Primary 7

We must congratulate our Primary Sevens on their very positive start to the year . Our P7 bubble is working well and our pupils are setting a good example to the rest of the school. We are delighted to announce that we will be running our buddy programme this year and our P7s will be partnered with their buddies imminently. We will be discussing the qualities and attributes our pupils will need to be competent buddies, we are sure they will rise to the challenge !

Our first term newsletter has now been distributed and it provides a brief overview of what we will be working on.

“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind”

We are currently reading Wonder by R.J.Palacio . Kindness and inclusion are the main themes of the novel and they complement our class charters, which our P7’s created. We will be continuing with the novel over the coming weeks. Linked with our theme of inclusion, we have been working on a display for our small hall, which demonstrates how we all work together in school.

Within our writing lessons last week we used Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes as inspiration to create our own twist on traditional tales, our pupils’ imaginations made it a rather surreal experience! We will now be focusing on the genre of recount.

We have shown our P7’s timestables games that are easy to play at home , please ask them to show you .

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays

Indoor Kit Wednesdays

Thank for your continued support.

Mrs Wylie and Miss Kane

Primary 7 28.5.21

Hi everyone!

We hope you all had a lovely long weekend. Primary 7 have been VERY busy this week!

First, we had some contact with the High School. We were invited to a call with Mr Small and the Heads of House where they introduced themselves and launched the fun House Challenge. Everyone found out which house they are in and have already made a fantastic effort to earn stars that will be turned into points. We then had another call with the English department for a Reciprocal Reading lesson. We focussed on predicting this week and everyone was very engaged. They left us on a cliffhanger so we cannot wait for our call next week!

As if that was not exciting enough, we also had our Sports Day this week! Despite a different set up this year, everyone still had a brilliant time and the rain stayed away (yippee!). The scores were extremely close in the end but Sutherland were the champions – well done to you all!

In between all of this, Primary 7 have been busy preparing for our Carnival that is fast approaching. We’ve also managed to squeeze in Maths, Literacy and World War 2 work too! P7M learned more about Anne Frank and tried to imagine how she felt when she went into hiding. In her diary, she told us what items she had chosen to pack so we thought about what three items we would have picked if we were in her position. Like Anne Frank, many chose things that would bring them comfort and help keep them entertained.

Reminders:

Those who are in any of the Enhanced Transition groups have been invited to visit DCHS on Monday for a tour of the school.
Camp Carmondean will take place next Wednesday (2^ndJune). Please make sure you come to school wearing clothes suitable for being outdoors. We will be outside all day so a waterproof jacket and sensible shoes that you do not mind getting a bit dirty are a must.

You deserve a restful weekend P7! See you all on Monday.

Mrs Wylie and Miss Morris

Primary 7 14.5.21

Hello from P7! It has been another busy week here!

In Topic, P7W have been learning about the Holocaust this week whilst P7M have been looking at how propaganda was used throughout WW2 to influence how people thought and felt during that time. They then had a go at creating their own propaganda posters, some of which are very impressive!

In Numeracy this week P7 have spent some time learning about percentages and fractions as well as revising other concepts. They have all continued to work extremely hard with this!

In reading, both classes are continuing to work their way through their class novels. This led to an interesting discussion in P7M about if we think there is more good or bad in the world – a lot of thought provoking and mature responses were made.

In P.E. this week, we had a trial run of Sports Day with Mrs Ferguson to test out the different stations. P7 then gave feedback on what went well and what we could change before we share it with the rest of the school. We also had another fun game of rounders. P7M won their first game this week whilst P7W have two wins to their name! Game on!

We hope you all have a great weekend.

Mrs Wylie, Miss Morris, Grace and Anya who have both helped to write this week’s blog!

Primary 7 30.4.21

Hello from Primary 7! We have had another great week!

In Numeracy, we are continuing to revise many concepts in preparation for High School whilst in Maths we have spent some time looking at coordinates.

