Primary 4M have had a very busy Term 3 so far. We are working hard and continuing to learn new things.

In Maths we have been doing lots of practise of multiplication. We have learned all of the times tables and we are very proud of this. To help us learn the tables we played games such as bingo, matching cards and around the world (a P4M favourite). We then used our knowledge of the times tables to answer word problems. Now we are looking at division. We practised grouping items to help us understand that division is all about sharing. We also looked at the links between multiplication and division, Miss McDonald would really like it if we kept practising our times tables at home so that they stay fresh in our heads and we are able to answer questions quickly.

In writing we each set our own targets. We discussed aspects of writing that we could improve on and everyone chose three things that they really thought they should work on. We are going to remind ourselves of these every time we write a story to help us improve and write really interesting stories! In grammar we have looked at adverbs, apostrophes, antonyms and synonyms and homophones. We like to spot examples of what we have been learning in grammar in our reading books.

In reading we have continued to use Blooms to help us understand what we have read. We still really enjoy questioning each other on our reading books. We have also been looking at strategies to help us tackle tricky words as we are reading, such as re-reading a word if it doesn’t make sense, breaking up longer words and using context clues to help us guess the meaning of a word.

This term we started our new topic of Vikings and so far we have found it very interesting. We have looked at how and why the Vikings came to settle in Britain, what a Viking longhouse would have been like, what weapons they used. We also studied Viking longships, and even went outside to measure how long one would be. We couldn’t believe the size of it! For this topic we have read maps, made posters, carried out research and constructed a timeline. We also painted our own shields and swords. We got to give our swords their own names. We are looking forward to sharing what we have learned about Vikings at our assembly.

This is a quick update on what the class will be learning this term.

Core Literacy:

• Our reading focus this term will be on comprehension and fluency and it would be appreciated if you could take a few minutes to talk about the stories as well as encouraging fluency and expression.
• Continue to develop work in Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation to aid story writing and written work.
• Continue to use the context of the topic for literacy lessons.
• Consolidate correct letter formation and encourage joined handwriting at all times.
• Continue to learn Spelling Rules and participate in a variety of activities to promote and help develop spelling.

Core Numeracy:

•  Continue to develop Multiplying and Dividing, concentrating on tables 2,3,4,5, 6, and 7 making best use of memory bonds.
  • Solve a variety of mathematical problems, making best use of memory bonds and written strategies.
  • Shape – focusing on 2D and 3D shapes, looking at nets of 3D shapes and using appropriate vocabulary to describe shapes.
  • Symmetry – completing missing halves of patterns or shapes, understanding what reflective symmetry is and making links in the wider environment.

Learning focus this term:

Through our topic The Vikings, we will be learning about/to:

• Who the Vikings were and why they came to the UK
• How they lived, how the settlements grew and the places that they lived
• The weapons that they create and used
• How they travelled from their homelands
• Who they worshipped and about their Gods.

We have been incredibly busy in Primary 4. We have worked very hard and Miss McDonald thinks we have definitely earned our Christmas holiday!

In Maths we have continued to practise doing addition and subtraction in our heads, looking at different things we can do with a sum to make it easier for ourselves. We have also looked at solving word problems. In each question we look carefully for any words that tell us if we should add or subtract. To practise this we have played Who Wants to be a Millionaire. We really enjoyed this and managed to win £1 million!

In Literacy we have been working on how to create interesting sentences. We looked at different ways we could ‘jazz up’ our sentences, including adding adjectives and similes and using more detail. We then had to use what we had learned to fix some ‘boring sentences’.

For the past few weeks we have been working with a singer called Amy to learn some Scots songs. We also learned some words from Scots language. We performed our songs at the Tolbooth in Stirling. We really enjoyed it and thank you to everyone that came along to watch.

On Tuesday 15th December we watched Tim Peake’s rocket launch. We have been learning all about him and how he has been training for his trip to the International Space Station. We were very excited and all cheered and clapped as the rocket took off. We felt very proud of Tim Peake and happy that we witnessed such a big event.

In our topic we continued with our Robot challenge. We worked in teams to build them. We had to look carefully at our chosen design, decide what materials to use and how best to build it. We really enjoyed making them and worked well in our teams. We have put in lots of photos below so you can admire our handiwork!

P4M have been practising addition and subtraction chimney sums in Maths. In subtraction we learned about borrowing. We found it a bit tricky at first but as we did more of it we got better and felt more confident. We have also been practising doing addition and subtraction in our heads. We have been playing bingo, dice games and ZAP to help us with this. We have been breaking up the sums to make them easier to add in our head.

In Literacy we have been learning more about Bleep the Blooms Frog. We have been practising the skills of remembering, understanding and applying in our reading groups and when doing reading tasks. They help us understand the book better. We have finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we thought it was exciting. Now we have started reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. So far, we think it’s amazing. In writing, we have been working on newspaper reports about the first moon landing. We had to remember pictures, a headline and an orientation. We were doing alliteration. Alliteration is a sentence that has words all starting with the same letter. For example, Michael met mad monkeys.

