Primary 6/5 February Learning Update

We began the month celebrating Global Play Day where we got the opportunity to play with our friends and use our imaginations.  Technology was a real favourite in our class and some children recreated some of the Wonder of the World which we have been studying as part of our IDL topic.

Literacy

We are continuing to read our class novels and at the end of the month, will have an opportunity to watch The Borrowers together to see how the author’s ideas come to life on the screen.

In reading, we have focussed our attention on awareness of engaging our audience when reading aloud.  We have spent time reading to our peers and commenting ion one another’s expression and fluency so that we can continue to improve this key skill.

We have now completed our own imaginative fairy tales which we were able to read to our P2 friends on World Book Day.  Our completed books will be available to be read by our parents when they visit on Science Day on the 14th Marc h.

Maths

Throughout February, our main maths focus, in addition to our regular Number Talks and Mental Maths, has been learning all about Fractions, Decimals and Percentages.  We learned about the range of real life situations where these skills are important and most of us can now confidently calculate the discount on a price in the shops!

We continue to be reminded the importance of learning all of our tables to 12 which we have needed to be able to simplify fractions to make them smaller and more manageable.  We have been given our assessment marks as a percentage which I’m sure your child will have shared with you.

P.E.

We will continue to focus on badminton as the focus of our P.E. slots and have been improving our skills of serving and returning.  I’m sure all of the children will want to practise this skill when the warmer comes and they are able to play outdoors more regularly.

We have also been trying to improve our fitness levels as we have found out that we are unable to bend, stretch and run quickly in badminton if we are not very active out of school. Being active helps our overall health and and is especially good for our mental well-being.

HWB

We also took time to celebrate Children’s Mental Health Week in the middle of the month with  a range of activities focussing on the importance of relaxing, dancing and talking to others about how we are feeling.  We had a timetable of fun workshops that we participated in and enjoyed a lot.

Music

We took time to rehearse our amazing musical performance to thank Mrs Celino during her time with us in Holy Family. We sang very well and make great use of props and musical instruments and even managed to persuade Father Brown to join us.  Check out Twitter for the first half of our performance.

** REMINDER TO PARENTS**

Could you please take time to remind children about the importance of being kind online particularly when messaging on Social Media sites and What’s App and that any information that they take home should only concern themselves and not that of others.

Although this has been a short month, we have been very busy.

Literacy

We have been working on non-fiction reading. The Red/Blue groups have been working on Life In Space, followed by The Search For Tutankhamen. We worked very hard to produce a fact file on each where we have been concentrating on the Main Ideas and Summaries. Mrs Daisley was amazed at how hard we worked , using our books and videos to write notes to help us. The Yellow group have been continuing using Rapid Readers, which have fiction and non fiction texts for us to enjoy. We always enjoy the joke at the end!

We continue to follow our spelling programmes. We have been putting our weekly lists in our diaries so that it is easier to do at home.

Writing

We have just finished exploring narrative writing. We used imaginative themes and we also explored children’s mental health week during that focus week. Many children are demonstrating writing very imaginative and personal pieces. The themes engaged their imagination and ,for other children, allowed them to invent characters to describe some of their worries. Writing is a genre that allows children to allow their imagination the freedom to explore a range of ideas but also use imaginative characters to describe their concerns.

Numeracy

We’ve been doing lots of work on Multiplication. In Number Talks, we have been looking at different strategies which will help us as the  work gets harder. We have used arrays to support our work and have been working on word problems, which can be tricky.

Beyond Number

We have been working on Symmetry with Mrs Smith and she was delighted to display some of our work within the class.

R.E.

We prepare for our First Friday Mass and our teachers were delighted with our preparation. Father Brown gave us a tour of the church, which involved a trip up to the choir loft. We also had a good look at all of the statues around the church. This has been very helpful as we need to be church detectives in our First Communion work.

Music/Dance

We have been preparing a song for Mrs Celino’s last assembly. It has been tricky to keep it a big secret!

ICT

We got our first session with Mr Quinn on Coding and we hope to do more in March.

