P3.9 Blog 2023/24

Thank you to Amy who was our photographer again this week. Next week someone else will be responsible for this job, but I think you can agree, Amy has done a great job!

Outdoor learning was a chilly one this week, but fantastic nonetheless! The children had to work in pairs to collect pieces of ‘treasure’ from the forest. They had to come up with 2 words to describe their item, both adjectives, but one had to show alliteration with the noun which identified the item. E.g.

Grey solid stone

Flimsy long leaf

Bumpy strong stick

We had to describe our item to the class, without saying the last word. Our classmates had to guess which item we were describing.

In maths we revised our learning on Venn Diagrams and created a diagram for our own class. On Friday we are going to collect information to create our own database of information and then use this to create a Venn Diagram independently.

Happy new year!

Thank you, and well done, to Amy this week for being such a diligent photographer.

We are right back into the swing of things in 3.9 with an excellent start back to primary three. We have settled back in well.

It has been fantastic to see the progress that the children are making, especially with multiplication and their times tables. I am encouraging the children to practise their tables frequently, at home and in school, focussing on speed and rapid recall to improve their confidence. The children have all learned what multiplication is, how it works and why we use it.

Here are some websites for learners to practise their times tables.

Hit the Button (rapid recall)

A range of games 

Some of the children have been working on rounding. They particularly enjoyed this game.

 

A fantastic final week in P3.9.

We created logos to communicate the purpose of our littering campaign.

3.10 invited us to their Gastronomers showcase and we were treated to a piece of gingerbread.

We enjoyed learning about symmetry, shape and tiling through some Christmas themed numeracy activities.

                

As part of Mearns Masters we are focussing on researching and note taking using search engines and we will eventually use this information to create an information text about plastic pollution.

We discussed what makes a fact ‘trust worthy’ and how to ‘fact check’ using multiple websites. We focussed on ensuring we understood the fact and could explain it to others.

During writing we analysed an information text with a partner and highlighted the nouns. We ordered the sections of the text and created our own titles/opening statements.

 

In grammar this week we continued to learn about adjectives and how they can be used to describe. The children had to sort a range of adjectives into piles based on categories they came up with themselves. This promoted excellent discussion about which words ‘belong’ together. We learned about adjectives of size and shape, feelings, colour and also qualities. The next step will be using these adjectives in our work.

 

In numeracy this week we have continued with our learning focus on ‘measure’. In outdoor learning we used Sammy the Snake to re-cap symmetry and then focussed on estimating. The learners searched the forest for sticks which were around 1m in length and then used these to create shapes. We are getting more confident using our body to estimate 1m in length accurately.

In the class we continued measuring using a ruler (cm and mm) and finding objects bigger than 1m (100cm). Some learners challenged themselves to convert between cm/m.

 

In numeracy this week we have been consolidating our knowledge of measure, specifically learning about measuring length in mm/cm/m. The children have enjoyed taking part in many active learning opportunities to measure a range of objects and build their confidence using a ruler to measure accurately. We have improved our ability to estimate whether objects are more than or less than 1m and used a range of techniques to help us estimate more accurately.

In reading we have begun to learn how to sequence the events in a story in chronological order. We used sticky notes to help us mark the events in the story, which then allowed us to order them with confidence.

Apologies for the lack of photos this week, we have been so busy!

In numeracy the children tackled a addition ‘chilli challenge’ to help them consolidate their vertical addition calculation skills. We continued to focus on carrying and setting out the calculations. We are continuing with number talks and focussed on the near doubles strategy this week. When we encounter a calculation with two numbers that are near the same ‘double’ we can use this to help us work out the answer.

In literacy we started planning some film reviews after our cinema visit. This will be a great opportunity for us to explore descriptive language and develop our taking and listening skills. We will be continuing this over the next fortnight.

In P.E. we are starting a new block of learning and focussing on rebound games.

Another excellent week in 3.9!

Every fortnight we will take time to learn how to play new board games and play these with our peers which will improve our talking and listening skills. Mrs Harrison-Zdunczyk models the rules and gameplay for us if we need it.

We applied our French language skills through art to create some Paul Klee inspired art. We added speech bubbles to answer the following questions:

Comment tu t’appelles ?

What is your name?

Quel âge as-tu?

What age are you?

Où habites-tu ?

Where do you live?

D’où viens-tu?

Where are you from?

The children also presented their ‘Hobbies’ solo talk to the class. This was a fantastic opportunity for the children to share something they are passionate about and improve their confidence speaking in front of a audience. Thank you for all the work that family/parents did to prepare the children.

We had our pastoral visit where we learned about the Parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ and discussed what this story teaches Christians.

In writing we completed our response letters and posted them to 3.10. Letter writing not only requires the children to write but respond to something someone else has written to them. We are becoming familiar with the layout and purpose of a letter and will continue to learn about letter writing over the coming weeks.

Zara, one of our lovely classmates, is leaving us for a extended period. We will miss her very much and enjoyed playing some games today as part of a goodbye celebration.

 

 

This week in numeracy we were focussing on subtraction (vertically) and used place value blocks/base 10 blocks/dienes blocks to practise exchanging. Here is a video explaining how we use the blocks (NB we do not write the full number above the units after exchanging, only the ten we carry over – watch the next video for the full explanation). This concept can be tricky but the concrete blocks help us visualise the process. Here is an excellent video from the Williamwood Maths Cluster explaining how addition works and how we teach it in our context.

In literacy we continued to work on our scanning skills. We used our reading books and searched for words to see how many times we could find them in the text. This involves tracking with our eyes and following each line while searching for the word. This skill helps us when we searching for the answer to a range of questions, as we can identify where in the text a specific idea/word is mentioned and we can then read around it.

The Spooktacular event on Wednesday was a blast. Have a look on the school twitter for images of the event.