Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020

All About Tartan in P3A

A blog about last week and this week!

We had a great start to the week last week when M’s mum came to visit us. She is a kiltmaker, she brought us an example of a kilt she would make today and explained just how she makes it. She also brought a piece of tartan material needed to make a kilt for a lady or a child – it was 5 meters long, it just fitted in the classroom – for a man’s kilt she would need a piece about 7 meters long! We helped to make pleats int he kilt folding it at just the right place so that the pattern on the tartan is correct. We also learned about the ‘Great Kilt’ which was one of the first kilts worn. It was a large piece of material wrapped around the wearer, it was made from wool and so was warm and waterproof (for a while). It also had many other uses such as carrying things in and could even be made into a shelter or tent! It was a great visit and we learned a lot – thank you very much Mrs Scholfield 🙂

Following our visit from Mrs Schofield we have been learning about the history of tartan, how it is made and have been busy designing our own. We had to be patient and take our time to be accurate in cutting strips carefully and when weaving our patterns. Lots of great designs and they are all different.

With Mrs Begarnie in Science last week, we made bridges. We had blocks and paper and we had to make it strong enough to hold some pebbles on top – as many as the bridge would take! We have been investigating materials and we were having a go at working our which materials work best for bridge building.

It has been a short but busy week this week, carrying on with our craft topic we have been using wool to make bracelets. P3 picked it up really quickly and have been teaching the younger children how to do it too.

In numeracy we are really getting good at telling the time. Digital clocks are still a little tricky for some so if you see one when you are out or have one in the house maybe you could have a little practise. We have also been learning about timetables, how to use one and why they are important. We have been thinking about our school day and what happens at certain times during the day. We made our own timetables too.

We have also been learning column subtraction with borrowing, where we have to borrow 10 from the 10s number and add it to the units to allow us to solve our sum. We will continue with this next week, using larger numbers as we become more familiar with the method. Here is a picture of how we are doing it if you want to practise at home.

Next week, on Wednesday we are looking froward to welcoming a visitor from the Royal Highland Education Trust to tell us about food and farming.

Have a good weekend, from P3A and Mrs Kennedy

February 21, 2020

Primary 5/6 week beg. 19th February

Even though it has been a short week P5/6 have been super busy!

In Numeracy, we consolidated our learning on decimals, in particular adding and subtracting them. We hope to move on and look at fractions soon. Hopefully our understanding of decimals will help us identify a connection between the two.

Last week the class completed lots of research about the Battle of Stirling Bridge. This week we wrote newspaper articles about the battle. We focused on including a catchy headline, quotes and writing in the past tense.

We have organised ourselves into small groups and are in the middle of planning obstacle courses to drive the Sphero’s through. Hopefully we can then transfer these skills to creating a course that we can then code the Sphero’s to travel through on their own.

While P6 have been busy with FAME the Primary 5’s researched the armour and weaponry that was used during the Scottish Wars of Independence. They then created life size drawings of soldiers, showing the clothing worn and some of the weapons they would carry. They are huge and look amazing on our classroom wall!

Have a lovely weekend,

Primary 5/6

February 21, 2020

P4A Weekly Blog

Everyone has been very busy since returning from our half-term holiday. Here is a round-up of some of the things we have been learning about over the last 2 short weeks.

In numeracy we have been continuing to focus on multiplication and have explored how we can use the three times table to help us build the six times table. Our Number Talks are giving us the opportunity to revise addition strategies. We have been giving change from £1, £2 and £5 and it would be good if we could practise doing this in real life when out and about.

In our Emotions Work lessons we have been exploring the yellow ‘Triggers’ cog and discussing what might make us feel different emotions. We learned that some of us were scared by spiders and others were not. We worked well in small groups to play an emotions board game which helped us think about some triggers for different emotions.

In French, to complete a task labelling parts of the body, we used the new vocabulary that we have been learning through songs and games. We found this quite challenging so we will keep practising the words in different ways in our 5 minutes a day of French. This week our 5 minutes included a French disco!

