Spring Forward in Learning and Life – Becoming. Belonging. Believing.
As part our our GIRFEC ‘Safe’ Wellbeing Indicator, we learned about keeping safe on roads this week. Thank you to Mrs McAlpine and her Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) for sharing this year’s campaign, ‘Slow Down, Save Lives’ with us. Children have been learning about the dangers of speeding drivers and are asked to remind their adult to slow down when driving to help prevent deaths on the road. An important message delivered well. Thank you to all involved.
Miss Baillie x
In Assembly this week, Mr Wells shared our new Vision, Values and Aims. We are really excited with what we have created and are grateful to all parents, pupils and staff who contributed. Watch out for our Vison, Values and Aims in all of our publications and around school in the next few weeks and months ahead. Mr Wells and I have even created actions to go with each value so that the children remember them! We plan to make our Vision and our Values alive and at the heart of our school.
We also launched our new achievement certificates, linked into our Vison and Values and these will be presented regularly at assembly. Here are the first group of infant children to get an award:
We also had a number of birthdays in our infant school this week… congratulations and ‘happy birthday’ to you all!
Our Primary 7 children revived their new school ties two weeks ago and this week their ‘Friday hoodies’ arrived. They all look very smart in their new uniforms and stand out from the rest of the children in the school as young leaders. What a great bunch they all are!
Our nursery children have now finished creating their turnip patch with an Enomous Turnip included! Thank you to all parents for handing in a turnip! The children have enjoyed investigating the different sizes, shapes and tones as part of their Literacy and Numeracy skills development.
I hope that you had a happy weekend everyone. Remember that next Friday, 1st December, is ‘dress down’ and ‘bring a chocolate item to school’ for the PTA tombolla at the Xmas Fayre.
Miss Baillie x
We have been busy once again in P6A. With so much going on there is no time to waste but plenty of time for fun and learning.
This week in Literacy we completed an active spelling task. We used magazines to find the different letters that would be used to make up our spelling words. This was great fun, and this has helped us to reinforce our weekly spelling words. We are continuing to read our book Wonder, the book has taken a slight twist, where the narrator is no longer the main character, August, but rather this time it is his sister, Via. Via quotes a line from the song Space Oddity, we had a look at the songs lyrics and shared our ideas and thoughts on how the song links to the novel. In the novel, Via describes one of her favourite, most special days she had with her Gran, we had an opportunity during Literacy to use descriptive writing to write about a day that was very special to us.
Over the last week, we have been looking at angles in Maths. We looked at how we are able to identify different types and angles. We used pinboards and bands as concrete materials to create different shapes, and then identify the different angles that can be found in the shapes. Later on in the week we used a protractor to start to measure angles. At home ask us to find different angles in the environment and see if we can tell you what the angle is called.
IDL this week we completed a KWL ( What I know, what I want to know and What I have learned) chart based on the Scottish Parliament. From the discussions and knowledge we shared in class, this seems like it is going to be a very interesting topic we are going to learn about. We used the netbooks to research the history of the Scottish Parliament and we created a timeline of events.
This week was road safety week. The focus of this weeks Road Safety was on speed. Miss Hardie chose an activity to do with us, where she read out 13 questions really quickly and we couldn’t keep up. This activity helped us to realise that we were very quick to tell her that she was going too fast, that we can also tell a driver to slow down, if they are driver too fast.
What could possibly be planned for us next week?
P6A , Mrs Matos and Miss Hardie.
Over the last couple of weeks we have been practising netball after school on a Wednesday afternoon with Mrs Matos and Miss Harrison.
We have very quickly learned all the rules and are showing great improvement and potential in our skills and game play.
Each week we are growing strength by strength as individuals and as a team.
Numeracy and Mathematics
In maths this week we have been comparing costs to find the cheapest option or best buy. We discovered that buying in bulk can often reduce the price per item and lower costs. Knowing this was beneficial when ordering resources this week for our enterprise projects. In order to ensure we maximise our net profits, we have been sourcing materials for the best price online through comparisons between different retailers. This week we have also been using written methods to divide sums of money, with a remainder on occasion. Long division forms part of the S1 assessment in maths and this will ensure we have a secure knowledge of this area before our transition. Our Standardised Assessments indicated that we needed some practise and consolidation of interpreting written word and multi-step problems. We have been working hard to read questions carefully at all times, take note of key information and use working to tackle this style of question step-by-step.
