maths – Page 3 – East Calder Primary School Blog

Maths Week in P3B

We had a very busy week in P3B. It was Maths Week and we were excited to find another surprise in our mystery box. This time, we opened our box to find some 2D shapes. This started a discussion about the names of the shapes and we started discussing their properties.

We then watched a video of a shape story which led to another discussion about the features of 2D and 3D shapes. Then we took part in four stations over several days and we really enjoyed our learning. We had the opportunity to consolidate addition and subtraction by playing Sumdog on the ipads. We are developing our independence logging in using our usernames and passwords. We also practised adding coins at another station. We used the till, labels and money to set up a “shop” to consolidate adding coins to make different amounts of money.

The other two stations involved exploring 2D and 3D shapes. We used 2D shapes to make pictures and we also used the shape construction to make 3D models. This initiated discussion about all the different shapes we used.

“We are making a house and we’re using rectangles and squares.” Emmi and Sofia

“I didn’t make a picture, I traced the shapes. I used triangles, squares and rectangles. I learned the name of a new shape too. I learned the word rhombus.” Sophie B

“I made £3.5o with 50p coins.” Struan

“I love Sumdog. The questions are getting harder and it’s a good challenge.” Lucas

We also delivered our class assembly this week. It was amazing and we got so many compliments from other children and adults in the school. Miss Marra is very proud of us. We all read fluently and with confidence. We organised everything ourselves before the assembly started and we remembered when to say our parts. We also sat so quietly during the assembly to show respect towards the person who was speaking. One of our favourite parts was performing when I Grow Up from Matilda the Musical. We sang so well and used fantastic facial expressions. We got extra play as a special treat for all our hard work. Thank you to Miss Baldacci for helping us with the sound.

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

P3B Learn About Money Through Play

In P3B, we love Numeracy and Maths. We take part in Numeracy every day and on Tuesdays, we focus on our Maths Topic. “Money” is our Maths topic this term and we have been learning through play.

Miss Marra gave us a selection of coins and we worked with our learning partners to answer these questions:

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

We had lots of questions about the coins and notes. We all recognised the bank cards and could talk about times when we had seen family members use these to pay for items. We had a class discussion about how most people use Apple Pay or bank cards to pay for items nowadays. During this discussion, we realised that it is still important to learn how to add coins to help us understand the value of money. This will help us to pay for things and budget when we are older.

We started using the money in different ways depending on our interests. Some of us collected one particular type of coin and added them together. Some of us started ordering the coins from smallest to biggest. We noticed that the largest coins are not always the highest in value. Some of us started adding the coins and showing Miss Marra the different values we can make. This then started the ball rolling with a different discussion. How much can we make with the coins?

We were confident sharing our learning with each other. We have photos on our Maths and Numeracy wall with examples of the discussions that took place. We are very excited for our parents and carers to see this on Parents Evening.

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

P3a Money

We extended our learning on money by thinking about answering the question, ‘how are we going to show we know how to use money?’ Lots of discussion and groups then started setting up their own shops, writing labels for what they had on sale and making sure they gave the correct coins.

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

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