We are thoroughly enjoying our Viking topic and have been learning about Viking longhouses. Ask us about some of their features and see if we can remember. Watch this space, our very own 3D longhouses will be coming soon!

We got to meet our new teacher Mrs Rutter who will be starting with us on the 2nd of March. She seems lovely!

February 21, 2020

Toy Story Characters, Forces and Benchball (P2B)

We have had a busy two weeks in P2B!

Last week we created our own characters for Toy Story 5! We watched a clip of Toy Story 4 and looked at the character ‘Forky’. Using adjectives, we labelled a picture of Forky. Afterwards, we worked with our learning partners to share our ideas for a new toy for the film. We drew and labelled pictures of our new character. On Wednesday last week we used our labelled pictures to write a detailed character description. We used adjectives to describe our characters and we used joining words to link our ideas.

During our IDL focus last week we learned how toys were made in the past. We explored different materials used to make toys and then how toys in the past were made and how they moved. We also compared how toys were made in the past compared to how toys are made in the present. Afterwards we drew pictures of toys which are made of wood, plastic and metal under the correct materials heading.

This week we investigated forces on toys. We watched a video about push and pull forces and discussed how we can make toys change their speed and direction. Afterwards, Miss Harrison put us into groups and we went around the classroom exploring how to make different toys move and work. Using a sheet on our clipboards, we recorded whether the toy worked by a pull force, a push force or both.

In Numeracy and Mathematics we have been concluding our work on subtraction. We have been solving different subtraction facts to 20 and we have been using subtraction vocabulary such as ‘minus’, ‘less than’ and ‘find the difference’. This week we have also been learning to link our addition and subtraction facts. For example, if we know that 9+2=11 then we can use this addition fact to solve 11-2. In Number Talks last week we looked at using ten frames. We worked out how many dots we could see and explained how we could see them. We used strategies such as ‘doubles’, ‘near doubles’, ‘counting all’ and ‘counting on’. This week we explored dot images. Again, using our Number Talks strategies, we discussed how we saw the dots.

Last week we revised finding half past times on digital clocks. We played a game where we had to match the times to the digital clocks and then we created our own digital clocks showing the correct times. This week we were learning to write o’clock and half past times on an analogue clock. We had to use a ruler to draw on the hour and minute hands. Next week we are going to be using these times and finding one hour after.

Our new sound last week was ‘i-e’. We made ‘i-e’ words on our magnetic boards and we drew and labelled ‘i-e’ pictures. This week we wrote ‘i-e’ words on our whiteboards and we wrote sentences containing ‘i-e’ words. Some of us were also revising all of our consonant blends.

In PE we have been developing our movement and co-ordination skills. Over the last two weeks, we have been playing different games to help us to keep an eye on an object. We enjoyed playing Dodgeball and Treasure Chest. Both weeks we have also played some team games of Benchball to develop our throwing and catching skills.

Thank you for reading our blog post.

We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

P2B and Miss Harrison xxx

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020

P5 Weekly Blog

A short week in P5, feels like it’s over before it even started…

Literacy and English

In writing this week, we have been participating in BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words competition. We were challenged to write a creative and imaginative story based on a specific object or image. In our planning we had to consider what our image symbolises, who the characters associated with this image are what their backstory might be. Following this, we also considered what the main events of our story could be, produced a detailed description of our main setting and looked at the features of ‘flash fiction’ writing in more detail. We discovered that although these stories are short, they still need to be interesting, engaging and include things such as figurative language and imagery. We’ve completed our first drafts and will be editing and improving these next week before submitting them ahead of next Thursday’s deadline!

Numeracy and Mathematics

This week we have started learning about coordinates. We began by reading coordinates which involved moving “along the corridor before going up the stairs”. We established that as we move horizontally we are travelling along the x-axis. Then, when we move vertically, we are on the y-axis. The way to remember this is by saying “x is a cross, y to the sky”. These phrases have been helping us to work accurately and minimise errors. We found out that the grids we were using are called Cartesian grids, named after René Descartes, a French mathematician during the 17th century. We also had a go at plotting some points to create 2D shapes. Next week we will extend our learning further by creating our own grids and more complex shapes, and working across four quadrants with negative numbers.

