Author: Miss Farren

I hope you are enjoying a day to play in the snow!

Since we have recently been learning to tell the time I have another activity for you to try whilst you are out sledging. You could record your slowest and fastest speed going down hill, then calculate the difference between them both. You could then change positions on your sledge to see if the way you sit effects the speed at which you travel? A little experiment too.  Think of the hypothesis before you set off and see if you are accurate. Could you do anything difference to vary the result? If you capture any pictures we would love to see them!

Stay safe!

Miss Farren

What a busy week we have had in Primary 5. In reading we continue learning about the Scottish Wars of Independence and what life was life for people 700 years ago. We are concentrating on extending our answers to include relevant details.

On Monday we celebrated Burns with an afternoon of poetry and singing. Our stage winners, Ryan McKie and Caitlin O’Hara performed their poems to an appreciative audience. We were very proud of all our stars!

On Tuesday NYCOS worked with both classes and we sang songs and played coordination games. This was challenging for some- even the teachers!

Our topic work has involved lots of art this week. We have been learning about and creating our own Coat of Arms, we had to carefully select animals, symbols and colours that were personal to us. These will be on display at Parent’s Evenings. Feel free to ask us all about them.

Thursday we enjoyed P.E with Mrs Ferguson and students from Edinburgh University. Some pupils participated in a gymnastics show and have worked very hard preparing for today. Well done to them all.

 

Please book appointments for parents nights next week and we look forward to catching up with you all.

P5F have Miss Hutchison from Edinburgh University working with us for 5 weeks and we look forward to working with her.

 

Thank you

Miss Farren and Mrs Jamieson

Primary 5 have had a busy and exciting week!

In Maths we have been learning about the properties of 3D shapes and using our skills to make decorative cubes and pyramids.

Religious Education has taught us more about the Christmas Story. We consolidated our learning by writing scripts for our very own news report. Through working in groups we continue to learn the importance of team work.

On Tuesday many of us enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch and then on Wednesday, Hopscotch Productions entertained us with the Panto, The Wizard of Oz. Lots of fun and laughter was had by all!

We have now finished our music block with Mr. Platt and began Art with Mrs Fox. This will continue next term on Wednesdays. P.E with Mrs Ferguson remains on a Thursday.

Our writing scheme is based on our class novel, Harry Potter. From creating our own wizards, maps and wands we are almost ready to transform our work in to a mini book.

Finally, an exciting day to be shared in Primary 5 as we finish the week with our Christmas Party!

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Miss Farren and Mrs Jamieson

Back to normality in Primary 7 after our adventures in France!

This week in P.E we have enjoyed Judo taster sessions and learned a few new skills. We also continued to work cooperatively in Hockey and are playing 5 v 5 games. In Science we have enjoyed a very active lesson where we had to dissect a flower then create a labelled poster to demonstrate our knowledge.

For those children participating in the drumming for excellence workshop, can you please familiarise yourself with your pattern of music and bring you music to school every day next week. We have rehearsals and our final workshop coming up.

Our Prom Committee have now begun working with Mrs. Gilmour to organise the theme for our celebration evening. It is all getting exciting in Primary 7.

Next week we have a visit from DCHS to look forward to. They will be teaching us Science and showing us some new ICT sites. We are all looking forward to this.

A big thank you and good bye to Miss Walker who has been teaching P7F recently. She is now off to complete her studies and we wish her lots of luck for her future in teaching!

Happy long weekend! See you all Tuesday!

Miss Farren and Miss Clark

Hello

Well as you know, primary 7 went a little animal daft this week and were involved in various animal activities throughout the week. We concluded the week with an animal movie of their choice and some animal origami before Free Time Friday. The children requested “The Jungle Book” so we spent the morning singing and dancing to the music. Children have now completed their animal fact files which look fantastic – well done for all your hard work everyone!!

Overall, we have had a very fun and busy week. We are looking forward to Monday and hearing all about France when everyone comes back together.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Miss Walker and Primary 7.

