Mrs Keegan

P2/3 Weekly update

In maths we have been using coins to 99p then using our number skills to pay for items up to 99p. We’ve had to use our skills in counting in tens too. We enjoyed playing this game to practice using and counting money http://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money

We have also been working on our counting skills, counting forwards and backwards from any number up to 100. This is a good one to work on at home. A handy activity is http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=NumberSequences We’d love it if you leave a comment to let us know how you get on!

In Spanish we’ve been working hard to learn the months of the year now that we’ve mastered the days of the week. We’ve had great fun playing this game http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/spanish/my_calendar/games/magic_cards_months/ Try it at home and see if you can beat the magician.

Everyone worked really hard in our Literacy Carousel on Wednesday. One of our highlights was reading in pairs then giving each other feedback. We also worked on spelling using pipe cleaners, improving our handwriting skills and finding interesting vocabulary in our reading books.

Pupils from P2/3 and P3 paid a visit to St Philip’s chapel on Thursday for their Sacrament of Reconciliation rehearsal. Some of the children have been a little worried about the format so it was really helpful to have the opportunity beforehand to go along. All of the children have worked really hard completing their Sacramental lessons in school as well as their homework tasks. They know their prayers and the hymns well, so we have been reassuring the children not to worry about anything at all!

Some of our other highlights include:

Michelle – I liked writing about my friend. I used lots of connectives.

Matthew – I liked doing Sumdog because I got lots of coins. My maths skills are improving.

Kuba – I liked the maths carousel because I worked hard with number lines.

Oma and Maya – I liked the Health and Well-Being committee because we went outside today.

Alishba – I liked singing with Mrs Steele.

Chloe – I liked it when Mrs Smith came to do maths with us. I learned how to find the difference between numbers.

Levente – I liked learning about responsibility in Health and Well-Being. We thought about it in the school and in the community.

Brooke – I liked the STEM committee because we worked on the laptops to design eggs.

Carly and Angel – I liked preparing for my First Reconciliation on Saturday.

Maeve – I liked learning about Cleopatra and looking at her face so we can draw it in art next week.

Aaron – I liked Technology when I switched on the netbook, logged on, found a website then played a maths game. I used loads of skills.

What a busy week in P2/3. We’d love it if you would leave us a comment.

From Mrs Howley, Mrs Keegan and P2/3.

Amazing P2/3 News!

What a busy week it has been in Primary 2/3!!

One of the highlights of our week has been the West Lothian Sumdog Challenge. Everyone has worked so hard to achieve a great score. We’ve been working at home, working in school and even had to set up a relay team in class. We were delighted to achieve 34th place out of 211 classes.

The children would also like to share some more highlights:

Oma – I liked our maths carousel because we get to self-assess our work and this helps me learn.

Harry – I liked doing PE because we were working on tennis skills.

Maya Kasia and Annayah – I liked Sumdog because you can play games at the same time as you learn.

Michelle and Dominic – I liked working on ‘green for growth’ because it helps me learn.

Maeve – I liked researching the history of the Egyptian Pharaohs. We used Google to help our research.

Brooke and Andrew – I liked watching the P3 assembly today.

Kuba and Pawel – I liked the literacy carousel because I worked on handwriting, spelling, reflective reading and guided reading.

Levente – I liked working on writing subtraction sums and subtracting tens and units. It was hard at first but it got easier.

Chloe – I liked spelling today because it helps me learn words to use in my story writing on Thursdays.

Alishba – I liked handwriting because it helps me join letters and I get better and better.

Carly – I liked when we wrote about our friends in Big Writing.

Angel – I liked my learning conversation because we talked about my learning and mummies and pyramids.

A busy week in Primary 2/3

It has been another busy week in Primary 2/3 with lots and lots of learning going on! Some of our highlights are:

Andrew – I liked designing a coffin for a mummy. We had to do lots of research first.

Michelle- I liked using the new Heinemann textbooks because I’m getting better at numbers.

Matthew – I liked taking away numbers this week. I used a number square to help me.

