What a great virtual sports week we had last week! Huge thank you to Mrs Reid for organising our daily sports challenges and gathering together all of our scores and also to our class teachers for sending out lots of fun and engaging sport-related tasks and activities for us to try.
Well done to all of our pupils, parents, carers and families who got involved, it was lovely to see photos and videos of what you’ve all been getting up to! We’ve had over 180 pupils submit scores, 1,800 daily challenges completed and travelled the equivalent of Edinburgh to Leicester in the house distance challenge! That’s a massive 391 kilometres!
I’m sure you’re all eager to hear who is this year’s winning house and the new holders of the House Cup, but there’s one more little step to take before you can find out. Click on the link below to see the results from the week, including: our winning house, the highest scoring pupil in each class, the winners of the house distance challenge and even our top 3 parents!
From Monday 15th of June – Friday 19th June I would like to invite all our pupils and families to take part in our Virtual Sports Challenges.
For each challenge you complete you will score points for your school house and at the end of Virtual Sports Week we will have a winning house for 2020.
Each slide in the attached Powerpoint will explain one of our 11 challenges and give details on how to score points for your house.
Keep a note of your score for each challenge and then fill in the score form attached and send it back when all your challenges are complete! This can be done using the Forms link on the final slide.
Everyone in your family is welcome to get involved so lets get active and have lots of fun!
Click on the link to access the Powerpoint with all the information you need – Virtual Sports Week
This week we have been working really hard on our division skills. We have explored different strategies and used concrete materials to help us see when there is a remainder and some of us have also begun working on short division. In number talks we have started to look at negative numbers. We have also started learning the 7 times table and had fun singing and moving along to this video – try it at home!
We enjoyed another session of hockey on Monday and played a game which helped us work on scoring.
We worked in pairs to come up with an idea for an event and then we designed a poster advertising our event. We made sure we included the place, date, time, cost and any other important information. We have continued our learning about the Vikings and have found out more about their daily lives. We wrote a diary entry from the perspective of a Viking child and decided we are very lucky to be children in 2020 rather than Viking times! We revised counting to 20 in French and played a game of bingo and a game called Killer 12 – this was a fun way to improve our fluency!
We have also worked together to come up with some new class rules and we created a superhero themed Class Charter to reflect our rules and remind us of our rights.
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!
D, C and S checking their final volume.
Busy classroom!
E and F measuring carefully.
E and E with their ‘Orange Fizz.’
C, M and E are pleased with theirs!
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.
D’s Haring artwork.
Sarah’s initial ideas.
Freya’s planning.
Keith Haring example.
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)
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)
A huge thank you to those of you who made it along to our parental information evening on ‘Tracking and Monitoring Health and Wellbeing’ at Springfield Primary and Bonnytoun Nursery School. Don’t worry if you couldn’t make it, just click the link below for a copy of the Powerpoint delivered at the session:
If you have any questions or queries about what was covered, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to gathering your views on our approaches to behaviour at next week’s parents evenings. If you could take the time to fill in a quick form regarding this it would be much appreciated. Your views and feedback through consultation are vitally important to us.
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)
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!
Nicci’s working
Erin’s working
Our Codebreaker task
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.
Joann’s balanced argument
Zara’s balanced argument
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.
We have been further exploring concepts of Shape, Position and Movement this week in Numeracy and Mathematics, with a particular focus on both symmetry and 3D shape. At the beginning of the week, we took some time to consolidate our existing knowledge of symmetry by identifying both single and multiple lines of symmetry across different axes. We understand that ‘perfect symmetry’ is only achieved if both sides (or quadrants) are mirrored or reflected to create two sides that are exactly the same. After doing so, we created our own symmetrical designs across both a horizontal and vertical axis. Alongside this, Pythagoras group were working on using angles of elevation and depression to create scaled drawings. The conversion from the scales provided was tricky and we were surprised at just how precise we had to be when measuring both angles and lengths. To end the week, we were presented with a 3D shape design challenge. Mr. Logan asked us to design a new kitchen and produce a scaled version of this using the nets of 3D shapes. The appliances, storage and additional features had to match his exact specifications. We did an excellent job for him and you can see some pictures of these below!
