Curling

Curling can be exciting! We played today while the Olympic curling was on the big screen in the hall. Next week we hope to have targets at the 'ends'.

The Bigger Picture

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had an assembly and a workshop with Adrian all about 'being the change we want to see' and behaving in the best way possible in our 'village'. We all had a fantastic time (including the teachers) joining in with the drama activities.

Please leave a comment below to share what you think the best part of the activities was and why, and what you think you learned. 

The Children's and Young People's Commissioner for Scotland

This year is the Year of Young People and we are making sure that our opinions and ideas are being heard and responded to. We are learning about our rights and responsibilities and how  the UN Rights of The Child can support us to contribute to achieving some of the The Global Goals.

Today Mr Wylie from Orkney Islands Council Education Department came to see us to talk about our campaign. We had written to him to see if he could help us spread the message about getting rid of single use plastics in schools. He helped us think about what our next steps might be.

We were in the paper as well.

The P7s went up to Papdale in the afternoon to meet the Commissioner. They really enjoyed their visit. The Commissioner Bruce Adamson listened to lots of opinions and ideas about how to make things better for children in Orkney. It was a great opportunity to meet and listen to children on the Pupil Council at Papdale, and to discuss and share opinions. 

We hope we can do something similar again.

Mental strategies for multiplication

Here is a video which illustrates all the strategies we have been learning about - adjusting, doubling and halving, splitting one of the factors and 'chunking' into a set of sums which are easier to calculate then recombining. I like this video because it illustrates each method with a picture (you could do this too on squared paper or use cubes). Watch the video and at the end there is an example for you to try. Work in pairs or threes within your number groups. Use a whiteboard and some cubes or squared paper. We will post photos or videos of your illustrations below the video when you are ready.

By the way this video demonstrates how knowing your tables means you can just concentrate on thinking about the strategy.

     18 x 5 from YouCubed on Vimeo.