Our learning this week has included:

• Numeracy – Finding fractions of an amount & Revising all aspects of fractions
• Writing – Creating our own first draft of an Explanation text on Earthquakes
• Spelling – Hard ‘ck’ sound in various spelling patterns
• Health & Wellbeing – Analysing our skills and interests to find out what future careers we might be best suited for
• Science – Learning about Earthquakes: What causes them, how to prepare and survive them etc.
• A P7 Assembly
• Basketball with Mrs Edge
• Music with Mrs Inglis – competing our Scottish Song assignments
• Prefect Break
• Sports Leadership with Mr Murray – last session
• Fundraising ideas for Dalguise

Time for Reflection:

1. What went well this week?
2. What could have been better?
3. What are you most proud of this term so far?

We have had a busy week in P7B!

In Literacy we have been looking at the following:

Spelling: Looking at words containing the ti and si sound. As part of our spelling routine we have to extend the words, look for rhyming words and using them in context. Our words this week were: lotion, fraction, option, mansion, extension, admission and impression.

Writing: We have been continuing to explore the features of Explanation Writing and worked in small groups to create a class piece on earthquakes. We then spent some time proofreading and editing our work together.

Reading: This week we read an extract from a text called The Cay which was based in Venezuela during WW2. We considered the contrast in the last piece we read which was set during a similar time period. We had to answer comprehension questions on the text and completed some grammar work around the different types of nouns featured in the writing.

We are also having a reading session each Thursday where the children are encouraged to read a variety of texts of their choice. We have created a class Reading Record to keep track of what everyone is reading which the children add to at their own pace. Some of the children are reading articles online, whereas some are bringing in novels from home. Mrs Dundas kindly gave us some new novels for the class too.

Numeracy

Number Work: We have had a short focus on multiples and factors this week. Everyone has shown a real improvement in recall of their multiplication facts as they have been able to apply their knowledge of tables to this topic.

Practical Maths: We have been revising how to calculate the perimeter of a shape and we have been learning how to calculate the  area of a square and rectangle using formula. Again, everyone was able to  demonstrate their knowledge of multiplication facts as they applied this in a different context. Well done everyone!

RSPB Bird Watch:

We supported the Primary 1s on their windy Bird Watch walk. We helped our partners identify a range of birds around the school grounds and worked well together.

We finished the week with some Valentine’s art and our final leadership skills session with Paul Murray.

We also held a class prefect meeting to discuss what was going well and what we could change about our roles and rewards going forward. The prefects who have been carrying out their duties were all rewarded with a prefect break where they could go into the MUGA, have free iPad time or paint and draw.

Have a safe and relaxing February holiday. See you all on Tuesday 22nd February!

What have been your highlights this week?

How have you helped to make Kingsland a better place this week?

Here are some of our highlights of the week in P7B:

Literacy:

Spelling: The sh and ci sound. The words we learned, grew and used in context were – dish,  bash, shield, shape, astonish, dietician, paediatrician and statistician.

Reading: We have been focusing on more challenging fiction texts and exploring questions which examine the plot, characterisation, language features, figures of speech and imagery.

Writing: The class have started to look at Explanation Writing which explains why or how something happens. We have broken the text into its key features and have worked in groups to write our own piece of Explanation writing together. We will collate each group’s work next week and work together to proof read and edit our work.

Numeracy:

Number Work: We have been looking at number patterns this week, applying our knowledge and understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to each set of numbers. Some of the patterns were particularly challenging but we were resilient and gave them a go.

Practical Maths: We have been practising measuring accurately with a ruler, converting different units of measure and learning how to calculate the perimeter of a shape. We have been able to apply our learning in word problem activities and problem solving tasks.

Health and Wellbeing 

We have continued with our ‘Respect Yourself’ topic in class as part of our Building Resilience work. This week we thought about how we could respect our bodies and look after our physical health. It made many of us consider changes that we could make to our daily routines.

Scottish Celebration Afternoon 

We had some lovely Scottie Dog shortbread to eat while we watched our Scottish Assembly. It was a brilliant display of learning from all of the children at Kingsland!

Music:

With Mrs Inglis, we have been looking at Scottish songs and creating our own songs. We have also been playing games to help with our memory and rhythm.

PE

We are lucky to have a wonderful new PE teacher, Mrs Edge, who has joined us at Kingsland. We are very much looking forward to developing our fitness and skills with her. Welcome Mrs Edge!

IDL – Natural Disasters

Our new topic is Natural Disasters and we have begun learning about how the earth is made up and how tectonic plates move, resulting in earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. We will be recording all of our learning on Book Creator on our iPads.

Questions to consider:

1. We have completed a number of activities with a partner and in groups this week. Do you think you worked well within your group? What skills did you need to use to help you? If you didn’t feel you worked well, what skills do you think you need to develop?

