P5 have had an eventful fourth term as well as year with visiting   the local area the school and learning lots of new things and doing so with an eager and positive attitude to learn each day.

Literacy

Within literacy this term we have been continuing with our Wraparound spelling in a new way where the pupils from P5-7 have come together to form 3 spelling groups. Within these groups the pupils have been looking into different sounds each week as well as common words associated with that sound. The pupils have been developing their understanding of the sounds and words within their spelling by looking into putting the words into sentences, finding out the root of the word and then seeing if they could grow the words. They have also continued to look in depth into the words by using various strategies to aid in their learning.

In terms of Talk for Writing this term the pupils have been looking into writing and creating their own  story with a change with a further focus on description and dialogue. As a class we have been analysing the text of ‘The Story of Pirate Tom’ by Pie Corbett through creating a story map to help in remembering the text as well as help in discovering how the structure of a story like this can use.

Numeracy

In Numeracy this term we have been looking into the topic of measurement as well as time. As a class we began by thinking about the different ways and what we can measure. We then looked into how to use each way of measuring through mental maths games and class actives such as measuring height and length n centimetres and that we can measure capacity in litres. The pupils have also been looking into time and how we cause use digital and analogue clocks and how to transfer between 12 hour and 24 hour time.

Class Trips Visit

The pupils this term have taken a trip to grant part where we concluded our learning of plants by completing a word scavenger hunt in the park. We have also visited the Forres Transition Town where the pupil learnt about sustainability in the garden as well as what different plants you can grow in your garden and their uses. We also learnt about how to composite as well as weed and plant seeds in the garden plant boxes.

Topic – Who made a difference?

In Topic this terms we have been looking into answering the question of ‘Who Made a Difference’. As a class we have looked into people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa and Ghandi, Alexander Graham Bell, Picasso, Marie Curie and Andy Warhol and who they were and how they made a difference to the world we now know. We have also been looking into what a Primary and Secondary source is as well as being able to say how we know if a source is reliable or not. From this the pupils have completed a research project in class round people that the pupils want to learn about and discover how they made a difference. Some of the examples from this were people like Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough and Winston Churchill. The pupils have all been eager to take part in all aspects of learning and also created a time line of the important dates from the people whom we learnt about in class to express their learning and understanding.

Overall this term and year has been filled with fun, laughter and a lot of learning. It has been wonderful to have been apart of this class and see them progress on their individual learning journeys and I wish them all the best in the future!!

What a fantastic final term we have had in Primary 6.  We have had a term full of new opportunities for growth and lots of fun along the way! 

Literacy

In Literacy this term we have been focusing on the genre of adventure.  Our class novel ‘Dead man’s cove’ supports this and has engaged the children beautifully in the exciting adventures of its budding detective Main character.  Using Talk for Writing methods the children have been innovating on the short story ‘Kidnapped’ by Pie Corbett creating their own characters with a particular focus on exciting sentence starters helping to engage our readers. Accelerated Reader has been ongoing as an independent activity with most children working hard to read books and then complete a test.

Numeracy

During this term primary 6 have been working on fractions, time and solidifying their knowledge of multiplication.  Primary 6 have enjoyed some maths themed play and are now confident in the four operations within whole numbers and fractions. Throughout the term we have also been revising our times table knowledge through active maths activities and games and Primary 6 now have a strong and clear understanding of fact families and multiplication with three digit numbers.

Health and Wellbeing 

In PE primary 6 always work extremely hard. We have enjoyed learning to play Cricket with some of the children going off to take part in an inter schools cricket tournament. As always it is important that we continue to work on being part of a team and primary 6 have done this well through the medium of basketball.

Primary 6 have had a wonderful year, full of fantastic learning experiences. It has been a pleasure being their teacher this year. I hope you all have an enjoyable and restful summer. 

It has been a really busy term in Primary 7!  It’s hard to believe your young people are now at the end of their learning journey with us here at Pilmuir and are getting ready to continue this journey after the holidays at the academy.

The children have done an amazing job organising and running our potted sports day and coffee morning, and worked really hard to prepare for our performance at the Pilmuir Picnic.  We have also had lots of transition events to prepare for the move to secondary school.

Literacy

We have worked on two Talk for Writing units this term, one on adventure stories and one on instructions.  We have continued to follow the Wraparound Spelling programme in our spelling groups.  In reading, our focus this term has been on making predictions.  There have been lots of opportunities for talking and listening across the curriculum, from formal presentations to a big audience at assemblies and the welcome and closing speeches at sports day, to relaxed class discussions about transition to the academy.

Numeracy and maths

This term we’ve looked at 2D and 3D shape, angles, and data handling.  We also spent some time working on fractions and percentages.  We’ve enjoyed lots of active maths learning activities, like making nets of 3D shapes using different resources and collecting and sharing data from our own surveys and questionnaires.  After staff were retrained in using Numicon resources, the children have had time to explore all the new maths resources we now have in school linked to this.

