PLHS - Support for Learning

“Happy New Year!” to all of our pupils as we look forward to an exciting 2008 on the Preston Lodge ELP programme.

It is business as usual this week, now that the excitement of Nintendo Wii, PSP, PS3, Harry Potter DVDs and too much food has past. With our cross curricular “On our doorstep” theme for 2008, it is probably more appropriate to simply say that it is “back to auld claes an porridge!” for everyone.

We hope all of the children had a happy and restful holiday and are fresh and ready to take on the new challenges that lay before them this year.

This week in subject areas the pupils will be…

Science

Starting a brand new project on the weather. See ELP Science for more details. The project will involve the pupils constructing their own weather station from recycled household materials - including a rain gauge, wind vane, barometer and temperature gauge.

They will then use this equipment to study the weather patterns at Preston Lodge and compile enough data to produce a “meteorological report”.

In addition, the children will also be working towards the production of a videoed weather forecast - using the I Can Animate programme.

Maths

In maths this week we will continue to consolidate our understanding of the days of the week and the months of the year - it is now 2008 and we will use the new calendars that we made before Christmas to help us with our work.

Cross Curricular

This week we will begin with earnest our work that will contribute to the whole school project “On our doorstep”. We will be exploring our community in a number of ways - making trips to local places, finding out about them using different resources and preparing articles for display in May.

Elp USA

This week we will be making a start on preparing a package to send to America. We found out before Christmas that our friends in Ohio are sending us a “care package” full of information about Akron. In return, we will be sending them an information pack about Prestonpans and East Lothian. We will start this week by writing our own letters to our friends in America, introducing ourselves and telling them something about life at Preston Lodge High School.

English

In English we will continue with our individual personal language development scheme using our Jolly Phonics, Oxford Reading Tree and Leap Pad resources. Two of the stories we will read using the Leap Pad are Shrek and Monsters Inc.