This term in P7 our context for IDL is LEARNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY. The whole of St. Albert’s has this theme as a focus in Term 1.

In P7 we will be looking at sustainable living as food consumers. We will look at our diets and the nutrition we receive from certain foods, food journeys and the impact of growing foods on the environment (this will also include considering how food is transported/packaged). This topic will be central to our writing this term, as well as to our Science work. Miss Cohen has organised a trip as part of our topic: The Hidden Gardens, where P7 will learn more about how we can grow our own organic food. We will then use this knowledge to do some planting and growing of our own in the school Eco garden. We will also be visited by an organic farmer, who will teach us about his job and hopefully offer some handy hints re. planting and growing sustainably.

Literacy and Languages

The skills we are developing this term in reading are to read with expression and to be able to understand more technical information by using dictionaries and asking questions. We will be using a range of reading strategies as we read, and Miss Cohen will provide plentiful opportunities for us to connect with and skim through the text.

In speaking and listening, we are learning to understand information and present it back as a talk to our classmates. We’ll be doing this when presenting on the journeys that different foods make from farm to plate. We’ll also have the opportunity to relay instructions to our peers when reading recipes and preparing healthy, organic meals. Lastly, we will be rehearsing for our class assembly, which will involve projecting our voices and ensuring clarity and expression when presenting.

In our writing, we’ll be learning to write informative pieces linked to our Topic.

We’ll also be having French lessons with Miss Cohen. These will hopefully improve our understanding of Grammar and expression!

Numeracy

Every term, we ensure that we are still on top of our calculation skills. We will be focusing on place value, and understanding that before zero we have tenths, hundredths, thousandths etc, and that these are represented as decimal numbers. We will also be revising how to do long multiplication. In mental maths, we’ll be revising our strategies, in particular partitioning, and applying our knowledge of shape to simple problems.

Health and Wellbeing

Some girls in Primary 7 have the opportunity to go swimming every Thursday afternoon. The rest of the class will be focusing on improving our fitness through team games and circuit-style sessions. Mr McDonald is keen to improve our stamina and cardio abilities, and we’ll be doing exercises such as the Cooper test, the Illinois agility test and circuit class.

During our wider health and wellbeing lessons, we’ll be covering three units of work with Mrs Chromy, Miss Webster and Miss McCue. These will cover: Meditation and mindfulness, the impact of physical activity on your mental well-being and defining Mental Health and understanding its emotional impact.

Arts

Mr McCormack and Miss Cohen are teaching us about rhythm in music. We’re learning to clap simple rhythms and use our instruments to harmonise with tracks on Charanga. We are even getting the samba drums out! A small group of pupils are also working with Mr McCormack and Steg from Sunny G radio, learning how to record and broadcast to a wider audience.

We are also going on two trips related to film and theatre: P7 are attending the Glasgow Film Theatre to watch independent short films as part of the Take One Action youth film festival, and attending a performance of ‘Tiger Tale’ at Platform.

Science and R.E.

In Science this term, we will be studying the benefits of plants and their impact on society. This nicely links with our R.E. work, where we will be reading the story of creation and discussing stewardship and our responsibility to respect and value God’s kingdom. We will learn about vocations, and research the lives of the Saints.

Technology

This term, we’re going to learn to cook some healthy, organic meals in small groups. We’ll also be using the school’s computing equipment to post recipes and photographs of our cooking experiences onto the class blog. We will be practicing how to type effectively, and upload documents.