Hello everyone!

Welcome back to our P7D blog…

We have had a fantastic first couple of weeks back in school following the Summer holidays; we are thoroughly enjoying the new challenges and opportunities that come along with being a Primary 7!

The beginning of this year has focused on the consolidation of our understanding in Literacy and Maths. We have been practising up-levelling sentences using sophisticated punctuation, a variety of openers, connectives, and ambitious vocabulary; we have transferred this to our Writing pieces, as we have now written a brilliant reflective piece and also an imaginative story, where we used plenty of descriptive language to help our reader to visualise our ideas. Quite a few of us were awarded Star Writer for our effort! We will continue to develop our skills in Imaginative writing in the coming weeks. We have also explored the effectiveness of metaphors, similes and personification as techniques to enhance what we write. Our descriptive Jungle writing was outstanding! Here is a sample of our wonderful descriptive phrases:

‘If you listen closely, you can hear hundreds of birds, all colours of the rainbow, sing their songs as one.’ 

‘…stained my tongue the darkest blue imaginable.’

‘…the varieties of flowers; there’s one that stood out for me – the bird of paradise – green, long stems, orange petals out in fours, sticking out from the blue middle that’s pointing forwards.’ 

We have also been reading ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ – our class novel – to understand more about the refugee crisis and society.

In Maths, we have been learning about Place Value up to one million and beyond, playing multiplication BINGO, practising calculations involving the 4 operations, and revisiting a host of other mathematical concepts to make sure we have a strong foundation moving forward this year! We have also practised rounding and estimating numbers; calculating time durations; and many more topics!

In PE, we have been developing our fitness, endurance and ability to pace ourselves. In Science today, we learnt about the importance of variables in ensuring a fair investigation. We also decided that the continent we would like to study this term is Asia; this was put to a vote and it was a close call!

We are looking forward to the St. Cadoc’s Talent Show taking place on the 22nd September…

Thank you for taking the time to read our first blog post. We will report back soon!

Primary 7D 🙂  

This month has really gone so quickly. We’ve had extra holidays and have been involved in lots of different activities.

It was so exciting to eventually be allowed to travel on a bus and visit the Science Centre. IMAX film was fantastic and made us all feel really relaxed. It was great to view our planet from space and find out how the astronauts cope with life living in a space station. We couldn’t believe how long they are allowed to stay. Most importantly, we were reminded how important it is to look after our planet and we were really shocked about the parts that have already been destroyed.

Yesterday, we asked our parents/carers to visit our school for an ‘Achievement/ School Values’ Assembly. We  spoke about our achievements, read stories and remembered the different topics that we had covered in Primary 6. At the end, we shared our memories with our parents/carers and took lots of photographs.

We have continued our topic on ‘Democracy’ and ‘The Scottish Parliament’. In groups, we made posters to show the meaning of ‘Democracy’  and now have a really eye catching display in our classroom. In Science, we have taken part in a live ‘Biodiversity’ lesson with lots of different schools. This was quite exciting as we could read everyone’s comments on the issues being discussed. We are really looking forward to the second live lesson on ‘Water’ in June. We have also linked our writing to our social studies topic as we have been trying to include arguments for and against extra breaks. Next week, we will choose our own issue to write about and try to persuade our peer group that we are right.

Sadly, today is our student teacher’s last day in St Cadoc’s. Miss Schenini will be missed as she has been helping and teaching us since January. We wish her every success as she begins her journey in education. She is very much looking forward to teaching her own class in August. Hope we will see you again.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Primary 6d & Mrs Bovaird

We all enjoyed our Easter break so we have only been at school for a few weeks. Finally we have completed our topic on the Victorians and have just started our new one but we’ll tell you all about that next month.

In mathematics, we have been handling data and creating bar, bar-line and trend graphs. We have also continued to work on fractions, decimals and percentages using our new ‘BluePrint’ boards.