Art

We have been learning about Charles Rennie Mackintosh. We know that he was an architect and furniture designer. He was best known for his rose artwork, so we have been working on this. We hope to display our work on our class clothesline.

Health and Wellbeing

We have been continuing to get to know our little baby teacher! We have been learning about transitional objects, which was a discussion that we could all share in from our own experiences.

Topic

We have managed some work on Magnets but we hope to do more science in the lead up to Science Week! We learned words such as attract and repel and could use them to talk about magnets.

P.E.

We have been continuing with badminton but will move on from this as the weather gets nicer to work outside.

February saw another busy month of learning in Primary 3.

Literacy 

The children have continued to develop their listening, talking, reading and writing skills and have been reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts. They have been working on developing their understanding and ability to express this verbally and in their written responses. Children have been learning to use more complex sentences using connectives and have been exploring the genre of explanation writing through their IDL topic, the Romans.

Numeracy and Maths 

The children have spent the last few weeks developing their understanding of division, they have used a variety of concrete and pictorial materials to help explore this, such as cubes and counters. They are continuing to work on learning the 2, 5, and 10 X Tables, as well as learning the 3 X table. They are developing an understanding of division as sharing and equal groupings and are familiar in using mathematical vocabulary and notation related to this. Please continue to provide opportunities for children to practice and learn their multiplication facts and relate this understanding of division to their everyday lives.

RE 

Children are continuing to learn about the sacrament of reconciliation and their relationship with god and others. They enjoyed a confession retreat in the chapel hall and a special visit to the Church, where Father Brown was happy to discuss all important parts in the Church, such as the Alter, Sanctuary, Pascal Candle, Pulpit, Baptismal Fonts and Confessional boxes. Father Brown also visited the children in the class to answer their questions on the sacrament. The children have also been learning about Lent, and about prayer, fasting and arms giving. Throughout Lent, Mass is celebrated each Monday and Wednesday mornings at 8:15am.

Other Curricular Areas

IDL – The Romans – The children have been learning about the legend of Romulus and Remus and the development of the Roman Empire. They have learned about life as a roman soldier and identify their protective clothing. They have used Lego and Magnetics and Jenga blocks to create structures of famous roman building, such as the colosseum and Roman Forts. They designed and created their own roman shields and will continue to explore this topic through a variety of STEM based learning activities.

HWB/PE – The children are coming to the end of their learning block of gymnastics. In addition to developing their skills in balance, movement and shape, they have demonstrated that they can work together to create a sequence incorporating the above skills. They very much enjoyed being given the opportunity to incorporate some of these skills on the wall bars. Going forward, the children will move on to develop their wall skills. The children have also been learning what it means to be a good friend. They are learning to show respect and kindness in the playground and in the classroom. They are working hard at being responsible citizens and are working within the class and throughout the school at demonstrating our school values of faith, learning, encouragement, and mutual respect.

*Reminders*

Homework out on a Monday to be returned completed and signed on a Thursday.

PE Days are Monday and Wednesday. Children should come to school in full school uniform on PE days and bring in their PE kit. This will help to foster their organisational skills.

Numeracy

We have been working extremely hard learning both shape and measurement interchangeably during maths time. We have learned to convert units of measurement, learned to calculate the area of 2D shapes and the volume of 3D shapes. We have also continued to work hard on grasping on our times table knowledge every morning to consistently build our multiplication and division skills.

Literacy

We have continued to apply our spelling strategies to help us learn our spelling words each week. We have continued with our novels, applying our reading strategies to gain a greater understanding of the plot, characters, and setting.

It is important that all pupils read their class novels when assigned for homework. It would also be great if pupils read other books at home to further improve their literacy skills, such as spelling and grammar.

Health & Well-being

In Health & Well-being, we explored our emotions. We investigated triggers of negative emotions and strategies to overcome these emotions to turn them into more positive ones. We also explored different colours linking to certain emotions. We have completed playing badminton in P.E and have moved onto football. Along with practising our ball skills, we have also been practising kindness during our games.

