Learning Highlights

This week we have been learning about fractions, decimals and percentages. We have learned how to convert fractions to decimals and percentages and we have also learned about improper fractions.

In literacy, we have been reading our class novel ‘The One and Only Ivan’. We are enjoying this story so far but it also quite sad. We also had the opportunity to meet Dave Sutton, a real life illustrator at the library this week where we got to take part in an illustrating workshop with him. He taught us that you never make mistakes in art it is just about tweaking what you have done to get the end result you are looking for.

In art, we have been making 3D sculptures using paper. We had to use different techniques to create our sculptures including roll, loop, fringe, curl, cut and fold, spiral, crimp, tabs and cone.

In PE we have been playing basketball and were taking part in a friendly class competition where we had to try and get the most baskets. We were in 2 teams and we were using different baskets. This was helping develop our teamwork, leadership and risk taking skills. We had to use our knowledge of shooting strategies to decide on the best option to use depending on where we were situated on the court.

Pupil Voice

“I liked getting to take part in the illustration workshop with Dave Sutton because I got to create my own character and explore the world of art!” – Alishba.

“I liked doing PE because I really like basketball, one because I would like to play in the NBA and two because king of the ring is one of my favourite games!” – Yaroslav.

“I liked doing the 3D paper sculpture in art because we got to learn different techniques that make paper 3D!” – Angelina.

“I liked getting to take part in ‘Chooseday Numeracy’ where I chose to do an outdoor learning task!” – Filip

Parental Involvement

Why not try drawing some of your own illustrations as a family. You could base characters on members in your own family or be creative and come up with new characters.

To help deepen our understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages, why not make some snap cards to practise finding the corresponding fraction/decimal/percentage. We have been focussing on tenths and hundredths.

Have a great weekend, P5 and Mrs Diamond

Learning Highlights

Literacy

We have been continuing to work on distinguishing between the sh and ch sounds. We have been reading and spelling words with these sounds in them. This week, we have also been learning about syllables in words. We know this means how many claps in a word. By clapping out the syllables we have also spoke about how this could be a good spelling strategy to spell unfamiliar words.

Numeracy

We are finishing off our subtraction topic in numeracy. This week we have been learning how to use 10 frames to solve subtraction problems. We have also enjoyed playing subtraction bowling. Next week we will begin our numeracy and maths topic of money.

Pupil Voice

Grace: I liked getting the purple band because I was working hard with my spelling.

Riyah: I liked drawing unicorns.

Mason: I liked tennis and taking the dog for a walk game. It was a ball for the dog and the racket was the lead.

Lennox: I liked learning about Space.

Carly: We learned that there are lots of stars and the sun is not a sun it is a big giant star.

Anna: I liked getting the golden ticket this week for doing very good reading.

Reka: I liked getting the golden ticket too for doing good reading.

Parental Involvement

We have been using this game this week to help us read sh and ch words.

https://www.ictgames.com/dinosaurEggs_phonics/mobile/

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

Our Learning

This week we have been learning the ‘ch’ sound. This is quite a tricky sound as it is similar to the ‘sh’ sound. We have been participating in lots of activities to determine the difference between these sounds. We will continue to focus on the differences with the sh and ch sounds next week, therefore, no new sounds will be in the sounds folders.

Thank you to all who came along to our castle banquet on Wednesday. The children had been working very hard to prepare their snacks; sing their song and practise reading their lines. We enjoyed slicing, mixing, spreading and serving all the snacks we created.

The castle banquet was definitely a highlight of the week. Have a look at our comments below!

Pupil Voice

Grace: I liked that my mummy and auntie Lisa were at the castle banquet.

Lucy: I liked sharing my snacks with my mummy and little sister.

Chloe: I liked making the crispy cakes for the banquet.

Sophie F: I liked talking into the microphone because it was loud and everybody could hear me.

Kian: I liked the pointing actions in the song.

We are very excited to start our new topic of Space too:

Zaki: I’m looking forward to learning about the planets and the sun.

Carly: I liked planning our new topic of Space. I want to learn about the International Space Station.

Parental Involvement

One of our rainbow learning activities was this game:

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

We also enjoyed watching these videos to help us understand the difference between the sh and ch sounds.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Davenport and P1.

Learning Highlights

We have continued to develop our understanding of fractions this week. We have been looking at converting fractions to decimals and vice versa and introduced equivalent fractions using a fraction wall. We have had lots of different experiences including written, practical and outdoor learning experiences.

In writing, we have been learning about ‘Discussion’ text. We learned that a discussion text is when you have a 2 sided argument about a topic. We focussed on whether or not children of St.Ninian’s should be allowed to bring devices to school. We learned the key features of a discussion text include a title, and opening statement, series of arguments for and against (must have evidence to back the argument up) and finished with a concluding statement.

In PE, we have moved on to learning about the skills involved in basketballs. We practised dribbling the ball using both hands and had to try and stay in control. For a challenge we had to try and bounce the ball around us whilst sitting on the ground and dribble using alternate hands.

Last week, we had our committees. As part of Fairtrade fortnight, the Mini Vinnies Committee went to Asda to search for Fairtrade products.  One of the activities was to look at the different prices. We found bananas that were Fairtrade and normal and discovered that the Fairtrade were slightly more expensive. We think that Fairtrade bananas may be better quality but also understand that more of the money goes to help support the workers/farmers who have grown these bananas.

To celebrate world book day, we watched the 10 year anniversary of authors live and listened to Jamie Littler and Laura Ellen Anderson discus the importance of characters in a book. We then created 2 characters of our own who had to be different, have different strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes but would work well together as a team.

 Pupil Voice

“I liked making our characters for world book day because we had to be creative!” – Oma

“I liked doing basketball in PE because I am learning new ball skills!” – Alishba

“I liked doing fractions outside using sticks to make a fraction wall and using natural materials to show a particular fraction e.g. 2/5 of 20!” – Maeve

“I enjoyed a workshop from the RSNO and am looking forward to the concert!” – Madison

“I liked doing the world book day characters as I liked getting to design my own and make it personal and unique!” – Ahmad

“I liked PE because I like doing basketball!” – Matthew

Parental Involvement

Create/ build a fraction wall with families in your garden or Local Park using natural materials. Practise aim and shooting skills for basketball using a ball and washing basket at home.

Have a great weekend, P5 and Mrs Diamond.

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!