Everyone has enjoyed sharing stories and events from the Easter holidays. We were lucky enough to welcome four new pupils into our wonderful classroom last term. The pupils have demonstrated excellent kindness, caring attitudes and social skills to help our new children settle in. We have a very busy term coming up with lots more to learn and experience before our move to Primary 4 and are very excited to continue our learning.

Literacy

Everyone is continuing to make great progress with their spelling and phonics skills. We are continuing to see excellent dictation results each week and have now started including challenge words to further our skills. Now that the weather is improving, we have been spending more time outside practising our spelling words using chalk and our favourite strategies.

 

The boys and girls have been demonstrating a great understanding of different phonemes. Over the session, we have been looking at joined, single and split phonemes, and have recently introduced Elkonin boxes. “We put sounds in our Elkonin boxes. An example is ‘monkey’ – m   l   o   l    n   l   k   l   ey. ‘Ey’ goes in the same box because it is a joined phoneme” – Mason.

Our fluency and expression when reading has greatly improved throughout the year. We know that different punctuation marks give us a better understanding of what we are reading, and that sometimes we must change our intonation to help us. We also enjoyed a trip to Fairhill Library, where we had the chance to explore different genres of books,  and participate in a Bookbug song session. Both librarians commented on the excellent behaviour and engagement skills shown by our boys and girls – they represented Neilsland extremely well!

Fantastic progress has been made within our writing lessons. We are confident at using WOW words to make our writing interesting, setting our work correctly using paragraphs and self-assessing our spelling. Last term we learned how to set out instructions clearly and correctly. “You definitely need to have a title, a goal, materials and steps” – Isla. We had lots of fun making jam sandwiches, growing cress and making hot chocolate. “We wrote them in our jotters and we used bossy verbs and made sure our instructions were in the right order” – Mason. We have also enjoyed looking at different types of poetry. Acrostic and Cinquain poems have been our favourites so far. “Acrostic poems have the letters spelling out the word you are writing about down the side” – Ryan. “We wrote lots of Easter poems and they were really fun to write” – Courtney.

 

Maths

During Term 3, we practised using different coins, telling the time, solving equations and plotting grid references. We are also getting quicker and quicker at recalling multiplication facts, especially the four times table. During Term 3, we spent lots of time learning about inverse operations, and used our multiplication facts to check our answers to division questions and vice versa. “I like using my multiplication facts to check my division work. I feel like I’ve improved with my times tables because I can do them faster now” – Kayden.

We have also been developing our data handling skills with Miss Hutton. Everyone has collected data and correctly displayed it in a variety of ways. Some of the data we have collected so far includes our eye colours, favourite animals and favourite chocolate bars. “We’ve learned about bar graphs, line graphs and tally charts” – Olivia. The sunnier weather has allowed us to make use of our playground space. “We counted sweeties and went outside to make our own frequency tables with chalk” – Devon.

Expressive Arts

The dance/drama, art and music workshops were very popular with the children. Each session provided opportunities for the children to explore colour mixing, musical instruments and different ways to use voice and expression. “I liked using the paint. We did finger painting” – Kyran. Ollie loved participating in the music sessions, and said, “We shook a tambourine and maracas and listened out for the beats”.

STEM

We have continued with our Forces topic investigating air friction and measuring force using a Newton Balance. Recently we have explored magnetism. The whole school also took part in a STEM Day where the children participated in many exciting activities! Alaina said, “I liked the bridge building because it was fun and we needed to use our imagination”. ‘I liked the chromatography because we got to find out all the colours in black” – Olivia.

IDL

We looked at lots of different famous Scots in great depth last term, using our ICT skills to undertake both independent and partner research to learn interesting facts. “I enjoyed when we researched the famous Scots on iPads. I found out that William Wallace died in 1305 in Smithfield in London” – James. “I learned that Alexander Fleming invented penicillin which is a medicine that helped people” – Alaina. All the information we learned will be shared with the class when we present our solo talks. “I have made a PowerPoint to show the class for my solo talk. My solo talk is on Chris Hoy because he is a champion cyclist” – Isla.

