What a jammed packed day we had on Tuesday when we had a visit from Homefront Histories! Our large hall was transformed into the 1940’s and the pupils were set a variety of challenges to complete. Our day was punctuated with a number of stops as we had to run to our air raid shelter as the siren sounded! We have added a selection of pictures below.

The pupils have made a good start of their WW2 challenge, with all topics selected. We would advise that if the children are using the internet for research purposes at home that they use a child friendly search engine such as Kiddle. Some of the images and information relating to WW2 subjects can be disturbing. Please monitor the sources used.

Letters have now been sent home with pupils who require specific items for their show costumes. Your help with this is greatly appreciated as always.

When we started our literature circle project, the pupils were given a choice of novels. We thought it would be a good idea for the pupils to share their thoughts of the novels they have chosen. It may entice others to read some of the alternative choices independently.

This week’s blurb was written by Dorka, Megan, Bendi, Heather and Nathan.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

By John Boyne

This full–of–drama novel puts you in the shoes of nine year old Bruno whose love of exploration gets him in all kinds of trouble. The question filled little boy gets the reader asking questions with him; why did we have to move? Why do we have a father called the commandant? What are all the people in striped pyjamas doing on the other side of the fence? Soon he meets a friend on the other side of the fence and even more questions come up.

 

 

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays, Indoor Kit Tuesdays

Swimming lessons have now finished.

Homework – spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays. We are now concentrating on sentences and will not be expecting the children to complete a spelling activity.

Literacy Circles – Homework task and reading will be given out on Wednesdays and is due the following Wednesday.

Thank for your continued support.

Mrs Wylie, Mrs Muir and Miss Mulhern

Happy Robert Burns Day!

Primary 7 had a fantastic Scots afternoon on Wednesday in light of Burns Day today. We are the first class to have had our haggis piped in by bagpipes which is a huge honour. Huge thanks to Leo who has worked so hard for the past 3 weeks to learn the music for us! We had our Address to the Haggis and Selkirk Grace performed by Alex and Aimee respectively, had some haggis and shortbread with juice and then sang songs and performed poems to each other. It was such a lovely afternoon and we must say thank you to those who stood up to perform their poems and joined in with the singing.

Our novels are beginning to grow on us all and we are having great discussions in class about our homework tasks. Everyone has really connected with the characters already and are eager to read their next section pages for Wednesday 30th.

In numeracy we are continuing to focus on fractions, decimals and percentages and we have been looking at circles and measurement in maths. Can you change 20cm into metres or millimetres?

Miss Mulhern’s class have just completed their swimming block and have thoroughly enjoyed it. We learned many different strokes and all showed great improvement in such a short time! Mrs Muir/Mrs Wylie’s class, we are sure you are going to love it too!

We have now given out parts for the school show. Please understand that the staff have many ideas for the show and are working hard to add in more lines or singing parts where we think possible. If your child is unhappy with their role, they must speak to their teacher about it before Tuesday and we will see what we can do.

 

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays Indoor Kit Tuesdays

Mrs Muir / Mrs Wylie’s class – Swimming on Monday

Homework – spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays. We are now concentrating on sentences and will not be expecting the children to complete a spelling activity.

Literacy Circles – Homework task and reading will be given out on Wednesdays and is due the following Wednesday.

Thank for your continued support.

Mrs Wylie, Mrs Muir and Miss Mulhern

 

It is wonderful to see such enthusiasm in Primary 7 with regards to their novels. Emotions are running high already as we make connections with our favourite characters and try to understand what it must have been like to live in their time. Each group has been assigned a task from their literacy circle packs and should have it ready for their literacy circle meeting on Wednesday.

We began our auditions for our senior show this week and we were delighted with the number of pupils who put themselves forward. We hope to announce roles by the end of next week.

In numeracy we are continuing to focus on fractions, decimals and percentages and we are studying 2D and 3D shape in math sessions. Do you know what a nine sided shape is called?

We have seen signs of great teamwork this week as the pupils learned and practised their Scottish poems together. All pupils will recite their poems on Monday and Tuesday of next week and the winning class performers will repeat their rendition at our Scottish Assembly next Friday .

