Tag: celebrating success

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P5 Weekly Blog

Literacy and English

War Horse is our latest class novel and we have been doing some shared reading around the text. The story tells of Joey, a brave hearted farm horse, who is exposed to the horrors of war. Our initial focus was identifying themes from the text and making predictions about the outcome. We have also been analysing and annotating the text to identify key features of writing. We were able to identify and use examples of parenthesis (dashes, commas or brackets) used to provide additional information. Finally, we looked at sequential openers and connectives – firstly, secondly, then, afterwards, meanwhile, etc – before using these to make a piece of writing ‘flow’.

Question – Can you identify where I’ve used 3 examples of parenthesis in the previous paragraph?

In writing we have been note taking during our research on volcanoes, using subheadings and bullet points in doing so. We then used this information to write an informative essay on volcanoes. We described what volcanoes are, explained how they erupt, provided definitions of the terms active, dormant, extinct, gave examples of types of volcanoes and even gave key facts and information about an active volcano of our choice. Please take some time to have a read of these, they really are excellent examples of our work. Well done P5!

Numeracy and Mathematics

We are still enjoying being posed with some pictorial Number Talks that involve making estimations and reasoned guesses. These types of problem require us to show resilience through ‘trial and error’ and ‘process of elimination’ approaches. As time progresses, we are given additional clues that allow us to narrow our scope, e.g. the number is one less than a multiple of 11, the number is odd, the number does not have a 7 in the tens place.

We have finished our block of work on subtraction having developed both written and mental strategies within the operation. Mr Logan has been encouraging us to always evidence our working and strategies used in order to gain full credit for our work. We are looking forward to moving on to multiplication next week when we will be recapping on our tables knowledge, multiplying by a single-digit, multiplying by two-digits and widening our range of mental strategies.

Learning Across the Curriculum

Science and Social Studies – In Japan, we were keen to learn more about volcanoes as there are 110 active ones located there. We have been learning what a volcano is, how they erupt, what stages of volcano there are and about the main types. Following this we created annotated diagrams in our jotters. Next week we will be creating  and decorating papier mache volcanoes and making them erupt in a science investigation. Please send in newspaper, cardboard sheets or boxes, plastic bottles and milk cartons if you have them!

Spanish – Mr. Vilanova has been working on numbers and colours with us as we begin developing our ability to read, speak, write and listen in Spanish.

P.E – In basketball we have been developing our passing and movement skills within game situations. We have been attempting to move the ball quickly between all players and get ourselves high up the court to put pressure on the opposition when defending.

Achievements

Please take a look on our Twitter feed @SpringfieldP5 for this week’s achievements! There have been plenty of them!

Coming Up

  • 7.10.19 – Social Enterprise Academy visiting P5
  • 8.10.19 – West Lothian Ranger Service orienteering session
  • 9.10.19 – Harvest Assembly – remember to bring in non-perishable items to donate to the West Lothian Foodbank
  • 12.10.19 to 21.10.19 – October holidays
  • 22.10.19 – All return to school
  • 28.10.19 – Rugby session for P5 at Linlithgow Rugby Club (1)
  • 4.11.19 – Rugby session for P5 at Linlithgow Rugby Club (2)
  • 6.11.19 – Number Talks Open Morning from 9.30 – 10.30
  • 8.11.19 – Remembrance Day Assembly
  • 11.11.19 – Rugby session for P5 at Linlithgow Rugby Club (3)
  • 18.11.19 – Rugby session for P5 at Linlithgow Rugby Club (4)
  • 19.11.19 – Learning Showcase from 14.00 – 15.00
  • 6.12.19 – Christmas Fayre from 9.30 – 12.00

One week to go before the holidays!

#GoTeamP5!

P5 and Mr Logan

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Recent Achievements

Look at how busy we’ve been since returning to school! I’ve really enjoyed hearing all about these achievements. Well done everyone!

Can’t wait to see more Springfield achievements! #GoTeamSpringfield

Mrs Hocknull 

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P5 Weekly Blog

I can’t believe we’ve reached the September weekend already! Time flies in P5, here’s what we’ve been up to this week and a look ahead to next…

Numeracy and Mathematics

In Numeracy and Mathematics we have been applying our learning of place value when using written methods of addition. Firstly, we ensured that our 3-digit numbers’ columns were lined up correctly and that we had noted which operation was being used with an addition sign (+). We reminded ourselves that when we have 10 or more in one column we have to ‘bridge’, ‘carry’ or ‘regroup’ by passing our tens to the left. When reading questions, we realised that a lot of mathematical words and phrases for addition mean the same thing; both, altogether, how many, find the total, plus, combine, increase, find the sum of and join. Next week, we will be furthering our knowledge of written methods when we look at the inverse operation of addition, subtraction.

