Term 2 in P3

Maths
This term most of us have been learning to tell the time in 15 minute intervals on both analogue and digital clocks and we can now tell you if it is o’clock, half past, quarter past or quarter to. Some of us have been working to tell the time to the exact minute. We have all been practising counting in 5’s so as to work out the difference between two times. We have also gone on to look at symmetry in shapes. We have learnt to find a line of symmetry and to create our own symmetrical patterns. We enjoyed being creative, active and working with others!

In mental maths we continued to work on our 2x and 4x tables and we have been working on counting back as a strategy for subtraction. We have also looked at near doubles as a strategy for adding and near halves as another strategy for subtracting.

Writing
Our writing has been focused on our topic where we made plane tickets to fly us to Paris and postcards to send to Mrs. Martin from our holiday in France. We also made fact files on popular attractions that can be found in France as well as making fact posters for our homework on an area of our choice. We enjoyed showcasing this in Assembly with P3/4. We have also had a go at creating our own menus after we looked at French cuisine. We really enjoyed receiving our “Read, Write, Count” bags and working with the story cubes in class. We think these will help us create imaginative stories at home and help with our sequencing and summarising skills. We continue to use our knowledge of phonics to help with our spelling when writing and we have demonstrated that we know proper nouns always have a capital letter.

Reading
This term we have been looking especially at summarising our stories remembering that a summary only tells the key parts of a story, not the whole story. We have been finding the key parts of our reading books and sequencing these to tell the story. We have also looked at summarising characters and how some authors use rhyme and punctuation, such as Julia Donaldson in “Jack and the Flum Flum Tree”. We have worked very hard to memorise some tricky lines for our Nativity play and the words to all the songs. We also worked a lot at reading with expression when saying our lines for the Nativity Play. P3 did so well to memorise so many words and cues. Well done!

R.E
During the month of November we learnt how it is a month of remembrance for the Holy Souls and we learnt to say the “Eternal Rest” prayer. We said this daily as we remembered all our loved ones in our class book of remembrance which we kept on our altar with sleeping St. Joseph. We also presented our work on Saints to P3/4 in a class assembly where we explained our understanding that we are all called to be saints. We looked at the books by Pope Benedict and Pope Francis calling us to be modern day saints. We worked collaboratively to imagine what Saints of today would say, do and look like.

To continue our learning in preparation for the sacrament of Reconciliation, we were reflecting on the stories of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the lost son (loving father). We took this learning further and heard about Zacchaeus and how he changed his ways and turned things around for good when he was sorry. We made our own trees and drew ourselves looking for Jesus.

During December we have been reflecting on the meaning of Advent and the symbolism of the Advent wreath and the coming of Jesus Christ the King. We enjoyed hearing Fr. Gabor explain this further to us. We created our own advent wreaths independently. We also presented our Nativity to parents and Orchard Brae School. We enjoyed the buzz of having an audience and enjoyed making them laugh and join in! We did so well to learn our lines and songs so confidently! Well done Primary 3!

Most recently we have been thinking about the charity SCIAF and our call to help those in need. Some of us linked this to our learning on the Good Samaritan and Jesus’ Two Greatest commandments where we are called to love our neighbours. With this in mind, we have been saving the money we would normally use for sending Christmas cards to our friends to raise money for “Real Gifts”. We made posters to encourage others to do the same and have been saving and counting our money. We would really like to buy a shelter as a class; we worked out we need £7.75 more to do this. Thank you for all your generous donations so far!

Health and Wellbeing
We have been thinking about ways we can look after ourselves focusing on our teeth, health and mental health. We discussed who we can talk to when we feel unwell and unsafe. We enjoyed hearing from Alex of the NSPCC who explained Childline. We have been supporting each other during preparations for the Nativity and during the performances themselves. In P.E we have also been thinking about “team spirit” and supporting others as well as improving our general stamina and enjoyment of movement. During the poor weather, we have been dancing along to Gonoodle and Cybercoach; we enjoyed learning about the water cycle through dance!

Science
This term we have been working with Mrs. Jadid and Miss Bennett in science lessons where we looked at electricity and the importance of saving energy. We reflected on the meaning of “Switch off fortnight” and how switching off can help save precious habitats around the world. Many of us took this very seriously and were concerned especially for polar bears. We also looked at the changing states of water after all the snow we had. We learnt the meaning of the words condensation and melting as we attempted to make our own ice sculptures (and used salt to help us in the end). We also watched Mrs. Jadid make rain! Most recently we looked at light sources and reflectors and explored ways they can be used in real life. We enjoyed using torches and making our own mirror balls.

Topic
Throughout this term we have looked at the climate of France, independently researched the wildlife we would find in France using the iPads and locating France on different kind of maps, including a globe, atlas and Google maps. We can show you where the equator is and can use phrases such as Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere and Temperate. We researched attractions of France such as: Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Orsay Museum. We have looked at the art work of Monet and re-created our own pieces inspired by his work. We say the register and date daily in French and have continued to count in French, playing games and practising saying the colours. We enjoyed looking at the food we could eat in France and some of us shared we had eaten snails ourselves in Poland!

Note to Parents

A big thank you to parents’ for supporting us this term as we learnt our lines. Thank you for engaging with Marvellous Me so positively and for making use of the Read, Write, Count bags. There are many activities inside the booklet to help you engage with your child and the resources. Miss Bennett wishes P3 and their families a Happy Christmas.