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays Indoor Kit Tuesdays

Miss Mulhern’s class – Swimming on Monday

Mrs Muir / Mrs Wylie’s class start swimming on Monday 28th January .

Homework – spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays. We are now concentrating on sentences and will not be expecting the children to complete a spelling activity.

Literacy Circles – Homework task and reading will be given out on Wednesdays and is due the following Wednesday .

Happy New Year and welcome back to school everyone! We have had a great start to the year with many things kicking off straight away. We have started our new topic on WWII this week with a background of the war and key events that took place. We all found it extremely interesting and have been looking forward to continuing our learning in this topic. If anyone has any accounts of grandparents or great-grandparents that were in the war we will be having an opportunity for these to be told in class. Our school show has got the pupils buzzing with excitement! This year we have a videogame theme and lots of colourful and fun characters for the children to become. At the moment we will all be learning the songs and will be beginning to think about which parts we would like to play. Please be reminded that the main parts will be highly sought after and so pupils must be prepared to audition for the part if required. Swimming has started for P7M and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves at their first session! Thank you to the team at DCHS for organising this for the classes. Don’t worry P7W, it’s your turn next! We will remind you of dates nearer the time. Scottish poems have been given out to each pupil to learn over the coming weeks. These have to be performed to the class on Monday the 21^st and Tuesday the 22^nd of January. Practise makes perfect so please make sure they are practised at home (although time will be given in class for this too).

REMINDERS – PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays (P7W), Swimming Kit Mondays (P7M), Indoor Kit Tuesday (ALL)

Homework – spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays. We are now concentrating on sentences and will not be expecting the children to complete a spelling activity. Reading – Children have set the amount of pages they must complete each week and will be assigned a task to complete along with it. This will be given out on a Wednesday and is to be completed for the following Wednesday.

Maths – PLEASE REINFORCE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION.

Poetry – Please ensure your child is practising their poem in preparation for Scot’s Week.

Thank for your continued support,

Mrs Wylie, Mrs Muir and Miss Mulhern

The Christmas Fayre was such a huge hit! Thank you so much to everyone who came and supported us. We will be counting up our profit today and this will be put towards our P7 hooodies.

In Maths we have been focusing on angle and coordinates. We have been looking at how we use angles to draw different types of triangles and ensuring that they are accurate by checking with a partner. In coordinates we are moving on to using all four quadrants to plot points. We will be able to use every quadrant and discuss how we know where to plot sets of coordinates.

We had art in class last week and we were working on our collaborative skills. Each child was given part of a whole picture and asked to copy the details on their part, and then we would put all the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle to see the whole image. We had to think about scales and shading for this task and work with the people who had the connecting pieces to ensure the picture would be proportionate. The results were incredible and showed us just how differently each section could be interpreted.

Last week was an incredibly sporty week for us all! We started off with the handball tournament on Tuesday where the team didn’t lose a match! They came first overall and we are very proud of them! Wednesday saw two sporting achievements; Keira and Lauren who placed 6^th and 8^th in the SSBX skiing competition and the P7 Sportshall Athletics Festival! We are extremely proud of the girls for placing so high out of almost 100 participants and we hope our P7s had a great time at their festival.

The St Andrews Day assembly was a huge hit. Well done to all classes for their beautiful singing! Parents, there is still time to ask your child to sing the original version for you!

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays Indoor Kit Tuesday

Homework – spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays. We are now concentrating on sentences and will not be expecting the children to complete a spelling activity.

Maths – PLEASE REINFORCE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION.

Thank for your continued support,

Mrs Wylie, Mrs Muir and Miss Mulhern

Our little elves have been working hard! The classes have been extremely busy this week making and advertising their products and games for the Christmas fayre next Friday (30^th). Everything is coming together and we are finalising our floats, prizes and layout of the stalls next week. We have our expected profits calculated so we hope to see you all there to support us!

In Maths we have been continuing to look at negative and positive integers and relating this to everyday life, such as in temperatures and bank accounts. We even spotted the relationship we have with negative integers at the moment, as we are borrowing money for the floats for our school fayre enterprise! Fingers crossed we will have successful stalls and games at the fayre and will make lots of positive profit.

