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
Our learning this week has progressed from angles to compass points before rounding off the week with coordinates. We have been reading and plotting points in a single quadrant which we discovered is called a Cartesian grid system, based on the theories and work of mathematician René Descartes. It was important to remember to mark our x and y axes with an evenly distributed scale, label them and plot our points precisely. The line where the two lines meet is called the origin (0,0) and a point will never be named O to avoid confusion. We extended our learning to reading and plotting points in four quadrants using negative coordinates before reflecting across both the x and y axes.
L finding the missing coordinates of quadrilaterals.
F has drawn 3D shapes using coordinates.
M has drawn a picture using a list of coordinates.
Literacy and English
The two reading techniques we have explored this week are pathetic fallacy and dramatic irony. We found that dramatic irony is when the reader of a text is aware of something that the character isn’t. For example, in Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, we used context clues to infer that Bruno should not enter the concentration camp but he was naive as to the dangers that this entailed. We found that pathetic fallacy is when the author reflect human emotions and the mood through inanimate objects, such as the weather. In the penultimate and final chapter of the novel, John Boyne builds tension and atmosphere through persistent heavy rain and a storm approaching.
In writing this week, we have been compiling book reviews of Boy in the Striped Pyjamas that incorporate persuasive techniques and include the main features of this genre of writing. We used questions at the beginning to hook the reader and ensured there was a short summary of events within our initial paragraph. Without giving away the ending, we described the plot and main characters through the use of powerful verbs and adjectives. To conclude, we provided the reader with our personal opinion on the text and gave examples of what we had particularly enjoyed. I think we’d all agree that Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is well worth a read for older children and adults alike!
Health and Wellbeing
In P.E this week we have been developing the accuracy of our slingshot and underarm throw within dodgeball whilst incorporating some thinking skills through Better Movers and Thinkers work. We played in 1v1 situations to strike a central target using both our stronger and weaker arm to throw before moving up or down the league depending on our success. Whilst exchanging dodgeballs we had to ensure that both our feet were off the ground as we received the ball. This led to some interesting methods of catching, including sitting on the ground with our feet up to do so!
The Sports Committee were defining ‘achievement’ this week within a sporting context and coming up with examples of what this may look like. For example, Ellie has achieved through leading her peers, Callum achieved by showing bravery and courage to try a new discipline within fencing and Sarah achieved by persisting for over a year to master a move in gymnastics. We collated our ideas on the board and came up with a ‘recipe for success and achievement in sport’ at Springfield Primary School. This will be displayed in our gym hall in the coming weeks.
Developing accuracy in dodgeball during 1v1 games.
F and J developing their throwing and catching.
Sports Committee defining achievement and collating the ingredients for success in a sporting context.
Learning Across the Curriculum
Here are some photos from our learning across the curriculum this week, including STEM and Skills for Learning, Life and Work…
M testing his buggy on a gradient.
LR and SW piloting female engineering!
E delighted with his progress made!
FA engrossed in his STEM work.
Sergeant B maintaining order!
Sergeant R ready for action!
Sergeant MacKenzie from Police Scotland visiting P7a.
Lawyer J and Procurator Fiscal N.
Lawyer F and Procurator Fiscal LR.
Coming Up…
Here are important upcoming dates for the P7 diaries…
11.3.19 – Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood lessons begin in Health and Wellbeing
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
12.3.19 – P7a pupils to St. Michael’s Day Care Centre (x4)
13.3.19 – Scottish Opera performance from 2.15-3.00pm (1 x guest per child)
14.3.19 – P7 Information Evening for children, parents and carers at Linlithgow Academy
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.
Joseph M finding vertically opposite angles.
Zara confidently measuring, drawing, naming and labelling angles.
Nicci successfully measuring and drawing angles using a protractor.
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!
Finley was chosen as our Star Writer for February for his evacuee letter.
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.
JB increasing the height of her throw to allow time for a finger-tap sequence.
PM creating a finger-tap sequence to teach a partner.
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.
Ben Johnson, an aircraft engineer with JET2, presenting to the P7s.
