P7 have been set a Homework Challenge on Sum Dog recapping over all the work we have been learning within Second Level. Remember accuracy is important -who can answer questions correctly and quickly. We look forward to see your results. You can access the challenge through using your Sum Dog account and clicking on P7 Homework Challenge.
This afternoon, P4, P5/4 and P5 were lucky enough to have a second visitor to come and help them with their IDL topic, Grand Designs. Mrs Deerness, the school’s Business Manager, spoke to the middle area about her job of helping Mid Calder Primary to make the most of our school budget from West Lothian Council. We learnt all about council tax and what this is used for, how much money our school is given to spend each financial year and what this might be spent on. Mrs Deerness even told us how much money is given to spend on each individual pupil in the school, which made us appreciate all of the resources we have even more! We asked lots of thoughtful questions to deepen our understanding about budgets and finance.
A big thank you to Mrs Deerness for coming in to speak to us. We know that this knowledge of budgeting will help us when we are making the tough decisions in our classroom designs.
As P3-P7 now have access to Sumdog to support their learning in maths, and P2-P7 have it to support their learning in reading, P5 buddied up with P3/2 today to show them the wonders of Sumdog. The Primary 5s showed their buddy how to login, how to play some of the games, how to earn coins as well as explained how to get their first pet and how to decorate their Sumdog house.
Sumdog will be used to support learning in school, but can also be accessed at home where the children can complete challenges set by their class teacher. They can access this account at home by using the log in provided in their homework diary/book.
To access Sumdog, go to: https://www.sumdog.com
Learning Intention: We are learning to tell the time on digital and analogue clocks (MNU 1-10a)
Success Criteria:
I can recognise and show time on analogue and digital clocks
I can answer simple problems involving time
I can talk about am and pm times
In Miss Sherlow’s maths class, we have started a new unit on time. We have been learning about how people use time in their daily lives, and now we are learning how to tell the time on both digital and analogue clocks. In our class today, we started by recapping some key time vocabulary- o’clock, quarter past, half past, quarter to, am and pm etc. We then discussed that the clock can be read in 5 minute intervals and used our knowledge of the 5 times tables to help with this. We used our counting stick to count up in 5 minute intervals starting at a variety of different times. We then played a game using our learning hats where we wrote a time secretly on a post it, then stuck it to our partners head. Each person had to guess what time they were given by asking questions e.g. is the hour even? Is the time before 5pm?
We then split into our groups:
1. Teaching table- we were learning to use am and pm times and write them as 24 hour times.
2. Sumdog group- Time Challenge.
3. Game group- Pass O’Clock– we set a clock at 3pm then flipped a coin. If we rolled a heads, we moved the time on 5 minutes. If we rolled a tails, we moved the time on 10 minutes. We had to read the time each time. First to 5 Hours- we rolled a dice 3 times with each dice showing how many lots of 5 minutes we had (e.g. a 3 would equal 3 lots of 5 minutes, so 15 minutes). When we reached 60 minutes, we received a counter. The winner was the first person to get 5 counters.
You can support your child’s learning at home by: asking your child to read the time from both digital and analogue clocks regularly; discussing time durations (e.g. how long it takes to walk to the shop, how long it would take to drive to your Granny’s house etc.) and by asking the difference between two times (e.g. how many minutes between 5.34pm and 6.03pm). You could also try making your own learning hats at home and challenging your child to guess the time.
This week P7 joined in with our cluster primary schools for our second Maths transition Glow Meet with West Calder High School. The context for learning was percentages, we were able to demonstrate our prior knowledge of percentages and learn some new strategies too! Thank you WCHS.
LI
We are learning to recognise odd and even numbers
SC
I can show an odd or an even number in a variety of ways.
I can explain why a number is odd or even
In Maths and Numeracy this week P1a began by sorting out a big pile of socks!
We soon noticed that each sock had a partner, so we matched them up and laid them out in a long line. Next, we counted them by counting in twos. We learnt that these numbers are called EVEN numbers.
Later, we used this game to sort shoes.
Very quickly, we discovered that the shoes didn’t always have a partner when we put them on the shelf. This helped us to understand what ODD numbers are.
Do we have an odd or an even number of socks? We worked together to solve the problem.
We can show odd and even numbers in different ways.
Why don’t you try this activity at home?
LI: We are learning about 2D shapes.
SC: I can identify and name some 2D shapes.
SC: I can describe some 2D shapes using relevant vocabulary.
Last week, we identified 3D shapes as something which we would like to learn more about. We agreed that we would need to learn about 2D shapes first, and so we have been learning to identify and describe lots of 2D shapes. After analysing and comparing different 2D shapes, we applied what we learned to create 2D shape space pictures. Once our pictures were complete we had fun was counting, naming and describing all of the different shapes within our picture. here are some examples:
We have also really enjoyed playing ‘Guess the Shape’. We take turns to choose a 2D shape from a feely bag. Without looking at the shape we have to describe it effectively so that the rest of the class can identify it.
We are learning to make and display equal groups in different ways and write number sentences about them. MNU 1-03a
In P3, we have been learning about arrays. We know that they are arrangements of objects/pictures in equal rows and columns. Arrays help us visually see what an equal group looks like so as we can apply it to remembering multiplication sentences.
We have been getting into human arrays outside, finding arrays within our homes and classroom and making arrays within Maths.
We started by making equal groups of objects and counting how many we had altogether e.g. drawing flowers with different petals and aliens with different body parts. Through making arrays out of counters, play-doh, squared grids and gameboard actvities, we are continuing to develop our knowledge of arrays and our recognition of multiplication sentences. Have a look at some of our learning from in class below…
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Our new topic Grand Designs involves all the children in using maths skills to solve a series of design challenges.
During the past week the children have worked together to measure the contents of our classroom in centimetres and metres. This has involved choosing the correct tools for measuring.
A tricky challenge was working out the area of our classroom using square metres. The children worked together to make a series of metre squares, which they then laid down on the floor and counted so that we could find out the area of our classroom. This proved to be quite a tricky challenge to solve, especially as the squares had to be a metre all the way round.
Learning Intentions:
We are learning what a budget is and why it is important
We are learning to prioritise within a budget
We are learning to measure in cm and metres
Success Criteria:
I understand what a budget is and what it does
I can prioritise my choices and justify my selection
I can select the most efficient operation and calculate accurately
I can measure using rulers, measuring tapes and meter sticks
I can measure to the nearest cm
This week, the classes in the middle area received a special challenge from Miss Thompson- to redesign our classrooms for the 21st century! Miss Thompson is going to set us a budget, and we will use this to help us to create a design for a new room. We need to make sure that it is a classroom that is ready for us to learn and for our teachers to teach, but with some exciting new features!
To help us develop the skills we will need to complete this challenge, we started with a task in small groups where we had to plan a party with a budget of £200. We used our knowledge of the four operations to work out what we had spent and how much we had left. We presented our ideas to our peers and had to justify and explain our choices. This helped us to understand what a budget is, why it is important, as well as how to find clever ways to help us to stick to it.
Next, to get ready for the design aspect of our challenge, we had use the skills we have been learning in our class maths to measure different parts of our classroom so we know how much space we have to work with. We used a variety of measuring apparatus to measure objects in meters and centimeters, and even had to use a decimal point. We developed our teamwork and communication skills by working closely with our group to make decisions and to share out the task equally.
We can’t wait to get planning our designs! Watch this space…
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