Welcome back after the holiday! We hope that you had a lovely break, it was great seeing the children again and hearing all their news yesterday.
This week we are learning the letters ‘c’ and ‘k’. The children will be learning how to write these letters and will be thinking of words containing both sounds. Please practise these sounds at home and use the letter cards in your homework pack to make short words (cat, kip, neck etc).
In maths we are beginning to learn about addition. This week we will be doing a lot of practical activities creating and combining 2 sets of objects. The children have been very good at doing this so far.
The children are very excited for Halloween just now. Yesterday we changed the play areas in the classroom to include lots of Halloween themed activities. The children have enjoyed dressing up in spooky costumes, writing magical spells and using spiders to count out amounts.
On Thursday we are planning on going to the nursery garden to do some outdoor learning. Please come to school with wellies or shoes which can get muddy and a warm coat.
Thank you for all your support
Primary 1 teachers
Primary 1 News
This week Primary 1 were learning how to read, write and say the sounds ‘d’ and ‘e’. They were encouraged to write these sounds in the air, on the smart board and on whiteboards. They identified words that start with these sounds through games on Education City and by watching Geraldine the Giraffe. The children made ‘d’ with dough and practised writing ‘e’ on eggs. The children were asked to discuss the story in their reading books and were encouraged to respond to comprehension questions.
In maths we have been exploring measure, weight and capacity and have been undertaking practical activities to develop our understanding of this in a relevant context. The children were challenged to estimate and count how many cubes tall an object is and order children from tallest to smallest. They used balance scales to determine which objects were heavier or lighter and arranged a set of objects from the heaviest to the lightest. They were also given the opportunity to guess how many cups of water would fill different containers in the water tray and were surprised by some of the outcomes. They learned new vocabulary such as ‘full’, ‘empty’, ‘half full’ and ‘half empty’.
Primary 1 were delighted to get the opportunity to explore the nursery garden this morning and learn in the outdoors. The children were challenged to find natural materials and use these resources to create imaginative designs and patterns. The children were shown work by Andy Goldsworthy and discussed what materials they could use to create their artwork in the garden. The children used stones, leaves, sticks, apples and berries to create their own designs and worked collaboratively to collect these materials. The children enjoyed making people, monsters, trees, flowers and spinning tops. They turned out really well!
Thank you to all of the Primary 7 buddies who read with Primary 1 every Friday. We appreciate all of your hard work! Enjoy your well deserved holiday everyone!
Primary 6 News
What a busy week it has been!
It was lovely to see you all over the last couple of evenings to discuss your child’s progress and how they have settled into Primary 6.
This week we had some fabulous persuasive writing pieces about why New Lanark is a good place to live. The vocabulary choices have been superb and persuaded us all to pack our bags to live there! In Maths we have developed our knowledge of the properties of shape further by identifying the size of the angle within the shape as well as look for any parallel lines. The children then went on to describe their pencil sketches of the mill buildings in New Lanark using the vocabulary associated with this. In Science, we have been looking at forces and this week’s focus was Air Resistance and the children were challenged to design a parachute that would slow the journey of a boiled egg down and allow it to land safely on the ground. Our record breaker was a total of 1.6 seconds!!
We are still on a high from the success of our Cross Country runners form last week! The results for Carmondean were fantastic and it was lovely to see so many of our boys and girls running on the day. All that Couch to 5K training must be paying off along with the terrific teachings of Mrs Ferguson of course!
A few things to remember:
PE is on a Wednesday and a Thursday for both classes, please ensure your child brings their PE Kit and the correct footwear. We will continue to run outside on a Thursday for as long as the weather will allow us so it is important the children are appropriately dressed.
Homework expectations are that children use the ‘Look, say, cover, write and check method to write out their words 3 times in their jotter and follow with a paragraph of writing that includes these words. The children can challenge their writing by including a variety of openers as well as some complex connectives, all of which we have been using in writing.
Our Inventors showcase is running on the first Thursday back after half term from 1:30 to 2:30 so if you can make it come and see some of the creations. The planning and preparation is gong well and we are very excited to see the end result!
Have a super half term whatever you are doing! Hopefully there will be some Autumn sunshine for us all!
