What a week it has been at Mount Carmel Primary School.  We would like to share some of the amazing experiences we have had with you!!

Firstly, Billy from the Harriers came for a visit on Tuesday to work on our throwing, jumping and running skills.

Primary 4 had a great time during their outdoor activity time. I am so very proud of them for organising this day for the whole school and we have raised lots of money so far for SCIAF. Please keep donating to this very worthy cause and remember our Easter activity day tomorrow!!

Thank you for your support. Mrs McCreadie

Primary 4 have had an excellent afternoon junk modelling for their rainbow reward time 🌈

Primary 4 have had a brilliant rainbow reward afternoon on their scooters 🛴😁

Primary 4 Term 3 update

It is lovely to see the children all back after the Christmas break. I hope you all had a great time together and that Santa was good to everyone. Now that the children are rested, it’s time to get back to work. Here is an update of what is coming up in the term ahead.

IDL

Our rainforest topic was a great success with lots of rich learning taking place. Our topic this term will be focussed around the work of charities, with a particular focus on the charity Missio. This is the Pope’s charity for world mission and will link in nicely with the Sacrament of Confirmation that some of the children will be celebrating. The class will complete this topic throughout the Lenten period and will be responsible for organising fun Lent activities to raise funds for the charity.

Literacy

Reading – The children are making excellent progress in their reading skills. They are reading with much more expression and fluency as well as beginning to utilise their word attack strategies to help them decode difficult words. This term will continue to look at how we summarise texts, a skill that we can then use in our writing. Another focus for this term will be the children’s opinions on what they are reading. They will learn how to evaluate a text from the author’s point of view. They will share their thoughts and feeling on what they are reading and this in turn will help shape them into the kind of reader they will be.

Writing – This term, the children will continue to look at narrative writing whilst using their description bubbles to aid planning. We introduced free writing as part of our routine which gives the children the opportunity to write about anything that they would like to, whether it be comic books, or short stories. In terms of new skills, the children will be encouraged to develop their awareness of conjunctions and connectives and how these can be used effectively in their writing. The children will also be trained in how to read over their work to ensure they have met their success criteria for that particular piece of writing. The children are continually encouraged to complete neat work and take care of their presentation when completing tasks; however this is something that requires more attention as they progress in their learning.

Listening and Talking – This term, we will continue with listening for instructions and acting appropriately. The children will also be developing their ability to be a ‘good, quality audience’ which means looking eyes, listening ears and proper body language. When presenting, we will be concentrating on speaking clearly as well as good eye contact and relevant information.

Numeracy

I am delighted in the progress made by the class in terms of their numeracy. They can now use several strategies to attack a single calculation. Their number talks strategies are valuable as we continue to explore addition and subtraction within 3 digits. Our prior knowledge of place value will also help us in partitioning these numbers to help us calculate within these operations.

We will spend time looking at word problems within addition and subtraction and how we can extract the relevant information from the problem to enable us to solve it.

The children will also continue to look at and learn our 3, 6, and 9 times tables. We will explore maths within the real world through our enterprise topic in which we will explore the charity ‘Missio’. We will also organise activities to raise funds for the charity which will work towards our understanding of numeracy in our real world.

In terms of our beyond number topics, we will continue to look at time, money, data handling and measurement.

A big focus this term will also be our ability to use mathematical language and solve simple equations.

Health and Wellbeing

As well as our PATHS programme which will run throughout the year, we will be looking at our bodies this term and how we can keep ourselves healthy. We will look at food, allergies and how our bodies gain energy from the foods that we eat. As an ongoing learning input, we will continue to look at how our choices have consequences, both negative and positive and how these choices impact on the relationships we build.

Our physical education inputs will be gymnastics, hockey, basketball and tennis throughout this term with Mrs MacKinnon teaching two of these sports and myself teaching the other two. Our P.E. days will continue to be a Tuesday and a Thursday. PLEASE ENSURE YOUR CHILD HAS INDOOR SHOES FOR THE PURPOSE OF P.E. ON THESE DAYS. THESE SHOULD NOT BE SHOES THAT THEY WEAR TO SCHOOL.

Religious Education

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the children in the class who celebrated their sacrament of reconciliation in December and I would also like to thank the rest of the children for supporting their peers on this journey. We will begin preparation for our sacrament of confirmation after the holidays which will take place on the 22^nd February 2022. As part of this preparation, we will explore the celebration of the Passover and how Jesus celebrated this festival. We will also explore Jesus as our teacher and his teachings.