We’ve also been doing some Number Talks this week to improve our mental agility. Mr Logan has been calling us the ‘Mathletes’ and asking us to verbalise varied strategies used to tackle addition problems. For example,  when posed with ’20 x 25′ we were able to find the solution in a number of ways. We decided that the most efficient method was to multiply 25 by 10 then double our answer.

Literacy and English

Whether it’s an ocean quest with Magnus Fin, seeing the world through August’s perspective or studying Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth, we’ve been getting excited about reading this week in P5!

Mr Logan has been springing reading time on us with the use of some acronyms and images, e.g. ROBOTS – read one book off the shelf, BEAR – be excited about reading. We’ve enjoyed dropping everything and having some quiet time to immerse ourselves in a text  that we really enjoy. It doesn’t matter what this is, it could be an atlas, a newspaper, a fictional story or comic! Whatever the text is, it’s important that we want to read it and get excited before turning each page. We’ll be studying a range of texts this year and looking to develop our reading skills and strategies to better understand them.

In writing this week, we’ve been finding out about Japanese poems called haikus. Haikus are usually written about an aspect of nature, e.g. the seasons or a particular animal, and express different feelings and emotions associated with these themes. The structure of a haiku is important; there must be 3 lines and a total of 17 syllables. The first line should have 5 syllables, the second 7 syllables and the third 5 syllables. There is no need to use rhyming but some of us chose to try this with the final word of the first and third lines. We’ve been word processing these and adding some relevant images. You’ll be able to see them on our Literacy wall, come and have a read!

Learning Across the Curriculum

Our focus in P.E this week has been control and maintaining possession of the basketball. We worked on the height at which we bounce the ball and using our body position to shield the ball from opponents. After some skill practises we tried to apply our learning in small-sided games.

We’ve been researching Japanese landmarks this week and taking clear and concise notes on these using bullet points. We’ve travelled from Mount Fuji to Kinkaka-Ji and on to Nara Park and Hiroshima Peace Park. In groups, we began creating informative posters which we will present to the rest of the class next week.

Mr Logan met with Claire Fraser from the Social Enterprise Academy this week about a project that P5 will be starting in October. Stay tuned for more information on what P5 will be doing to raise money for a worthy cause in the local community!

Achievements

  • Sarah and Olivia – Well done for your solo and partnered successes in gymnastics!
  • Lucy – Fantastic achievement completing the 10 mile Pedal for Scotland cycling event!
  • Finlay B – Good job on starting football with Hibs! Keep training hard!
  • Cori – Great work in getting two 2nd place finishes at your swimming gala!
  • Mairi D – Super effort cycling 30km at the weekend! What a distance!
  • Sam – Second place at Inchcoonan’s cross country horse event. Fantastic!

Super proud of all my P5 superstars! Keep bringing in any of your recent achievements to share with us!

Coming Up

  • 16.9.19 – Holiday
  • 17.9.19 – Holiday
  • 18.9.19 – Liaise with Leadership 4-5pm (P3 classroom)
  • 18.9.19 – Parent Council AGM 7-8pm (library)
  • 25.9.19 – Monitoring and Tracking of Wellbeing 6-7pm (hall)
  • 27.9.19 – European Day of Languages
  • 30.9.19 – Futsal with WLYFF begins for P5
  • 2.3.19 – Parents Evening 4.30-7.30pm
  • 3.3.19 – Parents Evening 3.30-6.30pm

Have a relaxing and restful long weekend!

P5 and Mr Logan

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P7a Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

Over the past two weeks P7a have been extending their knowledge into Third Level algebra. This has included solving equations with negative numbers and fractions and solving inequations with inequality signs. We have even been beginning to expand double brackets and carry out the inverse of this by factorising expressions.We have also been trying some codebreaker strategies that were used during WWII to intercept messages and crack codes.

Today we looked at frequency analysis, an example of mono-alphabetic ciphers, where each letter in the alphabet is replaced by another. We demonstrated resilience and perseverance to decipher a message from 1943 about merchant ships. Sophie, Erin and Nicci were the first to do so! Well done girls!

Literacy and English

We have been continuing to read Goodnight Mr. Tom, with a particular focus this week on characterisation. This included an analysis of the ways in which two main characters, Mr. Tom and William, have evolved throughout the story so far. We have noted that William has become less anxious which has improved his level of happiness and had a positive impact on his learning. We gave supporting evidence from the text to argue this. Secondly, Mr. Tom has become more sociable and developed more of a nurturing side. Again we were able to give examples of where this was noticeable.

In writing we have been creating balanced arguments that introduced the topic before weighing up advantages and disadvantages of child evacuation during WWII. We wrote conclusions that offered our personal viewpoint on the topic with reasons for our particular stance.

