Pupil Learning – Page 6 – Carmondean Primary School Blog

Primary 2 29.3.21

Primary 2 have had a super week last week. We have been learning about the types of food Romans ate and we finished off the week creating a poster with all our Roman facts. They worked in pairs to draw and write as many things as they could about the Romans. They then presented their posters to the class.

In reading we have been working on our prediction skills. The children have listened to the start of a story and then making their predictions about what they think will happen next. The children did this really well and were able to justify some of their answers.

We have been working on our 2x, 5x and 10x tables. We have been playing games, listening to songs, working out sums and writing the times tables out. It has been very tricky but the children have been working very hard!

In P.E we have been learning some new tennis skills. The children have been learning to control their rackets, catch and throw the tennis balls and have been traveling with the tennis ball on their racket. They are all doing really well and enjoying our outdoor tennis lessons.

There will be no homework set on seesaw this week. We still encourage you to read with your children and to continue practising their times tables.

We have an exciting week ahead with lots of Easter crafts, learning about Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.

Miss Rafferty and Mrs Oliver

Primary 7

Hello everyone!

We have loved welcoming everyone back to school and have had a busy few weeks!

Our World War 2 topic is in full swing! Last week Primary 7 were learning about why the war started and the Allied and Axis powers. We listened to Neville Chamberlain declaring war with Germany and then created a newspaper report about this historic moment. This week, everyone has been given a new WWII identity! In their new family groups, the pupils have been working hard to design their home and character profiles. Our families have all been given a location (London or Clydebank) and we cannot wait to explore this further other the next few weeks! Our reading is also WWII themed for this block with P7M reading ‘I Am David’ and P7W reading ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’.

In Numeracy, we have been learning about negative numbers. We now know what an integer is and how to accurately read and use thermometers with different scales. Some have also practised using negative numbers in relation to money.

In Art, P7W created marvelous space pictures with Mr Shanks last week! P7M looked at one-point perspective drawings and created our own. We had to draw a horizon line and lines of perspective to help us make it look like the objects in the distance were far away!

A little reminder that we have P.E. on a Monday and Thursday. Currently, Primary 7 are developing their leadership skills through a variety of team games (this has required a lot of listening!).

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Wylie and Miss Morris.

Primary 3 update 26.03.21

We have had yet another fun filled week in P3!

In topic, we have been learning all about the dangers of pollution and discussing some ways to help prevent this. We finished off our animations (check Seesaw for these!) We created persuasive posters to help send the message that pollution needs to stop. We have also been listening to a poem all about a girl named Scout who seeks to make a change. The children have been busy creating illustrations for this poem, acting out some scenes and recording their voices to create our own version of the story.

In Numeracy this week, we have been learning all about vertical subtraction and we have been really impressed with how well the children are picking up this strategy! We have spoken about the fact that when we take away, the largest number needs to be on top, and we sometimes need to borrow from the number next door.

We have been loving our orienteering in PE and this will continue until the holidays.

PE days are still Tuesday and Thursday.

There will be no homework next week as it is the last week of term.

We are really looking forward to next week. We will be finishing off our oceans topic and we have lots of fun activities planned for this.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mr Williamson and Miss Smith.

Primary 1 News

We have had lots of fun this week in Primary 1!

We have enjoyed exploring our dinosaur topic in more detail this week. We learned all about palaeontologists and the skills they need for work. We looked into Mary Anning and explored a fun drama where we had to find fossils and use tools to collect them. We learned about mixing primary colours and used this knowledge to create dinosaur artwork. We loved using mixed media to create our final designs! We explored palaeontology in our play this week too and the children were challenged to dig out dinosaurs from blocks of ice. We packed a palaeontologist’s bag and created a dinosaur fact file on a diplodocus in our writing.

In literacy we have been exploring questioning in our reading and have been learning the sound ‘ng’. We made crowns for a king and explored this sound through our jolly phonics programme. In maths we have been learning about time (o’clock and half past on an analogue and digital clock). We made our own clocks and have been playing many fun games to help us learn about time. We were also learning about the Easter Story and sequenced this story from beginning to end. We had lots of fun doing this!

Miss Daun and Miss Christy

Football Sessions During Easter Break

W.L.Y.F (West Lothian Youth Foundation) are running football sessions during both weeks of the Easter holidays.

