Today 7B identified the differences between millimetres, centimetres and metres. We discussed when it is useful to use each unit of measurement and how to convert them before travelling throughout the school and making estimates on the length of everyday items and deciding how if we should measure them in millimetres, centimetres or metres to see if our estimate was correct.

7B have been revising their understanding of the number system with a key focus on our understanding of prime, square and cube numbers.

P7B have been challenged with developing their photography skills by finding practical examples of patterns within our school grounds. The boys and girls were challenged with ensuring there was a key focus in the item they were photographing and experimented with filters to emphasise the item they wanted viewers to focus on.

P7B have been continuing to solidify their understanding of our current problem solving strategy (Looking for a Pattern) by taking part in group activities in our Rainbow Garden.

Today 7B explored the importance of budgeting our money when it comes to the expenses of running a home. 7B discussed where our money comes from and we agreed that the majority of households rely on a monthly wage. We also began to categorise items into what we need and what we want and what we need.
 

We agreed that we need to spend money on items such as mortgages/rent and taxes and that these are known as fixed household costs as they will stay the same price each month. We also talked about the need for groceries, electric, heating etc. however, these are categorised as essential living costs as we would not always spend the same amount on these items each month, for example, we would not spend the same amount on utilities such as oil in January that we would spend in July.

Finally, we have non-essential living costs which are items we might buy to treat ourselves or leisure activities which we use for entertainment.

P7B have been taking part in Mathletics tasks to deepen their understanding of Working Backwards as a problem solving strategy, whereby we use the little information we have and using our inverse operations, follow the instructions provided to find a final answer.

Today P7B used their coding skills to decorate our own class Christmas tree. P7B used Sphero Balls to act as baubles, sending their Sphero Balls to an area of the tree of their choice. To make our tree extra festive we added a few extra sprites to our code to add some sound and lights to our tree. 

Today P7B used IZAK9 to assist with times tables revision. P7B were also able to IZAK9 to find patterns as a team in order to conduct a problem solving investigation. 

As part of our school's participation in the Micrsoft 'Dreamspace Ambassadors' programme, our class participated in an excellent STEM problem-solving opportunity today, where they completed a range of greater depth challenges relating to coding through Micro:Bit. The workshop was challenging, engaging and allowed for pupils to further their problem-solving skills through code.

Today 7B learned the formula for finding the area of regular 4-sided polygons. 7B had a go at challenging each other to find the perimeter of their own designs as well as the area and recording their answer in cm^2. 7B were then challenged with creating their own town by creating 3D buildings which had to fit within limited space. 7B also agreed on a scale for their town as our 3D models could not be the size of a real building.

P7B have been working hard to apply their understanding of Trial and Error to their Number work based on fractions, decimals and percentages. P7B have been exploring our outdoor Maths Trail to categorise items such as types of plants in our gardens, colours of cars in the car park and making predictions based on the perimeter and area of playground.

To launch the beginning of Maths Week Ireland 2023, our P7 classes took part in an IZAK 9 online workshop, alongside schools across Ireland. This workshop challenged them to work in groups to solve a range of mathematical challenges using the IZAK 9 cubes.

P7B have been using digital resources to explore the link between fractions, decimals and percentages.

7B have began to explore Trial and Error as a problem solving strategy. The boys and girls have been working hard in the Rainbow Garden to carry out group tasks, making guesses, checking their answers and making improvements based on the problems they were provided.

P7B have spent this week exploring the structure of larger numbers and how they can be partitioned into smaller numbers which can make them easier to work with when it comes to adding and subtracting larger numbers mentally.