Welcome to Primary 7 with Miss Caldwell!
Hi P7, Miss Caldwell here. I know some of you have been having difficulty accessing our P7 Microsoft Team and the files/assignments I have uploaded onto it. This may be because Glow is being accessed by so many people and is overloaded. In the meantime I have added some resources onto this blog page as an alternative. (For our usual Blog, scroll down!)
Parent/Pupil Guide to Microsoft Teams
Home Learning Term 4 Weekly Activity Grids –
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 20.04.20
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 27.04.20
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 05.05.2020
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 11.05.2020
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 18.05.2020
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 27.05.2020
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 01.06.2020
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 08.06.2020
Primary 7 Home Learning Activities 15.06.2020
Home Learning Files –
Recommended Websites
I would really encourage you to try and access some of the below websites as often as possible as these are excellent learning resources:
Websites & Resources
Sumdog (for Maths, Spelling & Reading)
Readingwise
Nessy (only if you have a school log in)
Topmarks
Mathsframe
Scratch and Hour of code (Coding/Computer Science)
Linguiscope (Username: qma Password: peggy)
Issues with Access:
If you are asked to enter log in details when clicking on Office 365, your details are as follows:
- Your Glow username (the one you use to log in to Glow) followed by @glow.sch.uk
- The password is then the same as your Glow password (for most of the pupils at the moment the password is Gardenrose1)
- Tutorials are available on the Gardenrose Facebook Group and Twitter should you require further assistance, or contact a member of staff.
How to send me work
On Glow you should all be able to access the app “Office 365” which contains Word, Powerpoint, Excel as well as Teams. These can be used for completing any Home Learning activities and uploaded onto our Teams as a message attachment, or emailed to me privately at sophie.caldwell@south-ayrshire.gov.uk OR sa18CaldwellS@glow.sch.uk. If possible, take pictures of any work or activities you have completed and email these to me or upload them onto our Team chat.
I have set more specific tasks and projects in the “Assignments” Tab on Teams. Here, there is an option to upload your work (documents, photos, videos etc) which allows me to mark and respond.
Term 3
In February, we had an amazing residential trip to Dolphin House. Thank you so much to the staff at the centre who crammed so many activities into our stay! We did abseiling, caving, beach exploration, visited the park at Culzean, discovered valuable rocks on the beach at night, climbed to Straiton monument in the snow, sledged at the top of the hill, learned mountain survival tips, built dens in the forest, roasted marshmallows during a beach fire, enjoyed dancing at a our disco and finished the week by taking part in some orienteering. We were so busy the whole time but still had some free time in our dorms, developing friendships, social skills and even sharing some of our sweeties with Miss Caldwell, Miss McNeillie and Miss Ross! Amazing memories made that I’m sure everyone will cherish forever. Check out some of our pictures of our busy week’s residential 😃.
As part of our Burns work we created ‘Immortal Memory’ projects to be put forward for the competition. We had three winners – Francesca, Maisie and Lauryn, who were chosen to perform their projects at both the Burns’ Supper at Gardenrose and as representatives for the school at the South Ayrshire Burns’ Supper.
For the first month of term 3, we focused on Scotland and Robert Burns. We developed ‘Immortal Memory’ projects using ICT and literacy skills based on the life, works and cultural impact of Robert Burns. We learned poems and songs by Robert Burns, including: Red Red Rose, Auld Lang Syne and Address Tae a Haggis. We all worked together to plan and host our own Burns’ Supper, as well as performing our song ‘Caledonia’ at the school’s Scottish concert.
Our second topic is a country study on China. We have begun to explore the environmental, social and cultural aspects of the country and comparing this with Scotland. We loved our trip to Edinburgh Zoo to experience the amazing Chinese Lanterns, hand crafted with silk!
In numeracy and maths, we are looking at complex algebraic equations, angles and shape. We have been developing our skills in applying our knowledge to unfamiliar and real-life context during problem solving. We are continuing to use Sumdog as a consolidation tool to keep our mental maths skills quick and accurate, which is also reiterated during daily number talks. We have been making use of the concrete, pictorial, abstract concepts for learning when facing new concepts. We have been making use of Chris McKenna’s blueprint board to develop our numeracy skills using different strategies including bar models!