The camp info is:

Location – Livingston F.C. stadium

Time – 9am – 12pm

Days – Monday – Friday (Both weeks)

Age – 5 – 12 years old

Cost – £45 per week/£10 per day

Booking online at: https://wlyf.org.uk/shop/

Primary 5

Hello,

It has been lovely to welcome all children back to Primary Five! We have had a busy couple of weeks settling back. Lots of catching up and chatting to be had!

Please remember, PE is now on a TUESDAY AND THURSDAY. Please ensure your child comes dressed appropriately for outdoor PE. Remember we go outside in all weathers so it is essential that your child has a waterproof jacket with them. At the moment the children are practicing their skipping skills and playground games.

In Writing, the class were helping to raise awareness for WWF’s Earth Hour. We researched and discussed the impact climate change was having on animals and natural environments all around the world, and discussed what we can do to make a positive change. One of the things we can do is take part in Earth Hour this Saturday at 8:30pm, where people worldwide turn off electrical devices and lights in their home to reflect on climate change. The children created fantastic pieces of writing in lots of different forms (posters, PowerPoints newspaper articles, comic book strips) to share information and encourage others to take part. Why not try Earth Hour with your family this Saturday?

In Science, the class had lots of fun completing experiments connected to dissolving into water. We made scientific predictions and conclusions as we test soluble and insoluble materials. There was lots of fun watching the magical candy floss disappear into the water!

We are coming to the end of our Rockband interdisciplinary topic. The children have created their bands, identified songs to sing and concert venues to attend around the world. With Mrs Muir the children created their own instrumental compositions using the ‘Garage band’ app.

As a follow up to World Book Day, the class designed their own book tokens to be entered into a national competition. The children had to think of key words, phrases and images connected to reading to create an eye catching design to encourage to people to buy book tokens. Fingers crossed we have a winner!

Reminders

In Numeracy, the children need to use their number bonds and their times tables on a regular basis and it would be very helpful if they could get some extra practice in. Please practice 2-10 times tables and number bonds to 100.
The children have chosen a book to read for enjoyment in class and it would be appreciated if you could continue to encourage your child to read for enjoyment at home.
PE- Tuesday and Thursday

Please ensure the children have the correct kit for going outdoors- trainers, trackies/joggers, t-shirt and fleece/hoodie. They can come to school wearing their PE kit but a school jumper must be worn during the day. They can then change into their outdoor jumper when we go outside.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Gilmour, Ms Munro, Mrs Muir and Miss Herd

Primary 6

Welcome back! It is great to be back in school and to see everyone again. Everyone seems to have settled back into the school routine.

At the moment we are continuing the Space topic that we begun during lock down. This week we learned about the 1969 moon landing and Neil Armstrong. To finish off the topic, next week we will be making models of either the International Space Station or the Saturn v rocket. We can’t wait to see the amazing models !

In science we have been looking at the solar system. The pupils have been divided into groups and are each researching a different planet. Once this is completed, each group is going to make a wall display to show their findings to the others.

In Numeracy we are learning about fractions. Some of the class have been working out the fraction of an amount and others have begun work on simplifying fractions. A knowledge of the multiplication tables makes fraction work so much easier, so any work done on this at home would be of great benefit.

A quick reminder that gym is on Wednesday and Thursday. This will normally take place outside.

Please feel free to contact us if we can help in any way,

The Primary 6 teachers

Welcome back to the P4 Blog!

Hello everyone!

Mr Woodward and I have loved welcoming to the children back to school! It is so lovely to be back together and learning again. The children were so excited to return and have been working so hard in every curricular area! We are very proud of them 🙂

Our new PE days for this term and after the Easter Holidays are:
Monday – PE with Miss Clark & Mr Woodward
Thursday – PE with Mrs Ferguson
Both sessions of PE will take place outdoors so please make sure your child is prepared with warm clothing, a waterproof jacket and shoes that you do not mind them getting wet/muddy.

In Reading we have been doing lots of rhyming and reading aloud activities related to “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr Suess. The children have really enjoyed exploring the rhyming words in this story and creating their own poems based on the rhymes called “What the Cat Did!” Mr Woodward and I were blown away by the children’s creativity – well done everyone 🙂

In Numeracy the children have been exploring fractions. This week we have focused on finding fractions of amounts. We have been using a variety of strategies to help us to do this including – drawing pictures on our whiteboards, using counters/cubes and using number squares. Well done everyone – keep up the good work!

