Numeracy – East Calder Primary School Blog

P3A Learning

We were learning to order number to 100. We were given a card with a number on it and had to get ourselves in the correct order. Then we had to make our number using tools in the classroom. We came up with lots of different ways. Some of us laid counters out in twos and explained our strategy to everyone else. Jude had the number 22 so had two lines of 11. Eli had 15 so had 2 groups of 7 plus a single counter. Next everybody in the class tried their strategy.

We are continuing to learn to write a description. We watched a video about giraffes, then discussed it and thought of adjectives to help describe a giraffe. We used a planning sheet to write done the information. The next day we used the planning sheet to write our description.

Primary 3 Learning

This week we worked with partners on our division. The calculations had missing numbers so we had to use our knowledge of family sums to work them out.

We started learning about Information Handling and made big pictographs showing our hair colour and then our eye colour. We then used the information to work out which colour was the most recorded and by how many more.

During Free Play some children have been playing barber shops and over the last few months have made a collection of razors. They spend their play taking turns to be the barber or the customer.

Learning in P3/2

We have been so busy over the last few weeks and we have been really enjoying our learning. This is a summary of some of our learning highlights which we would like to share.

Topic – Ancient Egypt

We are really interested in our Topic, Ancient Egypt and we have enjoyed leading our learning. We wanted to learn more about the Pyramids of Giza and we started off by following a tutorial to create picture of the pyramids. They look great and we were so focused on our learning.

We also learned more about how and why the pyramids were built. We have been reading books and watching videos in class to support our learning. One of our favourite recent learning activities was a STEAM Challenge (Science, Technologies, Engineering, Art and Mathematics.) We had to create a 3D model of the Pyramids of Giza. This was fun because we worked in partners and we chose how to create our model. Some of us used paper, some of us used construction or other strategies.

We loved talking about our strategies and the tools we chose to use. Creativity was one of the main skills we identified as part of our Success Criteria. We also had to use great teamwork with our partner to be successful. We currently have our pyramids displayed in our classroom and we love to show them to anyone visiting our classroom.

Numeracy and Maths

We continue to engage in Number Talks every day to consolidate Numeracy skills and to talk about different Numeracy strategies. We also engage in Numeracy every day and one day a week, we focus on a Maths topic. At the moment, we are exploring fractions in Maths, and in Numeracy, we are learning division strategies. We are starting to understand the link between fractions and division. The following learning activities are examples of our learning from the last few weeks.

Using arrays to divide numbers and consolidate multiplication.

Using Numeracy Tools to make equal groups and write the algorithms in our Maths and Numeracy jotters.

Working in random partners and in groups to solve division calculations by making equal groups. We always share our strategies and help each other. We love talking about our learning.

Literacy – Writing

We are working vey hard in Writing. Primary 2 are moving on to writing a Procedure and Primary are continuing to work on writing explanation texts. We are still splitting into two groups for Writing at the moment due to P2 and P3 focusing on different genres. Mrs Robertson will soon work with P3 pupils, and P2 pupils will work with Miss Marra.

We are excited to share more of our writing with you. Watch this space and we will share more examples of our writing.

We recently peer-assessed our writing again to give each other feedback and identify next steps. We were very focused and used the skill “communication” to talk about our ideas and listen to others in our group.

Literacy – Grammar

We are learning to identify and use past and present tense verbs in Grammar. We are consolidating our learning and applying our learning in different contexts. We recently engaged in a learning activity that we loved so much, we asked to do it again! Miss Marra gave each of us a card with verb on it. Some verbs were past tense and some were present tense. We had to find the person who had the same verb as us in a different tense e.g. walk – walked. This is how we were split into random partners. We then wrote a sentence for each verb on our cards. Mrs Mitchell worked with a group, and Miss Marra supported us with our learning. Our challenge was to make up our own sentences with past and present tense verbs which we really enjoyed, especially when we made up silly sentences.

This is Blair’s past and present tense verbs with her sentences above which she created with a partner. She confidently shared her sentences with the class and could talk about how she knew which verb was past tense and which verb was written in the present tense.

Music

We look forward to our music workshop with Dave every Wednesday. We all had the opportunity to play instruments this week which was amazing! Miss Marra forgot to take photos, so we will share some photos of us playing instruments next week. We learned to make loud and quiet sounds with our instruments to tell a story.

