Primary 7 Reflective Friday November 

Welcome to Primary 7’s Reflective Friday post for November. 

In literacy we have started working on new novels. Some children are enjoying reading Wonder, whilst others are reading Mosi’s War. We are focusing on our comprehension of both books and have been spending time discussing and writing about what we have been reading. We are also continuing to work on grammar, spending time on the correct use of apostrophes.  We have all really enjoyed learning to write persuasive arguments and have all become very good at this.

In numeracy we are have focused on multiplication, working hard to practise both mental strategies for multiplication and the standard written method. We are also working very hard to improve our speed and accuracy recalling times table facts. We are now regularly completing a timed challenge to recall our tables facts as quickly as we can and each time trying to beat our personal best. The children are really enjoying this, for some it is absolutely a highlight of the week.

November is the month of the Holy Souls which we have been learning about in RE. We are continuing to learn both Hail, Holy Queen and Memorare, saying both each day.  The children have also enjoyed learning about Jesus and Justice looking for evidence in the Gospels of Jesus’ goodness and fairness.

Our theme until the end of term for learning across the Curriculum is Japan. We have been learning to say the numbers to 10 in Japanese and we have written the numbers and our names in Japanese Kanji too. We have been locating Japan on a world map and finding out lots of interesting facts about it’s capital city. As part of our work on Japan we are also learning about Volcanoes and The Ring of Fire.

We are very lucky to be working with two fantastic active schools co-ordinators every Tuesday until the end of term. Our first outdoor session with them was athletics. We sampled a range of athletics challenges last Tuesday, but the definite highlight was learning a new, and particularly tricky  game of “pairs tig” which we managed to include in our own Thursday PE session too.

We are looking forward to a very busy December with lots more interesting tasks and challenges.

November has been so exciting in Primary 1 / 2. We have been working so hard and have learned lots.

In maths we have been working on Measure. We used a variety of different items to measure things on our desks. We also measured a huge octopus in the playground using our feet. We made estimations then compared our estimations to how long the octopus tentacles actually were.

We also weighed items from our desks using a pan balance and compared what items were lighter or heavier.

The Cubes group have also been working on ordering numbers to 10 and number names, and The Counters have worked so well on numbers to 100!

Within Literacy we have continued to work on new sounds and words. We have been learning how to do partner spelling and thought of lots of strategies to remember our common words. Within Writing, we have been working hard on narrative work and have produced some fantastic stories. We have even learned how to self-assess our work. Here are some of our Star Writers for November.

We have learned lots of new reading comprehension tasks recently and are getting so good at completing them independently. Here is one of our star pupils showing off her Beginning, Middle and End task.

During the Month of the Holy Souls we remembered those who have died and we thought about those people every day during prayers. We learned the Eternal Rest prayer and drew lovely pictures to remember them. We also learned about some Bible Stories this month; Jonah and the Whale and Noah’s Ark. We completed a variety of tasks and thought about how those stories could help us to be better people. We made our own Noah’s Ark with all the animals inside. Here are some of them on display in our classroom.

We have been working on three mini topics this month in our class; Bonfire Night/Fire Safety, Winter and Looking after the Planet. We loved hearing stories about Winter and our Winter Purposeful play sessions. where we enjoyed building ice castles for Elsa and writing our common words in the snow.

We also reflected on the story ‘The Lorax’ and thought about how we could help look after our planet too. Mrs Simpson is impressed as we are doing our bit to save the planet by always using our blue recycling paper bin in class.  The children have lots of other hints and tips to share with their grown-ups at home too!

Within Health and Wellbeing the children have been learning yoga. We have been learning to develop our strength, balance and confidence through lots of yoga poses. We understand that yoga can make us feel calmer and help us to regulate our emotions.

Some children have been finding homework tricky since we moved to our digital model. If you cannot find the homework, simply search for ‘Holy Family Primary and Nursery Class Glow Blog’ on Google. You select the first suggestion that appears which will take you directly to the correct website.

Each class has an individual tab at the top of the screen which you click on to select the current week’s homework. Please see photo as a guide.

If you have any questions or cannot find the homework, please either ask on Teams or write a note in your child’s diary. I have supplied a jotter for homework which should be handed in on Thursdays. Sumdog and Glow details were supplied again last week. They can be found inside your child’s diary. Homework is a very helpful tool for parents as this allows them to see what the children have been learning in school. It is also beneficial for pupils as it allows them to revise previously taught work.

We have been reflecting on November in class and the children have been thinking about the target they were set in their Learning Journeys. Please complete these at home with your child. Our new target for December is to reflect on the Nativity story. Please keep an eye on Twitter to see the children learning about the birth of our Lord.

Keep working hard primary 1/2. You are doing so well!

Hello and welcome to our November Reflective Friday post.

