Classes

P1-2

Term 1

Primary 1/2 have had a fantastic start to the year and have settled seamlessly into the everyday routines of Gargunnock Primary school. To help us understand the rules and expectations of the school we have created an agree tree “using our handprints” (IC, P1) and coloured various minibeasts to add to our display. Our agree tree “shows the class rules we all had to agree on” (JP and DP, P2) and helps us know how to be safe. We are working hard to follow these rules to become a good example for others.

Numeracy

In numeracy, we have been doing lots of number work. For instance, we have been learning to recognise and show numbers, read number words, write numbers, sequence numbers and know the value of each digit in a number. We have also applied our number knowledge during maths week where we became builders and professional athletes. Furthermore, we went on a walk around Gargunnock to see how numbers were used in everyday life. We saw numbers on bins, windows cars, road signs and drains. We now know how important numbers are and why we need to learn them! According to JP (P2), “Maths week was great!”.

With Mrs Cluett, we have explored Christian views through a range of biblical stories. This has helped us understand how kind and selfless Jesus was to his people, especially as he shared food with 5000 people. We have also listened to the story of the lost sheep and created our own flock out of “cotton wool, paper plates and black card” (LM).

In addition to this, we have started to learn our French numbers and colours.  This has helped us order our lunch in French which, according to AD (P1), is very cool.

Topic

Our topic this term was castles. Within this topic we have learned about the defense features of a castle, castle jobs, banquets, knights and their armour. This has been so much fun as we have been able to create our own shields, weave castles out of paper, build castles out of blocks and have a whole-class banquet. “We even baked our own food for this!” (LM and IC, P1).  We have also been able to dress up to show different castle jobs, “such as the gardner” (AD, P1), and come to the banquet dressed in their clothes. There were lots of princesses, kings and knights ready for a feast.

P.E

For PE this term, we have been developing our spatial awareness and fundamental skills such as running, jumping, throwing and catching. To do this, we have participated in a range of team and paired games that focus on each skill. FH (P2) even came up with his own game called ‘apple tig’ which has been thoroughly enjoyed by the class. Other class favourites, mentioned by HE (P1) and IC (P1) have been toilet tig, junkyard, wreck-it ralph and the bean game. 

Term 2

It has been another busy and exciting term in Primary 1/2! 

Literacy:

In literacy, we have worked hard to learn and use phonic sounds. Primary 1, in particular, have now learned all of their single sounds (i.e., m, a, s, d, p) and have even learned some special friends, such as sh, th, ch and ng. According to AD and AR “We have learned SOOOO many sounds already”. Having learned these sounds, we are beginning to blend, read and make simple words. This has helped us read ditty stories in preparation for read write inc books next term. Primary 2 continue to make good progress through the read write inc programme. Learning new sounds, such as a-e and o-e, has allowed them to read more complex books with greater accuracy, fluency and expression. Specifically, they are beginning to ‘read like the character’ to engage their audience. This has been supported by our punctuation focus in writing, where we have been recognising and using commas, speech marks and full stops. We plan to reinforce and extend this learning next term through creative story writing and drama.

Music

Every Wednesday afternoon, we have been fortunate to receive Kodaly music lessons. This has developed children’s rhythm and pitch through a range of musical activities. AD, in particular, has enjoyed listening to music and creating actions to go along with the beat. These lessons have certainly helped us use ‘singing voices’ during our nativity.

Numeracy

In numeracy, we have focused on the four operations (i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). We have learned and practiced using a range of strategies to help us with each calculation. For instance, we have used blocks, number lines, number squares and fact families. According to DP, number lines are the easiest to use as you can jump forwards or backwards very quickly. We are working hard to learn our times tables and will continually practice these next term. With Mrs Cluett, we have also explored 2D and 3D shapes. This has involved recognising shapes and describing their properties (i.e., vertices, faces, sides). We have even created rockets using a range of different 2D and 3D shapes. AR has loved this learning as it was “very exciting”.

IDL

This term our class topics have been very seasonal, with a focus on the human body and the Christmas story. Beginning with the human body, we explored the 5 senses, body parts, major organs and the skeleton.  Using lots of experiments and visuals, we understand our bodies better and are aware of how things work on the inside. AD, in particular, loved learning about the digestive system through our whole-class experiment as it was “fun and disgusting”. Indeed, the experiment was a class favourite.

As it approached December, we discussed and re-enacted the Christmas story. This learning was then showcased at our ‘wriggly nativity’ performances. We worked hard to learn our lines, sing our nativity songs, act out key scenes and project our voice to fill the entire hall. CM especially loved our ‘Angels’ song as she could act and sing a solo! We certainly have some actors in the making.

