Category Archives: Classes

P2/3 2021, Primary 2, Primary 3

P2/3 Termly Update – December 2021

It has been a very busy term so far and the children have been concentrating on learning the songs, lines and actions for our Nativity – ‘Hey Ewe’. We now have two versions of the Nativity for you to watch using the links that have been sent out.

I think you will agree they have done an amazing job!

In Mathematics and Numeracy, the children have been learning all about 2D shapes and 3D objects and have applied their learning when designing and building models.  Money has been introduced during independent learning with the children each being given a budget of 10p per day to spend on art and craft materials or renting ICT equipment. This has led to lots of discussions about making amounts, receiving change, saving and collaborating with others to make their money go further. The children still find very imaginative ways to include mathematics into their independent learning as you can see….

We are still reading every morning in our groups and learning new sounds and spelling patterns through Wraparound Spelling and Phonics. Mrs Kinlin’s phonics group even showed off their learning by demonstrating how they stretch the sounds during our class assembly.

Adventure Island remains the highlight of the week, even with the weather turning colder. We have recently purchased new equipment for the children to use, including tarpaulins, ropes and bungee cords. To celebrate the end of the year, we warmed up with a hot chocolate!

Looking forward to next year – we will be learning about Scotland, Robbie Burns and traditional foods and drink, before starting a new IDL concentrating on being eco friendly and the Global Goals for Sustainability. In mathematics we will learn about multiplication, division and fractions.

Writing will be the focus of our literacy learning next term as we begin to use the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach.

Please have a look through our class sway to see all the photos of our learning this term.

Go to this Sway
Go to this Sway

We wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

P1/2 2021, Primary 1, Primary 2, Uncategorized

P1/2 Play Blog – Term 2

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We have been focussing more on skills that the children are developing through play, ones which are at the heart  of The Moray Skills Pathway, for children aged 3-18: Our first sway is based on the self-management skills our children have been displaying during play activities.

Remember, you will need your child’s glow login details to view it.

Go to this Sway
T and R teamed up to design a Christmas Tree out of Sticklebricks.
J was very proud of the obstacle course that he had made and coached the boys as they tried it for the first time.
G had used this game, of decorating the tree, a couple of times. On this occasion she was particularly pleased with the effect of  grouping the same type of decorations together. I thought it was very creative. Others thought the same, and copied her idea.

 

E got the balances out and put some dinosaurs into one bucket. She added a small animal to the other side and nothing happened. When it was explained how the balances worked she quickly grasped the idea. She was determined to find objects herself, to balance out the weight of the first bucket.`

The children certainly have had plenty of experience in developing Teamwork Skills, during their free choice of play activities.  They enjoy mixing together and there have been lots of occasions when we have seen groups and, sometimes, unlikely partnerships, really flourishing.  Shared interests have encouraged friendships and tolerance.  The children like helping each other, being together and having fun.  What a lovely group they are to be with.

Here is the second sway, featuring some of the Teamwork spirit we have seen.

Go to this Sway
G and G created an obstacle course together. A lot of the other children enjoyed completing the course.
AJ, J and J built the ramp with A. They had tried different designs during other play sessions and this was their new one, where they tried to run the cars off the bottom of the slope and into a box. It proved one of their favourite ramps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A and C have caught the reading bug and talked about creating a game with the word cards. First, they read the cards together. This picture shows A telling C how that card should be sounded out.

 

 

Events, Latest News, P6 2021, Primary 6

P6 Term 2 Newsletter

Woodland Group

All the class have now had the opportunity to gain their Hi5 award and have been looking after their local environment.  Hi5 Awards | Youth Scotland

During independent learning, some of the children have been learning magic tricks with playing cards.  They have also mastered Uno Flip and various card games as well as perfecting their origami skills.

HWB

In Embodied Learning, we have been practising yoga and mindfulness and learning to move our bodies in lots of different ways to help us express our feelings.  The children have all enjoyed the programme immensely and a Sway with photos and video clips is in production.

