Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

May 3, 2018

P6A’s weekly learning adventures!

Another week gone filled with fun and learning. Our week started off with some lucky sunny weather for us to take part in some Pond Dipping at the Loch. Using our nets we tried to find and identify as many pond creatures as possible.

Literacy: It’s the early 1900’s and we have moved to the big city for work, plenty of work in the new factories, but our living conditions are not what we expected…….This week during literacy we imagined our lives during the Industrial Revolution, because we had imagined moving to the city we wrote postcards home describing what our living conditions were like. During our grammar lessons we learnt the importance and purpose of punctuation in our writing. We consolidated our knowledge of using the full stop, comma, question mark and exclamation mark, and we are beginning to understand and present the colon, semi-colon, brackets and ellipsis in our writing.

Numeracy: We finished learning about time with a fun stopwatch activity. We were learning to read and record timings from a stopwatch. This week we have started with fractions, we had a ‘sweet’ lesson working out the different fraction of colours in a bag of Skittles. Who knew learning about fractions could be so tasty!

IDL: We’ve come to the end of our Industrial Revolution topic. We learnt about the three mains form of transport during the revolution and discussed the pros and cons of each. We also discovered the living conditions that the poor had to experience during the revolution. We learnt about how these conditions lead to the spread of germs and illness. We also had a look at photographs of slum housing and back to back housing. We compared living conditions from during the Industrial Revolution to living conditions now and we are now very grateful for having our own private toilets at home. We have also been looking a lot through the research we have done to present out class talk on the Industrial Revolution. Mrs Matos has been very impressed with the quality of our presentations and talk.

HWB: On Wednesday the 9th May we will be taking part in the cluster cross country, so to get us prepared, during PE we worked on athletic agility. As part of our school values, being respectful and kind to others is very important, this week we learnt how important it is to carry these values even further than the school and we discussed ways on how to be responsible, respectful and kind global citizen. This week we investigated different food allergies and described the effect it has on a persons body. We had a look at the back of food packages and were surprised of some of the ingredients.

Science: It was all about the skeleton in science this week. We had closer look at the human skeleton and it’s function we have also been learning the correct biological terms for the different bones – ask us about this.

P6A, Mrs Matos and Ms Crombie

May 3, 2018

Primary 3 – Week beg. 30th April

This week we have had a big focus on developing our mental strategies for adding two digit numbers. We have had a lot of discussion about the different strategies that we can use to help us. We are all really confident when using the 100 square grid or a number line and are now challenging ourselves further by trying to do some of our calculations mentally. Next week we hope to explore our strategies for subtracting two digit numbers.

This week our Literacy focused on creating a fact file of all the information we had gathered while listening to a story. The children did an amazing job of these and remembered to label all their diagrams.

As part of our IDL we researched how long it took for different plastics to decompose. We couldn’t believe that it takes between 80-100 years for a can of juice to decompose! The pupils worked very well in small groups to complete this task.

This term we are focusing on our running, jumping and throwing skills within P.E. to help us prepare for Sports Day in June. We had great fun this week playing Dishes and Domes.

We hope you all have a lovely long weekend!

Mrs McVay & Primary 3

May 3, 2018

Interesting India

Literacy

We were learning all about the ‘Chocolate Room’ in our novel. We read through the description together and picked out all of the key words. We made a list of all of the items that were described. We then created a picture of what we thought it would look like. We had a great discussion about the difference between films and books. We felt that with a book, you had to create the pictures yourself using your imagination. We showed our pictures to the class and identified any similarities and differences between our drawings. We then watched a clip of the film version of the story to see how they had created the setting.

We started our new Big Writing Adventure this week. Max and Ant were at the beach so we had some great discussion about the seaside. We then practised writing postcards to say what we had been doing and what we had seen. We were learning how to use exclamation marks in our sentences.

