Miss Martin – Woodmuir Primary School Blog

Christmas Dinner

Last week, the children enjoyed a fantastic Christmas dinner at school. The lunch hall was set up for the occasion with a beautifully decorated Christmas tree and some festive touches on the tables – sparkly table cloths, Christmas themed placemats and some Christmas crackers. The children had a great time enjoying a delicious festive meal with yummy turkey, steak pie and some pasta. But of course, no Christmas dinner would be complete without some ice cream for dessert! After the meal, the children settled in to watch a Christmas movie, Santa Clause 3, and then enjoyed some games in the gym hall.

It was lovely to see the children enjoying an amazing day, full of good food, lots of fun and plenty of Christmas spirit. Everyone left feeling happy and excited for Christmas!

Hands-On Learning: Numeracy

This term, the children have been working on solving addition and subtraction tasks using concrete materials like counters, blocks, Numicon and more. These hands-on tools help the children visualise and understand the concepts in a more concrete way before moving onto pictorial and abstract problems.

By physically moving objects, the children can “see” the math which makes it easier to grasp how numbers can be combined or separated. Concrete materials build confidence, deepen understanding and make learning more engaging. The children were working on using Numicon to make number pairs and visually represent how numbers can be made up of different pairs – in this example, the children were making all the different number pairs to make 6.

Here, the children were using base 10 blocks to represent the jumping strategy in addition; they would use the blocks to represent jumps of 10 or 1 to solve 2 digit + 2 digit sums and missing number problems. The children have managed to transfer this understanding into subtraction tasks too!

The children have enjoyed the hands-on approach in numeracy and feel more confident in their numeracy skills! We will continue using concrete materials in all our learning to help boost our skills and confidence!

Adult Learning Sessions

Over a week ago, we hosted an engaging adult learning session at the school which was designed to help parents support their children at home with their learning. The session focused on practical tips and strategies for making math a natural part of everyday life whilst boosting confidence and fostering a positive math mindset.

The session highlighted various ways which children’s learning in numeracy can be extended at home. Strategies which we saw and found useful were through playing/creating games such as Kerplunk, LEGO board games and more. This helped the children with their counting, number recognition and subitising, and the children had fun doing so! This was an engaging session which was very helpful for those that attended – scan the QR below to find out more information about these sessions! Thank you to everyone who attended and together, we can help make math a positive experience for the children.

Micro:bit Fun

On Friday, P1-3 continued developing their coding skills using the Micro:bit. While they had previously explored the various features they could code onto the Micro:bit, this session allowed them to try it out hands-on with an iPad. The children began experimenting with the Micro:bit app, learning how to download their completed code onto the device. They explored creating LED images and patterns, incorporating music, and even experimenting with voice control features. The session was fun, as the children enjoyed being creative with their projects while building confidence in using both the app and the Micro:bit. In our next session, we will follow a tutorial to work towards a specific goal, which the children will decide.

Levenseat Awards Ceremony

Today, some children attended the awards ceremony for the Levenseat Project, where they showcased the model they worked on during Term 1 to harness renewable energy. As part of the project, they created toys and an iPad charger, putting in great effort throughout the term. Although we didn’t win, the children thoroughly enjoyed sharing their work with other schools. The morning was filled with exploring the various innovative ideas on display, and they also had fun watching a magician and listening to a storyteller.

Library Visit

On Wednesday, P1-7 had the chance to visit West Calder Library as part of Book Week Scotland. The trip began with a reading of There’s a Snake in my School! by David Walliams, which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

They then had the opportunity to explore the library’s wide range of genres and books, browsing both fiction and non-fiction. The children spent time discussing their favourite types of books and sharing recommendations with one another. They also got creative by making crafts such as bookmarks and posters. To wrap up the visit, the children selected a book to borrow, which they can keep at school to read. Overall, it was a delightful trip, and the children enjoyed discovering and engaging with different books.