Learning Across the Curriculum

PE – In futsal this week we worked on passing the ball accurately to hit targets using different surfaces of our feet.
PE – In volleyball with Mrs Reid we were given a basic introduction to the sport and learnt about some of the rules and principles.
Science – We continued working on our electrical circuit games. These have been created for P1 and involve a series of questions. If the correct answer is selected, the light shines. If the incorrect answer is selected, the buzzer sounds.
Technologies – We have been improving our word processing skills when preparing the final drafts of our 500 word pieces of flash fiction.

Achievements

Harrison was surprised to open his latest Beano comic to see himself! Well done on accumulating so many copies!
Ava has passed her latest dancing exams with distinction and brought her medals, certificates and trophies to show us!
Sofia showed us the Blue Peter badge she got for music which was designed by Ed Sheeran! Excellent achievement!
Calan brought in his football trophies that he got whilst playing for Falkirk FC. Superb work!
Christopher has levelled up in his indoor climbing at Alien Rock! Fantastic news!
We’ve been bringing in our homework bridge designs to display in class. They are absolutely brilliant, well done to you all. Howie and Eva managed to put 12.1kg of weights on theirs without it breaking! Unbelievable!
Jack G was our values certificate winner for Confidence! Great job!

S with her spaghetti bridge and Blue Peter badge!

Have a relaxing weekend everyone.

P5 and Mr Logan

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020

Revision and fact families in P1B

A short blog for a short week 🙂

In Phonics this week we have been revising the digraphs we have learned so far. Mrs Bell was very impressed with how well we remember these!

I’m Numeracy we have been linking addition and subtraction and learning about fact families. A fact family is a group of 4 number facts (2 addition, 2 subtraction) that use the same 3 numbers. Here are some examples we made using numicon to help us:

We will continue to work on these next week as they are tricky! Here’s an online resource to practise fact families at home:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/number-facts/number-fact-families

We were very excited to begin our assembly practices! Scripts have gone home (these don’t need to come back to school) so that you can help us to practise our lines. As you may have already discovered, it’s going to be a very unique assembly! We have some lovely Primary 4s helping us…you might recognise them 🙂

Admin for next week:

Monday: Please bring in the book that the character you are going to be in the assembly is from. Throughout the week we are going to read them during milk and story and take photos for our assembly. Don’t worry if you don’t have the book, please don’t go out and buy it, we can improvise!

Thursday: Please bring in a soft toy for a (pretend!) toy sale.

Have a lovely weekend!

Love P1B and Mrs Bell x

February 20, 2020

How Are Toys Made?

We have had a busy 2 weeks in Primary 2A with a little break in between! We are definitely ready to be back having fun learning.

In Literacy we have looked at magic ‘e’ and some of us have been revising our consonant blends. We have enjoyed playing interactive ‘i-e’ games on the board and writing words we have remembered on kites and fluffy slime. During play we have been identifying adjectives by playing a game of Guess Who in partners. We have had lots of fun trying to guess each other’s person. In writing this week our task was to create a new Toy Story character if there was a Toy Story 5. We watched a clip of Forky being introduced to all the Toy Story characters which was funny. As a class we described what Forky looked like using adjectives. We learned that we can have different adjectives to describe Forky such as shape and colour. We kept this in mind when we had to do our writing. We drew our new characters which included labels. We had thought of lots of different characters from robots to cuddly toys. We then wrote a character description using adjectives and tried to challenge ourselves to use different joining words as well. They turned out great!

In Numeracy and Mathematics we have been recalling subtraction facts to 20. We have looked at different strategies to help us with this such as using our knowledge of doubles. We have also been looking at the special link between addition and subtraction e.g. 10 + 5 = 15, 5 + 10 = 15, 15 – 10 = 5. Some of us have been looking at this link using 2 digit numbers as well. We have had fun telling the time in class. Miss Muir has set us a challenge that if we spot an o’clock or half past time on an analogue or digital clock in the classroom we have to say! We have been doing really well with this so far. We played a game on the board called What’s the Time Mr Wolf? We had to make sure that the Wolf could get his turkey dinner in time by answering the o’clock questions. Over the past 2 weeks we have been learning to write the digital time for half past and have been drawing the hands on an analogue clock when given an o’clock or half past time as well. Some of us have even been creating digital and analogue times in our airport.

