Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

February 28, 2019

Primary 1B – w/e 1st March 2019

We have had a busy week in Primary 1b.

As part of our transport focus, we have begun to construct our class train station. We came up with lots of ideas for signs which we would need in the station. We decided we would like to build a train for the station and have had great fun painting our train engine and carriages. We can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s finished! Construction pictures will follow next week!

In Literacy we have been practising our new tricky words – all and some – and have learned 2 new digraphs – ee and ea. We have been working hard blending words together using our magnetic letters and have successfully been matching pictures and words.

In Numeracy we have been continuing our work on Subtraction. We made a human number line in the playground and enjoyed working out who would be the answer to the subtraction questions we came up with. We also had fun working in pairs, writing our calculations in chalk on the playground.

Our first session of block play with P3 went very well. As you can see the construction was impressive!

As part of Fairtrade Fortnight, the class had a visit from the Linlithgow Fairtrade group on Wednesday and learned about different types of Fairtrade products. They had the chance to taste a little piece of Fairtrade chocolate too which they enjoyed!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Reid and Primary 1B

February 28, 2019

WWII, Angles and Letter Writing -P7B

‘The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.’ – Brian Herbert

Literacy: We have been enjoying reading our class novel – The boy in the striped pyjamas. Although a book full of emotions and themes such friendship kindness, innocence and so much more we can not get enough of it. Through the novel we have been using our skills to improve our reading and comprehension of a text. We have been using the novel to identify the grammar, vocabulary and language that the author uses. During writing this week, we practiced spelling words that are linked to WWII and we used the dictionary to help us find to definitions of unfamiliar words. We managed what it would have felt like to have been a child evacuee during WWII and using the spelling we had learnt we planned and wrote letters home describing our journey to the country side, and how we have settled in our new homes. During writing we focused on a letter layout and grammar such as writing in first person, chronological order and past tense.

Numeracy: We have been identifying angles in and around the school. We have been learning to name angles and use the correct mathematical terms, such as arm and vertex. We have been learning to use the protractor accurately and correctly to measure and draw a range of different angles. Ask us what we can tell you about vertically opposite angles, supplementary angles and complimentary angles.

IDL: Continuing with our study of WWII we worked in groups and discussed what we thought are essential items to be packed into a child evacuees suitcase. To get a better understanding of what it may have felt like, we worked in groups and created a short child evacuee performance. Food rationing has been an eye opener for how lucky we are, we have discussed the reasons why food and clothes were rationed, we had a look at ration books and coupons that were used. We worked out how much our own families would have received, and have created a menu based on the rationed food.

PE: During PE this week we played a 5 a side football game, and this week it is our second last session of futsal.

1+2: French with Mrs. Gordon we have been learning words, phrases and pronunciation of the weather, we worked in groups and our dialogue was filmed, so that we could watch it back and self and peer assess.

SFLLW: This week we have been fortunate to have talks about a wide range of different careers, such as HR management, Theatre production and Jet2 Engineering. We have found this very informative and interesting, please remember to ask us about what we have heard.

P7B and Mrs. Matos

February 26, 2019

A Haircut for Charity!

We are so proud of E in P7 who recently grew and cut her hair for the Little Princess Trust, raising a massive £467 in the process! The Little Princess Trust provide wigs to girls who have lost their hair through illness.

What a kind thing to do E and what a massive achievement!

Miss Baillie x

February 23, 2019

P4 week

We have been learning how to write a persuasive piece of writing. We wrote a letter of complaint to a “Travel company” that we used for a week long Ancient Egyptian tour.

We have been learning to identify verb, adverbs, nouns and adjectives in a sentence.

For French, we have been identifying parts of the body.

Numeracy

We revised on our multiplication table. We also been learning about the inverse relationship of division and multiplication.

We have been learning to add the total of our purchases in our “money” exploration. We also worked out change from £1, £5 and £10.

For IDL

We explored the importance of river Nile during the Ancient Egyptian times.

