Author: s9060915

Literacy

• In spelling we revised words that use ‘ph’ to make an ‘f’ sound such as metaphor and prophet. Please see below for our spelling lists.

CORE WORD  LIST

triumph, hyphen, photograph, physical, metaphor, telephone, atmosphere, prophet, autograph, pharmacy, sphere, saxophone

CHALLENGE WORD  LIST

triumphant, hyphenate, photography, physically, metaphorical, telephony, atmospheric, prophecy, autographed, pharmacist, spherical, saxophonist

TRICKY WORDS

draught draft

• In writing we created fact files linked to our health week learning. Our fact files were about why different groups of people eat or avoid certain foods and why. This included religion, age and allergies. 
• We worked on a reading comprehension based on plastic pollution following on from Earth week.
• We met our literature circle group. We have been referring to the literature circle rubric – see below – to help us to asses our contributions to our group discussions. We have made great progress this year and are hoping to achieve a 3 or 4 by the end of P6.
• Please note, our reading homework is due for Wednesday 19th next week.

Maths

• In maths we have continued to practise our core numeracy skills – focussing on times table facts and column multiplication. Please see link for a video explanation of this method – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wayoCIgl08I
• We started our new maths topic on circles by learning some of the parts of a circle. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zb84382/articles/z8c7qty

Other Areas of the Curriculum

• In PE we enjoyed our sports day down at the Waterboard field despite the wet weather!
• In our living and growing topic we learned the proper names for male and female external body parts.
• Games @ the hub: we made a logo and a motto for Edinburgh 2021 Games @ the hub which our class has been nominated for Hockey. 

Maths

We continued our learning on symmetry this week, focussing on shapes and patterns with more than one line of symmetry. We have also enjoyed transferring our skills to some art activities.

We have also been revising how to complete written division calculations using the bus stop method with answers including decimals.

Literacy

We finished researching our chosen icons from Black History Month and used our notes to write biographies. 

We used blooms questions started to create a set of open ended, discussion provoking questions about our whole class novel, Friend or Foe.  Questioning is part of the discussion director role for literature circles; which will be starting with our new group novels after the October holiday.  

Our spelling pattern this week was ‘ar’ as a suffix.

Please see the attached sheet for this week and the previous weeks’ spelling rules.

Other Areas of the Curriculum

We enjoyed creating Notan artwork – a Japanese technique which balances light and dark linking to our symmetry focus in maths.

We developed our line drawing skills completing half a symmetrical animal face.

We used our note taking skills to research microorganisms and recorded our research in mind maps. 

We concluded our bread experiment, we found that the slices which had been touched by our hands and the sole of our shoes grew mould.  It has shown that even though we have been frequently washing our hands, they were still dirty!

We learned about the importance of plants and animals to our society.

Home Learning Ideas

All reading groups are now at the end of their group novels and new novels will be issued at the start of the week back.  When you have finished your novel, write a book review or recommendation for your novel.

Create a poster explaining the method for completing written division calculations with decimal answers.

Research the importance of bees to our society and create a power point with your findings.

Have a well deserved break with your families!

Mrs Nicholson

Another very busy week of learning in P6NM!

Parents consultations are starting on Monday 5th October and carry onto the following Monday. Everyone should now have an appointment slot for their child, please contact the school office if you do not have a slot. We are looking forward to catching up with you to discuss your child’s progress.

Thanks to Charlie who contributed to the blog post this week!

Maths

In maths, we have been doing decimal place, we learned about the tenths and hundredths column. We were introduced to how we can answer division questions using decimal answers instead of remainders.

We did an assessment (RRR) on our learning of whole number this term.

Literacy

In writing, we are focusing on different lengths of sentences. We wrote about a mini episode called the Black Hat.

In spelling, our rule was ‘sion’. Our tricky words were hole and whole.

In reading, we have been reading a bit more of our class novel, Friend or Foe. We also read more of our other book, a Boy in the Girls Bathroom.

Our literature circle task was ‘Illustrator’, we used Manga art to illustrate an importance scene from Friend or Foe.  We discussed the importance of this scene for the plot, the characters and us, the reader. 

Other areas of the Curriculum

In outdoor time, we have been testing out some maths week games for Mrs Imrie it see if they work. We have also been doing a mini maths treasure hunt. We have had loads of fun answering questions and figuring out the words. 

In ICT, we have been doing timelines on the computers. We have been making one of ww2. We have also been learning about microorganisms. We have been researching about them and made a word document about them.

In science, we have done a bread experiment testing out the conditions that will make the bread go mouldy because mould ins a microorganism. We all touched a piece if we wanted to, put one in a dark cupboard, taped on the window, scrunched one up, put one on the heater and more.  We will find out the results next week.

