Welcome back! This term in Primary 5 we have not only moved up a school year, but ‘up’ in the school literally as we have relocated upstairs which will be an exciting new experience. The school week will consist of myself in class, Mrs McIntyre (Mon->Thurs) and Mrs McCreadie (Fridays). We are looking forward to engaging in more challenging learning this year within our class, and of course, we hope to share this with you throughout the year. This first blog post will overview the learning covered in the P5 class from August until October. So far, we have already established our class community, routines, expectations and  had our welcome meeting with parents.

IDL– ‘Knights and Castles’

Our focus this term is ‘Knights and Castles’. Pupils will use their developing research and note-taking skills to look at historical events in the Middle Ages. This will include the history of castles, the evolution of castle design, the feudal system and role of Knights, including the ‘Code of Chivalry’ and society at this time. We will be using various curricular areas within this topic to help, such as, ICT, Art, Literacy, STEM and problem-solving skills.

Literacy –

This term we will be reading ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ as a class novel study to loosely link with ‘Knights and Castles’ .

Through our study pupils will be able to

• Read using strategies, make notes and engage in dialogue with peers to discuss themes in the class text.
• Build skills on our 6 key Active Literacy Comprehension strategies.
• Writing Focus – Recount, Imaginative and Information Report (Newspaper Article).

The pupils will complete various reading and writing tasks related to this appropriate to their level. This novel study will also link to other areas of the curriculum.

 

We will continue to use Bug Club as our differentiated reading        resource and will be developing our fluency and comprehension skills using this resource, both in class and as homework.

Spelling

Spelling will take the form of active activities related to the ‘Active Spelling’ resource, the children will continue to experience phonemes and blends pertinent to the ability and stage. Please support your child by asking about their spelling words weekly.

Writing

P5 will focus on descriptive/ narrative writing this term. The class will learn the focus of their writing early in the week which will allow time to discuss ideas together in class, and at home,  to help with planning. This will be their ‘Talk Homework.’ In class, groups will look at planning their piece, punctuation, effective use of vocabulary and paragraphing to meet personal success criteria.

Numeracy & Maths –

• Place Value – looking at larger whole numbers. This will range per group from TTh/Th /H/ T/ U.
• Using our knowledge of place value to develop Addition and Addition strategies for all groups dealing with larger numbers, such as using friendly numbers, formal notation and partitioning.
• Estimation/Probability.
• Daily Mental Maths covering the 4 processes (+ – x /) and revision of strategies.

P5 will work on Beyond Number topics with Mrs McCreadie on a Friday. This will include subject areas such as shape, measure, data handling, time and money. This term the children will be looking at ‘Shape’.

At home, children will benefit from times tables revision and experience of telling the time in everyday situations.

Health and Wellbeing –

The class have worked brilliantly as a team in P4 and have been an integral part of our MC family. To ensure that our class strengthens these skills as we move into Primary 5, we will refresh, revisit and complete our class charter, to ensure to uphold the UNRC/ RRS rights we have selected as our focus. P5 pupils understand the responsibilities and expectations that will be placed upon them this year.

We are continuing to use our whole school ‘PATHS’ resource this year, which allows children to grow emotionally and channel their thoughts and behaviours in a calm and proactive way. Children are familiar with this programme and can name and identify their feelings. We will continue to provide them with scenarios and situations that will require their knowledge of ‘self’ to grow. We will focus on our unique talents and nurturing friendships as well as celebrating our ‘Pupil of the Day.’  Pupils will discuss aligned themes at assemblies and in class with Mrs McCreadie to link with this.

P.E

In P.E. we will cover the following in term 1,

• Team Games
• Netball

This will be on Tuesdays (Mrs McI) and Fridays (Mrs McC).

A gentle reminder, can you please ensure your child comes prepared weekly with a full PE kit (the office have limited spares available if you need and you can contact the school office to enquire), also we would be grateful if your child does not wear jewellery on these days preferably or can remove earrings etc. by themselves. Thank you for your support in this.

Religious Education –

August/ September/ October –

In class, we will introduce the Gospel of Mark, our P5 focus gospel. We will discuss our talents and skills, and this will form the basis of our class charter. We will look at Bible stories aligning with our learning about friendship focus and our faith community. We also will learn new prayers in P5 and look forward to attending mass as a whole school. In early October we will look at the Creation and St Francis of Assisi.

Important Primary 5 info… 

Homework distributed on Mondays to be completed, signed and returned by Friday.

P.E days are on Tuesday & Friday.

**Keep an eye on the school blog daily for regular updates to what is happening in class, photos and any information about relevant upcoming dates, also, learner Journals posts throughout the term. **

Thank you for your co-operation and we look forward to an exciting year ahead,

Mrs McIntyre and Mrs McCreadie