Category: Primary 7

This week has been a little bit different, but we have been busy nonetheless!

Literacy

Mirren – For writing this week we wrote about whether social media should be banned or not for under 16s

Daniel – we used Microsoft teams to figure out how it worked

Hannah – in literacy we made a happy news newspaper for the school and parents

Numeracy

Lauren –  In maths we were doing fractions and I found it ok but it’s still tricky!

Abi – We got to choose what to do for maths on Thursday – one of my tasks was Monopoly!

Zayah – We got choose what task we do – I chose colour by numbers and the money board game.

Ambra – it was really fun this week because we played lots of games and looked at using lots of skills!

HWB

Aleks – we learned how to use teams for next week!

Marcella – We were doing quizzes on Kahoot – it was good because everybody got a chance to win and it was fun that everyone played fairly!

Freya – I liked it when we went outside for Funky Friday, signing our shirts.

Brooke – On Thursday we used our paper sculpture techniques to make a 3D face

Samuel – the best part of my week was when the field was opened again for football!

It has been a busy week, full of unknowns and worries – we have got through this together and we are hopeful that it isn’t goodbye, just a see you later!

Home Learning

All pupils have been given their Glow logins and offered jotters/pencils/rubbers/novels, if it would help them to learn over the coming weeks. Information has been shared via Groupcall to inform parents and carers of the arrangements in place for the coming weeks.

Take care and  – WASH YOUR HANDS! 🙂

Learning Overview

Literacy
We have continued with writing discussion this week and focused on why nuclear fuel is an important source of energy.  This created a very interesting discussion and all pupils were able to build on their skills and use topic sentences carefully.
Private Peaceful reading group created excellent critical thinking answers this week and everyone is becoming a lot more confident in this. Wilderness reading group are continuing to build on their summarising skills and ability to relate to the characters.
We have also been focusing on our use of apostrophes. We looked at how to use them properly to show possession.

Numeracy/Maths
We have continued with our time topic this week in maths and have been using the speed, distance, time equations to solve word problems. We had to use our problem solving and resilience skills for some of the trickier questions.
In number talks we looked at doubling and halving as a multiplication strategy.
We also tried our first “chooseday” menu. There were 8 activities to choose from to consolidate our learning in fractions, decimals and percentages. Some pupils chose to work outside, on ICT or play some maths games. We are looking forward to trying this again next week.

Learning Across the Curriculum
This week we enjoyed making 3D paper sculptures with Mrs Conway in art. We learned different techniques like folding, loops, slits and slats and many more. We were very happy with our creations.
In PE we were building on our basketball skills with Mr Cummings. Basketball is a big favourite in our class!

Torness Power Station
On Monday we had a great time visiting Torness Power Station. We took part in a group challenge to create the tallest structure using paper. We had to answer questions throughout the challenge to get more materials. It was great fun and gave us an opportunity to work on our team work and leadership skills.
We also had a tour of the power station where we learned lots about how a nuclear power station works and what important jobs take place on site. There are over 700 people employed at Torness and lots of jobs available. One of the interesting jobs was the people in charge of the reactors. They had lots of monitors and buttons at their desks – we decided it was a stressful job to have but still very interesting!

Home Learning
Pupils were all very interested in our class trip to Torness. If you haven’t already, please ask your child lots of questions – it was a fascinating place!
The pupils have also been very intrigued with the news surrounding the corona virus. Try to keep up to date with child-friendly updates over the weekend and have a discussion as a family about your main concerns and what course of action you think the government should take. We have had some excellent discussion about this today!

As always, please remind your children to wash their hands!

Thanks for an excellent week primary 6/7! Have a great weekend!

Learning Overview

Literacy
In reading we have been focusing on developing critical reading skills. We have been analysing the text to look at the use of punctuation and also using evidence to support our thinking. For World Book Day this week we watched an author and illustrator masterclass with Jamie Little and Laura Ellen Anderson. We then created our own characters and listed their strengths, flaws, likes and dislikes. We are also sharing stories in class for the rest of the month as part of a World Book Day challenge. We are focusing on discussion texts in writing and will continue this for our assessment.