In our Toys topic we explored how toys are made and why they are made of certain materials. We also looked at how toys move. Did they use a battery or have to be wound up? We enjoyed watching clips of toys and discussing what they were made from, if machines or people made them. We even learned about what some of our toys we play with today are made from. We were able to show our new learning by completing a toy materials table.

Last week in Science we looked at melting and cooling. To understand this process we made chocolate krispie cakes. They smelled great and we even had enough for everyone in the class to eat one. Miss Muir couldn’t get a photo fast enough as some of us had already eaten them before the photo was taken!

Please take a look at what we have been doing in our play based learning…

We hope you enjoy your weekend!

P2A and Miss Muir 🙂

February 13, 2020

P5 Weekly Blog

Here’s a summary of our slightly shorter week than usual…

Literacy and English

This week in our shared reading of Holes, Stanley Yelnats has made his escape from Camp Green Lake. He stole the water truck before ironically crashing it into one of the holes he had dug. As he struggled through the desert he has been reunited with Zero in the upturned shipwreck of Mary Lou. We’ll find out next week whether they make it to God’s Thumb or not…

In comprehension, we tackled varied questions based on our reading. Mr Logan has been impressed with the improvement in our responses to these. We have been providing evidence from the text to further explain our point and give additional detail where possible.

Our writing this week has been to apply the features of a newspaper article. We were writing our final drafts of an article about the life of outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow from Texas, USA. Next week we will be creating wanted posters

Numeracy and Maths

In Numeracy and Maths we have been using formulae to find the area and volume of 2D and 3D shapes. We found that the perimeter is the total distance around the outside of a shape and area is the space inside a shape. We had to show our units of measurement, formula used and all working to evidence our strategies and thinking.

To demonstrate our learning of volume we made mocktails using a recipe sheet. Have a look at the pictures of this below!

H and N with their accurately measured mocktail.

Learning Across the Curriculum

Art and Design – Our learning this week has been about an American artist called Keith Haring. He creates blob characters that move in different ways along with basic symbols. This ties in with our Science work around the human body. Bold colours are used to create contrast along with bold outlines to make things stand out. We will be completing these next and displaying our work in class.

Science – “We were building electrical circuits with Mrs Doran. We were then shown an example and started planning how to build an electrical game for P1s that contained questions, answers, titles, wires, a bulb, buzzer and motor. We had to describe what theme we wanted. My group decided on an animal quiz.” (Sarah)

P.E – “In futsal we warmed-up by playing a game of handball in teams of 6. We did this to speed up our passing, get into space, help our teammates and communicate. Then we got split into teams and given a number from 1-15. When Neil called a group of numbers you would plat against the other team to score first. In boccia, we started off by learning the rules and playing a game to warm-up. There were three different hoops and each was worth different points. We then played a proper game and were aiming for the white jack ball. Whoever got closest earned points for their team, either red or blue.” (Sarah)

Social Studies – Our work as Dr Robert Know continued this week as we studied the respiratory system of our bodies. The heart and lungs are responsible for this and we found out the journey that oxygen takes as we inhale before it is used by the body. As we exhale, we get rid of a waste product called carbon dioxide. We have been putting together Burke and Hare timelines during Social Studies this week. We researched their crimes and placed these chronologically on our design. Whilst researching, we found that some dates were unknown such as William Hare’s date of birth.

Spanish – This week we had a visit from Jessica, our language ambassador from Linlithgow Academy. She worked with small groups to consolidate our nunbers from 1-30. Next week she will be teaching us about colours in Spanish.

