Month: November 2022

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Preparation for Christmas continues with the primary 5 pupils rehearsing with the rest of their stage for their upcoming performance. Please see Mrs McGuigan weekly round-up which contains information relating to the time and date of the performance. Speaking parts have been issued, accompanying song links have been posted on our Google Classroom and the lyric sheets will be sent home soon. We would appreciate encouraging and supporting your child with practicing their parts. The primary 5 pupils will also be going on a school trip next week.

Woodland dates are: November 28th and December 12th. Please bring appropriate clothing.

Literacy and English

Harley – This week in writing we continued to develop our understanding of how to create a newspaper. Having been inspired from reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last week as part of Book Week Scotland we decided to write a newspaper about the children discovering the golden tickets. First we recorded some quotes from the book for some of the main characters. This meant we could look back at these notes to help us with writing the newspaper.

Archie – Some of our success criteria included uses speech marks and commas correctly when interviewing and quoting people. Some of us challenged ourselves to use different words other than said.

John – We also learned about the differences between primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are usually written from someone who was there at the time of the event, an artifact or photo from the time period. A secondary source is like the books we read in school, they are written by someone after the event who may have used primary sources to help them write it. Using this knowledge we looked at different types of sources and decided whether they were secondary or primary. Finally we discussed what will be a primary source from our time period, such as a mobile phone or diary.

Numeracy and Maths

John – Our mental maths strategy this week involved multiplying 3 and 4 digit numbers by separating them into thousands, hundreds, tens and units and then adding them together.

Aarohi – Using our survey results last week we used Microsoft Excel to create pie charts, bar graphs and scatter plot. Mr Atkinson challenged us to add relevant pictures under our labels. We also had to check that we used the correct scales and labels in our graphs.

Ruairidh – In our functions machine topic we had to decided which rule and pattern was needed to complete the calculation.

Maya – My group was revising how to multiply 4 and 5 digit numbers with carrying.

Health and Wellbeing

Mehr – This week was Anti-Bullying Week. The P6 pupils were visited by the the campus police officer. The whole class learned more about what dyslexia is and how it can impact on people. However, we all agreed that regardless of our individual differences we should be respectful, kind, caring and supportive of one another. The P6 pupils also learned about epilepsy with Mrs Lamont.

Mehr – In gymnastics we got out the apparatus to help us with practicing our different types of jumps – it was so much fun!

Aarohi – In our Bounceback lesson we discussed different problems in life and decided if they were small, medium or large. We also spoke about who we can speak to if we feel overwhelmed.

Harley – With Mrs Lamont we created happiness hero badges!

RME

Sophie – After learning about the different types of Hindu gods we created our very own and wrote descriptions about them. We had to think about what there purpose was and how they helped people.

Expressive Arts

Sara – This week we finished our Christmas card for the Whitecraigs Care Home competition.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

The pupils have thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Book Week Scotland which you can read about below. The primary 5 children will be involved in a Christmas performance and we have begun rehearsing songs which will continue for the next couple of weeks. We hope to send individual lines and song lyrics home next week for the pupils to practice at home.

Woodland dates are: November 28th and December 12th.

Literacy and English

Emma – It was Book Week Scotland this week! One of the activities we took part in was recording on our class poster how many books we had read over the week.

Maya – Mr Atkinson read us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the end of everyday because our Book Week Scotland tasks were related to it. We are also going to be writing a newspaper based on the main events from the novel.

Harley – Both the P5 and P6 pupils became reading buddies and visited some of the younger years to help them explore new books.

Numeracy and Maths

Alfie – We were inspired to create our own chocolate bars after reading chapters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so we surveyed the class on their favourite flavour and shape. We also asked them what they thought would be the best size and price for a cholocate bar. Using this information we created bar graphs and pie charts to display our results.

Lewis – In groups, we used an online programme called TinkerCad to design a 3D model of our own chocolate bar. This was challenging as it involved applying our knowledge of maths, including; shape, size and some calculations. This activity also encouraged us to use a Growth Mindset as it tested our ICT skills!

Health and Wellbeing

Sara – For our final P6 lesson on Growth Mindset we drew icebergs  and wrote words to describe our emotions either under or above the water. These pictures represented what people see above water such as success or achieving goals but under the water we wrote words such as studying and learning from mistakes as people do not always see the effort that goes in to accomplishing something.

Ruairidh – For our final P5 lesson on Growth Mindset we discussed what makes an effective learning. We came up with qualities such as hardworking, positive, resilient, perseveres and willing to accept feedback. Afterwards, we took inspiration from looking at cereal boxes and decided to create our own cereals but instead base the ingredients on the effective leaners qualities.

Mehr – Our second lesson of gymnastics involved being more creative with our balances that we learned last week, practicing different rolls on the mats and spelling out words in a group by moving and rotating our bodies.

Outdoor Learning

Kyler – This week we worked in groups to find materials that could be used as instruments so that we could form a woodland orchestra! We had so much fun trying to recreate popular songs and themes.