Literacy and English
On Thursday we embarked on our first Big Writing adventure with Mrs Doran. We further explored the issue of deforestation in the Amazon rain forest, carrying out various written tasks in response to a reporter on location. Our whole class targets in writing are to continue using an ambitious range of VCOP to make our writing exciting for the reader and developing the ability to proofread, self-check and up-level our work where appropriate. Mr Logan has been pleased with the level of description and detail we are beginning to incorporate into our work. Our focus in grammar and punctuation has been to use adjectives along with examples of figurative language such as simile, metaphor and personification. In shared reading this week we all examined the features of charity appeals. We were able to highlight simple features such as bold titles and thought-provoking images, but also looked deeper into ideas such as the way in which such adverts affect our emotions and influence our actions. P7b were able to identify persuasive language used throughout the text and used a dictionary to define unfamiliar words such as ‘malnutrition’, ‘irrigation’ and ‘supplements’. There was also a vote for our new class novel this week, and Ailsa’s choice of Maze Runner, a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, was chosen by the majority of pupils.
Health and Wellbeing
We have two weeks remaining of futsal, and are grateful to our specialist coach Neil from the Livingston Youth Football Foundation for his continued commitment to the programme. In P.E next week we will be developing our passing and dribbling skills within basketball, our latest block of P.E, and applying these skills within small-sided game situations. Our after school clubs are going from strength to strength, with a huge number of pupils across all stages of school benefiting from the provision of various activities. A huge thank you goes to all of the teachers who are giving up their own time to deliver such high quality sessions. We really are doing our utmost to develop every aspect of our children’s Health and Wellbeing at Springfield Primary School and their continued participation in these activities is one way to ensure we do so. Next week, P7 are looking forward to the start of our skiing sessions as Midlothian Sports Centre. No matter what ability level, each of our pupils will be given the chance to either learn to ski or build on their previous experience. Mr Logan, Mrs Gordon and Miss Baillie are also looking forward to taking to the slopes! Thank you in advance to those parents who will be assisting us over the 4 weeks of lessons. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Coming Up
We hope you’re having a great weekend!
P7b and Mr Logan
Another busy week of learning in P7a. In Numeracy we continued our work on fractions. This week we looked at conversions between mixed number and improper fractions and addition/subtraction of fractions. We were choosing our chilli challenge based on how we felt about the subject (mild, spicy or hot). We also used lots of fraction examples as number talks this week to help us better understand the concepts. The use of concrete materials such as blocks, magnetic cuisinaire rods and fraction pieces allowed us to explore fractions in more depth. The concrete material we loved the most was the mini roll… have a look at our mini roll fractions.
In literacy we continued the “Big Writing Animals in Danger” radio report writing. We had to focus on the structure of our report, and ensure it was persuasive yet factual. The children peer assessed each other’s work, giving feedback to allow them to improve the piece of writing. The next step will be to record and share the reports.
We are loving using yammer as a tool during our guided reading sessions. This is a great way to improve ICT skills whilst combining it with literacy. This was another opportunity for peer assessing when we gave each other written feedback in our reading groups about the homework questions.
In French we continued with “Moi-meme” and learnt how to describe hair colour, eye colour and height. Our focus in PE was passing skills in basketball. We were able to easily give constructive feedback to our peers when observing each other play.
On Tuesday we finished our Brazilian Landmark junk models and again peer assessed (this time by group) against the success criteria that we co-created. Have a look at our creations below, aren’t they fabulous?
After all this peer assessing we have become a lot more confident at giving constructive feedback that will allow us to improve our work and recognise what good looks like.
Have a great weekend, from Mrs Gordon and P7a.