Home learning ideas

Topmarks – hit the button game for multiplication and division

Sumdog – take math in the maths week Scotland activities

Table mountain – times table practice ( only for PC/ laptops)

Spelling games – practice common words www.ictgames.com/littleBirdSpelling 

Find out about ‘useful’ microorganisms and make a poster

Illustrate an important scene from your group reading book practising manga art and write a few sentences to explain the importance of your chosen scene. 

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Nicholson

Another very busy week!

Literacy

This week we finished our class novel ‘A Kind of Spark’. We really enjoyed learning about the main character Addie, who is autistic. We agreed that we all admire her resilience and persistence when faced with a problem. We analysed her character traits and used evidence from the text to explain our reasoning.

We have now started a new novel called ‘Friend or Foe’ by Michael Morpurgo. It is set in World War 2 and follows the story of a boy called David when he is evacuated to the countryside. A home learning opportunity could be to find out more about the evacuations during Word War 2.

Our spelling this week focussed on the rule: tion says /shun/ in the final syllable.  This is the most regularly used spelling of the sound /shun/ as a final syllable. 

Super	Fantastic	Spectacular
election ignition education attention friction invitation operation condition question creation	nation relation solution fiction caution function addition ambition pollution reputation	assumption corruption ammunition aspiration illumination conversation presentation precipitation investigation concentration

Can you find more examples of these words?

Our group reading homework is due for Tuesday 22nd September, please see the reading record for pages to be read.

We learned how to make a time line in Microsoft word. We mapped out the key events in our class novel and added these to the template. We will be using this skill again soon with our group novels. You can practice this at home by following this link with instructions:

https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/how-make-timeline-microsoft-word#download-our-free-timeline-template-in-word

Numeracy

In Numeracy we applied our knowledge of rounding to real life contexts and word problems such as football stadium capacities and distances between countries. If you would like to investigate this further, you could research the populations of different countries and round these to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. Try to think of some calculations you could use these numbers for. Such as calculating the difference between the most and least populated country on your list.

We were also introduced to the rule of the order of operations (BODMAS) and have been applying this to some simple calculations.

Other areas of the curriculum

– we were introduced to Carl Linnaen and his work on classifying animals

– learned about how vertibrates and invertibrates are grouped according to their features

– continued to develop our fitness in circuit training

– enjoying the outdoors and taking part in a rounding scavenger hunt

Enjoy the long weekend!

Mrs Nicholson

https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/how-make-timeline-microsoft-word#download-our-free-timeline-template-in-word

Our Learning this week in P6NM

We have had a very busy week!

You might have noticed that reading books have now been assigned to groups. Over the coming weeks we will be revising the Literature Circle roles using our whole class novel before starting literature circles independently in our groups. For more information on literature circles you can access an overview here: http://www.litcircles.org/Overview/overview.html

We have been enjoying our whole class novel – A Kind of Spark. It has elicited a lot of conversation about some of the themes – fitting in and being different.

In the novel, the main character, Addie is campaigning for a memorial for the historic witch hunts which took place in her village. We heard some information from a local historian online about the Edinburgh witch trials and made some flyers to support Addie’s cause. A home learning opportunity to could find out more about the witch trials in Edinburgh. Please note that parental guidance may be required for some of the more gruesome details.

Children have also been involved in the planning of our new topic, Living Things and their Habitats. We have identified some key questions that we would like to explore:

What is classification?

How can we encourage wildlife in the playground?

What are microorganisms and what do they do?

How do plants and animals benefit society? In particular, what is the importance of bees?

Could we make a food chain/ web?

What are fertilisers and how do they work?

What are the pros/ cons of fertilisers?

We are also exploring the possibility of starting the RSPB’s Wild Challenge Bronze Award. Watch this space…

We started with the key question, what is classification and have started to explore ways to classify groups of animals. A possible home learning activity could be to research different methods of animal classification.

Other areas of learning:

Maths

– multiplying and dividing whole numbers by 10, 100 and 1000

– rounding whole numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000

– sequencing 5 and 6 digit numbers

– solving word problems

Home Learning:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/rocket-rounding

Create questions using your knowledge of multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 to the answers:

A – 76 B – 760 C – 7 600 D – 76 000

Literacy

– discussing the themes ‘fitting in’ and being ‘different’ in our whole class novel – A Kind of Spark

– creating flyers

– practising our new spelling rule – G is soft saying j when it comes before e, i, y

– story writing using the clock tower as a stimulus

– summarising

Home learning:

Make up a Silly Story using as many of your spelling words as possible, make sure to check your spelling against the list.

Health and Wellbeing

– working in partners and teams

– developing our fitness

-identifying the traits of a great class mate

Well done for your hard work this week P6NM, have a great weekend!

Mrs Nicholson