Pupil Learning – Page 74

Primary 4 6.5.16

Our organised Day for Change is here and staff and children are arriving in school in their pyjamas as I type! We will let you know the success of the day just as soon as we have final totals.

Our V.I.Is are growing and hopefully be turning into a chrysalis very soon. Here is an update of their progress:

This weekend we want to wish Skye Thayne huge amounts of luck reciting her Burns poem for the finals! We can’t wait to hear how you did on Monday 🙂 Very proud class and teacher but all credits go to you for the fantastic effort and work you have put into it!

Next week we have people from West Lothian Youth Foundation coming in to talk about the work they do within the community. This is as a result of the letters we sent to Livingston F.C.

Children were given letters about our trip a week on Monday (16.5.16) to Dynamic Earth. This was as part of the Golden Ticket win we had whereby the school was permitted free entry to Dynamic Earth for trips. We are very excited about this. Please ensure your child has returned the purple form to permit them to go.

We are holding a small talent contest next Friday in order to choose one act for the final talent show in June, held by our House Captains. We are all very excited about this and preparing our acts. It’s going to be hard to choose just one from such a talented class!

Reminders:

Purple trip form returned as soon as possible.

No PE kit required on Monday 9th.

Outdoor PE kit required for Tuesday.

Homework Diaries signed.

Junk to be collected for mini-beast challenge in school.

Homework:

Spelling as normal

Due Friday 13th May – Reading: Read the following pages and complete an activity.

Red – Chapter 7

Blue – P.47 – 59

Green – P.41 – 52

Miss Smith’s Maths Class – Homework on position: please familiarise yourself with angles through accessing and playing these games online. If you do not have access to a computer or the internet, please let me know as I have alternative hand outs.

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?b=maths/angles

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?a=activity16

P4/3 Update 6.5.16

It sounds as though our Primary 3s had a great time in Lowport last week and behaviour was apparently fantastic so well done!

Today is Day for Change in school (organised by P4/3 and P4) and we’re hoping to see as many people as possible in school in their pyjamas (and slippers too if they like). We will be collecting change to send to UNICEF who help children all over the world who are living in dreadful conditions.

We have all been working hard practising for the P4/5 show, learning the songs and dances and lines. Less than 4 weeks to go now and the boys and girls are all very excited.

Next week homework will go back to normal with spelling, reading and maths all to be completed. We also have our big homework task due next Wednesday.

There will be no indoor PE next Monday due to a show rehearsal and outdoor PE will be on Tuesday so please bring appropriate kit that day.

Have a great weekend
Mrs Wallace

29.04.16 Primary 7 update

This week Primary 7 have been busy preparing work that we will showcase at our Leavers Assembly. Children have been working together to write a song and have also wrote letters to their favourite members of staff.

It was our last session of P.E with Deans Community High School this week. I think it is safe to say that this was a very positive experience for all pupils.

30 children took part in the first drumming workshop of this term and will continue working with Miss Farren each week to ensure we can play the new composed piece of music for 5 minutes in sync… (No pressure at all!) They will each receive a copy of the music patterns and can practice these in their own time. Click on the links below to see our progress so far!

Thank you to all the children who returned their My Life So Far project. Many have been completed to an exceptional standard. Both Miss Clark and I enjoyed reading them and they even brought a wee tear to our eyes. Can those who have not handed in their project please do so next week. Thank you.

Have a lovely long weekend!!

Miss Farren and Miss Clark

100_0943

100_0946

Group drumming

Lowport Diary Star Date 29/04/16:02

From the canal basin, we made our way to Linlithgow Palace to be given a very informative guided tour by the Linlithgow Primary School guides. These skilled children were so knowledgable and interesting, that several tourists joined our tour, thinking it was the official one! Then it was back to Lowport Centre for a very satisfying packed lunch, complete diary entries and, hopefully, get the bus back to Carmondean for 2.00 p.m. as planned. We hope you have joined us on our adventure and enjoyed reading about our exploits. If you think this is a worthwhile way of keeping you informed of our activities, please leave us a comment.

Primary 6 29th April 2016

Looking forward to seeing you all later on this morning for the P6 Assembly, the children have worked so hard and a credit to the school.

