Primary 7b Class Blog
Class Blog Jan-March
In January and February we did a great deal of learning within the context of 'Australia'. We looked at its native fauna and flora and took a floorbook approach to planning lessons, where pupils chose what they wanted to learn about next. They created beautiful STEM projects and took a deep-dive into Aboriginal art and music, tracing Songlines across the country and creating some of their own!
Lord Provost's Debate
Pupils worked as a whole-class to prepare for the Lord Provost's debate. Artin, Arjun and Mariyam were chosen to speak on the day, but P7b worked hard to come up with some super counterarguments.
Anti-Bullying
In class, we have been learning about how to stop bullying at Maidenhill and beyond. To apply their learning, pupils ran workshops for younger pupils where they performed dramas, ran quizzes and encouraged pupils to create pieces of art,
Songlines: Music
As part of our learning around Aboriginal culture and storytelling, P7b worked in small groups to create their own Songlines. Songlines are a non-written storytelling method, so pupils had to come up with their own stories to match the song.
Country Study
As an introduction to our Australia topic, pupils were able to investigate the country of their choice and compare the lifestyle and landscape with that of Scotland.
STEM: Sydney Tower Eye
Pupils chose the Sydney Tower Eye as their STEM project in January. They chose their own Success Criteria and designed and built models which rotated. Our winning group was chosen by Miss Itcovitz!
Lunar New Year
As part of Chinese New Year in February, our brave Primary 7's ventured into classes across the school to share their knowledge of Mandarin. They designed short games and quizzes for younger pupils to try, everyone was very impressed with their confidence!
What next?
The pupils next context for learning will be 'Scottish Textiles' as they expressed an interest in sewing. Pupils have begun creating short 'zines' about Scottish fashion and will be designing and creating their own designs using a needle and thread. If you are a gifted sewer or work in the fashion industry, we would always welcome a parent visitor! Please reach out to the school office if you think you could help.
Class Blog November/December
In November, the class were lucky enough to be taught by our student teacher, Miss Campbell. She taught the pupils lots about Victorian Britain, and they made timelines and conducted their own personal research projects. In December, pupils have been focussing on Business and Enterprise. Pupils have been running their own business project and learning about profits, marketing and how to predict sales.
Pie anyone?
The Octahedrons learned how to create their own pie charts, using their knowledge of decimals, fractions and percentages. They created charts based on their own research interests. How clever is that?
Teamwork!
We always learn more when we work together. Here are some of our boys from across 3 different maths groups, working together to solve a tricky quiz. This is the moment we made it to the worldwide leaderboard.
Yinka Ilori
In preparation for our enterprise project, P7b learned about how the creative design process works, from idea to production. Here they are creating fact files about artist and designer, Yinka Ilori.
Meet the Managers
You better keep working! S and V were elected as the Managing Directors of our enterprise project. Pupils across the class applied and interviewed for their ideal positions within our 'company'. There has been lots of valuable learning around teamwork and compromise. Thankfully, nobody has been fired...yet!
Future Authors
P7b have been creating their own 'Christmas stories for a younger child'. Inspired by the content and form of famous picture books, they have been working hard to create their own characters and settings. The books will be given as gifts to the younger children before the Christmas holidays.
Where are we going next?
After the holidays, we will be choosing a country to study (this will be decided by the pupils!). Learners will then compare Scotland and their chosen country, learn some of the language and study its major cities.
Class Blog October
This session, we have been learning about The First World War. We created spoken-word poems and learned about oral history and its importance in British history. Pupils also learned about life in the trenches and what life was like for underaged soldiers
Top Researchers
Primary 7's have done lots of independent research to develop their knowledge of primary and secondary sources. They have undertaken personal research projects, book reports and personal talks to showcase their amazing learning.
Literature Circles
This block, pupils began running their own Literature Circles. They have been reading challenging texts together, choosing what their chosen theme for discussion is each session. P7b have really risen to the challenge and have engaged in some brilliant dialogue.
The History of Newton Mearns
Pupils have begun learning about life in Newton Mearns throughout the years. They were tasked with some flipped-learning on the history of Mearns Kirk hospital and engaged in some partner work to create dramatic presentations.
Where are we going next?
This block, pupils will continue to learn about the history of Newton Mearns and take their learning further by learning about major Scottish cities. Pupils will be able to take a personalised approach to this, choosing which aspects of their chosen city they would like to focus on. If you have grown up in a Scottish city other than Glasgow and would like to speak to our class about your experience, please get in touch via the school office.
Class Blog August/September
Our first context for learning in Primary 7 has been 'democracy'. We have been learning all about the history of democracy, how elections work and how people can be persuaded and influenced. Pupils have applied their skills by leading their own House Captaincy campaigns, employing campaign managers and writing brilliantly persuasive speeches!
Banksy
Pupils have been learning about persuasion in Literacy and have been applying this through persuasive art. Learners researched Banksy's most famous works and used his themes to create works of their own.
Chila Burman
As part of our STEM learning, pupils were tasked with creating models of the Tate Britain. Learners chose their own theme and built a model to reflect the key elements of their design. There was some brilliant evidence of team working and communication.
Reciprocal Reading
Pupils started their reciprocal reading journey this month. They chose books which were of interest to them and analysed the texts in terms of their content and form. Pupils then used these books as the basis for a digital research project.
Numeracy: Measure
Here is one of our maths groups converting between metres and centimetres. Pupils created floor plans to apply what they had learned.
Social Studies: Primary and Secondary sources
Pupils have begun researching aspects of World War 1 from a range of primary and secondary sources, including war diaries, photographs and encyclopedia entries. Pupils will then use their notes to create a new text.
Collaborative Research
Pupils worked collaboratively to find out about democracy around the world. They compared different political systems and successfully defined sophisticated terms such as oligarchy, dictatorship, and monarchy.
Where we are going next...
Our next context for learning will be The Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Pupils will be working together to identify environmental and health problems in developing countries, and working hard to create models and solutions to remedy these. Pupils will also be looking at World War One as part of their Literacy learning, and will be looking at how Oral Narrative can impact on an audience. If you have anything you would like to contribute to these topics/themes, please reach out to the school office.