In Reading, we are continuing to make good progress with both of our novels (P7W are reading Goodnight Mister Tom and P7M are reading I Am David). We are really enjoying these and they have resulted in great discussions!

In Writing, we created an explanation piece all about the water cycle. Primary 7 did very well at organising their writing and using the technical vocabulary accurately.

In Health, we have started looking at the Living and Growing resource to learn about relationships and changes through puberty. We have been so impressed by the level of maturity that Primary 7 have displayed so far and the questions they have asked.

You should have received our newsletter yesterday for our final term which included some dates for important upcoming events!

Camp Carmondean will take place one day week beginning the 31st of May
Carnival Carmondean will take place one day week beginning the 14th of June
Leavers Assembly will take place during our final week (week beginning the 21st June). Unfortunately, following covid guidelines, visitors will not be able to attend.

More details are included in the newsletter and we will send out further information nearer the time.

A homework grid has also been uploaded to Teams for the month of May. We would like Primary 7 to complete at least two of these activities every week.

Have a lovely long weekend everyone!

Mrs Wylie and Miss Morris

Primary 7 23.4.21

Hello! We have had a great first week back in P7.

For our World War 2 topic, we have been busy learning about the Battle of Britain. Did you know it was the first battle fought only in the sky? Primary 7 have made models of the famous Spitfires and Hurricanes and also had a go at drawing them too. Then in writing, we created an imaginative story about a day in the life of an RAF pilot during this time. First, we looked at how stories are structured with a beginning, build up, dilemma, resolution and ending and then had a go ourselves. Primary 7 produced some fantastic pieces and were absolutely brilliant at foreshadowing!

In maths, Primary 7 were introduced to Distance, Speed and Time. We have been learning how these are all linked and the formula we can use when answering questions.

In P.E. with Mrs Ferguson, we have started to come up with some activities for Sports Day. This involved a lot of collaboration and careful consideration for how they could adapt their activity for the younger children.

We hope you all have a fantastic weekend in the sunshine!

Mrs Wylie and Miss Morris

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.

January Active Fun Challenge results

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our January Active Fun Challenge. The number of active minutes logged across West Lothian Primary Schools was phenomenal and 32 primary schools in West Lothian took part.

Carmondean Primary logged 33 days, 2 hrs and 9 minutes of active minutes in January- AMAZING!

Take a look at the results video here https://youtu.be/EtVvnFjk0OM to see which schools ranked in the TOP 10.

Judy Murray announces the winner in the video and sets out a challenge to everyone. I gave the challenge a try- can you do better than me?

January 2021 Active Fun Challenge

Happy New Year everyone.

I’m hoping that you all made your New Year Resolution to be as active as possible in 2021 because I have entered the school into a competition to find the most active school in West Lothian and in true Carmondean spirit we are in it to win it!

How can you help?

Be as active as you can. Any activity counts from taking taking part in PE lessons to walking your dog to dancing along to Just Dance.
Record the number of minutes each week you are active and submit the number on this form. This most be done by 10am every Monday. ( first submission date is Monday 18th January)

Every Tuesday the school with the highest number of weekly activity minutes will be announced and at the end of the month the school with the highest number of minutes throughout the month will be the champions.

Good luck, happy exercising and if you have any questions please get in touch.

Mrs Ferguson

Artists in the Making

It is always a pleasure to see examples of good work in school, but these two pieces blew me away completely. The children in P7 have been studying the book ‘Wonder’, and one of the tasks was to re-design the book cover. I think you’ll see what I mean with these two examples:

Aaron

Raigan

What ‘Wonder’ – ful examples from both children. I look forward to seeing more of their quality work in future. Well done, boys!

CPN (Carmondean Primary News) 2nd Edition

Lovingly created by our Primary 7 Learners. Please leave us a comment.

Primary 7 – 27.11.20

Hello, as usual we have had another busy week in P7!

