Lion King – Springfield Primary School and Bonnytoun Nursery School

April 19, 2018April 19, 2018

P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy

Established the difference between a pattern (shapes) and a sequence (numbers)
Explained and used rules to extend well known number sequences including square numbers, triangular numbers and Fibonacci sequences
Applied knowledge of multiples, factors and square numbers to generate and continue number sequences
Challenged peers to solve our own pattern and sequence problems

Literacy

Completed our personal projects on an aspect of WWII and received our feedback
Beginning to summarise our personal projects ahead of our class talks
Carried out research on the blitz in Scotland and how this affected those in Glasgow and the surrounding areas
Used the Literacy Box for comprehension challenges and consolidated our learning of grammatical rules and punctuation
Began reading and exploring the themes within our new WWII related class novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
See examples of our propaganda below

WWII

Created a display around our classroom door using our propaganda posters
Produced blitz artwork using watercolour paints and silhouettes of British and German aircraft
See examples of our artwork below

Health and Wellbeing

Continued improving our physical fitness as part of a fitness and track athletics block in P.E
Completed a fitness circuit with various activities and exercises
Recorded and tracked our progress using score sheets at each of the 8 stations
Football team trained in preparation for this year’s George Allan tournament on Sunday 20th May, 7-a-side games with a formation/shaping focus
Netball girls participated in their final league meeting of the year, finishing 3rd in the cluster league standings
MF and LC successfully led our Cheerleading after school club for their younger peers ahead of their showcase event

Skills for Learning, Life and Work

We welcomed Mr. Vereker into class to speak about his job in rope access
Mr. Matheson also visited us to speak about his job as Software Writer
Putting together our list of professionals and local businesses ahead of our P7 Careers Fayre on 1st May at 6pm

Lion King

Final preparations and rehearsals taking place for our Lion King performances at Linlithgow Academy next Tuesday and Wednesday evenings
All tickets now sold out for the Tuesday evening and a very limited number remaining for Wednesday
See photos below of us rehearsing below
Next Week
Monday 23rd April – After school football training outdoors at 3.15pm
Tuesday 24th April – Full day dress rehearsal at Linlithgow Academy and Lion King performance at 7.30pm
Wednesday 25th April – Lion King performance at 7.30pm
Thursday 26th April – Mr. Boiling visiting for WWII at Sea presentation, rugby taster sessions to begin, sports leaders to assist at Minikickers football for P1 at 3.15pm

As always, have a great weekend when it arrives!

P7b and Mr. Logan

February 25, 2018February 25, 2018

This week in Numeracy and Mathematics, we have been continuing with our work finding area and perimeter. Our work this week involved us applying our skills in real life contexts using floor plans for different properties. We successfully measured the perimeter of individual rooms, found the length of missing sizes and dimensions using the information provided, calculated the area for flooring needed with costs and examined proposed extensions to existing buildings. Next week we will further extend our learning and the use of appropriate formulae in order to calculate the volume and capacity of varied 3D objects.

Literacy and English

Having previously taken notes with Mrs. Doran, we used these to begin creating a different text in the form of a written report. This was based on the Winter Olympics which have been taking place over the past couple of weeks. These will be completed next week before carrying out a self-assessment of our work against our writing targets and success criteria. In grammar, we enjoyed learning more about prefixes and suffixes. These are used to extend root words and alter their meaning. A prefix is a letter(s) placed before a root word, for example, play > replay. A suffix is a group of letters placed at the end of a root word, for example, playing. Have a look at examples we came up with below.

Health and Wellbeing

In football for P.E this week, both our feet and brains were put to the test. After getting some great ideas from the teachers’ Better Movers and Thinkers session last Friday, Mr. Logan used these to get us moving and thinking in a more cohesive manner. Now that we have developed the ability to dribble confidently with good close control, we were given the additional challenge of rotating a tennis ball around our waist in a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction. Whilst doing so, we had to take 5 touches forward, sideways, backwards then repeat. We also tried dribbling whilst tossing the tennis ball in the air in one hand and swapping both balls with a partner. Finally, when the whistle was blown we stopped our football, threw our tennis ball up and had to complete different clapping sequences before catching it. We needed a good rest afterwards! Here are our schools footballers in action on Monday.

The Lion King

Mr. Logan’s programme team polished off their final draft this week and it is looking superb! Well done to the pupils involved for creating such an impressive piece of work, it looks very professional. With just 2 weeks to go, our rehearsals continued this week. Mr. Logan was blown away by our rehearsal on Friday, everyone has done so well to remember their lines and deliver these in such a confident manner. It’s lovely to see every child beginning to enter their character and contribute to what is going to be a fabulous peformance in their own individual way. Keep up the hard work and stay calm P6 and P7, you’re going to be fantastic! Here are some of the talented pupils we have playing main parts in P7b!