In topic we have continued to look at space. We made timelines of the space race. We have looked at robots that are used in space. We had to research different robots then work in a group to create a poster about them. We have been learning about the first men on the moon. We read a book called One Giant Leap and made a comic strip about them. We have been researching the International Space Station (ISS). We learned about how astronauts stay on the ISS for months and how big it is. We did lots of research on it.

Now we are looking at space junk. Space junk is parts of spacecraft and satellites that have been left orbiting the Earth. This is dangerous because pieces of junk could hit satellites and other rockets. We are meant to make a robot that clears all the space junk around Earth to make it safer. We had to design our own robot and label our design. We got into groups and we decided on which design was the best. We are going to build the best design. We are all feeling confident about building our robots.

It was Children in Need in November. To raise money we bought wristbands and dressed up as superheroes and champions. We raised lots of money and enjoyed our day.

In Literacy this term we have been thinking about the different skills we need when we are reading a text. For this we have Bleep the Bloom’s Frog to help us. So far we have been focusing on the skill of Remembering. In our reading group we have been asking each other questions to see what we have all remembered about what we have read. In writing we have been looking at descriptive language. We discussed how adjectives can help make our writing more interesting. To practise, Miss McDonald gave us pictures of settings and characters to write about. We have also been looking at how to write acrostic poems. We wrote a poem about Halloween, making sure we included adjectives. Some of us even managed to include rhyme!

In Maths we have been doing lots of work on telling the time. We have been learning how to tell the time on an analogue and digital clock. We started off by discussing why it is important that we know how to tell the time. We have been practising using bingo, computer games, matching cards, worksheets and by challenging each other.

Just before the October holidays we finished our Chocolate Bar Challenge. In our groups we created a presentation (or ‘pitch’) to tell people all about our chocolate bar. We also created an advert that would make people want to buy it. We invited a VIP (Mrs Gibson!) to come and listen to our pitches. She thought they were all very creative, that we spoke really clearly and that it all sounded delicious!

We have now started our new topic – Space! We started off by researching Tim Peake, who will be the first British astronaut to go to the International Space Station. We worked in pairs to find out specific facts about him and uses these to fill in a biography. We have also been looking at the Solar System. We learned the names and order of the planets by singing a song. We then looked at the distance of each planet from the Sun. We did some very complicated maths to scale down the distances so we could measure them out ourselves. We were in groups for each planet and we went outside and measured the distance from the Sun. The people measuring Uranus and Neptune had to go to the other side of the playground! Also, we were each given the job of researching 1 planet and creating a fact sheet. We then got into groups and taught each other about the planet that we had studied. We really enjoyed learning from each other.

Primary 4M have continued working hard over the past few weeks. The first term has absolutely flown in!

In Maths we have been carrying on with practicing our times tables and addition because we know these skills are very important in helping us with other parts of Maths. We have been playing games, using the I-pads and doing worksheets to help us practise them in lots of different ways. We have also been looking at data handling – learning about how to use tally marks, bar charts and pictograms. As we are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we worked in groups to carry out surveys about the favourite chocolate bars of different classes in the school. We then put the information we gathered into a bar graph.

In Literacy, we have been looking at how to make our writing more interesting by using descriptive language. Miss McDonald showed us different pictures and we wrote sentences to describe them. We then showed them to our partners who told us what we did well and what we could work on. We also learned about story openers and how important they are in grabbing the reader’s attention. We searched in books for good story openers and then tried writing some of our own. As we are in Primary 4, we are now starting Reading Detectives. So far, we have tried the roles of Illustrator and Word Finder. We liked drawing pictures of important parts of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and looking up all the interesting words that Roald Dahl uses.

For topic we have been doing lots of work around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As it was Roald Dahl Day we researched him and created a timeline of his life. We also researched illustrator Quentin Blake and created a biographical poster about him. We then had a go at drawing the characters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in his style, which gave us the chance to work on our observational drawing skills. We are currently working on Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Bar Challenge! This has involved working in groups (or companies) to create our own chocolate bar. We have had to think about the flavour, texture, name and packing design to create a really good product. The next stage is to ‘pitch’ our product to the rest of the class – it feels a bit like Dragons’ Den!

Over the past few weeks we have all settled in well in P4. We have been working hard and have already learned lots of new things!

In Maths we have been practicing skills we learned in P3 to keep them fresh in our heads. This has included our times tables, adding and subtracting. We have practiced these by playing games, challenging each other and doing work in our jotter. We have also been looking at place value; learning about thousands, hundreds, tens and units, ordering numbers and writing them in words. We have been applying our knowledge to lots of different numbers.

In Literacy we have been working on our sentence structure – making sure our sentences make sense and that they have capital letters and full stops. We wrote a story about finding a message in a bottle. We discussed different things that could be in the message and came up with adjectives to describe the bottle. Sharing our ideas helped us to come up with some great stories!

We have started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and are completely hooked! As we read the story we talk about what has happened so far and predict what might happen next. We discuss the interesting words Roald Dahl uses and the way he describes the characters.

Because we have been doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory we have been learning all about how chocolate is made. We created flowcharts to describe how cocoa beans are made into chocolate. We watched a video about how Dairy Milks are produced. We also looked at how buying fairtrade chocolate can help cocoa farmers have better lives.

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