P1B – Week ending 21st June

In Literacy this week we have continued to work on our diary writing skills and tricky word spelling.  We worked on our listening and talking skills too, sharing what we had done at The Marches and talking about what we were looking forward to on Gala Day.  It’s fair to say we are excited about Gala Day!

In Numeracy we continued our learning on writing our numbers up to 20 in words.  We have also continued to practise counting up and down in 2s and progressed to counting up and down in 3s.  In Maths we completed our Data Handling lessons, learning about a new way to sort information using Carroll Diagrams.  You can see an example of these by following this link –http://resources.hwb.wales.gov.uk/VTC/carroll_diagrams/eng/introduct/default.htm.

We met our P2 buddies this week and had great fun playing with them with the outdoors toys in the playground.

We enjoyed our final session with our specialist from the National Youth Choir of Scotland.  We continued to work on keeping the beat and using our listening skills to identify where sounds were coming from.  We also had fun again playing parachute games.

On Thursday we visited our new P2 classroom and met Miss Harrison.  We heard a story about a cautious caterpillar and drew a picture of our favourite part of the story.  We really enjoyed spending time with Miss Harrison and chatting to her about P2.

Have a lovely weekend.  Only 1 week left!

Mrs Reid and Primary 1B

P1B – Week ending 24th May

What a quick week!

In Literacy, we have been learning the new digraphs, ‘au’ as in launch and ‘aw’ as in draw.  We learned that, once again, there is unfortunately no set pattern to follow to work out which au/aw to use when we are spelling using this digraph but, as we have discussed before, this will get better with practise.  Our new tricky words were ‘do’ and ‘as’.  This was the last week of new digraphs and tricky words for Primary 1.  The rest of the term will be used to consolidate learning of all sounds we have learned throughout the year.

In Numeracy we continued to work on our sequencing skills, forwards and backwards, within 20.  We took turns to choose a selection of numbers and found the easiest way to sequence the numbers was to work out which were the largest and the smallest numbers and sequence the others in between.  We loved using the caterpillar sequencing game and used this to challenge each other.  You could play this at home too (https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/caterpillar-ordering).

In Maths we continued to learn about how to present data in a pictogram.  We learned that it is important to create a separate column for each of data sets in the pictogram, making it clear to understand.  We began to learn about strategies we could use to interpret the data in the chart.

In PE we were working on eye/foot co-ordination, dribbling a ball and we also continued our Gymnastics block with Mrs Harris.  We built on the Gymnastics learning that we have done so far, practising a variety of rolls and jumps.  Everyone worked very hard to try to complete the tasks.

We were also lucky to have an Enjoy-A-Ball session this week.  Paul Pizza was impressed with the ball dribbling skills on show and how well the children listened to his instructions.

We started thinking about our class assembly which is set for Friday 7th June.  Mrs Reid was very impressed with the ideas which were suggested and we are hoping to incorporate all of them into our performance.  We’re keeping this top secret just now!

We arrived in school on Thursday to find one of our butterflies had hatched from its cocoon and shortly after we started our day, another one emerged!  We were very excited to see them and had a super discussion about the hatching process.  We had lots of questions and researched the answers to these together.  We wanted to know if our butterflies were boys or girls and what the red liquid was that came out of the butterflies as they hatched.  I wonder if the children can tell you the answers?

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Reid and Primary 1B

P7a Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

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

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

Literacy and English

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

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

Learning Across the Curriculum 

Other learning and achievements this week include:

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

P7a and Mr. Logan

Primary 1B – w/e 3rd May 2019

We have had a very busy week in P1b!

In Literacy, we have been learning two new digraphs, ‘oi’ as in coin and ‘oy’ as in boy.  We learned that ‘oi’ usually comes at the beginning or middle of a word and ‘oy’ mostly comes at the end.  We did find quite a few exceptions though which made it tricky!  Our new tricky words were ‘there’ and ‘were’.  We found that when we tried to come up with sentences using ‘there’ we were getting a little bit muddled up with ‘they’.  We kept trying though and now understand the difference between the words.

In Numeracy we were learning about the different ways that a subtraction question could be written.  For example, find the difference between, minus, take away, less than.  We have also been learning how to use subtraction within worded questions.  For example, there were 10 carrots.  5 were eaten.  How many were left?  We saw how important it was to read the question carefully before answering.

