Maths – Carmondean Primary School Blog

Primary 2 4.10.21

This week Primary 2 are learning the ea sound in phonics. We will be thinking of words with this sound pattern in them and learning to read and write these words correctly.
How many ea words can you find in this silly ea song?

In maths we are learning to skip count in 3s and 4s and to find the number before and after a number. The children loved celebrating maths week Scotland last week and enjoyed taking part in activities using a wide variety of maths skills.
We are now well into our learning about Romans and the Roman Empire. This week we are focusing on what life was like for Roman citizens living in Rome. We will look at what life was like for children, what foods they ate and what they did for entertainment.
A reminder that Parent consultations are this coming Wednesday and Thursday nights on Skype. We look forward to meeting with you to discuss the progress your child is making.
Thank you for your continued support.
The P2 teachers

Primary 2 27.9.21

We hope that you all had a lovely weekend.
This week we are learning the ‘ay’ sound in phonics. The children will be spotting ‘ay’ words in sentences, reading ‘ay’ words and writing ‘ay’ words on their magnetic letter boards. Here is a video where your child can practise reading ‘ay’ words at home.

How many more ‘ay’ words can you think of?
It is Maths Week Scotland and so the children will be taking part in lots of fun maths related activities all week. Today we made 100 square jigsaws for our friends to put back together. Check out our Twitter page @Carmondean2b to see some of the other lessons we will be trying this week.
The children are loving learning all about the Romans. Today we made Roman shields using wax crayons and paint. We learnt about some of the armour Roman soldiers had to carry as they travelled about the empire. We are also going to be looking at the clothes Roman citizens had to wear later in the week.
A reminder that PE days are Wednesday and Thursdays. As the weather gets colder please make sure that your child comes to school ready for winter weather. It is helpful to have a coat every day even if the forecast isn’t for rain!
Thank you for your continued support.
Primary 2 teachers.

Primary 3 27.9.21

We had another great week in Primary 3 last week, all be it just a short week! We learned how to round to the nearest 10 using the rule of 5 in numeracy and learned 3 new sounds in phonics – u_e, a_e and ea. We also had a lovely lesson making acrostic poems using the word ‘weather’.

This week is maths week so we will be doing lots of maths based activities. For example, making carroll diagrams using objects from nature and creating rangoli patterns using our knowledge of 2D shape.

We will be collecting in the current reading books today (Monday 27^th) and giving out new books which the children should read at least three times at home. There is also a new homework grid on seesaw for this week. Well done to the children who completed some of the activities on last week’s homework grid, there was some fantastic work!

Last week we started a new piece of writing, still within the genre of recount, which we will finish this week with Mrs Smith. We are writing all about what we got up to during the long weekend.

Our topic focus for this week is extreme weathers, so we will be looking at the causes of these kinds of weathers with a focus on climate change and the effects that they can have.

Just another reminder that you can follow us both on twitter at @MissBonar_ and @MissRafferty for more regular updates and snapshots of what we have been doing throughout the week.

Miss Bonar and Miss Rafferty

Primary Five: 16.09.2021

Hello from Primary 5,

In Maths this week, we have been working on properties of 2D Shapes. Both classes blew their teachers socks off with their knowledge of quadrilaterals and polygons! We had lots of fun using the peg-boards and rubber bands to create the different shapes.

In Reading, we have been continuing with our class novel ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’. This week’s chapter discussed the tough journey Ahmet travelling from Syria to England without his family and the children discussed how Ahmet might have been feeling during this hard experience.

During writing, we completed our recounts of Ahmet’s first day of school in England. The children used information from the text and their own imagination to create some excellent recounts. We have begun to look at self-assessing our writing to see if we are hitting all our core and genre targets as we write.

In Numeracy, we zoomed through lots of work on Rounding and Sequencing numbers.

During Topic this week, we followed Amal into Greece and created our own fact-files for this new country. We learned about the key information, culture and lifestyle in the country. We were quite surprised how much foods we eat here in Scotland are actually from Greece originally!

We also finished some great art pieces this week connected to Turkey! The beautiful Iznik designs that are common across Turkish cities are made up of intricate designs and vibrant colours, and the classes did an excellent job at re-creating these.

