Author: Mrs Keegan

Overview

Happy New Year!

This week we had our first trip to the library of the term. We made cakes and then wrote a set of instructions on how to make them.

Our topic focus is topical science and we have been learning about plastic in the ocean.

In Maths we have started learning about  money. This week we revised the coins and discussed what the different coins looked like and what their value was. We also ordered the coins from 1p to £2. Next week we are going to start working on how much activities.

Drama was fun as we were learning about ‘tableau’, this is like a still image. We all worked in teams, chose a scenario and then made a ‘photograph’ of it. We then had to guess each others tableau. You can see these on Twitter.

Parental Involvement

Ask your child to explain what the words below mean. They are our Boost Words for this week:

Admire

Dull

Effort

Sulk

Remark

Pupil voice

We made a poster with what we will do more and less of for 2020 and here are some of our ideas:

-More writing on whiteboards

-More excellent listening

-More kindness

-More netbook activities

-Less shouting out

-Less saying ‘I can’t do it’

 

 

Learning Overview

IDL – This week we have investigated the Solar System, the Sun and the Moon. This learning was suggested by Micah, Evie and Seren when we planned our topic last week.  Highlights were heading out to the playground to use our bodies to create a model of the sun with the planets orbiting around it then taking part in a scavenger hunt in the garden to collect pictures of the planets then arrange them in the correct order from the sun. We loved working in teams to create our own solar systems – especially when we got to write on the tables to label our diagrams!

Literacy – This week our Word Boost book has been ‘The Wild Girl’ and our boost words are grubby, snug, certain, tough, pile and wild.  One of our focus areas in reading was nouns and we’ve been busy hunting for nouns in our reading books.  In writing we wrote a description of Mr Eejit from our class novel, The Eejits and we’re expanding our knowledge of Scots language too.

Maths  – In numeracy we have been adding and subtracting single and double-digit numbers.  We’ve used number patterns, known facts and counting forward and backwards to help us.  Everyone had great fun choosing whether to use hundred squares, counting beads or number lines to support their learning.  Our work on telling the time continues and we’ve been playing games to help us to tell the time to o’clock, half past and quarter to and past.

Health and Well-Being Our work on Resilience continues and we have been exploring activities to help us relax as well as talking about our emotions.  Our focus in PE has been gymnastics.

Pupil Voice – Our Highlights

Mati I liked making a diagram of the solar system. We hunted for the planets in the garden.  Then, we arranged the planets in the order of the solar system and drew the sun on the table.

Abigail I liked reading the Eejits because it is very funny.  We understood some of the words.  We also wrote descriptions of Mr Eejit.

Seren I liked going to the library because I chose a book which I really like.  It is about going to a vet.

Home Learning Opportunities

IDL – ask your child to share what they have learnt in Science about the solar system.

Literacy – look out for nouns as you read story books with your child.

Maths – try this game on Top Marks to consolidate skills in telling the time https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=matchingpairstimev3.  We’ve had great fun playing it in class!

It has been such a busy last week of term with our Christmas party, pantomime, crafts and baking.  We even managed to use our Spanish counting skills while we were making our truffles!

Everyone loved exploring visual literacy through the Christmas story of the Bear and the Hare and retelling the story.  These fabulous stories are on our One Note profiles for you to read.  We used our addition and subtraction skills to play Christmas-themed maths games too.

Have a lovely Christmas and we look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2020.

Mrs Caskie and Mrs Keegan

Overview

We had a great last week filled with activities. We had our pantomime and lots of fun at our Christmas party.

Have a lovely Christmas!

Parental Involvement

Have fun joining in with this song all about subtraction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPa9V2wtZs

Pupil voice

Connor – I loved making our truffles

Paul – We made stick pin Santa art

Rojin – I liked doing yoga in class

Michelle – I liked writing about Winter and designing an elf

Mara – I loved our pantomime

Liam – We did shading for art with Mrs Currie

Amelia – We did our last tidy up of the year. Next time it will be 2020

Pati – We did truffles. They were delicious!

Logan – We designed our own snowman or snow lady

Shea – I liked getting to watch some of Happy Feet with milk and story

Roma – We did Winter pictures with Mrs Currie

Joshua – My favourite part of the pantomime was when Mrs Currie and Miss Diamond had to go on stage

Lucas – We played tig in PE with Mr McCurdy

Emilie – We made angel decorations with cupcake cases and sparkles

Weekly Highlights

We all loved watching Primary 1 and 2 perform the Nativity story this week  We were very impressed with their talent!

In maths we have been learning to tell the time to o’clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past.

In literacy we have been writing expositions about why we should eat healthy snacks.  Look out for these in our writing jotters.  Handwriting has been a focus and everyone is making fantastic progress with their joined writing.  Talking and listening has been a key area of learning as everyone presented their book talks and got involved in peer-assessing their friends.

Resilience has been our focus in health and well-being and we have been creating recipes for a Growth Mindset.

