This week we have started work on our new topic ‘Mystery tour of Scotland’. We have been identifying what we already know about Scotland and what we would like to find out. So far we have completed some map work and have been learning some Scottish poetry for the assembly on Friday. Next week we will be looking at how Livingston used to be and watching some historical videos of the area. We will be learning about shale mining in West Lothian and why it was such an important industry at the time. Pupils are looking forward to creating art work in the style of famous Scottish artists and will be doing Scottish country dancing with Mrs Moyes.
In ICT we have been learning about coding and using Blockly to create simple instructions. The games we have worked on so far have proved very popular and the class are really keen to learn more.
Since the start of term we have had a big focus on learning / revising key spelling words and have been working on them for Smart Start every day. We have also been trying to improve fluency when reading aloud and pupils have been encouraged to apply their decoding strategies for tricky words. It would be really helpful if pupils could continue to work on this at home. Our next target area will be to focus on handwriting to improve written presentation.
In literacy the focus has been on developing persuasive writing skills. Our first theme for the writing was homework and our subject for next Monday will be whether pupils should have to wear uniforms. We have also been learning to peer and self assess our writing which the class find quite challenging and we will continue to work on.
In maths we have been working on time. Everyone should now feel quite confident about o clock, quarter past and to and half past times. Our focus just now is telling the time using minutes past and to. Next we will be converting between analogue and digital time. Finally we will be interpreting simple timetables such as train and bus times and programme schedules.
This term gym time with Mrs Moyes is on a Tuesday afternoon and the class will also have futsal on a Friday so pupils will need gym kit on those days.
