Category: Primary 7

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

Numeracy: This week Miss Devonshire taught us about number sequences, we learnt about triangular and squared numbers. After this we made sequences with our partner and we had to guess the pattern of them.

We also learnt about equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions. Mrs. Matos has been encouraging us to use concrete materials to help us to understand better. – Emily

Enterprise: This week P7 have started to organise their enterprise projects for the Christmas fayre. Some groups are thinking about doing fake tattoos, face paints and sweet treats. We are very excited about our projects. This week we decided on who we would work with, and on the product or service we going to provide. In the coming weeks, we will need to prepare a presentation and a business plan to Mrs. Matos and Mr. Logan.  Next week, we will begin to research and cost our products/ services.  – Evie & Esme’

Leadership: This week was very exciting. The newspaper leaders completed and issued their very first school newspaper. Well done to all involved, it was amazing! All other leadership groups have also been working hard on all their projects and activities. We love our new senior roles within the school. We are building our confidence and resilience! – Evie & Esme’

PE: Athletics has been our PE focus this week. We will all be attending the P7 Cluster Athletics Festival on the 15 November; Mrs. Reid has been helping us get prepared for this. This week we concentrated on throwing a ball, but with only using our arm strength. We have all enjoyed PE this week, and are looking forward to more athletics practice next week.  – Adam

French: In French this week, with Mrs. Gordon, we moved onto a new topic – ‘la corps’. To help us practice, ask us at home if we can remember and name some parts of ‘la corps’. Our lesson on Friday was filled with mispronounced words and lots of help from Mrs. Gordon, but with resilience we all ‘picked’ it up in the end!– Dayna

Poppy Factory: This week we were lucky enough to go to the Poppy factory in Edinburgh. After our 45 minute long bus drive, we were welcomed with a very friendly and entertaining talk and demonstration by Sargent Major. Matthew, Adam, Esme’ and even Mrs. Matos got to do a little bit of dress up and role play and had the opportunity to experience what it would have felt like during the war.  During our visit we were split into three groups, we were given the opportunity to help make some poppies, which will be sold next year to help  raise funds, and we were given the grand tour of the factory, where we got to meet many friendly volunteers. It was very interesting to hear that all the volunteers were in some way disabled and some were former marines, soldiers or worked in the air force. It was such an honour to meet so many friendly people, to hear some of their stories and to see how every poppy and wreath is made by hand. It was definitely a day to remember. – Anna

P7b and Mrs. Matos

After a lovely week long October break, we were back on Tuesday and ready to learn.

Literacy: This week in Literacy we have been thinking about who inspires us! We have entered the Jim Clark Memorial Writing Competition. We brainstormed our ideas on what, who, when and how we have been inspired. The title for this year’s writing competition is ‘My Inspiration’. While writing, we concentrated on using interesting and descriptive vocabulary. We focused our writing on emotive writing, to help give the reader a sense of how we felt about our inspiration.

Numeracy: Who knew fractions could be so ‘sweet’? During numeracy this week, we completed some fraction introductory activities. Using real life items that Mrs. Matos brought in, we discussed and shared what we understood about fractions and how using concrete or real- life items can help us with calculating fractions. The highlight of our week was using skittles to show our understanding of fractions. Next week we will be learning about equivalent and simplifying fractions. Challenge this week, to see how many times you would use or see fractions around the house, at the shops etc.

HWB: It’s a new term and a new start. We spent some time this week to evaluate our targets that we set for ourselves in Term 1. We discussed with our partner what went well and learning we may need to improve on. We set new Numeracy and Literacy targets for Term 2 – we all very determined to work hard and reach our targets, using confidence and resilience.

PE: During PE this week consolidated and played our ‘Final’ rounds of basketball. This term our PE/ active focuses will be Athletics and Skiing. 

1+2: In French this week we are revising the objects of the classroom. We had the privilege of being joined by an S6 language ambassador from Linlithgow Academy, Alexander. Thank you Mrs. Gordon for all your help in making sure we are ‘French’ ready for the Academy. ( Dayna – Language Ambassador)

P7b and Mrs. Matos

Final week before our October break, and there was still so much learn. It’s been a busy week, but everyone has been working hard, and I am sure can not wait for a lovely relaxing week long break!

Numeracy: This week in Numeracy we have been learning how to use the Formal written method to solve division problems. We have found using this method as a quick and easy method, but again we have realised how important it is for us to learn and know our timetables. We have been practising our timetables in class and Mrs. Matos has set us the challenge to continue to practice at home. To consolidate all our learning from this term, we completed a variety of different word problems and we needed to use our skills of numeracy vocabulary to know which number operation we needed to calculate. We used the formal written method for all four number operations.

Literacy: As we draw to an end of our Brazil study and comparison, we learnt about deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. As a writing activity we wrote an essay on deforestation and the effects it has on the Amazon Rainforest. Our essay needed to be written in paragraphs, show our understanding of deforestation and the effects it has, as well as sharing our opinion and ideas. We were so engaged in learning about deforestation , that we held a small debate. The class was divided into four groups, each group was representing a party ( Greenpeace, Large Meat company, Traditional medicine and a travel agency), each group needed to use persuasive language on why they would need a section of the rainforest. It was a very interesting outcome.

HWB: This week we learnt about food hygiene during the preparation of food. To help us to put what we had learnt into practice we made some Brazilian muffins. We made sure we cleaned our surface areas, washed our hands , wore gloves, wore hats and aprons. With only 4 ingredients it was sure something very different to what muffins usually taste like.

Home learning: Over the last few weeks, Mrs. Matos has been so impressed with the high quality of home learning that the children have been brining in. From using ‘junk’ materials to create Favela’s to filling a shoe box with items that relate to a book that they have been reading.

P7b and Mrs. Matos

I accompanied some of our P7 pupils along to the Daycare Centre today for their regular visit and had a wonderful time.

It was heartening to see how strong our link with the Centre is, as staff, clients and children effortlessly interacted. I was so proud of Joseph B, Jayden, Finlay C and Finlay B who approached the elderly clients with kindness and first class manners. You were a credit to your parents and to Springfield boys. Well done!

We had fun planting bulbs together and then the children enjoyed a cup of tea and  playing games alongside the elderly visitors.

Thank you so much to Mrs Graham, one of our fantastic Pupil Support Workers who has maintained a strong link with the Centre and taken many children to visit over the years.

Miss Baillie x💖