Our Viking topic continues with the children beginning to create their own dramas to retell the Viking creation story. They have all chosen their own roles including acting, directing and some even choosing to be in charge of sound effects and production design! Each group will film their own dramas later in the week and we cannot wait to see the finished results!

Thank you so much for all the help and support that you provided your child with during remote learning. It is greatly appreciated.

Have a great week!

Miss Clark & Mr Woodward

Primary 2 22.3.21

Primary 2 have settled well back into class. It feels like we have never been away.

We had great fun taking part in the Red Nose Day dress down on Friday. We also made Red Nose Day posters with our own jokes on them to make people laugh.

Our homework is being posted on seesaw regularly and it’s great to see so many children completing the seesaw activities! Reading books are coming out weekly and our P.E days are now on a Tuesday and Thursday (outside for both of them)

In writing we are doing lots of descriptive pieces. The children are using the describing bubble to help with identifying good adjectives to write descriptions about characters and settings. The children are trying to hard to hit all their core and genre targets. Well done Primary 2!

In maths we are working very hard on our 2, 5, and 10 times table. The children have been playing times table games, listening to times table songs and completing times table activities. Learning our times tables have been a challenge but the children are working hard! We have also been learning to tell the time (o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to) we have so much work to do on this as telling the time is very tricky if the skill is not being used regularly. If you could practise this at home, it would be appreciated.

We are still working our way through our Romans topic. The children have been learning about the Roman Gladiator and the activities that happened in the Colosseum. We also made Roman gladiator helmets and Roman soldier shields.

Thank you again for all your support and if you have any questions, please get in touch.

Miss Rafferty, Mrs Oliver and Mrs Harris

P3 update 19.03.21

Hello everyone! What another fantastic week we have been having in Primary 3.

In Numeracy, we have been learning all about vertical addition. The children are really progressing well with this, and we had a discussion about how now that they know this strategy, they can use it to add any amounts of numbers together. We even looked at adding two millions numbers together! In our Maths this week, we were learning about how to calculate change and using our repeated addition strategy to help us work out some problems.

Our reading has been looking at non-fiction texts and we have been very impressed with the reciprocal reading strategies that the children have been using, and very independently now as well!

In writing, we wrote an information report all about electricity, how to keep safe when using it, and what the different symbols mean. Everyone has been trying so hard to meet the targets.

In Topic, we have been looking at pollution in the ocean, the dangers of it and we came up with some ideas for how we can make a difference, so that the poor ocean animals do not get harmed. We have started our animation project about this. Look out for these being shared on Seesaw in the coming weeks!

The classes were very interested in the Science that we did this morning, looking at conductors and insulators. We experimented with different items to identify whether they allowed for the flow of electricity, or whether they blocked the flow.

Please view Seesaw for some pictures of the super hero day, as well as videos of the science project.

PE days- these are now Wednesday and Thursday. The change to Wednesday is due to timetable shifts.

Have a lovely, well deserved weekend. (Lets hope the sun shines for us all!)

Mr Williamson and Miss Smith.

Primary 1 w.b. 15.3.21

Good morning
Primary 1 are having a lovely week so far and have been enjoying some time outside in the sunny weather we have seen in the past 2 days.
This week in phonics we are learning the sound ch. We have been thinking of lots of words with these letters in them and have been trying to blend some of these words on our magnetic boards. We are also continuing to develop skills of reading and have been teaching the children to ask a question about their book. Thank you to everyone who is practising reading at home, it is great to see the children’s confidence grow. Please make sure that your child has their book each day in class so that we can read regularly.
In maths we are learning to tell the time. We are looking at analogue and digital clocks and are learning to tell an o’clock time on each of them. Next week we will move on to half past times. The children are working really hard at this and are impressing us with their knowledge.
In topic we are learning about the diplodocus dinosaur. The children wrote brilliant fact files explaining some of the facts they know about this dinosaur.
A reminder that tomorrow is Red Nose Day. The children are invited to come to school dressed as a super hero. We will be thinking about who the money will help and will be completing some fun activities in class.
Thank you for all your continued support.
The Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 News

We’ve had lots of fun this week in Primary 1! We have been exploring our dinosaur topic through literacy, art and we’ve been making our own fact files to showcase all of the facts we have learned so far. In literacy this week we have been learning the sounds ‘sh’ and ‘th’ and we have been consolidating some of the sounds we have already learned. We enjoyed painting the common words; with, us and so at the art table this week and we made a beautiful mother’s day card. In reading this week we were focusing on blending simple words and creating a question about our text. We learned that a question begins with who, what, where, why and when.