Have a great weekend!

P7b and Mr. Logan

February 8, 2018

P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

We have been continuing our work on data handling this week. In doing so, we have both asked and answered questions to extract key information from varied data and displayed this by drawing pie charts and creating them using Microsoft Word. Next, we will be looking at measure through learning about area and volume. Making estimations, calculating the perimeter, calculating area using cm/m² and volume using cm/m³, using scales accurately, converting measurements and demonstrating an understanding of imperial units and how they are still used in everyday life. We have set some maths word problem challenges for the upper school and shall wait to see if anyone manages to solve them for a reward!

Literacy and English

Sam was chosen as this week’s Star Writer in P7b after he produced a superb creative piece of writing about the African savanna. Everyone worked incredibly hard on their pieces of writing and we will be peer assessing these next week using our Second Level writing criteria. This will allow us to form our own next steps and targets in writing over the coming weeks. You can now see this on our Star Writer wall, it’s well worth a read. We have been brushing up on our uses of apostrophes for both contraction and possession, and trying to implement this in our own writing. On Yammer, we thought of higher order questions which we would like to pose to members of staff from the Academy and will hopefully have these answered when they visit us ahead of transition.

Health and Wellbeing

In P.E this week, we designed our own football games that incorporated the skills we have developed so far; passing, dribbling and shooting. The children came up with some fantastic ideas and provided a clear explanation and demonstration as to how their game was played. Our focus on internet safety was geared towards online content this week. We had to assess some of the content which you may encounter online, decide on it’s appropriateness and then discuss the effect this could have on people. As a result, we are now aware of how to best respond when we come across something online which upsets us or makes us feel uncomfortable. On Thursday, we had a tour of Linlithgow Academy as part of our transition to S1. It was great to have a look around, meet some of the staff and have some burning questions answered. We look forward to our 3 transition days in June now. Finally, Lion King rehearsals have carried on this week where we have been designing and creating scenery, making costumes and having our first full run through in the hall. The main cast managed this off-script, our lionesses were fierce and our ensemble were singing beautifully throughout. Well done to all involved, and thank you to Mrs. Gordon, Mrs. Matos and Miss Prince for their continued efforts in getting us prepared!

Have a relaxing and restful long weekend everyone, it’s well deserved.

P7b’s Superstars and Mr. Logan

February 4, 2018

P7b Weekly Blog

It’s been another busy week in P7b, here’s what we’ve been up to…

Numeracy and Mathematics

This week we began a unit of work on data and analysis. We have been selecting appropriate ways to gather and sort data for given purposes and justifying our choice of method, for example, a survey, questionnaire or group tallies. Having gathered this data, we used a variety of methods to display it, including frequency tables, vertical bar charts and line graphs. These displays of data included suitable titles, labels on both axes (which are the fixed vertical and horizontal reference lines) and an appropriate scale. Next week, we will continue to explore different ways in which to gather, organise, analyse and display data including through the use of digital technologies.

Literacy and English

Having reached the floor with their compliment chain, P7b were lucky enough to escape homework this week and consolidated their learning of previous spelling patterns and rules. In writing, we wrote thank you letters to the STEM engineers who visited us and were interviewed ahead of our work to build movable buggies. We adhered to a set structure for our letters before redrafting and printing these using Microsoft Word. On Thursday, we started on an assessed piece of writing with only a picture stimulus to get our creative juices flowing (see below).

Having completed our initial planning, we will continue with the writing of our stories next week. As we write, we will be self-assessing our work alongside the criteria for a Second Level piece of work. Mr. Logan is looking forward to reading these once they are completed.

In reading this week, we continued our group novel studies and developed our reading skills using the comprehension box. We chose from a variety of texts before answering different types of questions. When faced with literal questions we looked carefully to find and lift the answer directly from the text. When answering inferential questions we tried to read between the lines using context clues and asking questions to help us make sense of the text. And finally, when posed with evaluative questions we offered our own ideas and opinions, or related our answer to our own personal experiences.

Health and Wellbeing

P7b visited Bonnytoun Nursery this week and enjoyed interacting with our youngest learners. We enjoyed drawing, paired reading, using ICT, building towers, playing with the slime and making sand castles. It was lovely to spend some time with them and we’ll be sure to visit again soon.