A gentle reminder about PE kit. On Wednesday and Thursday, please ensure your child is wearing the school approved PE kit (navy blue or black joggers/leggings, white t-shirt and a navy jumper). Thank you very much!

Have a lovely September holiday,
Mrs Jamieson and Ms Munro

Primary 3 wb13/9/21

We had a great week last week learning about the water cycle and creating our very own weather forecasts. We hope you enjoyed watching their weather report on Seesaw. The children were all very nervous but they all did a fantastic job at creating their forecast and presenting it, using some key weather words. Well done Primary 3!

This week in maths, we are learning about place value and the importance of zero when breaking numbers down into Hundreds, Tens and Ones. We are also learning about the properties of pentagons, hexagons and octagons!

New reading books have been issued today and our focus in reading is summarising. We are learning how to summarise a story using pictures and sentences. We are working hard to share the main points of a story using key questions such as; who, what, why, where and when.

Mrs Smith will be writing with us again. We will write the second half of our recount about a typical school day. Children are working hard to use their core and genre targets to help give their writing a focus.

In topic we are going to be investigating about how seasons are influenced by the orbit of the Earth around the sun. We will also identify which months fall into each season and how night and day changes through the seasons.

A new homework grid has been uploaded to Seesaw! Thank you to all the children who managed to complete the activities on last week’s grid. We loved all your posts and videos. Also if you have a managed to successfully grow your sunflower over the summer please send your pictures on Seesaw- we can use these to help boost our Eco School!

Remember you can get regular updates on Twitter by following us on @MissRafferty and @MissBonar_

Miss Rafferty and Miss Bonar

Primary 2 13.9.21

We have had another busy week in Primary 2.
This week we are beginning our new interdisciplinary topic looking at the Romans. Today we will be finding out what the children already know about the Roman empire and will be asking the children what they want to learn about during this topic. You might want to discuss this at home with your child over the next few days to see what they have been learning.
In phonics we are learning the sounds ck, ai, oy and oa. We are going to practise writing these sounds, reading words with these sound patterns and writing words. In writing this week we are going to be writing about a time we visited the park. If you have time to talk to your child about this before Wednesday it would help the writing process.
In maths we are learning to use a 100 square to find numbers and skip count in 2s. If you would like to practise finding numbers to 100 on a 100 square, here is a good interactive square you might want to use. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares
We are working towards our Eco schools accreditation. Here are some ways we are trying to be more eco friendly. The children are encouraged to recycle paper in the classroom and their crisp packets after snack. We are also asking the children to choose a ‘waste free’ snack on Wednesdays. Please send your child to school with a snack in a box or without a wrapper this day.
Thank you for your continued support.
Please get in touch if we can be of any help.
Miss Belleza and Miss Christy

Primary 5 10.9.21

In Primary 5 we have continued reading our novel The Boy at the Back of the Class. This week we learned that the new boy, Ahmmet is a Syrian refugee who speaks Kurdish.

We have also met a new character called Amal. She is a giant puppet who is making the journey from Syria to Britain and we are going to be researching the countries she will be visiting. This week we researched facts about Turkey and made our own Iznik patterns.

We are working on recount in writing and this week we have started writing about Ahmmet’s first day at school.

In maths we have been working on place value and angles.

This week we took part in a live reading lesson on teams. It was about prediction and led by Mrs Cochrane. We took part with all the other P4 and 5 classes in the Deans cluster.

Homework grids have been put on teams and our first homework is due to be completed by Friday 17th September. Please encourage your child to add homework to the files section of the homework channel or take photographs and add this to the chat. Homework jotters are also available for anyone who needs them.

