Pre-Prep: My Heart's in the Highlands
It has been a chilly start to the term and there have been some frosty playtimes. The children have been busy practising their Scots songs ‘Three Craws’ and ‘My heart's in the Highlands’ in the lead up to Robert Burns Day. On the day, the children came into school wearing a ‘touch of tartan’, ready for their delicious lunch and their musical performance to the school. The children performed beautifully with Miss Lloyd who accompanied them on her ukulele.
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Some of the children signed up to a sewing activity with Label Lady where they learned to sew and created some beautiful tartan bunting for their parents.
Form 6
In literacy, we have been working on our red words and using our phonics knowledge to help build words by choosing the correct version of the same sound. This is very tricky when there are many different options! We have also started to work on our research for the Pre-Prep Spoken English, which will take place on 17th March. The children have chosen a topic of interest, which they will research and write about. They will then take time to practise and work on their delivery.
In Maths this term, we have been focusing on length and perimeter, with a particular focus on conversion of lengths from metres to centimetres and millimetres. In numeracy, we have been continuing with addition and subtraction and working on changing word problems into number sentences. We have been using part-whole models, bar models and number lines to find the answers.
Shadows have been the focus of Science – looking at how our shadow changes depending how close or far away it is from a light source. The children went outside in pairs and drew around each other's shadows. When we went back a couple of hours later, we drew them again and noticed that they had moved.
In Topic we have now finished learning about Scotland, which we continued to develop on the lead up to Burns Day. We will now begin to learn all about Polar Explorers, which is often a favourite topic for the children.
Form 7
Form 7 welcomed four new members to the class this term which has been very exciting and has increased our opportunities for cooperative learning and paired work. It has been wonderful to watch them settle in so quickly and now we can’t imagine Form 7 without them!
Our new topic for the term is ‘To infinity and beyond’ and so far we have learnt about the moon. The children were intrigued by Neil Armstrong’s story and couldn’t believe it could take four days to get there. In Science, we recreated the different phases of the moon that we see throughout a month using Oreo biscuits. Our space theme has also influenced our Art lessons this term. We have been focusing on the use of shading and highlights to create 3D drawings. The children applied this new skill when using chalk pastels to create beautiful drawings of the planets, the lightest side facing the sun and the darkest side facing away from the sun. 
In Literacy, we have been learning about conjunctions and how we can improve our writing and engage our reader by using words like ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘when’, ‘or’ etc. to connect two shorter sentences together. The children have also been very keen to start learning pre-cursive joins and you could have heard a pin drop during our handwriting lesson this week as concentration levels were sky high!
In Numeracy, we have been extending our knowledge of place value and developing skills such as ordering numbers from smallest to greatest, writing numbers in part-whole models, comparing numbers and building numbers using the base ten blocks. In non-number maths lessons we have been learning about weight and the children have been very enthusiastic about using the balance scale to find the mass of different objects around the classroom.
Form 8
Form 8 have completed their set one sounds of the Read Write Inc phonics program and are now sounding out and writing words with three or four sounds. We have even started a spelling dictation job once a week but for now we aren’t too worried about the score we get, we are more focussed on how to lay out our jotter. Everyone is also enjoying their own level of challenge in their reading groups.
In number, we have are all working on up to and beyond 20. We are also beginning to understand measurement and are doing lots of learning through play to consolidate our learning.
We did a very interesting science experiment to show us the importance of washing our hands. We touched bread with clean and dirty hands. Only the piece of bread that had been touched by dirty hands became mouldy. We have also been setting learning goals and are working hard with Mrs Gibson to achieve them. 
