Class Learning – Page 5 – East Calder Primary School Blog

First Week in Primary 3/2

Article 28: We have the right to learn.

This week we have been getting to know each other and we have done so well settling into our new routines. We have had opportunities to explore our new toys, talk about our likes and dislikes and we created our Class Charter to help us follow our three School Rules, Ready, Respect and Safe. We will share a photo of our Charter when our display is completed along with the rules that we created together.

We have investigated Literacy and Numeracy Tools that we are going to use to support our learning.

In Literacy, we practised reading and writing Fry’s words and used different strategies. We read words on Fry’s word cards and used our knowledge of spelling rules and sounds to help us. We then wrote the words on the table with a white board pen. This was very exciting! We love using our tables as big white boards.

We also made Fry’s words and other words of our choice using magnetic letters and letter cubes. This learner was very proud that she remembered to spell “cheese” using the “ch and ee sounds.”

We also played a “Pop Corn Fry’s Words” game. This group are showing great teamwork and one learner identified this as an important skill we need to use when we play this game to help us be successful.

These learners challenged themselves when playing this word game. “We made up a game where we had to try and find cards that we can match to each other, like goat and cheese or hand and bag. It was fun!”

We enjoyed exploring the Numeracy Tools we have in our classroom. This amazing learner made a robot using the Numicon. She used addition strategies and could identify that she had made 28. This was her strategy:

“I started with 10, and then I added 6+6 which made 22. Then I added the two’s which made 28.”

The learner was then challenged to make a new robot using eights. She used six groups of 8 and shared that she “started on 8 and then kept adding 8 so I was counting on. I kept adding 8 until I counted them all and I realised I had 48.”

We investigated the Dienes materials and we started to recognise that they represent numbers. Some of us were counting in tens using the “tens rods” and some people made models and could talk about the numbers they used.

We explored the geo boards and used our curiosity to investigate different ways we can use this tool to support our learning. This learner was making patterns and numbers on her board.

Another learner also recognised that some “shapes were starting to come together” on her board. She could talk about how we could use the geo boards to help us learn more about shapes and identified that she has made circles, squares and triangles.

We enjoyed building and creating models with the tools to investigate and explore how we can use them. This learner built a tower and explained that this tool can be used to count, add and subtract. He also estimated that he had made the number 100 here because he had so many.

We explored the reckenrecks and knew that each reckenreck has 20 beads. This learner used eight reckenrecks and explained that she made 140. Her strategy was counting in 20’s. She was very focused when counting which is a very important skill.

We can’t wait to share more of our learning. What a brilliant first week!

P3a Grid References

This week we started learning about grid references. We have different activities to help us. We used the Maths Wall to place pictures in the grid and then have to write the correct Co-ordinates. We had some work on Seesaw to complete placing and recording Co-ordinates and an Alien game to shoot the Alien crafts by getting the Co-ordinates correct. We played Billy Bug and had a sheet to colour the Co-ordinates to create a picture. Lots of learning!

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!!

P3a Egyptians

We have been learning about Ancient Egyptians and drew pictures of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen. He became Pharaoh when he was eight years old and died when he was eighteen. We researched and recorded our facts on our Seesaw accounts.

Choral Counting in P3B

We have been doing a choral count almost every day. We take pictures and put them on our Numeracy Wall. We like to spot number patterns and we write them beside the choral count.

We like to change the numbers each time we do it. On this one, we were counting in 4’s. Sometimes, the people that are really confident find harder patterns. Miss Marra would say the first number and then we would say the second, then it keeps going for our choral count.

by Emmi

Literacy in P3B

We have been taking part in stations this week to help us read and write “ou” words. We enjoyed our learning activities and could talk about how they help us to remember how to read and write our words.

We used play dough to make our words.

We completed a word search to help us read our words. We enjoyed trying to find our words, especially the ones that were hidden very well. Miss Marra gave us some extra words to challenge us too!

We also looked for our words in books. We then wrote the words we found using a strategy of our choice. Some of us chose to write our words on our Literacy Learning Wall.

Some of also practised writing our words in hieroglyphics to challenge ourselves further. We enjoyed linking our learning in Literacy with our Ancient Egyptian Topic.

Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.

