Author: Mrs Dick

Do you know who Lizzie Bryce was?

We have been learning about who she was as part of our topic Livingston Links.  This has finished our topic of finding out about people from the past who have a link with Livingston.  We learned that she was born 1776 and that she lived in Raw Cottage in Mid Calder.  Today we have a roundabout named after her in Livingston.

In numeracy this week we have revised our learning of the number processes.  P2 have completed work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  P1 have been adding and subtracting.  We took our learning outdoors because the weather has improved so much, we had our chalk and we wrote our calculations on the ground.  Our playground was maths-tastic by the end of the lesson.

In Literacy we focused on our two Word Boost books,

P1 – Who Flung Dung?

Boost words – culprit, scoff, trample, ridiculous

P2 – Ingenious Jean.

Boost Words – amazing, finally, a mixture, a vehicle, scoop

For art we completed some Spring cards.  We used yellow tissue paper to make a feather texture on our chicks and then made eyes and a beak.

Pupil Voice

Lily – I loved making my chick colouring.

Kevin – I was able to do the Spring wordsearch.

Emileigh Rose – I liked  making the Easter card.

Adam – I scored a brilliant football goal.

Lucy – My sisters tooth fell out.

Szymon – I saved some goals.

Lewis – I really enjoyed doing the outdoor sums.

Khyla – I enjoyed smart start and getting the to use the outdoor toys.

Wojtek – I really enjoyed the colouring sheet.

 

Overview of learning

This week we have learned about St Margaret as part of our topic Livingston Links.  We now know that she married King Malcolm III of Scotland and became the Queen.  She was a very kind and caring Queen dedicating much of her time to helping those in need.  We have a local High School Named after her.

In Literacy this week we have continued to focus on our reading skills.  As well as continuing to build on our decoding and fluency when reading aloud we have been developing our comprehension skills too.  We have learned to use scanning techniques to find specific words to complete a cloze procedure, we have also used true and false statements to deepening our understanding of the text we are reading.

In Numeracy and Maths we have been completing work on data handling.  P2 have learned about tally marks and how to record data using them.  P1 have been looking at simple bar charts and working out how many from them.

Home Learning

P2 – For home learning this week read a story with someone and try to make up some true and false statements about it to see how much they can remember and understand about it.

P1 – We have learned about sh and ch over the last two weeks.  Try to find five words that begin with ch and five that begin with sh.

Pupil Voice

As part of our Learning Conversations this week the children were asked what was their favourite thing to do at school;

Courtney – I love colouring in.

Adam – Building towers in the play area.

Emileigh Rose – I like mindfulness colouring when you try not to make two parts that touch the same colour.

Ethan – I am getting stronger at the school mile.

Isla – I like making things in the creative area.

 

Overview

World Book Day was a great success.  The class engaged in different activities on Thursday to celebrate the day.  Next week we can’t wait to hear about each child’s favourite text when they deliver their class talk that they have prepared as part of home learning over the last two weeks.

In numeracy and maths learning this week the focus for P2  is symmetry, for P1 they have continued their subtraction learning as well completing some symmetry activities too.  For symmetry the children have learned about using a mirror to help them identify if an image has a line of symmetry.  They have also had a go at completing a picture to make it symmetrical.  One of the favourite activities this week was the digital learning that we used to support our practise of symmetry.  Have a look at the home learning section to see the links to the games we used.

In literacy this week we read a story called How To Grow A Dinosaur.  This inspired us to think about what we could grow if we had some imaginary seeds that could grow anything in the world.  There were some fabulous ideas…Mrs Currie would grow a Shoe Tree, Adam would grow a Football Tree, Isla a Glitter Plant, Lucy a Sweetie Plant and Courtney a Unicorn Tree!  Well done to these children who were our Star Writers this week!  When we were writing our procedures on how to plant our imaginary seeds the children were learning to use numbers to order their instructions as well as using time openers such as First, Then, Next, After and Last.

Home Learning

Try out some of these web links to practise symmetry.  The programme Symmetry Drawing Peg and Cat was a HUGE favourite in the class!

https://pbskids.org/peg/games/symmetry-painter

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/symmetry/symmetry-sorting

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/symmetry/symmetry-matching

Pupil Voice

Shay – I love outdoor learning

Julian – I really like Peg and Cat drawing on the ipad

Kevin – I loved having Hot Chocolate Friday

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Currie

Over View Of Learning

We have been learning about Sir Walter Scott as part of our new topic to do with historical people linked to Livingston.  Sir Walter Scott died when he was 61 years old and he was born in Edinburgh in 1771.  He was a famous writer and the street names in Dedridge are named after characters and places in his books.

We have been revising our key words this week and we have been continuing to improve our letter formation, P2 have even been joining up their writing!

In our Numeracy P1 have been continuing to explore the many different ways they can do subtraction calculations.  P2 were dividing using the grouping strategy.

