Carmondean Primary School Blog

Primary 7 12.10.17

Hello everyone

We have had a very busy couple of weeks in Primary 7! The children handed in excellent Natural Disaster homework. Mrs Macaulay and I were very impressed with the high standard of the projects and the varied nature of them too! We saw fantastic landscapes, well resourced emergency boxes, descriptive imaginative stories and explosive volcanoes! Thank you for all your hard work 🙂

This week P7 have been completing our Japan Challenges on an area of Japanese culture that they find interesting. The children are completing well researched posters on martial arts, origami, computer games, traditional houses, clothing and even Pokemon! The children will present their poster to a group of their peers after the October break.

The children have also been creating short books for their buddies this week. We have been blown away by how thoughtful, interesting and fun filled these short stories are. Some titles of the stories include: “Jessica the Unicorn Fairy Queen”, “DJ’s Adventure” and “Super Mia to the Rescue!” These have been written and illustrated by the pupils and we can’t wait for them to read them to their buddies after the October break.

Thank you to all who attended our parent consultations last night. We look forward to welcoming more parents into Primary 7 tonight.

Please remember that we are on holiday next week for the October break. School will resume on Tuesday 24th October when Primary 7 will begin another busy term full of exciting learning, challenges and our Enterprise topic!

Have a lovely October week.

Miss Clark & Mrs Macaulay

Primary 1 Update 11.10.17

Hello All

This week in Primary 1 we have been continuing to learn new sounds and are working to blend them together to read and write words. In Writing we are working hard to add more detail to our picture plans which helps us to think about what we would like to write. This week we wrote about a trip that we have enjoyed – the children loved sharing their experiences of trips to the park, the soft play, the shops and even the fun fair!

In maths we are continuing to work on number formations, recognition of numbers and recognising sets without counting e.g. dice patterns.

Please remember that next week is the October holiday week – the children will finish on Friday 13th and will return to school on Tuesday 24th October.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you at parents night on Wednesday (11th) and Thursday (12th) this week.

Our topic after the October holidays will be Toys. Please could your child bring their favourite (smallish!) toy to school to share with the class on Wednesday 25th October.

Reminder – Halloween School Disco is on Thursday 26th October.

Thank you for your continuing support,

Primary 1 Teachers

Primary 6 6.10.17

BREAKING NEWS * BREAKING NEWS *

Hot off the press! Carmondean Primary Six were outstanding at the West Lothian Schools cross country event. Carmondean girls secured first, second, third and fourth places and the boys secured first and second. All runners should be extremely proud of their efforts. Our roving reporters and photographers demonstrated great teamwork by supporting our competitors. Well done all!

“Stepping back in time” “Wonderful” “Outstanding location” “Great fun” “Very Educational”

These are just some of the phrases used by the pupils when writing their reviews of our trip to New Lanark. We all felt that the trip helped bring our Industrial Revolution topic to life and the pupils represented our school very well. When participating in the guided tour, our pupils demonstrated knowledge and understanding when answering questions from our tour guides.

We are all looking forward to our invention showcase and with the inventions completed we are now designing promotional posters and information leaflets for our various products.

REMINDERS –
PE – outdoor Kit on Mondays / Indoor kit on Wednesdays

Homework
Spelling due on Friday. Please note that spelling homework jotters should NOT be handed in before Friday as the children should be using them to practise their spelling words daily.

Maths- if no sheet from teacher please continue to learn times tables, number bonds to 1000, halves and doubles.

Invention Showcase – Parents welcome Wednesday 2-3pm or Thursday 10 -11am

Parents Evenings – Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th October

Best Regards,
Mrs Gilmour, Mrs Wylie, Mrs Tully and Mr Shanks

P2 update

Thank you for your help with completing the grandparent homework. We’ve been having great fun learning all about what life would have been like in the 1950s and 1960s. We hope you’ll like seeing the photos of us trying out some of the dance moves. We also turned our classroom into a 1950s classroom – it was tricky having to work in complete silence! This afternoon to help us with our learning, we enjoyed a visit from the library services as we were able to see and hold lots of things from the 1950s and 1960s.

Here are some of our photos.