Last week, we used sound and learned how music can be used to tell stories. We also took part in acting out the story to help us understand it better. Some of us were even talking about the links with Guided Reading and Reading Comprehension. This role-play activity in Music helped us to understand the story.

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

P3 Learning

Lots of fun learning in Primary 3 this week. We have continued to learn to use arrays to help us divide. We were trying harder calculations and working out the family sums that go with each array.

we are learning to write an explanation. This week’s title was ‘How to look after a dog. We planned our writing on Wednesday and then used our plan to write our full explanation on Thursday. We are getting much better at writing interesting sentences and some of us have started learning to write in paragraphs.

In Maths we have continued to learn about fractions. This week we used 8 cubes in two colours to make creatures and then had to record it on squared paper and come up with a fraction sentence about it ie My creature is half green and half pink. We also learned about how many cubes one quarter and three quarters are.

In topic we were learning about Roman houses. We found out about how the rich and poor Romans lived. We learned that very rich Romans had massive villas with lots of rooms, they even had slaves to look after them. We found out that some villas had a room called a ‘vomitarium’? Ask your children what that was used for!!!!!!

P3 Learning

We are growing in confidence in using arrays to help with our division. We looked at different arrays and were able to write the 4 family calculations that go with them. Two multiplication and 2 division. ie. 5 x 4 = 20, 4 x 5 = 20, 20 / 4 = 5 & 20 / 5 = 4.

As part of our learning to understand what we read, this week we started to work on clarifying what we read. We worked with random partners to work out what an ‘alien’ word in a sentence could be replaced with. For example if our sentence was Mark looked at the gkdoiaful flower. Some of us replaced the ‘alien’ word with wonderful or beautiful. We had to think of the whole sentence and make sure it still made sense.

Dividing in P3/2

We have been learning to create fractions in shapes and we have also been learning to divide numbers by 2, 3 and 4. We have been using the Numeracy Tools to help us make the calculation and then we share our strategies. We then write the calculation to show the link between the concrete and abstract approach.

We have to make sure everyone has an equal amount. Colin

It is easier to divide the counters equally by sharing them one at a time. Jamie

I used my times tables to help me. Ellie

If we haven’t got an equal amount we can check again and we can notice if we have counted too many or something. Lilly Rose

We enjoy leading our own learning and we were so excited to do this on Wednesday. The council were cutting down a tree in the playground and we were so fascinated by what was going on. We kept going to the window and Miss Marra decided to take us out to the playground to have a closer look. We enjoyed talking about what was happening and why it was happening. We also drew pictures with chalk to show what we could see.

Back in the classroom, we looked at photos that we took on one of the ipads while we were outside and we talked about what we could see. We asked lots of questions and shared our knowledge of why trees are so important. It was then time for Numeracy and Miss Marra adapted our learning to make it relevant to our interest.

We worked on this word problem in random partners to support us with learning division:

40 new trees are going to be planted in four different fields. The council would like the same number of tree planted in each field. How many trees would need to be planted in each field to make it equal?

We then realised the division calculation is 40 divided by 4 = ? We shared counters equally in random partners and worked out that 10 trees would need to be planted in each field. Some of us knew the answer straight away but we enjoyed using the tools to show the calculation and help our partner. We were challenged with different numbers and calculations which we then solved and shared with everyone. We all agreed that we really enjoyed our learning.

Article 12: We have the right to be heard

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

P3 Learning

We are continuing our learning about using question marks. This week we worked with random partners to come up with questions about a picture. We wrote them on sticky notes so we could display them and remind ourselves what to do.

In Numeracy we have been learning about Fact families. A fact family is made up of three numbers and can be made up of at least four math facts. For example, if a child knows that 3 + 4 = 7 then they can also deduce that 4 + 3 = 7 and 7 – 4 = 3 and 7 – 3 = 4.

In Literacy we worked on the discussion, “Should children be allowed screen time?”. We had a great discussion about it and came up with lots of arguments for and against. Ask your child what they think about it.

We are working hard in P3/2!

In Numeracy, we have been learning to use subtraction strategies and we have been learning to find the most efficient strategy. We have been using our Numeracy Tools to support our learning. We love sharing our strategies with each other.

Our first calculation was 23 – 13. One group worked with Miss Marra and we also worked in random partners. Even though some of us knew the answer straight away, we still used the Numeracy Tools to demonstrate our understanding and share our strategy.

