Literacy
We have been reading short non-fiction texts linked to our topic (How was it made?) this term. The children have been engaged in discussions about the texts and have been able to share their thoughts.
We are continuing to use The WrapAround Spelling scheme to look at spelling patterns and words in more depth and the strategies we can use to help us spell words accurately.
This term we have read ‘Varjak Paw’ by SF Said as our class novel, and looked at the short story, ‘Zelda Claw and the Raincat’ to inform our own suspense writing. We have been using the Talk for Writing method to help us learn these texts, innovate on them, and then write independently.
Numeracy
We have been focusing on place value and decimal numbers. We have used a range of active learning activities to help us consolidate our understanding. We’ve also linked our numeracy to the Dandelion Festival (reading and writing big numbers linked to the amount of potatoes grown by different countries), and our ‘How was it made?’ topic (using scale factor to start making a model of the Solar System).
Health and Wellbeing
Primary 7 have had weekly basketball lessons with Miss Masson and have also been practising their ball skills in netball lessons with Mrs Young on a Monday.
We refamiliarised ourselves with Zones of Regulation at the start of term to help us recognise, understand, and talk about our emotions.
Topic – the Dandelion Festival and ‘How was it made?’
Primary 7 learned all about how potatoes are grown, which countries grow the most potatoes, and what potatoes can be used for. We then shared this learning at our school’s Dandelion Festival assembly in September.
We worked collaboratively to research the planets in our Solar System before using the information we had found to help us make a scale model of the Solar System.
Independent Learning through Play
The children have done lots of fantastic learning through play, developing a range of skills like teamwork, communication, and problem solving, as well as advancing their learning in other areas. For example:
- Hair salon role play area which has involved literacy (talking & listening) and numeracy (money, scheduling);
- Watercolour paints at the arts and crafts table which will feed into our ‘How was it made topic?’ through fashion designs;
- Experimenting with magnets which has furthered our scientific understanding of magnetism and forces;
- The Kapla blocks have been very popular this term and have allowed the children to develop their teamwork skills to work on big projects. They have created some amazing models and tall towers.
Google Classroom
We post what we are learning daily on our Google Classroom so we encourage you to access this with your child and discuss their learning with them.
Next term:
Over the winter term our topic will be ‘Where do we come from?’ which will give us the opportunity to explore our history. This will be supported by numeracy work linked to understanding time. We will also be planning lots of fun activities in the build up to Christmas, including learning linked to whole school events such as the Christmas Fayre.