Mrs Smith, Mrs Jamieson and Ms Matheson
Primary 7 11.10.19
We have dealt with exploding volcanoes, catastrophic tsunamis, disastrous mudslides, deadly avalanches, raging wildfires and destructive earthquakes …my goodness we think we need a holiday ! The presentations of the Primary 7 natural disaster homework tasks were excellent. Well done Primary 7.
After our October break we will be concentrating on our enterprise project. We are sure our budding entrepreneurs will produce some exciting results. Our numeracy focus will be linked to our projects; focusing on money, budgets, profit and loss. Sir Sugar look out !
Take a look at some of our amazing Big Homework projects:
REMINDERS –
PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays
Indoor Kit Wednesdays
Homework –spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays .
Maths – Please remember to use our numeracy games to build upon your times tables and number bond recall
Thank for your continued support.
We hope everyone has an enjoyable October holiday .
Mrs Wylie , Mrs Muir and Mrs Macaulay
Primary 3 11.10.19
It was so lovely seeing the parents and carers of Primary 3 over the last two nights at Parents’ night. It was great to be able to show the progress the children have made already in this short space of time, and to have time to chat with you all.
We can’t believe it is the end of the first term already. We have completed so many challenges, experiments and pieces of work relating to our Weather topic and it is now time for us to say goodbye to SummerWinter. We had a lovely party and celebration for all of our hard work and it was well deserved! We will be sad to see her go.
This week, we completed our learning about cloud types. Ask us about some of the types of clouds we know about.
We have been learning the language of persuasion and have written our first piece of persuasive writing in the form of a letter. This will be our Writing focus until Christmas.
We are looking forward to starting a new topic, looking at our community and how there are groups and places to help people who are in need of help.
We Will continue talking about how we feel using our Blob Tree and will be creating our very own ‘Blob’ to position and demonstrate this.
Two of our pupils are leaving this week and going to a new school. We will miss you both and wish you all the best in your new adventures. Don’t forget us!
Please accept our apologies for homework due date being in the holidays. This was an oversight on my part. It is fine to hand it in the first day back from holidays.
Homework will then resume as usual the following week.
We hope you all enjoy a restful and well earned break.
Happy holidays, looking forward to seeing you all when we return on Tuesday 22nd October.
Thank you again for all of your support,
Miss Smith and Mr Woodward.
Primary 5
P5 have been working very hard this week. The children (and staff) will be ready for their holiday!
In topic the children have each made a leaflet all about their landmark model. Everyone worked really hard to make sure that their leaflet contained interesting facts about their landmark as well as other relevant information. We also tried to make sure they were eye-catching to look at by adding lots of illustrations. You will have a chance to read these on our open morning.
We have also spent some time looking at the different traditional foods from each country in the UK. The children then recreated a dish of a meal that they might find in one of these countries. They were all so creative and some even chose to use a variety of materials such as tissue paper and string to give their meal a 3D effect. You will have a chance to taste some of these foods at our open morning on Friday 25th October.
Mrs Gilmour’s class had great fun making figures dressed in the national costume of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The children worked very hard and the level of detail in the clothing was fantastic. Some of the figures are very life-like!
In writing the children have been creating persuasive posters to encourage everyone to keep safe and healthy. Some of the areas targeted were- washing hands, picking up litter, lining up sensibly, eating more fruit. Look out for the posters around the school when you next visit.
Well done to Mrs Gilmour’s class who have brought their PE kit every week so got to choose a treat in PE. They chose to get the big equipment out and had great fun practicing all the different skills they have learned so far. Miss Morris’ class still have a few who forget their kit, please can you try to remember so we can also get a treat!
Thank you to everyone who attended Parent Consultations this week. It was lovely to meet you all. Remember we are here to offer help at any time please just contact us through the school office.
Reminders
P5M -Outdoor PE- Monday.
P5G-Futsal (indoors) -Monday
PE with Mrs Ferguson-Thursday.
P5 Landmark open morning- Friday 25th October. P5M visitors- 9.30-10.15. P5G visitors- 11.30-12.15
Thank you for your continued support.
We hope you all have a good holiday.
Mrs Gilmour, Miss Morris, Mr Shanks and Mrs Muir
Aldi stickers update
We passed the 200 mark today! Fantastic news and thanks so much to everyone who has brought in stickers so far.
I had some help from P6 today who were not only adding to the sticker chart but adding up the numbers of stickers so we had a total to announce tonight. 
Can you help by shopping in Aldi over the October break and get us to the 300 target please.
Many thanks.
