All posts by Miss Donaldson

Wednesday 19th August 🧑🏼‍🎨

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This morning in our handwriting lesson Primary 5/6 were practising their pencil control.

After break we did a little work on our partitioning skills in maths and after lunch we did some art. We discussed how most people have to wear masks now when entering public places, such as shops, and how masks often make it hard to work out the personality of the person wearing it. We created self-portraits of ourselves wearing a mask, that reveal what we are like behind the mask.

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Have a great night Primary 5/6!

Miss Donaldson 🍎

Friday 14th August ☀️

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‎Primary 5/6 had yet another fantastic day today! Amongst other things, we helped take care of our environment by litter picking in the playground, we talked about strategies to calm yourself down if you are feeling upset or anxious and we played a few different games such as Spin to Win and 21. This afternoon we practised making mindfulness patterns to create beautiful rainbows, inspired by lockdown art. They look fabulous!

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Have a great weekend everyone, I’ll see you on Monday.

Miss Donaldson  🙂

 

Welcome to Primary 5/6! 🥳📚

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Primary 5/6 had a fantastic start to the new school year today and settled in to their new class and school routines really well. We had lots of fun making a lockdown memory jar. We also spent time talking about what we got up to during the lockdown, what we liked about it and what we disliked about it (mostly home school it seems!). It was so nice to see the classroom full of children again! Have a great night and I’ll see you all in the morning.
Miss Donaldson 👩🏻‍🏫

🧙🏼‍♂️ Wednesday 24th June ✨

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Well Primary 5, this is it – our last day together!  Let’s have some fun today.  Now, let me think, what could we do that is fun? 🤔

…I know – Harry Potter activities! ✨

Let’s be honest, none of you are surprised! 😂

Also, don’t feel like you have to complete all of the activities, you will soon see I got a bit carried away!

Activity 1: Sorting Ceremony

Let’s first get you sorted into your houses!

 

Activity 2: Profile

Great!  Now let’s create our Wizard Profile!

First, pick the core of your wand (I’d go for unicorn tail hair myself!). 🦄

Then, select your magic pet.  Remember the only three animals you are allowed to take with you to Hogwarts are an owl, cat or toad.  This is a tricky one for me – I like how useful owls are for delivering mail but I love my cat so I think I would have to bring her! 🦉🐱🐸

Next, what is your favourite magical beast? Here are some pictures but there are lots more including pygmy puffs, unicorns, centaurs, nifflers, trolls, giants and hippogriffs to name but a few.  I would go for a phoenix myself – those healing tears of theirs might come in useful!

After that, chose your animagus (that’s an animal that you can turn into, for example Professor McGonagall turns into a tabby cat whereas Sirius Black turns into a black dog).  I would choose a dolphin so I could explore the ocean! 🐬

Lastly, chose your patronus (that’s an animal that you identify with or share personality traits with).  I would go for a swallow because they always seem so cheerful and carefree.

 

Activity 3: Anagrams

Can you match the anagrams on the left with the phrases on the right?

 

Activity 4: Design a Book Cover

Can you design a new front cover for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?

 

Activity 5: Comprehension

 

Activity 6: Map Directions ⬆️➡️⬇️⬅️

 

Activity 7: Wordsearches

 

Activity 8: Create Your Own School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

This is a fun one!  Create your own school of witchcraft and wizardry – you need to plan the name of the school, its location (Hogwarts is in Scotland, Beauxbatons is in France, Durmstrang is somewhere in Northern Europe but they are very secretive as to where and those of you who have seen Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will know that Ilvermorny is in  North-East America), the names of the witches and wizards who founded it, what the school crest would look like, the names, symbols and colours of it’s four houses and the school motto!

Our year together may not have turned out the way we envisioned, but we still had lots of fun along the way.  Have a look at some of my favourite moments! 🥰

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I’m so sad that our time together this year was cut short; you were such a special class and I absolutely loved being your teacher.  The following poem sums it up for me perfectly:

Miss Donaldson 👩🏻‍🏫🍎

 

 

Just kidding – let’s have one last Harry Potter gif to end the year properly. 😂

I hope you all have a fantastic summer; I can’t wait to see you all again in August! 👋🏼❤️

🏊‍♂️ Tuesday 23rd June 🏋️‍♂️

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👋🏼 Good morning everyone!  Did you all enjoy sports day yesterday? I hope you did!  Continuing with the sports theme, today is actually International Olympics Day so our tasks are all going to be Olympic themed!  International Olympic Day is celebrated across the world on June 23 every year to mark the importance of games and sports in our lives. 🚴‍♀️🤺🏌️‍♀️🤽‍♂️🧗‍♀️🏄🤾‍♀️⛹️‍♂️🤸‍♂️🤼

Literacy: Olympics Comprehension

🚨 Remember to also spend time on Sumdog spelling/grammar and use Epic! reading today.  Additionally you could also listen to David Walliams Elevenses or Harry Potter at Home.