Mrs Muir and Primary 2

Primary 7 – 05.10.17

Hello everyone

We have had a very busy week in Primary 7 this week. We have been busy making books to read to our buddies. They are looking very colourful and we hope our buddies enjoy them.

We have been working on our Japan challenge this week – we had to choose an area of Japanese culture to research and then display our learning on a poster. We will be presenting these to the class next week.

As part of our Japan topic we created our own versions of the Great Wave painting using water colours. These look fantastic and will be on display so you can see them at parents night.

In literacy we have been looking at types of words for example nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions and verbs. We used our knowledge to create a quiz. In class we will try out each other’s quizzes to see how much we have remembered!

In PE we have finished focusing on basketball and next week we will be starting gymnastics. We can’t wait to use the equipment and develop our gymnastics skills.

On Wednesday the Primary 6 class and Daisy and Rhianna from Primary 7 took part in cross country. In the Primary 6 girls category we came 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th. In the Primary 6 boys category we came 1^st and 2^nd. The Primary 7 girls came 5^th and 12^th. Well done to everyone who took part – Carmondean is very proud!

Our Big homework challenge is due in tomorrow (Friday 6^th October) – we look forward to seeing everyone’s hard work!

By Rhianna and Aleigha

Reminders:

Outdoor PE on Monday

Indoor PE on Wednesday

Parents consultations on Wednesday and Thursday

Homework due on Friday

Primary 7 – 05.10.17

Hello everyone,

The primary 7s this week have been very busy. We have been making books to read with our buddies.

We have also been making our dream jars. In the dream jars we have to draw a dream and later on in the week people will guess what our dream is from looking at the pictures.

We are in the middle of a reading book called Friend or Foe and in the book the two main characters David and Tucky who are evacuees. They are sent to a host family because of World War 2. David receives a letter from his mum and we had to reply back to her.

We have been looking at types of words and made a grammar quiz on things like nouns, adjectives, adverbs, connectives etc. We can’t wait to try each others quiz out.

On Wednesday Primary 6 and Rhianna and Daisy from Primary 7 took part in cross country. Everyone was amazing and we got 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place for the girls and 1st and 2nd place for the boys. P7 got 5th and 12th place.

In art we have been creating our own versions of the Great Wave painting. These will be up on display for parents evening next week.

Have a good weekend,

Rhianna and Aleigha

Reminders:

Outdoor PE on Monday

Indoor PE on Wednesday

Homework due on Friday

Parents consultations on Wednesday and Thursday

Cross Country Flying

At today’s Primary 6 West Lothian Primary Schools’ Cross Country Running event, Carmondean children were flying. We took 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the Girls’ race and 1st and 2nd in the Boys’ race, as well as chalking up many other highly placed finishers in both races. It seems the lunchtime running club run by Mrs Ferguson, our P.E. Specialist, is paying dividends. A huge ‘Well done!’ to everyone who took part in the race, but especially to our successful podium finishers pictured below.

Primary 3 3.10.17

Today all of our hard work from the past few weeks was demonstrated in our Harvest assembly. Lots of adults who watched us commented on how great our singing was, as well as our acting and art work. The children did very well learning their lines and a big thank you to our farmers for remembering their farming clothes.

We have created posters in challenge groups explaining the reason we have seasons. We used pictures, diagrams and words to describe the Earth’s tilt and the way the Earth tilts away and towards the Sun.

We had a Futsall taster session today, for PE. We enjoyed showing our abilities, and a few of the activities really challenged our skills, especially ball control! We look forward to our session next week.

Reminders:

Remember after school club forms should be completed and returned to the office before the October break.

Parents night appointments are being made.

Children should have their names on all items of clothing.

Homework due Friday:

Spelling as normal

Reading as per sheet in homework diary

Maths – Be the teacher sheet, teaching adding and subtracting 9 and 11

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Smith and Mrs Smith

Primary 4 week 2.10.17

Last week we had our assessment week. This meant that we completed various tasks and assessments.

One of the challenges we had to do was to work in teams to design and build our very own Viking Long ship. We had to work in teams to use junk to make a model and make sure that we were including 4 of the main features of a Viking ship. Here are some examples of what we made:

We also had to draw a Birdseye view of a Viking Long house and include the different areas and furniture they would have had in their homes.