Carly – I liked doing our spelling test because it helps me learn words. We keep learning from our mistakes.

Brooke – I liked doing chimney sums in maths. We’re getting really good at them!

Jakub, Annayah, Pawel, Levente, James and Harry – I liked Big Writing when we wrote book reviews for the Killer Cat

Rachel – I liked today’s assembly because pupils from St Margaret’s came to talk to us about SCIAF.

Alishba – I liked when we were doing music with Mrs Steele. We got to dance!

Dominic – I liked doing Sumdog and I’m excited about the West Lothian contest.

Chloe and Maeve – I liked doing art when we made pictures of camels and pyramids.

Maya – I liked working in pairs on Heinemann Active Maths. Its fun working in pairs and it helps you learn.

Zuzanna and Kasia – I liked PE because we were learning tennis skills.

Oma – I liked investigating mummies in Ancient Egypt.

Calvin – I liked working in teams to make posters showing a healthy school in health and well-being.

Have a great weekend!

from Primary 2/3, Mrs Howley and Mrs Keegan

Weekly update from P2/3

Our trip to the museum to continue with our investigations into Ancient Egypt was a huge success and we would like to share our pictures. We loved the workshop when we found out about mummies then the Ancient Egyptian trail around the museum which took us all the way from the first floor to the fifth floor!

Our highlights included:

Matthew – I learned about mummies at the museum.

Aaron – We learned about being mummified.

Oma – We went to the shop and we bought some things to help us remember our trip.

Maeve – I liked when we did the quiz in the workshop.

Kuba – I liked seeing the huge aeroplane in the museum.

Andrew – We saw a stone coffin on the trail.

Pawel – We saw a real mummy on the trail.

Brooke – We got to hold real artifacts.

Harry – We looked for clues on the Egyptian Trail and I got to be a Pharoah in the workshop.

Levente – I liked when Harry was on the floor and we were finding out how to make him into a mummy.

Michelle – We did Egyptian investigations in the workshop.

James – I liked when we had to complete the missing half of some pictures.

Chloe – I liked it when we went to go and find the lion without the head dress.

Angel – I liked playing the ‘Man, woman or child’ mummy puzzle.

Rachel – I knew all about canopic jars and mummy brains.

Alishba – I liked filling in the log books.

Carly – I saw the coffin of a mummy with lots of drawings on it.

We all liked being on the bus in the snow and having our packed lunches!

Have a good weekend.

Primary 2/3 and Mrs Keegan

Primary 2/3 Weekly News

It has been a short but really busy week in Primary 2/3. Our highlights included celebrating Catholic Education Week by creating recipes for our Community of Faith and making jelly then writing instructions to help others make jelly too. Everyone loved the Daily Mile today as we saw lots of signs that spring is coming.

These are some of the children’s thoughts:

Maeve ‘We made jelly as part of our Anniversary celebrations. We wrote instructions for how to make jelly then we ate the jelly. It was very tasty!’

Harry ‘Yesterday we had a maths carousel. I was learning how to subtract by playing Sumdog, using the iPads, playing games and figuring out tricky sums.’

Rachel ‘I liked writing instructions for how to make jelly. I was thinking about using openers and connectives.’

Brooke ‘We had a lovely assembly with Father Kenneth and he told us all about his visit to Jerusalem and where Jesus was born’.

Chloe, Carly and Brooke ‘I liked setting goals for the rest of the term. It helps me to remember to focus my learning.’

Levente ‘I liked playing Hit the Button with Kuba in maths’.

Kuba ‘I liked writing a recipe for a Community of Faith. We wrote instructions and I’m good at instructions. ‘

Oma ‘We did check ups in maths. It helps us learn.’

Michelle ‘We learnt about the River Nile in our Egyptians topic. We made notes in our Learning Journals and made signs for the wall.’

Pawel ‘I liked running the Daily Mile when I was running fast’.

James ‘I wrote my name in hieroglyphics. I felt really happy.’

Have a lovely weekend.