Maths

Warm-Up: Times Table Olympics

⏱  Time how long it takes you to answer these questions:

🥇Gold Medal: 0-2 minutes

🥈 Silver Medal: 2-3 minutes

🥉 Bronze Medal: 3 minutes and up.

 

Main Activity: Decimals Place Value

Remember when ordering numbers we look from left ➡️ right, so pay attention first to the tens, then the units, then the tenths.

Optional Activities:

  • Active Challenge: can you create an at home Olympics? Watch this video for ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxfT73E5xKc  I want to try the surfing activity, I just need to figure out how to make a pillow that tall!
  • 🇯🇵 Learn more about Tokyo– the next Olympics host city! Or is it a city? Watch to find out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2mJlYrM6f0
  • Research activity: Can you find out what 5 new sports are being added to the Tokyo 2021 programme? Alternatively, can you research the meaning behind the five rings on the Olympic flag?

  • Here are the symbols of the sports being played at Tokyo 2021 – how many can you work out?

  • On the official Olympics YouTube channel you can watch footage from previous Olympics games – see which athlete wins the gold medal in your favourite sport! https://www.youtube.com/user/olympic/videos
  • Drama Activity: here are the names of all the Tokyo 2021 sports https://tokyo2020.org/en/sports/ (if you are planning on guessing the sport symbols them you best do that activity first!) Can you mime the actions for someone in your house to guess the sport?
  • Design Activity: Can you design a new medal, logo or mascot for Tokyo 2021?

Enjoy your penultimate day of Primary 5 and I’ll be back with you tomorrow!

Miss Donaldson 💫

☔️ Friday 19th June 🌩

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👋🏼 Good morning everyone!  We have nearly come to the end of our last full week of online lessons – hasn’t the time flown?  I can hardly believe that we have been home schooling now for 13 weeks!  Where has the time gone! 💨

Anyway, I hope that you have enjoyed Health and Wellbeing week so far.  I sent my nephew the party budgeting activity that we did on Tuesday and he was a big fan – he asked me to make him up another version which has more options and a bigger budget.  I would be more willing to do it for him if I hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t listed as one of his party guests – the cheek! 🙄

Today our focus is to keep learning!

Literacy

Task 1: For your literacy warm-up today I would like you to hop over to Sumdog and practise your spelling and/or grammar for 15 minutes.

Task 2: Recipe for Success 👨‍🍳👩‍🍳

For our literacy task today, we are going to be thinking about what we would like to work on next year.  It is up to you what you want to focus on; perhaps your story writing, times tables, handwriting or even making friends.  Wherever you feel you need to strengthen.

Here is a template to show you the layout for your recipe for success:

Ingredients Section

Now, obviously these are not going to be typical ingredients!  We don’t need any flour or eggs for this recipe!  The ingredients that you will be needing are things like positivity, focus, patience, hard work and belief in yourself.  Try to include at least 6 ingredients.

Think about the quantity of each ingredient too; a typical ingredient section not only tells you what to put into your recipe but also how much to put in.  For example, you might want 2 cups of effort in your recipe and a few sprinkles of fun. ✨

Useful quantity words:

  • cups
  • handful
  • tablespoons
  • teaspoons
  • sprinkle
  • dash
  • pinch
  • scattering
  • hint
  • splash
  • dusting
  • drop
  • scoop

Equipment Section

You could be literal and talk about the kitchen equipment that you would need to bake, for example, a cake (a mixing bowl, cake tin, whisk etc.), or you could think about what you will need to help you be successful next year (perhaps a helpful teacher, supportive friends, lots of paper to practice and so on).

Method Section

We are once again going to use those command words, also known as imperative verbs.  Think about how real recipes are written.  For example, you could write “Combine your cup of hard work with a dash of positivity.  Whisk together until smooth”.

Task 3: Kindness Diary

Lastly, don’t forget to fill out your kindness diary today!