This week we have started to practise for our Harvest assembly. This is not a parent assembly, it is only for the school. Please keep a look out for any words or songs your child may have to practise at home.

Parents evenings will take place next Wednesday and Thursday evening, we look forward to seeing you there.

Reminders:

please make sure your child has a water bottle

Label all items of clothing

P.E days are Monday and Thursday (indoor)

Homework is due on Fridays

Thank you,

The Primary 4s

P2/1 3rd October 2017

This week in Maths the P1s are consolidating work done with numbers 0-10. We will be practising writing these numbers, making sets of these numbers, ordering them and looking for numbers before after and between. The P2s are beginning to add by combining sets with a range of numbers. In topic maths we will be continuing to work with organising and displaying data.

In phonics this week the P1s will be focusing on the sounds ‘r’ and ‘m’. You might want to discuss the sounds that the children have learned so far at home and do some discussion about things that start with these sounds. We have also been working on blending sounds to make words and we will be continuing this in the coming weeks.
The P2s will be spending this week looking at -ay words. Again, this is a good opportunity to discuss words that have this sound with your child at home. The P2s will be getting a Time Your Climb spelling homework after the October break.

Reminders-
Mon- Indoor Gym
Tues- New reading book
Thurs- Please return library book so your child can choose a new one.
Please remember that the Parent Consultations are next week- you can book a slot online. The children are looking forward to you coming to see the fantastic work they have done so far in P2/1.
Thank you
Mrs Steel

Primary 1 w.b. 2/10/17

Last week, primary 1 had a week of consolidation in their phonics learning. We spent a lot of time reading, writing and blending together the sounds we have learnt so far (a, t, p, i, n and s). The children are making good progress learning their sounds, thank you for your support at home with this. We have also be practising the common words (a, at, the, in, I, it, and, an and is). Please continue to practise these at home so that the children can read and write the words quickly and accurately.
In maths we have been learning our numbers to 10. We have been saying number sequences forwards and backwards to 20. We have also been practising making these numbers and writing them neatly.
This week your child has been given a few websites with maths games on them to play with at home. Here are the links:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/gingerbread-man-game
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/ladybird-spots
Please also continue to practise saying the sounds and blending them together to make short words.
Reminders:
Water bottles should only contain water and should be named.
Please ensure your child comes to school with a PE kit on Mondays. These clothes should be named.
We look forward to meeting with you next Wednesday or Thursday evening for parents consultations. If you have not signed up for a slot please do this as soon as possible.
Thank you
Miss Christy, Mrs Harris and Mrs Oliver

P5 update 29.09.17

This week in Miss Farren’s maths set they have been learning to create maps using the 8 compass points. They were using Probots to demonstrate their understandings of maps and compass points. Miss Jamison’s maths set were learning about place value up to 100 000 and coordinates.

In P.E on Tuesday we have hand ball and on Thursday we have badminton with Miss Ferguson. We enjoy the lessons for lots of reasons!

Miss Jamison’s class in writing were creating newspaper reports about invasion and the Battle of Hastings.

In Miss Farren’s class for reading they were focusing on adverbs and verbs which are techniques used by the authors to make exciting writing. In Miss Jamison’s class for reading they were doing invasion about King William.

The big homework for all of P5 is making landmarks from Great Britain. The work is due on Friday 13^th of October

Both classes were focusing on “ee” sounds in spelling. The children recorded dictations to help them understand how to write the “ee” words.

Both classes were doing a display challenge in groups about Great Britain. Each group was given a country from Great Britain to describe in groups of 4.

By: Julia, Iona, Michal and Lana (P5F and P5J)

Primary 6 29.9.17

Our classes have been full of interesting invention chats this week! We are all getting very excited for the inventions show case. Parents and carers are very welcome to view our inventions on Wednesday 11th October from 2pm until 3pm or on Thursday 12th October from 10am until 11am. Please be aware that other classes in the school may be visiting at these times.

In preparation for our trip to New Lanark on Tuesday 3rd October, we have been learning about Robert Owen and in particular his influence on changing the lives of working class people for the better. The children have indicated that they still prefer coming to school to working in a mill!

