Classes

P1-2

Mrs Henderson & Mr McDonald

Term 1

Primary 1/2 have had an excellent start to the year. P1 have all settled really well into the class, helped by the fantastic P2s. It has been a busy first term where the children have learned so many new things and worked hard. 

Literacy The P1s have been learning their sounds and have even started to blend these to make words. They have also been doing lots of fine motor skill activities to help with pencil control. ‘I know the letters g, m, a, t, o and s’ MFG (P1). ‘I like doing all the activities in the playroom to learn our letters’ AP (P1). 

The P2s have also been learning new sounds through Read Write Inc. with Mrs Henderson and have been doing writing through play with Mr McDonald. ‘I have been learning ay, ee, igh, ow, oo ar and or sounds’ IC (P2). ‘I have enjoyed learning harder words and sounds’ KS (P2) 

Math we have been doing lots of number work with Mr McDonald. P1 have focused on counting and writing numbers to ten while P2 have been working on numbers to 100. 

With Mrs Henderson the class have been learning all about measure. ‘I have learned how to count up to 10’ LM (P1). ‘I liked it when we had to build the numbers’ AP (P1). ‘I enjoyed estimating the numbers in measuring’ AD (P2). ‘I have enjoyed learning how to count up and back to 100’ LM (P2). ‘I liked it when we weighed things, I used my bunny and my dog’ RC (P1). 

Topic  Our topic this term has been My Family. We have been learning about how everyone’s family is different. ‘I liked it when we made houses’ DS (P1). ‘I liked making the hand hearts with the paint and the poem’ HE (P2). ‘I enjoyed making the houses that opened up’ AR (P2). ‘I liked making houses that had windows and doors that opened and they had pictures of our families’ FH (P2). 

P.E  For P.E this term, we have been developing our fundamental skills such as running, jumping, throwing and catching. We have done this through a range of individual, pair and group tasks and challenges. ‘I liked stepping over the cones on the bench’ CT (P1). ‘I liked using the hockey stick when we used them to hit the balls under the little hurdles’ QM (P1). 

Term 2

It has been another busy term in Primary 1 – 2 with the build up to Christmas, our Nativity performances and our Christmas Enterprise topic.

Literacy

In Literacy, both P1 and P2 having been learning lots of new sounds. The P1s have been using these sounds to read and write words. The P2s have been using them to read more complex reading books and spell words correctly in their sentences.

‘I like making words and when I write them on a whiteboard.’ (CT P1) ‘I like writing sentences in my RWI workbook.’ (ES P2).

As part of Book Week Scotland, we listened to stories being read by the School Librarians and then we got to vote for our favourite one!

‘I enjoyed getting the Eyebrows of Doom story read to us as I thought it was very funny.’ (KS P2) ‘I liked the Ten Dogs story because I like dogs and my favourite number is 10.’ (GB P1).

Maths

In maths, P1/2 have been learning about money and can identify different coins and count collections of coins using their knowledge of value. The class have also been learning about different addition and sub-traction strategies.

‘I like it when we were placing dots inside squares to make numbers. (MMF P1). ‘I like it when we make numbers with different things from around the classroom.’ (AD P2)

IDL

Primary 1 -2 did a fantastic job performing in our Nativity- A Miracle in Town. The children put in a lot of hard work to learn lines, songs and dance moves. Across the three performances they all did a great job.

‘I liked it when we sang the songs. My favourite song was We’d Like To Tell You A Story.’ (QM P1) ‘I liked being a shepherd because it was easy to learn the lines.’ (AR P2)

Topic

Our topic this term was Our Christmas Enterprise. The class enjoyed making lots of different crafts both in class and within their skills academies. It was great to have so many parents in helping them make things to sell.

‘I liked making the hats because they look hard to make but they were easy.’ OH (P2) ‘I liked making the bags because they were fun to do.’ (LM P1) ‘I liked it when my Dad came in and we made the Santa slime.’ (DS P1)

P.E

In P.E, P1/2 did dance with Mrs Henderson where they learned how to do some traditional Scottish dances. With Mr McDonald they were learning about fitness, and through a range of challenges and games, we worked on our co-ordination, balance and strength.

‘I like when we did crawling on the mats and everyone was going in a zig zag.’ (IC P2) ‘It was fun doing the dancing when you had to meet in the middle and then go back again.’ (RC P1)

P3/4

Miss Syme

Term 1

Numeracy We have kicked off the year exploring numbers and place value with lots of games and opportunities for group work. 

Literacy In literacy we have been learning how to use punctuation correctly including capital letters, full stops, commas, speech marks and apostrophes, as well as learning about nouns, proper nouns, adjectives and similes! 

