Primary 3 – Page 8 – Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

January 25, 2019

A Scottish Week at SPS and Bonnytoun

Our annual Scots focus ended today with children from each class presenting their learning at assembly. We listened to information about lots of famous Scots who have changed life for us today because of their inventions or actions.

Primary 7 helped us to celebrate Burns Night earlier on this week by organising a fantastic Burns Supper for their friends and families. Well done to all children who recited poems, danced or presented information to the audience.

Next week, all classes will be moving on in their learning to investigate an aspect of history that is of interest to them and that meets our curricular objectives.

On a Tuesday and Wednesday each class will get the chance to visit Dovecot Park for a short play session, for reaching the ‘1000 springs’ House target.

In the coming weeks, we are going to be looking at the quality of our children’s writing across school and working as a staff team to ensure that all children are being given the best support to fulfil their potential in this area.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading our school and nursery newsletters which were emailed to you all this week.

As always, if you have any comments, suggestions or feedback on the work that we do then please drop in to see us or send us an email via the school mailbox.

Your support is very much appreciated. We always try to listen to and act on your views to make Springfield and Bonnytoun the very best that they can be for our children and families.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Baillie x💖💫

January 25, 2019

Diaries and Nebulas (P3A)

In PE this week we have been continuing to develop our skills and techniques in football. We worked on different movement skills and then we went into teams and played some football matches. On Thursday afternoon we went outside with P3B and we played football together.

In Numeracy this week we have been learning to subtract a single digit from a two-digit number and we have been learning to subtract multiples of 10 from two-digit numbers. Some of us have been learning to subtract near multiples of 10 and some of us have been learning to subtract from three-digit numbers. We have been using our subtraction skills to solve different problem solving tasks at the start of each of our numeracy lessons. We are becoming more confident with explaining our strategies used and how we worked out the solutions.

This week we have also continued to look at time. We revised how to read quarter past and quarter to times and then we looked at writing o’clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past times in different ways. We also compared times and ordered times from earliest to latest. Some of us were learning to calculate time durations using a yearly calendar.

In Literacy this week we were looking at identifying the main features of a text, punctuation and writing a diary entry.

On Monday, we played a game called ‘Princess and the Pea’ on Education City which explored features of a story. Miss Harrison gave us different fairy tales and we have to identify the main characters, the supporting characters, the setting, the problem and the solution.

On Tuesday, we looked at using a variety of punctuation accurately. We rotated round different punctuation activities. We played a punctuation card game, we completed a counter full stop activity where we used counters to put in the missing full stops in different texts, we set up a ‘blether station’ and worked with a partner to create sentences using different punctuation and we used our knowledge of punctuation to correct mistakes on a letter.

On Wednesday afternoon we looked at writing a diary entry. We explored features of diary writing and then we worked in a pair to write a diary entry of a day in the life of Williamina Fleming. We included a date at the top, used time linking words and wrote in the past tense. On Friday some of us shared our diary entries and reports about Williamina Fleming at our Scottish assembly.

In art this week, we decided to create our own nebulas! We looked at the horsehead nebula which was discovered by Williamina Fleming and we also looked at photographs of other nebulas too! We used chalk to create our own space landscapes and then put our own nebulas in the sky. We looked at mixing colours and blending them and we got some great effects!

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P3A and Miss Harrison xxx

January 18, 2019May 8, 2019

Star Gazing, Time and New Library! (P3B)

We began the week researching Williamina Fleming as part of the whole school ‘Famous Scot’ focus. I showed the children a picture of Williamina and they discussed their thoughts on her – the date of the photograph? Do her clothes tell us anything? What do you think she was famous for? We then looked at a picture of the Horsehead nebula and asked what they thought it was and how the two pictures could be related? The children had some great ideas – quite a few thought Williamina was an artist and the nebula was her painting, someone thought the nebula looked like a volcano and maybe she was the first person to discover it.

Image result for horsehead nebula

On conducting an internet research, the children quickly discovered that the picture was the Horsehead nebula and it was first recorded in 1888 by Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming at the Harvard College Observatory. The children made notes on Williamina’s life and we used these notes to learn how to write a report. This was quite a new concept and we worked hard to use headings and sub-headings as well as write in paragraphs, using our notes to help. The children were quick to realise that although Williamina did not always have an easy life she worked hard and became successful.

On Wednesday we had our first visit to the new library. Mrs Manlove and some very helpful parents have made it much more welcoming and easy to use. The children really enjoyed choosing a book, especially as there are quite a few new ones. We will visit the library each Wednesday so please try to remember to bring books back that day.