IDL Topic

We have explored lots of exciting things during topic time. We learned about Roman Legionaries and the Roman Army. We created our own shields and practised military manoeuvres, just like the Romans did! We then moved onto creating catapults that Roman soldiers used in battle and measuring how far our play-dough cannon balls travelled. We also investigated Roman engineering and created our very own aqueducts.

Primary 2 were very busy in February. We worked so hard and achieved lots of great things.

In Literacy we have been very busy indeed. We have worked hard on all our previously taught common words and sounds, as well as learning lots of new ones too. We enjoy working with our literacy partners and playing Pot Luck. This is something that we can show our grown ups at home so they can help us practise too.

We have been learning even more about instructions this month, and can describe what instructions are. We made lovely Valentine’s Day Love Bugs for someone that we love and then had fun writing our own instructions about how to make them. Mrs Simpson said our instructions were fantastic.

To help us to develop our listening skills we have been listening while our teacher reads a class novel to us. We have just finished ‘The Twits’ and are currently reading George’s Marvellous Medicine. We love to discuss the events in the story and to make predictions about what might happen next.

In Maths we have continued to work on subtraction within 20. We have been learning strategies to help us to subtract from teens numbers. We enjoy practical Maths lessons and always have fun whilst we learn.

We have also completed our topic on Measure this month. We enjoyed learning about how to measure length and weight using non-standard units. To measure the length of objects we used a variety of resources such as pencils and paperclips. We also learned that parts of our bodies can help us to measure length. We were so surprised to find out that feet and hands can be used. We learned about estimating the height, length and weight of objects,  and soon realised that it is ok for our guesses to be wrong. Within our Area topic we learned about surface area. We designed a variety of shapes which covered different surface areas, and learned super ways of measuring them.

Our new topic is Spain and we have been very busy working on this during February. We learned about Flamenco and designed outfits for Flamenco dancers. We can describe a variety of Flamenco techniques and enjoyed watching Flamenco dancers perform.  We learned about bullfighting through watching the movie Ferdinand. We know how to talk about the weather in Spanish and made lots of props to help us to remember the new Spanish phrases we learned.

We began our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday. We learned all about this special day and participated in Ash Wednesday Mass in our church. We understand that Lent is a special time when we think about how Jesus made lots of sacrifices during his time in the desert. We have a secure understanding of the three traditions of Lent; prayer, almsgiving and fasting, and we made our own Lenten promises.

This month we celebrated Pancake Tuesday. We designed our own pancake pictures then enjoyed pancakes in our class with lots of tasty toppings. Some of us had even more at home too!!

In February we celebrated Mental Health Awareness Week. During this special week we spent lots of time discussing our emotions and the things we could do to help us when we feel particular emotions. We made our own Worry Monster cups where we can store the worries that we have. We also decorated our own mood stones. We ended our week with a joint dance-along with P1 as being active helps us to maintain positive mental wellbeing.

It was lovely to welcome the children back after the Christmas break and to hear all their excited tales. They wasted no time in getting settled back to school and class routines and getting busy with their learning. There have been many opportunities throughout the month in which they have demonstrated that they are successful learners.

Literacy 

All groups have developed their fluency and comprehension skills by engaging with their texts each week. They have read a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts but the main focus over the last few weeks has been on non-fiction. They have been learning to use the Contents page, Index and Glossary to help them find information. This will help them to be effective contributors as they will  be able to apply this knowledge as to our new IDL topic of the Romans. Please continue to support children with their spelling and phonics and reading at home as this really does help to support what the children are doing in class.

Numeracy and Maths 

The children have spent the last few weeks working on multiplication, they have used a variety of concrete and pictorial materials to help explore and develop an understanding of this topic. They have been learning the 2, 5, and 10 X Tables and been learning about multiplication as arrays, repeated addition and groupings. We are now moving on to division where the children will develop further their understanding of sharing, equal groupings, repeated subtraction and  the inverse relationship with multiplication. Children can use many household or everyday items to help with this concept, eg sharing pasta shapes into equal groups, sharing sweets among 2 or 3 people and there are many games on Topmarks and Sumdog that children can play to help them in this area.

