PLHS - Support for Learning

This week sees a number of important school events happening - most importantly the beginning of exam leave for our S4 pupils (soon to be followed by exam leave for the S5 and S6 students). 

This means that the school will have fewer bodies in the building but those that remain will need to be mindful of the need for quiet passage round the school - as there will be exams in both the school hall and the Learning Zone. Whilst ELP teachers will be working constantly with our pupils trying to explain the need for such quiet when exams are on, it would be great if parents could also reinforce this message at home. Even just an informal chat about how it is going to be a wee bit different in school this coming month would be beneficial. (Thanks!)

This week sees the beginning of May - and the celebration by some people of May Day. May Day, of course, is on the 1st of May but the school will be closed to mark the holiday this coming Monday and Tuesday (May 5th and 6th). Staff will be working on Tuesday however pupils will resume on Wednesday May 7th 2008.

Trip to Lauriston Castle

Next week we will be going to Lauriston Castle as part of our science project The Life of PLants. You will have recieved a letter home at the end of last week with an outline of the trip but the children will be bringing home consent forms and full details this week. Please check their bags for details.

Maths

This week in maths we will be continuing with work on addition and subtraction. What level of work your child undertakes will be determined by their individual progress to date - this will vary from working within in the numbers 1-10 through to working with numbers up to 50. 

Science

Last week we planted seeds from a number of plants - peppers, strawberries, tomatoes and sunflowers. We also bedded out some strawberry plants and some tree saplings. Gardening is proving to be a tiring but exciting job! This week we will be checking on the progress of our seeds and seedlings - making sure they havethe right amount of light, heat, air, water and soil. We will be checking up on the seeds we have placed in our fancy machine called a Propagator.

The propagator keeps the growing seeds warm and wet - it says 17 degrees on the dial on the outside of the box!

On our doorstep

It is only a couple of weeks until we put together all of our hard work for the school Open Day event “On our doorstep”.

Our model of Prestonpans is well under way and we are almost at the stage of putting in the finishing touches. We will be making the trees, bushes, pavements and fences for the model so that the model of our town looks even more realistic!

Maybe we should think about adding some seagulls to it too…hmm.

ICT

This week in ICT we will be working on another email to send to America. We will practise first by writing emails to each other before sending the real thing away to our friends in Innes Middle School in Akron, Ohio.

Social Studies

In Social Studies last week we concentrated on the flags of different countries of the world. We looked at flags including the Scottish Saltire

We looked at the American Stars and Stripes…

And a host of other flags from countries such as Australia, Italy, Sweden and South Africa.

We had great fun making a map of the world using flags to signify countries. This week we will be looking at the national dress of each country. Which country wears a kimono? Or a kilt?