In numeracy we are continuing with subtraction – moving onto subtracting a single-digit from a 2-digit number, and subtracting multiples of 10. In outer maths we have been looking at time. Reading digital and analogue clocks – O’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. While we are pretty good at it. Some of us have to keep practising quarter to and quarter past and thinking about the size of the hands on the analogue clock to help us. maybe you could practise this at home and when you are out and about – can you find any clocks to read?

On Friday, we were consolidating counting to ten in French and learning how to read the number words in French. We played some good games on the smartboard, sang some songs in French and then worked with a partner to match the words to the numbers and played a pairs game together. At the end we played hangman with french words – it is amazing how well this helps to learn to read the words as the children begin to think about where the letters come in each word in order to be the first to guess correctly. Lots of enthusiasm this morning – great work!

Have a good weekend everyone, more bright, cold days would be nice 🙂

P3B and Mrs Kennedy

January 18, 2019

Time, Williamina Fleming and Play Leaders (P3A)

In Numeracy this week we have been continuing to look at subtraction. We learned different strategies to subtract a teens number from 20 and we looked at using different subtraction vocabulary such as ‘minus’ and ‘find the difference’. Some of us were learning how to subtract multiples of 10 and near multiples of 10 from a two-digit number and some of us were linking our addition and subtraction facts and using these to solve problems.

This week we also started to look at time. We revised using o’clock and half past times and then we learned how to use quarter past and quarter to times. We played a game on the computers called ‘Stop the Clock’ where we had to use our knowledge of times to match analogue and digital clocks.

In Literacy this week we have been looking at non-fiction texts. We have been listening to and reading different non-fiction texts and on Monday we learned to find information in non-fiction texts. On Tuesday we used non-fiction texts on the internet to find out information about Williamina Fleming, our Famous Scot focus. We recorded our research notes and then on Wednesday, we used them to write a report about the life of Williamina Fleming. We used interesting titles, subheadings for each section of our reports, an opening paragraph to tell what our reports were about and a closing sentence to round off our reports. Two of us will be sharing our reports at the Scottish assembly next Friday.

This week we were also looking at using different linking words. We completed an activity where we had to select the correct linking word to complete the sentence. Afterwards we chose the correct linking word for different sentences and then we wrote our own sentences using the linking words that we had learned.

On Wednesday we went to our school library. We will be visiting the library every Wednesday just before lunch. We really enjoyed our first visit to our new library and enjoyed reading our new books with our friends.

On French Friday we started to revise our numbers in French. We listened to a French numbers song, played different French numbers games on the Promethean board and matched the words in French to the correct numbers with a partner.

In PE this week, we have been continuing to practise our football skills. We developed our dribbling skills and worked on looking up whilst dribbling by trying to balance cones on our heads. We also practised passing to a partner and then we played a dribbling game against the other teams.

This week we have been continuing to lead play in P1. We really enjoy being play leaders and helping to support free play in both P1 classes. This week we have also been leading block play. Our block play leaders have been taking groups of P1 pupils and leading their learning.

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P3A and Miss Harrison xxx

January 11, 2019

Term 3 at SPS and Bonnytoun Begins

Happy New Year to you all!

We have had a lovely, calm and settled start to Term 3 and to the month of January in school and nursery.

This week all classes have been reinforcing our school values and this culminated in a ‘values assembly’ today in school. We talked about the ongoing need to be kind and respectful to each other. Staff are going to be looking out for positive behaviour in our dinner hall this term with the chance for one pupil to be crowned the ‘dinner hall champion’, before Easter, for showcasing good manners and behaviour.

Nursery children are going to be learning about the school value of ‘being included’ as they play games and learn to share and take turns.

Here are the achievements for this week:

-A huge congratulations to Zara in P7 for gaining Grade 1 in piano! What a brilliant achievement!

-Well dons to C in P3 who continues to perform well in Gymnastics.

Next week, our pupils are going on to begin a block of work learning about famous Scottish inventors and the contributions they have made to our lives today. This will form part of our work in Social Studies for this term.

You will receive your child’s home learning grid and Sharing the Learning sheet for the term, when they are sent home in school bags next week. We hope that you enjoy taking part in your child’s learning and helping them to practise skills learned in school.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Baillie xx💖

January 11, 2019May 8, 2019

Happy New Year from P3B

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely break and enjoyed the celebrations.

We are well and truly back into the swing of things, we began Monday setting some personal goals and New Year’s resolutions – something new we’d like to try and something we do already that we’d like to get better at.

Before Christmas the children decided that they would like to decorate the wall outside our classroom based on Antarctica. We began by learning about the wildlife in Antarctica – the only two land creatures to live there are seals and penguins. We had an art lesson on pencil drawing and how to use shading to enhance our pictures, then we drew penguins and seals using our new techniques.