Home Learning

For P1 and P2 try out these problem solving question which will need you to use grouping.

P2 – If there were 20 children in a class how many different ways could the teacher equally group the children?

P1 – For P1 write down as many take away calculations as you can that start with 10.

Pupil Voice

Adam – I really liked doing the problem solving challenge in class using grouping.

Shay – I really enjoyed learning about Sir Walter Scott, I wrote; Sir Walter Scott was a really famous man he wrote books.

Emileigh-Rose – I liked completing our Circle, Heart and Star independent tasks.

Lucy – I like doing the Sir Walter Scott colouring in sheet.

Regan – I liked doing the taking away work.

Sophie – I liked making the snowflakes last week.

Wojtek – I like the Science colouring sheet.

Shakti – I liked doing the keyword wordsearch sheet.

Isla – I liked making Valentines Day cards.

Julian – I love drawing and colouring sheets.

Szymon – I like doing the sheets about mapping.

Kevin – I liked doing the snowflakes.

Overview Of Learning

In numeracy and maths we have been learning about money.

P1 have been identifying the coins up to 10p.  They have been adding up 1ps and 2ps together.

P2 have been identifying the coins to 20p/50p.  They have been adding together different amounts up to £1.

Both groups have also been identifying that there are different variations in which coins you can use to make a given amount.  See the home learning section for some ideas as to how to continue this skill at home.

For Science/STEM topic this week we have been focusing on magnets.  The children have all been given opportunities at Smart Start to explore and discover magnets and magnetic forces.  This week we took this discovery learning a step further and explored the investigation skill of prediction when completing a magnetic/non-magnetic exercise.  The children had to say if they thought a certain object would be attracted to the magnet or not and then actually test it to see if their prediction was correct.  The children very quickly predicted that objects that were made from metal were attracted to the magnet but then they found out that not all metals will do this!  We had a big question at the start of the lesson, will the can of cola be attracted to the magnet?

Home Learning

If you have a magnet at home (even a fridge magnet will work) try out your own investigation of materials that are magnetic and non magnetic at home, don’t forget to predict first.

Practise using money, next time you are at the shop encourage your child to have a go at counting out an amount (within £1) to pay for an item.  It is always good to model some different coin combinations that can make a given amount.

Pupil Voice

Mason and Julian received the HT Golden Ticket this week for their outstanding contributions to our magnet lesson.  They are tasked with visiting either Mrs Smith or Mrs Roy and to explain to them our learning from this lesson. (They will complete this mission next week)

Overview of Learning

This week our Science topic has moved onto Topical Science.  We focused on litter and recycling.  We used the story called The Messy Magpie as a stimulus and learned all about the different things we can do to reduce, reuse and recycle litter/rubbish.

In our literacy we stayed with our recycling theme and created leaflets about the dangers of litter to our environment and wildlife.  We have displayed these in our classroom.

In numeracy P2 have now completed their block of learning about “equal groups of” and next week we will begin to look at how we can share equally (dividing).  P1 everyone has now learned the number stories all the way up to 10 and our adding skills have made brilliant progress, some of us are even adding up to 20!

For our Health and Wellbeing everyone has now finished setting themselves their goals for this term.  P2 have set a Literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing goal.  P1 have all set a health and wellbeing goal and have then chosen if they wanted to make a numeracy or literacy goal.  Check these out on their profiles.

Home Learning

This week for home learning the children were asked to play Sumdog which is our school’s online maths programme.  You do not have to wait for it to be set for home learning to access and play this programme you can do it any time you like.

Next week P1 will be set up with their username and password too so they can have a go too.

At home try to be a Recycling Hero by carefully throwing our rubbish away correctly/safely!

Pupil Voice

Isla – I liked making the recycling posters.

Regan – I liked colouring the recycling logo.

Lucy – I liked when we were doing the I Spy sheet about the Three Little Pigs.

Lewis – I liked making my Lego cargo ship at Smart Start.

Wojtek – I liked making a tanker out of Lego.

Szymon – I liked the true and false questions we had to answer about the Three Little Pigs,

Oliwier – I liked building houses from the Kapla and bricks.

Shay – I liked trying to get my tower made from the pegs taller than Emileigh- Rose’s.

Emileigh-Rose – I like the Messy Magpie story.

Shakti – I liked making the little leaflet about recycling.

Kevin – I liked making the different houses.

Julian – I like to make cruise ships out of Lego at Smart Start.

Teacher Voice

I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!

In class this week we have been learning all about Science through the context of the story about the Three Little Pigs.

We started off by testing four different types of material to see which could withstand the Big Bad Wolf blowing on it; feathers, straws, tissue paper and Kapla (wooden) bricks.  Our wolf was actually just a hairdryer!  We discovered that only the Kapla blocks didn’t blow away.  We then created some tent structures from card and used the material that blew away to decorate these.  After this we used a wide range of construction equipment to create our own designed houses.  Some fabulous imagination was on display and excellent engineering and problem solving skills were developed.

