Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

May 3, 2019

STEM, Multiplication and our Class Assembly (P3A)

This week it was STEM Week in P3A!

As part of STEM Week, we carried out an experiment on water absorption. We explored the investigation question; ‘Does the type of paper affect how far water will travel through it?’ We discussed what we were going to find out and planned our experiment. On our notes, we listed resources and things that we were going to keep the same to keep our experiment fair. We drew diagrams and then we made a hypothesis. On Wednesday we carried out our experiment. We found out that the type of paper has a big effect on how far water travels through it.

In Literacy, we learned how to write a scientific report using our experiment notes. We used a title, the correct layout, included a diagram and used scientific vocabulary. We enjoyed being scientists!

On Wednesday afternoon we went to ‘Bricks and Blocks’ by Generation Science. We learned about computer programming. We started our session by talking about robots. We learned that robots do jobs we can’t do and that they require special instructions via computers. To practise giving instructions, we instructed a human robot to make a jam sandwich! Our instructions had to be clear, precise and in the correct order. Afterwards, we learned about computer programming. We worked in pairs to build Lego robots and we used instruction blocks to program our robots. Our challenge was to score a goal against our robots which were programmed to be goalkeepers! We really enjoyed our session with Generation Science.

In Numeracy we have started multiplication. Some of us were learning the 2, 5 and 10 times-tables, some of us were learning the 3 and 4 times-tables and some of us were learning the 8 and 6 times-tables. We have been using arrays to practise our multiplication facts and we have been playing lots of times-table games to improve our mental recall.

On Friday it was our class assembly. We were leaders in our learning and we made the decision to deliver an assembly on Endangered Animals. We worked in groups and selected an endangered animal to research. Using digital technology, we created presentations about our animals, including videos. On Friday we presented our assembly to the whole school and our families and friends. We spoke confidently and clearly and did a fantastic job of sharing our learning. Miss Harrison was extremely proud of us.

Thank you very much for reading our weekly blog. We hope that you have a lovely long weekend.

P3A and Miss Harrison xxx

May 3, 2019

P4/5 Week commencing 29th April 2019

In Maths we started to look at the connection between multiplication and division. We also challenged ourselves to a game of “Noggle” and used our maths knowledge to solve the maths murder mystery game.

In grammar this week we looked at root words and also practised the horizontal join in our handwriting.

This week some of us also brought in our “mummified tomatoes” so we could examine if the process had been successful. We discovered that some of them were all dried out (mummified) and some still had moisture left in them so they would need to be left in the salt for a longer period of time.

In PE this week we played outdoor games and a game of “rounders.” It was very competitive and we all had great fun!

In Reading we continued with our Literacy Circles and had some very good discussions about the work of the different authors. The “Word Wizard’s” selected some excellent words this week to challenge their groups. We all enjoy taking on the different roles and responsibilities involved within the circle.

We also completed our “KWL” grid for our new topic The Union Canal and the Scottish Canal network.

In Science this week we had a visit from “Lego Mindstorm” who let us programme robots. We had to complete different challenges by programming the robots to move around objects. At the end the robots had a disco which was a result of us programming them to dance.

On Thursday we also received a visit from two German exchange students called Hanna and Helen. They had a tour of the school to discover the differences between the schools in Scotland and Germany.

We also completed our HMIE questionnaire ready for them coming on the 13^th May.

Mr Ritchie and the “tiggerrific” P4/5’s

May 2, 2019May 2, 2019

Primary 1B – w/e 3rd May 2019

We have had a very busy week in P1b!

In Literacy, we have been learning two new digraphs, ‘oi’ as in coin and ‘oy’ as in boy. We learned that ‘oi’ usually comes at the beginning or middle of a word and ‘oy’ mostly comes at the end. We did find quite a few exceptions though which made it tricky! Our new tricky words were ‘there’ and ‘were’. We found that when we tried to come up with sentences using ‘there’ we were getting a little bit muddled up with ‘they’. We kept trying though and now understand the difference between the words.

In Numeracy we were learning about the different ways that a subtraction question could be written. For example, find the difference between, minus, take away, less than. We have also been learning how to use subtraction within worded questions. For example, there were 10 carrots. 5 were eaten. How many were left? We saw how important it was to read the question carefully before answering.

