Hello and welcome to our blog post for term 4.  Primary 4 have had a busy time since our return to school following lockdown restrictions. We have started our new topic and have settled back into our class working groups ready to move on to our new topics within each curricular area.

Literacy

Our reading and spelling activities will continue with children focusing on their Bug Club reading texts, recognising spelling sounds and phonics within these texts and using their awareness and strategies to tackle unfamiliar words.  We will also be focusing on inferential questioning during comprehension activities, to gain a deeper understanding of what has been read.  We will access Giglets texts to support this, as well as our usual Bug Club books.

In writing, the focus for this term will be scientific enquiry, writing scientific reports based on hypothesis then carrying out these experiments and writing up their findings.  We will also look at persuasive writing during our topic of ‘charities’ and asking children to think about why people should donate money to charity and creating persuasive arguments on why people should support charities.

Maths

Our focus in maths is number and number processes, with money and angles being a focus during some maths sessions too.  Those working within the circle and rectangle maths groups will be focusing on 4-digit numbers and the four number processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The children should now be familiar with formal notation in all 4 number operations. Those in the square group will continue to develop an understanding of 3-digit numbers, using their knowledge of place value to tackle addition and subtraction of larger numbers.

Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and developing strategies for any number problems.  We will also encourage these skills through our daily number challenges and number target board! Please encourage your children to continue to work on the times tables to help children quickly recall facts.

 Health & Wellbeing

All children have had the opportunity to be pupil of the day and enjoy the privileges that come with this.  We will continue with this so as each child have the opportunity again in term 4. We have been exploring emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others.  We now have a bank of strategies to support us when we feel uncomfortable, and these emotions will continue to be explored as we reach a deeper understanding of how these feelings can impact on us and how to seek help or support.  We are also looking at conflict resolution and how to manage conflicts in the playground to ensure fair play.

In P.E, our sessions will continue to take place outside where possible, on a Monday and Thursday afternoon.  Our focus will be on developing athletic skills, competing in hurdles, running, relay and a variety of activities to promote coordination and power skills using the javelin. We will also have a 4-week block of football to further develop our ball control skills.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be the sacraments as children prepare for their Confirmation and First Holy Communion.  We have completed our booklets for Confirmation and will now focus on preparation for First Communion which will be taking place in June. For those pupils who are not participating in the Sacraments, there will be activities completed in class for all children.  Parents should continue to work on the at home activities from the booklet, to help further prepare children for the upcoming celebrations.

Topic

Our topics for term 4 will be ‘Magnets’ in science and ‘Charities’.  The focus in our magnets topic will be to understand the forces of not only magnets but the bigger picture of the magnetic field which surrounds our planet.  Children will participate in several experiments to explore materials that magnets are attracted to and those which are repelled or have no effect when placed close to a magnet. In charities, children will look at national and local charities and the help and support they can offer people who may be in need.

We hope this is the start of another successful term as we navigate the continued impact of the pandemic on our lives.  Please be assured we will continue to keep things as normal as possible for our children, despite the different restrictions still in place.

Take care,

Mrs Travers