RE 

This month and next has had a focus on the teachings of Jesus. They are learning about forgiveness and many are preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The children have been listening to bible stories about Jesus’ time on earth, how we are made in God’s image and the meaning and lessons we can take from the parables. I appreciate your support in returning Confession workbooks completed on time.

Other Curricular Areas

ICT – children are working on creating a Powerpoint which they will present to the class. They are also learning about coding and very much enjoyed this.

IDL – SCOTLAND – the children showed that they can be confident individuals when they learned and sang a song from the Disney Movie Brave called ‘Touch The Sky’ at our Burns Day Assembly – they did a fantastic job learning all the words and actions in such a short space of time. They tasted some traditional Scottish food such as haggis, neeps and tatties, shortbread and Tunnocks tea cakes, they even had a wee taste of Irn Bru (sugar free) a variety from every food group. They are at the beginning of our topic on Romans and have already learned how Rome was founded and some of the countries that the Romans conquered.

PE – our focus has been on gymnastics and the children can name and demonstrate a variety of shapes such as pike, arch, straddle and dish. They can travel safely, balancing and moving in a variety of shapes and speeds.

 BIRDWATCH – Primary 3 were also effective contributors by completing the birdwatch survey to record the variety of different birds in our local community. They spotted Crows, Magpies, Blackbirds, Seagulls, Wood Pigeons and some Robins. They recorded this information using tally marks and will learn how to interpret and display this data in Maths.

*Reminders*

Homework out on a Monday to be returned completed and signed on a Thursday.

PE Days are Monday and Wednesday.

We have been working on getting back into good routines after a long and exciting holiday. Important routines are

• Bringing our diaries to school so we can add our spelling list
• Bringing our homework jotter back when it is finished
• Remembering our reading book every day
• Remembering our P.E. kit on a Tuesday and a Friday.

In Numeracy, we have been finishing Subtraction, using different strategies. Most children like to use Chimney Sums but we will still practice other strategies like using number lines or counting on/back.

We have moved onto Multiplication. We have been using arrays to help us to visualise. We know that the 4Times Table is double the 2 Times Table and the 8 Times Table is double the 4 Times Table. Since we are good at doubles, this is handy to know. We are being very successful at Stations on a Wednesday where we go round the class doing different activities. We need to take care of our resources , like dice or counters, so that we can use them again.

Literacy

We have been working on non-fiction texts and developing our note taking skills. We all worked really hard at note taking about Neil Armstrong from a video. Everyone managed to take down some facts. We will be using our notes to build up interesting factfiles on Space for Mrs Celino to judge. There will be prizes for the 3 winners!

We were really working on Talking and Listening before Christmas with lots of activities where we followed instructions to complete artwork. This was very challenging but fun.

We continue to follow our spelling programmes, with weekly homework to support our learning in class. We do a variety of different activities such as dictation or filling out phoneme charts. Practising regularly helps us to be better spellers.

We are working on planning narrative pieces of writing. We are taking care to include good punctuation, interesting vocabulary, paragraphs and good spelling in our work.

R.E.

A majority of the children have begun their First Communion preparation. We have started early to allow for any weeks where we get side tracked by other activities. We are going to go on a retreat to Holy Family church, where we will act out the Last Supper. This will be a lovely day with lots of art and drama activities. The other children have been learning about Islam and looking at Mosques from around the world.

Topic

We are doing a science based topic this term. We started with magnets and will move on to electricity and forces. It has been fun to look at magnets and see what they can do.

P.E.

We are learning about badminton and how to make sure that we properly warm up so that we don’t do damage to our bodies.

Health and Wellbeing

We need to continue to work on friendships and how to be a good friend to others. This is ongoing in primary 4 as we are getting a bit more grown up so we will work on sorting little disagreements out on our own. We should always ask ourselves-

Do I need help from a grown up or can I sort this myself.

ICT

We have been working with Mrs Le Blond and we will soon move on to coding with a specialist.

This month we have been working very hard in all of our curricular areas!

