Tag: STEM

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P5 Weekly Blog

What a busy week we’ve had in Primary 5, here’s the full run-through…

Numeracy and Mathematics

This week we have been making connections in our learning between fractions, decimal numbers and percentages. We are now more confident in doing so and were able to apply this learning when faced with a series of multi-step word problems.

Following on from this, we began studying weight. Firstly, we consolidated our knowledge of both metric and imperial units of measurement before estimating the weight of various objects and ordering these from lightest to heaviest and vice versa. We have also been converting between grams (g) and kilograms (kg) which involved applying our knowledge of division and place value when shifting our decimal point. Alongside this, we have been relating our learning of weight to our bridge work in Science by discussing the impact that varying loads may have on the design and capabilities of a different bridge types.

We have really enjoyed trying some Solve Me Mobiles in mental maths throughout the last couple of weeks. Please feel free to try some at home – https://solveme.edc.org/Mobiles.html

Literacy and English

We are currently reading Holes by Louis Sachar as our shared text where Stanley Yelnats is sent to a Juvenile Detention Centre called Camp Green Lake. He and the other boys there are tasked with digging holes to “build character” in the sweltering Texan desert. So far we have been predicting the outcome of the text, looking at the features of informal letters and answering a range of questions based on the text. In doing so, we have tackled literal, inferential and evaluative questions. We are becoming increasingly confident in skimming and scanning the text to find required information and also making use of context clues which are available to us. We are continuing to work on the way in which we structure our responses and giving evidence from the text when describing and explaining. For enjoyment, we are reading the World’s Worst Teachers, but thankfully Mr Logan hasn’t been mentioned!

In writing this week, we have used features of an informal letter when sending a reply from Stanley Yelnats’ perspective to his ‘Mom’. We learned that they must include the sender’s address, the date on which the letter was sent, Dear, informal language and a sign-off. Informal language is used when you are communicating with somebody you know or are familiar with, e.g. a family member or friend. We have also been writing reports and reflecting on our learning from our visit to the Forth Bridges. We paid particular attention to the structure and content by including an introduction, main part and conclusion with detailed description of what happened and what we learned.

Learning Across the Curriculum

On Tuesday, we attended the Linlithgow Cluster Schools Handball Festival at Linlithgow Academy. We had the opportunity to demonstrate our handball skills in small-sided games against St Josephs, Low Port, Torphichen and Westfield. Scores were not kept with the focus being placed on passing the ball effectively within our teams and having fun. Mr Logan was delighted to us working so well in teams, communicating effectively, encouraging others and showing a sense of fair play at all times. Next up, we have blocks of fitness and volleyball with Mrs Reid whilst also taking part in futsal sessions delivered by Neil from the West Lothian Youth Football Foundation.

Our outings didn’t stop there, we were off out on Thursday again as we made our visit to the Forth Bridge Education and Contact Centre in South Queensferry. This followed on nicely from an incredibly informative talk delivered by Hector Woodhouse on Wednesday who was involved in the construction of the Forth Road Bridge. Here we were met by Elaine Barrie who spoke to us about engineering and the Forth Bridges before setting us off in groups in a bridge-building workshop. We were asked to construct the highest free-standing towers that could withstand different forces such as wind and the pull of gravity. We each had a different role and had to agree on a final design before constructing our towers. Despite a few failed attempts, we demonstrated resilience and worked hard to get the job done. The winning tower measured almost 1 metre in height! Well done Team Yachi! After lunch, we took a walk over the Forth Road Bridge (suspension) to have a look at both the Rail Bridge (cantilever) and Queensferry Crossing (cable-stayed). It was rather windy and we were slightly unnerved by the gaps between each section which allow for expanding and contracting when temperatures change.

Coming Up/Reminders

  • Next week we will begin our history trail studies of Burke and Hare
  • Monday 3rd February – P5 swimming assessments at Xcite Linlithgow
  • Friday 14th February to Tuesday 18th February – Holiday
  • Homework grids came home this week, due back Friday 27th March
  • Sharing the Learning sheets came home this week, have a look at other whole school events coming up
  • Remember you can also follow us on Twitter for more regular updates @SpringfieldBonn and @SpringfieldP5

Have a great weekend everyone!

