maths – Page 3 – East Calder Primary School Blog

P3a Money

This week in Maths we were starting to look at Money. We investigated coins with our elbow partners. Then we sorted them. Some of us sorted by size or colour. Someone decided to sort by value. She shared her method with the class, then all tried her to sort the coins by value. While we were learning we were using lots of skills – curiosity, teamwork, communication & problem solving.

A Busy Week for P5/4

In P5/4, we have had a very busy week with all our learning. On Thursday, it was World Book Day and we celebrated by starting the day with “Relax and Read.” Our favourite thing about this is choosing where in the classroom we would like to read (as long as we choose a safe place.) As you will see from our photos, we chose some interesting places to enjoy a book.

We have been learning how to see ourselves as readers and we know that we enjoy reading more when we get to choose books we like. One of the highlights of our week was our first visit to the library. Unfortunately, Miss Marra forgot to pictures as she was enjoying it so much too. Caitlin proudly cut the ribbon and we were so excited to enjoy our new space. It was hard to choose from so many comfortable and exciting places to read. The choice of books was amazing too. Some of us even chose to read some nostalgic books from when we were younger. One of our favourites was Stick Man and Elmer. We can’t wait to go back for our next visit.

Another highlight in our learning this week was when we engaged in Drama to clarify our understanding of a text. In class, we have been reading the Harry Potter series as our class novels. We are currently reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We engaged in a “Hot Seat” learning activity in which we chose to be in role as a character from the series and everyone had to ask us questions. Miss Marra modelled our learning first by being “in role” as Draco Malfoy which everyone found hilarious. Our Drama skills were very impressive and we used our knowledge of our chosen character well to engage in this learning activity.

We engage in Mental Maths daily and we have been working hard on using division to solve problems. We are developing our confidence using the “Bus Stop Method” and this is helping us apply our knowledge to word problems.

Our new Maths Topic is “Time.” We started our topic by having a great class discussion about why we need to learn to tell the time. We use time so much in our daily lives! We have been practising some of the different times we already know e.g. o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. We engage in outdoor Maths and Numeracy every Thursday, and this week we practised telling the time in the playground. Struan did the honours, drawing a large analogue clock with our chalk. We then practised different times with some of us representing the hands. We had to jump to the correct number and we were able to talk about why this was the correct number, using the Numeracy skills we know and our prior knowledge of time. Our next step is to move on to five minute intervals.

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

Direction work in P3

We have been learning about directional language and using it to lead a partner on a short journey. We did this in the classroom and then took our learning outside.

Then we moved onto learning about the 4 points of a compass. We made our own compass and marked on the points. Some of us could even name 8 points of a compass.

We took this learning outside too and even have a task for homework to give directions for a short journey for an adult to follow.

P2/1 Learning this week

Primary 2/1 have been working hard this week.

We have taken a small break from our Romans topic and introduced a mini-topic about Pandas in response to questions the children had about the Red Pandas coming to the Five Sisters Zoo. The children were very interested to learn that Red Pandas and Giant Pandas are not related and this made them more curious. We made a list of what questions the children had about Pandas and then decided to watch factual videos to find our answers then make a Fact File about them. The children also enjoyed following an artist to learn how to draw Giant Pandas. So far we have been learning lots about Giant Pandas.

In numeracy Primary 2s are learning about money and Primary 1s are having more practise with addition.

In literacy Primary 1s are making great progress in their reading and our Primary 2s are learning about reading with fluency and expression as well as comprehension techniques.

At the start of the day before Register, the children have also enjoyed finishing off our Roman Colosseum display picture by adding Romans, gladiators and wild animals in the arena.

I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend,

Mrs Meikle

Learning in P1

This week in P1 we have been very busy learning more about our senses. Some of us have been discussing our favourite meals and what foods are sweet, sour, salty and bitter. And some of us have been talking about our eyesight and making some super glasses!

In maths, we’ve been continuing to skip count in twos.

During RME, we listened to the story of ‘The Prodigal Son’ and then looked at pictures to try to retell the story.

The teachers have been assessing our tricky words in class.

A little reminder to parents- please return book bags every FRIDAY so that books can quarantine and be passed to another group the following Tuesday. Many thanks.

P2/1 Learning this week

Primary 2/1, it was a short week of learning but we still managed to learn lots of new things.

Primary 1s, we worked on our numbers 11-20 and we used our cubes and paired up with a partner to use lots of fingers to show different ways of making the numbers 12 and 13. We enjoy our learning from the board that gives us lots of active learning tasks to practise our understanding and we enjoy our Numberblock videos and our discussions about where we see Numbers outside of the school (shops, buses, doors and registration plates). In Literacy we moved onto a new reading book and practised that alongside our longer sentences from the board. Primary 1s also carried out Class Talks this week on ‘My Favourite Animal’. The whole class had to remember our rules about a quality audience and when presenting you had to remember to talk in a loud, clear voice whilst making good eye contact with your audience. I was so impressed with the amount of facts you could remember and how well you answered the three questions at the end. Well done, Primary 1s.

Primary 2s, we progressed in our learning of the time; quarter to/past the hour and you applied this new learning to your airport/train station theme (where you are applying learning ownership). In writing you practised more of the new phonics from last week (st, ft and mp) and you made some beautiful pyramid writing to learn your spelling words. Primary 2s also carried out some beautiful handwriting whilst learning the spelling of words commonly used.

