Deans Primary School Blog

What a busy week it has been! We certainly seem to have packed a lot in this week and as I look around the classroom this afternoon after Golden Time and choir with Karen there are lots of tired faces. Hopefully the October holidays will be a good chance for everyone to recharge their batteries. Our class are looking forward to futsal  and the class novel assembly tomorrow. By the way, next term pupils will only need their gym kit on Tuesdays and Fridays.

In language this week we have continued to focus on writing in complete sentences and paragraphs. We have also tried to use a wider variety of joining words in our writing. Every morning when the pupils first come in we use different pictures as a stimulus in our short creative response writing sessions. The class report that they are already beginning to feel more confident about their sentence construction. Pupils have also been working hard to develop correct letter formation and joins in their handwriting. Yesterday we reviewed the grammar terms we had worked on so far; common and proper nouns, adjectives, singular/ plural and verbs by playing a corners type game which the class really enjoyed. We then worked on prepositions which quite a few people are still unsure about so we will re visit this aspect.

In Number Talk sessions this week we have been working on developing the strategy of using doubles to help us work out calculations. It’s taking the class a wee while to get back into thinking about different number strategies and we will come back to this after the holidays when everyone is a bit more refreshed! We are coming to the end of our work on place value but will continue to re visit it throughout the session. After the holidays our main focus will be addition, subtraction and money.

The class have been watching the Charlotte’s Web movie so that we could compare the book to the film. They have really enjoyed watching it as a class and some commented that the classroom was like the cinema with the lights off and comfy cushions to sit on. The only thing missing was the popcorn! When asked for their opinions/ to compare the book and film some comments were;

“The different accents in the film made it more interesting.”

“It was more interesting watching the film cause you could see more details in the picture than the story told you.”

“I prefer the story because if you listen carefully you can use your imagination.”

We have started work on our Scotland / Malawi topic and began with a carousel to find out what we knew about both countries. There were some very interesting ideas which were great for discussion. Pupils worked as a group on these activities and we were reminded of the importance of being co-operative, taking turns and listening to each other.

 

We have been enjoying our topic on World War 2. We were making a story on evacuation in World War 2 about a boy and a girl. P6/7s have also been “Toasting not Roasting”!

We have been learning to join up their letters. Some of us have been putting joined up writing into our story writing.

We have been doing PowerPoints about World War 2.

We have been using Hitler’s age for maths:

1945 – 1889 = 56

1945 – 56 = 1889

1889 + 56 = 1945

56 + 1889 = 1945

We have been reflecting on our learning from the start of the term. One of the most interesting things has been reading the BFG by Roald Dahl.  We have enjoyed listening to the story and developing our writing skills by taking notes and presenting our information in paragraphs.

Another area we have been focussing on is how we receive feedback and the different ways feedback can improve our learning. “My feedback is to improve my handwriting and the layout of my work”  (Hope)

Our focus in the gym hall has been to travel safely and improve our co-ordination skills. ” I can control the ball with a hockey stick” (Liam)

Our focus in numeracy this term has been to work with numbers up to 10, 000 and to recognise place value.” Primary 4 children have been using the textbook and have enjoyed working out word problems.”  (Cameron)

Our motto for next term is to “continue to work hard but with less chatting!” (Lewis)

The boys and girls have been reflecting on the highlights of their learning this term.

Tyler – ”All of it has been the best”

Lexie – “I enjoyed talking to the audience at the buddy assembly. I felt nervous but it was fun”

Kayleigh ” I have enjoyed PE especially the Jelly Bean game.

Sophie – “ I have enjoyed learning how to draw my mum and dad”

We all had fun learning our new sound p. We made popcorn p’s. Lexie thought they smelled ‘yummy’.

This week we went on an Autumn walk. Joseph enjoyed finding leaves using 4 of his 5 senses. We took leaves back to class and made some amazing line leaves. Charlie was very proud of his leaf drawing and explained that you had to look very hard to see the veins.

 

 

 

This term we have been enjoying reading our exciting class novel ‘The Nowhere Emporium’ by the Scottish author Ross MacKenzie. We have all written a  wonder in our class Book of Wonders – will any of them come true? (Miss Aikman hopes hers does!)

Today Mrs Moyes’ group worked very hard. We had to look through lots and lots of letters to find the letters which make up our names. We then stuck them onto paper. We challenged ourselves by also finding the letters to make our last names with a little support Mrs Moyes. We really enjoyed this activity!