P5 and Mr Logan

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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

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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.

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.

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…

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
  • 15.3.19 – Natalie Boyle (Eye Surgeon) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 19.3.19 – Richard Vereker (Rope Access Engineer) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 20.3.19 – Denise Schofield (Kilt Maker) visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 21.3.19 – Tom Robison visiting P7 for SfLLW programme
  • 22.3.19 – Pupil Voice Committee meetings

Have a great weekend everyone!

P7a and Mr. Logan

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P7a Weekly Blog

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

Numeracy and Mathematics

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

Literacy and English

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

Health and Wellbeing

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

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

Learning Across the Curriculum

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

Coming Up…

Here are important upcoming dates for the P7 diaries…

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

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

P7a and Mr. Logan

 

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P7a Weekly Blog

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!

P7a and Mr. Logan

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P5A Week ending 18.5.18

On Wednesday , “National Numeracy Day”, we had a visit from Mr Turtle who is a structural engineer. He did a lesson on structures and how to make them stronger after his daughter had told him about our visit to the Queensferry Crossing Bridge. This activity involved measuring to the nearest millimetre. We had to be very accurate in our measuring. We used a strip of paper, which represented an I beam, and measured, cut and glued balsa wood to the top and bottom on both sides. We predicted and then tested what would happen when you added weights to the middle. It took 100gm before the paper bent at both ends. So next we added strips of balsa to either end to make it stronger and then retested. This time it took 200gm and it bent in the middle. So we added balsa to the middle and retested. This time it took 400gm. This time it bent between the wood strengthening it so we glued wood between the middle and end. It took 700gm. Then we all tested our own and Finlay, Angus and Daniel won, as their I beam was able to take 1500gm. It was a great afternoon putting real measuring into practise. Thank you very much Mr Turtle.

Testing our I beams.

In maths we are learning about capacity and volume and in number we have completed our fractions focus and started work on decimal. We are looking at the relationship between them.

In literacy we have been learning about the difference between possessive s and plural s. In pairs we worked to find out the difference and now it is much clearer. We will continue with this on Monday. Within our literacy circle groups we are starting to familiarise ourselves with the different roles and there was super dialogue about the different main characters.

We started the Big Writing Adventure and were looking at what makes a superhero. Now we are using interesting vocabulary to develop our own characters.

Half the class went to the triathlon on Thursday. The pupils were a credit to the school and performed very well at the different sports. The weather was perfect and it ended with a potted highland games. Mr Logan is going to post the photographs taken.

The rest of the class continued with Scratch and helped Mr Ritchie’s class. They  designed posters for Transition Linlithgow with regard to the use of plastics.

 

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P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy we have been:

  • Rounding whole numbers to the nearest 1000, 10 000 and 100 000
  • Rounding decimal fractions to the nearest whole number, to one decimal place and two decimal places
  • Multiplying whole numbers by two digit numbers
  • Multiplying decimal fractions to two decimal places by a single digit
  • Solving word problems using written methods for all four functions

Literacy

This week in Literacy we have been:

  • Making relevant notes using our own words to prepare a presentation on ways in which people remained safe during air raids and bombings in WWII
  • Presenting our findings to our peers using appropriate vocabulary, eye contact, body language, emphasis, pace and tone of voice
  • Responding to a range of questions, including literal, inferential
    and evaluative questions based on WWII air raids
  • Writing a Lion King recount which describes our own experiences as well as our thoughts and feelings about the success of the performance

Learning Across the Curriculum

This week we have also been:

  • Continuing to develop our physical fitness through our circuit activities
  • Attending golf sessions with the Stephen Gallagher Foundation at Kingsfield Golf Range
  • Participating in rugby taster sessions delivered by Linlithgow Rugby Club
  • Extending our knowledge of a range of career opportunities through attendance at the Careers Fayre on Tuesday evening
  • Working collaboratively with our Pupil Voice Committees during session 4 to further develop work carried out across school

Coming Up – Diaries at the Ready!