In maths this week we were learning all about fractions. We learned how to split a shape in half and identify shapes that are split equally in half and shapes that are not. We also learned how to add and subtract within 20 on a number line.

We explored positive mental well being and friendship through our Wellbeing Wednesday programme. We looked into caring for others and demonstrating different ways of being a good friend. We all really loved this!

Important notice: Please ensure that reading books are with your child every day at school. Reading books are issued on a Monday and collected in on a Friday. Please note that we cannot hand out a new reading book until the old one is collected.

Thanks for your support with this,

Miss Christy and Miss Daun

March Newsletter

The March 2021 Newsletter can be accessed by clicking the link below.

March Newsletter

Primary 3 Update 12.03.21

Hello everyone!

We have had another brilliant week of learning in Primary 3.

In Topic, we have been using ICT to create posters about the sea creatures we have been researching. They are really informative. We have also been learning about ocean pollution which can be really dangerous for animals in the ocean. We thought about some of the things we can do to prevent this from happening including recycling where possible and picking up rubbish from the ground at the beach.

In numeracy, we have been continuing to work on our vertical multiplication strategy. The children are very confident with this strategy now. In Maths, we have been looking at creating amounts of money and adding two amounts together to make a total cost. We had a very good discussion about why money is so important in daily life.

We have been working hard on our report writing this week, and we wrote some good reports about our sea creatures. We included information about where they live, what they eat and what they look like.

Both classes have really been enjoying our orienteering in PE, both with Mrs Ferguson and the class teachers. We are developing our map reading skills very well and can locate different cards around the school playground. It has been nice to get the whole playground to ourselves!

Some reminders-

PE days are Tuesday and Thursday.

Comic Relief day is on Friday 19th March. Children have been invited to come into school dressed as super heroes for this day. Red noses are still on sale via the school office.

Have a very restful and lovely weekend.

Miss Smith and Mr Williamson.

Primary 2/1 update 10th March 2021

We love having the children all back in class. They have all settled really well and are enjoying seeing their friends again. Thanks again for all your support with home learning over the past couple of months.

In maths we have working on being able to share amounts equally and are now learning about halves and quarters of shapes. In writing we are focusing on a new genre – report writing. Of course, we still need to ensure we include full stops, capital letters and use our sounds to help us spell but we are also trying to write in the correct format for a report. The primary 2s in particular will be working on including a heading and separate sections with subheadings. In reading we are continuing to develop our skills in asking and understanding questions and are completing comprehension activities including putting parts of the story in the correct order.

In addition to numeracy and literacy, we have been spending time discussing our emotions and how we feel being back at school and have been playing games to help us with our listening skills.

Our PE days will continue to be Tuesday and Thursday for the moment and we will let you know if this changes. Thanks for sending your child to school all ready for PE on these days. Thanks also for providing a full water bottle every day.

Homework will be issued on a Monday on Seesaw. The children will also get a new book home on a Monday and should take it to school every day. We will collect them back in on a Friday.

As always, if you have any questions, please get in touch,

Mrs Steel and Mrs Muir.

Primary 3 Update 05.03.2021

Hello everyone,

We have had another fantastic week in Primary 3. Miss Smith and I can’t quite believe we are in March already!

This week we have been researching and learning all about some creatures that live in the ocean. We worked in groups to research the creatures and found out where in the ocean they live, what they like to eat and what they look like and found some other interesting facts. We then started creating leaflets where we plan to include all of this new information. See attached some pictures of our new class aquarium… Don’t you think it looks awesome? The children absolutely love the shark! Also, we have some new members of our class… Sea Monkeys! We are very excited to see how they will grow and live over the next three weeks.

Reading has very much focused on the reciprocal reading strategies. We looked at how to take notes for each of the strategies and summarised an information text about polar bears. Did you know that polar bear cubs leave their mothers at just two years old?

We have started our new genre of Writing. This is report writing and we are now familiar with our new targets. Over the next few weeks we will be writing reports about a range of different things.