Coming Up

14.2.20 – February holiday
17.2.20 – February holiday
18.2.20 – February holiday
21.2.20 – Achieving Assembly
4.3.20 – Reflective Reading information evening (7-8pm)
4.3.20 – School Show (1)
5.3.20 – School Show (2)
5.3.20 – World Book Day
6.3.20 – BEAR reading event (am)
9.3.20 – Author visiting school (P4-6)
10.3.20 – 80s Dress Down Day for Fame
11.3.20 – Primary Dance Competition (selected pupils)
13.3.20 – P5 Class Assembly (Sport Relief)
25.3.20 – Parents Evening (1)
26.3.20 – Parents Evening (2)
3.4.20 – Easter Service at St Michael’s Church (am)

Enjoy the long weekend everyone!

Written by Mr Logan, Sarah and P5

February 7, 2020

P1a Love Languages!

As this week was “Scotland Loves Languages” week Mrs Gordon was very excited (and so were we). We did lots of little language activities through the week including : stories in French and Spanish, a poem in Polish by a child in P1b, “poissons pêcheurs” game with the language ambassadors, writing our favourite word in another language and practising our family words in French with Camembear. We are getting so good at ordering lunch with Mrs Gordon that we even sometimes speak to the dinner ladies in French…fantastic!

This week in phonics we have been learning the digraphs ai and ay. We have worked hard to remember which is which. We know that ai as in rain, pain and sprain is normally in the middle of words as “shy i” likes to be surrounded by his friends. We also know that ay as in pay, say and spray is normally at the end of words since “toughy y” can be on his own at the end. We need to keep practising this, as it is very tricky to know which one to choose. Mrs Gordon helped us to write sentences with both digraphs in. We also learnt 2 new common words “are” and “they”. We see them lots in our reading books so felt quite confident with this.

Numeracy was a continuation of subtraction where we are working within 10. We included some word problems this week which can prove tricky. All the children have grasped the subtraction concept and we are encouraging use of concrete materials (blocks, counters etc), number lines (jumping back one at a time) and fingers (putting fingers down as we subtract), to ensure they have different ways to solve the problems. In money we did more coin recognition. We have really improved with this. Mrs Gordon added a till and money to the home corner and now we have a wee shop (created by the children).

In PE we are doing a block of football with Mrs Reid (our PE teacher) and with Mrs Gordon we are working on a block of movement skills including balance, coordination and ball skills. This is done through various games focusing on different themes/skills each week.

Our transport focus this week was on looking at timelines and understanding how transport has evolved over time. We enjoyed making our own timeline where we had to order types of transport. We also made shape trains, this was great fun, and we could easily identify the shapes we were using.

Bon weekend, Mrs Gordon and P1a

February 7, 2020

Primary 5/6 week ending 7th February

Our confidence and understanding of decimals is growing each day! This week we have focussed on using our mental arithmetic strategies to add and subtract decimals with one decimal place. We have answered questions, created questions for each other and played loop card games to help consolidate our understanding.

When we were doing our written mental maths we were able to make connections with fractions and decimals on a number line.

In maths, we played Connect 4 with angels. We were able to estimate within 10 degrees of acute, obtuse, straight line and reflex andgles.

This term, as part of our Number Talks, we are focussing on a different strategy each week. This week we looked at making ten within a calculation.

In our Literacy lessons this week we explored note taking and how we can gather information in different ways and from different sources. In pairs, we researched the Battle of the Stirling Bridge in preparation for writing a Newspaper article about the battle next week.

In grammar we have been looking at connectives and we are going to try to incorporate them into our writing

This week we celebrated ‘Scotland Loves Languages’ by playing lots of games to help with our French. Our language ambassadors helped teach games to primary 4. In the playground we played ” Quelle heure est-il Monsieur Loup?” Monsieur Loup ate a lot of children !

The P5’s in our class did a great job helping the upper school with the show on Wednesday. We used their art skills to help us make props. They even got a sneaky peek of some of the dancing and singing!

Well done to those in Primary 5 that braved the weather conditions and walked to the Leisure Centre for their swimming trial.

Great engineering skills were developed making spaghetti bridges. One group’s bridge managed to hold 2.8kg. They originally estimated that it would hold 250g. There was a lot of team work and cooperation need for this activity. And it was fun!