P3 Homework from 21st November

Primary 3 Homework – Week from 21st November

On Thursday a real archaeologist is coming to visit P3! Just round the corner from school is AOC Archaeology, and we are grateful to them for coming in to talk about their work and answer the children’s questions.

The class has also started some music with Mrs Callaghan, learning two songs for the Christmas concert.

In numeracy, this will be our last week on money (for now) as we try to cement good progress made on calculating change.

Best wishes,

Mr Buchan

 

Numeracy

Thank you very much to everyone who sent in boxes for the children’s work on 3D shapes with Mrs Wallace.

Thank you also for all the Learnit practice that has clearly been taking place. Personal Bests are being shattered every week!

As we finish off our work on change, the two links from last time will both give valuable practice. Counting money in real life and giving exact change would also be helpful revision.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/ma09subt-game-change-no-timer

 

Reading

Pages from class books will be written down in the grids as usual. This will be our last week of non-fiction for a little while.

 

Egyptian Tombs

It’s been great to see some of the tombs being started and I can’t wait to see the finished creations on 5th December. Please let me know if you need any resources as I have been trying to stockpile cardboard that might be useful. The full details of this project have been posted online in case anyone needs another look.

 

Spelling

Spelling words to practice this week are:

home               joke

nose                 toe

bone                smoke

broke               what

were                was

Please could everyone do the usual look, say cover, write and check (twice through the list) and then write sentences using as many of the words as possible.

P3 Maths Games

A number of parents said that the maths games were a particularly popular form of home learning.

Here are the links we have been using.

I would particularly highlight Hit the Button because it has so many options. You can practice different things on that format, at lots of different levels as appropriate. Number bonds to 10 are always a good thing to keep on coming back to.

Best wishes,

Mr Buchan

 

-o0o-

 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

 

http://www.arcademics.com/games/alien/alien.html

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/place-value/place-value-charts

www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=PostSortingcalculationsv2

http://www.arcademics.com/games/mission/mission.html

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/subtraction-grids

http://coolsciencelab.com/math_magician_subtraction.html

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/ma09subt-game-change-no-timer

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/helicopter-rescue

P3 Egyptian Tomb Home Challenge

Egyptian Tomb Home Learning Challenge

Can you make an Ancient Egyptian burial chamber?

The Ancient Egyptians left behind lots of amazing things, especially in their tombs. Rich Egyptians were buried with furniture, jewellery and lots of the other items they had used during their lives. Their tombs were also lined with hieroglyphics and pictures. These contained stories and spells to help the dead person as they entered the afterlife. It has been by digging up these tombs and studying the things inside that archaeologists have discovered so much about Ancient Egypt.

Your challenge is to make your own Egyptian burial chamber. The floor space should be roughly the size of a piece of A4 paper (e.g. a shoe box would be perfect). I have spare boxes if anyone needs.

Your tomb needs to have:

  • A mummy or sarcophagus
  • Hieroglyphics and pictures on the walls
  • Canopic jars (what the mummies’ internal organs were stored in)
  • Jewellery, furniture and other items from the person’s life

If you like, you could make up ideas about the Ancient Egyptian person your tomb belonged to.

You can use whatever materials you like. Please bring your tomb into school to show on Tuesday 5th December. I’m told that parents often ask how much help to give on a project like this. My advice would be to help the children realise their own ideas without doing it for them.

P3 Homework from 14th November

Primary 3 Homework – Week from 14th November

On Mondays with Mrs Wallace the class has been learning about shapes. Please could you send in any cardboard that would flatten out to make the ‘net’ of a shape? For example, empty cereal boxes or Toblerone packaging would be perfect.

P3 have made a great start to our Ancient Egypt topic. So far we have learned how to read and write in hieroglyphics. This week we will be investigating tombs, mummies and archaeology.

Linking to this topic I am going to challenge the children to make a model of an Ancient Egyptian burial chamber at home. Full details of this will come out later in the week, but if you wanted to rescue any shoe boxes etc. from the recycling then that might be useful preparation.

A number of parents have asked for a list of the online maths games we use to boost counting and addition / subtraction. I will put a list of links up on the website, tagged for P3.

Best wishes,

Mr Buchan

 

Numeracy

This week we are focussing on working out change. This will be the hardest maths work we have done. We will start by working within £1, but build up to within £5 or even £10.

Two online games to help practise this would be:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/ma09subt-game-change-no-timer

In class we compare the price of the item and the amount paid, and we ask how much we need to add to the price to “make it match”. This is best done is steps, up to the tens number and then up to the pound. For example, if I use a £1 coin to buy a toy for 47p, to “make it match” I would need to add 3p to make 50p, and then add 50p more to bring it up to £1.

This is tricky, so practice with support will go a long way.

 

Reading

Pages from class books will be written down in the grids. From Thursday we will all be writing our own non-fiction books about Ancient Egypt, with a contents page and glossary.

 

Spelling

Spelling words to practice this week are:

bike                 five

nine                 like

time                 wife

prize                meet

Egypt               Nile

Please could everyone do the usual look, say cover, write and check (twice through the list) and then write sentences using as many of the words as possible.

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Primary 3 Homework – Week from 7th November

P3 are going to Ancient Egypt! This will be our project through November, building up to 7th December when we will visit the National Museum of Scotland. Please do ask the children what they’ve been finding out. Some of them have also mentioned looking online or in the library and may need help with this.

Best wishes,

Mr Buchan

 

Numeracy

On reflection, last week’s money homework was probably better suited to the skills we are working on this week.

The focus so far has been finding the total of a set of coins or notes. This would be a great thing to practise if you trust the children with your purses and wallets!