In Numeracy, we have been continuing with our vertical multiplication. We are so impressed with the resilience that everyone is showing as this can be quite a tricky strategy to learn. In Maths, we have started looking at money. We know what most of the coins and notes are, and have started to add some together to make different amounts.

A very successful learning week indeed.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Williamson and Miss Smith

Return of School and Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Campaign

Parent Club has developed a Return of School and Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Campaign to help parents to feel supported to abide by all current restrictions (both themselves and their children) throughout the phased return to schools and ELC settings. By following the rules, parents and children can help keep schools and nurseries open, and will help to open the school gates for more pupils.

Adults wear face coverings at drop off/pick up
Stick to one adult at pick up/drop off
Adults keep 2 metres apart
Avoid car sharing
Self-isolate if anyone in your household has symptoms

Primary 1 3.3.21

Primary 1 are having a great week in school! Yesterday a mysterious box arrived to our classroom with an egg inside. There was a letter from Professor Rex alongside the box telling us that he worked at the archeology department in a University and that he wanted us to look after the egg until it hatches. The children looked at some of the clues in the letter and decided that it was probably a dinosaur in the egg. We are now going to learn about dinosaurs as our interdisciplinary topic so that we can look after the dinosaur egg well. The children are very excited about this and have enjoyed looking at some dinosaur fact books in class so far.
In phonics we are learning the sound ‘th’. We have been thinking of words containing this sound and are learning to blend them with magnetic letters.
In maths we are learning to share objects into groups and to find halves and thirds. The children are working hard to make sure that the groups are equal and fair.
A reminder that PE days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please come dressed for outdoor gym these days.
Tomorrow is World Book day. The children have been encouraged to come to school with a book from their house which they will read in class.
Homework is going to continue on Seesaw this term. This week there are 3 activities to try.
Thank you for your continued support.
The Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 3 Update 26.02.21

Hello everyone!

What a brilliant first week back in the classroom we have been having in P3!

Our oceans Topic is well under way. We began by looking at the Global Goals and linking some of them to the ocean. We made our own symbols for each of these. We then looked at the layers of the ocean and discovered some very interesting sea creatures the deeper we delved down. We are all very excited to be learning about this and what was our pyramid will soon be turning into a class aquarium. Look out for some pictures over the coming weeks!

In Maths, we have been revising our 3D shapes and created posters to show what we know. We then made our very own 3D shapes, focusing on faces, edges and vertices. Check Seesaw for a look at some of the creations.

In Reading, we have been looking at our reading strategies and learned all about the ‘Think Aloud’ strategy. The children we very good at writing down all of their thoughts on a poem about a giant lasagne!

Things to note-

PE days are Tuesday and Thursday. Can we remind everyone that on these days, children are to come to school wearing their PE kit (with school jumper on)
Red Nose Day 2021- if you wish to purchase a red nose, the office are accepting payment through parent pay. Unfortunately we are not accepting cash at this time. There is (or will be) a letter going home to explain Red Nose Day. The noses are £1.50.
Homework- this will now be on Seesaw from Monday. We will be sending home a grid with all tasks on Monday as well, and you can choose whether to complete on Seesaw or write in the homework jotter. They will go live from 3pm on Monday. We will also be sending home new reading books next week too. Can we just ask for the return of any previous reading books sent home if you forgot to hand these back before Christmas.

We have been so impressed and proud by how mature all of the children have settled back into class. It is lovely to be back together again in the same environment. Well done to everyone for your hard work this week. The standard of work that has been produced has been incredible. Have a wonderful and restful weekend.

As always, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Mr Williamson and Miss Smith.

Free Online Training for Parents

In the current climate we understand how difficult it is for parents to navigate the demands of home schooling. We want to do everything we can to help schools to support parents and children at this challenging time. The importance of subject knowledge is key in ensuring that grammar learning at home is successful. With this in mind, we are running fully funded online sessions specifically for parents focusing on basic grammatical terminology. Just click the link to register:

Free Online Training! Helping Parents with Home Learning: Getting to Grips with Grammar.

In this session for parents we will explore:

Grammatical terminology. Consolidate your understanding of word classes including nouns, verbs, adjectives, determiners, conjunctions, pronouns and adverbs.

Ways to support your child at home with their understanding of grammar.

This 45 minute session is free to all parents who have children at primary school.