Just to remind you that on Monday and Tuesday school will not be open and there will be no spelling next week.

PE kit required on a Monday and Wednesday but encourage your child to come with lots of layers as our weather is being so unpredictable lately!

P6KS have a PGDE student for the next five weeks. Miss Blackwall has been taking the class for various lessons but will be teaching them full time from the 9th May for 3 weeks with the support of Mrs Smith and Mrs Kelly. She has settled in really well and has lots of exciting things planned for the children!

Have a lovely long weekend and lets hope the sun comes out at some point!

Mrs Smith, Mrs Kelly & Mrs Muir

Primary Five 29th April 2016

In Maths this week Mrs Jamieson’s group have been working with fractions and Mrs Steel’s group have been dividing.

In Language we have started to look at the poetry of Grace Nicholls and write our poems based on what we have read. The children have come up with some excellent ideas and have written some lovely poems.

In Health we have started working on our Drug Education topic and this week we have been looking at smoking and how this affects our health.

The school show rehearsals are continuing and we would remind the children who have parts to keep learning their words as we will soon be expecting them to practise without scripts.

Next Wednesday all the P5s will be taking part in their swimming assessment at Deans High School. Please remember to send swimming kit with your child on Wednesday. Swimming suits and shorts/trunks only please.

Thank you for your continued support

Mrs Jamieson and Mrs Steel

Lowport Diary Star Date 29/04/16:01

We had a fairly quiet night at Lowport with most sleeping by 9.45 p.m., but a few miscreants lasted till 11.30. After a liesurely breakfast of cereal, sausages, beans and a plethora of sundries, it was a quick gallop up to the canal basin for our canal cruise. More later.

P4/3 Update 29.4.16

Well we’ve had quite a small class for the last couple of days with 5 of our Primary 3s away to Lowport and yesterday three of our class were also away for the morning competing in a schools gymnastics competition. They did brilliantly coming back with bronze and gold medals and big smiles on their faces. Well done Kuzey, Carla and Rosie!

It looks as though the Primary 3s are having a ball at Lowport and hopefully the snow hasn’t caused any bother. We’re all looking forward to hearing about their time away next week.

Remember we’re off Monday and Tuesday next week.

Next Friday (6th May) is our Day for Change when the children can come to school in pyjamas and also bring slippers to wear in class if they wish. We are collecting spare change for UNICEF and there is no set amount of donation. We do ask if the children are taking part that they bring in something.

Our big homework task for this term was given out on Wednesday and is due to be completed by the 11th May. If your child has lost their copy of the task please let me know asap and I will give them another.

There will be no spelling or maths homework next week as it is a short week. The class still have reading pages to do and their big homework task to work on as well.

Have a great long weekend and enjoy the rest.
Mrs Wallace

Lowport Diary Star Date 28/04/16:04

A very busy evening on the Lowport Adventure. After returning from Beecraigs Country Park (alias ‘The Jungle’), we had a very nice dinner of vegetable soup, meat or vegetable pasta and arctic roll to finish. We spent around half an hour writing our diaries, then it was time for the Disco come Talent Show – and what a lot of talent we had; singers, dancers, gymnasts and even sports stars. Then, Supper in pyjamas. Now everyone is in bed and (supposed to be) sleeping. Time will tell. More news tomorrow.

Primary 4, 5.4.16

What an interesting week we have had with lots and lots going on!

We had two V.I.Ps in our classroom and two V.I.Is… We will begin with the V.I.Ps. After we sent our letters out to the community, we had three responses to our letters, one from PC McMahon who will be visiting us in the next couple of weeks and Mrs Vance and Mr Cowan, parents of children in our class. I wish to take this opportunity to thank you both for coming in to chat to us and tell us more about the part you play in your communities. We found it fascinating and asked lots of questions. Both visits led to fantastic discussions afterwards with the children too. We did some research on John Newland (after a few google searches for his correct name) and found out a little more about his part in the Bathgate community and their Galaday. We are looking forward to finding out more about free pool too! It was very good of you both to give up your free time and we thank you.

