successful learners – Page 4 – East Calder Primary School Blog

This week in P2

It has been great to be back after the October holiday. We have been continuing to look at writing descriptions and working on addition and subtraction in numeracy.We have used our numeracy skills through play opportunities as well to support our learning. We are continuing to look at animals and different climate zones for our topic and learning about habitats.

P 3 Learning Times Tables

We have been using arrays to help us learn our times table. As a class we worked on our 2 x table, making arrays with counters, drawing them on our desks and then writing the calculation. Some people were able to do this quickly so moved onto the 5 times table. By the of the week, a small group were able in their 5 times table so after the holidays will start work on the 3 times table. Lots of learning at each child’s own level.

Learning in P3/2

We have been learning to estimate in Numeracy and we have been taking part in esti-mysteries once a week. We have been enjoying our learning and we work in random partners. One of our co-created Success Criteria was to use what we know about number to help us estimate. We talk about number throughout and use prior learning such as addition, subtraction and multiplication.

This amazing learner asked to lead our esti-mystery and supported Miss Marra with questioning. She got people talking about their estimate and explaining why they chose that number.

We write our estimate and change it throughout the esti-mystery as we work our way through the clues. More often than not, we have to change our estimate depending on the clues and we are provided with opportunities to share our answers.

This is our reaction when the answer is revealed. We then talk about our final estimate and compare strategies.

In Literacy, we are continuing to work on identifying and using adjectives. We have worked in random partners to write sentences with adjectives, highlight adjectives in a passage and add missing adjectives to a passage.

We are use our learning to develop our confidence using adjectives in our writing. We can all explain what an adjective is now and we can give an example. We have been working very hard!

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

P3 Learning

This week we have been learning to count, trying to use the most efficient strategy. First we had to estimate the amount of items in the bag and then had to count them. Most of us started counting in ones but Harrison decided it would be quicker to count in two’s. Once he explained his strategy to the class, other groups started counting in different amounts. Maisie, Reuben and Harry counted in 5’s and Mary’s group counted in 10’s. This became much quicker so the class decided it was more efficient to count in bigger numbers.

We also started writing a description. On Thursday we worked on our plan and then today used it to help us write a description of a Sea Turtle (Mrs Spence’s favourite animal). We used our learning about nouns and adjectives when we wrote our sentences. We discussed our descriptions and spoke about any corrections needed and where we could make our sentences better.

P3 Numeracy / Maths

This week we were investigating the tools that we can use for our Numeracy / Maths learning. We thought about what we noticed and then what we wonder. Some great discussions were had.

You can count with the counters – Harry

They have different colours one each side – Harper

I can make a pattern with the cubes – Maisie

I am copying a picture with the shapes – Illia

I am creating my own picture – Grace

I can make a coloured pattern with the beads – Elodie

We made a picture on the Geoboards- Alexis

I think 10 white cubes would make a red – Mary

Ten red make the orange one so that is 100 – Brodie

Welcome to P3

Today in Primary 3 we found out about each other and what we like and dislike, we showed our ability in writing a sentence or two and investigated some of our Numeracy & Maths tools. In the afternoon we looked at our new library books, experimented in Science and then explored our new classroom toys. What a great first day!!!

Look at all these smart children!!!!

P3a Trip to Owl Centre

This week we went on a trip to the Owl Centre at Polkemmet Country Park. In the morning we met different owls and played a game to help us understand what they eat. Next we got to look round all the cages and try to find answers to different questions. Then we had a flying display where we found out even more information. We also got to play at the Owl Park which had a huge owl slide. In the afternoon we went on a forest walk and played some outdoor games, making us think about our natural surroundings. Finally we got to play at the park where they had a big wooden castle, dragon swing and flying fox. It was great fun!

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.

P3a Sharing the Learning

Our adults came into class to see what we have been learning. We showed them our Numeracy skills by working through an Esti-mystery. Then we got out lots of different concrete materials so we could show them how we use them. We had thousands, hundreds, tens & ones blocks and rods out to make numbers up to and beyond one thousand, counters to show our division work, iPads to show how we work on our tables online and a Maths table with shapes, money and geo-boards to work with. We introduced our adults to some different resources. It also gave them time to read what is on the walls in our classroom.

P3a Problem Solving

Today we were set a task to find out how many different towers we could make using one green, one yellow & one red block. We used the cards to get into random partners. We got out the blocks and worked together on the towers. We came up with our success criteria together. We needed to –