Primary 5B PE Reward
Primary 5 thoroughly enjoyed their own choice activity in PE today. This was a reward for all bringing their PE kit 3 weeks in a row. It would be fab if at least 1 other class could achieve this next term. Parents/carers- can you help please by reminding your child when PE is on and helping them pack kit on these days. Thanks!
Aldi Stickers for Schools
We now have an amazing 180 stickers on our chart but we still need your help to get us to 300 before 3rd November.
If you are shopping at Aldi please collect the stickers ( sometimes you have to ask) and get your child to bring them into school.
Thanks
Mrs Ferguson & the Sports Committee
Primary 6 7.10.19
Primary 6 have had another busy week.
In Science this week we have started a topic on forces. We have looked at magnets and investigated which materials were magnetic. We have also learned about gravity and air resistance. We made parachutes to try to create air resistance. We really enjoyed testing these to see which ones could stay in the air the longest and could successfully transport an egg to the ground safely.
We took part in the cross country event on Wednesday. We sucessfully gained first place in the boys race and third place in the girls race. Well done to everyone who took part.
In Maths we have been looking at place value. We have been learning how to write hundredths in fractions, decimals and percentages. We have also been learning about symmetry. We have investigated how many lines of symmetry various 2D shapes have.
In writing we have stated writing in the persuasive genre. This week we well be writing a persuasive report encouraging people to live in New Lanark.
On Friday our completed posters are due to be submitted for presentation to the class. We have enjoyed listening to all the ideas so far.
Other homework this week includes spelling and completing reading books.
Parent’s evening is on Wednesday and Thursday this week and we are looking forward to discussing the progress we have made with our parents.
Mrs Jamieson, Mrs Smith, Ms Mathieson
Primary 2 7.10.19
Primary 2 have been very busy learning about the story of Joseph. We listened to his story and had a discussion about what kind of man he was- children used words like; brave, smart, kind, hard working and helpful. We have made a very colourful display in our classroom showing off his fabulous coat that was gifted to him by his father. You will be able to see this on parents night.
We have library services coming in on Wednesday to talk to the children about life in the past. The librarian will be bringing lots of artifacts that the children will be able to handle and will be telling them lots of stories!
Primary 2 are still collecting shoe boxes for the Shoe box appeal. We have had a few handed in but if you are happy to help by making your own donation it would be much appreciated. As a stage we made up a box for a little girl, little boy and a woman.
Parents night is this Wednesday and Thursday evening so we are looking forward to seeing you and sharing your child’s work.
The children have been fantastic at bringing in P.E kits- our gym days are Tuesday and Thursday!
Today we are sharing our homework. The children will get to choose someone they would like to share their homework with. New homework will be issued on the Tuesday we get back after the October holiday.
Miss Rafferty, Miss Pringle, Mrs Oliver
Primary 7
Konnichiwa!
We had a wonderful visit this week from members of the Japanese Consulate in Edinburgh. After practising different greetings in Japanese we learned how to count to ten in Japanese and then we used our new number knowledge to answer a quiz all about Japan. We were also shown how to make origami sumo wrestlers. Arigatou !
We now have an outstanding display in Primary Seven depicting a beautiful Japanese sunrise behind Mount Fuji. Everyone has been involved with the creation of the display which includes; figures in traditional dress, Japanese temples, carp swimming down a Japanese river all in the shadow of a pretty cherry blossom tree. We are delighted with the overall effect, well done Primary Seven. We are pleased to hear that many pupils have almost finished their large homework piece. For those who haven’t started yet, perhaps our lesson on Tsunamis will inspire you!
We have been on an emotional roller coaster this week during our Wonder reading sessions. In the first section of the book we listened to the voice of August, the second section is told through August’s big sister Via. It opens with the words, “Far above the world, planet earth is blue”. We WONDER if anyone knows were these words come from?
Within numeracy we are continuing to look at multiples of 10 and problem solving involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
REMINDERS –
PE – Outdoor Kit Mondays
Indoor Kit Wednesdays
Homework –spelling words will be given on Mondays with homework due on Fridays .
Topic Homework – Topic homework has now been issued and should be completed by Tuesday 8th October . Pupils have been given a choice of eight different tasks , from which they should complete ONE . We would like all pupils to be able to present their completed projects to the rest of their class.
Maths – Mrs Wylie’s Calculators – homework due on Wednesday .