Also, today I received an e-mail from Livingston F.C in response to the letters sent to them. The children do not know this yet but they are going to try to send a player for a meet and greet with the class, as well as someone who can explain a little more about what they do in our community. We shall see if any of the children read the blog and mention it tomorrow!

Now for the V.I.Is…(Very Important Insects) we have been lucky enough to acquire 35 worms and 5 caterpillars to help us study mini-beasts for our topic. We have set up a worm farm at the back of the classroom and have been watching them wriggle their way down into the soil. The caterpillars have been very lazy so far, at times we have had to check whether they are still alive, but all 5 are doing well and have grown so much over just 4 days. We are excited to see what they will look like as butterflies.

Next week we are off Monday and Tuesday, and on Friday we have our Day for Change. Children will be fundraising for UNICEF on this day and are looking forward to not having to get ready for school. They tell me they are going to roll out of bed and come in wearing their pyjamas they slept in!

We have a talent show at the end of the school year being organised by the house captains. We will be holding a contest in the classroom very soon to decide who goes through to the final, so be thinking about a talent you can showcase if you wish to take part! Watch out for reminders in diaries to find out when this will be.

We have also been working on the acting and songs for our school show with lots of practice dates in the diary. Costume letters will also be coming out soon so please look for these in bags. If there are any problems with any aspect of the costume required, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us and we will do our best to help out.

Reminders

Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd – holiday

Wednesday 4th – return to school

Friday – Day for change. Bring any spare change you wish as a donation to UNICEF and come to school in your pyjamas.

Homework

Reading due Friday 6th May:

Red Chapters 5 and 6
Blue p.33-45
Green p.28-40

Please begin collecting appropriate junk for our mini-beast challenge. Children have chosen a mini-beast to do a class talk on (information to follow) and in class are being asked to create a mini-beast from junk with movable parts. Any junk for this would be greatly appreciated.

Lowport Diary Star Date 28/04/16:04

The Jungle Bash saw rain, hail and shine, but our brave explorers were not put off.

Lowport Diary Star Date 28/04/16:03

A visit to St. Michael’s Church, next. A lot of history here.

Lowport Diary Star Date 28/04/16:02

First stop, the ducks.

Lowport Diary, Star Date 28/04/16:01

The Primary 3 residential experience to Lowport Centre has taken off on schedule with 29 very excited children firmly fastened into their flight seats (one child to join us later after the Gymnastics Competition). We will keep you updated throughout the mission with some photos of our activities, depending on wifi and mobile signals. Don’t miss us all too much.

Primary 2

The children were working this week with Miss Millar, Mrs Tully and Miss Farren while Ms Matheson was in Bulgaria and Mrs Oliver was on a maths course.

The classes continued their work on hot and cold countries, producing a leaflet on animals who live in hot counties. We also learned all about how the cactus survives in the desert with little water. The children then completed lovely cactus collages.

The classes also made the most of the better weather by making sure they got out for outdoor gym.

We are looking forward to hearing all about Bulgaria from Ms Matheson this week.

Reminder; outdoor gym for both classes is on a Tuesday, with indoor P.E. with Mrs Ferguson on a Thursday.

Have a great week.

Ms Matheson and Mrs Oliver

Primary 3 25.4.16

Primary 3 have front row seats for the construction of the new gym hall. We have been seeing lots of activity outside our classroom windows! We are lucky enough today to have one of the contractors coming in to speak to our boys and girls about the construction, the equipment and machinery that is used. We also might meet their mascot! We will let you know how we get on.

Very exciting week in Primary 3- its nearly time for our residential to Lowport. Everyone is looking forward to some outdoor activities and we hope the sun keeps shining for us. Any questions about Lowport, please feel free to contact us.

Last week in Primary 3 we wrote letters to our local gardener. The children had to share their learning and think of at least 3 questions to ask. The children carefully structured their letters and decorated them with drawings of flowers.

No homework spelling

Maths homework- Money game

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/measures/money.html

Sweet shop

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1numeracy.html#sweet_shop

Thanks,

Miss Rafferty and Miss Christy

Primary 7 update 22nd April 2016

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

Primary Five 22nd April 2016

This week we continued our rehearsals for the School Show. The songs are really coming on and the actors are doing a great job so far. Please remind your child to learn lines if they have a part as we will be focussing on stage directions in class.

