In maths this week we have been looking more at fractions. We have been looking at finding tenths and fifths of shapes. We have also today looked at finding a fifth of numbers. We realised that finding a fifth of a number is the same as dividing by 5 (Bella). Today we tested our knowledge of the 3 times table in a group speed test. Smart Smarties came first managing to complete it in 35 seconds.

We have also recapped our knowledge of rounding numbers to the nearest 10 which we learned in term 1. Jaxon came first, Bella was second and Ellie was third, well done!

In topic this week we looked back at our KWH and spent some time researching our own questions that we had wanted to find out about the Vikings. We found out lots of cool and interesting facts!

In writing this week we used a video called ‘Partly Cloudy’ about a cloud who could not do his job properly. It had a great setting for a story so we used it to create our own. We were focusing on including all punctuation, connectives, good openers, exciting adjectives, describing a character and writing in paragraphs. We have all worked really hard to include as many of these as we can. Our star writers this week are Lexi, Jack S and Tyler.

We were lucky enough to  have our second visit from a chef, where we learned about cutting skills. We have also been learning some Makaton (sign language) and have been practicing some basic sentences.

Miss Nicholl and P4N

Dear Parent/Carer,

During our Weather topic in Term 2 we went outdoors to observe and record the temperature and rainfall using the weather station kindly donated to us by Mrs Johnstone. The children learned about the water cycle, the three states of water and also about the different climate regions around the world. During our trip to Dynamic Earth we added to this learning by taking part in a practical workshop where we made tornadoes, created static energy and learned the Water Cycle Dance.

Following our topic we studied persuasive language and how to convey our own feelings and opinions in letters, leaflets and posters. These were linked to our Weather topic, e.g. diary entries from the point of view of an Arctic Explorer, leaflets on the use of palm oil and posters on air pollution.

In Maths we continued to develop addition and subtraction strategies including using an empty number line and/or number square. We continued our work on multiplication and are continuing to build on this using sets and arrays.

I hope you find the following information useful.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Learning in Term 3:

Learning focus this term:

Through our Vikings topic we will be learning about:

• Why and where the Vikings settled in the UK
• Viking life- homes, dress, family
• Viking invasions- boats, trade and warriors
• Viking gods and sagas
• Viking religion and celebrations
• How to locate topic related books in a library

Core Literacy:

This term we will be:

• Developing our use of reading strategies
• Do book blessings to encourage children to share their opinions on texts
• Summarising the main points of a text
• Focusing on personal and imaginative writing and including feelings in our writing
• Using paragraphs, connectives and a wider range of punctuation in our writing
• Developing our listening and talking skills by performing in our class assembly

Children will continue to be given books of their choice from the class or wing library and weekly spelling homework. Please ensure your child completes this at home. Encourage your child to read widely for enjoyment at home and use the three sharings approach to discuss what they have read. There will also be OPTIONAL topic related homework of which the children can complete as much or as little as they like.

Core Numeracy:

This term we will be:

• Using counting strategies to multiply, using the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables
• For those who require challenge, we will also look at the 6, 7 and 8 times tables
• Linking multiplication to division using a range of strategies
• Solve sharing problems including using fractions
• Understand the value of fractions within a number line
• Look at simple equivalent fractions
• Understand the role of the numerator and denominator
• Record fractions

We encourage your child to use Sumdog at home to practice their maths skills. Children should all have a copy of their usernames and passwords. Quick recall of addition and subtraction facts to 10/20/100 would also be of great benefit and will help keep their mental maths skills agile.

Health and Wellbeing/Other

This term we will be:

• Visiting the local Alloa Library to locate and borrow topic related books
• Taking part in healthy eating lessons led by a chef
• Learning about healthy eating and diet
• Receiving specialist music, art and P.E. sessions
• Develop resilience using Cool in School strategies
• Doing a workshop on how to look after animals, including programming a robot. Led by SSPCA

Please remember it is our sharing the learning assembly on Friday 13th March, we look forward to seeing those who can make it.

We have been very busy this week in Primary 4.  In topic we have been looking at Viking shields and we designed our own patterns to create our own shields.

We have also read a passage about Vikings and looked at some comprehension questions. We used this passage to think about a setting for a story: A Stormy Night on a Boat.

In maths we have started our new topic which is Fractions. We have been recapping what we already know and reminding ourselves of what a fraction is and how we can show them in different shapes.

In spelling, group 1 were focusing on plural words such as babies, rectangles, triangles. Group 2 were looking at words with ‘air,’ such as airport, chairs, funfair. We also had a good recap of all the spelling words we have done so far this year!

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend 🙂

Hello everyone,

This week we have been very busy doing lots of different things. In topic we have been looking at Viking Longboats and we found out some very interesting facts! We used this knowledge in our writing ‘A Viking Journey’ where we were focusing on describing the setting using adjectives and including feelings. Our Star Writers this week were Bella, Zack and Evie, well done!

We were very lucky to have a visit from a Chef where we explored and discussed our 5 senses as we tried lots of different foods. We also got to wear some chef hats!

In maths we have had a particular focus in subtracting numbers mentally and also through problem solving activities. The square and triangle groups were put to the test to see who could crack the code of the ‘Subtraction Challenge.’ Many of us showed determination and resilience to complete it, well done!

We were playing some more spelling games this week and for extra practice we were spelling the words out on each others backs, trying to guess which word it was. We loved this game, try it out with us!

Have a lovely weekend! 🙂

Hello everyone!