Maths

Warm-Up: Mental Maths

  1. Write the number nine thousand and ninety.
  2. Find the sum of 6, 6, 5 and 7.
  3. Write 2 numbers with a difference of 12.
  4. Write the number that is 100 less than 9091.
  5. Round Joe’s height of 115cm to the nearest 10 centimetres.
  6. What is the 9th multiple of 8?
  7. A box of 100 chews cost £6. What does 1 cost?
  8. Complete the following statement using the > < symbols: -8 __ 6
  9. Double 4000.
  10. There are 380 sweets in a large jar. How many sweets are there in 2 jars?
  11. Danny left home at 8:35am in order to get to school for 9:15am. How long did the journey take him?
  12. 976 people visited a Theme Park in one day. They each had 10 rides. How many rides altogether?
  13. 3 children share 93 cubes. How many does each child get?
  14. How many minutes are there in 4 hours?
  15. Two tickets to a football match cost £21.60. What does one ticket cost?
  16. It is Friday 19th June. What date is it next Thursday?

 

Main Activity: Measuring

I can measure capacity.

 

*Top Tip* Work out what your scale is going up in first.  Some jugs go up in 2’s, some go up in 5’s and some go up in 10’s.

🌶 Challenge:

Extension:

Now it’s time for a treat! Measure out your ingredients for your favourite recipe – fairy cakes, pancakes, brownies, scones…Yum! 🍪🧁🍰

Other Activities you could complete today:

  • Fun science experiments using things that you might find in your home 🧪 :
  • Create a bird feeder to hang in your garden or on one of your walks: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52986146. Perhaps you could create a survey of the different kinds of birds that you spot in the space of an hour – it’s amazing what you can see!  Once when I was coming out of school I spotted about 5 bullfinches which were all siting on a tree in the playground.  I was really excited because I had never seen a bullfinch before (or since) and they look really cool!

Have a great weekend!

Miss Donaldson 🦩

🤸‍♀️ Thursday 18th June 🏃

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👋🏼 Morning Primary 5, how are we all today?  I hope you are all enjoying Health and Wellbeing week so far; we will be looking at keeping active today! 🏃‍♀️🏃

Before we get onto that though I wanted to congratulate yesterday’s Sumdog champions YS, MM, RA, EH and NM on their fantastic accuracy yesterday – one of them answered a mammoth 315 questions correctly yesterday! Outstanding work! 🏅

Literacy

Task 1: For your literacy warm-up today please practise your spelling words of the week by completing one of the spelling tasks below.  Remember your spelling words of the week are all compliment words:

  1. adventurous
  2. confident
  3. considerate
  4. determined
  5. generous
  6. imaginative
  7. intelligent
  8. optimistic
  9. organised
  10. patient
  11. reliable
  12. thoughtful

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Task 2: Game Instructions

For our literacy task today, we are going to be practising our instruction writing skills.  We will be writing out the instructions for how you play a game.  The game that you write about is your choice, but it would be wise to pick a game that you have played often as you are more likely to know the rules clearly.  For example, you could choose to write the instructions for one of our P.E. warm-up games, such as Jailbreak or the Rock, Paper, Scissors game.

Here are some examples:

Remember all instructional writing follows a similar structure.  Today you should include:

  1. Title of the game
  2. You will need/Equipment section
  3. Method/Rules section which will tell the reader step-by-step how to play the game.

Additionally, you could add diagrams to illustrate your instructions for the reader.

In the rules section remember to use command words (imperative verbs) such as ‘turn’, ‘pull’, ‘throw’, ‘jump’ and also think about using time openers such as first, next, then, after that, finally and so on.  Number each step so that the reader can clearly see the order that you complete the instructions in and use adverbs (quickly, carefully, safely, cautiously, swiftly) and adjectives to add more detail.

Task 3: Kindness Diary

Remember to complete day three of your kindness diary also!

Maths

Warm-Up: Mental Maths

  1. Write the number eighty thousand and three
  2. Add 1, 6, 9 and 7
  3. Decrease 86 by 29
  4. Make the largest number you can from: 4, 2, 6, 9
  5. Round 888kg to the nearest 10 kilograms.
  6. How many 9s make 81?
  7. Divide 700 by 10
  8. Complete the following statement using the > < symbols: 3150 ____ 4126
  9. Double 26
  10. Ann has 53p and Kate has 29p. How much do they have altogether?
  11. A train arrived in Edinburgh at 1pm. It left Glasgow 50 minutes earlier. What time did it leave Glasgow?
  12. A coach was able to carry a maximum of 80 children. How many children could be carried on 3 coaches?
  13. How many less than 68 is 42?
  14. James’ Dad bought 9 packets of party poppers. Each box contains 8 party poppers. How many party poppers are there altogether?
  15. Half 1,200.
  16. Playtime starts at 10:40am and finishes at 11am. How long is playtime?

Main Activity: Circuit Fitness

Today for our numeracy activity you are going to create, time and record 5 circuit stations.

