All posts by Mrs Swanston

Primary 3

Primary 3 update

Leave a comment

Scotland - Maths - Maths Week Scotland 2023 - Maths puzzles for classroom or home with BBC Bitesize Scotland - BBC Bitesize

Well done to Primary 3 for working well together in  groups to create posters to celebrate Maths Week Scotland!  We spoke about what we think about Maths and how we use it in our every day lives. Children spoke about what they enjoy and what they find tricky.  We spoke about the different resources we can use to help us with our Maths learning.

 

Health and Care Virtual Sharing the Learning Session Tickets, Tue 10 Oct 2023 at 13:00 | Eventbrite

Thank you to all the parents for coming along on Friday morning to our Sharing the Learning event.  I am sure you will agree, our children are shining stars!  Your support is always very much appreciated, and it was lovely to see such a great turn out.

Seesaw Learning - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding

Well done to the children  for working so well on homework tasks on Seesaw.  We appreciate the time and effort going into all homework tasks and it is wonderful for us to see children engaging so eagerly in their homework!

 

Primary 3

Primary 3 – class novel, “Matilda”

Leave a comment

 

Matilda by Roald Dahl | Martha Brook

In Primary 3, we have been listening to a wonderful book called “Matilda” written by Roald Dahl.   We have created large posters of the characters and this week we have been thinking of good adjectives to describe them.

Bella – Matilda is smart and extraordinary.

Bonnie – Matilda’s family are horrible and very greedy.  I like when Matilda scared her parents with the parrot when she stuck it up the chimney and they thought it was a ghost

Iza – Matilda is a clever girl.

Karlie – My favourite character is Matilda because she is a polite and nice girl and I think she is a bit of a genius.

Stella – My favourite character is Miss Honey because she is kind, caring, beatiful and she is so nice to Matilda.  She cares about Matilda unlike her parents.

Damon – I like Mrs Phelps because she is the first to know how smart Matilda is and she let Matilda read lots of amazing books.

Luke – I like Miss Honey and Matilda because they are both nice and intelligent.

Jacob – My favourite character is Mr Wormwood because he sells cars.

Annalee – My favourite part in the story is when Miss Honey finds out how clever Matilda is.

Jessica – Miss Trunchbull is definitely not a good Headteacher.  She is a bully and she hates children!

 

Primary 3

Rights Respecting Schools – Primary 3

Leave a comment

Rights Respecting School | Musselburgh Burgh Primary SchoolRIGHTS   RESPECTING   SCHOOLS

At St. Mary’s we are proud to be a UNICEF UK Silver: Rights Aware school.  The Right Respecting Schools Award recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of a school’s practice and ethos.

Over the past few weeks we have been  learning more about Rights Respecting Schools.  In P3 we know that all of The UNCRC consists of 54 articles that set out children’s rights.  All of them are important and we  have been focusing on 6 individual rights and in class we created our own class charter. The charter helps everyone to understand the role they play in upholding their rights and those of others.  Also, children have been asked to consider the ways in which adults could support them to make effective choices.

By making our children aware of their rights and how they can respect these, we hope that they can make informed decisions about their learning, health and well-being and become rights-respecting global citizens.

The six articles we are focusing on in P3 are as follows:

Article 1 – All children under the age of 18 has rights.

Article 2 – All children have these rights, no matter who they are.

Article 3 – All adults should make decisions based on what is best for you.

Article 12 – You have the right… to be heard.

Article 19 – You have the right… to be safe.

Article 28 – You have the right to… learn at school.

Primary 3 were asked what they thought about Rights in our school.  Some feedback from P3…

“You need them (rights) to be safe and there’s a lot of them”.

“It’s good to get a chance to have your say and tell everyone what you think”.

“We all have the same rights”.

“You have to be responsible with them.  Like, if you have the right to go to school, you need to listen so you learn”.

“Everyone in the class, even the whole school has got the same rights”.

“Our charter has all the rights on it that we are learning”.

“No one has the right to take away yours (rights)”.

“I like all the rights”.

“I like article 2 because it means we all have rights no matter what”.

“We should have respect“.

 

Primary 1

Zoo fun in Primary 1!

Leave a comment

Welcome to Edinburgh Zoo | Edinburgh Zoo

WHAT A DAY!  Primary 1 had a brilliant day at Edinburgh Zoo yesterday.  We enjoyed a visit to the Education Centre for a whole school quiz about endangered animals, then visited the penguins before sitting under a big shaded tree for some lunch.  After lunch we played at the play park before setting off to further explore the amazing Zoo!  We saw so many beautiful animals.  We especially loved seeing the penguins, koalas, tigers and giraffes.  Sadly, the pandas were settled in the long grass, and even though we couldn’t see them clearly, we could hear them munching on their food! There were lots of steep hills and we did a lot of walking and our teachers were very proud of all of us for keeping up.  A quick visit to the gift shop followed, before getting back on the bus for our return to school.

A super trip for our super Primary 1s.

 

 

Primary 1

Water fun in Primary 1!