We have been learning vowel sounds and names this week. We have been singing vowel songs, practicing the vowels in lots of different ways, identifying vowels in written words and listening for vowels in CVC words as we write them.
In numeracy, we have been learning number bonds for 4 and 5. We played number bond games on the smartboard and used cubes, counting kids and playdough to layout our addition sums. We also write our sums on whiteboards and in our maths books.
On Thursday we were learning about time. We sang two songs about days of the week – we really liked the one to the ‘Adam’s Family’ theme tune 🙂 We were reading o’clock times on digital and analogue clocks. We were really good at it and picked it up really well. We will continue with time next Thursday.
We have been working hard decorated Christmas baubles for a display in Tesco window. We drew our favourite Christmas things on the bauble and coloured them brightly. They are now on display so have a look if you are in. There is a small picture below.
G brought in his Enjoy-a-Ball trophy to show us. He told us that he was throwing a ball and Paul Pizza said he wasn’t doing it the right way and showed him a better way to do it, then G worked really hard to get it right – great resilience! Well done G!
On Friday, at assembly, we learned that we had won the ‘peg challenge’ the week, collecting the most pegs for walking quietly as we move around the school. We will have an extra 5 minutes breaktime on Monday as a reward.
Have a lovely weekend, from P1B and Mrs Kennedy
This week we have been learning addition facts for 4 and 5. We made our own number sentences, explored different ways to make 4 and 5, made number bonds for 5 on robots and played number bond games on the smartboard.
On Thursday, we were learning to read o’clock times on analogue and digital clocks. We played ‘Watchman’ on Education City, worked with a partner to make o’clock times, matched o’clock analogue times, made o’clock times on blank clock faces and matched analogue and digital times.
This week we were looking at the vowels, learning the letter names and also focusing on hearing/identifying vowels in CVC words. We threw bean bags onto vowel stepping stones and read the vowels, used our magnetic boards to find missing vowel letters in CVC words, painted the vowels and CVC words, looked for vowels amongst other letters and played CVC word games on Education City.
Although Miss Harrison is trying to limit our Christmas activities until December, this week we made Christmas tree baubles for the Springfield Primary School Christmas Tree at Tesco, Linlithgow. We created our own patterns and images on our baubles and used different materials. You can see our baubles on the tree in the window beside the checkouts!
Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope that you have a lovely weekend.
P1A and Miss Harrison 🙂
We are super stars! Miss Baillie and Mr Wells were so impressed with how hard working, kind and sensible we are that we won class of the week! Miss Prince is very proud of us.
In Literacy this week we have been retelling the story ‘The Secret of the Kelpie’, we picked out the main points in the story and ordered them in the correct sequence. We also worked on punctuation – full stops, question marks and exclamation mark. This was tricky but we learnt that we use exclamation marks if the sentence is exciting, surprising or if the person is shouting.
In Maths we have been working on subtraction – 2 digit take away a single digit. We enjoyed solving subtraction sums on robot function machines. We used number lines to help us and remembered to jump back in 5s and 10s to solve subtraction sums quicker.
In Art we learnt how to draw a Kelpie. We also painted a Scottish landscape for our Kelpie to live in. We found that mixing green with blue created a realistic colour for the loch. We’re really pleased with how our pictures have turned out:
Have a great weekend,
Love P2/3 and Miss Prince x
On Monday we were looking at the importance of “friendship” and what makes a really good friend. We also practiced our handwriting by looking at how the letters “e” and “f” are joined together. Miss Stevenson also assisted us with our mathematical and spelling patterns.
On Tuesday we had great fun learning about magnetism. We spent time exploring and looking for items around the classroom that were magnetic.
Throughout the week we have been learning the French words for the days of the week and the weather. We have a lovely new calendar in class that helps us discuss the date and the weather in French!
Following our trip to the Kelpies we decided to draw our own pictures of the Kelpies. We used oil pastels and water colours and many of us chose to paint the Kelpies at night when they are lit in many different bright colours.
We have been very busy revising our Bench ball rules and playing lots of games in preparation for our festival next week. We are looking forward to going along to the Academy!
Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.