Expressive Art

Mehr – On Friday we started designing Christmas cards for the Whitecraigs Care Home competition.

RME

Chloe – We have started learning about Hinduism and the different Gods. One of our tasks involved matching the Gods with their names.

 

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Thank you for donating materials to help us with our ship building which we will be starting over the next couple of weeks. For our P.E. and outdoor learning lessons please refer to the school website and weekly round-ups for information regarding appropriate uniform/clothing.

Woodland dates are: November 14th, November 28th and December 12th.

Literacy and English

Mehr – This week we have starting learning how to write newspapers. We were challenged to created engaging headlines by using alliteration, include important information such who, what, where and when in the lead paragraph, draw a picture to match the topic and use a byline.

Eva – Before starting our writing we read both primary and secondary resources based on our Titanic topic. For the primary sources we read articles and journals of people who survived the sinking of the Titanic and then we read an information book on it. We used some of the comments from the passengers journals and quoted them in our newspapers to make it seem like we interviewed them. It was tricky but it made them more interesting to read!

Aarohi – In our Grammar lessons we explored past and present tense and the equivalent words. Some of us used our knowledge to correct a paragraph and put it into past tense.

Lewis – Using our knowledge from the writing lesson, we answered a range of comprehension questions on a newspaper article.

Numeracy and Maths

Chloe – This week my group started their new topic of function machines. This involve solving a calculation by following a rule.

Sara – Mr McMillan challenged us to solve a range of problem solving questions! Afterwards, we shared our strategies and discussed our answers.

Sophie – To finish our angle topic Mr Atkinson gave us a map with instructions from where to start and finish. We then had to apply our knowledge of angles, anti-clockwise and clockwise and compass directions to write down a route to get to the places. This was challenging as we had to carefully think about what direction we were facing and if the angle was acute, obtuse or a right angle.

Health and Wellbeing

Harley – For Remembrance Day we had a minute silence and Mr Atkinson explained the importance of it.

Sophia and Emma – With Mr McMillan in P.E. we completed a bleep test and went around different stations which will help to improve our fitness.

Eva – With Mr Atkinson we started our new gymnastics block. This week we were focusing on balances which involved performing both solo and partner balances. We were challenged to hold our balances for a certain amount of time and some of us modelled different types of warm-ups before we started and finished the lesson.

Alfie – As part of the P6 Growth Mindset series, we took part in a debate about whether Rebecca Adlington getting a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics was a success or failure. We looked at a range of different newspaper articles from the time and felt like they did not give a positive image about it. Afterwards, we split into two teams and debated the issue. In the end we all agreed that making it to the Olympics, regardless of winning, is an achievement.

IDL

Alfie –  We created a diagram of the Titanic’s structure with a key and labelled and coloured the main sections.

Science

Retal, Ruairidh  and Lewis – This week the P5 pupils went to the science bus with Mrs Lamont. We learned about the different parasites farm animals can get and we discovered how scientists and vets check the health of sheep. We all have an amazing time!

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

It was great to meet with all the guardians and parents this week in person! Also thank you for returning jotters and the feedback forms.

Woodland dates are: November 14th, November 28th and December 12th.

Literacy and English

Aarohi – We all delivered group presentations of different types of ships from both the present and the past that we had researched. We also compared the similarities and differences of the ships to the Titanic. Mr Atkinson also assessed our talking and listening skills during the presentations and gave us feedback.

Kyler –  This week in comprehension we have been learning how to answer deductive questions from a story about children exploring an abandoned mansion. This challenged us to carefully read the text and draw conclusions from the information as well as use some of our own understanding.

Kate – With Halloween coming up, we wrote a spooky story which had to include lots of features that we have learned about this term including; senses related vocabulary, statements, commands, questions, speech marks and apostrophes to show possession.

Numeracy and Maths

Ruairidh – My group has been learning how to identify shapes with more that two lines of symmetry. First we drew lines of symmetry on a range of shapes and then we were challenged to create our own shapes with a certain number of lines of symmetry. To help check whether we had successfully done this we used mirrors to see whether they looked the same on each line.

Health and Wellbeing

Emma –  With Mr McMillan we continued complete our fitness circuits but also we played capture the flag at the end of the session.

Finlay – This week the primary 6 pupils had their first session of Heartsone with Mrs Nasar! We discussed that it doesn’t matter what you look like and that it is okay to be different as we are all individuals.

IDL

Sara – We have been learning about off the different types of classes that travelled on the Titanic and the facilities that were available to the passengers on board including a gym, swimming pool and barbers!

John – With the knowledge of the different rooms on the Titanic we worked in pairs to make our shoeboxes into the compartments. We then organised the boxes into the shape of the Titanic for our new display! Everyone had a great time building this!

Mehr – We read some books about some of the more famous passengers that travelled on the Titanic. Afterwards we designed and painted suitcase for our chosen passenger profiles to recreate a baggage hold.

Expressive Arts

Harley – Mrs Hutchison worked with us to create thank you cards for people that help and contribute to the school.