Author: Mr Woodward

This week we have had a particularly barbaric week in Primary 3 during topic time. We looked at medieval crime and punishments and it was up to the classes to decide what suitable punishments might be for a range of different crimes. Needless to say the pupils were ruthless in their judgements and they made some of the medieval punishments look relatively tame!

We have been developing our knowledge of time and we have looked at quarter past, as well as looking more at o’clock and half past. So far the pupils have been whizzing through time and have been going through the topic with confidence!

In Health, P3S have looked at medicines to begin a new health topic. The class had a great discussion about different medicines, different types of medicines and what are good and bad medicines. The pupils handled the discussion very maturely and showed a good deal of knowledge as well as asking a lot of insightful questions. P3W finished off their science topic about forces by looking at the effects of magnets of different objects. They thought like scientists to hypothesise and then tested their theories, writing down their results and coming up with some important conclusions about how magnets work to demonstrate push and pull.

We have our P3 trip to Stirling Castle coming soon and the forms have now gone out so can we ask that pupils bring their forms back as quickly as possible?

Reminders:

Miss Smith’s Class – Indoor PE: Wednesday                         Outdoor PE: Thursday

Mr Woodward’s Class – Indoor PE: Monday                        Outdoor PE: Thursday

Thanks for your continued support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

In Primary 3 this week we have been getting into the spirit of Chinese New Year that began last Saturday. We spent a part of Monday afternoon creating decorative Chinese lanterns that were decorated and then taken home Tuesday. This also formed the basis of our writing for this week in which the pupils were tasked with writing up how to make the lanterns as part of our instructional writing topic, so hopefully now they have made them and have created their instructions they can teach everyone at home how to make them too!

We have also been looking at the Knight’s Code of Chivalry, asking ourselves what character traits were important for being a knight. Pupils linked how we live our lives today to how the knights lived and there were some interesting similarities. The pupils created some very unique dramas to show off their chosen part of the code and more than one had quite barbaric endings, no mercy was shown!

We have also wrapped up our germ topic with the discovery that bread can go incredibly mouldy when touched by a whole class and left for a while, needless to say the bread was disgusting and showed perfectly the importance of hygiene, especially around food!

A huge well done to the four members of P3 who recited their poems in front of the school on Monday, they were absolutely amazing and showed such confidence to perform in front of such a big audience, well done Taylor, Frazer, Poppy and Grace!

Apologies for the confusion around the shared starts and finishes, to clarify:

P3 Trip: 3rd March

Shared Start/ Finish: Tuesday 16th March (9am and 3pm)

Parent Assembly and Banquet for 1 accompanying person: 23rd March

Reminders

PE days – P3S – Wednesday, Thursday

P3W – Monday, Thursday

Please put a name on all items of PE kit and school uniform to avoid having lost property.

Thank you as always for your continued support.

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

This week in Primary 3 we have been working hard on health and hygiene. Pupils have created thorough instructions for hand washing and we now have the best hand washers in the school! (probably). We have been experimenting with glitter to show how easily germs can spread and how difficult it is to get some of the germs off, even after a thorough scrubbing. We also used a black light to shine a light on the problem of hand washing and it highlighted the effects of hand washing on hands and made us realise that germs can get in all the nooks and crannies and so making sure to wash everywhere is imperative.

We continued to develop our knowledge of knights and castles with work on how castles have evolved over the years from hill forts right up until the big towering castles that we have all seen and heard of. The pupils have been very inquisitive during our topic and this week was no different with many questions asked and many tangents followed which will hopefully allow them to have a deeper curiosity and understanding of our topic.

We have been continuing to develop our understanding of fractions and across the year group the pupils have so far been very comfortable with the topic. We have continued to work on our measuring skills and will be developing these further over the coming weeks.

Reminders:

Indoor PE: Mr Woodward – Monday                       Miss Smith – Wednesday

Outdoor PE: Both Classes Thursday

Scottish Poems to be learned for Wednesday 22^nd January

Spelling to be handed in Fridays

Thanks for your continued support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! A welcome return to thy Primary 3s! We hath begun our topic of Knights and Castles and verily we hath created a year group full of the bravest of knights. We hath looked at the peasantry and nobility and hath created splendid portraits of our pupils as noble lords and ladies. We hath looked at the insides of castles and how castle were built, what makes a castle and who lived in them. The pupils hath made names for themselves as ‘Brave, Defenders, Powerful and Courageous’ and we look forward to creating adventures for our knights throughout the topic.