2. We watched the Scottish celebration assembly together on Thursday. What was your favourite part of the assembly?

3. Think of something you did to help someone in school this week. What did you do and how did it make you feel?

This week’s Blog post was written by Adam, Ailish, Dani, Flo, Fraser, Jack, Katie, Kirsty and Megan

The past few weeks have mainly been focused on Scottish poetry. Our Burn’s poem this year has been Tam o Shanter and our other poem has been Bletherton Rovers by Mathew Fitt. We have been doing a lot of work around the poems.

We have created movie trailers using iMovie and have had a lot of fun producing them. We chose groups and make some brilliant Tam O’ Shanter or Blethertoun Rovers movie trailers! We acted out the different characters and filmed, edited and completed some amazing iMovie trailers. We also made cool tails for the people playing Meg.  It was great fun watching them in class!

Our Art work was also based on Burns and we created a wall display of the main scenes in Tam o Shanter and used a variety of materials to make them. 

Also this week we performed our Scottish poems to either the teacher or the class.  Our overall winner was Flo and the joint runners up (with only 0.01 separating their average score /5!) were Niamh and Lewis.  Congratulations to everyone who learned and recited their poems and well done for supporting each other so well.

In Maths we have done Perimeter, Area and Fractions.  We learnt about comparing and ordering numerators and denominators in Numeracy as well as revising simplification and equivalence of fractions. This week in practical maths we have been working on perimeter and area to find the perimeter you add all the sides and to find the area you times two of the sizes.

We also made our own Scottish music in Music with Mrs Inglis, practiced our basketball and benchball skills in P.E. and, of course, worked on our spelling!

We finished the week with another Sports Leadership session with Mr Murray…and a lunchtime fire drill!

P7A have been consolidating their knowledge about how to calculate Perimeter and Area.  Today we used the Measure App on our iPads to see how accurate it was in measuring lengths of rectangles around the classroom.  We then checked by measuring accurately with a ruler and completing the perimeter and area calculations. Although there were some discrepancies, on the whole the figures were mostly very accurate and we thought of lots of uses for the App in real life.

This week we have been continuing with our learning around our Scottish topic as the children have continued to practise their Scottish poems and have explored the Scottish vocabulary within Tam O’ Shanter and have spent time sequencing the story. The class have also enjoyed learning about different Scottish artists, discussing their work and creating our own artwork in the same style. We look forward to sharing more of our work with you in our Scottish Celebration Assembly.

In Literacy, we have been revising the qu sound in spelling and challenging ourselves to grow new words with different prefixes and suffixes. Reading for information and finding evidence to answer comprehension questions has also been a focus this week and all of the children have been working hard. We have continued to work on writing our own limericks, considering which lines should rhyme and thinking about the specific rhythm of the poem. A link to how to write your own Limerick can be found below:

How to Write a Limerick

In Numeracy we have continued to learn about fractions and we have been learning how to calculate the fraction of a quantity. For practical maths, the children have been looking at position and movement in relation to compass points and can plot points on a grid.

In Health and Well-being, we have been engaging with our Resilience resources focusing on the theme ‘Respect Yourself’. The children had to come up with a minimum of eight positive words which described them and had to create a word search. Some of us found it hard to come up with positive words but luckily our friends helped us.

A big thank you to the Prefects this week who carried out their duties this week. Many of the adults in the school have commented on your hard work and good manners. Keep it up!

Questions to consider:

1. Name one thing you enjoyed this week and why.

2. Was there anything you found hard? Why was it hard and what did you do to overcome the challenge?

3. If you could do anything in school next week, what would it be? What resources would you need?

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

This week we have been:

• revising 4 operations calculations in Numeracy
• learning about Perimeter in Maths
• exploring Scottish poetry in order to recite some later in the term
• learning about the story of Tam o Shanter by decoding the poem and watching an illustrated film of it.
• Talking a lot about behaviour and attitude to learning as we prepare for our final two terms of P7

Reflection:

1. What is your favourite part of Tam o Shanter?
2. What can you do to make Kingsland a better place this term?

Over the next five weeks, all of the Primary 7s will be working with our Active Schools Co-ordinator, Paul Murray, to develop their leadership skills. Our aim is for small groups of Prefects to run sports clubs for younger pupils at school.

Today we learned the best ways to put children into groups and thought about what skills a good leader possesses. These included:

• Confidence
• Speaking clearly and loudly
• Being organised
• Explaining activities well
• Giving demonstrations
• Listening to others

Thanks to Paul for coming in. We look forward to working with you this term!

It has been lovely to be back together again in school and we enjoyed sharing what we were up to over the Christmas break with each other.

The class have summarised our week’s learning and activities using SketchesSchool on their iPads:

This term we are focusing on being more independent and responsible for our learning, ensuring that we finish pieces of work within a set time frame. Well done everyone, keep it up!