Have a lovely week

Mrs Jamieson and Miss Munroe

Primary 2 6.9.21

Primary 2 have had another great week!
Last week we started our phonics program. For the first few weeks we will be revising the diagraphs learnt in Primary 1. The children’s confidence in their ability to sound out and read words with these letter patterns is improving greatly and we are very proud of their hard work. This week we are learning ‘wh’, ‘ph’, ‘ee’ and ‘oo’. We are also going to be continuing our reading work. Please bring your reading book in the homework folder to school every day since we are planning to read most days.
In maths we are continuing to work on recognising and writing numbers. We are having a particular focus on the teen numbers since many children are finding these tricky.
We are having a week long book focus on ‘Kindness is my superpower’ by Alicia Ortego, We are looking at ways that we can be kind in class and at home. If you would like to read the story at home, here is a video clip you can watch:

Homework is now being issued each week on SEESAW, passwords were given out last week to help you access this work. If you have any issues accessing or completing this work please let us know.
A reminder that children should have inside shoes to wear in class each day. It is also important that they have a water bottle for when it is hot.
Thank you for your continued support
Miss Belleza and Miss Christy

Primary 5: 03.09.21

Happy Friday! It has been a busy couple of weeks in Primary 51 We are beginning to settle into our routine and we have completed lots of excellent tasks so far!

In reading, we have been enjoying our class novel The Boy at the Back of the Classroom. We are learning about Ahmet and his tough journey from Syria to London. This has linked into our Topic where we are learning about Refugees. The classes have held some excellent discussions around their thoughts and feelings of being uprooted and forced to travel to foreign countries. We are following the journey of Little Amal, a 3.5metre puppet, who is walking from Turkey to Manchester, a route many refugees take across Europe. You can keep up to date with her at https://www.walkwithamal.org/about-us/little-amal/.

Last Thursday, we had lots of fun completing a very sticky STEM Challenge in which the class had to create a free-standing tower made out of marshmallows and spaghetti! The hot weather made this challenge extra tricky as the marshmallows very quickly melted and the learners had to adapt many of their plans.

In Maths, we have been working hard learning the names and properties of different angles. The children found lots of examples angles in their classroom and had lots of fun playing interactive games. Try them at home: https://www.mathplayground.com/alienangles.html .

This week, we began our Spanish lessons and had lots of fun learning to greet and introduce ourselves in the new language. We have some natural linguists in our classrooms!

Our PE days this term are Wednesday and Thursday. We will need outdoor kit for Wednesday and indoor for Thursday. We would be grateful if your child could come to school dressed in black or navy kit with a white t -shirt on these days. Children can wear shorts under their trousers on Thursday if they wish.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Jamieson and Miss Munro

Primary 1 18.6.21

We can’t believe that there is only 1 more week of term left! This year has flown by!
Primary 1 have been working hard this past week. In phonics they have learnt the ‘oa’ sound pattern and were able to say lots of words containing this sound. Many children were able to challenge themselves to write these words in a sentence, remembering a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. This was our last week of reading books. All books should be handed in today and new books will be handed out in Primary 2. Please continue reading over the holidays to build your child’s confidence sounding out unknown words and recognising key vocabulary.
In maths, the children have been learning about odd and even numbers. They know that even numbers always end with a 0,2,4,6 or 8 and that odd numbers end in 1,3,5,7 or 9. Here is a fun odd and even song you might want to sing at home:

In science we have been learning about space. The children discussed all that they know about the Earth, sun, moon and stars and created some excellent pictures.
This was our last week of homework and will be our last formal blog post of the year.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the support you have given this past year and to wish you a fun and restful summer.
Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 6 Friday 11th June

Good morning everyone, Primary 6 have had another busy week.

In topic this week we have been learning about the Sinking of the Titanic. We have watched videos and read information on the timeline and have also studied all the faults which caused the ship to sink so quickly. Our favourite part was watching interviews with some of the survivors who shared their expericences.

We had great fun at Sports day on Wednesday, we took part in a variety of potted sports, relays and beat the goalie.

In maths we have been learning about square numbers and function machines. We really enjoyed creating our own function machines to challenge our friends.

We have learned that the main characters in our novel Kaspar Prince of Cats have boarded the Titanic. We can’t wait to read on to find out what happens to them.

Next week we will be beginning to present our class talks on our Titanic characters. Can you please check that your child is ready for their presentation.

Have a lovely week

Mrs Jamieson, Mrs Smith, Ms Matheson.

Primary 5: 10.06.2021

Hello,

It has been a busy week in Primary Five!