From Mrs Keegan, Mrs Howley and Primary 2/3

Celebrating our 40th Anniversary

Primary 2/3 have had a really special week, celebrating the 40th Anniversary of our school. Archbishop Cushley celebrated mass with us on Wednesday which was really lovely. All the children received a beautiful prayer card with a picture of St Ninian and a prayer to St Ninian on the back.

Everyone had a great time on Pupil Fun Day with cake, a party, arts and crafts and movie time. What a day to remember!

We have been busy with final preparations for our school show next week. Everyone has been perfecting their fabulous singing and amazing dance moves. The dress rehearsal today went really well and we’re looking forward to sharing our work with our families next week.

We have also been in touch with our friends in Spain, at Colegio Público María Inmaculada. It is in the town of Cabeza la Vaca. We were excited to send them drawings and Spanish writing from International Week.

Some of our highlights from this week are:

Levente – I enjoyed rehearsing for the show.

Annayah – I enjoyed making superhero posters with Chloe on Fun Day.

Maeve and Carly – I liked Fun Day when we watched a movie in the hall.

Kuba – I liked rehearsing for the show. Levente’s hair is really good.

Chloe and Angel – I liked painting superheroes on Fun Day.

Matthew, Brooke and Oma – I liked improving my maths skills on Sumdog.

Andrew – I liked our class party on Fun Day.

Aaron – I would like to do more Sumdog next week.

Zuzanna – I enjoyed singing at our Anniversary Mass.

Alishba – I liked listening to the Brass Band at our Anniversary Mass. They were fantastic.

Pawel – I liked making my mask for the show.

Maya – I enjoyed making Egyptian bracelets.

Have a lovely weekend from Mrs Howley, Mrs Keegan and Primary 2/3

A musical week in Primary 2/3

Primary 3 have been busy rehearsing for our 40th Anniversary show. We’re singing songs from the present decade and our performance is really starting to come together. Everyone is working so hard in school and at home to learn the songs and the actions.

Our writing this week was centred around the story of Prince Cinders. We all retold the stories in 3 parts and focused on using good openers. Everyone used fantastic openers but also rememberd to use connectives and to spell common words correctly.

We thought about what it means to be a Rights Respecting School and looked at some of the rights of children. Look out for the articles which we’ve stuck all around our classroom walls. You can read more about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child here.

In numeracy we have been developing our subtraction skills this week.

Primary 2 have been demonstrating their understanding by using materials that subtract within 20 then using their understanding to complete group challenges. Primary 2 have worked hard on Sumdog this week and are proving to be very competitive!

Primary 3 have worked on recording subtraction sums within 100 and everyone worked really hard on their chimney sums.

In RE this week, there was a special visit from Fr Kenneth. Fr Kenneth as part of our P3 Sacramental journey towards making our First Reconciliation in March. The children discussed some of the important stories – ‘The Lost Coin’, ‘The Father & Two Sons’ and ‘The Lost Sheep’ which show God’s love for us. The boys and girls were able to confidently give examples of actions that show love and actions which don’t. Fr also told us that he is going on a well-deserved holiday to Jerusalem soon so we will look forward to hearing all about it when he comes back.

In Health, we thought that about how we can all be more active and created posters to show our learning.

Have a great weekend from Primary 2/3, Mrs Howley and Mrs Keegan

A busy week in Primary 2/3

It has been another busy week in Primary 2/3 with lots of exciting learning experiences.

On Tuesday we visited the library and chose lots of books to borrow. The librarian read us a story and told us all about the different types of books including fiction and nonfiction, hardbacks and paperbacks.

On Wednesday we had a special visit from James’ and Harry’s mum who came to tell us all about her trip to Egypt. She showed us lots of interesting photographs and we enjoyed asking questions. We got lots of great ideas to develop our learning for our Ancient Egyptians topic.

Another highlight on Wednesday was our visit from NYCOS. We had great fun singing and playing musical games with Jackie from NYCOS.

