Day For Change – Carmondean Primary School Blog

Primary 4 week beginning 12.6.17

Wow! What a fantastic week we have had in Primary 4. We were so pleased with how well our show went, we had 2 very successful performances. We were very happy to see so many people turn up to watch the show. We would like to extend a massive thank you to all the parents/carers who turned up and helped their child to learn lines, songs or dances. We (the teachers) thought that the children were amazing! The acting was brilliant, the dancing was superb and the singing was beautiful.

We hope that having now experienced school shows first hand and be seeing what is involved in them, we will have many more children who feel confident enough to put themselves forward for roles. We know this stage are very talented in dancing, acting and singing so we are hoping to see lots more of our stars centre stage next year!

This week will also be our organised event which is Day for change. This will happen on Friday and the children are invited to school to take part in opposite day. This means that they can come dressed as teachers, in pj, in wet weather gear (if it is sunny) etc. We will also be collecting any change you have lying around throughout the week and will use the money collected from the whole school to spell out day for change in the hall.

You may have noticed that new homework tasks have been issued. We would like you to use the rest of term and the longer evenings to make the most of the experiences (rather than written tasks). Spelling tests will still be taking place however we have handed over ownership to the children of how they would like to practice spelling their words. Please also be aware that we will be collecting in reading books shortly so if you see any please send them in.

Thank you,

The Primary 4 teachers

reminders:

Friday 16th – Day for Change

Wednesday 21st – Sports day (upper in the morning)

Friday 23rd – collect in reading books

Friday 23rd – Erasmus open morning

Primary Five 9th June 2017

This week we performed the dress rehearsal of our show to the rest of the school. The children did really well and the staff and pupils gave excellent feedback to us-the children did us proud!

We have also been continuing our Parliament challenge. This week we made speeches to the P7 classes. They then made a ‘postal vote’. These votes will be put together with the P4 and P6 votes on the 16th June and then we will find out the winner of the Carmondean General Election!

Making speeches to P7-Well done everyone!

Can we also remind everyone that we are collecting change for the Day for Change on 16th June. On the day you are invited to come dressed as something opposite- child coming as a teacher, coming to school in PJs, inside out clothes etc.

Reminders this week-

Monday-Spelling, Reading activty

Tuesday-Maths

Wednesday-Show at 1.30pm and 6,30pm

Friday- Day for change, Carmondean General Election

Thank you for your continued support

Mrs Steel and Mr Greig

Primary 4 24.5.17

Wowee, what a brilliant week for us to be going to Auchengillan! The sun is shining and it looks like it will be a great two days!

We have been busy whilst the others are away planning Day for Change. This is a UNICEF charity occasion which Primary 4 are in charge of leading.

We had lots of ideas of what we could change for the day and have decided on “Opposites Day” which will take place on the 16th June.

We will be gathering spare change in the bottles in the classroom and hope to have enough coins gathered to spell out “Day for Change,” in our new hall. More information will follow.

CATERPILLAR UPDATE: Our caterpillars have transformed into chrysalis and are now hanging upside down in our net, ready for the big transformation.

Reminders:

Please bring in show costumes.

Summer Fair is on 3rd June. Please get in touch with Parent Council if you are able to help out at all.

Homework Due Friday 2nd:

Reading

Spelling

Maths – New activities uploaded to Studyladder to work on at your discretion. We are now measuring length and capacity.

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

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

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.

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.

P4/3 update 15.4.16

What an exciting week we’ve had this week!
On Tuesday we had a visitor called Callum from a company called Cool Creatures. He came into class with some animals for us to meet. They were all animals from rainforest climates and it really helped us to kick off this term’s topic in a fun and exciting way.
We met a tortoise, two giant millipedes, two armadillos, a tarantula and a python called Bob.

On Tuesday of next week(the 19th) we are going to Dynamic Earth to learn more about the rainforests. A letter was sent home about this earlier in the week. Please can you ensure that this is returned to school before Tuesday and that children bring a packed lunch with them that day. We are all looking forward to our trip.

Some of the Primary 4’s also headed off to Auchengillan for their overnight trip yesterday with Miss Smith. We hope they are having lots of fun and that the weather stays good for them.

Those of us still in school have been busy planning Day for Change which is an event that will be taking place in 3 weeks time.

We also went outside to have a look at the construction of our new gym hall. We’re very excited about all the progress that’s been made and can’t wait until it’s finished.

A slight change has had to be made to our timetable. Indoor PE will remain on a Monday but, as of next week, outdoor PE has been moved to a Thursday and will be on a Thursday until the end of term. Please ensure your child has appropriate kit on these days.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Wallace