We had lots of fun at our annual Sports Day on Thursday morning! It was a little different than normal but we had lots of fun with all the fun activities set up by Mrs Ferguson and Miss Malloy! There were lots of fun potted sports to start; javelin throwing contests, rugby tosses, tennis ball serves and relay running. We then moved on to Beat the Goalie which was lots of fun and a lot trickier than it looked! Last up there was lots of fun running and relay races; there was some close finishes!Well done to every Primary 5 member who took part, tried their hardest, showed great sportsmanship and had fun!

The overall points were so close and there was less than 20 points in it! These are the rankings for the Primary 5 Sports Day but we will have to wait until all the year groups scores are added together!

Waverley = 1^st

Sutherland = 2^nd

Deer Park = 3^rd

Raeburn = 4^th

This week in Writing, the class wrote superb senses poems inspired by a 13^th century battlefield. The children used their imagination to transport themselves onto the battle field at Stirling Bridge, Falkirk or Bannockburn and tried to envisage what they might see, smell, hear, taste and touch. They came up with lots of gory words to create some really gruesome descriptions. The children were very creative coming up with different bodily fluids that you might find on a battlefield . They then organised their ideas into five different stanzas each focussing on a different body sense. The finished poems were fantastic and we had fun sharing them with the class.

In Maths, both classes were working on measuring weight. Primary 5a faced the tricky task of organising 10kilograms worth of (imaginary) fruit for the new (imaginary) Carmondean Fruit Tuck Shop. This involved having to convert weights between grams and kilograms as well as using fractions and decimals.

In Numeracy, both classes have been working hard on decimals. They have been learning how to convert between fractions and decimals, and this week took on the challenge of adding decimals. Both classes have made excellent progress on this!

In Reading, we have reached the final chapter of our non-fiction text for The Scottish Wars of Independence. The classes were amazed that they had managed to read the whole book so thoroughly alongside making their own books! This weeks chapter focussed on the Scottish victory at the Battle of Bannockburn and the Declaration of Arbroath.

During Health, we have been looking at the growth of a foetus during pregnancy. Both classes loved looking at the comparison charts and finding out what fruit a foetus compares to each week. We had lots of excellent discussions about what babies can see/hear/do inside the mothers womb!

PE- Tuesday and Thursday – Please remember to provide your child with a water bottle on these days J

Have a lovely sunny weekend.

Mrs Gilmour, Ms Munro, Mrs Muir and Miss Herd

Primary 6 4.6.21

Primary 6 have continued to work on our Titanic Project this week. We have started learning the key facts about the sinking. We have explored the mistakes which were made and how they led to the sinking of the ship. We have continued to read our novel Kaspar Prince of Cats and this week the family have arrived on the Titanic.

In maths we have been solving problems related to multiples and factors, we have also started learning how to calculate the area of a rectangle.

In writing we have started learning about the targets related to the recount genre.

Next week we have sports day on Wednesday morning and it would be great to see as many people as possible coming to school dressed in their house colours.

Our eco committee have working hard on ways to reduce waste in school. We are trying a new initiative called waste free Wednesdays and are encouraging our children to bring snacks and lunches which are not stored in single use plastic. We would be grateful of your support in encouraging your child to think of alternative ways to store snacks and lunches on that day.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Jamieson, Ms Matheson, Mrs Smith

Primary 5: 03.06.2021

Hello,

What a hot and sunny week it has been!

This week in Writing the children wrote acrostic poems for a Top Secret Project. We had excellent discussions and brainstormed our ideas connected to our secret mission. The children worked hard on their poem, created some beautiful descriptions and the finished pieces of writing looked fabulous! We cannot to share them in the next few weeks!

During Health, we had lots of fun discussing our Birth Fact Files. The children had been tasked with finding out their full name, date and time of birth, where they were born and how much they weighed. They could also share any other interesting information about their birth! It was lovely to see all the cute baby photographs!

In Maths, both classes were working on measuring weight. We estimated the weight of household objects in grams and kilograms before using a variety of measuring scales to get the actual weight of each object. The children were surprised about how heavy/light some objects were; who knew a paperclip does not weigh one kilogram!

In Reading, we are continuing with our non-fiction text connected to our history topic; The Scottish Wars of Independence. This week we were investigating Robert the Bruce and how after the death of William Wallace he became Scotland’s new king. The children were fascinated by the story of Robert the Bruce and how the spider in the cave inspired him.

