Pupils' news!
This term our topic is ‘Light’, based on Day One of Creation. We have been learning that the Lord is our light by singing Psalm 27 at morning assemblies. Children in the older class have been learning about how light travels in straight lines, how light reflects off flat and curved surfaces, how shadows change, about the visible spectrum, about coloured filters and about the human eye. In the younger class, pupils have been learning that the sun is God’s lamp, which never goes out. They have also learned about the difference between luminous and non-luminous objects and between God-made lights and man-made lights. After investigating which materials allow light to travel through them, they sorted them into groups of opaque, translucent and transparent materials. The children worked in pairs to examine the pupils of their eyes in the light and in the darkness and learned how they contract and expand to allow the right amount of light into the eye to see as much as possible. Pupils in the younger class enjoyed watching a slide show about animals glowing in the dark and had a lot of fun creating a shadow puppet theatre and playing in a dark tent with ‘big bear’ and ‘little bear’. All these topics have amazed the children and helped them to learn more about our wonderful Creator!
As last week was ‘Eye Health Week,’ we talked about guide dogs and pupils got to use a walking stick with a small tennis ball at the end to experience some of the obstacles encountered by people who are unable to see.
We have been reading from Genesis for our Old Testament Bible stories, and have learned about Creation, the Fall and Noah and the Flood. In the New Testament, pupils have learned about the good tidings announced to Zacharias, the message to Mary, the birth of Jesus, the shepherds at the stable and about Simeon and Anna.
In Language, children in the older class have been learning about biographies. They have been reading biographies of famous missionaries and are learning to write a biography of their own. On Tuesday afternoons, all pupils have been listening to each other read out loud in groups to practice their speaking and listening skills. In the younger class, P1s have been learning their letter sounds, using the Jolly Phonics actions and songs, while P2s have been focusing on developing their spelling and constructing sentences with their new spelling words. P3s and P4s have been learning to write imaginative stories. They have also been learning to write letters for a specific purpose by composing a letter to appeal for money for our new building fund.
Children in the older class have started learning French this term. They have been learning to respond to commands such as ‘Levez la main!’ and ‘Asseyez-vous!’ and have been learning to count from 1-31 so they will be able to talk about the date in French. All pupils have been learning to take attendance in French by saying ‘ici’ when their name is called out. In Gaelic, pupils in the older classes have been learning to tell the time and developing their vocabulary for occupations and, in addition, P7 have been learning to read simple books. The P1s have been learning to say their colours while P2 and P3 have been learning to say classroom objects and pets in Gaelic.
In Maths, pupils in the older class have been rising to the challenge of completing each section of their new Mental Maths books within 10 minutes! Everyone is progressing well with their work on number, adding and subtracting. The younger pupils in P3 and P4 have also been practising hard with their new mental maths books and are gaining confidence in reading questions for themselves and developing strategies to work out the answer mentally as well as making progress with speed. They have been focusing on number sequences to 1000 and 10000, respectively, while P2 have been learning number sequences to 100. P1s have been busy counting to 20 and learning to write numbers to 10. They are now beginning to add one more and two more using cubes.
In Art, children have had the opportunity to do some wonderful projects related to light, shadows and colour!
In Music, pupils in the younger class have been learning some new songs. They have also been learning how to play musical instruments to the right rhythm. They really enjoy songs with a lot of movement! P4s have made a start with recorder lessons and are doing very well. P5 and P7 pupils have continued making good progress with their recorder lessons and are now all able to play songs.
In PE, pupils have been improving their skills by playing a variety of team games and have been enjoying the new equipment the school was able to acquire with the Sainsbury’s Active School vouchers!
Everyone was very excited to welcome Anjali back to school last week. She was one of the school’s original five pupils and everyone is looking forward to seeing her at the school again this week!