Everyone enjoyed our literacy focus this week, the story of ‘The Snail and the Whale’. In writing we told the story ourselves and tried to use some interesting openers to start our sentences. Mrs Howley and Mrs Keegan were very impressed with our writing. Next week’s literacy focus is the story of Prince Cinders.

Our focus in numeracy has been subtraction and we enjoyed playing subtraction games with dice, with cards and on the smart board.

Our Primary 3 children have been busy preparing for our 40th Birthday Show – there’s lots of talent in our class!

Thanks for reading our news!

From Mrs Howley, Mrs Keegan and Primary 2/3

Primary 2/3 News!

What a busy week it has been in Primary 2/3. We rounded off the week with a lovely farewell assembly for Miss Smyth. We’ll all be so sorry to see her go and wish her lots of luck in her new job.

Everyone has participated so well in International Week and we loved drawing pictures and introducing ourselves in Spanish to our friends in a school in Spain. We hope that they write back to us!

Some of our highlights have been:

Brooke ‘Learning a song for Miss Smyth from the Trolls movie’.

Andrew ‘Learning about pyramids in Ancient Egypt’.

Hasan ‘Maths carousels were my favourite’.

Levente ‘I liked writing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk because I used lots of connectives’.

Aaron ‘I liked learning about the pyramids and the River Nile in Ancient Egypt. I can’t wait to make a pyramid next week’.

Rachel ‘I liked drawing a picture of myself and writing in Spanish to send to our friends in Spain’.

Oma ‘I love our Ancient Egyptians topic and I’m excited to learn about mummies’.

Chloe ‘I liked scribble spelling because I like writing my words in different colours. It helps me learn my words’.

Carly ‘I liked handwriting because we are getting faster at joining letters’.

Our writing focus next week is the Story of ‘The Snail and the Whale’. It would be really helpful if you could share the story with your child. You can access it at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B0kSTA-ma90 When we are writing, we’ll be concentrating on spelling common words and using different openers for our sentences.

Have a lovely weekend!

From Mrs Howley, Mrs Keegan and Primary 2/3

Happy New Year from Primary 2/3!

Happy New Year to everyone. It has been a short but busy week in Primary 2/3 and we’re all excited to be back at school and making plans for our learning this term.

Some of our highlights have been:

Matthew ‘I liked solving addition problems in our maths carousel and recording my answers on a whiteboard. It was fun.’

Maeve ‘I was excited to start our new topic about Ancient Egypt. I liked watching the video clip and it gave us ideas to plan our topic.’

Annayah ‘I liked when Miss Smythe came to visit and talked about communicating.’

Oma ‘I liked thinking about our school vision yesterday. We coloured in Jesus and talked about how we can grow in the image and likeness of Christ.’

Maya ‘I liked working on my addition skills and using my addition to make a winter picture of a snowman.’

Brooke ‘We finished reading ‘The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me’ and I liked designing a new book cover for it.’

Kuba ‘I liked Big Writing when we wrote about the Christmas holidays. We tried hard to spell common words correctly. Our friend Terence came to visit and we had candles on the tables.’

Calvin ‘I like our new topic and I’ve been learning facts already.’

Chloe ‘I liked our ‘Happy New Year activity’ when we looked back to 2016 and looked forward to 2017.’

Rachel ‘I liked doing our number talks because everyone does the sum in different ways.’

Michelle ‘I liked when we planned our Ancient Egypt topic on posters. It was exciting when we came up with new ideas but it was sometimes tricky to work together.’

Alishba, Dominic, Carly and Zuzanna ‘I liked PE when we were doing forward rolls, pencil rolls and rocking rolls.’

Harry ‘I liked doing lots of rolls in PE.’

James ‘I liked doing backwards rolls on the mats in PE.’

Next week our focus for writing on Thursday is the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. If possible, could you either read this story to your child, discuss it with them or watch the story online https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCpAYajmvo

This will be a huge benefit to the children when writing.

What a great start to 2017! We hope that you have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Howley, Mrs Keegan and Primary 2/3