Joe and Claire presenting from Syngenta who produce agrochemicals.
Marlous Peterse delivering a SfLLW presentation about Theatre Management.
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
A short week in P7a this week, but still lots of learning to report on…
Numeracy and Mathematics
As we progress towards the end of term 3 and our transition to S1, we have been introduced to some areas and concepts that will be covered within Third Level Numeracy and Mathematics. This week we have continued learning about algebra and solving equations. We began by discussing what algebra we had already been exposed to (without even realising), such as ‘number machines’ and ‘missing value’ type questions. Having consolidated our knowledge of these it allowed us to further extend our learning to replacing values with symbols, finding the value of ‘x’ (or an unknown quantity), simplifying expressions by collecting like-terms and evaluating expressions by substituting known values such as a, b or c. We discovered that one theory behind the use of ‘x’ to represent an unknown quantity came from a 17th century French philosopher, scientist and mathematician called René Descartes. Can you find the values below?
Literacy and English
In Boy in the Striped Pajamas this week, Bruno encountered Shmuel, a prisoner at Out-With, whilst exploring and we have been drawing a comparison between them. Although the boys share the same birthday, we discovered that the similarities stop there. We examined extracts of their conversations and journeys made from the text, highlighting evidence and annotating points of interest.
Another journey we have found out about this week, is that of child evacuees during World War II. Whilst being introduced to Operation Pied Piper we used bullet points to take notes relating to key information shared. These notes will be used to inform our writing planning next week when we write letters from an evacuee’s perspective. To begin entering this mindset, we prepared and delivered a short drama in groups that portrayed the experiences and emotions of these children.
Learning Across the Curriculum
As part of our Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme, we had Pamela Barnes and Teresa Waddington in class to speak to us this week. Pamela works with a local community development trust and Teresa is a Plant Manager with Shell.
We have been continuing to rehearse our songs for our Scottish Opera performance, 1719, which commemorates the Jacobites’ risings where they fought alongside the Spaniards against the Hanoverians. The singing sounds fantastic as we look forward to our workshops and final performance in March.
In Science with Mrs. Tulloch, we completed our STEM invention drawings and continued to construct our moveable buggies. In the coming weeks, these will be finished and our buggies judged on whether they can make it up a series of ramps with varying gradients. A huge thank you to Mrs. Tulloch who works tirelessly to spark our interest and curiosity in engineering.
Finally, it was sad to say goodbye to M last week who moved to her new school. We wish her all the very best and thank her for being such a kind, lovely and warm-hearted member of P7a. We will all miss her!
To all of P7a’s parents, carers and families, have a lovely weekend!
This week we have been extending our knowledge of capacity and volume. We started by establishing the difference between the two concepts and found that capacity is the maximum something can hold where as the volume is the amount of space that a substance or object occupies. We can now confidently compare and order different volumes of liquid using millilitres (ml), centilitres (cl and litres (l) and can successfully convert between these units of measure. We found that there are 10ml per 1cl, 1,000ml per 1l and 100cl per 1l. Having developed this knowledge we then applied our skills to play some estimate, check and record games against a partner. We chose measuring cylinders depending on the volume of liquid required and noticed that our estimates became increasingly accurate we the game progressed. Finally, to round-off our learning for the week we made ‘mocktails’ using recipes and instructions provided. In order to do so successfully, we used measuring cylinders with 1ml scales, ensured they were flat to the table and recorded the liquid line, rather than the bubbles or froth. Have a look at us in action…
Z, G and J checking their total volume of ‘Orange Fizz’
JM and JB making a ‘Blue Wave’
S and L measuring ingredients for a ‘Berry Blitz’
Literacy and English
Now that we have began learning about World War II, all of our Literacy and English work in class is based around our shared text, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ by John Boyne. Last week we made predictions and assumptions about the plot and storyline, and continued this week with a focus on characterisation and profiling. We discussed each character in detail, including their relationships with others, behaviours, personality traits and developing roles within the story. During our discussions, we used inference to analyse each character at a deeper level and provided evidence or quotes from the text to support any statements we made about them. By skimming and scanning the text, we were able to find some context clues that clarified our thinking and highlighted some key themes. These included; persecution of others, discrimination, racism, naivety, innocence of youth, conflict, relationships and moral justice.
