French
This term the pupils have been learning how to say a variety of different foods. They
then went on to find out how to ask for items in a shop and order food in a French
restaurant. The P6/7s worked in small groups to produce a French menu, including
starters, main meals, desserts and drinks. They then ‘visited’ each other’s restaurants
and pretended to order food from the menu, thus giving the opportunity to speak in
French in a meaningful context.
Health and Wellbeing
Our annual visit from the ALEC classroom focused on friendship issues, including
recognising positive and negative peer pressure.
We have continued the FRIENDS for Life programme, now including the P7s. The
focus this term has been about changing our red thoughts to green thoughts by asking
ourselves ‘challenge’ questions, how to make a step-coping plan to deal with worrying
situations and relaxation techniques.
PE
This term pupils have been developing and applying skills related to ‘invasion’ games,
such as basketball, football and dodge ball. They also had the chance to learn the
basics of volleyball, using balloons and light-weight balls.
At the end of term, the pupils took part in the cross-country challenge; this was
preceded by several practice sessions around the local area. Well done to all who took
part, they demonstrated very good levels of stamina and determination to complete
the course.
Maths
This term’s work has focused mainly on decimals. This gave the opportunity to
practise the four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well
as developing skills in working out written problems involving decimals. Tasks also
aimed to enhance the pupils’ knowledge of place value.
The theme of financial capability was explored using a variety of multi-media
resources. Pupils looked at the difficult decisions we face regarding money and
learned about the difference between credit and debit cards. Methods of calculating
VAT and discounts were also introduced.
Other topics covered included ‘Area’; namely, finding out strategies to work out the
area of a rectangle and right-angled triangle.
What You Can Do to Support Your Child at Home
 Reinforce the work being covered in Term 2 on timetables. Look for
opportunities for your children to use bus/train timetables in a real context.
 Continue to work on times tables skills.
 Discuss current events/news items with your child, especially those where
opinions differ, as ‘debates’ will be a topic in the near future.
Glenbervie School
‘Snapshots’
Primary 6 & 7
Term 1
2012/13
Copies of all of your child’s Snapshots are kept in their
Learning Portfolios.
The purpose of this overview is to give parents and carers an
indication (‘Snapshots’) of some of the activities that pupils
have participated in to develop a knowledge and understanding
of the world around them and develop necessary skills and
qualities.
You will appreciate that the pupils participate in many more
activities than those listed, for example, very few, if any, of
the Literacy and Numeracy activities undertaken are mentioned.
Development of Literacy and Numeracy skills are at the heart of
our school curriculum.
Pupils at all stages participate in a wide range of activities to
develop appropriate skills in:
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Reading and comprehension
Phonics and spelling
Grammar and punctuation
Handwriting
Listening and talking
Numeracy and Maths
Medieval Scotland and CastlesThe pupils from both classes joined together
for this topic, thus enabling many opportunities for co-operative learning and
teamwork. The pupils worked together to research facts about people who
lived in castles: the lord and lady, the jester, the falconer, the bailiff etc. They
then produced individual posters to create an interesting wall display. Other
research tasks included finding out about:
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‘Motte and Bailey’ castles
The significance of the battle of Hastings
Food and drink in medieval times
Weapons and siege engines
Leisure and entertainment
Pupils were encouraged to use a variety of
sources to find evidence and answer questions;
many relevant books were available, as well as
taking notes during video clips.
Another enjoyable element of the topic was to transform
one classroom into a medieval castle. This was achieved
with a lot of determination and some excellent art and craft
activities; some children made life-size suits of armour,
some made shields and coats of arms, while others
painted walls and made candelabra. The overall effect
looks very effective, as I’m sure the people who came to
the ‘Open Morning’ would agree. Other hands-on activities
included drawing our own version of the Bayeux tapestry,
weaving, medieval dancing, writing menus for a medieval banquet, making
bread and fruit pies, taking part in a ‘Medieval Realms’ demonstration and
dressing up in appropriate clothes for our medieval day.
(Many thanks must go to Margaret
Hutchison, a local weaver who came in to
give a talk and share her skills, as well as
teaching the children a medieval dance
called the ‘farandole’).
Visit to Crathes and Drum Castle
On 1st October the pupils went on a trip to
two local castles. We were greeted at
Crathes by our guide, an ex-headmaster,
Drew Young, who gave us an excellent tour and really enhanced the
experience by telling spooky stories and getting the pupils involved in ‘mock
dramas’ in each room.
Unfortunately we were not able to
go into Drum Castle as it had
closed for the season. However,
we did have a
chance to
sketch the
medieval keep
and wander
around the grounds. After
the visit, the P6/7s worked
in pairs to produce an
interesting presentation,
using ‘My Photo Story’.
Language
The pupils wrote some excellent poems about
‘spooky’ castles. They were encouraged to use descriptive words and similes
to paint a scary picture in words.
They displayed their work behind a castle door, which made for an effective
display.
Space
A visit by the Cosmic Dome launched our Space topic. This
inflatable planetarium was an excellent way to find out about
our solar system.
Pupils completed a variety of science, technology and art
& design challenges relating to the theme. These included
Galaxy Art pictures, model solar systems, computer aided
design using Lego CAD (space buggy) and Google SketchUp (spacestation), Space
Camp Wii game, making clay craters and a rocket workshop.
The novel ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes was used to develop the literacy skills of
writing a reading journal and continuing a story in the style of an author. We watched
the film version, ‘The Iron Giant’ and completed a book/film comparison.
We used Holst’s ‘Planet Suite’ as a stimulus for a music and art
lesson. Pupils listened to a piece of music and drew a response. It
was fascinating to see how many pupils drew similar pictures, and
how often they were related to the piece e.g. ‘Mars bringer of war.
The work of American artist Terry Collier was used as a stimulus
for creating pictures of robots from appliances and ironmongery.
We identified key aspects of science fiction stories and pupils used
these to write their own sci-fi stories.