Last week we attended our committees and it was great to catch up with children from other classes. We updated and evaluated everything we had covered and made a new action plan for after the Summer holidays.

In health and Wellbeing, Kerry  taught us how to become better at skipping. It was actually quite hard but we have definitely improved our skills!

Looking forward to our final term in Primary 6.

Primary 6d & Mrs Bovaird

This month we have been busy collecting for SCIAF and learning all about the signs and symbols of Lent. Some of the children in our class organised a stall called ‘The Everything Stall’ and raised over £135. Well done, everyone! Thank you to all the children who have remembered to bring in their WEE BOXES. We have also been learning about St. Patrick and St. Joseph. Two children chose to make their own PowerPoints which they presented to the class. Interesting facts and information.

Primary 6d have completed ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’. We linked all our comprehension and a lot of our writing activities. This month, we concentrated on imaginative stories- Secret Garden, The Old Grandfather Clock and as always a title of our own. We also wrote ‘Rules for a Victorian Classroom’.  Some of the classrooms rules were very strict so it must have been very difficult to be a child in Victorian times.

STEAM WEEK was a great success. We carried out lots of experiments that showed chemical reactions and energy- static. Great Fun! We especially enjoyed making the ‘Dancing Ghosts’. We also challenged ourselves to use different mathematical strategies to solve lots of problems.

In french, we have developed our skills by practising vocabulary connected to the weather. Mrs Bovaird has been challenging us to learn to order our lunches. At the beginning of the week, it was difficult but now we are improving each day. We need to keep adding more and more french words as the choices are continually changing. We’ll be experts in a few weeks time!!!

‘The Victorians’ has been a fantastic topic. We have loved all the different activities especially presenting our PowerPoints and posters on ‘Victorian Inventions’. It was indeed a really special time. So much happened- x-rays, telephones, bicycles, motion pictures, post boxes, trains, sewing machine, football, typewriter, planes, phonograph, ice-cream (Industrial), postage stamp etc

We are all looking forward to our holidays and wish everyone ‘Happy Easter’.

Primary 6d & Mrs Bovaird x

Primary 6d have had another busy month. We all enjoyed our long February weekend!

In writing, we have been concentrating on imaginative stories. We continued to work on using similes and metaphors. We also looked at ways we could improve on describing settings. Titles included ‘The Old Grandfather Clock’ and ‘The Secret Garden’. Well done everyone!

In reading, we have continued with our novel ‘ Tom’s Midnight Garden’. We have completed lots of comprehension activities which included literal, inferential and personal questions.We also linked our grammar work by looking at the author’s use of colons. It was really amazing how many times colons and semi-colons appear in each chapter!

In numeracy, we have practised 24 hrs clock times and incorporated reading bus/train timetables to ensure we can work out how long a journey might take. Other areas covered are ‘Multiplication Th H T U’ and ‘Equivalent Fractions’. In problem solving our focus has been on using the strategies ‘Working Backwards/ Reason Logically. We really enjoy working together to solve more challenging problems.

In social studies, our topic ‘The Victorians’ has been really exciting as so many new things were invented during this age. We now need to choose ‘A Victorian Invention’ and create a PowerPoint/ Poster to share with our class in March. Remember to practise reading your work aloud and have your notes ready to help. In technology, we have also  designed our own inventions with Miss Schenini and we can’t wait to work together to create them.

In expressive arts, we drew Queen Victoria and designed a Victorian  Postage Stamp. We now have some really interesting wall displays inside and outside the classroom. Primary 6d have continued our journey towards ‘The Pope Francis Faith Award’. We are currently working on ‘The Gift of Fortitude’. We have discussed and carried out some activities at home and in school. It was great to find out all the different ways that everyone is challenging themselves to improve a skill. Keep this up!

P.6d & Mrs Bovaird

P.S Please remember to collect any materials that you will need to build your  invention

Happy New Year!