In Writing the children have used their imaginations this week to create their own versions of the poem The Magic Box by Kit Wright. Various writing techniques were adopted to develop ideas and the results have been outstanding. Such emotional writing Primary Six! You will have an opportunity to read these on Parent’s Evening.

The children have been working hard in PE with Mrs Ferguson on a Wednesday, training for the Cross Country event. Many of the children are showing a talent for running.

The children also participated in a handball taster session on Monday where they were introduced to some of the skills needed to participate in a game.

REMINDERS-
PE – outdoor Kit on Mondays / Indoor kit on Wednesdays

CROSS COUNTRY EVENT WEDNESDAY 4TH OCTOBER – PLEASE DRESS ACCORDINGLY AND REMEMBER TO BRING A PACKED LUNCH IF ONE HAS NOT BEEN ORDERED FROM SCHOOL.

Trip – Visit to New Lanark Tuesday 3rd October

Spelling homework due on a Friday. Please note that spelling homework jotters should NOT be handed in before Friday as the children should be using them to practise their spelling words daily.

INVENTION HOMEWORK DUE FRIDAY 6TH OCTOBER

Best Regards,
Mrs Wylie, Mrs Gilmour, Mrs Tully and Mr Shanks

Primary 7 28.9.17

Hello everyone

In Art we have been making Japanese cups. They are looking good so far. Next week we are going to paint them.

We have also been looking at the famous Japanese painting “The Great Wave” and we have been painting with watercolour paint. They are looking great so far.
In writing we have been writing Haiku poems. A Haiku poem has 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line and in the third line there are 5 syllables. A Haiku poem only has 3 lines. We also drew pictures to go with our poem.

We have been learning about Japanese music and seeing the differences between traditional Japanese music and Scottish music. The Japanese music sounds unusual to us but it is good.

Did you know that in Japan when a shop is closing they play Auld Lang Syne to tell everyone to leave at the end of the day? 🙂

In RME we have been making power points and posters about different religions like Christianity and Sikhism. Today we presented them to a small group of our friends.

Reminders:

Big Homework is due in next Friday 6th October. If your child requires a new homework sheet or any materials to complete their project then they should speak to their class teacher as soon as possible. Remember they only need to pick one of the eight tasks on the sheet to complete.

Maths and Spelling homework is due in on a Friday every week.

Hope you have a good weekend
Kaydi, Nathan, Alistair and Murray

Scottish National Standardised Assessments

As you will be aware, the Scottish Government has introduced Standardised Testing for all pupils in P1, P4, P7 and S3. Our P7 children will be engaging with these from next week. For further information, please see the government information leaflet by clicking the link below:

Scottish National Standardised Assessment Leaflet.

P2/1 27th September 2017

We have had another busy week in P2/1 this week. Both the P1s and the P2s have been working with numbers, looking at numbers before, after and between and starting to count from different numbers. The P1s have been doing this with numbers 0-10 and the P2s have been looking at numbers up to 50 and some of us have been investigating numbers to 100! We are enjoying playing lots of different games to help us with this.

In language the P1’s have looked at the sounds ‘p’ and ‘n’ to go along with s,a,t and i. We have been looking at how we can blend some of these sounds together to make words. Some of us have been doing really well with this-please continue to play the homework game we sent home to support this.
The P2’s have been continuing to revise some sounds including -oy, ph, oa, -ck. You can discuss these with your children at home and see how many words they can remember with these sounds in. Nest week the P2s will be beginning to focus on one sound a week and after October break will be getting a Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check style homework to go along with this.

Reminders-
Monday- Common words/ sound cards (P1)
Gym Kit
Tuesday- Maths (every other week for P2)
Reading book
Thursday- Please bring library book back to change

Thank you for your support.
Mrs Steel

Nursery’s Bug Hotel

Last week our morning and afternoon children explored how to make a bug hotel and discussed it’s purpose. The children discussed the type and size of materials we could use to create our hotel. They searched the nursery and our garden for suitable materials and found pine cones, twigs and sticks, plant pots, leaves and ceramics to design the hotel. They used scissors to cut plant pots to create lots of nooks and crannies for the bugs. The children are very eager to explore what kinds of bugs we might find and hope to be able to welcome our first mini guests to the hotel in the very near future!