     

This term, we will begin our ‘Egyptians’ topic. We have discussed specific aspects that we would like to learn about. Allen “would like to learn about the pharaohs”, and Chester said, ““I would like to learn about pyramids and how they were built”. Some of the other things we will be learning about include hieroglyphic patterns, Egyptian jewellery and clothing, the River Nile and mummification. We are excited to invite all Primary 3 parents and carers to come and find out what we have learned at our Egyptians assembly on the 12^th of May. We also have a very exciting school trip planned in June, when we will visit the Ancient Egypt exhibition within Kelvingrove Museum. “I’m quite excited about our trip because I would quite like to see what it’s like inside one of the coffins” – Evan. We will take lots of pictures for the school Twitter to show you what we get up to!

The boys and girls have been sharing their lovely memories and news from the Christmas holidays after their break. They worked so hard during Term 2 and definitely deserved lots of time to play and rest! We were delighted to welcome our new pupil Ryan into Primary 3 in December. The boys and girls used their kind, friendly and positive attitudes to welcome Ryan into our class. We are very excited to begin Term 3 and find out about all the interesting things we will be learning about.

 

Literacy

We are continuing to develop our skills throughout all aspects of Literacy. The children have been working hard to learn lots of new phonemes and common words and are tested every Friday morning. Sionainn said, “We have been very good at dictation. We practise our words using robot, rainbow and bubble writing.” The boys and girls have also been developing their comprehension and vocabulary through a variety of different reading tasks. James said, “We have been practising writing character profiles. We write about their appearance and personalities.” The children also used their dictionary skills to find the meanings of words related to Christmas.

     

We spent lots of time on descriptive and narrative writing during Term 2. To help us create interesting pieces of narrative writing, we watched lots of different videos and engaged in group and whole class discussions to talk about the setting, complication and resolution. “We watched videos and then we made plans. Then we did our writing and used paragraphs and interesting words,” explains Mason. It has been fantastic to look through the children’s jotters and see the progression of their work throughout the year – they have a very proud teacher!

 

Maths

During Term 2, we covered measure, money, fractions and the four operations. We are working on recalling multiplication facts quickly and accurately. Ollie said, “We have been practising our 3- and 4-times tables.  We made fortune tellers and learned a song to help us remember them.” Enja enjoys challenging subtraction problems, and said, “Taking away is fun because you have to try and figure it out. You use your brain or sometimes the cubes to help you.”

     

We are now revisiting fractions to help consolidate our knowledge. “We were comparing fractions using the more than and less than or equal symbols,” said Ava. The children have been using lots of concrete materials to help them understand this concept. Mrs Potter will also begin teaching a ‘Time’ topic this term, and then we will revisit our ‘Money’ topic to develop our skills even further.

 

IDL

The boys and girls have been enjoying their visits from Mrs Marnie every Monday afternoon to practise their French. Jay said, “We’ve been counting in French and learning all the colours of the rainbow.” This term, the children will be learning how to describe the weather.

We have also been looking at different foods and how we need a variety of different things to keep us healthy. “We got a plain plate and had to draw things like vegetables and dairy. We looked at sweet and salty things and oils and spreads too” – Alaina.

This term, the infants will have the exciting opportunity to participate in music, dance/drama and art sessions every Friday afternoon. They will be practising a variety of expressive arts skills, including colour mixing, expressions and rhythms and beats.

 

STEM

Last term and this term we are working on ‘Forces’. We looked at push and pull and had a tug of war contest in the playground! To investigate friction the children worked in groups to roll a car down a ramp onto different surfaces. We also blew on ping pong balls with straw – which was great fun! Chester’s favourite part of STEM so far was, “Rolling the cars because we rolled them down hills. Some of them went slow and some of them went fast.”

 

Rookie Rockstars

We were so lucky to have a visit from Abbie from ‘Rookie Rockstars’. The children learned the words to five different rock songs and performed them live to an audience during their very own concert, alongside some great head banging and air guitars! Sophia said, “My favourite part was when we were on the stage singing songs because we saw all the parents in front of us.” Devon had a great time because, “I’ve never been to a concert before and being the rockstar was fun.”

 

           

 

Christmas

Primary 3 participated in lots of Christmas-based activities last month, including creating Christmas crafts and researching Christmas traditions around the world. “We looked up different countries and what they eat for Christmas. I was with Olivia and we found out what they eat and how to say Merry Christmas in French. It is ‘Joyeux Noël’” – Kayden.

