Numeracy
This week we started a block to consolidate and extend our learning of the 4 operations (subtraction, addition, multiplication and division). Our focus for this week was addition, we linked this in with WWII and money, and had to calculate the costs of buying the equipment that soldiers would need. The children also had to budget. They were given an amount and had to say if they had enough to buy a parachute, entrenching tool and wire cutters for example. This was a fun way to ensure everyone remembered how to write the formal algorithm for addition and to carry across place value.
Literacy
Our focus for this week was on improving and uplevelling our writing. We each chose a paragraph from a novel and tried to make it better by adding more ambitious vocabulary and looking at structure. We peer assessed this work. This helped us to be able to improve work, and our focus is to always try and do this with our own writing. We finished writing our STEM leader application letters where we used persuasive language to share our qualities and our inventions. This allowed us to look at the structure of a formal written letter. We discussed the use of your sincerely when we know the name of the person and your faithfully when we are writing dear sir etc
WWII
After learning about the leaders last week, this week we looked at the timeline for WWII and the key dates throughout the war. Each child selected an event from these dates and is creating a poster to go on our washing line, this will allow us to have our own WWII timeline in class. We also researched evacuees and found out about life for children in WWII. Some of us were surprised that people got to pick their evacuee, and that some children did not have a happy experience. We heard stories from evacuees using the BBC website and looked at photos. We then wrote down words to describe how they must have felt when they left home, but could not used sad or scared… Our next step is to write a letter home to our parents putting ourselves in the shoes of an evacuee.
French and Spanish
This week in French we did a listening and written assessment of our understanding of food and drink in French. Mrs Gordon was very impressed by the quality of this assessment, everyone was able to understand orders in French and translate to English, and vice versa. In Spanish we looked at “Mi familia” my family. We learnt the words for our family members and then started to draw a family tree in Spanish. This lesson helped us see the links between feminine words ending in “a” and masculine words ending in “o”. An example of this is abulelo (grandfather) and abuela (grandmother).
Skills for Learning, Life and Work
This week we had lots of visitors for our programme to allow the children to find out about different jobs. These sessions allow the children to listen to parents in different careers and find out how they got to their current position. The children then ask questions which help them further their understanding, and allow them to demonstrate confidence and an ability to talk to adults. This week we had a Procurator Fiscal, a Grid Engineer (electrical engineer), a Project Manager and a Captain from the Merchant Navy. All the talks were fantastic, even Mrs Gordon was considering a career in the Merchant Navy after this…
Have a great weekend from Mrs Gordon and P7a.