Mrs Wylie’s Diamonds – homework due on Wednesday .
Mrs Macaulay’s numeracy groups – homework due on Wednesday
Thank for your continued support.
Sayonara !
Mrs Wylie , Mrs Muir and Mrs Macaulay
P1 4.10.19
We have had another busy week in Primary One. In Maths we have been working on numbers before, after and between up to 10. This is something that you can continue to practise at home with your child-try and challenge them and see if they can extend this to 20 or beyond!
We have been focusing on the sounds r and m this week in Phonics. We have been making ‘r’ in rice and writing’m’ on mirrors. At home you can be talking about things that start with these sounds and using the other sounds we have learned so far to make short 3 and 4 letter words.
In Writing this week we wrote about our buddies and the lovely things they have done to help us so far in P1. Next week we will be working on a very special wall display along with our buddies- keep an eye our for this outside P3 at parents night!
Reminders:
Monday- Gym kit. If you can, wear this under school uniform so it is easy to change.
Tuesday- Homework due back/new homework issued. Please remember to bring homework bags every day.
Wednesday/Thursday- Parents Consultations-make an appointment using the link sent by office.
Friday- last day of term.
We thank you for your continued support, any questions/issues you might have please don’t hesitate to speak to us at the end of the day or contact the office and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Miss Christy, Miss Daun and Mrs Steel
Primary 4 4.10.19
Hello everyone
We have had another busy week in Primary 4.
In PE with Mrs Ferguson we have begun to learn the rules of handball. Please ask us about these at home if you have a chance. Letters have been sent out regarding a Handball Festival that the children will take part in on Thursday 31st October. They will play handball against other Primary 4s from other schools. Please return £2.50 and the EE2 forms as soon as possible.
Letters have also been sent home regarding the Halloween Disco which is on Thursday 24th October from 7-8:30pm. The cost is £3 per child and children may bring up to £3 with them in order to buy tuck from the tuck shop. We are looking forward to seeing your costumes!
This week in numeracy we have been revising the strategies that we can use when working out the answers to multiplication questions. We then began working on the 8 x table for the first time. The children are working very hard to learn the stations of the 8 times table. Ask your child more about what they have learned at home 🙂
Next Wednesday and Thursday parent consultations will take place. We look forward to meeting with many of you then.
Today the last homework of this term was handed in. There will be no homework next week. This will resume after the October break.
PE days: Outdoor – Tuesday and Indoor – Thursday.
Thank you for your support.
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Clark & Mrs Muir
PE weekly update
What an amazing week in PE!
The sports committee were adding Aldi stickers to our chart and we now have 120- can you help us reach 150 by next Friday please?
Primary 5 today completed a hat trick today for all bringing their PE kit so they get rewarded next week with their own choice of activity. Which class will be next to do this? Please help them remember!
P6 took part in the cluster cross country event at Dechmont Law and put all their training into practice. They showed they knew how to pace themselves and keep running all the way in the 1.1KM race. Fantastic results from Blair Flood as 1st over the line in the boys race and Abbiegail Beer 3rd in the girls race.We also has 9 primary 7s in the west Lothian championships race and they ran superbly. What a gorgeous autumn day for it.
Primary 3 – Weather Watch
Measuring the Wind
We thought you would like to see our work this afternoon!
We successfully worked in our home teams to follow instructions and make either a weather vane or a wind sock.
Here are some of the finished pieces before we went outside to test them out. We were so proud of the results!
P4 update 30.9.19
This month has just flown by and we can’t believe it’s October tomorrow already! We’ve been continuing learning about the Vikings including what they ate, where they lived and which gods they believed in. We hope you enjoyed us writing our secret messages in runes for our homework.
In maths we have finished our lessons about time but will practise what we have learned on a daily basis. It would be great if you could continue to talk about the time with your child at home, using both analogue and digital clocks. Our focus will now be on multiplication and building our confidence and speed with the 2,3,4 and 5 times tables as well as learning new tables. This week we are starting with the 8 times table. We will be encouraging the children to practise their tables at home including counting up in 8s.
Over the next couple of months, we will be focusing on persuasive writing during our writing lessons. This should be lots of fun as the children create arguments to support their points of view.
In PE the children will be developing skills in handball in preparation for the P4 handball festival on 31st October. You will receive an EE2 form shortly for this event.