In Maths we were learning about Capacity. In pairs, we took on two challenges to work out the capacity of a variety of vessels – a spoon challenge and a cube challenge. We had to choose a vessel and predict the number of spoons of sand which would fit inside the vessel and then redo the experiment to see how many cubes the vessel would hold. It was interesting to see how accurate (or not!) our predictions were. We found that some groups got a different answer for the number of spoons of sand in the same vessel and worked out that this was because the size of spoonfuls differed from one group to the next.

In PE, we continued our Gymnastics block with Mrs Harris. We were learning about different types of jump this week.

Mrs Laing visited us again to complete the clay modelling. Everyone has now sculpted a model. The models look amazing! There were so many different ideas. Once they are dry they will be able to come home.

We also participated in a Generation Science workshop, part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. The children learned about computer programming through following instructions to build a Lego robot goal keeper and programming the robot to try to save shots at goal. They learned how important it is to give clear instructions to make sure the robot did what they wanted it to do. They had great fun programming the ‘live’ robot to make a jam sandwich! Mrs Reid was impressed with the Lego building skills and how confidently the computer programmes were devised.

Have a lovely holiday weekend!

Mrs Reid and Primary 1B

May 2, 2019

Hand washing, Area and Programming in P2A

A very busy week in P2A! Our Assembly practices are in full swing and we are showing lots of enthusiasm and dedication. We especially love practising the song and the dances. Please see the dojo message for information regarding costumes.

In Spelling we have been working on plurals and learning the rules for when we add –s and –es. We know that we add –es when the word ends in: sh ch ss s x z. For example, glasses, boxes

In Writing we practised writing instructions on how to wash our hands. Miss Devonshire did a fun experiment with us on Monday to show us how far germs can spread and why it is so important that we wash our hands.

In Maths we have been finding out the area of a shape using counters and by counting squares. We know that area is the space inside a shape.

In Art we finished our Gerald the Giraffe pictures, you will see them in our class assembly but here is a sneak peek:

In Health and Well-being we discussed what it means to be resilient. We talked about things we can do and things we can’t do…yet.

On Thursday we had a visit from the team at Generation Science. It was AMAZING! We learned how to program a robot – this tied in nicely with our instruction writing as you need to give the robot clear instructions in the correct order.

In the afternoon we had our first session of Futsal with Kieran. Futsal is like football but with a heavier ball. It’s great for practising our co-ordination and ball skills.

As next week is a very short week we will not be giving out homework or reading. We will resume homework and reading on Monday 13^th May.

Have a lovely long weekend!

Love from Mrs Bell, Miss Devonshire and P2A x

April 29, 2019

Karting Success from a P2!

We are so delighted to share C in P2’s recent success in winning a karting race, only 18 months after he took up the hobby! He has been working so hard and we are all proud of him.

Miss Baillie

April 28, 2019April 28, 2019

Primary 1B – w/e 26th April 2019

It was lovely to see everyone back after the Easter holidays.

This week we revised all of the sounds, digraphs and tricky words which we have learned so far in P1. Mrs Reid was very impressed with how much everyone could remember!

In Numeracy we continued to learn about numbers to 20. We have been identifying larger/smaller and largest/smallest numbers within a given selection of numbers. We have also been practising writing our numbers to 20.

In PE, we started a term long block of Gymnastics lessons with Mrs Harris who is an external Gymnastics specialist. We were learning three different positions – straight, tuck and star. We had to listen carefully to hear which position we needed to make to move around the hall. Everyone tried very hard to follow Mrs Harris’ instructions.

We were very lucky to have Mrs Laing visit us this week to do an Art lesson, teaching us how to work with clay. Everyone will have the chance to build a clay sandcastle. Some children completed their sandcastles this week and the others will have a chance to do this next week. It was tricky (and very messy!) working with the clay and we found we needed to have strong hands to mould the clay into shape.

We also had four very special visitors to the class this week – Mr & Mrs McAulay, Tilly and Lottie! It was wonderful to see them all. We were very quiet as Tilly and Lottie were asleep!

We finished the week with a lovely paired reading session with our P7 buddies.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Reid and Primary 1B

April 26, 2019April 26, 2019

Kindness is a Superpower!

We have had a lovely week in school as we return from Easter break and move into Term 4.

Today we held our termly, ‘values assembly’ where we look closely at our values and reflect together. Did you know that kindness is a superpower? At least, at Springfield and Bonnytoun, we believe it to be so.

We talked about the power of a small act of kindness and how with repeated small acts, we can create a ‘kindness movement.’ Kindness can change the world!