Topic We have really enjoyed our topic this term which has been Matilda (and other young people who changed the world!) We studied the characters from the novel and took a leaf out of Matilda’s book and celebrated our amazing selves! We have covered literacy, science, health and wellbeing, art, the world of work and music all in our very first topic! Our novel led nicely into Kindness month (October) where we created a wonderful kindness display and helped spread kindness around the school. 

Term 2

This has been a very busy term for P3/4, with lots of active learning!

Remembrance

To mark Remembrance in November, we had a visit from Helen Rowell who came to tell us about her family who had fought in the war. We loved listening to her stories and seeing the pictures she brought in!

We also marked Remembrance ourselves by making poppy pictures. We had lots of fun dying the newspaper using food colouring!

Baking

Our Thursday afternoons have been busy with baking Christmas treats! It has been really fun to work together to make yummy truffles and peppermint crèmes! Thank you to our parent helpers who have giving us a helping hand too!

PE

Our focus in PE this term has been fitness. We have been challenging ourselves each lesson to improve on the last.

We have also been learning the Canadian Barn Dance and the Virginia Reel in advance of our Christmas party!

Literacy

We have been focussing on writing techniques, punctuation and grammar this term in Literacy and working really hard on our

writing.

In November we listened to the story of Guy Fawkes then created Wanted posters based on what we had learned.

We have also been learning to recognise different kinds of words, and different techniques such as onomatopoeia to help make our writing more exciting!

Numeracy

In numeracy, we have been learning about multiplication and division, and working really hard on our times tables. We even used this as an opportunity to create some

mathematical Christmas decorations when we made multiplication paper chains!

Art

In between busy panto rehearsals we have had the opportunity to create not 1 but 2 Christmas art displays! First we made winter cityscapes using line drawing and water colours, then we also made some bright and colourful Christmas gnomes using oil pastels!

Primary 5/6/7

Mr Webster

Term 1

By AW

Outdoor Learning Day In outdoor learning, my group did coding first where we made instructions for the other groups. We had to find sticks make a shape and write clear instructions, which another team had to follow and try to make the shape. We also made a spinning top out of a wood cookie and we got to paint it! I made a watermelon. Finally, the last activity was marble run out of all the loose play parts then we roll a tennis ball down it and hope it didn't break when it rolls down! 

Math Week During Math Week Scotland, we all made paper aeroplanes to see who would go the farthest. We measured the angles of the nose and wings of the planes to see if this impacted how far they travelled. We all got to make our own team names; my team's name was E&A AIR. The person who got the farthest was NF with 13.25m. It was the best Maths Week Scotland ever! 

PE For PE our focus was ball skills and team games. We played Hand Ball and Jerald’s Game. We all enjoyed it and it was lots of fun. Here are some things that the class have thought about it. 

BB said, “I like Jerald’s game BUT not a big fan of Hand Ball.” 

IT said, “It was good! Mr Webster made it fun, I found it fun and lots of other people did as well!” 

NF said, “I liked it because it is fast moving!” 

FM said, “I enjoyed it because it's fun!” 

IDL For IDL our topic was Significant Scots. We first researched a famous person from Scotland. Next, we had to find information and make notes about that person. Then we drew a picture of that person using art pencils and made them look really realistic. Then we used our notes to write a biography on that person on our Chromebook. Lastly, we had to write it all neat on paper and go over it in black pen. It was all fun! 

Term 2

IDL

A huge part of this term has been practice for our Christmas pantomime “Panto Pandemonium.” Every-one in P3/4 and P5/6/7 took part. For the bigger roles, we had to audition for Mr Webster and Miss Syme. “The auditions were quite nerve-wracking!” (AW). “I thought they were quite intense” (ZH). 

Both classes helped to make the backdrop, which took a lot of paint! Altogether, we had to learn twelve songs, which took a lot of practice. Some of us had to sing solos in parts of the songs. “I felt it was scary at first but got better the more we did it.” (EF).

NF and RG were our two dames. “It was a bit embarrassing at first but I got used to it.” (RG) “We had to put on loads of make-up.” (NF) We really enjoyed our characters because they were funny. “I really liked it because it was very different to what we usually do at Christmas time.” (RJ) “I didn’t like getting my face and arms painted green! (ZH).

Literacy

Our main focus in literacy has been writing Christmas books for younger children. We looked at some examples of children’s Christmas books to give us some ideas. Next, we planned our stories and thought about the setting, character description and the plot of the story. We put our finished stories into book creator, which is a digital tool to help us create books online. 

“I really liked using book creator because it makes your story look like a real book. You can also make it read to you.” (AG). “I liked getting my ideas onto the page.” (ZH)

Maths

In maths this term, we have been working on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In Number Talks, we have been looking closely at different strategies we can use for the four operations. 

With Mrs Orr, we have been working on co-ordinates and shape. Recently, we have been putting our problem solving skills to the test leading up to us attempting the GCHQ Christmas Challenge. This is quite tricky but we are really enjoying it. “I liked how it challenged you" AW.