E, N, J and S responded creatively to the design brief
F, S and Z preparing appliances for their 3D kitchen
Boys are happy with their kitchen design
Kitchen design challenge
Literacy and English
We’ve continued reading Goodnight Mr. Tom this week and used this context when learning about adverbials and modal verbs. These can be used to assess the likelihood of something happening and allowed us to rate the probability of our predictions transpiring within the text. An example of this would be; Willie’s Mother probablywon’t bother to write him many letters. Probably is an adverbial and won’t is a modal verb. This is something we’ve probably always used within our own writing, however, we weren’t actually aware of what this sort of ‘likely language’ is referred to as.
In writing this week, we created explanation texts to convey information to a reader and explain a process. We all drew detailed, annotated diagrams of a ‘teacher pleasing’ machine that would make the lives of Mr. Logan and Mrs. Matos easier. Following on from this, we used visual organisers to plan for our writing with a clear structure before giving a detailed, step-by-step account of what our design actually does. Coffee on draught and a feature that marks all of our work instantly? Mr. Logan is sold, where can he purchase one?!
Mr. Logan has been particularly impressed with the quality of questions posed to our visitors in class and the higher order discussions which have been taking place around our shared reading of Goodnight Mr. Tom. We have worked hard throughout the year to articulate our ideas and contributions clearly and involve ourselves more actively in class questioning and discussions.
Health and Wellbeing
Both our footballers and netball team were in action this week with league meetings taking place against other cluster schools.
On Monday, the netball teams played in their first competitive fixtures of the year and were a pleasure to watch. Springfield 1 sit top of the league currently after winning every game, and Springfield 2 lie in joint 3rd place after showing real grit, determination and team spirit. Well done to all concerned, it was an absolute joy to see you all excelling in these games and proudly representing the school! Your training and hard work has paid off; thank you to Mrs. Matos and Miss Harrison for leading this.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the football teams also performed well in our second league meeting of the year. We have a mix of boys and girls from both P6 and P7 playing and there was a significant improvement in their play from 4 weeks ago. Mr. Logan was impressed with the fluid, passing football, creative flair and willingness to win in every match against some strong opponents. Again, well done to all of you and thank you for being such assets to our school.
Learning Across the Curriculum
We’re beginning to get excited for P7 school camp at Ford Castle and heard more at this week’s information evening. More information is available on their website (https://www.ford-castle.co.uk/) if anyone would like to see more of what we’ll be getting up to! Here’s the link for anyone who missed the presentation:
In Social Studies this week we had Mrs. Manlove, Paul’s Mum, in to speak to us about some members of their family who survived The Holocaust and the ways in which these Jewish people were persecuted because of their race. It was a fascinating yet horrifying insight into how people were treated by both Germans and the British during this era.
As part of our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme this week we have been visited by Mrs. Guest (a dietitian), Mrs. Burgess (a Secondary Teacher at Linlithgow Academy), Professor Manlove and Sofiat (University of Glasgow – Computer Sciences and Maths) and John MacCartney (GE Power). Thank you to all of you for agreeing to visit us!
Mrs. Manlove speaking to us about three stories from WWII
Shelters WWII
Shelters WWII
Shelters WWII
Sofiat, a PhD student from University of Glasgow
Professor Manlove from Computer Sciences and Maths at University of Glasgow
Mrs. Guest, a dietitian
Mr. MacCartney from GE Power
Coming Up…
1.4.19 – After school football training from 3.15-4.15pm outdoors
2.4.19 – P7a pupils (x4) to St Michael’s Day Care Centre
3.4.19 – Linlithgow Academy blazer fitting (optional purchase) at 10.45am
3.4.19 – P7a park visit as House Treat for all reaching 1,000 Springs
3.4.19 – Parents Evening from 4.30-7.30pm
4.4.19 – Parents Evening from 3.30-6.30pm
5.4.19 – End of term 3, Easter Holidays begin
One week to go… Keep up the great work P7a, I’m incredibly proud of you all!
We have been continuing to extend our knowledge of Information Handling this week whilst using a variety of methods to present samples of data, including frequency tables, cumulative frequency tables, bar graphs, line graphs, comparative line graphs and pie charts. We carried out surveys recording tally marks and frequencies before looking at the ingredients for a successful bar or line graph. These included a title, labels for the x and y axes, an evenly distributed scale, accurately plotted points and a key if required. To create pie charts we used a protractor and compass to do so precisely. This required converting a number from a sample of data to a percentage or fraction before converting this to an angle within a full rotation. Tricky! We ended the week by using Microsoft Word to present data of our choice. We carried out research online into a subject of interest before presenting this in an appropriate way.