Leave a comment

Uses of water | Importance of water | Water and it's uses | Uses of water for kids | Use of water - YouTube

As part of our learning in Science, P1 have been learning about water.  We spoke about how we use water in our every day lives and know that we need water to survive.   We made a long list of everything we know about water and it was very long!  We know that water can freeze when it is cold and it can melt when it is warm.  Today we experimented with ice and water and added some food colouring too!  The ice eventually melted into water.

Primary 1

Sharing the Learning – Primary 1

Leave a comment

110,218 Sun Safety Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock

Thank you to the parents who were able to pop along to our Sharing the Learning event this morning.  As part of our Health and Wellbeing learning, this morning the children were finding out more about sun safety.  They all worked very well and chose a variety of activities to do with their parents.

 

1,000+ Free Thank You Images, Pictures & HD Stock Photos - Pixabay

A very special thanks to Miss Gaffney who has been in P1 and P2 this week as part of her school’s work experience programme.  The staff and children have all loved working with her and she has the makings of being a wonderful, caring and fun teacher!  We are very thankful for all her help and wish her every success in the future.

Primary 1

Primary 1 – Class Talks

Leave a comment

C L A S S    T A L K S    –    M Y    F A V O U R I T E    F A I R Y T A L E

Well done to our next group of children who presented their Class Talks this week.  This term we are talking about our favourite fairytale.  This is an excellent opportunity to develop children’s talking and listening skills and we appreciate parent’s support with this task.

Ailsa – I liked making my poster.  I like Rumpelstiltskin.  I brought in the book too.

Lucy – I did a poster of Rapunzel and spoke about it.  Everyone liked it.

Charlotte – I liked talking and everyone listened,  I made a poster for it.

 

Primary 1

Primary 1 – Health Week Day 3

Leave a comment

Health Week | Primary 7's Blog

Another amazing, fun and healthy day for Primary 1 today.  We started by making delicious fruit kebabs with our buddies and we tasted fruits we have had before and some new fruits too.  They were yummy and a great, healthy start to our day.  We enjoyed an exercise class in the P.E. hall and some of the nursery children came along too, which was lovely.  Before lunchtime we enjoyed doing some martial arts which we all absolutely loved!  In the afternoon we did a dance class led by Emma from SMK Dance and a football session led by Nicola Lind who is football player and referee!

Some feedback from Primary 1…

“I liked doing the exercise class when the nursery children came”. Grace

“I liked making a fruit kebab with Lauren (P7 buddie)”. Ailsa

“It was fun when we did martial arts”. Riley

“My favourite today was making the fruit kebabs”. Lilly

“My favourite was doing the kebabs with all the fruit and doing the dance in the hall”. Jorja

“I really liked dancing with Emma!” Sofia

“I liked exercise” Evan

“I liked dancing”. Charlotte

 

 

Primary 1

Primary 1 – Science

Leave a comment

Free Electricity Cliparts, Download Free Electricity Cliparts png images, Free ClipArts on Clipart Library

As part of our learning in Science, Primary 1 have been finding out about electricity.  They know that it is a form of energy that makes something work.  They can identify a number of appliances in our homes, school and local community that work by electricity.  They also are aware that it can be dangerous and can list some ways to stay safe when using electricity.  Children know why it is important in our daily lives and we reflected on what we could NOT do if we did not have electricity – it was quite a long list!  Look at some of our amazing pieces of work…

Children learned that electrical sings are vital to help indicate any hazards or risks associated with electrical equipment or power supply.  Some children commented that they have seen these signs in the local community.  We went on a hunt to see if there are any in the school and we designed our own electrical safety sign too!

This has been a super topic and the children have all really enjoyed being involved in different activities to  support this learning.

 

Primary 1

Primary 1 – Sharing the Learning

Leave a comment

 

400,121 Thank You Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock

S  H  A  R  I  N  G      T  H  E      L  E  A  R  N  I  N  G

Thank you to  all the parents and grandparents who were able to come along to our Sharing the Learning event this morning.  The classroom was full and there was a lovely buzz in the air as the children shared their learning!  It was a lovely morning and your support is, as always, greatly appreciated.

Some feedback from Primary 1 about today’s event…

Sofia – I liked when me and mummy were doing the dot-to-dot.

Ailsa – I liked doing the snake (multiples of 5) with Jorja and I made a poster with granny.

Riley – I used the cubes and put them into 5’s and I did a counting game with mum.  I liked mum and dad in here.

Oonagh – I liked seeing mum and I want her in my class again.

Charlotte – I did a cut and stick with mummy and I wrote the numbers.

John-James – Mum helped me count fingers.

Lilly – I love my dad being in school.  I did the number games and I counted up to 50 and I did a dot-dot.

Grace – I did the smartboard game where you have to guess the next number and knock it down and I got them all right.  I made a poster and I did the game where you have to find the next 5 numbers.  I loved my mum being here.

Evan – Mum and Joss came today.

Macie – I played all the games with mum.

Jorja – I did everything with my mum and she was proud of me.

Lucy – I did the maze game and I did a dot-to-dot and I made the snake.  It was so good when my mum and dad came.  I want them here every day.