This term in P7 our context for IDL is IMPORTANT HISTORICAL EVENTS, and we will be looking at The British Empire in more detail. The whole of St. Albert’s has this theme as a focus in Term 2.

In P7 we will be looking at The British Empire, its role in shaping history, its stance now and its connection with The Commonwealth. We will also be researching and looking into the lack of literature and child-friendly novels surrounding this theme, and thus the coverage certain aspects of history are entitled to over others. We will link this to current affairs and headlines – and discuss who decides what is covered, and why they may have this agenda.

Literacy and Languages

Instead of reading a class novel associated with the British Empire, Miss Cohen will be selecting extracts from poetry, non-fiction and fiction texts related to this theme. We will be using our reading strategies, particularly connecting and inferring, to deepen our understanding of this era and to form critical judgement about its role both past and present.

Miss Cohen has planned a trip to the library in November, as it is National Reading Week to select and loan texts connected with our learning this term.

To improve our spelling strategies, this term Miss Cohen has begun teaching us about different phonemes and the way they are spelled in texts. We are using problem solving approaches to separate words into sounds and phonemes, diacritically marking as we go. We are also listening to Miss Cohen and our peers read short dictations exposing the phoneme being studied, and recording our phoneme spellings under suitable headings.

Saad and Zeenat are taking part in the Holyrood Public Speaking Competition, and Zainab and Ryan have attended the after school club to help prepare them for their speech – which they will be delivering on the theme of Homelessness. We will be looking more at the theme of Homelessness when planning for our ‘Wee Sleep Out’ event, taking place on Thursday 8th November. Keep your eyes peeled on our class blog and school Twitter for updates.

In our Writing, we will be creating imaginative spells as part of our Halloween celebrations, writing diary entries and creating our own comic strip storylines related to our IDL work.

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 and Mental Maths skills. During Term 2, we will be focusing on measurement (how to find the area, perimeter and volume of 2D and 3D shapes). We will be practicing how to interpret scales and data, which will involve converting between different units of measurement; milliliters, litres, grams, kilograms, kilometer, metres, centimetres. In the lead up to the Christmas fair, we will be working with money and planning to produce and sell items within a given budget. We will develop an awareness of the terms profit and loss.

Health and Wellbeing

Some girls in Primary 7 have the opportunity to go swimming every Thursday afternoon. On a Thursday afternoon, we will be practicing Athletics in preparation for the Super 7s Competition which will take place in January. Physical activities will include javelin throwing, sprinting, relay racing, shot put throwing and long jumping.

During our wider health and wellbeing lessons, we’ll be covering a three week block on Equalities, where we will look at Gender Equality, Racism and Equality in relation to disability with Mrs Chromy, Miss Webster and Miss McCue. Following this, we will use our Health and Well-being hour to explore God’s Loving Plan content. In this unit of work, we will discuss four key themes; what it means to love, the Sacrament of Matrimony, how the love of a married couple is part of God’s Loving Plan and how a baby is born.

We will also be starting PATHS, a  whole school programme which looks at improving our emotional literacy and well-being. We will be exploring comfortable and uncomfortable emotions this term, how these may look externally and feel internally, and how we can cope with them effectively. Each day, one person in our class is selected as the ‘Pupil of the day’ and they are treated extra specially. We all give them compliments which are recorded on a certificate. This will help to improve pupils’ self-esteem and coping strategies.

Arts

We will be creating a Turner Prize style installation in the school relating to our IDL work this term. The pupils will plan how this will look – and which artistic conventions we will follow to showcase our work. Watch this space…

Science and R.E.

During Science this term, Primary 7 will be looking at substances that make up the Earth’s surface, and comparing their uses. We will focus on minerals that are mined; gold, copper, cobalt, tin etc.

As mentioned above, we will be learning about God’s Loving Plan for us during Religious Education. We will also be celebrating the feast day of St. Albert on Thursday 15th November, as well as helping prepare and contributing to the Infant Nativity which we will be having in December.

Technology

We will be using the Green Screen to create effective backdrops for our Writing tasks. We will also be experimenting with different applications we can use to create comic style story boards. We will be selecting Digital leaders to help plan for and record clips of the lead up to the Christmas nativity play – filming out-takes and backstage footage of the process. We will also be selecting Digital helpers to create programmes for the Nativity event, which will then be sent out to parents and community members. We need assistance with stage lighting, prop management and costume change. Miss Cohen will try to organise a trip to the Tramway in preparation for this role so that Primary 7 can see what it takes backstage, and which elements need to be planned in order for a show to run successfully.