Maths 

This month we have been working on our division skills and exploring the links division has with multiplication. All pupils are definitely improving their times table knowledge  but I would encourage pupils to  continue to be practise them at home too if possible.  Some pupils have been working with Mrs Anderson in P7a exploring negative numbers which they are excelling at so well done!

We have just moved on to our money handling topic and already the pupils are loving it! We have opened up a little pretend shop in the classroom to use during active maths which is working really well and causing lots of excitement which is lovely to see. Pupils have also started a new class economy rewards system involving earning money, paying rent for jotters, paying fines for specific things and buying rewards of their choice!  They are very excited about this and are learning some important life skills along the way!

Literacy

This month, we are continuing to practice our common spelling words and apply our spelling strategies to help us. We are exploring different areas of active literacy skills and using these to help us understand our new novel ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’ on a deeper level. This month we have also been analysing the features of newspaper reports, specifically newspaper reports of World War 2 which is our  class topic  this term. Pupils will be writing their own newspaper report this week to demonstrate their new skills.

Topic

Our topic this term is World War Two, so we have been exploring lots of materials to help us further our knowledge. Pupils have enjoyed learning about the role of Scotland within the war as well as important events along the WW2 timeline. We have been creating some Blitz paintings and listening to some important radio announcements from the outbreak of WW2 too!

RE

This month we have been focusing on Jesus and the way he lived his life and the choices he made. We have reflected as a class on some of the choices we have made in our lives and the choices we make on a daily basis, thinking of ways we can improve these to live more like Jesus by striving to always make good choices.

It is nearing a very special time for Primary 7 this term as we prepare for their Confirmation in April. This week we began our Confirmation workbooks and children will be asked to complete home session 1 for next week. We have had some lovely discussions in class already about choosing a Saint’s name as part of their sacrament. As a class, we will be completing some research into different saints over the next few weeks to help them decide on their confirmation names and pupils will be encouraged to discuss and explore their decisions at home too. We are looking forward to this special time together.

PE

This month we began netball lessons during PE which all pupils thoroughly enjoy and are keen to take part in which is excellent. We recently came second place at a school tournament with our P5-7 netball team so I’m sure we will have some new additions to the team shortly!

Science

This term we continuing to promote recycling and prevent plastic pollution in line with Laudato Si. To encourage staff and pupils within the school, we are creating a mural display for our Laudato Si wall in the school hall. To create this we are using recycled plastic bottle tops!

Therefore, I would like to encourage you to try and save as many as you can at home for pupils to bring in and use for our mural display! They can be any size and colour, we appreciate all of your support. When completed, there will be pictures shared on the school Twitter account so keep your eyes peeled!

A very positive start to the year for Primary 7B! Well done everyone.

Maths

We have been working hard in numeracy this month. We completed our multiplication unit and did well in our end of unit assessment. We then moved onto division where we have investigated different strategies to solve our division problems and explored the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. It is important that pupils have a strong grasp on their times tables so the more practise at home, the better. This knowledge of the times tables will serve useful for their school journey. We have also began working on beyond number topics on a Friday morning, currently focusing on measurement.

Literacy

 We are continuing to practise applying our spelling strategies and some of us are strong at independently applying our strategies. We have been working extremely hard at being able to identify the reading comprehension strategies and applying them in our written tasks with the appropriate scaffolding. We have been working on newspaper reports in our writing lessons, linking these back to our Romans topic.

RE

We have explored Creation in RE. We initially explored the Creation story and recounted this story by creating our very own comic strips. We then moved onto exploring care for our planet, linking our discussions and activities to Laudato Si. We have created fat balls for birds and investigated animal habitats.

Topic

We have been exploring the Romans in our IDL topic. So far, we have discovered how Rome was founded, explored different societal roles within the ancient time as well as explored the design and function of the Colosseum. We are excited to start building a 3D replica of the Colosseum in our groups.

Health and Wellbeing

We have been practising our badminton skills during PE. We have been working on our serve as well as some of the main shots. In Health and Wellbeing, we explored the impact of physical activity on the human body.