Term 3

Topic

This term our topic has been about inventions. To launch our topic we went on a school trip to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. ‘We went to Edinburgh and back on a bus’ J and A (P2). I really enjoyed seeing the robot that cleaned the stairs’ JP (P2). ‘I liked watching the movie about space’ KS (P1) ‘We saw pulleys’ LM (P1), ‘we saw levers’ EB (P2), ‘we saw some cars that had axles’ HG (P2) and ‘we saw a robot’ DP (P2). ‘We also saw lots of pretend animals’ CM (P2) 

During our topic we have investigated how things work and made lots of models. ‘I liked pulling up the bucket full of blocks using a rope and a pulley’ BM (P2) ‘I really liked it when we made our own inventions’ AD (P1) ‘I liked it when we made our cars and then raced them down the benches’ EB (P2). In our literacy this term all the P2s moved up a level in their reading and P1 have started reading the Red Ditty Books. In writing we have been learning about adding detail to pictures by using labels. We have also started to use the Mighty Writer.  

‘I have enjoyed making sentences using the pictures on the Mighty Writer’ DP (P2) 

Numeracy

In math this term the whole class have covered measure, multiplication, division and fractions and the P1s have also learned about money. 

‘I liked learning how to weigh things using the scales’ FH (P2) ‘I liked it when we were measuring how long things were’ FH (P1). ‘I have learned that you can’t tell how much something holds until you do it’ JP (P2) 

P.E. 

We started the term with gymnastics and then we moved on to developing our physical literacy skills 

‘I liked it when we were hitting the balloons with the rackets’ IC (P1) ‘In gymnastics I enjoyed climbing across the ladders’ KS (P1) ‘I liked hitting the balloons with the rackets because every time it fell everyone tried to race to the balloon to keep it in the air’ AR (P1) I liked it when it was my turn to climb up the frame and across the ladder’ OH (P1) 

P3/4

Term 1 

We have had a busy and exciting first term in Primary 3/4/5!

Numeracy

In numeracy  we have been learning about place value, sequencing, ordering and rounding. We have been learning lots of fun games to help consolidate our  learning, and enjoying lots of opportunities to work together. 

During Maths Week Scotland we also got to take part in lots of fun maths activities including – maths in sport, coding and STEM challenges! In picture 1 – RG (P5) and CJ (P3) are being timed by MC (P4) to see how many push ups they can do in 1 minute!

In picture 2 – HH (P5), RG (P5) and CJ (P3) are working together to make the longest paper chain possible using 1 sheet of paper!

In picture 3 – JB (P3) has learned how to write ‘HELP’ in Morse Code!

Literacy

We have been doing lots of topic related work including – fact finding, experiment instructions and acrostic poems!

Topic

Our topic this term has been Natural Disasters and we have had lots of fun learning all about different natural disasters, what causes them, how to survive them and how climate change has made natural disasters more likely! We had lots of fun making our own volcanoes and tornadoes!

We also did an experiment to see how powerful carbon dioxide was by creating our own CO2 and watching as it blew up a balloon!

We also created lots of Natural Disaster inspired art using different materials! Here are our volcanoes – we created them by blowing the paint and spattering it!

Finally, we were so lucky to have a visit from PR's (P4) parents. His mum is a marine scientist and taught us all about the importance of the ocean as a Climate Superhero. PR'S dad works in submersibles and told us all about the things he has seen way down in the depths of the ocean, including volcanoes!

They also brought in some artefacts for us to see including some bones and replicas of animals that live in very cold climates.

Term 2

Numeracy

This term in numeracy we have been working hard learning about the 4 operations. We have been learning different strategies for each operation and learning about the relationships between them.

Another important aspect of numeracy this term has been showing our working out and explaining our thinking as we work with each other in tasks.

Literacy

In November we celebrated Book Week Scotland and we enjoyed lots of book-related tasks included these fantastic ‘complete the cover’ pictures! We have been exploring our creative side, looking at parts of speech and similes which has helped us to create characters and describe a battle scene in our writing.

IDL

Our topic this term has been a huge success! We kicked it off back in October when we learned about the Celtic routes of Hallawe’en in the celebration of Samhain. Then we were divided in to Celtic tribes – the Gaels, the Gauls and the Britons.

We learned about Celtic warriors, beliefs and every-day life for Celts. We made shields, built round houses, and really enjoyed learning about the great Celtic warrior, Boudicca. We were also so lucky this term to welcome author, David MacPhail as part of our topic!

Term 3

Topic

This term we have especially enjoyed our topic, learning all about sound and music! As part of this we have been learning samba drumming, we have been learning a dance and we even had a trip to the Tolbooth to learn all about sound production on stage! On top of all of this we have created art in response to music, learned about how we hear and even built some of our own instruments with Dave Trouten! 

Numeracy

In numeracy this term we have been working really hard on fractions. Mrs Cluett has also been teaching us about measure. 

Literacy

In literacy, we have been using our topic, the science of sound as a stimulus for writing. We wrote instructions on how to carry out a metal coat hanger experiment when trying to find out what medium sound travels best through. More recently we have been researching and making notes in order to write a fact file all about Ludwig van Beethoven. 

We worked together to write our own success criteria for this task too! We looked at common features of a fact file to see what we need to do to be successful in this task. 

Primary 5/6/7

Term 1

Maths

In maths this term we did rounding and times tables. We also had Maths Week Scotland and in that we did Jerrys Journey.