This week in P4N we have been developing our topic knowledge of the Vikings by researching all about the Longhouses that they used to live in. We used different sources to do this: videos online, Viking books and a fantastic app called ‘Google Expeditions’ which allowed us to see what the inside of a Longhouse actually looked like! We loved using that app and found some fantastic facts which we used to create an annotated diagram.

In writing this week we decided to create a story with the title ‘A Day in the Life of a Viking Child.’ We had lots of discussion about how different it must have been to be a child all the way back then. We had some fantastic pieces of writing! Our star writers of the week were Jaxon, Elise and Jack T. Well done!

In maths we have been looking at ‘Think Grids’ which show a subtraction sum in several different ways: a story, a picture, the number line method and its number family! This has allowed us to get a better understanding of what the sum actually means and what it looks like.

We played a great game of sprint spelling and we had some tricky words like ‘sincerely’ and ‘completely,’ please test us!

Thank you for reading our blog 🙂

In maths we have been working further on subtraction but this week working with 3 digit numbers! We have been looking at subtracting near multiples of 10. Example:   166 – 31. We could take away thirty

We have also been looking at Viking Gods this week and we have researched different ones: Thor, Loki, Odin, Freya. We also went on a trip to the local library today where we found lots of non-fiction and fiction books on the Vikings. We have taken them back to class and looking forward to finding out some new facts!

We watched a video about a story – Freya and the Goblins. We used the first part of the story to write our own endings.

Our Star Writers this week were – Elise, Jay and Evan. Well done!

Have a lovely weekend! 🙂

Happy New Year! It has been a great start back to school this week in P4N, we have been very busy!

We have been writing about our favourite day of the holiday. Our star writers included lots of detail and great punctuation: Ryan, Layla and Ruairi, well done!

We have also been exploring our class novel further and discussing what we would need to survive on an island. We chose someone to write a letter to, as if we were stranded on an island and the work was fantastic!

We completed a book review of our previous reading book and we were given our new reading books this week. In our reading circles we read and explored the first chapter.

Our spelling words this week have been tricky, with our rule being ‘n’t’ e.g. shouldn’t, didn’t, couldn’t – please test us!

In maths we have been revisiting the subtraction strategies we practiced before the holidays and we have also been looking at number stories, here is an example from Lexi:

62 – 20 = 42

62 – 42 = 20

42 + 20 = 62

20 + 42 = 62

We have also started the 8 x table this week with Mrs Tavendale.

P4 are excited about our new topic – The Vikings which we have began this week. We discussed what we know already, what we would like to know and how we will find out.

Thank you all for reading our blog, have a lovely weekend! 🙂

Hello everyone, we have had a very busy few weeks with lots of singing practice for our concerts last week and social dancing for our Christmas parties.

Writing – Last week we continued to look at persuasive writing where we focused on using bossy verbs and writing in paragraphs in a letter to Santa! We had to write 3 good things we have done this year to convince Santa to come to our house and the writing was very persuasive!

Maths – We have continued to explore subtraction strategies still focusing on using 2 digit numbers. We are getting much quicker in answering questions. We have also been developing our times tables skills with Mrs Tavendale by using our knowledge to design Christmas baubles.

We have also had a visit from the SSPCA this week, telling us about how animals can be effected by the winter and how we can help them.

Thank you for reading our blog! 🙂

This week in P4N we have been on our school trip to… Dynamic Earth! We took part in different workshops showing us different climates such as polar, rainforest and desert climates. We watched a few experiments which created lightening such as when the instructor used a balloon on Alicia’s head to create lightening and with special apparatus where we could see sparks of lightening. It was fantastic!

We have also been learning about palm oil production and the effects it has on animals and the environment. We used this information to do some persuasive writing discussing reasons for and against palm oil. A reason for palm oil is that it is in lots of products we use every day like crisps, cleaning products and make up and is cheap to buy (Sophie). However palm oil production is destroying habitats, particularly orangutans where approximately between 1000 and 5000 die every year.

In maths we have been looking at subtraction and mental strategies bridging 10. For example 74 – 8, 1^st step would be to take away 4 to get to 70 and then takeaway another 4 to get you to 66, says Elise. We have also been revising our 6 x table through the group speed test.

We have been very busy practicing our songs for the Christmas concert. We think you will really enjoy it!

Literacy

This week in our reading circles we were looks at higher order questioning, reading a new chapter of our book with our groups and discussing questions such as ‘how could you change the story to make a different ending.’

We have read chapter 5 of our class novel and we wrote a character description of the main character Kensuke. We used the novel to highlight parts which told us a little about his physical appearance and his personality to draw and write the character description.

We have also had a new focus in grammar this week, looking at speech marks and how to use them. We had another sentence battle this week and Alicia and Layla were the winners!

Through book week we have also looked at Authors Live where we learned a little about Alex T Smith, the author and illustrator of the Claude books. We also got to draw our own Claude and he showed us step by step.

In music this week we learned how to play jingle bells on the keyboard, guitars and drum pads.

Topic

Our climate focus of the week has been on climate change. We have been looking at how car pollution effects the environment and we have been designing our own posters to reduce the use of cars around the school. These posters had to include snappy slogans, illustrations and have an eye catching layout.

Maths

We’ve been continuing on with addition strategies this week looking at partitioning numbers and ‘finding the difference between two numbers’ using a variety of strategies. We did a fantastic job of explaining the different ways we can ‘find the difference’ between 2 numbers, try us with a few examples!