On Tuesday, we worked in groups to create posters on a topic relating to Antarctica, the topics were: Antarctic Geography, Scientists in Antarctica, Antarctic Explorers, Antarctic Ships, Fun Facts about Antarctica, Antarctic Wildlife and Antarctic Weather. The children worked very hard and we all learned a lot from each other as we shared our learning. A group of children have also been working on some other art work for the wall, including a picture of the new Royal Research Ship ‘Sir David Attenborough’ and pictures of orcas which are often found in Antarctic waters. We are really pleased with the finished result and think the wall looks interesting and will encourage others to stop and read our work.

We had a HIIT (high intensity interval training) session with a personal trainer on Tuesday, it was a very active session and we did not stop moving for 45 minutes! We did a lot of running as well as burpees, press-ups and squats. It was hard work and great fun.

On Thursday we began our new PE topic with Mrs Kennedy – football. We were working on our dribbling skills this week and played different games that allowed us to practise dribbling. We are hoping that we can get onto the grass soon.

In numeracy and maths this week, we began subtraction. We started off with mental subtraction – practising different techniques and learning some new ones, finding out what works best for us. On Thursday we started our new outer maths topic – grid references, we looked at where they might be used and learned to use them to locate and describe positions.

We also competed our book study of ‘Charlotte’s Web.’ As an assessment, we showed our understanding of the story by summarising it. We selected the main points, ordered them correctly and then made cartoon strips showing these points. Every child was able to show that they had understood the story well as they not only identified the main points, they also realised the ’causes and effects’ that created the events in the story and made the story flow the way it did 🙂 Soon we will look at how to transfer this into our own writing.

We will continue to have Mrs McVay for Science this term. On Wednesday we started to learn about materials and began by sorting objects according to the material they are made from.

It has been a busy week with introductions to a lot of new experiences. Please look in school bags on Monday for more information on what we will be covering this term. We will soon begin our study on a famous Scottish person – Williamina Fleming.

Thank you for reading our blog, P3B and Mrs Kennedy

January 11, 2019

Happy New Year from P3A!

Happy New Year and welcome back to our blog!

In Numeracy and Maths, we have started to look at subtraction. We have been revising our subtraction facts to 20 and looking at using different strategies to solve subtraction sums, including missing number problems. Some of us have also been learning how to subtract a single digit from a two-digit number and how to subtract a two-digit number from a two-digit number. This week we also started to learn how to describe, plot and use grid references. We will be creating our own pirate treasure maps and with a partner, guessing where the treasure is hidden using grid references.

This week we finished our book study on ‘Charlotte’s Web’. To show our understanding of the text, we created our own cartoon strips summarising the story. We listened to a summary of ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and then we worked with our learning partners to identify the main points. We tried to order the main points correctly. We used speech bubbles and thought bubbles in our cartoon strips to write what the characters were saying or thinking.

This week we had PE with Mrs Reid on Wednesday and Miss Harrison took us for PE on Thursday afternoon. This term we are learning how to play football. We played different games to develop our dribbling skills and we worked with a partner to develop our passing skills. At the end of our lesson we played a game where we had to use both our dribbling and passing skills to win! This week we also had a fitness session on Tuesday morning where we took part in different activities to improve our levels of fitness. Here are some photos of us in action!

This week we have been working hard on our winter display for the infant corridor. Before the holidays, we asked Miss Harrison if we could learn about polar bears. On Monday we used different materials to create polar bear images. We looked at using spirals and overlapping circles to create our backgrounds and then we explored using different shapes to create our polar bears. On Tuesday we looked at using the internet and non-fiction texts to read for information. We worked with a partner to find facts about polar bears and then we made our own polar bear fact files. Did you know that polar bears have forty-two teeth?

Thank you for reading our blog. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P3A and Miss Harrison xxx

December 21, 2018May 8, 2019

A Very Happy Christmas from P3B

Well, what a quick term! P3B have worked extremely hard all term and continued to do so this week.

We had a ‘Kindness Advent Calendar’ in the classroom with messages behind each door to make us think about kindness, particularly in the run up to Christmas. We began by asking someone new to play with us on Monday, then gave three compliments to someone on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we were to carry out a random act of kindness at any point throughout the day. On Thursday we discussed the importance of being kind to ourselves. We wrote 5 things that we like about ourselves and discussed the importance of doing things that make us happy and being with people that make us happy. Finally on Friday, we made a card to say thank you to someone in the class that had been kind to us. It has been a lovely thing to do and the children have been enthusiastic, we wrote any special acts of kindness on post-its and put them together in a tin, as the week went on it was great to see the tin filling up.

In maths we have been tiling – not as easy as it sounds! We were using 2D shapes to explore how different shapes fit together and made repeating patterns using more than one shape. It is tricky to make a pattern using different shapes and leave no gaps! We’re getting very good at it though, anyone needing their bathroom tiled…?

