Congratulations to Primary 5 on receiving the ‘John Muir Award’ as part of their Outdoor Learning this year.

Welcome back after our Easter break ! After a well-deserved rest from our fabulous school show, P5 are already beginning their last term which is already shaping up to be fun, busy and action-packed! Here is a quick curricular overview of what we will be learning in our last term :

Literacy / IDL (Topic)– (Class  Novel -The Ice Monster)

Apr/May – We will continue with our topic on  ‘The Victorians’ and our novel study which links to this. This will support our developing Active Literacy comprehension strategies along with our Bug club readers at home/in class.  Listening and Talking  – Through links to our topic we will use this stimulus to enhance and develop our confidence as well as practising our feedback and  questioning skills. P5 will incorporate ICT into an oral presentation on a Famous Victorian. We will look at various curricular areas including Art (William Morris/Glasgow Boys), Science & Technologies (Victorian engineering/inventions). Alongside this, we will engage in Active Spelling activities in class where we will be consolidating our knowledge of our phonemes and silent letters/plurals with a strong focus on our stage common words.

Maths/Numeracy –

Some groups will focus on Division this term whilst others will focus more in depth on Multiplication and Subtraction.  We will be using our knowledge of strategies learned so far this year to problem solve in our daily mental maths challenges. All groups will look at Fractions, Time, Money and Shape this term. Building more strategies to help us with our calculations and problem solving (Keep posted for blog updates on these). I have asked P5 to take home their ‘Thinking-it-out jotter’ which should hold pupil noted examples of core strategies from lessons to aid with homework etc. Please encourage your child to regularly practise his/her times tables/ division at home to help progress further learning.

HWB/P.E  – Mr Bertoncini will be looking at the world of work with pupils delving into Job specs and CVs as pupils discuss potential future career paths and how to positively represent themselves.In P.E with Mr B,  Pupils will be participating in Athletics and Orienteering this term as they further develop fitness as well as teamworking skills.

HWB/P.E  – Mrs McIntyre– In P.E, Pupils will be  developing racquet skills through Tennis and Badminton this term with myself, as well as covering athletics and other outdoor games. In health and wellbeing, we will be looking at food portions, healthy diets and changes in our growing bodies. We will be discussing mental health and wellbeing, being safe online. Most of these will be covered during Health week.

R.E – As this is the month of Mary, she will be our focus for our prayers and lessons. In June, we will be looking at ‘God’s Loving Plan’.  Further information will be made available on this in the forthcoming weeks however if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the school.

Finally, I want to personally thank you (parents/ carers/grannies & grandpas) for all your help and support  which you have provided your child with and myself over the past year, especially in encouraging them to talk to you about what they are learning in school.

 

Welcome again to another term and a new year! This coming  term will be our busiest term so far in primary 5 and we are ready for this challenge. This post will inform you on what is coming up in the term and keep an eye out on the blog for any information that is updated.

Literacy (Class Novel study)  – We will be looking at ‘The Ice Monster’ by David Walliams which is set in the Victorian period. This will complement our topic work/ activities in class. As well as working on our Bugclub readers, the class will focus on  finding and organising information by creating notes under suitable headings, using this information to demonstrate understanding of texts and researching to find evidence. This will also help us to develop skills such as recognising fact and opinion and enhancing our questioning skills by creating our own literal, inferential and evaluative questions. We will create different styles of writing this term including report and discursive writing – manifesto, complaint  letter etc as well as imaginative pieces. Our target is to increase personal reading time in class for enjoyment this term and we will be having time set aside especially for this.

Maths – Some groups will be focusing on building on current  multiplication skills and developing this further in this term. Please make sure your child practises times tables weekly at home as this will help them with this unit and in our next, Division. Other groups will be developing a basic knowledge of multiplication by learning  about arrays and building basic knowledge of  the following times tables 2,5,10 etc. Finally others will reinforce their addition and subtraction skills to 20. As a class, we will be  looking at time and money, as well as engaging in problem solving enquiries to enhance our strategic thinking skills and mental maths recall/response time.

Interdisciplinary learning / Social Studies – We are continuing looking at Local Politics until the end of January. We have looked at it’s role, various projects and charities affiliated locally and clarifying what different basic political terms mean such as councillor, election, democracy. We will create two parties in the class who must then create a manifesto to present for election. We will also look at the importance of having a say in our communities and our role.  The class will engage in debates, create writing / artwork/ use ICT to support our learning all connected to our topic. The class will also discuss the story ‘The Cardboard Shack Beneath the Bridge’.

Scottish Related activities ( Mini Focus End Jan)

The Victorians – After completing the above we will be discovering the era of Queen Victoria. We will look at various aspects of Victorian Society (Class system/ living conditions), Culture – Toys/Popular Pastimes, Food, Education, Clothes, famous Scots at this time, Inventions and Industrial Revolution.

P.E/ HWB –  Fitness (Mr B) -We will be engaging in circuits and looking at the muscle groups in our body and how we can use these properly when we work out to keep healthy.

Basketball – (Mrs McI)  We will be developing  our team working and leadership skills. (Participation in the LEAD programme with Ayrshire College and through our Tuesday lunchtime basketball club). P5 will focus on our hand/eye co-ordination skills, passing and shooting techniques.

HWB – P5 will cover: Job Specifications and C.Vs, our bodies as we growing / Development awareness / Sexual Health and hygiene.