Wow! Primary 6d cannot believe January is nearly over! It has gone so quickly! We all wrote our New Year Resolutions which included the best parts of last year and If I had one thing I could change. Let’s try to keep all our promises!!

This month we started our new novel. We have  completed detailed comprehension work on Tom’s Midnight Garden. Some of it has been quite challenging but we have had really interesting discussions about word choice and punctuation. We can’t wait to find out what happens next. Some parts are quite unusual. Has Tom gone back into the past ???

In writing, we have been concentrating on poetry. We wrote poems about the signs of Winter and Scotland. Well done everyone for including lots of similes and metaphors. It has really helped us to revise these every morning. Keep this up as it has really improved our writing.

In numeracy, we have continued to work on decimals- multiplication,division,addition and subtractions. We have used calculators to help with more challenging problems. Other areas  include:-

Division- Th H T U- with remainders

Challenging word problems to practise working with money

Volume- 3D shapes- cubes and cuboids- connecting l & ml to knowledge of decimals.

Our new project is the ‘Victorians’. There’s so many interesting facts to learn and we have linked this to I.C.T. We have been researching different areas, making notes and sharing our findings with the class. We have already worked together to create a timeline of major events. We are all so glad that we never attended a Victorian school!!!

This week we have been celebrating ‘Other World Religions’. Some of us have made Power Points about our own religions. These have been fantastic and the other children have enjoyed making notes and asking questions. Last week, we concentrated on learning about St Anthony. His life was really interesting and he was extremely good to the poor. The Gift of ‘Wisdom’ has been been really important in our journey towards ‘Pope Francis Faith Award’. We completed tasks in school and continued with short activities that could be carried out at home. Well done to those children who have shared all the ways they have helped at home throughout the month.

We are all looking forward to our short February holiday.

Mrs Bovaird & Primary 6d

Wow! Another busy month for Primary 6d.  We really enjoyed the Christmas Fayre and had lots of fun visiting all the different activities. Thank you to everyone who organised this brilliant day for us.

This week, we have been have been presenting our ‘Christmas Around the World’ presentations. Everyone has chosen to share so many ‘Christmas Traditions’ from lots of different countries and places.  Lots of important facts, amazing graphics and transition slides included. It was great to look at how everyone will hopefully be celebrating this special time this year.

We have continued to work on instructions and imaginative stories. It was great to be able to choose our own title to create an imaginative Christmas story which incorporated great openers, feelings, similes, metaphors, paragraphs and punctuation. Lots of us chose to be Santa’s helpers and have wonderful adventures.

In Mathematics, we have looked at coordinates and we are now more confident when plotting the different points and the importance of joining them up with a straight line as we go along. We even managed to create ‘Santa Claus’ which involved a lot of work as there were so many co-ordinates and colours to follow.

We hope everyone enjoys our ‘Advent Service’ as we really enjoyed working with the other Primary 6 classes.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Take Care

Primary 6d & Mrs Bovaird xx

Primary 6d have had another really busy month. We really enjoyed learning all about COP 26 and it was so exciting that this conference was taking place in Glasgow. We watched some of it live and it was amazing to see lots of  World Leaders together discussing such important issues. In class, we have been practising taking notes and writing persuasive texts about how we could change the world.  We managed to collect lots of important data that helped us to incorporate clear evidence in our writing.

In literacy, we have continued to work on using speech marks. It was  tricky but we are now able to use them correctly in conversations. As always, we have been working hard using our comprehension skills to complete texts on ‘Keeping Australia Beautiful’ and exploring characters feeling and thoughts.

In Numeracy and Mathematics, we have been working on measurement- converting kilometres, metres,centimetres and millimetres. We have also started to connect this to decimals. Other areas we have covered are multiplication-Th H T U, fractions-simplified and division with remainders.