Some useful reminders:
- Homework is due in this Thursday 3rd October.
- Please label all clothes, especially jumpers, as we already have some which are unclaimed but don’t have names on them.
- Please ensure your child has a bottle of water in class every day.
We are looking forward to seeing you during the parent evening. Thanks for all your support.
Mrs Muir and Miss Clark.
Primary 2 w/b 23/9/19
Hi All
Another busy week in Primary 2! We have been continuing our study of Life in the Past this week by researching methods of transport. We enjoyed learning about old cars and steam trains and how they worked. We have some beautiful line drawings of old cars in our jotters for you to see at parents night!
In Literacy we have focussed on the ‘ay’ phoneme which can be tricky as there are other ways of making this sound not yet covered (e.g. ai, a-e). Any practice that you can do with familiar words at home would benefit your child. In Writing, we continued our focus on persuasive texts by creating leaflets encouraging people to be eco-friendly.
In Maths and Numeracy we have been continuing work with numbers to 100 and data handling with a focus on creating and interpreting bar graphs.
We are continuing to promote our Shoebox Appeal around school and this week we will pack 3 shoeboxes in class – 1 each for a boy and girl age 6 and an adult one for a lady. The children will help to pack and choose what each person would like/need. The details have been sent out by email and there is a checklist with suggested items attached. We would be very grateful if any completed shoeboxes could be brought into school by Friday 25th October (the first week back after October holidays).
Thank you for your continuing support,
Mrs Oliver, Miss Pringle and Miss Rafferty
Primary 6 27.9.19
What a busy week we have had!
Our trip to New Lanark yesterday was fantastic! The weather was on our side and we learnt so much about Robert Owen, life in the mill and the Industrial Revolution. If you have never been, it is definitely worth a visit!
The ‘Annie McLeod Experience’ was an eye opener and a true insight into the life of a child living in New Lanark. The rooftop garden was beautifully landscaped with fantastic views of the mills and the river. We were able to compare the homes of Robert Owen with his worker as well as experience being a pupil in a classroom from that time.
Look out for all our photos outside P6 during parent evenings to see all the fun learning we experienced!
Next Wednesday is our Cross Country event! Can the children come to school wearing their PE kit? Bear in mind it is outside so perhaps children wear shorts with trackies over them to walk to school etc and trainers are an absolute must. Can they have in their bags their uniform to change into after with a spare pair of socks and underwear in case they get absolutely soaked? They also need to have a substantial snack with them as lunch will not be till after the event.
We have been listening to some fantastic inventor ideas today! If at any point your child gets stuck for an idea or the designing of it let us know as we can perhaps advise or steer them in the right direction. Remind them it can be anything and, more importantly, enjoy the experience of it all!
Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Smith, Mrs Jamieson and Ms Matheson
Primary 7 27.09.19
In maths we have been looking at symmetry and shapes. In Symmetry we looked at regular and irregular polygons to find out how many sides and lines of symmetry each had. We learned about the properties of 3D Shapes including pyramids, prisms, cuboid, cone, dodecahedron, triangular based pyramid, square based pyramid, cylinder and sphere. Michael says a cube whilst not a polygon, is made up of that shape (6 squares).
We are working on our times tables. We have been learning long multiplication using tens, hundreds and thousands. Remember to practise these at home!
In writing we have been focusing on Persuasive writing – We chose our favourite holiday destination and tried to entice the reader that that would be their dream place they wanted to visit. We used brilliant openers, points of view/paragraphs, emotive language, adjectives and adverbs and finally supported our point of view. We will be continuing to focus on writing persuasively over the next few weeks.
In PE we are continuing with Basketball and learned various techniques; we were split into four teams where two of the teams not playing assessed two players on the pitch to ascertain if they had good passes, dribbling skills and shooting techniques.
In French we looked at general everyday conversations and learned how to answer a partner when he/she asked a question. We then wrote some conversations into speech bubbles.
We are continuing to learn all about Japan. This week we compared the country to Scotland and found out several differences. We are so looking forward to a visit from the Japanese Consulate next week.
Your blog was written by Kemi, Michael and Ruiri
Reminders:
PE kit – Monday (outdoors) and Wednesday (indoors)
Homework – Spelling homework due in Friday 4th October
– Big homework – due in Tuesday 8th October
– My Life So Far – Ongoing throughout the year
Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Macaulay, Mrs Wylie & Mrs Muir
