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! 🙂

Literacy

We learned the ‘th’ sound this. This is a tricky sound to learn but we learned that we need to stick out tongue out a little bit to make this sound. This is what makes it a tricky sound. We have been working on listening for the differences in the th/v/f sounds and recording which sound we hear. We have also been spelling words with the ‘th’ sound in them.

Maths

This week we were learning about money. We were learning about the 1p, 2p and 5p. We can recognise these different coins and we have been learning how to make different amounts using the coins.

Pupil Voice

Chloe: I liked doing number talks.

Myron: I liked playing with friends.

Reka: I liked playing with my brother at funky Friday.

Carly: I liked playing with the bricks.

Kian: I liked voting for which I book I want to listen to and I liked listening to them.

Parker: I liked playing with the scarfs.

Home Learning

Collect a 1p, 2p and 5p coin. Can you make 3p, 4p, 6p, 7p and 10p?

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.

Learning Highlights

This has been a very difficult week for us and we have faced a lot of challenges as a school family. We have tried to continue as normal and the children have had lots of fun learning experiences to help lift spirits!

In numeracy, we have been learning about time and how to convert 12 hour to 24 hour.

In literacy, we made an upper school newspaper called ‘Happy News’! We included happy world news, happy school news, healthy recipes, everyday hero interviews and positive quotes, puzzles and some art work.

Pupil Voice

“I enjoyed finding recipes on the internet and we used a site called BBC Good Food to find these!” – Oma

“I liked making a positive quote because I was trying to keep spirits high at this time!” – Alishba

“I enjoyed making the paper face sculptures using different folding techniques!” – Chloe

“I liked doing numeracy learning about the 12 and 24 hour time!” – Zoe

“I enjoyed basketball because we all had fun together and I even managed to score 2 goals!” – Leo

“I enjoyed interviewing Mrs Roy at the office for our ‘Happy News’ Newspaper!” – Marcus

“I enjoyed writing about our crazy day at school!” – Annayah

“I enjoyed making our own puzzles using a website to create a word search!” – Matthew

“I enjoyed learning how to speak Irish Gaelic with Mrs Docherty on St.Patrick’s Day!” – Alice

Parental Involvement

Help us stay calm and relaxed during this difficult time by participating in some mindfulness activities with us!

Take care and stay safe! Hopefully we see each other soon. J

P5 and Mrs Diamond.

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.

Learning Overview

Literacy

This week we wrote descriptions of our school bags, with a focus on adjectives and action verbs.  In spelling we consolidated our learning by using our newly-found typing skills to type our words then change size and font.    In Word Boost, our boost words were sink, wreck, consult, rattle, havoc and advice.  We have continued to listen to The Bolds To The Rescue, read by the author Julian Clary, with lots of giggles throughout.  The hardest part of listening to this book, we all agree, is switching off the audio book at the end of each chapter.

Maths

In maths we have learnt about fractions – making and naming equal parts and then identifying equal parts.  Our next step is to name fractions then to count fractions.  Everyone had a great time making fractions, cutting them out then checking their work.

HWB

Our focus this week has been on wider achievements when all the children shared the amazing things that they have achieved outside school – ranging from baking a cake to swimming lengths of the pool!

IDL

Learning on the Vikings continues to engage everyone and we used Mighty Writer to create fabulous imaginative stories about our character, Sam The Viking.  After researching artefacts and discussing sources of evidence everyone designed their own Viking shield. We were surprised to learn that a Viking shield could be a metre wide!

Pupil Voice

Evie – I liked learning about fractions.

Victoria- I liked listening to the story of the Bolds.  I like listening to the audio book.

Alasdair – I liked writing a description of my school bag.

Leon – I liked drawing pictures in the play area.

Home Learning

Talk about fractions in the home e.g. half a pizza, quarter of an apple etc. Consolidate learning on fractions by trying this Topmarks game at home – click here.

Hand Washing – keep up the hand washing at home and remind your child how to wash their hands correctly.

Keep listening to the fabulous stories on the World Book Day website – click here.

As always, please remind your children to wash their hands carefully.

Have a lovely weekend.

From Mrs Caskie, Mrs Keegan and P3

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!