Numeracy/Maths
In maths we have been working on time. We have been calculating elapsed time and are improving at this. We took our maths lesson outside this week and worked with a partner to measure how far we could run, hop and jump in 5 minutes. It was very tiring but great fun! We have now moved on to calculating speed, distance and time using the d=s x t formula. We also played a maths game this week and had to estimate how long we would take to complete a task then time ourselves to see how close we were.

Learning across the curriculum
In PE we have finished our gymnastics which has been loads of fun. We are now working on basketball with Mr Cummings. This week we played some games and practised some skills.
In RE we have been making posters about life choices and who God wants us to be. We presented our psoters to the class and explained the possible life choices we could make.
In art we went outside and collected different materials we could use to make cave drawings. This was inspired by our class novel. We used mud, leaves, grass and petals. When we came back to class to “paint” we flipped our desks on their sides and stuck our paper to them so that it was like doing a real cave painting on the wall.

Home Learning

As we have moved on to time in maths in would be great if parents could encourage this learning at home. Some ideas would be to ask your child to tell you the time in  words, in 12 hour and 24 hour clock.  If you are going on any journeys ask them to work out your average speed, distance traveled  or time taken. The pupils have been using the distance = speed x time formula in class and would benefit from continuing this at home.

The characters the pupils created whilst taking part in the masterclass for world book day were fantastic! Ask them about their character and create an imaginative story at home!

Pupil Voice
Kacper: “I really enjoyed RE because we got to present posters about the possible life choices we could make”.
Emma: “I have enjoyed our gymnastics block in PE, I liked making up the group floor routines best”.
Sean: “I enjoyed basketball this week with Mr Cummings. We played games and practised our dribbling skills – focusing on keeping our head up”.
Joseph: “I enjoyed our outdoor maths lesson. We were recording how far we could run, hop and jump in 5 minutes.”

Reminder

We will be visiting Torness Power Station on Monday to support our learning in science about energy and electricity.
All pupils should bring a snack and a packed lunch.
Pupils should not bring devices. Devices are not allowed on the tour. I suggest devices are left at home on Monday or left at the office as there will be no one in the classroom.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Highlights

Literacy – Mrs Scott has introduced us to West Lothian Council’s new reading targets. We are going to pilot these in our class from next week and we will using our group reading sessions to look at the key reading comprehension skills. This week we looked at SUMMARISING. We worked with a talk partner to take notes on the chapters of our novel under five headings. This was tricky as we had to get our skimming and scanning skills put to good use! Next week we will look at doing this again to develop confidence.

Numeracy – Fractions. Need we say anymore? We have dabbled in fractions across the course of this year to build our confidence and give us experience of working with them – but now, we are going for it! This week we have started off easy by looking at equivalent fractions – what are equivalent fractions? Ask your child to explain this to you… if they can’t explain it, can they find out some information to help them? We will keep chipping away at fractions, decimals and percentages to build our knowledge and understanding – wish us luck!

HWB – As next week begins Fair Trade fortnight we had a little introduction to Fair Trade through our art lesson where we looked at the Fair Trade logo, what it means and we had a go at designing our own. We built on our previous learning about what Fair Trade means and discussed some of the issues faced by farmers and workers in certain areas of the world where Fair Trade have helped.

Pupil Voice

Freya – I liked doing the Fair Trade logo in art

Neve – The class novel was good; We thought Joe’s dad had depression and now we know he got it when Joe’s mum died

Jay – We’ve got a new devices contract we have all signed so we use our devices properly in school, we can’t go on social media

Aleks – I love fractions!

Home Learning

This week we revamped our class contract and how it fits with the UN Convention on the Rights of the child. One of the big discussion points in P7 is around what it looks like being ready to learn in our class… Sometimes is looks differently depending on what we are doing and what we are learning. As a family, take some time to discuss what your child enjoys about their learning and what they don’t… is it something that we can change together? Is it something that they need to find strategies to work through? When do they feel ‘ready to learn’? What do they need every day to come into school feeling like they are ‘ready’?

As hard as it is to talk about what is around the corner (*high school*) – what do they need to work on now, so that they are best equipped to reach their potential when they get there? We will be having lots of discussion about our skills and talents in the coming weeks so it would be great for them to have a bit of background 🙂

Have a wonderful weekend!