First you need to think of what activity you want to do at each station.  Here are some ideas that I found of traditional circuit training activities but you don’t have to do these you could invent your own – perhaps a station that you do the floss dance at!  You need to pick something that you can do 10 of so that you can time it, no endurance activities such as the plank as that is about how long you can do it for rather than how many you can do.

Once you have decided what you want to do at each station you should create a table like the one below.  I have put in an example activity to show you what it should look like.

Attempt 1 Attempt 2 Attempt 3
Burpees 0.52 s 0.49 s 0.53 s
Activity 2
Activity 3
Activity 4
Activity 5

Now we are set up and ready to go!  Complete 10 of whatever you choose for activity 10 (in my example I would do 10 burpees) and time how long it takes you.  Record you time in your table.  Then do 10 of activity 2 and record your time and so on.  Once you have completed all 5 activities do you second and third attempt to see if you can improve your time! ⏱

Other Activities you can complete today:

  • Rights Assembly on the main blog
  • Outdoor maths challenge cards
  • Sumdog maths, spelling or grammar
  • Epic! reading or read a book of your own
  • Feeling crafty? If you have an old cereal box around you could create a cereal box guitar, a cereal box maze, a cereal box puppet theatre or a teddy bear car!

Miss Donaldson 👍🏼

🎂 Wednesday 17th June 🥳

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👋🏼 Morning everyone!  Did you all manage to get outside yesterday?  It was quite hot wasn’t it?  Before we get into today’s activities, I just wanted to say a big well done to yesterday’s Sumdog champions; DM, RA, NM, MM and EH! Excellent work boys!  In addition, a huge well done must also go to HM, RA, ZM and NM for reading a massive 19 books between them yesterday on Epic! What a fantastic effort! 🏅

I think you will find today’s activities really fun; they are all about connecting with people.

Literacy

Task 1: For your literacy warm-up today please practise your spelling/grammar on Sumdog.

Task 2: Party Invitation

For many of us it has been a long time since we have seen our families and friends and we may be feeling lonely and disconnected from people.  For today’s activity we are going to organise a pretend post-lockdown party!  First thing’s first – the invitations!

Your task is to design an invitation to send to your family and friends.  Key things to include:

  • To: Who is your invitation being sent to?
  • What: What is the invitation for?
  • Where: Where is the party taking place?
  • Date: When is the party taking place?
  • Time the party starts
  • Time the party ends
  • Special instructions: Are they to bring anything with them, is there a dress code, is there a theme to your party, do they have to RSVP (tell you that they are coming)?
  • Colour! Make your invitation as bright and appealing as you can. I’ve left a few ideas below for inspiration!

Task 3: Kindness Diary

Remember to complete your kindness diary too!

Maths

Warm-Up: Mental Maths

  1. 39 x 10
  2. Which is the odd number: 675,  642,  348,  374
  3. 15 + 13 + 26
  4. What is half of 68?
  5. What is the value of the 8 in the number 38,543
  6. Round 458 to the nearest 100
  7. What are the next two numbers? 18, 22, 26, 30, ___,  ___
  8. What is the largest number you can make from 9, 2, 5 and 8?
  9. How many minutes are there in two hours?
  10. I think of a number, I then subtract 17. My answer is 72.  What number did I think of?
  11. Subtract 20 from seven sixes
  12. How many faces does a cube have?
  13. What are the factors of 20?
  14. What is half of £5?
  15. Continue this sequence: 7.5, 8.5, 9.5, ____, ____
  16. What is 100 less than 2001?

Main Activity: Party Budgeting

You have £30 to spend on your party and not a penny more!  What would you get?  You need to provide food, drinks, entertainment and a something for the party bag.

Other activities that you could complete today to connect with the people around you:

  • Phone/video call a friend or family member for a chat
  • Write a letter to a friend that you miss
  • Make a poster to thank your postman/postwoman and any delivery drivers that bring food and other items to your house, then display it outside your front door, where they’ll see it
  • Create a ‘Things To Look Forward To’ jar

  • Complete one of the socially distant random acts of kindness from Monday

Have a fantastic Wednesday and remember

Miss Donaldson 💗

☁️ Tuesday 16th June 🌈

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👋🏼 Good morning Primary 5!  I hope that you all enjoyed the start of Health and Wellbeing week yesterday.  Today we will be looking at valuing the world around us. 🌳🌼🌱☀️🌸🍃

Literacy

Task 1: For your literacy warm-up today practise your spelling on Sumdog.

Task 2: Nature Handwriting ✍🏼

Rewrite the following poem in your best handwriting.  Remember to concentrate on your letter height, your letter spacing and your joins.