In Art, we looked at Australian Aboriginal Art and used this technique to design our own pictures. They were really colourful and displayed lots of native Australian animals.  We are now going to complete the last part of our topic by comparing and contrasting Australia and the UK.

Next week, we will be beginning a mini topic on ‘Christmas around the World’. At home, we can research any country in order to find out about different traditions. Then, we will share this information with the rest of the class.

Mrs Bovaird & P.6d

Primary 6d have been really busy this month. We all enjoyed our October break and we are really looking forward to the Hallowe’en party on Friday. Can’t wait to see all the ‘Carnival’ pumpkins!!!

This month, we have been working on imaginative writing. We wrote a variety of stories with titles such as ‘Lost’, ‘An Australian Adventure’ and as always our last story was our own choice which completed our writing block. We included lots of detail and fantastic vocabulary. Everyone has been trying to add an extra paragraph in the middle and use different openers.

In Numeracy and Mathematics, we have continued to work on division, multiplication and challenging word problems. We have spent a great deal of time discussing the properties and nets of 3D shapes. In problem solving, we have moved on to the strategies ‘Draw a Picture/Diagram’ and ‘Guess, Check and Improve’. It was great fun deciding the best place to position people on a ‘Table Plan’ by successfully following and understanding all the relevant information.

In social studies, we have loved learning even more about Australia. We created a fact file on our chosen sea creature which included information on habitat, diet, size, special skills and interesting facts. Everybody got a turn to share their findings with the rest of the class. In Art, we practised drawing marine life linked to the ‘Great Barrier Reef’. Now that we have gained confidence, we have created our own ‘Underwater’ scenes. Wow!

In R.E we have begun our ‘Journey’ towards ‘The Pope Francis Faith Award’. We have completed various activities linked to the ‘Gift of Knowledge’ which we received during the Sacrament of ‘Baptism’. Now that we are in Primary 6, we are able to increase our understanding and further deepen our faith.

In Science and P.E, we have been learning about the heart and measuring our heart rates before and after exercise. A great way to learn about how our bodies work!

Finally, we are taking part in a ‘Judo’ session in Parklands. This should certainly keep us fit and healthy!!!

Well done to everyone who received ‘Awards’ this month. It was great for everyone to hear all about our  achievements.

Wow! It’s been a busy month for Primary 6d.

Last week, we thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the ‘Cycle Challenge’. It was great fun and also helped to raise funds for sports equipment, sports trips and resources for outdoor play. Some of us even decided to bring scooters and roller skates. A fantastic effort from everyone!

In Religious, we took part in the enrolment service for ‘ The Pope Francis Faith Award’. We are all looking forward to beginning our new booklet and learning and reflecting on our religion. We also celebrated St. Ninian’s and St. Cadoc’s Feast Days and also the birthday of ‘ Our Lady’.  We are currently learning the ‘ Faith Award Prayer’ and reciting the ‘Act of Contrition’ each day to help us remember and prepare for ‘Reconciliation’ which will take place at school.

Primary 6d have been writing imaginative stories. We wrote about being ‘Lost’ and chose where we wanted our stories to take place. We included lots of adjectives and adverbs which we had already practised using our Nelson Grammar textbooks. In functional writing, we have been examining adverts and looking at the different features that catch the readers attention. Our class chose to advertise a new theme park which included colourful graphics and fantastic vocabulary.  Wish these places really existed!!

This month, we have all been busy covering lots of different concepts in Numeracy and Mathematics.

•  Multiplication of Th H T U by 2 -9
• Place Value to 999 999, millions
• Division with remainders

It’s also Maths Week so we are planning to go outside to work on area and perimeter using chalk to help us to visualise and calculate the correct answers. To revise line symmetry, we created our own imaginative  pictures. These are displayed outside our classroom but Mrs Bovaird uploaded them onto Twitter to share them with our parents/carers.  We hope you enjoyed seeing our work.

Primary 6d love to share their achievements. Well done to everyone who received stickers or awards in September.