bridges – Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

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 7, 2020

P5 Weekly Blog

Here’s what P5 have been up to this week…

Literacy and English

We have continued reading our shared texts Holes, exploring the theme of discrimination within the text. We were told of the life and crimes of Kissin’ Kate Barlow, an old western outlaw in the story. After analysing her transformation from well-to-do school teacher to notorious outlaw, we created newspaper articles about her. These had to include a headline with alliteration, sub-heading, picture with caption, columns for our text and a description of who, what, where, why, when and how?

In writing, we have also been creating Burke and Hare comic strips to summarise events between 1827 and 1829 when their crimes were committed. These were to include a number of commonly seen comic strip features including a variety of bubbles, bold and colourful titles, captions that link with illustrations and onomatopoeia. We look forward to finishing these and displaying them on our Literacy wall next week for everyone to see!

Numeracy and Mathematics

In Numeracy and Mathematics this week we have been learning about the difference between volume and capacity. Capacity is how much an object can hold, whereas volume is the amount of space something occupies. We have also been ordering volume, converting between units of measurement, estimating volume and measuring accurately. Next week we are going to be demonstrating our learning when making mocktails! Here we are below attempting to measure accurately with measuring cylinders and containers. Our challenge was to estimate what 100ml, 250ml, 500ml and 750ml of water would be before checking how close we were and calculating the difference.

Learning Across the Curriculum

On Monday we endured a rather wet and windy walk along to Xcite for P5’s swimming assessments. Well done to all of the children for their lack of moans and positive attitude throughout!

Our Science has taken two routes this term. With Mrs Doran, we have continued our studies of bridges and civil engineering. On Wednesday we designed and built our spaghetti bridges which were to include triangles for extra strength. Mr Logan then worked with us to test each group’s effort and see what weight they could hold. Harrison, Jack G and Calan’s bridge managed to endure a weight of 4.5kg without breaking, brilliant effort guys! Is that a Springfield record?!

We’ve also been studying Human Anatomy in Science, taking on the role of Dr Knox as part of our Burke and Hare studies. Firstly we looked at the building blocks of the body, our cells. We compared animal and plant cells and explored the function of different parts of the cell such as the mitochondria, nucleus and cytoplasm. Later in the week, we discovered more about our circulatory system and how the heart pumps blood around our bodies. We found that the blood travels from:

right atrium > right ventricle > artery > lungs (becomes oxygenated) > artery > left atrium > left ventricle > artery > around our body > to the feet (becomes deoxygenated) > veins > back to the heart.

Ask us about this process at home to share our learning with you.

In French, we played different games to consolidate our learning as part of Scotland Loves Languages week. Nairn and Lucy did a brilliant job, leading these activities as part of their Language Ambassador roles!

We have been continuing our futsal sessions with the West Lothian Youth Football Foundation. This week was a ‘game week’ and we took part in small-sided games. It was a great opportunity for us to demonstrate the skills we’ve been developing over the first three weeks, for example, close control, use of both feet, different surfaces of the foot and accurate passing.

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)

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

P5 and Mr Logan

January 24, 2020

P5 Weekly Blog

What a busy week we’ve had in Primary 5, here’s the full run-through…

Numeracy and Mathematics

This week we have been making connections in our learning between fractions, decimal numbers and percentages. We are now more confident in doing so and were able to apply this learning when faced with a series of multi-step word problems.

Following on from this, we began studying weight. Firstly, we consolidated our knowledge of both metric and imperial units of measurement before estimating the weight of various objects and ordering these from lightest to heaviest and vice versa. We have also been converting between grams (g) and kilograms (kg) which involved applying our knowledge of division and place value when shifting our decimal point. Alongside this, we have been relating our learning of weight to our bridge work in Science by discussing the impact that varying loads may have on the design and capabilities of a different bridge types.

We have really enjoyed trying some Solve Me Mobiles in mental maths throughout the last couple of weeks. Please feel free to try some at home – https://solveme.edc.org/Mobiles.html

Literacy and English

We are currently reading Holes by Louis Sachar as our shared text where Stanley Yelnats is sent to a Juvenile Detention Centre called Camp Green Lake. He and the other boys there are tasked with digging holes to “build character” in the sweltering Texan desert. So far we have been predicting the outcome of the text, looking at the features of informal letters and answering a range of questions based on the text. In doing so, we have tackled literal, inferential and evaluative questions. We are becoming increasingly confident in skimming and scanning the text to find required information and also making use of context clues which are available to us. We are continuing to work on the way in which we structure our responses and giving evidence from the text when describing and explaining. For enjoyment, we are reading the World’s Worst Teachers, but thankfully Mr Logan hasn’t been mentioned!

In writing this week, we have used features of an informal letter when sending a reply from Stanley Yelnats’ perspective to his ‘Mom’. We learned that they must include the sender’s address, the date on which the letter was sent, Dear, informal language and a sign-off. Informal language is used when you are communicating with somebody you know or are familiar with, e.g. a family member or friend. We have also been writing reports and reflecting on our learning from our visit to the Forth Bridges. We paid particular attention to the structure and content by including an introduction, main part and conclusion with detailed description of what happened and what we learned.

Learning Across the Curriculum

On Tuesday, we attended the Linlithgow Cluster Schools Handball Festival at Linlithgow Academy. We had the opportunity to demonstrate our handball skills in small-sided games against St Josephs, Low Port, Torphichen and Westfield. Scores were not kept with the focus being placed on passing the ball effectively within our teams and having fun. Mr Logan was delighted to us working so well in teams, communicating effectively, encouraging others and showing a sense of fair play at all times. Next up, we have blocks of fitness and volleyball with Mrs Reid whilst also taking part in futsal sessions delivered by Neil from the West Lothian Youth Football Foundation.

Our outings didn’t stop there, we were off out on Thursday again as we made our visit to the Forth Bridge Education and Contact Centre in South Queensferry. This followed on nicely from an incredibly informative talk delivered by Hector Woodhouse on Wednesday who was involved in the construction of the Forth Road Bridge. Here we were met by Elaine Barrie who spoke to us about engineering and the Forth Bridges before setting us off in groups in a bridge-building workshop. We were asked to construct the highest free-standing towers that could withstand different forces such as wind and the pull of gravity. We each had a different role and had to agree on a final design before constructing our towers. Despite a few failed attempts, we demonstrated resilience and worked hard to get the job done. The winning tower measured almost 1 metre in height! Well done Team Yachi! After lunch, we took a walk over the Forth Road Bridge (suspension) to have a look at both the Rail Bridge (cantilever) and Queensferry Crossing (cable-stayed). It was rather windy and we were slightly unnerved by the gaps between each section which allow for expanding and contracting when temperatures change.

A windswept P5 on the Forth Road Bridge!

Coming Up/Reminders

Next week we will begin our history trail studies of Burke and Hare
Monday 3rd February – P5 swimming assessments at Xcite Linlithgow
Friday 14th February to Tuesday 18th February – Holiday
Homework grids came home this week, due back Friday 27th March
Sharing the Learning sheets came home this week, have a look at other whole school events coming up
Remember you can also follow us on Twitter for more regular updates @SpringfieldBonn and @SpringfieldP5

Have a great weekend everyone!

P5 and Mr Logan