Numeracy

We have been learning to convert 12 hour to 24 hour time and reading and creating timetables.  We have also been practising mental maths and converting larger numbers from Roman Numerals.

Literacy

We have been working on exciting writing and so far we have explored how to describe a setting for a story.  We will be working on characterisation next term.  We have also been exploring parts of speech, such as verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives.

Class Advent Calendar Class Advent Calendar

We look forward to welcoming Mrs Malcolm as our new teacher in January and it was good to have a Google meet with her.

P7 2021, Uncategorized

P7 Newsletter – Term 2

Literacy

Writing – At the beginning of Term 2, we used our knowledge of writing narrative instructions to create practical instructions for building bird feeders and a bug hotel. For the remainder of the term we have been developing our use of descriptive language and using literacy techniques such as similes, metaphors and alliteration. We have been describing story settings and created maps of our own magical worlds. Next term we will focus on character description and plot.

Spelling – We have continued to follow the Wraparound Spelling progression, using prefixes and suffixes to grow our vocabulary. We have introduced new grammar concepts with a view to developing a deeper understanding of different parts of speech.

Reading Comprehension Skills – Throughout Term 2 we have been developing our inferencing and questioning skills. These reading strategies have been taught through a series of small group comprehension sessions, animations and whole class novels.

Mathematics and Numeracy

During Term 2 we have covered the properties of special triangles, the properties of circles, fractions, decimals and percentages, using mental and written methods. We will continue to work on fractions and percentages next term, as well as strategies for the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). Topical maths will focus on time and money.

Health & Wellbeing

We continue to encourage discussion and exploration of our mental and social health via The Zones of Regulation. We had a visit from PC Millican to reinforce the importance of internet safety. P7 have demonstrated a keen awareness of how they can protect themselves and their personal information online. We continue to promote kind and respectful use of social media and messaging facilities.

During Term 2 in PE, we have been developing our tennis skills, including, racquet control, forehand and backhand ground strokes, forehand and backhand volley and service. We have been learning how to direct the ball and pass to a partner with control.

Outdoor Learning

This term we have engaged with a project to build a bug hotel on the grounds of the school. We have planned, risk assessed and pitched our idea to Mrs Thorley. We drew scale models and created 3D models to showcase our designs. Next term we are hopeful that we can complete the build, encourage more wildlife into the grounds and provide practical learning experiences for other classes.

IDL

Our IDL context this term has been Christmas Around the World. We have researched how Christmas is celebrated in Germany, Japan and Poland and created leaflets and posters to share our learning. Our IDL context next term is Scotland.

Expressive Arts

This term we have been learning ukulele with Mrs Gillies, who also accompanied us on piano to record our Christmas Carols. The recording can be found on the link that is sent to parents. We have been exploring use of different materials such as junk, paints, pencils, crayon and pens to create a range of seasonal artwork. We have engaged in Christmas craft activities and enjoyed the opportunity to make the school look more festive with our decorations.

P5 2021, Uncategorized

PRIMARY 5

We have had a very busy term in Primary 5!

We have been focussing on describing settings for stories in our writing sessions. Lots of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs have been used. We even managed to squeeze some super similes into our work too.

Short and long vowel sounds have given us thousands of words to spell, practise, stretch and grow this term. We are becoming experts in our Wraparound spelling lessons.

Inference has been the focus of our whole class reading lessons.  We are improving our skills in using clues from texts to answer questions.  We are even managing to add sentences into our writing that need the reader to infer.

In maths we continued with some shape work learning about 2D shapes and their properties.  In numeracy we have recently been learning about place value, reading and writing large numbers and rounding.  One Christmas tree that was made during morning activities cost £1,247,585!

The I.D.L topic of Christmas around the world has allowed us to understand some similarities and differences between Christmas traditions in Scotland and other countries.

We created some echo art during art lessons.  We also collected leaves and sticks and brought them indoors to create pieces of art. They were amazing!

We have been really enjoying doing jigsaws during morning activities and FUN31.  We emailed Mrs Thorley and asked if we could get some Roald Dahl jigsaws……..and she said yes!  They arrived very quickly and we’re making our way through them.