In our Romans topic we learned about the Roman Army and Forts. We learned all about what they would need to survive in the fort long-term and then we created our own versions of these using card and coloured pens. We had a lot of good discussion on why the Romans used metal in their armour and what the Roman Empire entailed (invasion of countries). We also enjoyed a new Roman mythical story about the Goddess Juno and the Golden Chair. Primary 2/1 are thoroughly enjoying these mythical stories and we will soon transform one of our corridor walls into a storyboard of these myths.

In French we practised our weather question ‘Quel temps fait-il?’ What’s the weather like? We practised our answers Il fait beau, Il fait froid, Il fait gris, Il pleut and Il neige. (It’s nice, it’s cold, it’s cloudy, it’s raining and it’s snowing). We also reminded ourselves of our commands. It was fun doing the actions fast for these!

Have a great weekend,

Best wishes

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Learning This Week

Primary 2/1 – you have worked hard this week!

In Language, Primary 1 are practising their reading, writing and handwriting each week now. The children are learning to read longer sentences using their phonics to sound out cvc and ccvc words. Some children are also blending and reading much longer words using their phonics knowledge. In writing we are working hard on thinking about all of the sounds in a word as we write it down.

In Language, Primary 2 practised Instructional Writing for the second time – this time we ‘walked through’ ‘How To Make A Jam Sandwich’. The Primary 2s were very wise this week and remembered the rules from last week’s handwashing instructional writing. Primary 2s were also practising spelling with their new phonic sounds – st, ft and mp (e.g. first, lift and bump). They enjoyed learning to use a dictionary to look up some words as part of their Clarifying lesson in Comprehension.

In Numeracy, Primary 1 did more work on learning numbers 11-20 and Primary 2s learned their half-past times on digital. The Primary 2s were also given some learner agency in this area and they enhanced a Time Traveller mini-whiteboard game that was introduced in the class earlier in the week. The children went on to developing it further into an airport and train station context and one pupil created a detailed map of a train station and airport including clocks placed within it. Some rich dialogue around time could be heard during this game.

In our Romans topic the whole class loved the Romulus and Remus mythical story about the alleged Founders of Rome who were raised by a she-wolf when they were babies. The children made their own stick puppets and re-enacted the story through puppet drama.

In French we learned the weather and used weather sticks to interact with one another whilst asking ‘What’s the weather like?’ and to answer these : It’s a lovely day; It’s raining; It’s cloudy; It’s snowing; It’s cold. The children also very much love when Tidot, our French mascot, visits the lesson.

In Word Boost, where we introduce four WOW words in a weekly story, the children very much loved dramatising this at the end of the week. They were excellent at remembering their speaking parts and also used great listening skills whilst others were talking.

I hope you have a lovely holiday weekend, Primary 2/1.

Primary 1s, I look forward to hearing your class talks on your favourite animals next Tuesday.

Best wishes,

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Learning this week

Primary 2/1 have had a great week of learning.

In Maths, Primary 1s were learning about doing a survey of information then presenting the results in a block graph. Our survey was about our eye colours. We learned that presenting it in a block graph made it much easier to see the results quickly and clearly. Primary 1s also practised counting forwards to 20 this week. The Primary 2 children are learning Time and focused on half-past on analogue clocks. They made their own clocks and then showed the Primary 1s how to place the hands to make ‘half-past’ times.

In Literacy, Primary 1s spent the week reading and writing. We read our reading books before sending these home and in writing we wrote sentences dictated by the teacher. We had a few things to remember to be successful in our writing: capital letters, full stops, finger spaces between words and sounding out all of the words and making sure to write each sound down in the right order. They then listened to my individual feedback afterwards to know how to improve the next time. Primary 2s were learning the sounds ng and nk and in writing they learned how to write an Instruction. The instruction was ‘How To Wash Your Hands’ and firstly the children had to tell the teacher each step in washing hands – at the sink the teacher followed each step literally and the children understood how important it was to make the instruction very clear. The children also learned about how to write an instruction correctly and they thought imperative verbs (bossy verbs) were funny, for example. Wash/ Rinse/ Dry/. These are verbs that tell us what to do. They also learned about using Sequencers, for example, First, Next, Last etc.

In Science we are learning all about our Senses with Mrs Beattie.

Our topic is The Romans and the children discussed what they knew already and what they’d like to learn which includes learning about transport, food, houses and wars. They also looked for Italy and Rome on a real map and made their own flag of Italy. They learned the Latin words for boy and girl – puer et puella.

Thank you for returning all the Primary 1 reading books in the book bags (which protects our books). I hope you enjoyed listening to the children sound, blend and read. Primary 2s, your reading homework starts next week in line with the other Primary 2 classes.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and I look forward to hearing all your news tomorrow.

Best wishes,

Mrs Meikle

Learning in P1

Hello everyone. P1 have been very busy this week. We’re very excited to see if our sunflower seeds will grow. We’ve been learning about how to plant a seed, what a seed needs to grow and talking about living and non-living things.

In maths, we have been learning to count forwards and backwards to 20, forming all our numbers correctly and sequencing.

We were excited to bring our first reading books home. (Please ensure all books are returned to school on a Friday morning).

We’re continuing to learn to write with capital letters, full stops and finger spaces for all our sentences.

We’ve enjoyed being out in the sunshine this week and hope you have a lovely weekend.

Pots of sunflower seeds in P1!

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