       

We also had a fantastic time at our Christmas party. Eva said, “I liked the games. We played musical statues.” The boys and girls were so well behaved for their ‘Special Visitor’ and showed off their beautiful manners (and smiles!) when collecting their presents.

               

 

Nativity

Our Nativity, ‘Away in a Manger’, was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who came to the performances. Calum said, “Our Nativity was fun because we all had parts as the narrators.” The boys and girls in Primary 3 did themselves proud by practising their words and song lyrics hard both in school and at home. Isla loved that “all the mums and dads were clapping for us after the songs.” It was great to see how confident the children were when speaking in front of a large audience.

All of the Primary 3 boys and girls have settled so well into their new class and are continuing to work hard and try their best. We have learned lots of new things since we returned to school in August, and we can’t wait to tell you all about what we have been learning!

 

Literacy

We have been working hard throughout all aspects of Literacy and have learned how to spell lots of new and impressive words. We use our magnetic whiteboards and lots of different spelling strategies to make sure we learn them in time for Dictation every Friday. Eva says, “I like doing rainbow writing.” Everyone has also been practising putting their spelling words into sentences to help understand what they mean. Kayden particularly enjoys this, and says, “I like doing sentences because it is fun making them up in your head with the words on the board.”

We are becoming more confident and imaginative writers and have so far looked at recount and descriptive writing. Alaina said she “loved doing a recount about what I did in the October holiday.” Everyone wrote super character descriptions of Paddington Bear and remembered to include lots of adjectives. Look at this fantastic planning and structure from Alaina and Chester!

 

Maths

So far in Primary 3, we have been learning about rounding, place value, shape and the four operations, which are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Holly worked so hard on her division, and said, “It is fun because we got to split up a pile of cubes.” We have also been using lots of other resources to help our understanding of sharing amounts into equal groups, such as marbles, pencils, and even children! Even though it can sometimes be a little bit tricky, we never give up in Primary 3. Sophia says, “I like division because we have to use our times tables. The 4 and 5 are a wee bit hard, but we keep trying to get them right.”

We have just started our ‘Money’ topic and have been “looking at different kinds of coins and how much they are worth” – Mason. There has been lots of ‘shopkeeper’ role play too, where we have been working out how much change we should receive from different amounts. There are lots of fun and interactive money-related games posted on the Primary 3 Google Classroom to practise at home.

 

 

Gym

Primary 3 have been making use of the (mostly dry!) weather and enjoying weekly outdoor PE sessions in the MUGA. Ollie says, “I like outdoor gym because we get to do different games like fruit salad, corners and tunnel tig.”

IDL

Every week, we do French with Mrs Marnie. Devon says, “I like doing French because I’ve always wanted to learn more languages.” We have been learning our numbers to 20, greetings and will soon learn colours.

As part of our Health and Wellbeing topic, we have looked at different people who keep us safe. We discussed how important lollipop people, firefighters and police officers are and the ways in which they keep us safe. We have also been learning about different types of food and why it is important to have a healthy, balanced diet. Sionainn says, “We need healthy food because it gives you energy and keeps you fit and strong.”

Our green-fingered boys and girls have also been helping with the gardening throughout the school. We used lots of different tools to get rid of all of the weeds – we can’t wait to plant some beautiful new flowers!

 

STEM

We have been looking at the movement of the sun, Earth and moon with Mrs Potter on a Wednesday. We have learned about new moon missions happening now and have developed our engineering skills by building with the KAPLA bricks.

Isla said she liked when we made rocket pictures because, “It was fun and exciting.” Calum enjoyed making graphs about how daylight hours change over the year. He said it was “exciting.” Olivia liked building with the Kapla bricks, “Because it was fun making it!” Ava loves art so she enjoyed making our moon/sun display.

 

Homework

If we have done our homework, we now get to take part in fun activities on a Friday afternoon, such as colouring, iPad time and games. We know how important it is to do our homework every week and how much it helps us with the work we do in school. Isla loves reading at home, and says, “Homework is fun because you practise with your reading book. My book just now is called Harry’s Seal.”