In numeracy P5G have been decimals and investigating the link with fractions. The children took to this new concept exceptionally well and were able to explain how to convert fractions to decimals and vice versa. Next week we will be looking at adding decimal numbers.

In PE all our practicing for the flash mob dance came to fruition. On Thursday filming of the P5 section of the flash mob took place and the children all danced very enthusiastically (even the adults managed it!). Look out for the video on the blog in the coming weeks!

On Thursday afternoon, we had lots of fun watching the auditions for the talent show. Some of the different acts were gymnastics, dancing, magic tricks, xylophone and trumpet playing, singing and stand-up comedy! We were blown-up away by the talent, and have two wonderful acts to represent P5 in the school wide Talent Show; Ayden and Monica the hilarious ‘Red Magicians’ from P5A and Sarah Kirk’s singing ‘1000 Years’ from P5B. Well done to all that auditions!

Next Thursday, P5 will have their Sports Day Events with Mrs Ferguson. Please come dressed for the weather and in your house colours! Hopefully next year we will be able to have spectators, however we will take plenty of photographs to post on the blog!

Reminders

Homework next week- Spelling due on a Friday. Look, Cover, Write, Check and sentences using spelling words. This will be completed in their spelling jotter.
Please encourage your child to practice 2-10 times tables and number bonds to 100 on a regular basis.
The children have chosen a book to read for enjoyment in class and it would be appreciated if you could continue to encourage your child to read for enjoyment at home too.
PE- Tuesday and Thursday – Please remember to provide your child with a water bottle on these days /

Have a lovely sunny weekend.

Mrs Gilmour, Ms Munro, Mrs Muir and Miss Herd

Primary 1 1/6/21

Primary 1 are having a fantastic week and enjoyed spending some time in the sunshine yesterday. It looks like the weather is going to continue to be hot this week. Please send your child to school with sun cream on when it is going to be sunny and feel free to provide a sun hat for their time outside.
Yesterday the children were very excited to film the end of year flash mob. We can’t wait to show you the finished video at the end of the school year. The children did a great job learning and performing the dance and we were very proud of them!
In phonics we are revising the sounds ee, oo and ai. The children are learning to read and write words with these letter sounds and are making great progress with this.
In maths we are learning to skip count in 2s, 5s and 10s. Here are some fun songs you might want to listen to at home to help practise:

In farming we are learning about livestock farms. The children will be thinking about the different animals which are found on a farm and about where their food comes from.
Thank you for all your support, please be in touch if you have any questions.
The P1 teachers.

Primary 6 28.5.21

Another busy week of learning for P6!

In Topic we have been looking at food served on the Titanic at that time and designed our own menus including dishes such as: boiled hominy, sirloin steak and roasted duck (1st Class) oats were served in 3rd class and roast beef.

In Maths we were calculating the perimeter of rectilinear shapes, finding out the missing sides using the information given. In Numeracy we have been dividing decimals.

We continued looking at our body systems focusing on the respiratory and digestive system. The boys and girls were shocked to discover that the intestines length is more than 7 metres long and if you flattened your lungs they would take up the size of a tennis court!

In Art P6A finished their Space Art drawings. Photos below and we will post P6Bs once completed.

Have a lovely weekend and hopefully the sun will be shining!!

Mrs Smith, Mrs Jamieson & Ms Matheson

Primary 5 21.5.21

Hello,

It has been another busy week in Primary 5!

This week in writing the children were thinking about their Best Day. This generated a lot of lovely memories and we had great discussions about feelings connected to this. The children were using the success criteria for genre writing so were thinking about chronology, using time connecting words and phrases, writing in the past tense and including how things made them feel. A lot to think about! We were very impressed with the finished pieces of writing.

In health as a follow on to writing P5B discussed good and bad days we have had. There was lots of interesting discussion about this. P5A were ordering the life cycles of different animals and insects and discussing any similarities or differences between them. Next week we will be looking at key facts connected to our own birth. Eg weight, time etc.

In reading, we are continuing with our non-fiction text connected to our history topic; The Scottish Wars of Independence. This week we continued to focus on the key events that led to the struggle for independence, and the classes were able to pull on all their knowledge they have learned from their topic lessons. The children’s own non-fictions books are looking fantastic as they build up chapters each week.