For outdoor maths, we did a challenge to see which the most accurate way to measure trees. There was 10 different ways to measure the trees and we split into groups and then chose 3 ways to measure the trees. We had 3 different trees and we did an estimate then one of the ways. We all had different answers because we used different ways but the most accurate one was the pencil and pal. Other ones didn’t work because it was cloudy day. Fergus said ‘ Me and Isaac built an arch against the OLZ made out of sticks’.

Outdoor Learning Day

Art in the style of Andy Goldsworthy

We had an outdoor learning day and we started by doing outdoor art. We created art based on Andy Goldsworthy who does lots of outdoor art. He uses leaves, twigs, berries, flowers and water. We split into pairs to create our own pieces of art. We used what we could find in the playground and we used reflections in puddles, climbed trees to drop berries and used the foliage of the leaves to frame the art.

HWB

At the start of the year for HWB we did Gerald’s game, a mix between basketball and netball. It was very competitive and exciting and it helped us improve are teamwork skills. It was also good because everybody wasn’t running after the same ball. Andrew said ‘I liked throwing the ball into the hoop’. Then when it got wet we went inside and did fitness inside in the hall. The things we did in fitness were; step-ups on the benches, press-ups, crunches, shuttle run, skips, burpees, jumps and twists which helped us improve are core muscles. KC said ‘It was good fun but tiring and felt like my legs would break after’.

Term 2

Numeracy

This term we have been learning about fractions, decimals and percentages. We have learned how to make fractions equivalent so that we can add them together or take them away from each other. At times this was difficult but we persevered and it has become easier. Now we feel much more confident when we have a question to answer using fractions. We have also been converting percentages into fractions, we particularly enjoyed using math dominos to help us to feel confident with this. We have also been adding and subtracting decimals with up to 3 decimal places. Mr Webster has been regularly doing number talks with us which has given us different ways of looking at maths questions and problems; and sometimes we have made word problems in interactive maths to help us apply this knowledge in real life situations.

I.D.L – Victorian Christmas

This term we have been doing a Victorian Christmas topic. To help us learn about Victorian Christmas times we came up with little and big questions which we have answered throughout the term. We created a very big topic wall, it is a Victorian Christmas street. It took us at least one week to make and we worked on it at lunchtimes too. We have spent a lot of time preparing for our Christmas market. We researched what wares were sold in Victorian times at Christmas and decided in groups what we could make to sell. Each table group were given £20 to spend on food and craft items for our Victorian market stalls. We have made lots of things like pin pricked Christmas cards, Christmas crackers, shortbread, hot chocolate bags, peg dolls and other Christmas related merchandise that we will sell on our stalls. One of our favourite thigs to make was the Christmas crackers. To prepare for our assembly, we have been practising every morning. We have included lots of information about where the Christmas traditions came from and we are singing traditional Victorian Christmas carols. Our favourite carol is We Three Kings!

Health and Wellbeing

 Judo Taster

Euan came in to give us a class taster in Judo. We wore traditional Judo clothing and learned how to throw people, we wrestled on our knees and we grabbed each other’s sleeves to try and rock each other to the floor!

Scottish Country Dancing

For PE our whole class did Scottish Country dancing – we did Strip the Willow, the Dashing White Sargent, the Gay Gordon, Flying Scotsman and the Canadian Barn Dance. We were pretty good at some of the dances! Some of our class went to the Peak with Mrs Orr to join in with other schools at a Country Dancing Festival.

Handball

“This was the best P.E!” EJ P7 It was fun because we got to run around and work as a team. Sometimes it got very competitive! We had a few injuries because we were so emerged in the games.

Term 3

IDL - Bridges

We went to visit the Forth Bridge Education Centre and learned how bridges are constructed. We worked in groups and built our own bridge out of construction materials. Then we went on a walk across the Forth Road Suspension Bridge, it was very windy and very high. 

We all had to make a plan separately then we got in to groups of three and put our designs together. After this, we got 25 pieces of wood and started to build our designs, the aim was they had to take 5 kg. Then we tested each bridge could take. The winners were the ‘Best Bridge Builders’ which could take 44.5 kg.

Burns Supper

Everybody was assigned a part and I (SE) was the MC. I was very nervous but very proud of myself that I did it. We ate haggis neeps and tatties and had Irn bru to drink followed by shortbread. We performed Scots Dances and the winners of the Scots Poetry Competition recited their poems. Archie from Stirling High was our piper. We had lots of fun. 

Math

In Maths this term, we focused on measure. We learnt about perimeter, area and measurements volume and capacity. We measured each other’s height and had to work out the volume of the Hall. For a homework task we had to find out the area of a room in our house and find the cost of a new carpet using an online flooring store, 

P.E

This term, we did gymnastics and volleyball. We learnt different moves for volleyball like dig and push. In gymnastic we did routines in groups with lots of different jumps, balances and transitions. 

Dalguise

We did different indoor and outdoor activities like climbing, abseiling and giant swing. My favourite thing was giant swing (EJ). In the evening, we did lots of activities like ambush and Round the World. We had lots of fun over the week and challenged ourselves. When we got back we were really tired!