option 5 and begin.

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/118/adding_time_word_problems#

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/119/find_the_start_time#

Squares -Click on the links below then scroll down to the game with the panda at the bottom right of the page . Click arrow to play, then choose option 4 and begin

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/116/telling_the_time#

Triangleshttp://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/viewing/L9643/index.html

Topic –  Worksheet on South America handed out in class (Wed pm).

Primary 1 Term 2 Update

Primary 1 are working harder than ever!! Have a look and see what we are learning this term.

Literacy

Phonics – we know almost all of the single letter sounds in the alphabet and will be working hard to use these to make and break words. We will also be looking at some sounds which are made up of two letters, eg sh, ch, th, wh.

Reading – We are progressing through our reading books using our increasing knowledge of common words. We are also trying hard to use our letter sounds to help us “decode” the words we are unsure of. To develop our ability to understand what we are reading, we are discussing texts and relating them to our own experiences.

Writing – We are continuing to develop our letter formation skills. We are also developing our ability to create our own beginnings and endings for stories, linking these with traditional tales.

Numeracy

Number – In number we are continuing to learn the addition facts up to 10. We are strengthening our knowledge of these by learning to “count on” and exploring doubles and near doubles.

Following this we will be learning about subtraction and linking this with our addition facts to 10.

We will also be exploring the numbers to 20, thinking about how the teens numbers are made and recorded.

Beyond Number – Primary 1 will be learning about the different aspects of time. They will explore clocks and will learn about the seasons through our “Weather” topic.

 

Health & Well-Being

P.E. – In gym this term we are developing our gymnastics skills by focusing on our jumping, rolling and balancing.

We will also be exploring Dance and creating our own dance sequences to music.

Social & Emotional Health – As part of our PATHS programme, we are exploring the different emotions we experience and discussing ways of managing them.

We will also be continuing with our “Pupil of the Day” initiative, taking the time each day to make someone feel special by paying them compliments.

RE

In RE we are reminded of God’s love and how it is present all around us. We will be listening to stories from the Bible, the first being the “Story of Creation”. We will consider the wonder of the world we live in and use our senses to explore our local environment.

During Lent we will try to become a closer “friend of Jesus” by showing kindness to others. We will explore the Lord’s Passion and develop an understanding of the Easter Story.

Interdisciplinary Learning

We will finish off our “Senses” topic this term with a trip to the farm at Dumfries House.

Following this, we will be using the context of “Frozen” as a means of learning about the weather and seasons.

We will be investigating hot and cold, linking these to the changes in weather. We will also look at the changing state of water, exploring freezing and melting. Through these investigations we will have the opportunity to measure, record and report our findings.

Art work will be linked to our topic and will focus on the visual elements of line and colour.

Technology

ICT – we will continue to use ICT as part of our daily learning through use of the ipads and laptops.

We will focus on keyboard skills this term, learning how to change font, colour and size when word processing.

Outdoor Learning

Following our February break Primary 1 will be taking part in Outdoor Learning every Friday afternoon so could we please ask that the children come to school with wellies and suitable outerwear on those days.

Thank you for your continued support.

Primary 7 Curriculum Update – Term 2

Primary 7 Blog Update

Topic

In Topic we are focusing on Land Uses, The four different types of Land Uses are Tourism, Recreational, Residential and Business/Work. Tourism is used mainly for countries’ economies such as Thailand, UAE and more. Tourism focuses on people entering, leaving or going to a different part of countries. These can be categorised as Outbound, Inbound and Domestic tourism. Recreational Land Uses are places like the Palace Theatre, Burns Mall and Rugby Park. Residential is used for housing areas such as Longpark, Bonnyton, Crosshouse. Business Land Uses are places like Fast Food, Restaurants, Kilmarnock F.C and many shops. We have also been building on our mapping skills by finding and locating information using atlases.

Health & Wellbeing

In Health and Wellbeing, we have been learning about Substance Misuse. We have been learning that alcohol can be addictive and can cause some types of Cancer. Alcohol is also a depressant as well as a toxin. We love our swimming lessons on a Monday. We have all made individual achievements. The Galleon staff have complimented on us on our behaviour and hard work. We have also been building on our gymnastic skills with Mr B. We still do our two PATHS lessons a week focusing on our emotional health and wellbeing.

Numeracy

In Numeracy, we have covered Negative Integers and all fell we have a better understanding of this concept. We have now moved on to Fractions, Decimals and Percentages and continuing our knowledge of Time as our Beyond Number topic. Every day at the start of Numeracy or the end of Numeracy, we do the Fast 5 to revise concepts taught and new skills.

Literacy

This term the focus is non-fiction reading and writing skills. We have been transferring our active comprehension skills to non-fiction books. We have been honing our note taking skills and using our notes to create a new text. We have also reading for enjoyment the Eejits, the Scottish version of Roald Dahl’s “The Twits”.

This term we are looking forward to –

  • Dean Park Visit
  • The Science Centre
  • Lockerbie ( 6 weeks to go!)

Class Curriculum update written by Caiden and Aiden (Digital Champions)

P6 – Term update

This term we will be experiencing a broad range of activities and learning experiences.

 

Numeracy

We will be focusing on our multiplication and division strategies this term. We will be using our strategies during our numbers talks and applying our strategies to more challenging problems, applying our knowledge in real life contexts. Being able to apply knowledge of times tables facts is important as we progress through our strategies and problem solving. Please encourage your child to choose a times table and to work on their chosen times table each week.

In our beyond number topic, we will be revising shape and then moving on to angles.

 

Literacy.

We will be looking at Ted Hughes’ Iron Man for our novel study this term. We will be applying our comprehension strategies, prediction, metalinguistics, summarising and visualising to help our comprehension of the text. We will also use our novel study as a basis for our knowledge of language learning and will look at figurative language features as metaphors, similes and personification.

To continue to consolidate comprehension strategies, P6 will continue to work on ‘Bug Club’ texts within our own level. All books are allocated online, please let me know if you are having problems accessing them.

We will be looking at the skill of note-taking. We will be applying this skill across the curriculum; taking notes and then creating our own texts from these notes.

In writing, we will be focussing on report writing and will link this to our topic work.

 

Spelling.

P6 will continue to work with our active spelling strategies, working on a weekly phoneme as well as common words.

 

 

Religious Education.

P6 are continuing to work through their Pope Francis Faith Award, we are currently working on and thinking about the gift of piety.

We are also looking at Palestine at the time of Jesus, the geography of the region and daily life in 1st century Palestine.

 

Health and Well-being and PE

We are enjoying our swimming lessons on Monday morning.

We will be learning the skills of badminton and later in the term we will complete our Play Lead Award which we started towards the end of last term.

We are continuing to follow our PATHs programme and are looking at different emotions, and how these can be described as comfortable or uncomfortable.

Topic.

This term, our topic is Scottish Landscapes, Rivers, Coasts and Mountains. We will be looking at the physical features of Scotland’s landscape and how these have been formed.

Homework will be distributed on a Wednesday and should be returned the following Wednesday.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs MacKinnon and Mrs Crawford.