Learning Across the Curriculum 

Other learning and achievements this week include:

  • Basketball team qualified for the West Lothian Primary Basketball League play-offs. One of their games ended in a 16-0 victory!
  • The school footballers were unbeaten in the latest league meeting and bounced back from 1-0 to win on 3 separate occasions.
  • P7 attended our SPS Careers Fayre and impressed visitors with their knowledge of subject areas and questioning.
  • We attended a Farm to Fork careers event at SRUC Oatridge where we found out about a number of different career opportunities in the food, farming and agricultural sectors.
  • Our first rugby session took place with Linlithgow Rugby Club and we are excited for our end of year festival in June.
  • The netball teams remain 1st and 4th in the league after their latest round of fixtures.

P7a and Mr. Logan

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P7a Weekly Blog

What a busy week in P7a! Here’s what’s been going on…

Numeracy and Mathematics

Our learning this week has allowed us to extend our knowledge of angles. We started on Monday by recapping on our prior knowledge of angle types and identified examples of these in school, the playground and the wider built environment. These were acute, right angles, obtuse, straight lines, reflex and complete turns. Following on from this, we were able to measure and draw angles of varied sizes using a protractor. Angles can be named using the letters representing the arms (lines) and vertex (where the lines meet). The vertex must always represent the middle letter, e.g. < ABC where B is the vertex. We have also been introduced to complementary, supplementary and vertically opposite angles. Complementary angles add up to 90°, supplementary to 180° and vertically opposite angles are always the same.

Literacy and English

Yesterday, we finished reading Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which has been our shared reading text over the past few weeks. We discussed different symbols within the text and the themes that they represent. For example, Ethan commented on the fact that the striped pajamas symbolised the persecution and dehumanisation of Jewish people. A fantastic and worthy contribution! There were a number of context clues within the final chapters which we used to infer what was going to happen. We found the ending to the story incredibly powerful and rather upsetting. Although it was hard to listen to, we all agreed that the key learning point to take from the story relates closely to the final line; “Of course, all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age”. Always be kind to others and treat people fairly. Race, religion, skin colour, gender, physical appearance and sexual orientation are irrelevant. We are all human beings, so celebrate diversity and allow equality to prevail. On Thursday, Miss Baillie and Mr. Ritchie visited class to see what a writing lesson looks like in P7a. We were writing letters from the perspective of a child evacuee in WWII whilst attempting to portray their feelings and emotions during this traumatic experience. Finley was chosen as our Star Writer for February and we’re incredibly proud of him. What a great addition he has been to our class and school!

Health and Wellbeing

Our football season kicked off on Tuesday at Xcite, with 30 of our footballers in action. Mr. Logan was incredibly impressed with the positive attitude, enthusiasm, sense of fair play and skill level demonstrated by all children. He’s incredibly confident that it will be another successful year for our football teams, as they follow in the footsteps of last year’s trophy winners. Thank you to Miss Baillie, Mrs. Tomczynski and our former pupil Robbie Tomczynski who assisted with the coaching on Tuesday afternoon. We couldn’t have managed without them!

In P.E this week, we were continuing to develop our skills in dodgeball before applying these in different match adaptations. Below you can see some of us practising our throwing and catching. In between each throw, we had to create a finger-tap sequence (our fingers were numbered 1 to 4) before catching the ball. As we improved our ability to do so, we added in 5th and 6th numbers to our sequence before sharing these combinations with a learning partner. In game situations, we developed the accuracy of our throw by not only trying to eliminate opponents but also striking targets on our opponents’ side of the court. Next week we aim to further improve our peripheral vision, spatial awareness and positioning.

Learning Across the Curriculum

As part of the Developing the Young Workforce initiative (DYW) our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme continued this week with four more visitors in class. We welcomed in Marlous Peterse (a Theatre Manager), Ben Johnson (an aircraft engineer), Joe and Claire from Sygenta (agrochemicals) and Iain Fyfe (volunteer in school, retired HR Manager and ex-professional referee). These visits have been a fantastic learning experience, allowing us to extend our knowledge of the variety of careers, occupations, business and workplaces out there. The important message this week was not to assume that everyone leaves school, goes to college or university then finds a job in that field. Our visitors alluded to the fact that everyone’s journey into work takes a different route and there really is no right or wrong way to get there. Find something which is suited to your unique skill set and make sure you’re passionate about it! We look forward to hearing from more visitors next week including a Procurator Fiscal, Defense Lawyer and Policewoman.