We have also started our new writing genre for this term: Fantasy stories. We looked at lots of examples of Fantasy stories and picked out key themes. They were often set in magical worlds and often had a magical object to transport them. Some of them were about a journey or a quest. We look at stories like Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Next week we will begin to create our own magical settings for our story.

Numeracy

In Numeracy we were introduced to multiplication. We practised making groups with the cubes and Numicon. We then progressed to using repeated addition for multiplication. We used the story of Noah’s Ark to help us with the 2 times table. We looked at how to jump up using a number line. We also learnt about arrays and looked at lots of examples of arrays in our every day life.

IDL

In our computer time we practised our typing skills. We went on Microsoft Word and wrote some sentences about the countries we had been learning about. We learnt how to use the space bar and back space.

In IDL we were looking at India this week. We compared photographs of cities and villages in India. We talked about the similarities and differences with Linlithgow. We had 4 stations to work around: Rangoli patters, Henna hands, Indian flags with the peg boards and making clay pots. We talked about the Taj Mahal, traditional foods and farming methods and traditional clothes.

A big thank you to Emma’s mum for coming in to talk to the P2 classes about Russia. She showed us some wonderful photographs of the buildings, traditional clothes and food. We learnt how to write our names in Russian and compared the Russian alphabet to the English alphabet. We asked so many great questions!

A big WELL DONE to EC who made a fantastic model at home of the Wonka chocolate factory. It is absolutely incredible and we have been showing it off around the school all week. Also well done to ZC who has also been busy at home making a sweetie river! So much hard work happening at home which is great to see.

We also had some special visitors to school. We loved going to see the sheep and hens.

We hope you all have a great long weekend.

See you all on Wednesday!

Miss Mudd and P2A x

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018

P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy we have been:

Rounding whole numbers to the nearest 1000, 10 000 and 100 000
Rounding decimal fractions to the nearest whole number, to one decimal place and two decimal places
Multiplying whole numbers by two digit numbers
Multiplying decimal fractions to two decimal places by a single digit
Solving word problems using written methods for all four functions

Literacy

This week in Literacy we have been:

Making relevant notes using our own words to prepare a presentation on ways in which people remained safe during air raids and bombings in WWII
Presenting our findings to our peers using appropriate vocabulary, eye contact, body language, emphasis, pace and tone of voice
Responding to a range of questions, including literal, inferential
and evaluative questions based on WWII air raids
Writing a Lion King recount which describes our own experiences as well as our thoughts and feelings about the success of the performance

Learning Across the Curriculum

This week we have also been:

Continuing to develop our physical fitness through our circuit activities
Attending golf sessions with the Stephen Gallagher Foundation at Kingsfield Golf Range
Participating in rugby taster sessions delivered by Linlithgow Rugby Club
Extending our knowledge of a range of career opportunities through attendance at the Careers Fayre on Tuesday evening
Working collaboratively with our Pupil Voice Committees during session 4 to further develop work carried out across school

Coming Up – Diaries at the Ready!

Here are all of the things we can look forward to throughout May and June:

Monday 7th May – Holiday
Tuesday 8th May – Holiday
Wednesday 9th May – Internet Safety talk from PC Hunter at Linlithgow PS
Thursday 10th May – Rugby taster session (2)
Friday 11th May – Tempest P7 photographs
Tuesday 15th May – Golf lessons from SG Foundation at Kingsfield (2)
Thursday 17th May – British Transport Police railway safety visit
Thursday 17th May – Rugby taster session (3)
Sunday 20th May – George Allan football tournament from 8.30am to 12.30pm
Monday 21st May – Drug and tobacco education workshop (1)
Monday 21st May – Class talks throughout this week
Tuesday 22nd May – Golf lessons from SG Foundation at Kingsfield (3)
Tuesday 22nd May – STEM information evening from 6-7pm
Thursday 24th May – Rugby taster session (4)
Thursday 24th May – End of year disco from 7.30-9.30pm
Monday 28th May – Drug and tobacco education workshop (2)
Tuesday 29th May – Golf lessons from SG Foundation at Kingsfield (4)
Thursday 31st May – Minikickers football session, Sports Leaders required
Friday 1st June – French transition event at Linlithgow Academy
Monday 4th June to Friday 8th June – School camp in Oban
Wednesday 13th June – Book Fair event at Linlithgow Rugby Club marquee
Wednesday 13th June – P7 leavers meal at Bar Leo from 5-7pm
Tuesday 19th June – Marches Day holiday
Wednesday 20th June to Friday 22nd June – S1 transition days at Linlithgow Academy
Thursday 21st June – Minkickers football session, Sports Leaders required
Thursday 28th June – P7 Leavers Assembly at 2pm
Friday 29th June – Last day of session 2018/2019