You should hopefully have received a Christmas card from your child – if not please search the bottom of their bag! we made cards using strips of paper of different lengths and worked out how to place them to make the shape of a Christmas tree. Everyone worked carefully to do a good job. They are very effective.

The disco on Wednesday was a big hit – here’s a photo of us just before we went along.

On Thursday we did Basic Moves in PE. Basic Moves is designed to help children develop many different gross motor skills that can be used in many different sports. It is also a good cardio work out.

Throughout the week we have been learning about how Christmas is celebrated in different countries around the world. Then, in pairs, we chose a country to research and made powerpoint presentations to show our findings. We presented these to the class. I have been very impressed with the children’s ever-improving ICT skills as well as the content in the presentations. We all learned a lot and this was a very interesting activity to do. As always, our presentation skills were very good.

We also enjoyed singing at the ‘Carols Around the Tree’ service. We had been practising hard and it was good fun singing in front of a big audience.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone and Happy New Year when it comes.

Merry Christmas kids on letters. Contains transparent objects. Stock Vector - 24366286

P3B and Mrs Kennedy xxx

December 21, 2018

Merry Christmas from P3A!

We have had a busy last week of term in P3A!

In Numeracy and Maths this week we have been learning about pattern in shape. We looked at completing shape patterns by putting in missing parts into the sequence. We also learned how to use 2D shapes such as squares, rectangles and triangles to create tiling patterns. We used a ruler to draw the sides of our 2D shapes and worked really hard with copying and continuing different tiling patterns.

In Literacy this week we have been revising our common words. Since it was the last week of term, Miss Harrison let us pick our favourite active spelling tasks and we completed these activities using our common words. In reading, we have been looking at answering different questions about texts. We read a story called ‘The Mischievous Elf’ and we discussed some of the things that our cheeky elves have been doing at home. We used information from the text to answer true or false questions, explored the meaning of ‘mischievous’ and listed other words with a similar meaning and used descriptions from the text to draw a picture of Ernie the elf. This week we have also been continuing to practise joining our handwriting.

In Art and Design this week, we made Christmas cards. We used different coloured paper strips to make Christmas trees. We had to make sure that we used longer strips for the base of our trees and shorter strips for the top of our trees. We also looked at overlapping our strips and positioning them at different angles. Then we used our glitter glue to add a pot and a star on our trees. Finally we wrote our own personal messages inside.

On Wednesday afternoon we had our Christmas party where we played games and had a disco in the hall or went to the cinema room and watched ‘Arthur Christmas’. Here we are just before the party. We look very grown up and smart!

This week we have been developing an awareness of the ways in which Christmas is celebrated in different countries and we have been comparing this to our own lives. Miss Harrison showed us a presentation about Christmas around the World and then we went into groups and picked our own country to research. We used the internet to find facts about how Christmas is celebrated and then we used PowerPoint to record our information. On Friday we presented our PowerPoints to the rest of the class.

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that everyone has a lovely and very Merry Christmas and we hope that everyone has a happy New Year.

P3A and Miss Harrison xxx

December 14, 2018

Christmas Happenings at SPS and Bonnytoun

This week we held three successful performances of the ‘Wriggly Nativity’ led by our P1-2 children.

On Monday our friends from Linlithgow Day Care Centre watched the dress-rehearsal performance and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the children perform. We are really proud of the link that we have with the Day Care Centre. There are published studies about the benefits of old and young learning together and this is something that we will continue to take forward in school and nursery.

Thank you to all of our P1-2 pupils and the infant staff for their hard work in making our Nativity performances a huge success.

All children in school went to Howden Park Centre to watch the Jack and the Beanstalk Panto yesterday. They all had a wonderful time!

Next week we will be holding our nursery and P1-7 Xmas parties and our family church service at St Michael’s.

Please also note that our P3-7 children will be singing ‘carols around the tree’ next Friday morning at the following times:

9. 15am-P3-5 with parents invited.

10am-P6-7 with parents invited.

In the last newsletter, we shared our ‘wish list’ of some of the items that we hope to buy with money raised by the PTA. I am absolutely delighted to say that we have now purchased and built a fantastic ‘block play’ resource for our infant corridor. Our P3 ‘play leaders’ will begin to lead other children in block play.

Thank you all for allowing us to buy such a fanstastic resource! Block play is known to enable learning across all curriculum areas as well as promoting creativity and problem-solving skills. I can’t wait to see what the children build!

Our infant department is looking amazing and it provides a smooth transition from nursery , across the early level and into P2 and P3. Many of the learning and teaching approaches that we use in nursery can be seen in our infant department , allowing us to have a shared understanding about what high quality experiences look like in early years. Our children are able to make progress and add depth to their learning as they grow.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Miss Baillie xx 🎄 💖💖