The St Andrews Day assembly is fast approaching and this year the Primary 7s will be singing a new song for you all. We have been dedicating time to learn Auld Lang Syne, and not the version you sing at New Year! We are learning the original version which is much slower and sweeter. Ask your children to teach you it!

In light of Book Week Scotland, we had a fantastic, informative session at Carmondean Library yesterday. We were learning about different types of books, how books are shelved and how to apply for a library card (which your child has been given a letter about). We hope this has encouraged the children to visit the library more and share their experience with those at home.

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays Indoor Kit Wednesdays

Homework – spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays. We are now concentrating on sentences and will not be expecting the children to complete a spelling activity.

Maths – PLEASE REINFORCE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION.

Thank for your continued support,

Mrs Wylie, Mrs Muir and Miss Mulhern

Our P7 Remembrance assembly was a huge success! We were all very professional and confident in our delivery of our lines and our singing and acting was spot on. There were a few tears shed during our poetry and renditions of ‘Highland Cathedral’ and ‘Let It Be’. We all have been working so hard for the past few weeks and it definitely paid off. Well done to everyone!

 

We had a visit from Michelle with the West Lothian Drugs and Alcohol Service this week and have a follow up session with her next week. We looked into the effects of smoking on our health and the chemicals in a cigarette. We were given the task of giving up something for the week and recording the results. We had suggestions ranging from giving up sweets to biting our nails! We shall see how we all got on on Monday…

In Maths we have moved on to looking at angles, have been exploring different angles and how to calculate a complementary angle. We will be doing a lot of problem solving with angles in the coming weeks so please ask your child about it! We would appreciate it if you could become ‘Angle Hunters’ during the day and ask them if they can find an example of an acute, obtuse or right angle wherever they are. For an extra challenge, they can look for a reflex angle!

We had an informative transition morning at DCHS on Thursday and again in the evening. The children had the opportunity to meet staff members, experience moving from classroom to classroom and play some getting to know you games with key members of staff.  The children  were able to look around the school, ask questions and see all of the equipment and resources available at the high school.

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays Indoor Kit Wednesdays

Homework – spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays. We are now concentrating on sentences and will not be expecting the children to complete a spelling activity.

Maths – PLEASE REINFORCE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION.

Thank for your continued support,

Mrs Wylie, Mrs Muir and Miss Mulhern

 

This week our pupils have been being very serious in their writing. They have been working on poetry based on remembrance and the Great War. They chose which type of poem they wanted to write and identified what they should describe in them, which was what they see, hear, think and feel. They have worked so hard on them and produced some poignant, powerful and beautiful poems. Their challenge was to make Mrs Gilmour cry and we are sure they will do just that!

In Maths we are finishing off time and will be moving on to angles next week. Please continue to ask your children time based questions often, however, as this is a very valuable skill to practise.

We had a fantastic visit from the Science department at DCHS on Tuesday this week. We discussed the skills needed for science and had a shot at mixing chemicals, documenting the reaction and filtering the substance out. It was a fantastic, hands-on experience and we cannot wait for our next visit!

We are continuing to bring together our remembrance assembly and words have been given out to some pupils. There will be a part for everyone so don’t fret if they do not have lines yet! We discussed what we should include in our assembly and have had some brilliant ideas to make our assembly memorable.

We are also going to be going around the classes selling poppies in the coming weeks. We are suggesting a minimum donation of 50p per poppy, but encouraging a donation of £1. All proceeds go to the Scottish Poppy Appeal.

 

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays Indoor Kit Wednesdays

Homework – spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays. We are now concentrating on sentences and will not be expecting the children to complete a spelling activity. 

Spelling next week will be a review week. The children will be revising all the words they have had from the beginning of term and the test will be made from a combination of all of these.

Homework for all pupils – to learn ‘Let It Be’ and to learn their lines for our assembly.

Thank for your continued support,

Mrs Wylie, Mrs Muir and Miss Mulhern