Task 3: Kindness Diary

Remember to complete your kindness diary today including what you did, who you did it for, the reasons for your act of kindness and how it made you feel. 💕

Maths

Warm-Up: Mental Maths

  1. Mum bought 4 cola drinks at 60p each. How much did she spend?
  2. Write the next number in the sequence: -11, -8, -5, -2, _____
  3. Sarah left school at 3:30pm and got home 40 minutes later. What time did she get home?
  4. David had 64p. He bought sweets costing 19p. How much did he have left?
  5. What is 130 divided by 10?
  6. Round 547ml to the nearest 100 millilitres.
  7. What is the total of 8, 9 and 12?
  8. How many less than 77 is 36?
  9. Make the smallest number you can from 1, 5, 3, 8
  10. Double 24.
  11. Decrease 86 by 29.
  12. How many 9s make 81?
  13. Write the correct sign/symbol, greater than or less than, in the space: 3150 ____ 4126.
  14. Ann has 53p and Kate has 29p. How much do they have altogether?
  15. A coach carried 80 children to the museum. How many children were on 3 coaches?
  16. What is 4 multiplied by 50?

Main Activity: Insect Information Handling

Can you answer the questions? 🐜🐞🐌🐛🐝

Other activities involving nature that you could complete today:

  • Plants and Flowers Scavenger Hunt 🔎
  • Leaf/Bark Rubbing 🍃🌳
  • Nature Photo Frames 🖼

  • Art Challenges 🎨
  • Create a map 🌍

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Enjoy your day!

Miss Donaldson 👩🏻‍🏫

💚 Monday 15th June 💜

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👋🏼 Good morning Primary 5!  We have something a little bit different for you all this week.  The other teachers and I have decided that this week is going to be Health and Wellbeing week; I will still be posting a literacy and maths task for you to complete each day, but these will be linked to some aspect of Health and Wellbeing, rather than our typical schedule of spelling/place value, handwriting/addition and so on. Today we are looking at Kindness.

Literacy

Your spelling words of the week are:

  1. adventurous
  2. confident
  3. considerate
  4. determined
  5. generous
  6. imaginative
  7. intelligent
  8. optimistic
  9. organised
  10. patient
  11. reliable
  12. thoughtful

Task 1: Pick one of the spelling tasks below to practise these compliment words.

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Task 2: Kindness Diary

We would like if you kept a kindness diary this week.  For this all you have to do is take a note of what you did that was kind, who you were kind to and you may want to write if there was a particular reason for your act of kindness (for example you played with your little brother to keep him busy whilst your mum was working) or how your act of kindness made you feel.  You could also draw a picture of you completing the act of kindness.

Here are some ideas of socially distant acts of kindness that you could complete this week:

Task 3: Kindness Cloud Art Activity

Create a compliment cloud for each of the people in your house or for yourself! ☁️ 🌈

 

Maths

Warm-Up: Mental Maths

  1. Subtract 27 from 2,063
  2. How much more are two tens than four twos?
  3. How many minutes are there between 08:45 and 09:10?
  4. 11 x 11 = ?
  5. Write the next two numbers in the sequence: 47, 43, 37, ___, ___
  6. Sally had 25p. In a week her money has tripled.  How much money does she have now?
  7. Martin wants to save £50. He already has one £20, two £10 notes and a £1 coin.  How much more does he need?
  8. Two bags of sweets costs £1.20. How much does one bag of sweets cost?
  9. Write in figures: twenty thousand, four hundred and thirty-two
  10. 53 + 7 + 22 + 11 = ?
  11. Subtract 12 from the sum of 29 and 7
  12. What is the largest possible number you can make from the figures 1, 3, 6 and 0?
  13. Round 113 to the nearest 10
  14. 5 – 7 = ?
  15. Jimmy has 150 marbles. He gives 74 to Lizzie.  How many doe he have left?
  16. What time does it say on this clock?

Main Activity: Create a kindness board game that involves answering sums.

  1. Create a grid; what is your game going to look like? Here are some ideas:
  1. Number your spaces then fill them in with a combination of ‘safe’ spaces, ‘reward’ spaces and ‘punishment’ spaces. Your squares could say things like “you make fun of your friend’s new trainers, go back to the answer to 2×3” or “you bake some cookies for your next door neighbour, proceed to the answer to 3+4-2.
  2. Find/make a counter for each player. If you have a dice you can use that, if you don’t you can use an online version: https://www.online-stopwatch.com/chance-games/roll-a-dice/.
  3. Play your game!

Other activities you could complete today:

Have a lovely day everyone!

Miss Donaldson 💫