As we approach the end of our block of football for P.E, we have been further developing our ability to pass the ball accurately and introduced to shooting. We explored different ways to pass the football before establishing that the inside of our foot is most accurate. However, when shooting, the inside of our foot can be used to improve accuracy but we attempted to use the ‘laces’ to increase the power of our shot. Next week we will be applying these skills in small sided games, analysing our performance and officiating matches.

This week we started our focus on internet safety in the lead up to Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 6th February. We took part in a speed friending game which explored the nature of ‘friendship’ on social media, allowed us to identify risks and danger and taught us how to interact safely with others online. When we do encounter something online which upsets or offends us, we now know what to do in order to get help.

Coming Up

Monday 5th February: P7 after school football
Tuesday 6th February: Parent Council meeting, 6.00-7.00pm in library
Tuesday 6th February – Thursday 8th February : Lion King tickets on sale to all parents, carers and families from 3.15-3.30pm
Thursday 8th February: S1 transition tour for all P7s, 9.30-11.00am, please return EE2 forms by Tuesday
Friday 9th February: Pupil Voice Committees
Monday 12th February & Tuesday 13th February: HOLIDAY, return Wednesday 14th February

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

P7b and Mr. Logan

February 2, 2018

Primary 6B – 2nd Feb 2018

As a new month starts, our learning continues.

This week we have consolidated our learning around negative numbers and the children have completed a pre-topic assessment for money and finance, which we will begin to explore next week.

In literacy, the children have used Scot’s language to rewrite either part of the script from The Lion King or a scene from The Broons. They had great fun using Scot’s Dictionaries to discover some new words. Ask them which new words they have discovered!!

We have also written an imaginative story, with our main focus being the way sentences are started. We have learned that sometimes we need to restructure the sentence in order to open it with an interesting word. Ask your child which sentence openers they used this week!!

We have continued our preparations for The Lion King show, rehearsing and singing.

Have a lovely weekend

Primary 6B and Mrs Kerr

January 18, 2018

P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

We have been continuing with our work on angles this week, but our focus has moved to the naming and measuring of them. Mr. Logan is insisting that we use the mathematical language when referring to the ‘lines’ and ‘corners’ of an angle. The lines are arms, and the point where the two arms meet is called the vertex. When naming an angle we have learned that they would have 3 uppercase letters and the vertex would always form the middle letter for the name. On Wednesday we estimated the size of various angles before using a protractor to check the exact size. We tended to find that our estimations were quite accurate. Our final challenge was to hunt for angles of specific sizes around school. Sam and Charlie were the first to return to the classroom having completed this, well done boys!

Literacy and English

Our note taking and summarising skills continue to improve through practise, and we’ve certainly had lots of that this week! Our guided reading task this week was to summarise the key points and main events from our previous reading. We were able to do so; using bullet points to format our work and not writing in full sentences to keep our notes short and concise. On Thursday we had to apply these skills when Mr. Boiling and Mrs. Dallas visited as part of our STEM work with Mrs. Tulloch. As they presented to us and answered the higher order questions prepared in advance about engineering, we took notes to record the information shared.

Health and Wellbeing

In football, we further developed our dribbling skills and close control of the football when moving around the gym hall. At the end of each session we were given the opportunity to apply these skills in 2v2 scenarios. It was highlighted that small, light touches of the ball would allow our opponents less opportunity to win possession from us so we did our best to keep it close to both feet at all times. Next week our focus will move to passing with further consolidation of the skills we’ve worked hard on over the first two weeks of our football block. Our football team embarked on their league campaign on Monday, with 17 boys and girls from P7 playing in 5 fixtures at Xcite Linlithgow. Both teams were hugely successful, with one team managing to remain unbeaten and not concede a single goal! Well done Callum for keeping 5 clean sheets! The other team managed to win 3 of their games with some very impressive team play throughout. The attitude demonstrated, encouragement of each other and sense of fair play shown at all times was particularly pleasing to see. Well done to all involved! Go Team Springfield!

Expressive Arts

As part of our Lion King focus ahead of the school show, we were keen to create character sketches of some of the main characters and animals that will be seen on stage. We used images found online and YouTube tutorials to provide us with step-by-step instructions on how to accurately sketch our assigned character. Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Matos complimented us on how impressive these all were and Ramsay has even been given the additional role of making headdresses and doing some costume design! Great job! Our rehearsals continued on Thursday and Friday where we have been working on preparing all aspects of the show. Only 7 weeks to go! On Thursday we were also lucky enough to be visited by the Travelling by Tuba music group. They took us on a trip round the world, exploring different instruments found in various countries. Some of these were hundreds of years old.

Have a relaxing weekend!

P7b and Mr. Logan