Everyone has developed their creative skills this week as we have made Christmas trees and angel decorations.  These will be coming home next week.

In addition to all of this we have completed assessments in reading and writing.  What a busy week!

Pupil Voice

• We loved singing Santa Shark to our parents at the Christmas Singalong!
• We loved playing games when we were telling the time.
• We all did a book talk about our favourite book.
• Creating Christmas trees was fun.

Next Steps – Home Learning Opportunities

This weekend please support your child’s learning in maths by telling the time to the hour, half past, quarter to and quarter past on an analogue clock.

Reading books have been collected in for the term but please spend extra time with your child reading favourite stories.  We’ve loved listening to Christmas stories online this week.

 

Overview

This week we have been planning to make edible marshmallow snow people bags for Christmas to sell at the school Christmas fete.

We have started focusing on subtraction in numeracy. We started by having pencils and other concrete materials to help us. Now it’s the end of the week and we have looked at counting backwards, using a number line and using a rekinrek to help us.

Parental Involvement

Try this mental maths train game. Choose the subtraction function and then choose subtraction up to 20:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/mental-maths-train

Pupil voice

Scott – I liked writing about our local area. It’s in Scotland.

Mara – I played with Scott and Igor in our shop in our play area.

Anna – We wrote about our local area and made leaflets and posters so that other people would want to visit.

Joshua – We started Scottish dancing in PE.

Pati – We had to dance with partners and we did skipping and turning.

Rojin – I liked doing Irish dancing this week after school. I like Irish skips and keeping my legs straight.

Emilie – I liked doing Boost Words. One of them is ‘pounce’.

Lucy – That word has the ‘ou’ sound in it which is the sound we learned.

Liam – I liked maths. We did take away and I got a challenge question.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overview

This week we focused on the features of descriptive writing and some pupils chose to use our learning during Free Writing Friday today.

‘Bear Time Reading’ was introduced and allows pupils to choose something to read, get comfortable and read with a teddy. We want to do this every Friday.

We are finishing our focus on addition for numeracy and continuing to explore time for mathematics.

Parental Involvement

Try this penalty shootout game to help with addition: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/543/Maths-Penalty-Shoot-out

Pupil voice

Lucas – We did our class song. I like that our school’s name is in it.

Lucy – I liked in maths when we had a sum and there was a missing number in it and we worked it out.

Mara – We learned the ‘oi’ and ‘oy’ sound.

Cordelle – There are two ways to spell that sound.

Anna – I liked Irish dancing after school this week.

Pati – We went to the library. We listened to a story.

Paul – In P.E. we were climbing on monkey bars.

Emilie – I liked doing our writing. We imagined a new person coming to join our class.

Liam – I liked Free Writing Friday because I wrote about my sister. It’s her birthday.

Shea – I liked reading. I love getting a new book.

Logan – I liked Irish dancing too. We learned our Irish skips.

Luke – I liked doing reading. We got a new book this week.

Rojin – I liked doing the nativity practice.

Jane – I liked writing about stuff we chose for Free Writing Friday.

Connor – I liked our new maths cards that we can choose and mark ourselves. I like doing lots of numbers.

Amelia – We were allowed to choose what to write about.

Freya – I liked writing today because I wrote about friends.

Joshua – I liked finishing our bonfire art pictures.

Roma – I wrote about Pudsey today because today is Children in Need.

Scott – I went to mini football yesterday and we played tig and football. I love it.

Michelle – I made shapes in our play area.

Learning Overview

It has been a busy week in P3 and we have many highlights to share.  In Word Boost we loved listening to the story of Myron’s Magic Cow and learning the boost words astonished, co-operate, nervous, separate, nudge and continue.  In reading we have focused on using punctuation to help us read with expression.  As we thought about how to #MakeA Change in our school for #AntiBullyingWeek we created instructions on how to be a good friend. Our focus in writing these instructions was to identify clear steps and to use strong verbs.

Maths has been great fun as we have been learning how to add using number buddies and doubles and we have come up with lots of creative ideas to help us learn including using rekenreks, counting beads, number squares and counters.

Our work on resilience has continued as we have considered what activities make us feel good and then we used our drama skills to mime these feelings.  The children had so many great ideas such as reading, swimming, baking, running, gardening and dancing.

And of course our visit to the cinema was great fun….

Pupil Voice

“We have learnt how to join letters and to keep our letters the same size” Christopher, Mark and Mirren.

“In Anti Bullying week we talked about helping each other in the playground.  We have all tried to be extra-nice to each other” Micah, Victoria and Ibad.

“We have written imaginative stories using the Mighty Writer board.  We shared our stories with the class and recorded them using iPads” Evie, Eve and Abigail.

Parental Involvement

Help your child to add using doubles to 20 e.g. 6+6, 7+7 then progress on to near doubles e.g. 6+7, 7+8.  The materials in the maths bag will come in handy here.  We loved listening to this song to help us learn – click here to listen.

Hit the Button is a great game to play to work on doubles too.