Learning update for the past 2 weeks in primary 6/7.

Learning Overview
Last week we visited Sky Skills Studios. Each group worked together to create a movie trailer. They were all great and everyone learned loads about movie making. We all got given a USB at the end so we can watch our trailers at home.

We also had volunteers from The Royal Bank of Scotland visiting us to help us with a MoneySense workshop. We worked in groups to solve a case of fraud. We looked in to why it is very important to keep all our personal details safe and what information we should and should not share with others. It was great fun. Our volunteers also answered lots of questions about working in the bank and what they do everyday.

This week in P.E we did gymnastics routines with a theme that was supposed to be guessed by our P.E teacher Mr. Cummings 

Team 1: Floor is lava
Team 2: James Bond
Team 3: Ninja
Team 4: Video Games 

 In art we were getting ready for Fairtrade fortnight! We made Fairtrade logos for the Fairtrade assembly and looked up some Fairtrade foods we could bring in for our tuck shop therefore our school is making a tuck shop. 

In maths we have finished our fractions, decimals and percentages work and have started looking at time. We will continue to work on time in the upcoming weeks. 

In literacy we have continued with our group novels and class novel. We have started looking at discussions in writing and will write our own next week. 

Pupil Voice
Louise:i enjoyed doing PE gymnastics my favorite part is using the apparatus.

Ola:I enjoyed reading wolf brother chapter 8 and 9 because it was very interesting and intense.

Huda;I enjoyed planning for writing .

Home Learning
The pupils have been enjoying learning outdoors this term. They have asked for their home learning activities to be outdoor this week! (good luck)
Weather depending…. Wrap up warm and go for a walk outside. We have been focusing on taking a moment to help deal with emotions during our building resilience lessons. Being outdoors is a great way to focus and reconnect with ourselves and each other. Spend some time outside and have a chat about the learning we have been doing. If you live close by the pupils can even show you their clan tree!

Have a great weekend!!!

Learning Overview

Maths and Numeracy
We have been continuing our learning on money. We have focused on the differences between credit cards and debit cards and why people might use them. We calculated interest rates on credit cards using our knowledge of percentages. We have been revising multiplication this week, challenging ourselves to multiplying larger numbers.

Literacy
In writing this week we were working on explanation. We explained how energy is transferred and how all energy comes from the sun.
Private Peaceful reading group are continuing to analyse the text and build up an understanding of the characters.
Wilderness reading group carried out research on Lapland as the characters are about to go on an adventure there. They created leaflets for tourists with information on places to visit and how to get there.

Outdoor Learning
We continued our outdoor learning in our Literacy Clans this week. We visited our clan trees and created group poems about our trees. We have added our poems to our class display.

Science
We learned how to make a series circuit. We used wires, batteries, switches and bulbs. We built the circuits and then drew diagram using the component symbols. We can explain the energy transfers that take place in the components.

Pupil Voice

At the careers  fair we went round different people with different NHS jobs and learned a lot about how to help old or young people get up if they have fallen or of they’re choking or something.
My favourite part of the careers fair was the occupational therapy because we put on rubber gloves and tried to open up a lolly to see how hard it was for people with arthritis – Shannon
At the careers fair I enjoyed going round all the stations learning about all the different NHS jobs – Aidan
Inside the careers fair building the station I enjoyed the most was the occupational therapist: you had two games to show what it’s like to have either one hand or a jumbled up memory. First there was a game to try and open a tub with one hand, next was a memory game, you would get shown items then one would be taken away, you would then have to say which one was taken away. Over all it was really enjoyable – Joshua
I really enjoyed writing about energy transfer because I got to learn about science which is my favourite subject -Kacper
I loved the NHS careers because I got to see all sorts of therapists which is the career I would love to have as an adult-Jan

Home Learning

Continue to revise multiplication strategies at home. Try to use the grid method and standard written method to check your answers.

Next week we will be focusing on internet safety. Please take this opportunity to discuss staying safe online with your children, especially safe and responsible use of social media. There are resources available here: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers/resources-parents-and-carers

A reminder that next week we will be continuing with outdoor learning on Monday and visiting Sky Skills Studios on Thursday.

Have a great weekend!