Our class target for this month was to try to include a capital letter and full stop in a sentence. We have all tried so hard to try to add these in our writing. Some of us are working so well that we can write words and sentences all on our own now without over-writing! Brilliant work Primary 1!

We have decided that our next target will be to learn all about the Nativity story. We are going to reflect on the Nativity Story and think about what it means to us as we embark on the period of Advent.

In Literacy we are continuing to focus on the formation of our letters and to make sure that they are the correct size and face the right way. We have been learning lots about reading strategies and the ways that we can begin to read unfamiliar words. Some great tips we have talked about are to be a ‘Tommy Tracker’ and bounce our fingers on the words, to be a ‘Parrot’ and say the sounds out loud and to be a ‘Sammy Snake’ and blend the sounds together with our fingers to read words. Keep up the great work! Here we are enjoying books during Book Week Scotland.

This month, in RME we have been learning all about the Month of the Holy Souls and have been remembering our loved ones that are no longer with us. We have prayed for those who lost their lives in war when learning about Remembrance Day. Here are some of our poppy fields that we created with finger painting.

In Numeracy we have been continuing to learn about numbers and how to solve problems. We have been talking about teen numbers and we know that they are made of a ten and units. We really like chilli challenges and trying out the hardest sum that the teacher gives us to see if we can solve it. We call his being a ‘Mathmagician’! We have been measuring and learning lots of language associated with measurement. We really enjoy learning outdoors and having fun at the same time, so we try to take our learning outside as much as we can.

This month we had reflective Thursday as Friday saw our class celebration for Halloween. Slightly different than usual but no less fun. The children looked fantastic all dressed up and I hope that you enjoyed seeing the art work that they created last week.

This month we have been extremely busy in class. The children have been working hard and it is great to see the progress that they have made. I hope that you enjoyed looking at all the wonderful work in their jotters?

In Literacy the children have been writing instructions and recounts and have been developing their comprehension skills through activities linked to their reading book. I have enjoyed listening to the children read and can definitely see an improvement in their fluency and accuracy so thank you for your support at home.

In Numeracy the children are moving on to subtraction, followed by multiplication and division. The children work very hard during class time and again I can really see how well they are doing. The children also very much enjoy Sumdog, which is a great resource tailored to the specific development needs of each child. In addition to this I select topics to support and consolidate the work that we are doing in class, so I really appreciate you encouraging your child to log in and spend some time this as part of their homework.

Health and Wellbeing/R.E and Topic

The children have been competing in the Primary 2/3 Class Games during P.E. They are either in Team Mario or Team Yoshi and are enjoying some healthy team competition by completing a variety of races, obstacles and developing skills in communication, timing, balance and footwork.

Throughout the month of October the children took part in praying the Rosary and the children loved bringing in their Rosary Beads to use during this time. In November we will be praying for all our loved ones who have passed and again thank you to those who have returned their list.

Finally in addition to the seasonal celebrations such as Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas, the children have been exploring the topic of Knights and Castles and can describe all the special roles of a knight and explain why their armour is so important and can even name some parts of this. Keep your eyes peeled for some fabulous artwork and your ears at the ready for some interesting facts.

Well done boys and girls on another successful month at school.

It has been a busy month in primary 7.

Yesterday we read the final pages of Divided City. The children were excited to get to the end of the novel, but at the same time are disappointed there’s no more to read. It has been great to see so many of the children really engage with the book and get so much enjoyment from reading. We will be starting our new books next week so we have something to look forward to.

Divided City has been the inspiration for our art work this month. We have completed fantastic colourful Glasgow cityscapes, featuring many of the landmarks we have been reading about in the book. The church featured in the novel also inspired us to head outside and draw our own beautiful church with some lovely results.

In literacy the children have really enjoyed learning the skill of persuasive writing. We have written a range persuasive letters and essays all which have been fantastic, they certainly are a persuasive bunch!

In numeracy the children have spent a lot of time looking at addition, subtraction and multiplication. We have worked on both written calculations and have also been learning lots of different mental strategies for these kinds of questions. We have started a timed maths challenge too, with the children completing a challenge once per week in 60 seconds, each week trying to beat their own score.

As we finish our learning on Scottish inventors we are beginning to look at the solar system. The children are all very interested in space and the planets and are asking some interesting and thought provoking questions, well done primary 7.

PE has made a welcome return this month with the children enjoying getting outdoors. We will be focusing on running over the next few weeks, building our stamina and resilience and learning good running and breathing techniques.

For October, the month of the Rosary, we have been reminding ourselves of the Rosary prayers and reflecting on why the Rosary is so special. The children have enjoyed talking about the mysteries of the Rosary and have produced some really lovely illustrations.

We are looking forward to our “desk  Halloween party” tomorrow a great way to finish off a busy and successful month.