Fostering positive mental health in our children, is one of our main priorities in school and nursery. Today we learned that is important that we treat ourselves with kindness and have kind ‘inner voices.’ We learned how to turn the negative things that we may think or feel about ourselves into positive comments. This is very important for our wellbeing. We will continue to work on this concept with all children, including our youngest.

Let’s be kind to ourselves and kind to others. We are all unique and we all have talents to share.

Happy weekend everyone!

Miss Baillie xx💖💫

April 26, 2019

P7B Weekly update

Welcome back to all Primary 7’s. Everyone has returned back from their Easter holidays all refreshed and eager to learn. It’s the final term of Primary 7 and we are going to make sure that we make it a term full of fun and making lasting memories.

Literacy: During this week we focused on spelling words with suffixes, ‘able’, ‘ible’, ‘ably’, ‘ibly’, we discussed noticeable patterns in these words and identified that some words ending in ‘able’ have a spelling rule which we can use when spelling words ending in ‘able’. We identified which word classes the spelling words belonged to. We picked up where we left off in our class novel, Goodnight Mister Tom, we continued to read the next two chapters of the novel and discussed and analysed how the main character William changes throughout the novel, we compared his life in London to the life he is now living in the countryside. We continue to use a variety of reading skills and strategies to answer comprehension questions based on the novel.

Numeracy: We are extending our knowledge of Algebra. We have been learning the mathematical terms used in algebra, such as expression, equation, terms and value. This week we continued to simplify expressions, and we have been working on solving equations.

IDL: We have shown a lot of interest during our lessons on WWII, this week we were very fortunate to have Maureen, from West Lothian Museums, share with us some facts about the war and had some items from the past for us to have a look at. We were very intrigued by some of the items and stories from during the war.

HWB: Target setting is important for us to help us to set ourselves challenges which will help us to achieve in our learning. This week, we have set ourselves learning targets for numeracy and literacy. During PE this week with Mrs. Matos we enjoyed a game on rounders, next week we will begin to work on our fitness program.

1+2: French with Mrs. Gordon this week, we practiced some French vocabulary that we have been learning this year, we played a very fun game of ‘race dressing’, Mrs. Gordon had some dressing up items laid out, we were split into two groups, when she called out the item name in French the first group to put on the correct item would get a point for their team, it was plenty of fun, and a interesting way to help us with our French. Thank you Mrs. Gordon.

P1 Buddies: We are still getting some opportunities to spend time with our buddies, we paired up with our buddies and read a book together.

A very busy week, next week we are looking forward to our ‘Farm to Fork’, trip and on Wednesday night is the Careers Fayre.

P7B and Mrs. Matos

April 26, 2019

P1a’s weekly news

We were happy to be back in P1 after a lovely break.

This week we did lots of revision to make sure we had not forgotten our digraphs and subtraction. Mrs Gordon was really impressed with how much we remembered.

We went outside and did a circle time share about our Easter holidays. We then did some personal writing about what we had done. It was lovely to share our stories.

This week we started a term long weekly Gymnastics sessions with Mrs Harris an external Gymnastics specialist. This week we learnt about the 3 positions straight, tuck and star. We had to use those shapes in different moves. We also did different types of bunny hops including across the bench.

In art we were very lucky to have T’s mum come in and share her knowledge of clay with us. Each child will have a chance to make a sculpture out of clay, some did it this week and some will do it next week. It was tricky to work with the clay to begin with as it was really tough to manipulate, it was really messy too! We had great fun…

Happy weekend from Mrs Gordon and P1a

April 26, 2019

Final term is finally here (of P6a!!!)

We returned to school on Tuesday for our final 10 weeks in P6.

In Numeracy and Maths we focused on our mental maths skills and played our new maths games. These were a mix of adding, subtracting, fractions, word problems, dividing, multiplying and percentages. We also completed the Brilliant Breakfast Mystery Challenge, this involved using percentages, fractions and decimals as well as solving clues.

In literacy we started our new reading books and completed some reading tasks. Next week we will be looking at our new spelling games to enhance our skills.

In Science we started to investigate the human body. We drew around the smallest person in our group and then drew and labelled the body parts we knew.

We completed our termly health and wellbeing questionnaires and we also completed the HMIe questionnaire. These asked for our opinions on a variety of subjects and we enjoyed the fact we got to share our opinions on school.

On Thursday we walked to the new museum for our song rehearsal. This went really well and we even had time to look around the museum.

We have a very busy term ahead, with lots of activities and learning, we are all looking forward to the challenges.

Have a lovely weekend,

P6a and Mrs Newton 🙂