In term 3 we will be focussing on writing character descriptions as beginnings for stories. We will continue to revise our long vowel sounds and move on to other common sounds. In reading we will continue to use our inference skills and also move on to summarising. In numeracy we will focus on mental and written methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Our I.D.L. theme in January will be Scotland.

P3/4 2021

Term 3

Term 2 (Looking Back)

Last term was a busy one for everyone, specially in the lead up to Christmas. I hope that you have had a chance to watch our nativity play “Hey Ewe”. You can access it throught the link that you will be sent.  P3/4 really enjoyed being narrators and having the opportunity to work with the younger children in school.  Be sure to listen to their singing! They were excellent!

We continued to practise our spelling  last term,  using “Wrap Around”. Children can access  PowerPoints through their Google Classroom. They can practise their words and try the activities. Everyone has been keen to have a go.

We have continued with Independent Learning Time. The children have learned and taught lots of skills. They really enjoy working with each other. Have a look at the class Sway with your child. They can log in using their Google Classroom password. (Last term’s Sway is still available too)

Go to this Sway

Once a month we are working on “Play Projects”. There is a sway attached to show our work  so far.  Ask your child all about it. They will have lots to say. Our first two themes were “Boats” and “Dinosaurs”.

Go to this Sway

Term 3 (Looking forwards)

January is our Scotland month. We will be studying Scottish myths and stories.  We are looking forward to learning lots about Scotland.

Wrap Around spelling will continue as will our other Literacy subjects. In Numeracy we plan to look at money. This is something that children could practise at home. They could also keep working on telling the time. We did lots of work on this last term and everyone’s skills really developed.

Thank you for your support this year. We look forward to another great term in 2022!

 

P3/4 2021

Primary 3/4 Termly Update

Pilmuir Primary School HandbookWelcome to P3/4’s blog page!

Term 1 (Looking back)

Last term P3/4 were very excited to take part in Forest School which was organised by Wild Things. Each week we learned so much about the woods and the creatures that live there. Please click on the link to see the children’s learning. I’m sure that your children will be able to tell you lots about their experiences!          Forest School  Link 

You can access the Sway with your child as they will need to be logged in to their Glow account.

We have also been working hard during Independent Learning. This time, is for the children to explore, learn  and develop skills with others or on their own. The children decide what they are going to focus on. The link below will show you the huge range of learning that has occured. Your child will be able to tell you lots about what is going on.         Independent Learning Link

Term 2 (Looking forward)

This term will be a busy one as always! The children will be learning about Christmas around the World and exploring traditions from many cultures.  We will also continue with our new spelling approach – “Wrap Around Spelling”.  Ask your child how to sound out words and stretch them. You will be impressed.

 

 

P7 2021

P7 termly update

 P7 Termly update

Welcome to our first blog post of the current school year.

 

Literacy

Instructional Writing – In Term 1 we introduced Talk4Writing. Over a number of weeks we have taken different approaches to planning our writing, created initial drafts, edited our writing and up-levelled it to create a final piece. Our focus has been instructional writing, with a twist! Ask us how to trap a mythical creature, you won’t be disappointed!  We enjoyed sharing our work with P5 and P6, celebrating our success.

In term 2 we will be looking at persuasive language and writing persuasive letters for a specific purpose.  We will also be focusing on writing settings and character descriptions as beginnings for stories.

Spelling – We are currently following the Wraparound Spelling progression which has involved revisiting the fundamentals of phonics, decomposing words, identifying root words and growing them with prefixes and suffixes. In addition to this, we are also concentrating on sentence work and grammar. Term 1 revision can be found on Google Classroom.

Reading Comprehension Skills – During Term 1 we focused on reading comprehension skills through group reading and individual accelerated readers. We will continue this in term 2. To date, we have been developing our understanding of tricky vocabulary, visualisation and illustration skills, asking and developing effective questions and making predictions. A guide to reading skills strategies can be found on Google Classroom.  We would encourage the children to continue reading at home.  They can access the Accelerated Reading site from home to complete online quizzes and there is a link in the Google Classroom for Bookflix – an online library document with a variety of titles featuring a mix of full texts and extracts from books.

