Author: Mrs Harrison-Zdunczyk

This week the Triangles and the Circles have been focussing on place value in mathematics and have been learning about the value of a digit within a number using place value blocks. This is a very important aspect of number learning as it helps the children break down a number into the units, tens and hundreds and can help with other processes such as addition and subtraction.

The squares have been learning how to multiply by 3 and are enjoying this new challenge. They are all excited to tackle this new challenge.

All of the children are continuing to develop their skills when explaining their mental maths strategies during number talks. The strategy we focussed on this week was ‘counting on’.

In P.E. we were treated to a visit from a rugby coach from Whitecraigs Rugby Club and played various games which introduced us to the sport itself. The final for the Rugby World Cup is this weekend and the children are looking forward to seeing who the winner will be for our sweepstake.

 

 

Another fantastic week in P3.9!

We were thrilled to host our parents and adults for our Gastronomy showcase which was a wonderful experience to share our learning with them. We served granola bars and bread, all which we made from scratch in the Mearns kitchen. We incorporated our French language learning and are continuing to learn vocabulary each day, integrating it into our routines. The showcase was also an opportunity for us to show our food diaries, BGE jotters and discuss with our visitor the range of skills we have developed over the past 7 weeks. The children reflected on how they could improve the bread/granola recipe and we were all very pleased with the end product. If you would like to try making these at home then you can download the recipes below.

Bread Rolls Recipe

Granola Bar Recipe

In writing we redrafted sections of our final explanation text piece and learned about using teacher corrections to help us, as well as improving our openers and vocabulary. We are now moving on to letter writing!

We also learned more about the food groups and were introduced to the concept of nutrition and the specific nutrients we would find in certain food groups.

In numeracy we were learning more about how division and multiplication are related and continued with our number talks, focussing on missing numbers in a vertical calculation.

This week our photographer was Sophia.

 

                   

This week in numeracy we have been focussing on multiplication and grouping by 2. As our pictures show we used concrete materials to make groups or sets of objects to find the total amount! We then used the concrete materials to make increasingly larger towers which helped us visualise the ‘groups’ together. We also played some whole class games to improve our rapid recall when answering multiplication questions (2 x 3 = 6). Here are some websites if you want to practice your 2x table at home.

Link 1
Link 2

In outdoor learning we used chalk to draw clock faces and gave our partners quarter past and quarter to times to read.

In the kitchen we made breakfast pancakes and chopped various types of fruit to put in them. We practised our bridge/claw hold with a knife, stirring, measuring, portioning and using a hob with supervision. Here is the recipe if you want to try it at home.

 

 

 

This week in numeracy we have been continuing to work on quarter past and quarter to times and beginning to match up the digital (12 hr) and analogue times. Quarter to is something we all need to continue working on, as when this is written digitally it can quite easily confuse us (6:45 = quarter to 7). Sometimes we think the 6 means quarter to 6! Using a analogue clock to show the digital time helps us understand that this is not the case. Wearing a watch, keeping track of the time and talking about the time throughout the day will help us with our skills when telling the time.

We are also beginning to learn our 2x table. We have begun exploring how multiplication relates to equal grouping. It is important to have a strong understanding of what multiplication is as this will help us later with division.

Here are some songs which can help us learn our 2x table and improve our speed.

Song 1 – Football themed

Song 2 – This one shows the grouping visually

Song 3 – Rapping style

Song 4 – Taylor Swift Themed

We are continuing to develop our independence using the Chromebooks and build on our ability to read for a sustained period of time.

We enjoyed making chia seed pudding this week for Mearns Masters. Chia, a seed which is native to South America, is a highly nutritious food. We all enjoyed trying and using this ingredient in our food. We are developing our ability to use the hob with supervision and also measure using a measuring jug and weighing scale.

This week in the kitchen we made healthy energy granola bars. Granola bars are popular around the world and are great because they can be eaten on the go. Each day we are writing in our breakfast diary to think about what we have for breakfast and the food groups the ingredients in our food belong to. Here is the recipe for this week if you want to try it at home! We think that next time we would bake it for longer and also add in different ingredients to our mixture such as nuts (at home) and different dried fruit. breakfast-energy-bars

In writing we have been learning about ‘Explanation Texts’. Explanation texts are usually non-fiction and tell your audience how something works or why something happens. We looked at some examples and created our own story map about how chocolate is made. This helped us understand better the structure of an explanation text and the type of language used. Next week we are going to write our own explanation text about bread, linking to our experiences in the kitchen. If you are looking for more books to read at home that explain things, take a look at this link and this link.

In numeracy we have been working on our mental doubling and halving skills and telling the time (quarter past and quarter to). Here is a catchy song which reminds us where the long minute hand needs to be for quarter past and quarter to.

 

 

 

 

Hello again!

This week was our first in the Mearns kitchen, which we all thoroughly enjoyed! Our theme for Mearns Masters Gastronomy is ‘Breakfast Around the World’ and this week we enjoyed a ‘un petit déjeuner français’ (a French breakfast) together! We made ‘la tartine’ which is just an open sandwich of bread and a chosen topping. This was the perfect opportunity to learn more French vocabulary. This song teaches us about the various foods you might find in a stereotypical French breakfast.

In numeracy, we have been learning to double and halve numbers and have incorporated this into our outdoor learning and P.E. At home you could play the ‘ping pong’ game which we have enjoyed playing together to improve the speed at which we can double and half.

    

The first week of primary three has been a very quick one indeed! While we are waiting on photo permissions being returned, photos will be minimal/anonymised.

Instilling an early love of reading is vital for the development of language, writing and confidence to access the wider curriculum. Making our library a enticing and enjoyable place to be was one of our first jobs in our new classroom. The children have taken responsibility for organising the books into ‘book boxes’ and have chosen the categories for each box. This activity encouraged the learners to discuss genres, their likes and dislikes and most importantly got them excited about the library area.

If you have any books you would like to donate to our library then please send these in with your child or drop off at the office.

We have also been building our independence logging on to the Chromebooks. Encourage your child to do this at home which will speed up the process in school. Dancemat is a fantastic game to build their typing skills.