Health and Wellbeing

We have had lots of visitors from the Academy to talk to us about various aspects of the transition to the academy.  The children have also had the chance to talk about their hopes, worries, and expectations about what being a high school pupil will be like in class.  The transition days went really well.

For PE we have been enjoying the better weather this term and getting outside for weekly rounders and football lessons.  A team of children represented Pilmuir at the Forres Academy ASG football competition.  We also had so much fun designing our activities for potted sports day and then encouraging the other classes to participate on the day.

Expressive Arts

Primary 7 have really enjoyed their Wednesday morning arts and crafts lessons with Mrs Hogg.  They made lots of lovely things to sell at our fundraising coffee morning.

We have also had a big focus on music and dance this term as we have been preparing our class and whole school performances for the Pilmuir Picnic.

Coffee Morning

The Primary 7’s spent a lot of time planning and preparing for our fundraising coffee morning.  Mrs Lyon and Mrs Liney helped the children to make lots of delicious home baking, and the class made posters to advertise the event.  We had a wide selection of crafts made by the class to sell, including tea lights, woven decorations, cards, bookmarks, and bracelets.  The children had a range of different roles on the day of the coffee morning, from greeting visitors at the gate, to serving home baking and juice, collecting entry money, collecting and clearing dirty dishes, and organising games for the young children who came along.  We raised just over £200 which paid for Moray Flying Circus to deliver a workshop for us as an end of term treat.  Special thanks goes to Tesco for donating some baking ingredients, biscuits, refreshments and prizes for this event through their Community Champion scheme. The Forres Store team were very helpful. Thank you to all the family, friends and members of the community who came to show support, including the residents and staff at a local care home.  It was lovely to have you all join us.

Library Digital Literacy Workshop

Diane and Mags from Elgin Library came to deliver a digital technology/STEM workshop.  The children really enjoyed exploring augmented reality books, tattoos, stickers, playing with the Sphero robots which are controlled by apps, and trying the Lego Spike coding resources. Thanks to Diane and Mags for leading this workshop and providing lots of fun opportunities for us to learn using all these exciting gadgets.  We hope they will visit the school again next year.

Pilmuir Picnic

The children worked hard to learn the songs and dances for the Pilmuir Picnic which we think you will agree was a big success.  Three members of the class worked hard to learn separate lines for a solo/ group part for their class song.  The class really gave their very best effort for the performance, even when they were feeling nervous and uncomfortable.  It shows that sometimes this is needed to make us even better and to challenge ourselves to learn even more.  They made beautiful props as well for our performance.

Primary 7 treats

The children had a fantastic circus skills workshop on the penultimate week of term.  They got to play lots of fun games and have a go at learning how to use lots of different circus equipment, including juggling scarves, hoops, poi, spinning plates, and pedalos (a training tool for learning how to cycle a unicycle!). Thank you to Emma from Moray Flying Circus for all her encouragement and support leading this session.

Outfit Moray spent the morning with us on Friday.  The children had a fantastic time completing the obstacle course and braving the ramps.  They did exceptionally well challenging themselves to develop and perfect their cycling skills and manage their own risk taking.  Some of the ramps looked pretty scary and challenging as a bystander but all pupils tried them all at least once. Thank you to Michelle from Outfit Moray for all her help, support and words of encouragement for the children.

We then enjoyed some pizza in the afternoon to finish off another leavers treat day. Thank you to Pizza Pan Forres for opening early to fulfil our order and deliver it to us.

We wish all of our P7s a restful summer holiday and lots of good luck wishes for their future schooling at Forres Academy.  We hope you’ll come back to let us know how you are getting on once you settle into the new term.

Good luck to Mrs Young who is leaving us to go off on maternity leave this week.  We look forward to hearing the exciting news very soon about the latest addition to her family and hope to see them next term for a visit (and some baby cuddles!).

Good luck P7,

Mrs Young and Mrs Lyon.

On Friday 9th June Primary 1 visited the Tolbooth, or the Town Clock, as lots of people know it.  Some parents also came with us. We enjoyed it very much.  We toured around the building, seeing the cells and Courtroom.  The cells were quite scary.

K said, “I liked the torture room.  It had no bed and no light. ”

K2 said, “I liked the creepy bucket.”

P said, “I liked the jail.”

We also had the chance to go outside and walk along the outdoor viewing platform.  It is so high up!   One group stood right under a clock face as it chimed for 2 o’clock. Thankfully, it wasn’t too loud.

Many thanks to Mr Alexander and the other volunteers  of Forres Heritage Trust https://forresheritage.co.uk/ for making our visit so interesting and enjoyable.  A big thank you to the parents who came along with us.

Here are some photos.

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Primary 1 Tolbooth Visit – 9 June 2023

We had a good time up at the Tolbooth on Friday, 9th June. Some parents managed to come along with us and we hope they found it just as enjoyable.

Go to this Sway