Across all classes, we are implementing Bar Modelling as a pictorial strategy to help children visualise mathematical problems.
Parent Guide Videos to Bar Modelling
Check out the videos above to show how we use bar modelling. This can help you to support children at home.
We had another busy term in P6/7 in Term 2.
We continued our WW2 topic until November to coincide with Remembrance Day. A huge well done to Breagh and Tynam who represented the school by laying a wreath at the war memorial on the Remembrance Sunday service.
Due to isolation, we were unable to do a live zoom Remembrance Service, so we adapted and created a Remembrance Service video! This was tricky to organise due to so many children being at home isolating, but we made it work and the pupils make us incredibly proud as always! You can watch our Remembrance Service here: https://youtu.be/Gy-wNDXtOGc
In maths, we moved on to look at Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. We used lots of real life situations, including shop sales and price increases/decreases to help us understand the importance of F.D.P in our daily lives! We used bar modelling to help us find fractions and percentages of a number and the pupils found this approach really beneficial when faced with these calculations.
In literacy, we continued with Talk 4 Writing and focused on ‘Wishing Tales’, specifically looking at building characters successfully. We looked at how to incorporate a variety of descriptive techniques including: metaphor, simile, personification, pathetic fallacy, colour theory, show not tell, 5 senses, action, and streams of consciousness. All pupils were able to successfully improve from their cold piece to their hot piece!
In Health & Wellbeing, we have been looking at keeping ourselves safe and well through our choices in life. We looked at drugs and alcohol and the effects these can have on the body. We looked at addiction and how we can be more understanding rather than judgemental to people who struggle with this illness.
We topped the term off with lots of Christmas fun! The children loved their Christmas party and all of the fun Christmassy activities we did on the lead up to the big day! Check out our Christmas advent videos here:
Christmas workout: https://youtu.be/DsGeqOBaURk
Boris Christmas: https://youtu.be/7-0M7AjwEO8
Home Alone: https://youtu.be/2zrIARXcAvY
Thank you Key Workers: https://youtu.be/_6aRp5VulWQ
House Captain’s Bedtime Story: https://youtu.be/3PBag6U6jIY
Whole School Christmas highlights: https://youtu.be/XvyU7_m6cuo
It is important for all of us to develop our growth mindsets.
How often have you shut down and thought ‘I can’t do this’; ‘I’m not good enough’; ‘this is too hard’?
By shifting our mindset to more positive thinking, we unlock our own potential for success!
EVERYONE can achieve, regardless of what you perceive yourself to be good or bad at.
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t – you’re right!
We are working with our children to develop growth mindsets and promote resilience. Children are encouraged to challenge themselves and their perceived limitations.
In maths specficially, we teach children lots of different strategies to solve problems. Focusing first on using concrete materials such as counters, hundred squares, tens frames etc. We then move on to pictorial representations such as bar modelling (more information on this will be posted!), before moving on to more abstract mental thinking.
Children are encouraged to try different strategies, challenge themselves through ‘chilli challenges’ and weekly problem solving focuses.
Please see the information below for more ideas on what a growth mindset actually is!
Primary 1 started this Term by working very hard and our topic was based on Scots’ language. We learned the poem The Dinosaur which was written by a former teacher at Gardenrose, Mrs L Griffiths!
We learned some Scots’ songs like Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff A Bus, Three Craw and Ally Bally. We also learned some Scots’vocabulary and we have completed artwork with a Scottish theme. Mrs Thomson taught us some Scottish dances and we have been enjoying using puppets from Scottish stories.
In Literacy we have been reinforcing our sounds and have begun to blend sounds together through simple words. Our first Talk for Writing topic is The Gingerbread Man and then we will be looking at a non- fiction topic with Mrs Thomson up until Easter. We are continuing with letter formation and in writing we are learning to use some new tools e.g. punctuation and finger spaces.
In Numeracy we have begun to tell the time and we are also learning about subtraction. Later in Term 3 we will look at Money and Fractions as well as daily Number Talks and mental maths skills.
On alternate Thursdays we go to Forest School with Miss Grater and we are learning about areas of science such a plants and seeds.
Our next topic is called How Things Work which will involve learning about forces such as floating, sinking, pushing and pulling.
Towards Easter we will learn about the Easter story and we have started a mini topic about Caring to tie in with Children’s Mental Wellbeing week.
Overall, we are very busy in Primary 1 at Gardenrose!
Term 2 has been a really busy time for Primary 1. We have continued learning all of our initial sounds using Jolly Phonics. The children are also becoming more confident at forming their letters when writing. All of our children are now reading in their reading groups and doing well to remember their tricky words. The love reading all kinds of stories and finding out about the characters.
This term we completed another block of Talk for Writing but this time it was focussing on non-fiction. We used the story of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt to talk about a journey. The children loved learning all the actions and noises for the different parts of the story. We then edited this to create our own recount of a journey. Some children were able to write their sentences with just a little help which is amazing for their age.
In maths, we began learning about addition and using our numbers to create addition stories to 10. We played lots of addition games using different resources to help the children understand the concept of addition. We also learned about the properties of 2D shapes and 3D objects, and practised measuring the length, mass and volume of different objects. This was all done practically out in the open area with the children sometimes getting very wet!!
Our topic this term was People Who Help Us and we learned about the different jobs people do and also how to stay safe. We also learned about our 5 Senses and our own body.
Forest School has been a big success with Primary 1. They all remember the rules from the EYC and love to get out and explore.
The children all did us proud at Christmas. We were sad to not be able to have a proper Nativity but they still enjoyed learning all their songs and actions and performing for the video. We hope you all enjoyed watching them in the run up to Christmas.
Well, what can we say about our wonderful Primary 1’s.
Term 1 was an amazing time with them all settling in amazingly – not a tear in sight! We very quickly got started on learning our phonics and numbers using Jolly Phonics songs and books and Ten Town characters. The children really loved hearing all the stories and using them to help them remember their letters and numbers.
Our topic was Percy the Park Keeper, where we looked at seasons and weather. The children worked hard to sequence season trees to show the changes throughout the year. They enjoyed hearing about all of Percy’s adventures in the books. We also learned about some of the woodland animals that Percy is friends with and used them in puppet shows to tell our own stories.
In Literacy we were also introduced to Talk for Writing which is a way of teaching the children how to tell and write their own stories. We learned the story of Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle and included lots of actions to help us remember the story.
The children all enjoyed doing a mixture of class and group lessons, alongside some play based learning in our open area. This is an amazing space that allows us to have lots of opportunity for role play, construction, loose parts, writing, Art, playdough, water and many other games and learning experiences.
Term 2 has been a great success!
We started the term by continuing to work on our WW2 topic in the run up to Remembrance Day. A huge thank you to Breagh and Tynam who did an amazing job representing our school at the memorial parade and service held at the Golf Course monument.
We then moved on to a science based topic, focusing on energy and sustainability. We linked this to the on-going climate summit ‘COP26’ which was on-going in Glasgow at the time. We explored a range of different ways we use energy on a daily basis and debated the benefits and risks of renewable energy vs fossil fuels.
Our numeracy focus this term was fractions, decimals and percentages. We linked a lot of this work to real life situations and looked at shop sales, deals and VAT. We have built our numeracy skills to allow us to solve lots of real life problems!
In term 2 we have been working towards leadership awards in PE with our active schools coach – Emma Parker. We developed our own games and worked on our coaching skills to deliver the activities to our peers. We will eventually be delivering these as clubs to the younger pupils in the school.
We had lots of fun completing lots of Christmassy activities including problem solving, STEM challenges and art work.
Find out the rest of what we have been learning in our –
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