We are now moving onto the next skill, choosing which coins or notes to give in payment for an item, trying to use the fewest possible coins and give exact change.

The final skill we will work on is giving and checking change. This is tricky! Again, real life examples are great practice.

The Top Marks link covers the second and third of these skills really well. All the children should be working on mixed coins rather than one coin. I would suggest starting at up to £1 and then going up to £5 or £10 as confidence grows.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money

 

Reading

Pages from class books will be written down in the grids as usual. This week we are switching from fiction to non-fiction. As well as hearing children read out loud, it will also be helpful to discuss with them how to use features like a contents page, index and glossary to find information.

 

Literacy

Developing our VCOP skills for writing (vocabulary, connectives, openers, punctuation) we have been focussing on adjectives. In class we call them describing words.

For homework, please could the children use adjectives to describe a place or an object. This could be done as a list or in sentences. In class we say that describing words should help the reader to imagine what a place or thing is really like.

 

Spelling

Spelling words to practice this week are:

cake                 game

made               save

snake               plate

himself            everything

Please could everyone do the usual look, say cover, write and check (twice through the list) and then write sentences using as many of the words as possible.

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Primary 3 Homework – Week from 31st October

I am looking forward to meeting many of you on Monday and Tuesday next week. Thank you for your help rearranging this. Jotters and other written work will be available for you to look through on those days.

Our new big topic has been delayed by some time-sensitive art this week. Please watch out for amazing Christmas card designs coming home to finish and return.

Best wishes,

Mr Buchan

 

Numeracy

Having had a first run through multiplication this past week, we are now going to be working on money. The plan is that this will take us back to addition and subtraction in a way that extends our previous work into higher numbers and harder problems.

Top Marks has an excellent game which asks you either to give exact money or to give change (harder). Playing under “Mixed Coins” up to £1 will mirror where we will start in class.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money

However, even better than playing online would be chances for the children to use coins in real shops. Asking them to buy things with the right coins or to check the change will really bring alive the practical importance of this maths.

 

Reading

Pages to be read from class reading books will be written down in the grids as usual.

 

Literacy

Thank you for all the great vocabulary you found last week. I really enjoyed reading your words and sentences.

For this week, can you find examples of different punctuation? This could be online, in a newspaper or in a book you are reading. Copy the sentences into your homework jotters.

We have been learning to use   .    ,    !    ?    “     …

 

Spelling

Spelling words to practice this week are:

thin                  thank

think                three

with                 that

then                 would

could               friend

Please could everyone do the usual look, say cover, write and check (twice through the list) and then write sentences using as many of the words as possible.

P3 Homework from 24th October

Primary 3 Homework – Week from 24th October

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday week. The Buchans had a good time getting settled with baby Alice.

In numeracy we are moving on to multiplication. Our new big topic will be beginning soon, so watch this space!

Best wishes,

Mr Buchan

 

Numeracy

The 10 x table has already been in our “Learnits”, and now we are going to include the 5 x table too. Flashcards for this will come home to add into your sets for regular practice.

Hit the Button is a great online game for revising times tables and building up speed. Speed matters because our aim in P3 is to work towards instant recall of these basic number facts.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Under “Times Tables” you can choose 2, 5 or 10 and then play either “Hit the Answer” or “Hit the Question”.

 

Reading

Pages to be read from class reading books will be written down in the grids as usual. If you can hear some of these out loud that is excellent practice. It is also great to ask questions as you listen, helping the children to engage with the stories and also checking that they understand any trickier words. (You may well do this already!)

 

Literacy

In our writing lessons we talk about “VCOP”. This stands for vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation. By building up our skills in these four areas we can make our writing more interesting.

At home this week, try to find examples of exciting and interesting vocabulary. This could be from a newspaper or magazine, something online, or a book you’ve been reading for fun. Copy the words into your homework jotter and use them in a sentence. Can you find at least three good ones?

We especially like finding new ways of saying ordinary things. For example, instead of saying that the man walked down the street, we might say that he crept, stomped or ambled.

 

Spelling

Spelling words to practice this week are:

chin                 chat

much               march

pinch               chip

they                 where

use                   there

Please could everyone do the usual look, say cover, write and check (twice through the list) and then write sentences using as many of the words as possible.

P3 homework Monday 9th OCtober

Primary 3 Homework – Week Beginning 9th October

I’m not in class this week because Baby Buchan has decided to put in an early appearance. Apologies!

There is slightly less homework in this final week before the October break. I hope you all have a good rest.

Best wishes,

Mr Buchan

 

 

Numeracy

On Mondays with Mrs Wallace the children have been learning about time and clocks. Please look for opportunities to reinforce this at home by:

  • discussing what the time is and when different things are going to take place
  • asking the children to practise reading the time from analogue clocks
  • discussing and measuring how many minutes and seconds it takes to do different things

 

 

Reading

The children will finish their class reading books in school on Thursday so there will not be any set reading coming home.

Having said that, please do encourage the children to keep on reading every day. If you are able to hear them out loud as well, that is enormously valuable.

Literacy

We have begun to learn how to look up words in the dictionary. If you have a dictionary at home, try writing down three unusual words and challenging the children to find them. As all dictionaries are slightly different, you will need to choose some good words that are in yours.

If you do not have a dictionary at home (in this digital age) there are class ones that you would be welcome to borrow.

Please be aware that the children may need support with this. Alphabetical searching is tricky, but mastering this skill will pay off in a number of ways across different areas of learning.

 

Spelling

Spelling words to practice this week are:

shop                 dish

fish                  shut

rush                 like

are                   time

for                   her

Please could everyone do the usual look, say cover, write and check (twice through the list) and then write three sentences using as many of the words as possible.