Expressive Arts

Within Art this term, we will be looking at the work by an artist called Piet Mondrian who was a Dutch painter. We will also hopefully explore the use of clay in modelling.

Our music inputs will focus on the children showing a certain control over certain instruments as well as identifying the main instruments used within pieces of music.

Our drama inputs will take place during our PATHS sessions.

Technologies

Our knowledge of the general use of ICT is definitely improving. Last term we were able to use the ICT suite, laptops, sphero robots, iPads and applications within each of these. The children are much more confident in how this equipment should be used. This term, our focus will be on the safe use of ICT and the internet. We will learn about the safe use of the internet with a specific focus on internet safety day on the 8^th February as well as our digital footprints.

Modern Languages

The class will continue to learn French with Mrs MacKinnon this term. Their knowledge of the French language so far is very impressive.

Science

Last term, the children explored the use of renewable and non-renewable energy within their topic of energy. This term, we will learn all about electricity and what we use it for.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support.

Take care, Mrs McCreadie

Primary 4 – Term 2

Primary 4 have worked extremely hard last term with lots of excellent learning taking place. They have settled well into their new classroom and routines. I am very proud of how they have adapted to the changes that they have experienced since P3. Here is an update of what is coming in the term ahead.

IDL

We will continue with our interdisciplinary topic of the rainforest. The children are really engaged in this topic and due to the excellent questions that they have had regarding this topic, we will continue learning about the rainforest (with a particular focus on the Amazon Rainforest) until the end of December. This term our learning will focus more on the climate change occurring as a result of deforestation and how this is affecting everything from the animals who live in the rainforest, to the melting ice caps in the arctic.

Literacy

The children are now excellent at accessing their reading texts both with a hard copy of their book as well as bug club when we get the opportunity in the ICT suite. We will continue to use our word attack strategies to help us decode new words, which will help build our confidence when presented with unfamiliar words. There will also be a focus on reading with expression and fluency. This can be encouraged at home when the children are reading anything at all. It’s all about confidence!

Through our writing activities, it has become apparent that the children need lots more practise in their tools for writing. This includes the use of capital letters and full stops as well as neat handwriting. The children will also be encouraged to use their spelling helpers to help them in writing words that they are unsure of. Encourage your child to ‘have a go’ when it comes to spelling. We know in Primary 4 that mistakes help us to learn.

We have also started using description bubbles when we are completing a piece of writing and some of the vocabulary that the children are coming up with is excellent. This ability to describe things in detail will help them in our new focus for this term of narrative writing. We will be looking at the structure of a story and what our criteria is to achieve success.

Our listening and talking focus will continue to be following instructions within school. We will also look at what an appropriate level of noise is for the classroom, playground and gym hall. The children will be encouraged to develop positive body language and eye contact whilst having discussions with their peers. This has not changed from last term as I do not feel that the children are fully achieving this target quite yet. That being said, their ability to discuss and explain different things is definitely improving. It is evident in our discussions during PATHS time as well as their explanations during number talks time that they are maturing and this is a skill that will develop with practise.

Numeracy

I am so impressed with the class in terms of numeracy. We have had a visiting teacher from the Scottish Attainment Challenge in our class 3 times per week for a few weeks and the children have completely engaged with her in terms of their learning. This term, we will be looking at estimating and rounding of numbers whilst using our knowledge of place value. In terms of our number operations, we will be concentrating on addition and subtraction whilst continuing to practise our time tables.

Another concept that has been introduced to the children is number talks. This concept teaches children how to solve calculations using different strategies. This enables children to have ownership of their own learning by using the strategies that suit them best to solve calculations. This will be something that benefits the children as they make their way through the school.

In terms of our beyond number topics, Mrs MacKinnon will be teaching the children about money and how they should be using this. They will be concentrating on recognising and using money up to the value of £20 and the vocabulary that accompanies this topic. Mrs McCreadie will continue to look at time with the children. We will focus on o’clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past in both digital and analogue time.

Health and Wellbeing

Our P.E days are currently a Tuesday and a Thursday. The children can wear comfortable bottoms on these days but should bring indoor shoes into school on these days.

The children will be learning the skills required to play football and badminton this term, as well as looking at dance nearer to the Christmas term.

Primary 4 already partake in mindfulness every day. This allows the children to find a 5 minute quiet time in the middle of a very busy day. The children have been introduced to the massage in schools programme and all said it made them feel calmer and more relaxed. Different strategies will be developed throughout the year which will empower children to deal with stresses that they encounter in their day to day lives.

