Whole School – Page 18 – Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

February 3, 2019

The Victorians have arrived in P2B

This week we began to find out about The Victorians. We talked about what we already knew and created a mind map of our prior knowledge. We then discussed what we want to find out about the Victorians and wrote some questions down.

Our next task was to put certain events and births on a timeline. They even got to find out when Mrs.Burton was born! We also put when Robert Burns was born was, when Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth were crowned and the TV was invented. Next week we will be finding out what jobs children did in Victorian times. Maybe it will give the children some ideas to be able to help at home!

We looked at Victorian buildings then we drew our own first in pencil then in either black pen or charcoal. We will be creating a Victorian street between the 2 classes.

We have entered the world of multiplication this week and some of us have done very well. K.H ,G.M,E.L and J.K were the superstars of multiplication this week. We have been looking at arrays and making groups of things and how we can use repeated addition to work out multiplication problems.

In Science with Mrs.Tulloch we have been finding out about solids, liquids and gases. Get your children to explain about atoms! We made oobleck out of cornflour and water and talked about it’s solid state. Great fun was had by all if a little messy.

We have continued with our Magic ‘e’ in Phonics but using i-e, making lots of words and creating posters of them. Some children have been working on the ‘oo’ sound. We started reading “George’s Marvellous Medicine” and have had lots of laughter so far.

In Music with Ms. Bain we were all playing percussion instruments and were on beat with the music. She was very proud of us.

A.D ‘s Show and Tell on Aviemore and our Scottish Learning Display.

Hope that you’re all keeping warm this weekend.

Love from P2B and Mrs.Burton

February 1, 2019May 8, 2019

P3B – Time Superstars!

This week we helped P1 children with Education City. We showed them how to log onto a netbook, helped them to find the website and type in their usernames and passwords and then helped them to play some games of their choice. Mrs Kennedy was very impressed with how patient we were and how well we explained what to do. We were also mindful not to do everything for the P1s but to help them to do it for themselves – they will learn much better that way.

In literacy, we worked on our spelling pattern – ‘ed’ ending words and revisited alphabetical order. Some children were becoming more secure with finding words in the dictionary – trying to open the book near the letter they wanted according to where that letter comes in the alphabet. Some children were putting words in alphabetical order – sometimes having to look at the third letter to do this as the first two were the same.

We also began our History trail topic. Last week the children chose the camera as the invention they would like to learn more about. We will look at the history of cameras, a little on how they work and how cameras are used today.

We began by thinking about all the ways cameras feature in our lives today. Together we came up with lots of answers. For example, to communicate – pictures in newspapers, magazines and on the internet, speed cameras, x-rays, to name a few.

Next week we will learn about the very first cameras and begin to think about how they work.

In numeracy and maths, we have been continuing with subtraction. It was quite tricky this week as we were learning mental maths strategies of subtracting near multiples of 10 (9, 11. 29, 31…) from 2-digit numbers. We were subtracting the nearest 10 and then had to remember to add one if the original number ended in a 9 and to take another away if it ended in a 1. This required a lot of resilience as quite a few had to keep trying when their first answers weren’t correct. We kept at it though and we’re getting there now.

On Thursday we looked again at time. Concentrating on quarter to and quarter past. Some children were learning am and pm times. When Mrs Kennedy marked our work, she discovered that a lot of children were struggling to read the correct hour when it was quarter to. To help us we made clocks and practised setting them to ‘quarter to’ times read the times out loud, explaining where the hands were. This seems to have helped and we are much more confident now.

We have also been very busy coming up with ideas and writing the script for our assembly – words will come home next week and I might be asking for some props too!

Have a lovely weekend, wrap up warm.

P3B and Mrs Kennedy

February 1, 2019

This Week’s News in School and Nursery

Today we held an assembly to mark UNICEF’s ‘Safe Internet Day.’ This term all classes across school undertake a block of work on Internet safety. Today was an introduction to the work that will follow. All children learned about how they should stay safe online and to approach an adult with any worries.

We take our responsibility in the area of Internet Safety extremely seriously as we work to safeguard all children in school. Please ask your children to share some of the information that they learned today.

