Category: Whole School

As we continue our study of Charlotte’s Web, we began the week looking at some vocabulary from the book.  We learned dictionary skills, using our knowledge of the alphabet.  We practised together at first then we worked on individual tasks; looking up tricky words and writing down the definition.

Also on the theme of Charlotte’s Web, we have been looking at farming, in particular the different types of farms we have in Scotland and the food and produce that comes from each.  We also investigated the foods that are made from farm produce, e.g., cereal, yoghurts, meat pies, bread, etc. Here are some pictures of our shops and farmer’s markets full of products made from farm produce.

On Tuesday, we began to learn about using speech marks when writing direct speech.  We learned the rules of how to use them, then chose which way we would like to practice using them.  There were 3 activities to choose from: 1. Write out a story changing the text in speech bubbles to direct speech, using speech marks correctly.  2. Copy sentences on a whiteboard – writing the speech marks in the correct places and ask a friend to check it before rubbing it  out and moving on to the next sentence. 3. Find sentences in your reading book which feature speech marks, copy the sentences onto the graffiti wall.

For a first attempt we all did very well, we were enthusiastic and all managed to use speech marks in some format.  There was a lot to remember.  We are good at spotting where the speech marks should go, we need to remember the other rules of punctuation and continue to use full stops, question marks and exclamation marks correctly – inside the speech marks. We also need to remember to take a new line every time a new person speaks.  We will continue to practise this over the next few weeks.

On Thursday Wilber met Charlotte in Chapter 4 of our novel.  After lunch when we arrived back in to our classroom, our Charlotte had spun ‘Salutations’ into our classroom web.  We are looking forward to hearing how Charlotte and Wilbur’s friendship develops next week.  We then made our own spiders webs.  We practised using different types of lines – straight and curved to make the shapes we needed.  Some children chose to colour using a paint wash and some chose to make colourful webs using oil pastels.  Drawing the lines was tricky to begin with and we had to be quite resilient and keep trying to draw the outside of the web.  The results are very good and I’m looking forward to putting them up in the classroom.

Next week, we are looking forward to the benchball festival and will be reading more of Charlotte’s Web, thinking about the friendship between Charlotte and Wilber and how we can be good friends to each other.

Have a nice weekend, P3B and Mrs Kennedy 🙂

 

 

 

 

Primary 3 would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our Shoe Box Appeal.  It was World Kindness Day on Tuesday and  kindness is one of our very important values at Springfield, this has certainly been shown by our community too. We were overwhelmed by the kindness of Springfield families and 90 shoe boxes are now on their way to children in areas of the world where they will be very much welcomed.

Miss Harrison and Mrs Kennedy would also like to commend both P3 classes who took their roles very seriously, communicating very well with classes throughout the school and working hard to collect and organise the boxes when they arrived.

P3, Miss Harrison and Mrs Kennedy X

‘Remember, Remember the 5th of November!’  We began the week learning a little about Guy Fawkes and then watched some films and looked at pictures of fireworks.  We drew our own interpretations of what we saw, thinking about colour, patterns and shapes.  I’m sure you will agree the results are fantastic.  All of the pictures are now on our classroom wall and they have really livened it up.

On Tuesday, a visitor arrived in the corner of our classroom in the form of a friendly spider called Charlotte.  We have begun to read the novel ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and were very relieved in the first chapter when Fern saved Wilber the pig!  Wilber has just moved to a new farm and at the moment has no friends, we think he may meet a special friend very soon.

On Wednesday we had a ‘Big Spell’ event in school where family members were invited in to see our spelling lessons.  As we do twice a week, we had different spelling stations for us to choose from to allow us to practise our spelling words in various ways.

On Thursday we did a ‘setting’ activity based on Charlotte’s Web.  We listened to an extract from Chapter 3 which described the barn that Wilber has just moved to.  We then chose an activity to show our understanding of the setting.  Some of us wrote about it, some drew detailed pictures and some built it using Lego.  All of the children now have a good understanding of what a ‘setting’ is and I could tell they listened well as they added a lot of detail in each of the tasks.

The 22nd November is not far away and we are continuing to prepare for our Benchball Festival.  We had some really close games and I can see that our skills are improving all the time.  This week we thought about our positioning and tried to find spaces to allow our teammates to pass the ball to us.

As we approach a very special Armistice Day with the 100th Anniversary of the end of the First World War, we have been learning the ‘Poppy Story’ which has helped us to understand why we wear poppies at this time of year.  We also had our own poppy factory at Golden Time on Friday.  The children used different resources to create their own poppies – with great results!

We also learned a little about communication during the war as our problem solving task this week was to use morse code to decode a secret message.  We also looked at several other methods of communication during the first and second world wars, the children were all very interested and engaged in this.

In numeracy, we are continuing our work on addition, although we are adding 2-digit numbers, remembering our number bonds within 10 helps us with this work.  If you are trying a maths games next week for homework, number bonds games would be a good idea.

In Science with Mrs McVay we were learning about the eight planets in the Solar System and began to learn the correct order for them.  The children completed a scavenger hunt to find the names of the planets and then grouped them into the rocky planets and the gas giants.  They listened to ‘The Planets’ by Holst and tried to identify which part of the music represented what planet.  Some children have been drawing the solar system in their free play time – a sure sign they have and enjoyed and understood the lessons 🙂

Friday was the deadline for our Shoebox Appeal.  We have been overwhelmed by how generous Springfield families have been.  There will be a special blog about it next week but a big thank you to those who handed something in 🙂

Have a great weekend, from P3B and Mrs Kennedy

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