In our Literacy we also used this story in our writing.  P1 had to write about their favourite part and P2 had to remember the beginning, middle and end and write at least three sentences.

In numeracy P1 have continued to develop their addition within 10 and 20 using a wide variety of resources such as pictures, beads, numicon and cubes.  P2 have been developing their repeated addition calculations and now all understand the X sign in a calculation.

Home Learning

At home try to build your own house using different materials.  Include a door, window and roof.  You can take a photograph of it and put it on your wider achievements page in your profile.

Check in with your profile to see some of the photographs from our Science learning.

Pupil Voice

Shay – I enjoyed making the three pigs house.

Shakti – I enjoyed feeling the different materials that we tested.

Isla – I liked making the card houses.

Oliwier – I liked checking the different material to see if it would blow away.

Emileigh-Rose – I liked when then hairdryer blew away the feathers.

Lily – I liked when the Kapla didn’t blow away.

Szymon – I liked building the houses.

It has been a wonderful festive week in P1/2.  We started this week with our class party and we are finishing with a whole school panto!

I wish everyone in P1/2 a happy and safe Christmas holiday.

Thank you to Julian’s mum who alerted me to a problem with our OneNote profiles; all of the posts the children and I had made since the end of November had not syncronised with the system.  I have manged to find a work around solution and all the posts should now be available for you to see.  These include Learning Conversations from Term 2, enterprise photos on the WOW wall, information about their contribution to the Nativity performances as well as a photo of meeting Santa during our Christmas party on the Wider Achievements section.

Have a lovely holiday,

Mrs Currie.

Weekly Overview

It was show week!  Our Nativity performances were outstanding. What a brilliant experience it has been to learn lines, songs and dance routines.  It has definitely created memories that will last a lifetime.

In class we used the theme of Christmas to help us learn about shapes by creating different shaped snowmen and labelling the shapes correctly.

We also completed some free writing where we wrote about anything we wanted to about Christmas/Winter, this allowed us to showcase our learning from this session so far.

We completed some Christmas decoration art by making a class paper chain to hang from our classroom ceiling to make our room feel festive.

Next week we have our Christmas party on Monday and this will allow us to showcase our Christmas dances we have learned in PE with Mr McCurdy.

Home Learning

As there will be no home learning next week please ensure all reading books and folders are returned to school.

Next week we will be completing some festive baking with Miss Lydon, while Mrs Currie will be teaching us some cool shading.

Don’t forget to check out your OneNote Profile for your photograph in your costume from the Nativity, this is in your Wider Achievement section.  Also if you have completed your Learning Conversation with Mrs Currie already this will also be available on your one note profile.

Play Voice

During our Learning Conversations the pupils have been asked for highlight from term 2, here are some responses;

Isla – I really liked making the Hot Chocolate Reindeer.

Lewis – I think the daily mile is the funnest thing ever.

Lily – I have liked doing the Christmas Art.

Mason – I thought doing the Me On The Map lesson was great, I liked colouring in Scotland and the Earth.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Currie

Overview

This week we have been rehearsing really hard for our Nativity Show.  We cannot wait to share our hard work and enthusiasm with you all next week on Wednesday and Thursday…on Monday we are performing for the whole school, this will be the first time we have ever had an audience!

It was also a busy week preparing for the Christmas Fayre.  Our class made Hot Chocolate Reindeer with extra marshmallow toppings (we sold out within 40 minutes!).  This enterprise project has been a super vehicle for learning about different skills required in business.  We had to use our Numeracy skills to work out how much to charge for our Reindeer Bags and we learned the vocabulary profit when discussing this.  P2 also developed their literacy skills, they learned how to write a list (this was for the ingredients and resources that we needed), they labelled a diagram (to show where all the different parts of the resources went to make the final product) and they wrote a set of instructions on how to assemble the Reindeer Bags.  P1 used their literacy and art skills to create posters to advertise the product, they learned these needed to be bright and clear to be read from a small distance.

In numeracy P1 have completed their first block of addition work, they have shown that they can use pictorial representations, concrete material, fingers and heads to work out their answers.  P2 rounded up their learning of addition and subtraction by looking at word problems and turning these into number sentences.

At Home

Over the next two weeks our focus in class will be shape, symmetry and pattern.  At home look for shapes in our environment (P1 – circle, square, rectangle and triangle, P2 – pentagons, hexagons and octagons).  have a go at repeating shape patterns and play the game of what should come next, look at the example below;

Pupil Voice

Last week during Ninian’s Natter we had the opportunity to evaluate our learning and this week we have started our learning conversations where we evaluate our goals from this term,

Adam says “I have improved my tidying skills and I now know how to tell the quarter past times on a clock”.

Julian says “I am doing really well at PE”.

Lewis says “I am getting better in numeracy with adding and taking away”

When your child tells you that they have had their Learning Conversation at school check out their One Note profile to see their evaluations.