Author: Mrs Harrison

Dear Primary 7 families and pupils,

Primary 7 are starting a new homework routine, with a focus on numeracy this term. In line with this, they have a new blue homework jotter in a plastic folder.

Each week they will be expected to complete:

• A numeracy/maths task related to their work in class.
• A mental maths task from the grid glued on the first page (please colour/tick/highlight as you go)
• A reading task relating either to a class novel, reading book or non fiction text.

The folder should come into school every day as we will be completing our soft start spelling tasks in it as well.

Homework can be finished in Soft Start in the morning and if you are struggling, this would be a good time to ask for support from myself and Mr Barratt. There are multiple options (Mild, Spicy, Hot) and if you feel something is too hard or too easy, please let me know.

Homework is due on Fridays, when we will go through the maths. Homework is issued on a Monday.

If anything is not clear or if you have any concerns, please contact me through the office.

Kind regards,

Mrs Harrison

Primary 7 visited Edinburgh Castle and the Wartime Life Room. They investigated four real life stories of Scots in the Second World War through a mix of real and replica objects in the 1940s inspired room. We then explored the museum and the castle grounds, including the prisoner exhibition and the War Memorial.

Primary 7 did some German baking this week. We made Vanillekipferl and Plätzchen (Vanilla crescents and jam biscuits). The recipes were in German. First, we studied the ingredients to see what words we could recognise. We watched a video to learn the method. The second recipe was presented in a PowerPoint with images. We discussed how we used context, language skills and our prior knowledge to translate what to do. Through applying our skills of translation, we created some very tasty biscuits! If you would like to recreate them at home, the recipes are translated below. Sie waren echt lecker!

We had a festive craft session with our buddies this month. Primary 7 drew and cut out nets for Primary 2 to decorate and take home. They were caring, patient and went out of their way to support their buddies and get to know them.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We will see you back in school on Thursday, 5th of January.

In Primary 7 this month, our literacy focus is poetry. We have been looking at similes and metaphors and using them in our writing.

We first analysed some war poems, notably Dulce Et Decorum est, In Flanders Fields and An Irish Airman foresees his Death. We considered the emotion behind the words, pondered the prevailing mood and looked for examples of strong imagery. After which, we wrote our own. On Friday, 11th, we created art inspired by what we have learned about Remembrance and World War I. Please see our display below!

War Horse was our class novel in the first part of term one. We watched the film in October and on Friday, 25th we watched the show, through our schools National Theatre subscription. Yesterday, reviewed the three mediums for the story and reflected on what we felt was done well (purple) and what we felt was a an area for improvement (pink). See our class feedback below:

On Thursday, 17th of November, Primary 7 took part in a workshop with the Poetry Library. The theme for the day was Winter. Initially, the focus was visual art illustrations on a winter theme, shown to us by Kate, the artist. The children were inspired to create their own Winter Picture. They were also really impressed with her illustrations!

A summary of our thoughts and ideas during the session:

In the afternoon, they heard some of Susi’s poetry in Scots. They were encouraged to weave words into poetry that connect with the art they each have made. With this wonderful creative input, they were inspired to write their own Winter poems.

Please see the wonderful display of their creativity below!

This week, we are looking at the poetry of Ted Hughes. We shall write our final poem and then choose our best one to type out and print for our literacy display.

Also this month, we are continuing German. We are learning the numbers, the days of the week and how to describe the weather. We had a lot of fun learning about Die Farben, check out our display below!

Thank you for reading. We hope you enjoyed seeing some of our learning in November.

Dear Primary 7 families,

Primary 7 had a very creative October and we wanted to share some of our learning with you.

We have been looking at art movements in the early 20th Century, specifically Fauvism and Expressionism. We used these approaches to create our own pieces to brighten up our open area!

We have started learning a new language in Primary 7!

We started with simple greetings:

Wie geht es dir?

Es geht mir gut! oder Es geht mir schlecht! oder Ich bin krank oder Ich bin müde oder Mir geht es super! usw.

We started to learn Die Farben (the colours) in German. We have also been learning about the festival of Diwali as Hinduism is one of the religions whose beliefs and practices we are exploring. To reinforce our language learning and flex our creativity, we made our own Rangoli patterns in the playground using dyed sand, rice and pastels.

As I am sure you are all very aware, the eagerly anticipated hoodies arrived last week. Check out the class picture of them all below.

On Thursday, 22nd of September, Primary 7 explored marine engineering through a buoyancy workshop with the Sea Cadets. They discovered the science of buoyancy, explaining why some objects float in a fluid while others sink. Thereafter, they designed their own boat made from light card and tin foil. They considered how to stop the cargo (marbles, pebbles etc) from rolling around and making the boat unstable. After construction, they filled their boats with marbles to see who had the sturdiest structure.

In third place: Amelie and Khadija with 131 marbles before sinking.

In second place: Brisa and Akraam with 152 marbles before sinking.

In first place: Alya and Katrina with 172 marbles before sinking!

On Wednesday, 28th of September, Primary 7 had a private tour of the Talbot Rice Gallery. We reflected on how the spaces made us feel and discussed the aims of the artist. The space was split into different zones with very different atmospheres. We began to ponder about the different purposes and aims of art galleries and art installations.