Welcome back! What a great first term Primary 4 have had, the children have settled into their new class and routine and are making good progress. We are looking forward to another fun filled term with lots of fabulous learning taking place.

Here is an update on the upcoming term.

Literacy

For our reading focus, we will continue to build on the use of our reading comprehension skills, such as prediction, visualisation, metalinguistic and summarising. The children will engage with a variety of texts including their Bug Club readers and our class book, ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ which is linked to our rainforest topic.

During writing, we will continue to build on the skills developed during our descriptive block, and will focus on narrative writing.  The children will explore the features of narrative writing and will create their own narrative pieces.

Spelling will take the form of active spelling activities and the children will experience phonemes and blends at their working level.

We will continue to build on our knowledge of various elements of grammar, linking this to our reading and writing tasks.

Numeracy & Maths

The children will continue with a daily number talk, to develop a range of mental maths strategies. We have been looking at various strategies for solving addition problems and will move on to subtraction problems.

With Mrs McIntyre, the children will continue their shape work before moving on to looking at time.

 

Health and Wellbeing

We will be continuing with our PATHs programme focussing on making good choices and working effectively with others.

We have been following the Do Be Mindful programme focussing on mindful attention, we will continue with this as well as our various daily mindful tasks.

This term, P4 are delighted to be taking part in a range of cross generational activities with the residents at Crossgates Care Home.

PE

PE is usually on a Thursday and Friday, during the first 4 weeks of term, this will change to Tuesday and Thursday as the class are excited to be participating in football activities with Kilmarnock Football Club. This term we will be covering;

• Hockey
• Football
• Social Dance

Children require PE kit for all PE days. Please ensure that all items of uniform and PE kit have your child’s name clearly marked on them.  Please make sure your child is not wearing jewellery on these days. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.

French

We will be continuing with our French conversational skills, and will be looking at numbers beyond 20. The children will engage in a range of listening, talking and writing tasks. As the term progresses, we will also look at Christmas traditions in France.

IDL

The children have really enjoyed getting started on our comparison study of the rainforest and the Arctic. We will continue this topic, looking at the similarities and differences in the vegetation and animals in both areas. We will consider climate and environmental differences and how these affect living things in each area. We will link this with our writing and art tasks.

 

Expressive Arts 

We will link our artwork this term with our topic. Using the elements of tone, shape and shade the children will enjoy various activities.

As the term progresses, we will learn some Christmas songs. We will also share some of our musical skills during our visits to Crossgates Care Home.

 

Religious Education

This term we will be reflecting on the lives of various saints including St. Margaret, St. Ignatius, St. Francis and St. Columba. We will also look at the meaning of the Liturgical Calendar and become familiar with the meaning and importance of the various feasts and associated liturgical colours. The children will take part in  class prayers and School Masses, and we will continue to build on our knowledge of common prayers and Mass responses.

 

Homework will continue in the same format as last term, it will be distributed on a Monday to be completed and returned by Friday.

Keep an eye on the School blog and Learning Journals for updates on some of our wonderful activities and learning.

Thank you as always, for your continued support.

Mrs MacKinnon.