We have also given oot the Scot’s Poems fir oor Burn’s Poetry reading topic. Pupils wir given a chance to hear the poems read oot loud, with some very questionable Scottish accents by Mr Woodward, and wir given their choice of poem. This will be worked on in class but we also ask that they are encouraged to learn their poems at hame as they will be performing them in front of their own class. Those who would like to can also learn them to be put forward for the school’s Burn’s Poetry competitions.

We have started learning about fractions and the pupils have so far coped very well. We have been looking at splitting shapes up into parts, shading in those parts and asking what fraction has been shaded. Pupils have been comfortable in discussing and completing these challenges and are ready to get into more detail with further fraction work.

Reminders:

Indoor PE:           Mr Woodward – Monday                           Miss Smith – Wednesday

Outdoor PE:       Both classes – Thursday

We would like to thank you all for your kindness and generosity with the wonderful cards and gifts that were received before Christmas, they were very appreciated and it was very thoughtful, thank you!

Thanks for all your continued support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

There has been a lot of festive fun in Primary 3 this week with the Christmas Party giving the children an opportunity to play games, dance, get dressed up and get their Christmas on! There were some spectacular dance moves on display and everyone was in great spirits. We played some party games and both classes showed such great class in showing great encouragement and sportsmanship to each other. They also had a great time doing our Scottish dances, the Military Two-Step and the Canadian Barn Dance, and most of them knew the dances well and were flinging and clapping and tapping all around the hall. We have also been working on some artistic Christmas projects, with wintery window scenes, reindeer and Santas aplenty.

We have looked at the Nativity story and have been creating puppets and backgrounds to be put together to create a stop motion movie of the Nativity. They have been story-boarding so they know what will happen throughout their scene and will then be testing their skills as voice actors as they record what their characters are saying. The pupils also showed off their own Nativity to the rest of the school in our first run through with costumes and it went very well. There were good reviews all round and I am sure that the full shows next week will be even better.

We have started to look at symmetry in maths and had a look at various shapes and buildings in real life that may or may not be symmetrical and we had some good discussions as to why we could argue some things are, or aren’t, symmetrical. There was a lot of debate as to whether Spiderman’s mask was symmetrical so I’m sure a closer look at the Marvel movies is in order just to make sure.

Reminders:

Monday 16^th December – Talent Show

Christmas Dress Down (50p)

Wednesday 18^th December – Nativity (10am and 2pm)

Friday 20^th December – Last Day of Term (There will be a collection at the Church as normal, any donations are appreciated)

Thanks for your continued support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

We started the week in Primary 3 with a visit from the Panto. They put on a brilliant performance of Mother Goose that had all of the children thoroughly entertained! We have continued to work on our own show, our Nativity, and it is getting better and better with each practice – we are looking forward to our dress rehearsal next week when the children can get into costume and show the rest of the school the product of all their hard work.

We have continued to work on The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark and this week we have been looking at a Story Mountain. We have talked about the key ingredients for a story and how going through a story is like climbing a mountain, nice at first, getting harder and more action packed, and then overcoming the story obstacles and arriving at happy endings. In our writing we have continued to write persuasively, this week saw a plea from the pupils to Summer Winter. Some pupils asked Summer Winter for snow for Christmas while others asked her to bring back the sun and the warmth. No matter which side of the discussion the pupils were on their writing was very good.

We have been building up to our P3 party by practising some traditional Christmas songs. We looked at the Military Two Step and the Canadian Barn Dance and the pupils danced with enthusiasm and a lot of energy! In topic Miss Smith’s class looked at the differences between needs and wants, having some great discussions about what they are and if they were marooned on a desert island which items would they need and why. There were some great debates and the pupils were able to recognise what is really important.