Coming Up…

Here are important upcoming dates for the P7 diaries…

  • 4.3.19 – Deborah Demick (Procurator Fiscal) and Neil Hay (Defense Lawyer) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 4.3.19 – After school football outdoors from 3.15-4.15pm
  • 4.3.19 – Football kit to be returned please
  • 5.3.19 – Scottish Opera workshop (all day)
  • 6.3.19 – Claire MacPherson (Police Scotland) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 7.3.19 – P6 Fairtrade Bake Sale
  • 8.3.19 – World Book Day assembly
  • 8.3.19 – Pupil Voice Committee meetings
  • 11.3.19 – Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood lessons begin in Health and Wellbeing
  • 11.3.19 – Fidelma Guest (Dietician) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 12.3.19 – Grant Armstrong and Scott Brown visiting P7 for S1 transition talk
  • 12.3.19 – Deborah Paton (Sustrans) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 12.3.19 – Jennie King (NHS – Nurse) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 14.3.19 – P7 Information Evening for children, parents and carers at Linlithgow Academy
  • 15.3.19 – Natalie Boyle (Eye Surgeon) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme

We’ve lots to look forward to! Have a great weekend everyone!

P7a and Mr. Logan

 

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A Mountain to Climb

RG in P7 recently climbed a small hill in South Ayrshire called Knockdolian. He had challenged himself to climb the equivalent height of Mount Everest over the past 12 months and has finally surpassed the 29,029 feet mark! R has scaled a variety of mountains across Scotland from the Isle of Skye to the Cairngorms in the process. We think this is a superb achievement and would like to congratulate R for his efforts! What an accomplishment! Have a look at his picture below upon completing his challenge…

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SPRINGFIELD AND BONNYTOUN GET THE GOLD!

We are absolutely delighted to inform our pupils, parents, carers and families of the exciting news we received today. Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery have been awarded a sportscotland Gold School Sport Award for 2018-2021!

The Gold School Sport Award is recognition of the school and nursery’s achievements in putting sport at the heart of  our school’s planning, practice and ethos. It highlights that as a school we have shown excellent practice across the core areas of the Award and demonstrated an ongoing commitment to increase our young people’s opportunities and engagement in physical education, school sport and leadership. We aim to build upon and further improve our existing provision of sport whilst creating clear pathways for lifelong participation.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has played their part in achieving this award, we really couldn’t have done it without you. This includes; our wonderful staff and P.E specialist who ensure that our children participate in 2 hours of high quality P.E per week, those who volunteer to give up their time every week to provide an extra-curricular club, the parents and volunteers who assist with school sport and our committed P7 Sports Leaders. Last but not least, thank you to our Sports Committee for all of their hard work towards achieving this award and to all of our pupils across both the school and nursery for their boundless enthusiasm towards all things sport at Springfield.

“It’s not always the team with the best players that win. It’s the players in the best team that win. Together, everyone, achieves, more.” 

#TeamSpringfield

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Golf Galore

Over 35 of our P7 pupils enjoyed their second session of golf at Kingsfield Golf Range today, provided by the Stephen Gallacher Foundation. The boys and girls who attended were working on their chipping this week, using wedges and lofted clubs. We started off with a game of ‘Rory Says’, which followed the same rules as ‘Simon Says’, to get warmed-up before splitting off into teams of 3 for a competition. Each player had to hit towards a small square target 15 yards away, with the aim being to land the ball inside this zone. If we were successful, we had to place one of the golf balls behind us on the noughts and crosses board to earn points for our team. It was great fun, and a huge thanks again to Jane and Stewart our coaches for all their hard work in planning and delivering these sessions!

JG chipping towards his target.
Racing to the correct station in ‘Rory Says’.
Getting warmed up and ready to play.
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Football News

It was a successful weekend for SF and P7b and NP in P7a, as they both competed in the local derby match between a Linlithgow schools select and Bo’ness schools select. Linlithgow came out victorious and you can see the boys pictured below with the trophy. SF and NP are just two of our talented footballers we have at Springfield Primary School, who’ll also be representing us in the George Allan tournament this Sunday 20th May at Prestonfield. Kick off is at 9.00am if any of our pupils, parents, carers and families would like to come along and cheer the boys and girls on!

Well done you two! A great achievement and one you should both be extremely proud of!

#competeandperform #celebratingsport #pathways

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P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

  • Consolidating our use of written methods for all four functions
  • Carrying out WWII written addition problems involving money
  • Ensuring we always show our working in response to questions
  • Tackling multi-step problems and sharing our strategies

Literacy and English

  • Writing our STEM letters to be sent off alongside our annotated inventions
  • Researching for our personal projects and beginning to collate these
  • Continuing with our group novel studies and tackling inferential and evaluative questions

Health and Wellbeing 

  • Further developing our skills in football with additional BMT skills introduced
  • Celebrating achievements of CMcK and our gymnasts
  • Attending our S1 information evening at Linlithgow Academy ahead of our transition
  • Reflecting on our learning and progress during term 3 ahead of parents evening

Skills for Learning Life and Work

  • Visits from S6 World of Work ambassadors electrical engineer, Procurator Fiscal, Merchant Navy and project manager

Thank you to everyone who attended parents evening. I’m delighted with each and every member of P7b and the progress they are all making. Let’s make it a final term to remember!

P7b and Mr. Logan

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