February 22, 2019February 23, 2019

P7a Weekly Blog

A short week in P7a this week, but still lots of learning to report on…

Numeracy and Mathematics

As we progress towards the end of term 3 and our transition to S1, we have been introduced to some areas and concepts that will be covered within Third Level Numeracy and Mathematics. This week we have continued learning about algebra and solving equations. We began by discussing what algebra we had already been exposed to (without even realising), such as ‘number machines’ and ‘missing value’ type questions. Having consolidated our knowledge of these it allowed us to further extend our learning to replacing values with symbols, finding the value of ‘x’ (or an unknown quantity), simplifying expressions by collecting like-terms and evaluating expressions by substituting known values such as a, b or c. We discovered that one theory behind the use of ‘x’ to represent an unknown quantity came from a 17th century French philosopher, scientist and mathematician called René Descartes. Can you find the values below?

Literacy and English

In Boy in the Striped Pajamas this week, Bruno encountered Shmuel, a prisoner at Out-With, whilst exploring and we have been drawing a comparison between them. Although the boys share the same birthday, we discovered that the similarities stop there. We examined extracts of their conversations and journeys made from the text, highlighting evidence and annotating points of interest.

Another journey we have found out about this week, is that of child evacuees during World War II. Whilst being introduced to Operation Pied Piper we used bullet points to take notes relating to key information shared. These notes will be used to inform our writing planning next week when we write letters from an evacuee’s perspective. To begin entering this mindset, we prepared and delivered a short drama in groups that portrayed the experiences and emotions of these children.

Learning Across the Curriculum

As part of our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme, we had Pamela Barnes and Teresa Waddington in class to speak to us this week. Pamela works with a local community development trust and Teresa is a Plant Manager with Shell.

We have been continuing to rehearse our songs for our Scottish Opera performance, 1719, which commemorates the Jacobites’ risings where they fought alongside the Spaniards against the Hanoverians. The singing sounds fantastic as we look forward to our workshops and final performance in March.

In Science with Mrs. Tulloch, we completed our STEM invention drawings and continued to construct our moveable buggies. In the coming weeks, these will be finished and our buggies judged on whether they can make it up a series of ramps with varying gradients. A huge thank you to Mrs. Tulloch who works tirelessly to spark our interest and curiosity in engineering.

Finally, it was sad to say goodbye to M last week who moved to her new school. We wish her all the very best and thank her for being such a kind, lovely and warm-hearted member of P7a. We will all miss her!

To all of P7a’s parents, carers and families, have a lovely weekend!

P7a and Mr. Logan

February 22, 2019

Weekly News at SPS and Bonnytoun

It has been a short but busy week here in school and nursery.

Today, Mrs Newton and P6A led a very interesting assembly about democracy and The Scottish Parliament. We also found out about some exciting plans for Fairtrade Fortnight which begins next week.

Our nursery children started their work on Fairtrade today by ordering some Fairtrade bananas on the Internet for snack!

There will be lots of Fairtrade activities and competitions in school over the next two weeks and we will be holding a Bake Sale on 7th March.

Last night, many families came along to the Fun Languages Evening at Linlithgow Primary School. This was a hugely successful event which saw French and Spanish languages being promoted through songs, games and other activities. Thank you to Mrs Gordon and the rest of the staff who helped to organise this. We continue to teach French from nursery to P7 and Spanish in upper stages.

Mr Wells and I have been very busy visiting lots of different classes this week to take part in writing lessons and to check that we are delivering high quality writing experiences for our children. We are delighted with the standard of writing produced by our pupils across all stages. Thank you to all staff who continue to work extremely hard and take on board guidance to continually improve.

Pupil Achievements this week:

-Well done to two of our lovely P1 pupils! Firstly to L for her gymnastics award and also to D for going on an adventure down a mine!

Have a super weekend!

Miss Baillie x💖💫

February 22, 2019

Awesome Amazing Assembly

A short week in P6a, however we managed to pack lots in.

On Wednesday those of that wrote letters to Nicola Sturgeon last term were delighted to receive replies. These answered some of the questions we had asked and we were very pleased to receive them.

