It has been a very busy time in Primary 7, we apologies for the delay in posting our updates, but we will fill you in on what we have been doing over the last two weeks.
Literacy: It was lovely last week to have some parents come along and to take part in our active spelling activities. During active spelling we play a range of spelling games, that helps us to consolidate our knowledge on spelling rules and tricky common words that we often spell incorrectly in our spelling. During active spelling we use our weekly spelling words and we play hangman games with our partners and we play scrabble to help us to extend and build on our vocabulary. This week in active spelling we used our weekly spelling words to create a crossword puzzle, reinforcing how the words are spelt as well as testing our knowledge on the definition of the words.
A couple of weeks ago we had a lovely visit to the Poppy Factory, during literacy we consolidated our understanding of writing a recount, we used the features of recount writing and wrote about our trip to the Poppy Factory. In our recount we concentrated on our vocabulary, punctuation, the use of figurative writing, writing in past tense and first person, it was such an enjoyable visit that we all enjoyed writing about our experience and describing our emotions, sharing our opinion.
Over the last few weeks we have been reading the class novel, Holes. We are all getting really stuck into the story and with every chapter that we read we are getting more and more drawn into the story. Over the last two weeks we completed two pieces of writing which was inspired from the novel. We learnt about persuasive devices and how they can be used to persuade an audience to buy an invention that we had created. In our novel, Holes, the main character writes a letter to his mum. After discussions on different purposes and types of communication, it was very clear that letter writing was not the preferred form of communication. None the less, we stepped into the shoes of the main character, Stanley, and wrote a letter to our ‘mum’. We focused on the layout of an informal letter, the language that is used and rhetorical questions. Perhaps this will inspire more letter writing to friends and family in the future.
During guided reading we have been concentrating on punctuation. We have been identify the types of punctuation that is used in a text, why it has been used and how it can be used in our writing.
Numeracy: We have been very busy during numeracy, extending and consolidating our understanding of fractions. Over the last two weeks we have worked on identifying and simplifying fractions, we have been adding and subtracting fractions with the same and different denominator and this last week we have been multiplying fractions and calculating ratios. It has been a challenging two weeks, with a lot of different ‘rules’ and calculations that we have had to learn, but with a confident attitude and resilience we have been doing great. Please ask us to show you what we have learnt.
Enterprise: With only 3 weeks to go till the Christmas Fayre, we have been working hard on our enterprise projects. It has been challenging at times, but we have learnt the importance of patience, team work and accurate resource ordering and budgeting. Over the last two weeks, we worked with our chosen groups and decided on a product or service we would like to sell at the Christmas Fayre, we had a budget of £20 to buy all our resources. We needed to research products and their best prices, and together we needed to calculate how much we will be selling our product for, making sure that we will make a profit. We have been discussing adverting and the use of persuasive devices to help us to promote our product or service.
HWB: #hecanshecan… during health and wellbeing we have been discussing gender stereotyping and respect. We all designed a poster which will be entered into the West Lothian #hecanshecan competition. Through a lot of discussion it was clear that we all agreed that gender equality is important and that all genders require the same amount of respect, but we are also very aware that gender equality is still not happening all the time and that we need to raise awareness and show our respect to all.
PE: Over the last two weeks we have been practicing our athletics skills with Mrs. Reid. Last week Thursday these skills were put to the test at the Cluster Athletics Festival. Mrs. Matos and Mr. Logan were so proud of all the Primary 7 children that took part, it was a fantastic afternoon, where everyone who took part, showed kindness, confidence and resilience. Way to go Primary 7!!
Leadership: During leadership this week we discussed the importance of planning and organization. Mrs. Matos gave each leadership group their own folders and jotters, where we will be keeping a record of all our planning and activities that we do. It is also important that to be a great leader we need to evaluate our leadership skills and activities that we have been doing. We found this a very difficult task to do, but with support from Mrs. Matos and Mr. Logan as well as good communication with our team, we identified our strengths, things that have not gone well and things we would like to improve on.
1+2 French: French with Mrs. Gordon we learnt vocabulary to use when we want to say that something is sore. We would just like to thank Mrs. Gordon for taking the time to teach us in a fun and exciting way each week.
Last week EM took part in a 5k run with her mum. EM brought along her medal and some photos and shared her experience with us. It was her first 5k run so a massive well done to EM and mum too!!
P7b and Mrs. Matos