We hope you all have a relaxing and well-deserved long weekend. We’ll be back on Wednesday, at which point there will only be 8 weeks of P7 remaining!

P7b and Mr. Logan

May 1, 2018

Springfield’s Careers Fayre

Tonight we hosted Springfield Primary School’s first Careers Fayre for our P5, P6 and P7 pupils together with their parents, carers and families as part of our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme. We had a huge turnout, with the children able to visit the stalls of 20 local professionals, businesses, colleges and universities. They asked questions, gained an insight into a wide variety of career opportunities and were even lucky enough to get some free goodies for their efforts! A huge thank you to those of you who were in attendance and made this such a great success, and also to those who kindly agreed to run a stall on the evening. Without all of your support we could not have provided the children with such a valuable learning experience. Have a look at the pictures below to see what was going on!

May 1, 2018

FORE!

Today 36 of our P7 pupils attended the first of four golf sessions with the Stephen Gallagher Foundation at Kingsfield Golf Range. The coaches Stewart and Jane introduced them to iron shots using the GASP strategy for approaching the ball before hitting it; Grip, Aim, Stance and Posture. The children ensured their left hand was at the top of the club with their thumb pointing down. They then placed their right hand over the left to cover their left thumb. As they stood over the ball, their toes and tummy pointed where they wanted the ball to go and they ensured their feet were shoulder width apart. Finally, they bent their knees slightly and ensured their bottom was sticking out slightly!

The children were given time to practise their swing by aiming towards a net before taking part in a competition to finish the lesson. Points were given for accuracy, height and length. We’re very excited for next week when we will be driving the ball! Look at the photos of us in action below…

April 30, 2018April 30, 2018

P3/4 Home Learning WB 30.4.18

Home Learning WB 30.4.18

Hope you enjoyed the lovely sunny weekend.!

Above is a link to this week’s home learning.

All children will be doing the same spelling sheet. They should also do an activity on five of the sounds.

If I have already contacted you to ask your child to concentrate on certain sounds, then please focus on the ‘ai’ sounds. However as the children are challenging themselves to learn all words, they will be given an assessment on all the words. My focus will be the main sounds they have asked to learn.

Numeracy is setting out division questions leading to the the bracket style of formal division. Please encourage children to set out as though they were using squared paper, although there are no squares in their home learning jotters. In numeracy jotters they should use one box per number and one box for question number with bracket around. There should be a box space all around the questions to make it neat and avoid confusing numbers when they get onto more digit calculations.

Apologies for last week’s home learning not being emailed out. My computer crashed last Monday at a course I was on and I still don’t have the use of it or any of my data so please excuse me if I am taking longer to respond to dojo’s etc.

Have a good week!

Kind Regards

Louise

April 29, 2018April 29, 2018

Spring, Subtraction and Seeds in P1B

We have been finding out more about seasons this week. We went on a ‘Signs of Spring’ walk around the school grounds and found lots of signs – buds, catkins, bees, and blossom to name a few. We brought some inside with us to have a closer look with magnifying glasses. Ms Banach has been helping us to plant beans. We have each planted 2 different types of bean and we will look after them in the coming weeks and monitor their growth. We then went outside and played ‘The Bean game’, we know it’s healthy to be active and we all really enjoyed it. We also have caterpillars in our class. We are going to look after them too and watch carefully as they begin metamorphosis.