Here are all of the things we can look forward to throughout May and June:

  • Monday 7th May – Holiday
  • Tuesday 8th May – Holiday
  • Wednesday 9th May – Internet Safety talk from PC Hunter at Linlithgow PS
  • Thursday 10th May – Rugby taster session (2)
  • Friday 11th May – Tempest P7 photographs
  • Tuesday 15th May – Golf lessons from SG Foundation at Kingsfield (2)
  • Thursday 17th May – British Transport Police railway safety visit
  • Thursday 17th May – Rugby taster session (3)
  • Sunday 20th May – George Allan football tournament from 8.30am to 12.30pm
  • Monday 21st May – Drug and tobacco education workshop (1)
  • Monday 21st May – Class talks throughout this week
  • Tuesday 22nd May – Golf lessons from SG Foundation at Kingsfield (3)
  • Tuesday 22nd May – STEM information evening from 6-7pm
  • Thursday 24th May – Rugby taster session (4)
  • Thursday 24th May – End of year disco from 7.30-9.30pm
  • Monday 28th May – Drug and tobacco education workshop (2)
  • Tuesday 29th May – Golf lessons from SG Foundation at Kingsfield (4)
  • Thursday 31st May – Minikickers football session, Sports Leaders required
  • Friday 1st June – French transition event at Linlithgow Academy
  • Monday 4th June to Friday 8th June – School camp in Oban
  • Wednesday 13th June – Book Fair event at Linlithgow Rugby Club marquee
  • Wednesday 13th June – P7 leavers meal at Bar Leo from 5-7pm
  • Tuesday 19th June – Marches Day holiday
  • Wednesday 20th June to Friday 22nd June – S1 transition days at Linlithgow Academy
  • Thursday 21st June – Minkickers football session, Sports Leaders required
  • Thursday 28th June – P7 Leavers Assembly at 2pm
  • Friday 29th June – Last day of session 2018/2019

We hope you all have a relaxing and well-deserved long weekend. We’ll be back on Wednesday, at which point there will only be 8 weeks of P7 remaining!

P7b and Mr. Logan

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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

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P7b Weekly Blog

Numeracy and Mathematics

This week we started learning about angles and coordinates. We were reminded that an angle is when one line rotates onto another line and is measured in degrees rather than centimetres. The five main types of angle we consolidated our learning of were acute, right, obtuse and reflex angles as well as straights lines. We came up with definitions of how to identify each of these angles, for example, a straight line has to be exactly 180° otherwise it is not a straight line. After spending some time identifying angles in class we moved outside the classroom in small groups using our clipboard to find examples around the school building. We noticed that when you find an example of an acute angle, you have also found a reflex angle. Next week we will be looking for examples around the playground and outdoor areas before discussing uses of angles in the wider natural and built environment. For homework, we consolidated our learning of algebra from before the Christmas holidays by creating our own algebraic problems for a peer to solve. Some of these look incredibly tricky!

Literacy and English

In spelling, we are continuing to extend our learning of unfamiliar spelling patterns and rules, and applying this learning in our written work. We recapped on where we are with our groups novels by summarising the stories so far. In guided reading we have been developing a range of reading skills through our varied independent tasks. Two of our key focuses in writing this term will be note taking and report writing. We are becoming increasingly competent in taking concise notes before using these for other purposes. When engineers, including Hannah’s Dad, visit us next Thursday as part of our STEM work with Mrs. Tulloch, we will be taking notes as they speak and using these to write a follow up report about their visit. We will also be posing them with some pre-prepared higher order questions which we discussed last week with Mrs. Doran. Over the coming weeks we will be learning about creative Scots, particularly famous Scottish musicians from 1970 to the current day. During this time we will be split into groups and provided with the opportunity to plan, prepare and deliver a series of lessons on a musician, band, genre or era of music of our choice. We understand that presenting to an audience is an important life skill and we are looking forward to developing our skills in this area.

