Primary 4A are learning about the environment in class. Recently we have been celebrating Earth Day. We made posters with clear messages about helping the environment.
Here are our winning posters.
Sky Up Studios- P7A
We had an incredible time today at The Sky Up Studios. We worked on our script writing skills before attending and it definitely paid off. In our studio groups, we had assigned job roles and everyone worked well as a team. The Sky staff reminded us of the skills we were developing throughout the process, it was a great learning experience for everyone involved.
Have a look at some of the ‘behind the scenes’ photographs.
P3a – Fractions on a Number Line
Today we came into class to several pieces of tape on the floor. We tried to think why they were there. Mrs Spence helped by placing a 0 at one end and a 1 at the other. As a class we worked out that they were number lines. Mrs Spence then put a blank piece of card right in the middle between the 0 & 1 and asked us what would go there? We then had to write the answer on the card. It was 1/2. We then put another piece of card in the middle between the 0 and 1/2. We worked out this would be 1/4. Then we put another piece between the 1/2 & 1 and worked out it needed to be 3/4. We then extended the line to 2 and had to work out what fractions went where. Then we split into groups and tried to complete the task. Some of us managed to work in 1/2’s from 0 to 5!
Bump it up Wall in P3B!
In P3B, we are very excited to announce that we are going to be the first class in East Calder to create a “bump it up wall” in Literacy. Our Literacy Learning Wall has been up in our classroom all year, and we recently realised we haven’t been using it nearly as much as our Numeracy Learning Wall.
We made a few changes to make our Literacy Wall more engaging and to make more use of it in different ways. Mrs Robertson then came to our class to talk to us about Bump it up Walls and we were excited to make a start this term. This week, we came in one day to find all the photos and everything on our Literacy Learning Wall was on a table.
Miss Marra explained that some of it had fallen off and she took everything else off because there was one problem: it wasn’t child-initiated enough. There are some changes that we would like to keep; however, we are now being provided with the opportunity to use our pupil voice and share our own ideas. We created a class mind map to record our thoughts and ideas about our “Bump it up Wall.” Here are a few examples:
“We could add magic e words to our wall and we could write them on the white board part of it.” Hannah
“We could put up examples of our writing and more photos.” Sophie B
“I would like some black and white for the colours on our wall.” Finlay
“I still want to keep the folder with photos of our learning because it looked good on our wall.” Peter
“Can we put up word that we use to help us learn like we do in Numeracy?” Lucas
“I would like still like to keep our question cards for the wall.” Emmi
“I would like dark green paper for our wall.” Anav
This term, we are learning to write a narrative text in Writing and we wrote our first piece this week. We wrote our story together as a class and we shared our ideas for each part of the text. This was our first step to creating our “Bump it up Wall.” Miss Marra then copied six examples of our writing in A3 and we peer-assessed them in small groups. We made sure to link our feedback to the Success Criteria and we had the opportunity to share with the class.
We are still at the beginning stages of creating our “Literacy Bump it up Wall” and we are still learning more about this. We can’t wait to share more with you very soon. Watch this space!
Article 12: We have the right to be heard.
Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.
A Very Busy Start to the Term in P3B
Welcome back everyone! We have had a very busy few weeks in P3B. We have been working hard to create posters about the “Zones of Regulation.” Each class has a chart and we use our names to show how we are feeling by placing our names in either the green, red, blue or yellow zones. This is a great way for us to talk about our feelings and we shared strategies that can help us regulate our emotions. We were so excited to visit P1 and P2/1 this week to share our learning with the younger children.
We had some great ideas, using our own experiences to help us. Many of us suggested strategies such as telling our trusted adult, taking deep breaths, taking five minutes to have some quiet time, brain breaks, write a note in our Worry Box, go to the Safe Space. The children were confident individuals as they spoke clearly and were eager to show the younger children the pictures on their posters. Well done everyone! Thank you so much to Mrs Murdoch, Ms Rutherford and the children in Primary 2/1 and Primary 1 for allowing us to come to your class.
This term, we are learning to summarise texts in Reading Comprehension and we are learning to write a Narrative text in Writing. We decided to link these two areas by summarising an example of well-known narrative texts. We had a choice between “Hansel and Gretel,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” Rapunzel” and ” “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” We worked in random partners to read the text and write a short summary. We also had to write words down about who, what, why, where and when? This encouraged us to think about the Orientation section of a Narrative text. 
In Maths, we have continued to consolidate our learning about Compass Directions. We practised all the directions we learned last term and worked in random partners to use compass directions on a map. One of our favourite days was when we took our learning outside. We try to take part in outdoor learning at least once a week if possible. Everyone was excited to practise compass directions in the playground and we used great vocabulary to demonstrate our learning.
Thank you to this amazing learner for volunteering to be our “human compass.” You did a great job following the directions you were given and you helped remind everyone about North West, South West, North East and South East.
We then played a game called “Captain’s Coming” where we had to listen to the instructions and use our learning about Compas s Directions to help us. As you can see, we all really enjoyed our learning and we had a discussion to remind us the purpose of playing this game. Some of the children said it was helpful to have objects or areas as reference points in the playground to help them remember the directions.
Article 28: We have the right to learn.
Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.
Article 13: We have the right to find out things and share what we think with others.
Article 12: We have the right to be heard.
Learning in P2/1
We have been experimenting with our new loom frames in class. We like to choose the colours and textures of each thread. It’s great for our fine motor skills too.
We’ve been learning about the Coronation and have been listening to facts read by our Reading Buddies. We made coronation bookmarks.
We were also using our creative skills to make fantastic crowns fit for a king!
Welcome Back from The Hive
We all had a lovely Easter holiday and are now getting back into the school routines. We have had a very busy couple of weeks.
Glen and Alex have been enjoying buddy time! Eoin, Aria and Kayden were working hard together on comprehension skills. Henry enjoyed doing some science in his P4 class.
Primary 4A Gerbils
Primary 4A have been preparing for the arrival of our class gerbils.
We have been doing research in class and using our notes to create Power Points about caring for gerbils. We have been thinking about names for our 2 new gerbils and after creating a list of our favourites we used Microsoft forms to vote for our winning names.
Here are our responses:
The winning names were Salt and Pepper. We cannot wait to meet Salt and Pepper when they come to school on Tuesday after the long weekend.
P5 Achievement in Motocross
Last weekend Jakson in Primary 5 qualified for the Motocross British Championship, an amazing achievement for such a young rider. We are all incredibly proud of Jakson and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for him as he continues to compete in this exciting sport. Well done, Jakson!
Fw_ Jakson Spain Training Camp 
P3a Number Talks
This week we have been working on counting back from 100. We had to share our strategy with the rest of the class. We then used the strategy to work out lots of different equations. Next we tried using the same strategy when the number was lower than 100. We worked out that the same strategy worked. Lots of problem solving this week!!