S’s use of a protractor and compass to create pie charts
N’s beautifully presented data
J presenting samples of data using bar and line graphs
Literacy and English
We have started a new text study this week, Goodnight Mr. Tom. A young boy, Willie, has been evacuated to Little Weirwold and ended up with Mr. Thomas Oakley. Willie had been subject to abuse from his Mother in London, and life with Mister Tom may provide a welcome escape from this. We have inferred that Mister Tom is disgusted by how Willie has been treated and truly wants to care for him, however, this is reminding of his late son who died at a similar age to Willie. We’ve created mind maps to record our initial thoughts, ideas, questions and predictions about the text and we’ll add to these as we read on. We’re looking forward to seeing how their characters and relationship develops as the story progresses. Ask us to summarise the key points from our reading so far!
Rationing was the focal point for Social Studies this week through our World War II learning context. We were exposed to the basic rations a person, or family of four, would receive on a weekly basis between 1939-1954 and drew comparisons to what we eat each week. Any meals we would still have been able to enjoy were highlighted, however, these were few and far between and we were surprised at how little food people survived on. Our challenge based on this information was to create a recipe using only rationed ingredients or those that could have been grown through ‘digging for victory’. We had to include a catchy, persuasive title, ingredients lists with bullet points, equipment, a step-by-step method with numbers and extra, optional elements. Within our instructions we used sequencing connectives such as firstly, meanwhile and finally, and in our ingredients list we used past tense verbs to improve clarity, e.g. chopped, diced or grated. Next week we will be voting for and preparing the winning recipe(s)…
S’s rationing recipe – ‘Jazzy Jazzy Pizza Salad’
E’s rationing recipe – ‘A Traditional Scottish Treat’
We’re coming to an end with our block of dodgeball in P.E and were looking to further develop our accuracy and throwing technique this week. We worked in trios to pass the dodgeball through hoops of various sizes at various heights determined by the middle player. We also played some 1v1 accuracy games by aiming to land the ball in the opponent’s hoop. If we won our 60 second mini-game we moved up, but if we lost we moved down. We then applied these skills within adaptations of our main game by aiming for end targets and targeting identified players on the opposing team.
We have also been learning about Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood this week; one of the 6 key organisers for Health and Wellbeing.
F and R improving underarm throw accuracy
1v1 accuracy games
G concentrating hard to ensure an accurate throw
L, N and J working hard to get the ball through the target
Learning Across the Curriculum
Finally, this week we’ve had another wave of interesting and insightful visits as part of our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme in P7. Mr. Vereker, a Rope Access Engineer, spoke to us about his aspiration to Spiderman and how his job allows us to ‘access the inaccessible’. We continue to promote varied types of engineering in school as part of our STEM programme and national drive to get more females into these workplaces. Mrs. Schofield delivered a hands-on presentation about kilt making. We were shown the length of material needed for just one kilt and saw demonstrations of how different part of this manufacturing process take place.
On Friday our Sports Committee members carried out some self-evaluation into the P.E and sporting opportunities we provide at Springfield. We are continuing to improve and enhance our sporting provision and are already looking ahead to our priorities for session 2019/2020.
Sports Committee 2018/2019
Mr. Vereker discussing how to “access the inaccessible”
The full length of one kilt
Mrs. Schofield demonstrating part of the kilt making process
Coming Up…
25.3.19 – Fidelma Guest (Dietician) speaking to P7 for SfLLW programme
25.3.19 – NO after school football training
26.3.19 – Luisa Burgess (Secondary Teacher) speaking to P7 for SfLLW programme
26.3.19 – David Manlove (University of Glasgow) speaking to P7 for SfLLW programme
Football League Meeting (2) at Xcite Linlithgow from 3.45-6.00pm
27.3.19 – John McCartney (GE Power) speaking to P7 for SfLLW programme
27.3.19 – Ford Castle P7 Camp Information Evening from 6.00-6.30pm in hall
28.3.19 – Carolynn Manlove speaking to P7 about WWII at 2.00pm
29.3.19 – ‘Being Responsible’ assembly
1.4.19 – After school football training from 3.15-4.15pm outdoors
3.4.19 – Linlithgow Academy blazer fitting (optional purchase) at 10.45am
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