Category: Primary 7

This week we started our Christmas Fayre Enterprise project. The children put themselves into groups of 5 across both P7 classes and started work on their products. Each team is tasked with creating a product/products or services to sell at the Christmas Fayre on December 8th. We learnt about lots of key areas including product planning/design, resource planning, marketing, budgeting, pricing and production. We now understand the difference between a net and gross profit, and talked a little about supply and demand too. We are very lucky that one of the P7 parents Mr Fryer is going to come and talk to us about budgeting next week.

In literacy we continued with our Poppy Factory Recount pieces, and in the “Big Write” on Tuesday learnt about Tanka poetry. Tanka poetry is 5 lines long and has a 5,7,5,7,7 syllable make up. These poems are often about nature and feelings and so were perfect to allow us to write about the Amazon rainforest. We were inspired by some rainforest sounds in the background. The children created some very creative, emotional and heart-felt poetry.

In art we have been very busy finishing our junk models of Brazilian monuments. They should be ready next week, watch this space… We also created our own poppies for our very own “Flanders Fields”, have a look below. These were fantastic, each child created their own design of poppy using materials of their choice. It was great to see so many of them choosing to sew their poppy.

On Wednesday we took part in the P7 Sportshall Athletics cluster competition. The children performed excellently in the track and field events and it was lovely to meet all the P7’s from the different cluster schools.

Mrs Gordon and P7a

P7a finished their decimal focus this week by making anchor charts with key information about working with decimals. They then moved on to use their knowledge of addition, multiplication and subtraction of decimals in the maths café. Each child could pick their challenge level “mild, spicy or hot” and had to answer questions from that menu. The next stage was to create their own maths café. They could create a menu for a restaurant/café of their choice and then a partner had to visit their restaurant with their “family” and order. The waiter then had to add up the bill (without a calculator) and provide imaginary change. Some children will finish off this activity early next week. Although fun to create the menu and pretend to order lots of food, the children were using key transferable skills for learning, life and work.

In literacy this week we were very lucky to visit Linlithgow Primary on Monday for a theatre performance of “up to speed”. The performance touched upon feelings, being different and changes ; all relevant topics for the children.

In Guided Reading groups the children worked together to ask and answer questions using Blooms Buttons and Blooms Flowers. These tools help promote higher order thinking and questioning skills by challenging the children to think in depth about what they are reading.

P7a had a fantastic trip to the Poppy Factory this week. It was great to learn lots about World War 2. Mrs Gordon, Beth and Aidan got to dress up as well !

We learnt about the history of the poppy, and then had a tour around the factory where we saw how the poppies and wreaths were made. A lot of us were surprised that the majority of the process is done by hand, by volunteers who are all ex-servicemen.

We then got the chance to make some poppies. Have a look at our photos below.

Happy weekend from P7a and Mrs Gordon

Today P7b visited Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory in Edinburgh in the lead up to Remembrance Day. We were warmly welcomed along by Stewart and the rest of the veterans and began the visit with a talk from Pete. He told us in great detail about Britain during World War II, showed us many interesting artifacts and even had some of us out to try on the outfits! Thankfully Mr. Logan escaped the spy outfit as a female was required and Mrs. Couper kindly agreed to step in. And, just when we were needing woken up, the gas rattle and air raid sirens were set off. Maybe we need to have one in class?

After Pete had finished, we began our group tours of the factory and got to see some of the many veterans hard at work. All of these men and women have a disability as a result of their service in the armed forces but still manage to manufacture an incredible 5.3 million poppies every year. The money raised from these wreathes and poppies provides much needed support for the many war veterans in Scotland and their families. Once our tours came to and end, we were lucky enough to be able to sit down and make some poppies for ourselves. Mr. Logan was incredibly impressed with the speed at which we were putting these together and it is lovely to think that these will be some of the poppies worn across Scotland this time next year.

What a fantastic visit, with some poignant moments that reminded us of the great sacrifices that men and women have made during times of war to allow us to live in the way we do today. Please have a look at our photos from the day below.

Mr. Logan and P7b