Thank you to all parents who completed our recent Health and Wellbeing survey. We hope that you have managed to read our responses and how we have put in place actions for any points raised, in the ‘you say, we did’ document, which was emailed out to you all this week.

As always, please get in touch with any concerns or with feedback as to how we can do things better. We are trying very hard and we do want to get things right for each and every child.

There have been numerous achievements this week including the following:

-L in P2 brought along his Victorian coin collection to show me! What an amazing collection he has!

-Our Fizzy Fingers group, led by Mrs Scott have been busy making Scottie dog mobiles!

-A in P6 wrote an amazing letter to Scotrail to say how he thinks the train services could be improved. He got a very lengthy reply! Great writing A!

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Baillie xx💖

February 1, 2019

Primary 5 w/e 1st February 2019

We are the upper school class of the week this week!!

This week we learned a little bit about Charles Rennie MacKintosh. We then recreated a rose on a stained glass window in this style.

In maths, some of us were adding money and others were calculating best value for money. We’ll continue to explore this next week.

Our storywriting this week was based around a polar bear. We also included characters from our class novel in our stories.

We were reading graphic scores in music this week.

In science we were separating materials using sieves that we made ourselves.

We looked at speech marks and how to use them accurately in our written work. Some of us also explored indirect speech and how this is used.

We finished our handball block in PE this week, with a series of mini games.

January 26, 2019

A very Scottish week in Primary 2B

Well we have certainly been busy with our Scottish focus this week. We have been learning about Kirkpatrick MacMillan who invented the bicycle. He rode the first one, made of iron, all the way to Glasgow from his home in Dumfries. What a feat! The children then designed their own bicycles and either used straws or charcoal to create them. Some brilliant designs. Well done P2B.
We celebrated Burns today with singing some Scottish songs with Ms.Bain, then we watched A.L from P4 perform her Highland Fling. She was brilliant.

Our winners in the Poetry recital and the class dressed up.

This was followed by refreshments of shortbread and juice. We then listened to the Gruffalo in Scots. After watching a powerpoint about tartan, we designed our own. Some great results. The afternoon was finished off with some of the children reciting poems. Well done to the children who confidently stood up to do their poems.
On Friday some of the class presented what we have learnt in the last 2 weeks, at assembly.
In Phonics we have continued with the magic ‘e’ but with ‘i’. So some of our words have been pipe, kite and my particular favourite – wine. The other group have been learning words with ‘oa’ and ‘ow’ in.

Some model making:

Cosmic yoga in P2B.

We have continued with money this week and working out what coins we need to make up certain amounts. Next week we will move onto multiplication.
So a busy week for us all and now we can look forward to our Haggis, Neeps and Tatties this weekend. Enjoy everyone.
Love from
P2B and Mrs.Burton

January 25, 2019May 8, 2019

Busy, Busy P3B

During reading on a Monday, while each group is getting their new book, the others have reading tasks to work on. This week we looked at identifying the main features of a story – the main characters, supporting characters, setting/s, the problem in the story and how the problem was resolved. The children worked in their reading groups, deciding together which book to use for the task. The groups worked well and there was lots of good discussion as they studied the stories closely.

On Tuesday we looked again at punctuation – our learning outcome is to use capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks correctly every time we write. The tricky part is transferring our learning into all of our writing and not just the lessons when we are specifically looking at punctuation. The activities were good fun and hopefully memorable enough for us to remember correct punctuation, the first time, every time we write. A brought in the balloons from his birthday party last weekend, we had great fun trying to make as many words as possible with the letters. We wrote a long list of words and this was a very popular activity – thank you!

In numeracy we have been trying some problem solving at the beginning of each lesson – applying the skills we have been learning. This week we had to use our mental subtraction knowledge to think of as many ways to make a different number each day. We will continue with various problem solving activities to encourage the application of our learning to help us to deepen our understanding.

We finished our mini topic on Williamina Fleming this week. We did some space chalk drawings. It was good to work with chalk and we created some very good effects when we gently rubbed the colours together.