We also began to investigate how to subtract – we sometimes call it ‘take away’ or ‘minus.’ We have been practising in lots of different ways, especially how to use objects to help us find the correct answers for our sums. We will continue with subtraction for the next few weeks. We have been continuing our work on coin recognition, we’re getting very good and Mrs Kennedy was very impressed when we were working in small groups with her, she can see we’re really getting it now 🙂

We have been learning the digraphs ‘oi’ and ‘oy’ and have been writing words with these sounds in them, as well as trying to spot them in words as we read. We liked the story on the Oxford Owl website called ‘Silver Foil Rocket’ and we spotted lots of our new digraphs in words. You can sign up to this website at home, let me know if you’d like to know more about it. In writing we were writing special invitations to you (Spoiler!) You will get more information on this in the next couple of days. We are working hard to write sentences independently – starting with a capital letter, sounding out words, remembering how to write our common words, leaving finger spaces and putting a full stop at the end. Some of us are using ‘joining words’ to make our sentences longer and more interesting too.

We enjoy music sessions in the classroom most weeks, using the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS) resources. Recently we have been learning rhythm, pitch and tempo. We sing songs, play games and use our voices and instruments. It is really good fun and busy so there is usually very little time to take photos, here is one from this week.

Thank you for reading our blog, P1B and Mrs Kennedy

April 28, 2018

News from this week…

Our week has been taken up showcasing our learning in Expressive Arts. From our Lion King performances to the little P2/3 children who sang and danced their way through a superb assembly, our pupils continue to amaze us with their talents.

Miss Prince and her P2/3 class held their wonderful assembly yesterday which taught us all about how to save our oceans and seas from plastic contamination. We are going to be working with volunteers from the Linlithgow Transition project in the following weeks to try to use less plastic and packaging in our food products in school. Let’s all think about out plastic usage and how this impacts on our environment!

We have now purchased two new teddy bears, Peg and Peggy who will be awarded to classes who collect the most pegs each week. We hand out pegs for walking quietly in the corridors around school. Our nursery children have been busy working hard to keep the nursery floor tidy and have been earning ‘pegs’ as a result. They were delighted to be the first group of children to receive Peggy this week as were P7B who received Peg. This is a great incentive for positive behaviour and is motivating our children to continue to be responsible.

Pictured below are the ‘birthday’ children in our infant department this week, plus Peggy the teddy, who R in P1A is proudly holding. Well done to P1A for winning Peggy this week!

Keep an eye out for our monthly nursery and school newsletters which will be coming out in the next week or so. This is such a busy term for us with lots of exciting things happening. We are now in full swing with our enhanced transition programme as well as our P7-S1 transition and nursery-P1 transition.

Look out for our P6-7 Career’s Fayre which we are holding next week (1st May) for our upper school children. This is a new initiative for us and builds on our skills for learning, life and work programme that we established last session.

As always, we welcome your feedback and you can do this by dropping into school, emailing our mail box or giving Mr Wells and I a call.

Take care everyone and have a lovely weekend!

Miss Baillie x💖

April 28, 2018

Outstanding Lion King Performances…

We are immensely proud of every single one of our P6-7 children and all staff involved for the outstanding Lion King performances which were held this week. Well done and thank you to each and every one of you! What a team!

Every single child was a credit to their parents whether singing, dancing and acting their hearts out on stage or part of our technical and backstage teams. What stars you all are! ⭐

The production was professionally executed from start to finish and a huge ‘thank you’ must go to all of the parents for their help in making the fabulous costumes, supporting staff backstage and running the front of house stalls. We could not have done it without you!

Enjoy the pictures below as we now reminisce on an amazing show…

Miss Baillie xx