Primary 1 w.b. 25/9/17

Primary 1 have had a busy couple of weeks. The children are now settled well into school life and routines and are enjoying learning lots of new things in our lessons. In phonics, we have now learnt the sounds a, t, s, p, i and n. This week we are revising these sounds and are beginning to blend them together to make short 2 and 3 letter words (sat, pan, sip etc). Any work you do at home practising to read, say and write these sounds is hugely beneficial for your child.
In maths we are continuing to learn our numbers to 10. The children have been making the quantities in different ways including fingers, with cubes and cutting out pictures. We have also been practising writing the numbers and ordering forwards and backwards 1-10.
In science the children have been learning about their 5 senses. Last week we focused on the sense of hearing and made musical instruments. We spoke about how to make a loud and quiet sound.
In your child’s homework folder this week you will find an A4 sheet of card with a variety of sounds on it. Please cut out the cards of the sounds taught so far (a,t,s,p,i and n) and help your child to make short words. There is a list of possible activities to try in the homework folder. We are also asking for every child to bring in a photo of them self as a baby tomorrow (Wednesday 27th Sep). The children will be talking about how they have changed and the different needs a baby has to an older child.
Reminders:
-Please provide your child with a named water bottle every day.
-PE is on a Monday. Please can you ensure that all clothes are named in case they get misplaced.
-It is really helpful if your child can write their name confidently and clearly. Please practise this as part of your homework.
Thank you for your continued support, please contact us if you have any questions.
Miss Christy. Mrs Harris and Mrs Oliver

Primary 3 News

This week we are busy getting ready for our Harvest Assembly and your child has stuck their lines into their diary to learn along with their spelling focus of ‘oa’. Can you make sure your child is writing out their words three or more times in their spelling book. If they would like to attempt putting these words into sentences of their own then they are most welcome. Some children in P3 have been writing three or four sentence with some of the spelling words included which has been lovely to see.

Please encourage further practice of their letter formations using scrap paper as well as their common words. All of this will contribute greatly to their writing and reading.

Below we have attached links to the three songs the children are singing in the Harvest Assembly:

Autumn says ‘Hello’
It’s Harvest Time
What are you growing?

If you have time we would appreciate it if you could get your children to listen to the songs and have a go at singing them too. We will also be having a daily sing along in class so that we get the words stuck in our heads!

Autumn Says Hello! (lyrics) Autumn Says Hello! (score)

It’s Harvest Time (lyrics) It’s Harvest Time (score)

What Are You Growing (lyrics) What Are You Growing (score)

Don’t forget to book your appointment with us for Parent Consultations, a letter will be going out this week.

In P3S we also have an extra pair of hands in class! Miss Brown has been with us for a few weeks now and she is taking on more responsibility in class delivering a variety of lessons. The children have been working very well with her and she will also be with us during Parent Consultations to observe.

One last plea! Could you make sure that children have a jacket for school along with indoor and out door shoes? Temperatures are slowly decreasing and it is getting a wee bit chilly even if the sun is out. Don’t forget to label these too!

Have a great week!

Mrs Smith, Miss Smith & Miss Brown 🙂

Primary 6 22.9.17

Having discussed how difficult life was for working class children in the Victorian era, our pupils have decided that doing their chores and completing homework are not that bad after all! One pupil described feeling very lucky and this seemed to be the general consensus throughout primary six ………….perhaps we should increase chores and homework!!

We have been exploring all aspects of Victorian working conditions, particularly focusing on child labour. The pupils have been analysing different sources of information from this time period and discussing which improvements in working laws genuinely helped protect children from such harsh conditions.

The children have been working hard practising for the cross country event and those who have decided not to take part will be attending the event acting as our roaming sports reporters.

Invention ideas are starting to fly around our classrooms, remember the inventor challenge homework is due on Friday 6th October.

REMINDERS –
PE – outdoor Kit on Mondays / Indoor kit on Wednesdays
Homework
Spelling- due on Friday. Please note that spelling homework jotters should NOT be handed in before Friday as the children should be using them to practise their spelling words daily.
Maths- if no sheet from teacher please practice times tables and number bonds to 1000

Best Regards,
Mrs Gilmour, Mrs Tully, Mr Shanks and Mrs Wylie