In writing this week, we analysed the story from Bruno’s perspective and considered the impact that moving to Out-With has had on his happiness. We wrote informal letters using the features of an email to one of his three best friends (Karl, Daniel or Martin) or his Grandmother in Berlin. Within these pieces of writing we were able to structure our work appropriately using an email format, build detail through the description of Bruno’s surroundings, apply our skills developed last week to write in the ‘first person’ and share his feelings and emotions to create reader empathy.
With Mrs. Gordon, we continued our learning in French this week by presenting our own ‘la météo’ forecasts to discuss the weather.
Health and Wellbeing
It was Safer Internet Day 2019 this week, and we have been continuing to learn about the ways in which we can stay safe online and use the internet responsibly. Our focus this week was on passwords and security to protect online accounts and data. We understand what a strong password is having looked at examples of weak ones and predicted the passwords people may choose based on some basic details about them. A strong password must contain symbols, upper case letters, lower case letters and numbers. A lot of us admitted that we may have to go home and increase the security of our social media accounts.
In P.E, we have continued with our block of dodgeball. Now that we understand the rules and roles of players within a team, we have been improving our throwing technique and playing variations of the end game to apply the skills we have developed. P7 have really enjoyed this so far, and we may well need to extend the initial 6 week block!
Maintaining possession
Spatial awareness, movement and positioning
Social Studies
This week we have been creating a World War II timeline and learning about the uses of propaganda. For our timeline, we researched key events that took place during the 6 years and a day of World War II with the aim of placing them in a chronological sequence on our wall. We heard Neville Chamberlain’s radio broadcast declaring war on Germany after Hitler refused to withdraw troops from Poland and the events which took place as a result of this. After being introduced to the definition of propaganda and discussing the themes and messages behind some examples of it, we started creating our own examples. These are looking fantastic and we will share them with you once completed. You can see our blacked-out World War II living room below with some interesting objects and artifacts from this era.
Our blacked out WWII living room with games, paperwork, news articles and artifacts
Our display beginning to come together with leader sketches and timeline skeleton
Coming Up…
11.2.19 – Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme begins
11.2.19 – After school football for P6 and P7 outdoors from 3.15-4.15pm
14.2.19 – Rotary Quiz for selected pupils
25.1.19 – Academy staff to visit P7 re. S1 transition
26.2.19 – Football league meeting (1) at Xcite from 4-6pm
5.3.19 – Scottish Opera workshop for P6 and P7 pupils
13.3.19 – Scottish Opera performance of 1719 for parents, carers and families at 2.30pm
14.3.19 – Parental Information Evening at Linlithgow Academy re. S1 transition
26.3.19 – Football league meeting (2) at Xcite from 4-6pm
27.3.19 – Ford Castle P7 camp information evening in school hall at 6pm
3.4.19 & 4.4.19 – Parents Evenings
4.4.19 – Skills for Learning, Life and Work programme ends
In grammar and punctuation, we have been consolidating our knowledge of past, present and future tense verbs this week. After reading jokes written in the past and present tense we were asked to convert and rewrite them in the future tense. Following on from this we came up with some of our own jokes using varied verb tenses.
Ahead of November 11th, we extended our knowledge of Remembrance Day and the reasons as to why this commemoration came about. We explored different informative texts before responding to varied questioning to demonstrate our knowledge of events that took place. It is important to remember those who died in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in order for us to live as we do today. We read For The Fallen, a poem by Robert Laurence Binyon, which stirred our emotions and promoted our thinking on the subject. P7 will be coming round classes each day over the next 3 weeks to sell poppies for the Scottish Poppy Appeal. Please give generously to support war veterans and their families. Minimum donation is 20p.