In literacy we wrote a newspaper article on the Industrial Revolution. In Numeracy we tackled mental maths. In Science we continued chemical reactions and looked at rusty metals.

We also spent time rehearsing for the assembly today, we want to thank everyone who came and voted for the new leaders at Springfield. SSP (Scottish Smarty Party) are the new rulers and we are sure they will do a great job leading Springfield and eventually Scotland!

We launced the Fairtrade Fortnight Bake Sale- this is being held on Thursday 7th March for children in the school and we are asking for donations to be brought in on Wednesday 6th March.

P6a are also running a design a new quidditch kit- this will be judged by the Quidditch Premier League, meaning all classes can enter 🙂

Have a lovely weekend, we are off for some well deserved Assembly Play Time!

P6a and Mrs Newton

February 22, 2019

Primary 5 week ending 22/2/19

We’ve had a short, but busy week.

In maths we have continued to explore fractions, with some of us beginning to explore the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages and others placing fractions on a numberline.

In Science we have begun to learn about micro-organisms.

We have been researching facts about Egypt and putting them into a timeline, which started at 7,500BC.

In music we learned how to make our own graphic scores in small groups. We’re looking forward to performing these soon!

Finally, in grammar, we explored open and closed questions and created some of our own.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Primary 5 and Mrs Kerr

February 22, 2019

P4/5 Week commencing 18th February 2019

We hope everyone had a great holiday!

On Wednesday we continued with our Egyptian topic and investigated some of the 2000 gods and goddesses. Everyone in the class selected a god or goddess and created a small fact sheet.

In Science we finished our saving water posters and then we looked at a girl who lived in western Nepal. We read a story about a girl, Sita Maya, who had to walk for hours to collect water and she did this several times every day.

In Maths we continued working on time with Mrs Birkett and money with Miss Fiddes. We were working with £5 and £10 notes.

This week we had an art lesson. During the art lesson we created portraits of our chosen god or goddess by using chalk pastels and oil pastels on black paper. We used a lot of different colours and shapes. After we had finished our art work we held a show case and presented our art work to the class. We are a tiggerrific bunch of artists!

In RME we were looking the Passover celebration and in particular the Seder plate. We were learning about the different foods that go on the plate and what they represent. One of the items of food on the Seder plate is a lamb bone.

In reading we took part in our fifth “Literacy Circles” and carried out our different roles. One group got a new book this week and it was the third time that we used the resource “The Literacy Box”. Miss Fiddes also took a group and we looked at out characters in our book. We were discussing the character traits, personality and how this is shown in our books.

After school on Thursday Mr Ritchie, Ben, Michael, and Emily with the choir all took part in a family fun language event at Linlithgow Primary.

By Mr Ritchie, Miss Fiddes and all the “Tiggerrific” P4/5s.

February 16, 2019

Victorians at School

This week we have been looking at the differences between school life in Victorian Times compared to nowadays. I think the children have a good understanding of what it was like and that they would prefer to be at school now rather than then. They were particularly fascinated with the Dunce’s hat and children getting the cane and the slipper! We even tried to fit 5 children onto 2 chairs, which they did in Victorian times. It was a bit of a squash! On Wednesday our classroom was set up like a Victorian one and we were in lines, all facing the front. Think we quite liked it and thought it was even funnier when Mrs.Burton called out the register just using our surnames!

We wrote a diary entry, pretending we were a Victorian child at school. We did the planning first then wrote the diary entry on what was meant to be tea stained paper! Some great results. Well done P2B.

We have continued with our magic “e” words and this week looked at the diagraph “e-e”. Another group were learning “oi” and “oy”.

In Maths we have continued with multiplication and I think everyone knows their 2 times table now. Next week we will move onto division.

We had a taster session of Spanish with Mrs.Gordon and the Language Ambassadors this week. We played games and listened to “The Gruffalo” in Spanish. We really enjoyed it. Mrs.Campbell continues to come in weekly to do French with the class and this week we were learning the French words for items in the classroom. So we’re becoming very good at languages.

Have a lovely long weekend everyone and will see you on Wednesday.

Love from

P2B and Mrs.Burton