In Language we have been looking at the poems of Grace Nicholls. We have been reading her poetry, discussing the type of language she uses and talking about the things we like about her poems. We have also had a go at writing our own poems based on her poem ‘Morning’.

This term in French we will be learning vocabulary that we use in a cafe. This week we looked at French words for different drinks.

In PE this week we started our new topics- Athletics and Mini Golf. We are lucky to have two PE students in this term to help us out.

Please remember gyms kits-Indoor kit on Tuesday and outdoor kit on a Friday.

Thank you for your continued support

Mrs Jamieson and Mrs Steel

P4/3 Update 22.4.16

Well done to the P4s who were at Auchengillan last week. Their behaviour was great and they all took part in the activities enthusiastically. Have a look at Miss Smith’s P4 blog for some photos of the trip.
The P3s are now really looking forward to their overnight trip to Lowport next week.

We also really enjoyed our trip to Dynamic Earth this week. Unfortunately our bus got caught up in bad traffic on our way there but the boys’ and girls’ behaviour was fantastic with no complaints on the journey. We learned lots more about the rainforests and also had a tour around Dynamic Earth.

Some of the class are taking part in a schools gymnastics competition on Thursday and we all wish them luck. I’m sure they’ll have a great time and do brilliantly.

New reading homework sheets have been attached in homework jotters. These include weekly reading pages as well as tasks to be completed once a fortnight. Please have a look at these as they started this week.
Next week’s homework will be Spelling, reading and maths.

Remember indoor PE is now on a Monday and outdoor PE on a Thursday (weather permitting) so please make sure your child has appropriate kit on these days.

Your child should have brought home a letter last week informing you of the change of teacher in class. As of May 24th Mrs Gilmour and Mrs Harris will be teaching P4/3 when I go off on maternity leave.

The boys and girls in P4 and 5 have all been working hard and rehearsing for our school show. We’re sure it’s going to be great and can’t wait to see the final result.

Have a good weekend
Mrs Wallace

Primary 4, 23.4.16

What a busy week it has been, getting into our new topics and recovering from the fantastic Auchengillan!

The children were excellent and their behaviour and manners were commented on by everyone, from the kitchen staff to the outdoor staff as well as the administration staff so a big well done to everyone who came.

We got very muddy on the last day as it had been raining prior to our visit. We had a very quick change before heading onto the bus to go home. See below for a few sneaky pics! We have made a video of all of the photos taken by staff which the children will see very soon.

Whilst we were away at Auchengillan, the people who stayed with Mrs Wallace did a fantastic job of organising Primary 4’s event, ‘Day for Change.’ This will take place on the 6th of May whereby children can mark the event by getting dressed in their pyjamas and slippers to come to school. If they wish they can bring in a donation of change, as much or as little as they want.

It has been a busy week for our staff and colleagues this week in Bulgaria too! I hope you have all been catching up with their activities on the F.L.A.G Blog page. In class we have been reading it every morning and discussing similarities and differences as well as talking about their experiences.

Look out for our newsletter for this term. It highlights up and coming events, current topics as well as reminders. We will be welcoming a few new visitors to our class next week as well as part of our Science topic, Mini-beasts. Caterpillars and worms will be making their way into their enclosures at some point for us to observe over the next few weeks.

This week we sent off letters to members of our community to invite them in to chat about their role in our community. We sent ten letters to various people the children considered to be important in our community and have one visit booked in for next week already! Fingers crossed more people reply to make our learning all the more interesting and relevant.

Reminders:

Please sign homework diaries

Indoor PE kit – Monday

Outdoor PE kit – Tuesday

6th May – Day for Change

Homework:

Due: Friday 29th April

Reading book pages:

Red – Ch 3 and 4

Blue – p.21 – 32

green – p.15 – 27

Corresponding activities (first one to be completed by next Friday 29th as they have two weeks to complete an activity.)
Miss Smith’s Maths Class – Multiplication / division sheet.