In maths, both classes have continued to work incredibly hard on division strategies. Many of the children are now able to divide 3 digit numbers with ease. It is important to have a strong grasp of the multiplication tables for division, so please keep practising! Both classes continued to learn about volume this week in maths. P5A had lots of fun making potions to practice measuring volume. Unicorn tears and toad snot were some of the ingredients! P5B were estimating the volume of real life objects.

In topic we have been learning all about William Wallace and how the battle of Stirling Bridge came about. The children have been ordering the events which took place and cheering a Scottish victory! Lots of discussion has taken place around tactics used and how this helped the Scottish win.

In PE we have been practicing the dance for the flash mob. This has been great fun and the children are already better than the teachers! Many of the children became teachers and were able to direct their peers on how to do the dance moves. We then did some relay racing to help practice some of our athletics skills.

A reminder, PE is a TUESDAY AND THURSDAY. Please ensure your child comes dressed appropriately for outdoor PE. Remember we go outside in all weathers so it is essential that your child has a waterproof jacket/sunhat/sun cream with them! It is Scotland after all! If the weather does continue it is essential that every child brings a water bottle to school – remember we can refill during the day!

Reminders

Homework next week- Spelling due on a Friday. Look, Cover, Write, Check and sentences using spelling words. This will be completed in their spelling jotter. Health-create a birth fact file. This will be assigned on Teams.
Please encourage your child to practice 2-10 times tables and number bonds to 100 on a regular basis.
The children have chosen a book to read for enjoyment in class and it would be appreciated if you could continue to encourage your child to read for enjoyment at home too.
PE- Tuesday and Thursday – Please remember to provide your child with a water bottle on these days J

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Gilmour, Ms Munro, Mrs Muir and Miss Herd

Primary 1 20.5.21

Primary 1 are having a lovely week!
In literacy we are learning the ‘oo’ sound. The children are learning to read and write lots of ‘oo’ words and have written their own books. We are so impressed by the progress we are seeing in phonics just now, the children are working so hard!
In maths we are learning to recognise British coins. Throughout the week we have introduced the children to a 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coin. Today we are learning to order these coins from the smallest to largest value and next week we will learn how to add coins and find change.
Here is a fun game you might want to try to practise these skills
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/coins-game
In our farming topic we are enjoying watching our wheat plants grow. Small shoots are poking out from the soil and the children are taking turns to water them to help them grow.

Today we are learning about the foods which come from farms and will be creating healthy plates with food from all the main food types.
A reminder that there are 3 new seesaw activities to try this week for homework. Well done for all the work handed in so far.
Thank you for all your support.
Miss Daun and Miss Christy

Primary 1 6.5.21

We hope that you all had a lovely long weekend and that you are enjoying your extra day off today.
This week we have had a writing focus where the children have been learning the skills of story writing. We began on Tuesday by reading the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. After reading the story the children worked together to identify the start, middle and end. On Tuesday, the children wrote about what happened at the beginning of the well known Fairy Tale. They drew excellent pictures of Jack selling his cow Daisy to the man for 5 magic beans before writing a few sentences to explain what happened. Yesterday, they wrote the middle section where Jack climbed the beanstalk and saw an enormous castle belonging to a giant, his harp and hen. Tomorrow we will finish the story by writing about how Jack escapes from the giant. So far we have been incredibly impressed by the children’s work. They have remembered the story brilliantly and are working hard to sound out their words in the writing. If your child wants to remind themselves of the story before the final writing piece, here is a video of the story.

In maths, we have moved onto learning about data handling. We created a pictogram showing the variety of favourite colours in the class and have been learning to interpret pictograms to find the most and least popular answers and and answer simple questions. Next week we will be learning to write and count tally marks, create and read bar graphs and to interpret simple Venn diagrams.

We have enjoyed listening to the children’s class talks about their favourite dinosaur. Thank you for all the hard work you put in preparing your child. They did a brilliant job!

A reminder that PE days are Tuesday and Wednesday and that children should come to school prepared for this.

Thank you for your continued support
Miss Christy and Miss Daun.