In Writing, we have been using our knowledge of persuasive techniques to argue why reading is so important. We were shocked to find out the number of children reading every day for pleasure is at its lowest since the National Literacy Trust started monitoring it in 2005 with only 26% of young people reading every day in 2019!

In Numeracy, we have been making great progress with our work on decimals. Primary 7 have also been looking at money in Maths where we have been looking at budgeting. This prompted some great discussions about how people tend not to pay with cash as much these days when at the shops and the difference between debit and credit cards.

Primary 7 have also been busy helping to launch the Race to the North Pole Challenge with Mrs Ferguson! The whole school has until the 18^th of December to run to the North Pole from Carmondean (a mere 2360 miles!) in order to deliver Santa a special Christmas message. To spread the word we have been making posters and completed the very first laps during P.E. which came to an impressive total of 51 miles! P7 will be in charge of keeping track of our progress over the next couple of weeks.

Our P.E. days are changing slightly from next week as P7W will now have Mrs Ferguson on a Wednesday. P7M will continue to have P.E. on Thursday with Mrs Ferguson and both classes will still get P.E. on a Monday with Miss Morris and Mrs Wylie. As we are now entering December Primary 7 have been reminded to wear appropriate clothing so they can wrap up warm on these days (i.e. long trousers or joggers, a school jumper/cardigan, a thick jumper or fleece to change into for P.E., a waterproof jacket and hat and/or gloves if desired!) Thank you for your continued support with this.

We hope you all have a great weekend!

Mrs Wylie and Miss Morris

Primary 7 – 13.11.20

Hello, it has been another busy week in Primary 7!

On Wednesday, Primary 7 had a virtual session with an expert at the National Museum of Flight! He shared a lot of information about the type of clothing people wore who worked there during the Second World War (we were particularly impressed with where they hid a compass!). We are now very excited for our WW2 topic next year.

With Remembrance Day taking place this week, we also learned a bit about the First World War. We looked at the Battle of the Somme and watched the 2014 Sainsbury’s Christmas advert where we saw the extraordinary events of Christmas Day, 1914, when the guns fell silent and two armies met in no-man’s land, sharing gifts – and even playing football together. Primary 7 were shocked and moved to find out it was inspired by real events.

In writing, we learned about the different techniques we can use to help us persuade our reader. Primary 7 then tried to use their powers of persuasion to convince everyone what the best type of pet to have is and what the best holiday is!

We loved seeing many of you dressed in colourful outfits and Pudsey merchandise today for Children in Need and can’t wait to watch the duck race on Monday to see who wins!

Mrs Wylie and Miss Morris

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays and Thursdays

Primary 7

We have had another busy week in Primary 7!

A big focus of ours this week has been learning about Remembrance Day. Our classrooms have temporarily been turned into poppy factories to help create a wonderful display going up in the school corridor. Primary 7 felt it was important to include the purple poppy in this display as they are a symbol of remembrance for all the animals that played important roles during wartime.

For Writing we have been working on making new scripts for CPN. In pairs, the children decided on an important topic to focus on (these ranged from climate change, hate crime, caring for pets and how to wear a mask properly!). They then researched their chosen topic before writing their script. We are really impressed with the effort that has gone into this and Primary 7 will decide on which ones to include in our newest episode of CPN next week.

In Maths we started learning about symmetry and had a go at creating symmetrical shapes which took a lot of care and concentration! We have also been looking at decimals in Numeracy.

We are still really enjoying Wonder and are now reading from the perspective of Jack. Primary 7 have been trying to predict if Jack and August will be friends again or not!

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays and Thursdays.

