Being systematic

In Maths we have been learning how to be systematic when solving problems.

“Being systematic is working in order to find all the answers” – Jaxon

We were set the the challenge to find out how many ways there were to make a tower of 5 using 2 colours.

It was very tricky to find all the answers and make sure we worked in order. We used the cubes to help us see the pattern.

“One colour can move down the tower until it’s at the bottom.” – Aiden

“Once you have got to the bottom you change one colour and start again” – Kaitlin.

We didn’t find all the solutions but we loved the challenge.

 

January in Primary 7

Happy New Year to all our Greenrigg families! Primary 7 have had a busy start to the New Year. Here,s what we have been up to:

We have made some short term, realistic resolutions together. Some for our own lives and one for school. We have them on our wall to reflect on this month.

Miss Watson has been spending time with Primary 7’s doing IZAK 9 lessons which have been both fun and challenging. We are glad to have her back and hope we are distracting her from missing her lovely boys.

Judo has been challenging and Marv is working us extra hard. I can see a big change in the effort the children are putting in and the determination they are showing. Well done to the class, everyone brought their kit last week.

In literacy we are reading and listening to thrilling stories. We are going to be writing our own thrillers this fortnight and some of the ideas the pupils have are terrifying, just the right amount of chill down your spine. This week coming we will work on building tension and atmosphere.

In maths this week, we had a visit from Peter and Bronwyn from RBS Moneysense. We carried out a workshop with Mrs Robley on party planning. A lot of thought went into what was needed for a party and what the term good value meant. The pupils were split into small groups and planned unique parties and presented them to their classmates.

Finally, the class have been having very different break times this last week with all the snow. They have been helping children in the lower school in the playground and being very creative.

 

 

Christmas week in Primary 7

What a great week we had on the run up to the Christmas holidays. Our upper school Christmas party was a wonderful afternoon filled with games and country dancing, which I know my class secretly loved. Primary 7 created the most beautiful class display for the hall as a team. It was a perspective art lesson, a winters street scene. It was so beautiful and I was very proud. We wrote fabulous alliterative poems about Christmas to showcase our poetry work this term.

The children performed beautifully at the Church for our service, they sang so well and everyone spoke clearly. Everyone was very proud of the class. A special thank you from Primary 7 to Mr Darroch for having us and speaking and also to our Primary 1 and 2 who sang one of their nativity songs for us.

Finally the Primary 7’s organised a whole school board game afternoon in the upper area. We all had such a laugh swapping tables and spending time across the classes. With a good sing song too.

Christmas in Primary 7

In term 2, we focused on poetry through our Literacy. We were reading, listening to, acting out, illustrating and then writing poetry. The class worked so well during this project and we wrote a class poem called ‘What does Christmas mean to me?’. The class split into pairs and created a couple of verses each. I am so proud of the final outcome and am delighted to share it with you all.

What does Christmas mean to me?

A poem written by Primary 7

What does Christmas mean to me?

Well, it changes every year you see.

 

When I was five, I couldnā€™t sleep

For dreams of presents and lots of sweets.

Writing to Santa to tell him my desires

As I watched for reindeer flying higher and higher.

Some wonderful years have now passed

And those magical memories they still last.

But now that I am older Iā€™m learning to see

That Christmas can mean so much more to me.

 

We hang up the precious tree decorations

As we look forward to loud family celebrations.

Spending too much money buying random expensive gifts

When actually dad really likes those 10p crisps.

Everyone I love, sitting around drinking tea

Listening to their laughs fills me with joyful glee.

Sitting around the busy table having delicious Christmas dinner

Listening to cracker jokes and teaching papa to use a fidget spinner.

Ā Giving family and friends presents fills my heart with such bliss

As they softy give me a warming thank you kiss.

Spending time with family is so dear

It spreads the love and the Christmas cheer.

 

Christmas is a time to be full of hope and love

Spread joy to everyone, give thanks to god above.

But we think of others at Christmas time too

To remind us that itā€™s not all about you.

We can give to the food bank; cereal, pasta and rice

Helping others in need, we all should be nice.

We can check on a neighbour, be friendly, give them a surprise

Listen to their stories, learn from others who are wise.

We visit our relativities to make sure they are okay

But we should do it more regularly not just on Christmas day.

We can give to local charity some of our old toys

To spread magic and happiness to less fortunate girls and boys.

 

So what does Christmas mean to you?

We hope that we have changed your view.

 

Problem Solving in P4/3

King Lazy Bones (Max) was a rich and powerful man. He had 8 servants that did EVERYTHING for him. He had a driver, gardener, cook, foot man, an entertainer, an inventor, cleaner and a knight. He rang a buzzer when he wanted their attention and they all stopped what they were doing to kneel before him, however they got annoyed when he only infact wanted one of them at a time. He turned to his inventor (Aaron) for help. His solution was to give everyone a different sounding buzzer.

 

Problem – only 2 instruments are to be used and only 3 sounds in each combination. We used a drum and a triangle, and used letters or pictures to represent each e.g. t,d,t (triangle, drum, triangle) or šŸ”¼āŗšŸ”¼. Each servant needs a different combination.

 

Some children enjoyed the task so much they continued it in their RAP time šŸ˜Š.

Assembly

This morning we had our first assembly of the year. We welcomed some new members of staff and children. We sang ā€˜Welcome Everybodyā€™.

We spoke about childrenā€™s rights, in particular, Article no. 19 – ā€œYou have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, in body and in mindā€. We discussed what this means – being kind, caring and respectful to others and using safe and gentle hands.

We reminded ourselves of our Key People, who can help us if we are feeling upset or need help with something.

We were sharing our learning with the school. Emily and Jacob showed their paintings of the four seasons and explained the differences between the trees. They also joined in with the nurseryā€™s story ā€œWeā€™re Going on a Bear Huntā€.

Well done to our certificate winner, Daniel, for being a Successful Learner for his wonderful writing.

Happy new year!

We have had a great first week back in P1! We have been learning some new tricky words (he/she) and have been consolidating our phonics and maths learning from last term. We have been thinking about our new topic ā€˜Winterā€™ – we have thought about what we already know and what we would like to learn. We learned the names of the other three seasons and painted trees to show the differences between the seasons.