Next week we will be beginning our literacy book focus on Holes by Louis Sachar. We are looking forward to reading this text and will begin by analysing the initial chapters and predicting events in the story next week. Why are the boys sent to Camp Green Lake being asked to dig Holes in the searing Texan heat? We will find out in due course…
Finally, a quick shout out to Joanna who wrote an essay titled ‘My Inspiration’ for the Rotary essay writing competition. Joanna structured her work well and explained in great detail why she has been inspired by Elaine Thompson, a famous sprinter, to take up athletics. She has been chosen as P7a’s Star Writer for October. Well done Joanna! We’re very proud of you! Have a read of her essay below.
JB’s fantastic essay entry for the Rotary’s ‘My Inspiration’ competition
Numeracy and Mathematics
This week we have been reintroduced to fractions, which we will be learning about alongside decimals and percentages in the lead up to Christmas. We began by finding the fraction of a set using Skittles. After counting the number of each colour we were asked to write this as a fraction before simplifying it if possible and answering word problem type questions based on our findings. We have been ensuring that we use mathematical language at all times; the top number is the numerator, the bottom number is the denominator and the line separating the two numbers is called the vinculum. As well as finding the fraction of a set, we have also been ordering and sequencing fractions. Next week we will consolidate our learning of simplification and equivalence.
During Big Start activities we have been applying our learning of our times table facts. One example we tackled this week was a Mystery Matrix. Well done to Lily, Millie, Luke and Sophie who managed to solve the matrix and fill in every missing value. Next week we will begin to discuss this year’s Christmas Fayre enterprise work. Once we have considered who we would like to work with, we will be deciding on our product or service and beginning to put together a resource order form. Each group will be working on a strict budget of £20 with the aim of making the greatest net profit. We are aiming to develop our entrepreneurial skills, experience running a small business and increase our financial awareness. The Fayre will be on Friday 7th December, so please put it in your diaries to come along and support P7. All money raised will be put towards our Leavers 2019 events.
MH and LG worked hard to solve the Mystery Matrix
One of this week’s Big Starts
Skittles fractions
Skittles fractions
Health and Wellbeing
Below you will see us participating in our third session of futsal. This week we were developing the ability to pass accurately to our peers through the use of varied parts of the foot and communicating effectively. Next week is a games week where we will be able to demonstrate the skills we have developed so far in small-sided match situations.
Congratulations to PM below who brought in his Linlithgow Fun Run achievements to share with me. He placed highly in the race given his age and continues to excel in all things sport. P is one of our new Sports Leaders, a member of the Sports Committee and integral part of our school football team. Well done P!
Finally, FB and RD have also won medals for their efforts at rugby. They attended at tournament in Musselburgh recently; winning every game, scoring tries and working well as part of a team. Excellent job boys, keep up the good work! RD is our current Sports Committee Chairperson whilst FB is an enthusiastic member of our Sports Leaders group. Great examples of young sportsmen for their peers from P1-6.
Communicating with peers to pass the ball successfully
Futsal passing exchanges
PM Fun Run achievement
RD and FB rugby achievements
Learning Across the Curriculum
Lastly, we ended the week with a trip to Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory on Thursday. We had a brilliant day and found the experience to be incredibly informative and thought-provoking. The morning began with a WWII presentation from Peter, an ex-Sergeant Major, who put us through our paces and certainly woke anyone up who may still have been half-asleep! This included Mrs Manlove, our parent volunteer, who was dressed up as a paratrooper deployed behind enemy lines. JS demonstrated confidence to come forward and dress up as a Commando and was one of our values certificate winners this week. Well done JS! We then went back downstairs and managed to manufacture over 2,000 poppies in a short space of time. ZP and SK gathered these in a huge box as these poppies will be sent out during next year’s Scottish Poppy Appeal. Some of the boys asked to be shown round the factory and had a look at the various pieces of machinery used to create poppies, wreaths and other items. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of the workers here for being so friendly and welcoming during our visit. P7a demonstrated our school values throughout the morning and were an absolute credit to us all! Have a look at the happy, smiling poppy makers pictured underneath.
“Can we stay here for the rest of the day?”