 

Numeracy

Our Term one focus was to revise and extend our knowledge of place value. This has included identifying the value of whole digits and decimals, ordering and sequencing of numbers and rounding. We have explored the properties of 2D and 3D shapes, identified them in our environment and created our own tessellations. We made 3D shapes and nets.

Using natural resources outdoors, we have been learning to play games that enhance our strategy and problem solving skills. Ask your child to teach you how to play ‘Game of NIM’ – it can get quite intense!

We have been sharpening our mental agility and quick recall with mixed daily 20 mental maths questions. You will find links to supporting resources and games on Google Classroom.

In Term 2, we will be focusing on the properties of special triangles and circles. We will continue to deepen our understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages.

 

H&WB

Throughout this year our social, emotional and mental health remains a priority. Through the Zones of Regulation and circle time we continue to explore our emotions, including the triggers and behaviours associated with different feelings. We have identified and devised our own regulation strategies that help to support us during challenging times.

During Term 1 in PE, we successfully developed our throwing, catching, shooting, dribbling, hand-eye coordination, communication and team work skills through basketball. Through the game of field hockey we have focused on stick control, ball control techniques and match play. Ask us to name all of the new moves we have learned!

 

Outdoor Learning

We love outdoor learning and enjoyed playing team building games on the field in Term 1 – we are especially competitive when playing rounders! We had an opportunity to learn skateboarding skills. Doing so allowed us to manage our own speed and risk whilst manoeuvring, as well as challenging our balance and coordination.

Our Outdoor Classroom at Pilmuir has given us an opportunity to engage with loose parts play. We have built dens and assault courses that encourage clear communication, problem solving and team work. Ask us about the Mountain Rescue Challenge!

 

Modern languages

This year we will be learning conversational French with Mrs Lyon and German with Mrs Horne.

 

IDL

Our IDL context for this term will be Christmas Around the World, developing our knowledge and understanding of how other countries, cultures and faiths celebrate Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P1/2 2021, Uncategorized

Primary 1/2 learning through play in terms 1 and 2.

Play is an important part of our learning journey in P1/2.  The children choose daily, from a variety of different outdoor and indoor resources, and enjoy the freedom to:  participate in activities that interests them, explore, build, make,  discover, learn new skills, try new things,  make friends and have fun whilst they are doing it.

The beauty is that the children don’t even know that they are learning, they think they’re just playing! The first term photos are part of this learning journey, snapshots of what the children did during the last week, before the October break.

 

sway

You can access the Sway with your child as they will need to be logged into their Glow account.

The second term photos are from the first week back and concentrates on creativity, which is one of the core skills from the Moray Skills Pathways.  These have been identified as essential skills to be developed in all pupils aged 3 -18.  Other skills that will be highlighted in our learning journey are: employability; self-management; teamwork; communication; thinking; leadership.

sway

P5 2021

Primary 5


The children in Primary 5 have been very busy since coming back to school in August.

We have started using the Talk for Writing process and wrote some super sets of instructions on how to trap mythical creatures last term.  We shared our learning with P3/4.  We acted out and read our instructions to them.

We have also been working really hard on revising our short vowel sounds.  We have started to use the Wraparound Spelling programme.

We learn to play the ukulele on Thursdays with Mrs Gillies.

In maths we have learned about coordinates, angles, direction, compass directions, symmetry and 3D objects. We have had great fun being creative with our learning during our morning activities too.

In Health and Well-being we have had some great discussions about being Safe, Healthy, Active, Nurtured, Achieving, Responsible and Respected. We still have to cover Included.

 

In term 2 we will be focussing on writing settings and character descriptions as beginnings for stories.  We will continue to revise our short vowel sounds and move on to the long vowel sounds.  During reading lessons we will focus on the skill of inferring. In Numeracy we will move on to learning about Place Value, Rounding, Estimating, Addition and Subtraction.  Our I.D.L. theme will be Christmas around the World.