We also wrote diary entries of a day in the life of Williamina. We made the date 1888 and described what Williamina’s day might have been like the day she discovered the Horsehead nebula. We thought about what life might have been like in 1888, food, transport, etc and how Williamina might have felt on that day. We worked with a partner and typed our diary entries onto word. Our checklist helped us to remember to write the date, write in first person and to describe the day in the correct order. Everyone produced a very good diary entry and our word processing skills are getting quite good too.

On Thursdays I have been taking the children outside for PE. Last week we were very fortunate to have Mr Fyfe with us, who is an experienced football coach and referee. He took us for some drills and refereed a game at the end. I learned a lot too and I will be able to add the drills into my lessons.

On Friday, N, S and C presented at our ‘Famous Scots’ assembly. N read his detailed Williamina Fleming report and S and C read the very good diary entry they wrote together. Great work boys and well done for being so confident today too.

Have a lovely weekend, enjoy your haggis 😉

P3B and Mrs Kennedy

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, 2019January 25, 2019

Joining letters, bicycles and Burns in P2A

In Phonics we continued our work on magic e; this week looking at i-e split digraph. We used magnetic boards and read the word before and after adding the magic e.

In Handwriting we are beginning to learn some joins. We are finding this tricky but we love a challenge! We know that we don’t join from a b or from a letter with a tail. If you would like to practise at home, here are some words to to have a go at joining: bed beg big

In Maths we continued with our work on money, this week exploring amounts more than £1. We know that the £ sign goes before the number and that we don’t need a p sign.

Here’s a great money demonstration tool you can use to support your child with counting money:

http://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/coinCalculator/index.html

For our Scottish focus this week we learned about Kirkpatrick MacMillian, the inventor of the bicycle. He was a blacksmith who made a bicycle out of iron. It must have been very heavy! Well done CS who listened carefully to the information and drew an excellent picture of Kirkpatrick and his bicycle.

We invented our own bicycles and labelled the parts, here are some of our creations:

On Thursday we had our Burns Celebration. AL from P4 came to perform ‘The Highland Fling’ and to talk to us about highland dancing, we were very impressed! We listened to the Gruffalo in Scots, ate shortbread and designed our own tartan. Some of us read a Scots poem to the class, well done to LC who won the prize for his poetry reading. The children all looked the part in their tartan, thank you for helping with this 🙂

RW has been busy making books to read to the class. She wrote an excellent book about hand washing, well done, RW! This has sparked enthusiasm and many children are now making and writing books during free play.

Well done to the boys and girls who spoke about our learning in assembly on Friday:

Next week we will begin learning about the Victorians. If you have any interesting books or artifacts at home that we could look at please send them in.

Have a lovely weekend,

Love P2A and Mrs Bell x

January 20, 2019

The Researchers in P2B

We began the week as researchers as part of our focus on Famous Scots. We used the netbooks to find out about the life of Eric Liddell – the famous Scottish runner who won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics, even though it wasn’t the race he had trained for. We took notes and then wrote up a fact file. Found out lots of facts.

Then we looked how our legs and arms move when we run and used strips of paper to make running models. Lots of fun and amusement but some great results.

In Phonics we learnt about the power of the magic ‘e’ and by sprinkling a little bit of magic a word can change, for example ‘car’ becomes ‘care’. Get your child to give you some examples. The other group in the class did the sounds ‘igh’ and ‘y’.

We have been working with money this week and can recognise the coins up to £1 and what coins to use for different amounts, although some of us need to remember that we don’t get 4p’s and 6p’s!!

We visited the new library for the first time this week and can choose a new book on a Wednesday, so need to return our books on a Wednesday.

So joined up writing has begun in P2B and we made a very good first effort joining our e’s to other letters like d and g.

E.B celebrated his success with the class by bringing in his football trophy to show them. A.O and A.D also celebrated their success on the Hall of Fame.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and looking forward to our Our Burns celebrations on Thursday afternoon. If anyone has skills they can share with us, in Highland dancing, Burns poetry or Scottish songs, we’d love to hear from you.

Love from P2B and Mrs.Burton

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