Reminders:

Indoor PE:  Miss Smith – Wednesday      Mr Woodward – Wednesday

Outdoor PE: Miss Smith – Tuesday           Mr Woodward – Thursday

P3 Christmas Party: Thursday 12^th December

Nativity: Dress Rehearsal Tuesday 10^th December.  Actual Show: Wednesday 18^th December

Thanks for your continued support

Mr Woodward and Miss Smith

In Primary 3 we have been continuing our push for persuasion and have been creating colourful and persuasive posters in aid of Jumpers for Jak, a festive jumper day aimed at raising money for Jak’s Den to support those who spend the holidays in hospital. The pupils wrote letters last week to Jak’s Den and this week we have created posters that will go to raising awareness for the Jumpers for Jak day (20^th of December, see Jak’s Den website/ P3 posters for more details).

We have been working our lungs very hard this week between the nativity and our St Andrews Assembly songs. The pupils have really been belting out the songs and I am positive both performances will be full of some powerful singing voices. For our St Andrews song we also have some great actors playing the roles of different characters on the hunt for Annie’s yoyo.

We have been researching different charities in the community in topic and have looked at 4 different famous people who each have a different need and the pupils have put together presentations to discuss how the different local organisations might help their person’s need. Some very good discussions and we have definitely got a very socially conscious group of P3’s!

Reminders:

With the new timetable and the run up to nativity and Christmas we apologise for the changing of days for PE and the confusion this may cause.

Next week P3S will have indoor PE on Wednesday and Outdoor PE Tuesday

P3W will have PE on Wednesdays and Thursdays

Please remember homework folders and reading books every day as these may be used in class time as well.

We look forward to seeing you at the Christmas Fair tonight 6pm-8pm,

Thanks for your continued support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas in Primary 3. We have made a start to our nativity alongside P2 and for a first go through the pupils did well. They sang with enthusiasm and have begun to learn their lines and once we get really stuck into rehearsals I know it will be a show to remember. We have also began to make Christmas decorations and if the mountain of glitter is anything to go by there are sure to add a great deal of sparkle to the hall.

In our inclusion topic we have been learning about the eyes and ears and had some interesting discussions about how they work and what might happen if they didn’t work properly. We also had a first-hand experience of how the pupils work and they can now show you what happens in light and dark. We also included inclusion into our writing this week as we wrote first draft letters to Jak’s Den to try and find out a little bit more about what they do. Suffice to say we have had some great questions and some very well written letters.

In our maths we have continued our focus on money and division and the pupils have been getting to grips with dividing by 2 and 4. What has been great to see is that although pupils are finding it tricky they have been showing fantastic resilience and they have been putting in a good deal of effort to keep trying.

It was also great to see a good turnout for our Read, Write, Count session this week and hopefully the resources will be enjoyable to explore.

P3W pupils also completed their Weather Masks this week and had a parade around the school to show off their beautiful masks.

Reminders:

Christmas Fair next Friday between 6pm and 8pm

Homework Due in Monday – Please ensure all reading books are brought back as they are used for other classes in the school.

Indoor PE:

Miss Smith                          Thursday

Mr Woodward                   Wednesday

Outdoor PE:

Miss Smith                          Tuesday

Mr Woodward                    Thursday

Thanks for your continuing support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

In Primary 3 this week we have been exploring the school. We went on an exploratory walk around the building to find out exactly what the school has in place to help those with additional needs. Plenty of things were found, such as buttons to open the doors, the lowered window at the office and even some Portuguese in P7! Mrs Wotherspoon was kind enough to come and answer questions about what the school does to help people and hopefully it gave the pupils a good insight into how to think about and practise inclusion in the real world.

We have been very musical this week as well, working hard to try and learn our songs for the nativity as well as fine tuning our rendition of ‘Wee Annie Had a Yo-yo’. The pupils have been in fine voice and they are singing better and more confidently with every practice.

In maths we have continued to focus on money and have been working on making change from different amounts. We have also continued to develop multiplication skills and are going to be moving on to division.

We had a visit on Tuesday from some of the environmental team from West Lothian Council. They taught us a lot about the importance of recycling, what we can and can’t recycle and which bin to put things in.

