January 30, 2020 – Deans Primary School Blog

First of all thank you to all the parents and carers who attended last Friday’s Scottish assembly. We very much value all of your support.

Let’s start off our blog this week with a Homework Superstar. This wonderful model of Edinburgh Castle has been created with such attention to detail that all of Primary 2/1 think it deserves pride of place at the start of our blog. There are so many wonderful details which reflect all of our fabulous learning, from stained glass windows, the Scottish Thistle to Mons Meg the famous cannon! I think you will all agree that it is simply fantastic!

We have had an incredibly busy week in Primary 2/1 with all of our continued learning surrounding Scotland and our little friend Hamish. This week we got our thinking caps on and wanted to send Hamish off on another adventure. We all used our imaginations to think of places in the world that Hamish might like to visit.

Robyn wanted Hamish to visit Disneyland.

Ethan wanted him to visit the cinema to see Toy story.

Kayden wanted him to visit Legoland.

Here are some examples of our wonderful work. We are really getting to grips with writing extended sentences using full stops, capital letters and finger spaces and also being able to sound out the trickier words all by ourselves.

We have been working on a few new sounds, h, g and v. The boys and girls are all very eager to lead our learning when we are focusing on a new sound. We take it in turns to stand up beside the smart board and sound out each letter to help each other blend them together to make a word.

In maths we have been learning to tell the time to the hour and half past. Mrs Stevenson set us a challenge to make our own clocks to use. We worked together to position each numeral in the right place and to arrange the minute and hour hand correctly. We then had to change the hands to reflect the time which was called out.

Euan was happy with this activity because he took turns with his team mates, everyone having a go at writing the numbers and changing the time.

We then had a go at playing a whole class Time bingo game, it got quite competitive in the end, but it helped us to read the time with more accuracy and speed!

Robyn loved this game because everyone took turns.

This week we have also been busy applying our artistic skills. Lennon articulately shared the story behind the Thistle becoming Scotland’s national emblem. We had a go at creating our own thistles using chalk and a picture on the smart board as a stimulus. The end result looks fantastic and they are now proudly displayed on our classroom wall.

Elkie said that she loved her thistle once she had made it.

Ashley commented that she loved hers too and felt proud of her work.

Keeping with the same theme, we tried our hand at weaving to create a mini kilt effect. It was super tricky and really required us to use our fine motor skills and concentration. We really enjoyed the challenge and found that it was actually not that difficult. Some of us even created a pattern with the colours.

Sai found this task very very hard, but in the end he did a great job! Well done Sai!

Lastly, we have enjoyed joining in with Primary 1 this week to take part in some Health and Wellbeing and some emotional literacy. We have been discussing ‘Success’ and what it looks and feels like. We all happily shared our own successes with each other and talked about how we can reflect this in the classroom. One of the main messages that came across was that we should never give up! We watched the story of Robert the Bruce and the spider who kept trying to build her web, it took her 7 attempts! It really made us think about when we find something tricky we should keep going and see it as a challenge! We then moved on to learn the Fischy Music song ‘Encouragement’ we enjoyed singing along and performing the actions. We were able to suggest ways in which we can support or encourage our own friends in the classroom.

We have had another great week full of fun and learning. It began last Friday when we were invited to share our PE slot with P5/6. They have been learning gymnastics and were keen to support the primary ones by demonstrating and encouraging them to try out different apparatus. Some pictures below of children moving across the climbing frame using only their upper strength.

Health and Wellbeing

We are continuing to explore the theme of dreams and goals. We joined Primary 1/2 to discuss how it feels to achieve something that we have been working towards.

Archie felt successful when “I got a star award at assembly”

Amee felt proud and successful when she “got her dancing trophy” for completing a routine.

This led onto our emotional literacy lesson which focused around 2 songs “We all need encouragement” and “Build Up”. The children had some really good ideas how to encourage each other.

Connor would say “You can do it”

Vrishti would say “You can do it and I can help you”

Sophie would say “keep going and don’t be afraid”

Summer would say “It’s okay don’t worry”

Mark would say “Keep on trying”

They also had some kind build ups (compliments) for each other.

Louie said to Sophie “you know the day of the week”

Layla said to Connor “Your so good at building lego”

Emotional literacy links to our school values of being supportive, inclusive and respecting one another.

We have to follow Hamish McHaggis on his adventures and enjoyed reading about his trip to the Isle of Skye. We have been weaving using 4 different colours to create a pattern.

We have been finding out facts about Highland cows from books and the internet. Some of the children created a short fact file.

We also used chalks (and finger rubbings to create texture) to draw our very own Highland cows.

We have also been using our writing skills to create a postcard to send to Nessie describing ourselves and what we like to do

We are trying to become more independent when writing. Some children are now using a word bank when writing sentences. They are very proud of this achievement and it is a skill which we will be developing.

Numeracy and Maths

In numeracy we have had a number of lead learners. Some children have been teaching others to play the ten frame loop game, others have been leading our number talks. They lead by asking their peers what they see? and how do they see it?