We were challenged to keep making our starting number ten more and we had to keep subtracting 13. Some of us were eventually starting with a three digit number which was a fun challenge.

Innes was provided with 213 as his starting number and he kept subtracting 13 until he reached the smallest number he could. This was how he shared his strategy, he chose to write it on the desk using white board pen. He also taught his partner column subtraction.

This group worked well together with Miss Marra and they used the cubes to support their learning. They counted the cubes to ensure they started with 23 and they subtracted 13, they then wrote the calculation on the board.

As always, we co-created the Success Criteria. One of the skills we decided we had to use was “teamwork.” We thought it was very important to work together with our partners in order to be successful in our learning.

In Literacy, we have continued learning about question marks in Grammar. This links closely with our learning in Writing and Guided Reading. This term, in Guided Reading we are focusing on questioning to develop our comprehension skills.

This week, we co-created the Success Criteria as always and we also identified the missing punctuation in The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The story was displayed on a power point on the smart board and we had to add missing full stops and question marks. We also identified missing speech marks when a character was speaking.

We also focused on question words and identified these words on our Literacy Bump It Up Wall. We often use these to support with questioning in Guided Reading.

We then worked in random partners to complete a pencil task in which we had to complete the sentences by adding the correct question word at the beginning, and writing a question mark at the end of each question. Some of us worked with Miss Marra and we were so good at identifying the correct word because we worked so hard. We were very focused on our learning too. It was funny when we tried to say the questions aloud with the wrong question word. We shared our learning during our Plenary and we peer-assessed two pupils’ work using our Success Criteria.

In Art this week, we worked hard to design our own bookmark for the Book Week competition. Although Book Week is next week, we started our bookmarks early so we can send them to Mrs Robertson. We were very focused on our learning and made sure we did our very best work. We used our creativity and got some ideas from examples of bookmarks that Miss Marra showed us. This helped us to create our Success Criteria. We can’t wait to share more Book Week learning next week.

Learning in P3/2

We have been working in Writing and we continue to use our “Bump It Up Wall” to help us improve our writing. We are learning to talk about our writing and peer-assess to help us identify our next steps. We worked in groups last week to peer-assess our last piece of writing and we wrote feedback on the desks using white board pens.

The writing we peer-assessed this week are now displayed on our Literacy Bump It Up Wall. We decided where they should go on our wall depending on what each person did well and what they need to work on to “bump up” their writing.

We are also working hard in Guided Reading. We are learning to read fluently and this term we are focusing on questioning. We start each Guided Reading lesson with “echo reading.” Miss Marra used to demonstrate this and now one of us leads it for the class. It helps us to practise reading fluently. We then split into our Reading groups to work on different learning activities. One group works with Miss Marra each day and we practise echo reading with our group. We also work on Comprehension skills. We have been using questioning cards to ask and answer questions about our book.

We are continuing to develop skills in Numeracy and we enjoy engaging in Number Talks daily. We recently took part in our first Choral Count of the term and we came up with even more number patterns than last time. We were great at talking about the patterns we noticed and talking about each other’s ideas. Our favourite thing about this is when we get to “be the teacher” and stand at the board to share our pattern. We came up with some patterns that Miss Marra didn’t even notice! We could talk about the Numeracy skills we were using. We stood in front of the board this time and it made us all stay focused on our learning. We liked this much better than sitting down for a choral count.

We can’t wait to continue to share more of our learning with you! Watch this space to see our progress in Writing. We are so proud of ourselves!

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

Sharing the Learning in P3/2

We had a very exciting start to our new term in P3/2 as we had our Sharing the Learning for parents and carers on Thursday. We focused on our learning in Numeracy and we were excited to show off all the hard work we have doing in multiplication so far. We used concrete materials to make times tables and we wrote the calculations on the desk. We love writing on the desk!

We showed our parents and carers how to play “Whack a Mole” on the ipads and we were confidently able to explain how this game helps us to skip count. We share our Dienes materials and showed our adults how we can use them to make two, three or four digit numbers. We also enjoyed showing off all the other tools we use to support our learning in Numeracy. Some of were also excited to show our jotters to our adults too, especially to show our great progress in Writing so far this year.

Thank you to all our parents and carers who came to our Sharing the Learning. It was a lovely afternoon and the children really enjoyed having you all in class with us.

Article 28: We have the right to learn.