Health and Wellbeing

In P.E this week we began a block of football. As many of us have played football before, we spent a brief period of time recapping on the basics before practising our dribbling. It is important when dribbling that we take small, light touches of the football and keep it close to our feet at all times. We were encouraged to use both our feet and have a look around every 2/3 touches in order to move into free spaces. Moving on from this, we used varied surfaces of both our left and right foot (inside, outside, sole, laces) to manipulate the football. Next week will continue our focus on dribbling and close control of the football before applying these skills in small sided games. For homework this week we have been taking selfies doing the actions for our new school values of being kind, respectful, resilient, confident and included. We emailed these to Mr. Logan using Glow and now have them displayed in class on our Health and Wellbeing wall. Come in and have a look!

Coming Up…

  • Monday 15th January – Football league meeting, Xcite Linlithgow, 4.00 – 5.30pm
  • Thursday 18th Janaury – Interviewing engineers as part of STEM project, 9.00am
  • Monday 22nd January  – Netball league meeting, school hall, 4.00 – 5.30pm
  • Thursday 25th January – Scots Family Quiz, 6.00 – 9.30pm
  • Tuesday 30th January, Wednesday 31st January, Thursday 1st February – Lion King school show tickets on sale outside P7b, 3.15 – 3.45pm
  • Tuesday 6th February – Parent Council meeting, library, 7.00 – 8.00pm
  • Thursday 8th February – Linlithgow Academy tour, parent help required, 9.30 – 11.00am
  • Monday 12th February, Tuesday 13th February – HOLIDAY

    Have a fantastic weekend!

    P7b and Mr. Logan

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Numeracy and Mathematics

This week we completed our work on Information Handling. The children have been creating 3D pie charts and interpreting data from a variety of sources, explaining and describing this in great detail and promoting some high quality discussion. Alongside this, we have been refreshing our memories of how to find the range, mode, median and mean when presented with a list of numbers. Our rhyme to the tune of ‘Row Your Boat’ has been helpful in reminding us the definition of each of these terms.

“Mode, mode, mode is the most, average is the mean. Median, median, median, median the number in between.”

Literacy and English

Our focus in writing this term is creative texts. This week we were given the theme of ‘World War II’ and prepared imaginative pieces of writing based on our IDL learning theme. Within our writing, we focused on proofreading and up-levelling to ensure that our work makes sense and interests the reader. We also attempted to use a range of ambitious VCOP, incorporated detail through our use of description and explanation and used ICT to word process our stories. Mr. Logan and the other staff in the upper school have compiled a list of new novels to purchase and we look forward to getting our hands on these texts in Guided Reading before the end of term. Next week we have our class talks where we will present a summary of our personal projects to the rest of the class. Mr. Logan is looking forward to seeing our presentations, they’re going to be excellent.

Health and Wellbeing

In P.E we have been further developing our skills in athletics and improving our fitness levels. At the beginning of the week we participated in 200m running, using the stopwatches to time our peers and accurately recording our results. On Thursday we upped our distance and paced ourselves appropriately when completing the 800m event. We surprised ourselves with our ability to beat our personal best times and were given some time for Outdoor Play as a reward for our efforts. Our golf and rugby sessions continued with our specialist coaches and we look forward to next week’s sessions. Maybe P7b will be lucky enough to meet professional golfer Stephen Gallacher this time…

Sciences

Finally, we celebrated further STEM engineering success this week as every pupil in P7b received a pass, merit or distinction grade for their inventions. Ross Findlater was shortlisted for a trophy at his year group and we will cross our fingers in the hope that he is successful.

Next week:

  • Monday – Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Workshop
  • Monday – After school football 3.30 – 4.30pm
  • Tuesday – Golf 2-3pm, rugby taster session 2.30 – 3.15pm
  • Thursday – P7 Booster Groups
  • Friday – Mrs. Malcolm’s last day at Springfield P.S
  • EE2 forms for Time Capsule, Code of Conduct for school camp and First Aid agreements to be returned
  • George Allan football letters to be returned

Have a great weekend and thanks for your continued support of all things P7b.

P7b & Mr. Logan

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