Good Afternoon

We had a very busy morning today and the children undertook a variety of activities relating to animal food chains. First of all, children designed their own “super animals” which had to be adapted to suit their environment. We had glow in the dark honey foot lemurs with bat wings and sharks with scorpion tails to name a few – very creative! We learned about how energy flows throughout food chains and the importance of having a top predator. The children engaged in food chain drama to showcase their understanding of food chains and the consequence of removing one species from the chain (lots of lions and gazelles in the classroom)! We also had a lot of discussion regarding the impact of humans on our wildlife. The children were then given time to continue with their research projects (animal fact files) which are looking fantastic – excellent work everyone!

This afternoon, primary 7 had lots of fun in P.E where they played basketball and spent the last hour out in the sun playing games and organising events for sports day.

It sounds like those in France are having a fabulous, busy time! We would like to ask you about your time at the theme park and what your favourite rides were?

All of primary 7 say HELLO and we hope you have a fantastic day at the theme park!!

Miss Walker and Primary 7

Hello everyone!

Just a wee update to let you all know what the primary 7s are up to in school this week.

Today we began our new mini topic – Animal biodiversity and adaptations. The children learned about the 6 main animal groups; mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians and insects. We learned about their key characteristics and how we can identify them. The platypus proved to be difficult! We also used classification keys to identify a series of invertebrates and also made our own keys to identify a group of insects.

This afternoon, we created signage for the school leavers’ assembly. This involved making signs as well as stars to decorate the stage.  Tomorrow we will continue with our new mini topic and learn about animal adaptation.

The children have some questions they would like to ask those who are in France:

How is the weather?

What is the food like?

Finally, the children would like to say “we hope no one was sick on the ferry and that you all have an amazing time!”

 

Miss Walker

Miss Clark has been off in Bulgaria this week and Mrs Gilmour has had an enjoyable week in Primary 7. Miss Walker has taught P7F most of this week whilst I, Miss Farren, covered P2.

In Maths both classes consolidated skills in Algebraic Expressions. Miss Thompson from DCHS was working with Miss Clark’s class on Wednesday.  We will continue improving our understanding in algebra next week.

Miss Clark returns to us on Monday with lots of stories to share I am sure. Then it’s back to business and we start preparing for our leaver’s assembly (Eek!)

Our first lesson was to write a letter to our favourite teacher- hankies at the ready. Our next task is to write a song about our time here at Carmondean.

On Thursday some pupils have volunteered to take part in a Drumming for Excellence workshop. Letters will go out on Monday about this for those involved. Also, Thursday will be our last week at DCHS for P.E.

My Life So Far – Can all pupils bring in a close to finished copy of their My Life So Far on Friday 29^th April so that we can check they are near completion before final submission in June. Thanks.

Finally, for any child going to France the office staff require essential documentation as soon as possible. Ideally before Friday!

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Farren, Miss Clark and Miss Walker

This week Primary 7 confidently performed and helped with the running of our successful Burns’ afternoon. The senior challenge group had worked very hard preparing the running order and PowerPoint for the event and delivered clearly and enthusiastically to a large audience. Joy Koay and Aaron McKee maintained their high standard when reciting their poems. Well done to all.

We have continued to learn many more interesting facts about World War 2. We have now finished our gas masks and they will be on display at parents’ nights. We are working on questionnaires that the children will soon be bringing home. They have the task of interviewing an elderly relative or family friend who would be happy enough to share some experiences of the war days and memories.

In Reading we have started source work and novel studies. The source work focuses on the difference between fact and opinion and reliable and unreliable sources of information. Novel studies involve reading with a learning partner, completing a task in class, then following this up with a homework task at home. One set of books has yet to arrive therefore some children do not have a book home as yet. We hope however that homework will begin as normal next week and as stated in the newsletter, reading homework will be issued fortnightly.

The pupils will be shown next week how to access the DCHS transition page where they will find small tasks set by department teachers and they can ask questions about the school. This site is perfectly secure and moderated by staff at all times. The children can access the site from home using their GLOW user details.

Reminders for next week (1^st Feb 16)

Indoor P.E kit is required on Monday and we are continuing our unit of dance.

Miss Thompson from Deans Maths department will be teaching Miss Farren’s class on Wednesday afternoon.

School uniform standards are slipping slightly in P7 with some pupils wearing outdoor shoes inside. We understand that some pupils may go a week or two without suitable shoes whilst parents order new ones.  If there is a problem buying new shoes can you please inform the school.

Have a lovely weekend, stay cosy indoors!

Miss Farren and Miss Clark