Indoor PE:

Miss Smith                          Thursday

Mr Woodward                   Wednesday

Outdoor PE:

Miss Smith                          Tuesday

Mr Woodward                    Thursday

Thanks for your continuing support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

Following on from the quitting of our brown pencils last week, there have been further cases of items quitting the class. On Tuesday all the chairs in Primary 3 decided they had had enough and quit, parking themselves in the back of the classroom and taping themselves off until they received a full apology from the pupils. The writing of the apologies went well, although some pupils had to verbally apologise to get their chairs back, but in the end all chairs were returned safely, hoping that they won’t be taking for granted again.

We have been continuing with our book for this term, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark and we had a great discussion about fears, what kinds of things frighten us, what kinds of things used to frighten us and how we can maybe overcome our fears. Needless to say there are lots of brave P3s who don’t mind sharing their fears and are brave enough to overcome them!

In topic we have been learning to write our name in Braille. We learned about the life of Louis Braille and why and how he came up with Braille and the pupils got a chance to create their names in Braille using lentils and plenty of glue, they are looking fantastic!

Reminders:

Poppies and Children in Need bands are on sale now, poppies are a donation of minimum 50p, Children in Need bands are between £1 and £1.50. There will also be a dress down day on Friday 15^th November for 50p which will go towards Children in Need.

Indoor PE:

Miss Smith                          Thursday

Mr Woodward                   Wednesday

Outdoor PE:

Miss Smith                          Tuesday

Mr Woodward                    Thursday

Thanks for your continuing support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

There was a shocking incident at the beginning of the week when Miss Smith’s hairdryer refused to work for her. She had to write a letter to persuade it to work again. Then all of Mr Woodward’s brown colouring pencils up and left the pencil tray. They were not happy at being underused and so have quit until further notice. The pupils wrote letters to try and coax them back but so far only a small few have returned. Primary 3 have been working hard on their persuasive writing so hopefully with enough persuasion the rest of the brown pencils will be convinced to return soon. There have been continuing reports of various items quitting on the children e.g. scarves.

We have begun our book study for this term which is ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’. So far we have looked at what makes an effective front cover and what are the vital elements of a front cover. We got some fantastic imaginings of what the front cover might look like before the big reveal of the actual front cover of the story.

Continuing on in our Inclusion topic we had a very practical session all about the five senses. In our listening circle activity we have some pupils who hear like bats, some fantastic listeners! They also had a go at trying to read Braille which was very tricky and there were some very creative translations. They were very brave in jumping in nose first into our smelling challenge, not holding back at all. While there were some nice smells, like mint and lavender, vinegar proved to be the worst smelling offender. Although there were a couple of pupils who decided the vinegar smelled like feet!

In line with our inclusion topic we were wondering if there are any of you that are involved in local charities that would like to come in and teach us about their charities and what kinds of things they do? Or if there is any more information that could be passed on to us about local charities and who to contact/ any leaflets/ etc that would be greatly appreciated! If so please get in touch with the office and they can pass info on to us.

Reminders:

Miss Smith                                                                                          Mr Woodward

Indoor PE Thursday                                                                         Indoor PE Wednesday

Outdoor PE Tuesday                                                                        Outdoor PE Thursday

Homework due 11^th November for both

Thanks,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward

Welcome back to everyone in Primary 3 after a well-deserved week off. The pupils have come back with a lot of enthusiasm and they have certainly hit the ground running. With Summer Winter having gone home now, we had a little more of our weather topic to finish off, involving some water balloons and a kettle. We looked at how and why water changes from one state to another and there were some great answers and speculation as to what we were going to use the kettle for, rest assured no balloons were put in the kettle to ‘see what would happen’!

We made a start to our new topic for this term which will be focussed on Inclusion, what it means, how we can include people in school and how the community helps those that need it; beginning with a particular focus on the 5 senses. We have already had some good discussions about what inclusion might mean and some very inquisitive questions that we will hopefully find the answers to over the course of the term.

We have also started our new maths topic which will be money and the pupils were excited to work with the coins to help them solve problems. They were slightly less excited when they found out it wasn’t real money.

Reminders:

Indoor PE Kit –  Wednesday (Mr Woodward)

Thursday (Miss Smith)

Outdoor PE Kit – Tuesday (Miss Smith)

Thursday (Mr Woodward)

The next round of homework will be given out on Monday.

Thanks for your continued support,

Miss Smith and Mr Woodward