Welcome back! What a great first term Primary 4 have had; the children have settled well 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 fiction and non-fiction texts which include their Bug Club readers and our class novel, ‘There’s a Viking in My Bed’ which is linked to our Viking Voyagers topic.

During writing, we will continue to build on the skills developed during our descriptive block and we will now 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 and will continue to practise their spelling strategies.

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 be working on telling the time at different intervals, as well as looking at 24hr time and durations. We will also be focusing on word problems and times tables weekly

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 intergenerational activities with the residents at Crossgate’s Care Home. As a class we have discussed various ideas that we think they would like such as arts and crafts, reading, singing, board games and bingo.

PE

PE is on a Wednesday and Friday. This term we will be covering social dancing, hockey and gymnastics. Please make sure your child has a full PE kit with them (includes suitable indoor shoes), this can remain on their peg within school.

Thank you for making sure that no jewellery is worn on PE days.

French 

We will be continuing with our French conversational skills and greetings. We will be looking at numbers t0 100. The children will engage in a range of listening, talking and writing tasks. We are also learning our ‘Hail Mary’ in French. As the term progresses, we will also look at Christmas traditions in France.

 

IDL

The children have really enjoyed getting started on our new Novel ‘There’s a Viking in My Bed’ which is related to our Viking Voyagers topic this term. We will explore the life of Vikings, including their culture, voyages and influence on Scotland. We will develop our skills in reading and writing through our topic.

Expressive Arts 

We will link our artwork this term to our topic, exploring and creating Viking artefacts using various materials and techniques. Last term we have been learning about rhythm and beat with our glockenspiels, we will continue to develop our skills this term and we will start to learn Christmas songs as the term progresses. We will also share some of our musical skills during our visits to Crossgate’s Care home.

Religious Education

This term we will be reflecting on the lives of various saints including St. Margaret, St. Andrew, St Ignatius, St. Francis and St. Columba. The children will be preparing for Advent and their forthcoming Sacrament of Reconciliation by taking part in class prayers and School Masses, and we will continue to build on our knowledge of common prayers and Mass responses. Approaching Advent, 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.

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 McIntyre & Mrs MacDonald.