A fabulous end to a busy term in Ness Class. We have really enjoyed our learning with many highlights to share. Our focus on Scotland and Burns led to many exciting learning opportunities and amazing Food Technology sessions. In Numeracy we have been very successful developing our strategies for multiplying- we really like grouping our numbers to help us count on! This will be a good strategy to help in our next learning block which will focus on Division and Fractions. We have also been using our clocks to tell the time. In Literacy, we are reading every day. Mrs Mains and Mrs Hill are really pushing our Reading Skills through Read, Write, Inc. We have also been focusing on Poetry and writing a Biography about Rabbie Burns. In Health and Wellbeing, we are developing our core strength during Class Yoga, and Mrs McMaster has been putting us through our paces within team games and racquet skills. Each week provides us with different learning opportunities where our pupils lead the learning by planning mini-topics using our Floor book. Enjoy a sample of our learning in pictures below.
Numeracy Mini-Champions
Well done to our Numeracy Mini Champions who met on Teams with Mini Champions from schools across West Lothian. We were able to chat to each school and learn about what other schools do to improve Maths learning in their schools. We also shared the things we do in our school to make Maths fun and easier for all. Here are some of the things we shared:
Well done to Keira (P6R), Hope (P5) and Katie (P5) who represented our school very well. Keep your eyes peeled for our next initiative.
The Numeracy Mini Champions
Primary 1
On Monday Primary 1 performed our Scottish song and poem that we have been practicing in front of the whole school as part of the school Scottish Poetry competition. We did very well and everyone should be proud of themselves.
We then enjoyed a lovely buddy time with our Primary 7 buddies where we read to our buddies and they also read to us.
At outdoor learning we planted pumpkin seeds. We collected the seeds from inside the pumpkin
at Halloween, but they had to stay in a dark place for a long time before we could plant them. We are hoping they grow into big pumpkins.
On Friday we joined the whole school mass, we did very well. In RE this week we talk about being part of Gods family, our school family as well as our family at home.
We hope you all have a lovely holiday.
Rannoch News
A lovely end to a very busy, and happy, term in Rannoch Class.
We enjoyed the returning sun out on the Trim Trail this week!
We have also begun to learn about the world ‘Under the Sea’.
We have focused on learning words beginning and ending with the ‘p’ sound, and have completed our current learning stage relating to patterns and sequences. After the break we are going to start looking at Time.
We wish you all a lovely break and look forward to rejoining one another afterwards.
Literacy Mini Champs
Today our literacy Mini Champs joined lots of other primary schools in West Lothian at our termly meeting. They very proudly represented St Mary’s in sharing what we do for writing in our school. Dominic, Olivia, Amelia and Jackson listened well and took notes of interesting ideas we could use in our school. I was very proud of you all.
Primary 5’s blithe Scots Showcase and Burns Supper
Primary 5 have been working hard all term on their Scots language topic and got to share it with parents and carers at our Scots Showcase and Burns Supper this week!
We began the week with the Scots poetry competition. Katie, Hope and Amelia were our class finalists, with Amelia lifting the trophy with her rendition of Tae a Thistle.
We finished and displayed our Robert Burns profiles and portraits, and our Scots poems. We also designed and weaved our own tartan and learned Scots songs and recited our own Scots poem.
We brought all of this learning and hard work to the table to share at our Burns Supper with our adults. We enjoyed a feast of haggis, neeps, tatties, Irn Bru, shortbread and tea cakes!
Many thanks to all the parents and carers who joined us! We hope you had fun at our event and enjoyed seeing all the hard work we put into it! Well done Primary 5! We’ll tak a cup o kindness yet!
Primary 1
In Primary 1 we learned about the Lunar New Year .
we found it very interesting that each year is represented by a animal and that this year is the year of the snake . We talked about what animals represented the years we were born, 2018 the dog
, 2019 the pig
and 2020 the rat
.
We decorated lanterns and made paper snakes .
Rannoch News
This week in Rannoch we have continued our phonics learning journey in looking at the initial sound ‘n’…..we’ve looked at words from the height of a bird’s nest to the very tip of our noses!
In Beyond Number we have made great progress in understanding, and recognising, ‘what comes next’.
In our other number work we have been revising counting to 20 and playing some new games!
We have also had great fun in the Sensory Room and at P.E.
A lovely fun, busy, and positive week!
Our community in P4
What a lovely day we have had in P4 and we are very lucky to have 2 mums who work very hard in our local community. Mrs McFarlane (Luke’s mum) very kindly let us visit her at her work in the Polbeth Hub where she discussed with us all the ways the hub helps and supports people in the community. We were very jealous of the messy play which was set up for the baby sensory class. We visited the shop in the hub and learned that it is slightly cheaper than other shops and that nothing goes to waste, any leftover fresh food goes to a local farm to feed the animals. We got to choose a book to keep and take home. Thank you!
In the afternoon Miss Campbell (Kiera’s mum) came in to tell us all about her job in our local Scotmid. She explained that it is a very important resource for lots of local people in Polbeth who rely on the shop for lots of essentials and as we learned lots of children in the class regularly get a treat from Scotmid. Scotmid is also an important place where people can go and meet others and have a wee chat with the people who work there. It also advertises lots of information about local groups and things that are going on in the community. We were very interested to see all the keys that are needed to open the shop and the biggest key we have ever seen was for the safe! Miss Campbell very kindly brought us all a little sweet from her work, thank you and thank you for answering all our questions!
Primary 4 – Science
This term, as part of our learning in Science, we are finding out about living and non living things. Children are learning to explain the difference between living and non-living things, taking into consideration movement, reproduction, sensitivity, growth, excretion and feeding.
This week we started to learn about animal classifications. Animals are divided into two main groups – animals that have a backbone are called vertebrates and animals that don’t have a backbone are called invertebrates. We found out about the six animal groups: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects and amphibians and identified what the animals in each group have in common.
Karlie – Amphibians live on land and water.
Jessica – Fish have fins to move around and gills to breathe.
Damon – Humans are mammals.
Bella – Birds have got feathers, wings and a beak. Some birds are really big and some are small.
Ellie – Reptiles have dry skin and scales and they can lay eggs too.
Cody – I liked sorting the animals.
Alexander – Frogs and toads are amphibians.