In Maths we were learning about Capacity.  In pairs, we took on two challenges to work out the capacity of a variety of vessels – a spoon challenge and a cube challenge.  We had to choose a vessel and predict the number of spoons of sand which would fit inside the vessel and then redo the experiment to see how many cubes the vessel would hold.  It was interesting to see how accurate (or not!) our predictions were.  We found that some groups got a different answer for the number of spoons of sand in the same vessel and worked out that this was because the size of spoonfuls differed from one group to the next.

In PE, we continued our Gymnastics block with Mrs Harris.  We were learning about different types of jump this week.

Mrs Laing visited us again to complete the clay modelling.  Everyone has now sculpted a model.  The models look amazing!  There were so many different ideas.  Once they are dry they will be able to come home.

We also participated in a Generation Science workshop, part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival.  The children learned about computer programming through following instructions to build a Lego robot goal keeper and programming the robot to try to save shots at goal.  They learned how important it is to give clear instructions to make sure the robot did what they wanted it to do.  They had great fun programming the ‘live’ robot to make a jam sandwich!  Mrs Reid was impressed with the Lego building skills and how confidently the computer programmes were devised.

Have a lovely holiday weekend!

Mrs Reid and Primary 1B

Primary 1B – w/e 5th April 2019

This week in Literacy we have continued our revision of the sounds and tricky words we have learned this term.  We have worked through a number of phoneme challenges, identifying words with the correct phoneme in them and blending the words together.  In Dictation, we have been writing sentences incorporating a variety of digraph words.  We are getting better at remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

In Numeracy we have continued to learn about numbers to 20.  We have been sharing strategies of how to keep track when counting a set of items and have also been working on identifying numbers between 0 and 20, using a number line to help us.  We have continued to practise writing our numbers to 20.

Within our Transport topic we have been working in groups to design and build futuristic modes of transport.  We talked about the past, present and future and how things change over time.  We looked at pictures of transport from the past and present, discussed how these had changed and how they might change in the future.  Each group drew a picture of their chosen mode of transport, used the picture to help build a model and then presented their model to the class.  There were some fantastic features of our futuristic transport including a hot air balloon fuelled by angel cakes, a rainbow aeroplane and an aeroplane/double decker bus combo which was almost taller than the children who made it!

We also had a trip to the park this week and had great fun playing together with P1a.  Many of us showed resilience when trying to climb up or down and bravery when riding on the flying fox!

We have had a very busy term, working hard and learning lots!

Have a lovely Easter holiday!

Mrs Reid and Primary 1B

Primary 1B – w/e 29th March 2019

This week in Literacy we have been revising all sounds and tricky words we have learned this term.  Everyone had the chance to go over each of the digraphs and tricky words individually with Mrs Reid.  As well as reading the digraphs and digraph words, everyone tried to write them too.  We found this trickier but know with practise we will get better at this.

In Numeracy we have been learning about numbers to 20.  We have been counting up from 0 to 20 and back again and have also been practising writing the numbers.  We have been doing lots of sequencing activities, talking about number before and number after.  We found completing the backwards sequences a little more challenging than going forwards but when we took our time we could work out the next number.

We completed our work on Money this week.  Our coin recognition is now very good.  We added monetary amounts together and also worked out the difference between monetary amounts.  We still need to remember to check which symbol is used in a question (+ or -) or check which words are used (e.g. more than, less than) to work out whether we should be adding or taking away.

Within our Transport topic we have been learning about hot air balloons.  We learned how they fly and Mrs Reid was impressed to hear us talking about the air molecules which had been mentioned in the film we watched!  We looked at pictures of different hot air balloons and described them to each other and then everyone designed their own hot air balloon.  Our designs were very imaginative.

Everyone made their hand print into something special for their Mum for Mother’s Day.  Hope all the Mums are well looked after this weekend!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Reid and Primary 1B

P7a Weekly Blog

What a busy week in P7a, gone with a flash…

Numeracy and Mathematics

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!

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 probably won’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:

https://glowscotland-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/wlewan_logan_glow_sch_uk/EbTMoOYvrXRMqYnxIsjpRSEBA_90ST3AB01TdzUEeWvIcQ?e=1UMSah

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!

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!

P7a and Mr. Logan

P7a Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

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.

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)…

Health and Wellbeing

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.

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.

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
  • 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

Hope you’ve all had a fantastic weekend!

P7a and Mr. Logan

P7a Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

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.