Happy boys at this table
Working hard to manufacture poppies for the 2019 appeal
Next Week
SNSA testing all week in P7
Monday 29th October – Homework grids (term 2) and Sharing the Learning Overviews in school bags
Monday 29th October – NO school football
Tuesday 30th October – JASS Parent Launch event (see app)
Wednesday 31st October – P7 NHS dental checks
Thursday 1st November – Mr Logan in class, futsal session
Friday 2nd November – Deadline for skiing EE2 forms, payment can be made before Tuesday 27th November
P7a have been writing essays this week on deforestation and extending their knowledge of how human behaviour is impacting on the natural environment, particularly in the Amazon rainforest. We were staggered to learn that 13 million hectares of rainforest are destroyed worldwide every year which equates to 8.5 million football pitches a year, or 23,483 per day! It’s safe to say that we were united in our disapproval of this and used our essays to further discuss; what deforestation is, why it is happening, the impact of it and what can be done to protect these areas. Finally, after considering the information found from our research, we offered our own viewpoint and suggested potential solutions to this global issue.
We have also been continuing with our group novel studies in guided reading. Take a look below at what we have created at home. These shoe boxes hold items that represent key themes within the text we are studying. For example, in Tales of Beedle the Bard friendship and good vs. evil is prevalent, the Hunger Games explores power, identity and politics whilst Anne Frank’s Diary exposes sacrifice and religion.
Novel study theme shoe boxes
Numeracy and Mathematics
In Numeracy and Mathematics this week we have continued to consolidate our learning of formal written methods. After finishing our block of work on multiplication, we are now studying the inverse operation of division. We have been using both short division and mental strategies to tackle various questions and problems this week. Next, we will be applying our learning from division when developing our knowledge of fractions, decimals and percentages. In the collage below, you will see that Paul has already been finding real-life examples of fractions at home and converting these into percentages.
When learning about Brazil in our ‘Near and Far’ comparison, we found that the currency used in Brazil is the real (ray-al). One Brazilian real is exchanged for approximately 20p and you’ll see below that we have been creating a currency conversion chart for someone travelling here. We have also been drawing a comparison between Scottish and Brazilian culture and society using a Venn diagram. Well done Nicci, whose examples are displayed below!
Venn diagrams, currency conversion and real-life fractions
Health and Wellbeing
Our current block of basketball is coming to an end next week and we have been beginning to apply our skills developed in small-sided game scenarios. The key focus this week was on inclusion and passing within our team, ensuring that all players received a pass before points could be scored. We also played took part in some 1v1 scenarios to develop both our attacking and defending skills as well as our hand-eye coordination. In the pictures underneath, you will see us taking part in our first futsal session delivered by Kieran from West Lothian’s Youth Football Foundation. Futsal is a Brazilian variation of football which is both fast-paced and exciting to watch. We developed our dribbling skills and close control of the futsal, ensuring it remains on the floor. This is made easier by the fact it has fluff inside to weigh it down!
We have been continuing to work on ‘Keeping Ourselves Safe’ with Mrs Newton and for homework, we created flow charts that illustrated how to respond in varied dangerous situations. Mr Logan has shared a few examples of these below because the standard of work and effort put into them was so incredibly high. Ewan carefully detailed how to respond when smoke is detected in your home and Joseph M when you find a casualty who is unconscious. Excellent effort boys!
Futsal week 1
Dangerous situation response flow charts
Learning Across the Curriculum
Our leadership groups are now up and running as we undertake different activities to lead learning across the whole school. Our Numeracy Leaders have been setting challenges for the younger classes, Literacy Leaders preparing to start paired reading with the infants and Digital Leaders creating posters to be displayed in all classrooms that promote internet safety. As well as this, our Buddies have been working within our infant classrooms to support their learning, and similarly, the Sports Leaders led two sessions of P.E for both P1 classes. We can also announce that the first edition of Springfield Times will be coming your way in November courtesy of our hard-working Newspaper Team. For homework, Rory also took the time to write about an inspirational leader of his. He chose Scottish rugby captain John Barclay and listed the skills and qualities that he demonstrates in his role. Great effort Rory, and well done to you and Finlay B for your victory last weekend!