Friday 13^th November – dress down day for Children in Need. There is also a Duck Race where children can choose a duck for 50p and Pudsey wristbands for sale for a reasonable donation.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Wylie and Miss Morris

Primary 7

We must congratulate our Primary Sevens on their very positive start to the year , particular with some of the unusual circumstances we find ourselves in . Our P7 bubble is working well and our pupils are setting a good example to the rest of the school. We are determined to run our buddy programme, albeit from a distance! The Primary sevens have thought of some unique and imaginative ways to communicate with their buddies, including videos, comics. We are even making flags with photographs on and we are planning on waving them outside windows! Our first term newsletter has now been distributed and it provides a brief overview of what we will be working on.

“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind”

We are currently reading Wonder by R.J.Palacio . Kindness and inclusion are the main themes of the novel and they complement our class charters which our P7’s created. We will be continuing with the novel over the coming weeks.

We are easing gently into numeracy and maths, looking at rounding, estimating and shape.

Next week we will be beginning our topic on Japan.

REMINDERS –

PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays and Wednesdays

Thank for your continued support.

Mrs Wylie and Miss Morris

Family Active Games Ideas

As we head into the summer holidays I wanted to share a document with you that has some ideas for games you can play at home with your family and friends that require very little equipment but are lots and lots of fun. Click on “Family Games” below to access the document.

Family Games

Have a fantastic summer, keep active, stay safe and I look forward to seeing you all in August.

Mrs Ferguson

Guinness World Record weekly challenge

Have you heard of Guinness World Records? Every year this organisation publish a reference book , listing world records both of human achievements and the extremes of the natural world.

They have a fantastic website with details of some of these world records and also lots of activity ideas for you to try at home. Every week they set a challenge and this week’s challenge is ” Most foot taps by a team of 2 in 30 seconds.”

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/GWR-at-home/GWRchallenge

I would like you to give this challenge a try. Let me know how you get on. Will we have a Carmondean PS world record holder?

They also have a fantastic kids sections on the website with more world record ideas to try at home. Check out the following link and give some of them a go.

https://kids.guinnessworldrecords.com/activities/try-this-at-home-backyard

I’d love to know how you get on.

Mrs Ferguson

Sports Day – Your team needs YOU!

Today was supposed to be Carmondean Sports Day 2020. If you haven’t completed the sports day activities yet then today is the perfect day to do it. My forecast says the sun will shine today.

I am really enjoying seeing photos of everyone taking part and lots are in their house team colours. Here are a few more fab photos of sports day ( at home) 2020.

The results are looking very even at the moment so every point counts. Let’s hear you cheer Let’s go

DEER PARK…. RAEBURN…….SUTHERLAND……….WAVERLEY

Good Luck everyone

Mrs Ferguson

Sports Day – submitting results

Well done to those who have completed the sports day tasks so far. Results have to be submitted via the online form. Here it is for anyone who can’t find the link

I’m also attaching the activity information again for anyone who missed the first blog post. You have until Friday at 12 noon to submit results. Click on this document Carmondean Sports Day

Deer Park are currently in the lead- Come on Raeburn, Sutherland and Waverley ! Parents can join in too for extra points for houses. Just tick adult instead of class on the form.

Good Luck!

Mrs Ferguson

Sports Day update – Raeburn in the lead

Good morning everyone.

Well done to everyone who has submitted sports day results so far. There is still plenty time to take part so COME ON Deer Park, Raeburn, Sutherland and Waverley. Raeburn are in the lead at the moment so if you don’t want them to be winners you’d better get scoring points for your house.

I was delighted to see photos of some P1s taking part in their first primary school sports day. Can you do as well as them? I’d love to see some more photos.

And look at the fun P2 are having.

Have fun and score lots of points .

Mrs Ferguson

Keep up the good work on Sports Day

Good morning everyone. I hope you enjoyed watching our video yesterday. I’m delighted to see that some of you have completed your sports day already and manged to submit your results. Deer Park, Raeburn and Waverley already have points in the bag for their house, so come on Sutherland complete the sports day activities and submit your results.

Good luck everyone and fingers crossed for some sunshine!

Mrs Ferguson