Snapshot of Learning in P3B

We have been taking part in “choral counting” in Number Talks. We count together as a class, usually skip counting, and then we look for patterns. Miss Marra asks us the questions “what do you notice? What do you wonder?” This gives us the chance to talk about patterns and share our strategies. In this choral count, we were skip counting in 3’s.

I noticed all the number going up in order, adding 3 each time. Lexi

The first digit of each number gets higher to show that the numbers are getting higher e.g. 1, 2, 3. Struan

I noticed that in the bottom row when you add the digit in each number together, they make either 6 or 9. Finlay

We are continuing to practise reading and writing Fry’s words in class. On the weeks when we are working on a Phonics sound, we still practise reading and writing Fry’s words during Smart Start. We love writing our words on the desks because it is a fun way to write them and it helps us to practise spelling them correctly.

We are enjoying our Ancient Egyptian Topic and we have been provided with opportunities to lead our own learning. We asked Miss Marra if we could learn more about mummification so we watched a video, explaining the process and then we had a go ourselves. We mummified dolls and we even had a go mummifying our partners. Luckily no organs were removed! We remembered to start from the head down. Two of the most important skills we had to use were communication and teamwork. This is what we said about our learning.

I loved it so much because it was so much fun! Aria

That was so good. I remembered to start at the head. Tyler

I started at the feet by mistake but then I started again and remembered to start at the head. Isla

I’ve learned more about what mummification is and how they do it. Emmi

I already knew lots of facts about this but I liked sharing what I know. Peter

Article 13: We have the right to find out things and share what we think with others.

P3B Judo

We were so excited to participate in a taster session with Destination Judo on Wednesday. We had to use some very important skills such as teamwork and resilience. Some of the moves were quite tricky but we worked hard and helped each other.

Some of us enjoyed the session so much that we would like to start going to Judo in East Calder each week. We can certainly say it was a success! Miss Marra was also very impressed with our listening skills and we were all so focused. Well done everyone!

Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.

P3B Numeracy

We are learning to divide numbers and make equal groups. We use counters to share equally and then we write the division calculation. We have been working with a partner to practise dividing by 2 and 3. We have been taking part in whole class learning activities and stations. We love sharing our strategies and we have learned some new vocabulary to add to our Numeracy and Maths Working Wall. Tyler should be proud of himself as he used the word “equal” when talking about his division strategy. We added this word to our wall to remind us that is an important word that can help us with division.

We have also been working hard to practise skip counting. We are learning to understand the link between multiplication and division. We use the ipads on a regular basis in class and we love using them to support our learning in Numeracy. One of our favourite games is “Whack a Mole” where we can practise skip counting. We can also alter the settings so we can challenge ourselves by skip counting in different numbers.

This group of amazing learners demonstrated great teamwork skills as they completed a five times table pencil task. They listen to each other’s strategies and they were able to confidently share the tools and strategies that helped them.

We take part in Number Talks daily where we engage in lots of learning activities to talk about numbers and share our strategies. We recently took part in “String Questions” to practise addition strategies.

“To work out 5 + 25, I added 5 + 5 which equals 10. Then I added another 10 to make 20. Then I added another 5 to make 25.” Finlay

“To work out 25 + 15, I started adding 25 + 5 = 30. Then I did 30 + 10 = 40. So 25 + 15 = 40.” Sophie B

Article 12: We have the right to be heard.

Article 28: We have the right to learn.

P3B Literacy

We are learning to write an explanation text. We have been working hard to explore the features of an explanation text and this week, we created our own. We used our “magic box” to choose a random partner and we wrote our first explanation text on the desks. We love writing on the desks with white board pens.

We explored “why a police officer’s job is important.” We worked together as a class to create each section of our explanation text and we wrote our sentences with connectives and the correct punctuation. We also took pictures of our writing and displayed them on the smart board to help us talk about our learning. We are excited to plan and write a new explanation text in our Literacy jotters next week.

Article 13: We have the right to find out things and share what we think with others.

We take part in Guided Reading on a regular basis throughout the week in P3B. Sometimes, we work with Miss Marra in our Reading group and we take part in “Echo Reading” or “Choral Reading.” We also identify words in a text and ask and answer questions about the book. We also love taking part in Paired Reading with a partner. This helps us to develop our independence and support each other with reading. We read our reading book; however, we sometimes choose a book of our choice too.

Article 29: We have the right to develop our talents and abilities.