In Science with Mrs Tulloch during term 1 we have studied animals and food chains, and we consolidated this learning at home by drawing our own annotated food chains to represent the network of links between different species. We will also be moving on to study plants in society, and as you can see below, we have already began working on this with our labelled diagrams of plant structures. Our STEM challenge has been to create junk model shanties and we have since turned the back of our classroom into a Brazilian favela. A special mention to Millie for the graffiti and artwork on her outside walls and to Luke for the level of detail in his design.
Leadership in action
Food chains
Structure of plants
Inspiring leaders
P7a junk material favelas
I look forward to seeing you all at parents’ evening next Wednesday and Thursday.
Have a great weekend everyone! We’d also like to wish the lovely Millie a Happy Birthday for tomorrow!
To tie in with our Brazil learning, this week we have been creating rainforest tankas in writing. Tankas are Japanese poems, similar to haikus, but have two additional lines. They have 5 lines split over 2 verses and always add up to a total of 31 syllables. Often tankas are written about nature, love or sadness and portray strong feelings or emotions. We discussed deforestation and the feelings that this may evoke for both the animals and indigenous tribes living there, as well as the impact that this is having on the natural environment. When reading examples, we also identified the regular use of simile, metaphor and personification within tankas and were encouraged to incorporate figurative language into our own work. Please read one or two of our efforts below:
We have also been working as groups to research the Brazilian city that our tables are named after. Firstly, we had to identify the location of our city on the Brazilian map before marking this on our class wall display. Using our notes and relevant information from our research, we started creating informative posters about each city that detailed various aspects of life in that location. Some of us chose to focus on landmarks and places of interest, whereas others opted for a focus on the natural environment or the artistic influence that can be seen there. These will be completed next week and we will share some photos of the finished articles in our next blog post.
Z and J passing on their knowledge of tanka poetry to M, J, L and F
Numeracy and Mathematics
This week we celebrated Maths Week Scotland as well as continuing to extend our knowledge of multiplication. On Monday and Tuesday, we consolidated our learning of multiplying 4 or 5-digit numbers by a single digit using a standard written method before applying specific rules to effectively multiply by 10, 100 and 1,000. To build on this further, we multiplied decimal numbers by 10, 100 and 1,000, paying particular attention to how many places our decimal place would move to the right. Next week we will continue to strengthen our knowledge and understanding in multiplication before making the link the the inverse operation, division. As part of Maths Week Scotland, we took advantage of the good weather on Wednesday morning to team up with P7b and do some multiplication orienteering. Various multi-step word problems we positioned in 15 different locations around the school grounds where we worked with a partner to solve these using the written method taught earlier in the week. If we failed to do so, or did not include units of measurement, we were given a time penalty or asked to recalculate. Zak and Ambra were our winners, just pipping 2 other groups to the prize.
Health and Wellbeing
We have been focused on one value this week in P7a, resilience. Throughout the week we took the time to refine our class assembly and develop our confidence when presenting to an audience. We hope that you all enjoyed it and would like to thank you for coming along to support us. If you couldn’t make it along today then please feel free to have a look at our presentation by clicking the link (P7a Class Assembly). Resilience is something we are all looking to build during P7 as we prepare for our transition to S1. Next week, we are looking forward to a visit from the RNLI to speak to us about water safety as part of our Keeping Myself Safe learning with Mrs. Newton. We are hoping to further our knowledge of how to respond in an emergency situation near water.
On Wednesday, we teamed up with those in our leadership groups to finalise what our remits will be for this year. From newspaper writers to sports leaders, we’ve got a number of areas in which we will be working hard to develop across school. Each group will be allocated one hour per week to carry out their responsibilities and we’ll keep you updated with our progress over the coming weeks and months. As our new upper school display states there really is a leader in all of us, and we’re beginning to demonstrate the skills and qualities that a great leader might possess:
Effective communication
Enthusiasm
Boldness
Self-assurance
Intuitiveness
Teamwork
Empathy
Charisma
Thank you for all showing up in such numbers for both Meet the Teacher and our class assembly this week. Both the children and I appreciate it.
