Author: Mrs Gordon

Literacy

This week it was all about instruction writing. Mrs Gordon sounded the air raid siren and we all went under our desks. We learnt about imperative (bossy) verbs and were able to create clear and concise instructions of what to do in an Air Raid, had we been living during WW2. We then turned our instructions into a booklet.

Numeracy

We have been consolidating our learning about time this week, by using our knowledge to interpret and ask questions about timetables. We had to use inverse operations and empty number lines to help us.

 

French

We had a lot of fun making a map or the school and a treasure hunt during French when we learnt about directions and rooms in a school. We had to ask a partner things like “Ou est la gymnase?” and they would instruct us the way to go.

Art

Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy was our inspiration this week as we created our own environmental art. We learned that environmental art was made from completely natural materials and could be left to let nature take it’s course. Here are a few of our creations.

WWII

What a wonderful week of Class Talks. We had a few technical issues so 3 will be finished next week, but well done to everyone so far. The quality was fantastic and ranged from talks on spies and SOE’s to family recounts. A true privilege to hear them all. We also had some fantastic Morrison and Anderson shelters as you can see below. The effort again was tremendous. Well done everyone.

Numeracy

We started our revision of weight and measure this week, converting from grams to kilograms, kg to tonnes and vice versa. we also did some word problems with weight and looked at the difference of mass and weight and how much we would weigh on different planets due to gravity.

Literacy

This week we looked at imagery and figurative language to try and help us up level our writing. In groups we looked at our group novel and found examples of imagery and figurative language. We found that some authors are better than others at using this to help us visualise. We also peer and self assessed our Lion King recounts which were excellent.

 

 

Well what a busy few weeks !

Lion King – I couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of the children for the hard work they put into the Lion King. We had a great photo session last Monday in full costume and make up. Our dress rehearsals came with a few problems, but by showtime everything went very smoothly. We have had fantastic feedback from parents, carers, friends and staff; you should all be very proud. The children had a great party last Friday to celebrate.

Literacy – We started a Lion King mind map last week and then started to write the recount this week. The aim is to reflect on the process from start to finish and write about what we enjoyed and what we would do differently. I’m looking forward to reading each individual opinion.

We finished watching Wonder last week, and I managed to not cry…we had a great discussion afterwards about what was different in the book and the film and why. This week the children started writing a comparative essay.

Numeracy – Our focus moved to multiplication this week and use of the formal algorithm (or written method). All children worked really hard and were able to move onto long multiplication where they multiplied 2,3 or 4 digits by 2 digits.

WWII – We had 2 guests this week to tell us all about the War at Sea. My Auntie Linda Darroch talked to the children on Tuesday about the First Air Raid of WWII which took place in the Firth of Forth. The target of the attack was the HMS Hood which was in Rosyth Dockyards for a refit, however it was the HMS Southampton which was hit and the ship that my Grandfather (now 100) who was a Royal Marine was on. Linda told us all about Primary and Secondary sources of information and the story of this historic event. Then on Thursday Sandy Boiling came in to talk about the story behind the sinking of the HMS Hood and the Bismarck. The children were fascinated with this presentation, and Sandy brought with him copies newspapers from the day to show how the media portrayed such events. We were very lucky to have such interesting speakers.

Spanish – In Spanish this week we learned about “La comida” food. We did some role play exercises of ordering food in a restaurant and had to use our knowledge of French and English to help us match up Spanish and English food items.

PE – We have lots of opportunities for sport this term. We started tag rugby last week, which is going very well apart from all the injuries…On Tuesday some of the children took part in Golf sessions at Kingsfield, which they loved. SD was the P7a star golfer! Well done S. Mr Logan also continued his athletics work and was pleased with the progress the children are making.

Happy long weekend from Mrs Gordon.

 

Numeracy

This week we finished our work on angles. Everyone was able to identify acute, right, obtuse, straight and reflex angles. We also worked on drawing and measuring angles as well as solving problems with missing angles.  We then moved onto coordinates and direction. We looked at coordinates in all 4 quadrants and were able to name and plot them accurately. To finish off and consolidate our learning we played battleships with a partner.

Literacy

Last week in literacy we started poems with Mrs Lawrie to demonstrate use of abstract and proper nouns. We then used this knowledge to create a poem which also included lots of figurative language. We finished our class novel “Wonder” which we all agreed was really wonderful…and we have started watching the DVD. We are taking notes and next week will write a comparative piece on the novel and film.

French

In French we looked at the names of body parts. We can all now sing “tete, epaules, genous, pieds” (head, shoulders, knees and toes) in French. We wrote a few sentences about a monster and a partner had to draw the monster, some had about 5 heads…Next week we will use our knowledge of body parts to describe when something hurts.

WWII

This week we finished our Propaganda posters where we had to choose a slogan and use persuasive language to convince the audience to do what we needed. We then went on to hear about and research the Blitz. In partners the children picked a British city that was impacted by the Blitz and used the netbooks to find out some key facts. We shall continue our research next week.

Skills for Learning, Life and Work

We had 2 visitors this week : Mr Vereker who told us about his job in rope access, and Mr Matheson who told us about his job as a software writer as well as other software related jobs. Both talks were very interesting, and as with all of these talks, gave the children an idea of the types of jobs that exist that they may not know about.

Have a wonderful weekend, looking forward to seeing you all at the Lion King next week.

Mrs Gordon and P7a

 

 

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.

 

 

Numeracy

This week we continued our work with volume and capacity. We used the formula V = l x b x h to calculate the volume of objects. We also solved word problems about volume and capacity, and had lots of fun making colourful mocktails where we had to accurately measure coloured water and follow a recipe. In problem solving we jumped back to fractions, decimals and percentages and had to solve word problems using what we remembered.

Literacy

In writing this week we started our STEM Engineer Leaders letters. This is a competition that Mrs Tulloch will enter us for where we have to explain what skills we possess and our idea for an invention. Based on our idea and how well we sell ourselves our entries may make it to the final. The winning entries in Scotland are made by students at Strathclyde University. This week we focused on planning the letter and deciding the contents of each paragraph, next week we will write the letters.

WWII

Everyone was very excited to start our new IDL topic WWII. We started by listening to Neville Chamberlain declare war on Germany and led on to discuss the Allies and Axis powers and their leaders. The children did a little research on the leaders and then they chose a leader to create a portrait of. The leader photo was cut in half and the children had to recreate the other half thinking about proportion, shade, scale, symmetry etc

Lion King

We were all disappointed that our show was postponed due to the weather, but all agree it will be amazing when the time comes. We stopped all Lion King work on Monday and will pick it back up week beginning 16th April. A huge thank you to all our wonderful parent and grandparent helpers, we could not have done it without you all, the show will be amazing on the 24th and 25th April.

Happy weekend

Mrs Gordon and P7a