In literacy, we had a focus on the Scots language for the start of term. We learned new Scots words and created our own Scots poems. We also translated Scots passages. We are now focussing on creative writing and will enter into the BBC 500 words competition at the end of February. In reading, we are completing a whole class novel ‘Fireweed’, which we chose due to the WW2 link as this interested us as a class. We will use talk for writing strategies to develop our reading skills.
Term 2
During Term 2, we had the opportunity to visit Carrick Academy for 5 weeks to develop our PE skills alongside Sports Leaders from S6. We developed our physical abilities in fitness, basketball, football, handball and badminton.
For numeracy & maths, we focussed on profit and loss, through our enterprise project of creating tea light holders for the Christmas fayre. We researched the best value products and decided prices accordingly. We managed to sell out of all our tea lights! We also worked on fractions, decimals and percentages within a range of real life contexts including discounts and percentage increase/decrease. We created ‘how to’ guides to FDP which are shared on our Maths working wall!
In literacy, we focussed on literature circle groups, each working on developing reading skills through a different book. We developed higher order thinking skills through Blooms taxonomy, as well as looking at inferential questions. We can now use our inference skills to read between the lines using show not tell. For writing, we have been looking at functional writing. We worked on persuasive and discursive techniques and incorporated these into essays based on our topic of Energy (renewable vs fossil fuels). We also wrote instructions to create a Hydro Power science experiment and a report on the different varieties of energy sources and how these are used.
Our topic, as mentioned above was Energy. We explored different types of energy sources and how these are used in our every day lives. We also researched Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy and created adverts persuading people to use one or the other. All of us thought Renewable Energy was better due the environmental benefits!
In health and wellbeing, we completed a mini-topic on Substance Abuse. We looked at different substances – legal and illegal – and discussed the impact these can have on our bodies, as well as the impact on our family and friends. We explored the legalities of drugs and how we can keep ourselves safe. We used our persuasive techniques to create posters persuading people not to use illegal substances.
Term 1
In September, a group of us visited Carrick Academy to compete in the Sports Hall Athletics competition. We had so much fun and ended up winning the Carrick cluster! We competed at the South Ayrshire finals at the Citadel and had a great day out.
In September, we hosted a coffee morning to raise funds for MacMillan Cancer Support. Each of us had a role and we invited parents/carers and students to join us. We had a raffle, tea and coffee serving, cake stall, guess the teddy’s birthday, bric-a-brac and guess the sweets in the jar. Thanks to everyone’s hard work, and the very generous donations we received, we managed to raise a HUGE £432 for the charity.
Throughout Term 1, we have focussed on World War 2 as our interdisciplinary learning topic. The children completed a variety of activities including
- Creating rationed recipes.
- Researching key WW2 events.
- Creating timelines of key events and figures leading from WW1 to WW2.
- Explored discrimination in WW2 vs discrimination today.
- Created presentations using GLOW (powerpoints, sways and quizzes) based on a theme from WW2 of our choice.
- Shared artefacts and stories from our families who were involved in the war.
- Explored the Blitz in Britain, specifically in Scotland.
- Created art-work using collage and paint to depict a scene of the Blitz.
- Designed and built our own gas masks.
- Made tables to show different groups of people who were evacuated.
- Used primary and secondary sources of evidence to research evacuation.
- Created imaginative pieces of writing based on WW2.
- PLUS lots more – please ask us about our learning as we are very keen to share what we know!
In literacy, we have been focussing on creative writing, using character, setting and plot effectively to create gripping short stories! Lots of our imaginative writing has been based on WW2, such as evacuee diaries and ‘what’s in the case?’ For reading, we have been working on a whole class novel called ‘Auggie and Me’, the sequel to ‘Wonder’. We have been working on key reading comprehension skills through the use of higher order questioning. We completed presentations on an area of WW2 of our choice as our assessment for listening and talking and produced some really impressive presentations with lots of information!
In numeracy we have been focussing on the four operations and place value. We have been working with numbers up to and above a million, as well as decimal places. We have linked our place value learning to money and have explored the use of debit and credit cards. We have looked at bank statements and discovered the way you can keep track of your money as an adult. We will focus further on money when we complete our enterprise topic as part of the Christmas Fayre.
Check out Francesca and Connor representing the school at the Sunday Remembrance Service and parade alongside Mrs Morrison. They were an absolute credit to themselves and the school!