Science, ICT, Design & Technology.  – We will develop our ICT skills further logging on to glow, create a programme for our show and familiarise ourselves with shortcuts and Microsoft Office. Pupils will look at  the evolution of Science  through our topic period, reinforcing our Sound and Light knowledge further and researching Victorian Inventors and how their discoveries have shaped our lives today. We will create our own inventions using a design brief, Tinkercad software(ICT) as well as STEM tasks including simple materials e.g. K’nex, paper, Paperstraws, recycled goods.

Expressive Arts –   MIDDLE SCHOOL SHOW!!!!!!! Art/Music/Drama/ – Our focus for these curricular areas will relate to our forthcoming P4/5 School Show. We are currently holding auditions and there will be more exciting news on this soon.

 

Welcome back, I hope everyone is feeling refreshed after their October holiday and P5 are now ready to tackle more exciting new learning up until Christmas!

Literacy –

This term we will be consolidating our recently acquired new Active Literacy skills and putting them into practise in our daily activities across the curriculum. In class, we will continue to develop further our phoneme knowledge to help with our spelling as well as our vocabulary. We will also be developing our talking and listening skills in groups and individually as we focus in particular on debating , using persuasive language and questioning techniques for our new topic. We will be reinforcing and developing our grammar by revising  paragraphs, adverbs, direct speech and other language features for added effect and style. In writing, we will be creating reports, designing a manifesto and looking at/ writing our own discursive texts. We will hold our own class debate to elect party leaders who will represent a pretend party of our choice.

Our Bug Club readers used in class/home will enhance and further support progression in our comprehension skills recently introduced e.g. prior knowledge, main ideas, looking at inferential questions or meta linguistics -how to find out what unknown words mean using strategies to work it out.

Our book focus will be varied this term including stories : The Cardboard Shack Beneath the Bridge  & Extracts from ‘The Breadwinner’ as well as non-fiction reading on Local Politics.

Maths – This term we will be focussing on

Measure :

• Estimation. Going outdoors for some lessons.
• Different units of measure (mm, cm, m, ml, kg, g, km and l).
• Volume (capacity) and Area.

Subtraction :

• Subtract 2,3,4 digit numbers with or without exchanging.
• Engage in active maths games.
• Participate in daily mental maths activities to improve recall , underpin knowledge and develop our strategies for learning.
• Use ICT to enhance our learning.

Topic -Having enjoyed our initial topic, this term we will be concluding  ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ and moving onto our new topic.

                              

Our first topic this term will be  ‘Local Politics’.

We will be using WordAware in class to look at key vocabulary we need to know before we can understand our topic. We will look at issues affecting us locally and how we can help, also, how people use their influence in politics to make changes local e.g. through charitable work. We will discuss recent visits from our local councillor and invite a councillor in to our class debate.

• Look at local social issues e.g. Homelessness/Foodbank/Hillhouse Care etc./Mary’s Meals.
• Fairtrade – ethical trading.  Run a charitable enterprise.
• Create a manifesto.
• Look at different methods of payment.

  Science – Sound and Light (Mini Topic 2)

We will be busy conducting experiments to investigate sound and light up until Christmas. Here are the main points to be covered:

• Understand and explain the process of how light and sound travels.
• Sound/Light as Communication – Morse Code/ Sundial
• Various effects  – Reflection, Refraction, White light Spectrum and the design of a Camera Obscura.
• Creating our own musical instruments/ phones/amplifiers.
• Research  Project- John Logie Baird or Alexander Graham Bell.

 ICT –

• Personal project on Powerpoint /SWAY on Science topic.
• Sumdog/IDL/Glow logins and familiarisation.

Expressive Arts- 

Music – P5 will be learning Christmas songs in French /hymns and attending weekly choir lessons with Miss Donnelly for our Christmas fayre.

Art- Creating Christmas fayre craft. Collaborative Assembly Hall Artwork Frieze. Graffiti Art.

Drama – We will be debating and taking on different roles such as MP/ Councillor Surgery hot seating and thought tunnel conventions.

R.E –  October – we have been focussing on the creation and how nature is God’s gift to us. We have spoken about St Francis Of Assisi and reflecting on Mary, Mother of God. We are beginning to learn new prayers such as the Angelus (prayed at noon) and honouring Mary by praying the Rosary during this month.

November – This is a month of Remembrance as we pray for loved ones who are no longer with us and think of the good memories. The centenary of WWI Armistice will be an additional focus where we can revaluate what really matters in the world.  We have already attended ‘All Saints Day’ mass at church and will continue to look at more stories of the Saints throughout November . Our Class will focus on St Vincent de Paul, research his life and linking it to our topic, understand what this Society does in our local community.

Finally, in December, as we move into the Season of Advent. We prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth and reflect. P5 will look at this through the gospel of St Mark and how his portrayal of the birth of Jesus compares to the other Gospels. As a class we will understand the important signs and symbols of Christmas, liturgical colours and learn about the Advent Wreath.

Health and Wellbeing (HWB) – Mr Bertoncini /Mrs McIntyre – 

Topics this term include – Peer Pressure and dealing with these scenarios, Smoking and Alcohol and writing a CV / Job Specifications.

P.E –  Social dance (Mrs Mc/Mr B in Oct/Nov) – Primary 5 will be participating in a ‘Day Of Dance’ on November 14th to celebrate traditional Scottish Social Dances. We have already started to add new dances to our growing social dance repertoire ( Gay Gordons/Canadian Barn dance/ Flying Scotsman) to now include the ‘Red Nose Jig’ , ‘Haymakers’ and ‘The Waratah Weaver’. Happy Ceilidh-ing P5! We will have the moves ready for our Christmas party in December!!

• Football (Dec)– Mrs McIntyre
• Gymnastics (Dec)–  Mr Bertoncini