As part of our PATHS lessons, we will also be encouraging and nurturing positive relationships within the class and school. This is with peers and adults alike. Manners are a must as well as respect. We will explore what makes a good friend and what strategies we can build upon to help us with our resilience and help us regulate our emotions. The children explore the emotions that they feel and there is a focus on all emotions being ok, it is their behaviour that is sometimes unacceptable.

R.E

This term is extremely important in terms of the children’s faith journey. Many of our children will be making their Sacrament of Reconciliation during Advent. If your child is making this Sacrament then keep a look out for information and work to be completed at home. If your child is not making the Sacrament, then it is important that they come along on our journey and learn about why different religions have different ceremonies.

Expressive Arts

Art – Our focus within art will be tone, shape and shade of colours. The children have already been introduced to the word ‘texture’ during our description time at writing but they will explore this during art too.

Music – Primary 4 will be introduced to different instruments that are used to create different moods and genres of music.

Drama – Drama will continue to be looked at through our PATHS lessons in the form of role play.

Dance – Dance will be a focus during our P.E. time closer to Christmas.

I.C.T

As our independence continues to develop in Primary 4, so does our ability to use IT equipment. Our focus in Primary 4 this term will be to continue using our skills we have so far (practise at logging in etc) as this encourages independence. The children are also at an age now where some of them are going online without adult supervision (playing with their friends online etc) and it is therefore important that they know how to keep themselves safe whilst they are online. A focus on internet safety for the foreseeable will allow discussion and scenarios to be used in teaching the children how to keep themselves and their information safe while they use the internet.

Modern Languages

Primary 4 will continue their French this term with Mrs MacKinnon. To begin with, the children will  revise previous learning to refresh their memory on greetings, counting etc before they move onto new learning.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all. I am thoroughly enjoying being the Primary 4 teacher this year and I am loving getting to know your children. They are all wonderful. Speak to you all soon in our telephone appointments.

Take care and stay safe,

Mrs McCreadie

Primary 4 – Term 1

 Primary 4 are already working hard! There is a lot to cover in the term ahead but also lots of fun to be had! Here is an update on the upcoming term.

IDL

Our interdisciplinary topic this term is the rainforest. We have already started this and the children are really enjoying learning about it’s different aspects, for example the layers of the rainforest and the animals who live there. A lot of our learning will be done though this topic with poems, graphs, drawings and much more being explored.

Literacy

Our reading focus this term will focus on the skill of comprehension and how the children can understand, analyse and evaluate fiction and non-fiction texts. We will be introducing the use of our find it, prove it and talk about it strategies to investigate our texts. Our class novel ‘The Giants and the Joneses’’ has already began and the children are loving the interdisciplinary approach to learning within this novel. This will be our focus for literacy tasks this term and our bug club be reintroduced shortly for our personal reading and homework texts.

Through our writing activities, the children will be focussing on their tools for writing. Handwriting will also be completed at least once per week and neat presentation will be encouraged in homework jotters too.

Our listening and talking focus will be on following instructions within school. We will also look at what an appropriate level of noise is for the classroom, playground and gym hall. The children will be encouraged to develop positive body language and eye contact whilst having discussions with their peers.

Numeracy

The class will be focussing their 2 and 4 times tables. We have already began on working on our understanding of Place Value and what value each digit holds within the columns (Thousands, Hundreds, Tens and units).

In terms of beyond number, the class have already begun exploring the properties of 2D and 3D shape. We have already investigated edges, faces and vertices of 2D and 3D shape. Time seems to be an area that the children lack confidence in. With that, we will be learning about time for a long period of time over the next couple of terms. Long term exposure to this should help with retention of this subject.

Another concept that will be taught throughout this year will be number talks. This concept teaches children how to solve calculations using different strategies. This enables children to have ownership of their own learning by using the strategies that suit them best to solve calculations.

Health and Wellbeing

Our P.E days are currently a Tuesday and a Thursday. We are currently learning about our fitness and how we can develop our stamina, agility, accuracy, balance and co-ordination. We will shortly be moving onto ball skills.

The children already have a good understanding of how being active will help them to stay healthy. We will soon be looking at how sleep and rest are also required to stay healthy.

Primary 4 already partake in mindfulness every day. This allows the children to find a 5 minute quiet time in the middle of a very busy day. We will soon be embarking on the massage in schools programme. Different strategies will be developed throughout the year which will empower children to deal with stresses that they encounter in their day to day lives.

As part of our PATHS lessons, we will also be encouraging and nurturing positive relationships within the class and school. This is with peers and adults alike. Manners are a must as well as respect. We will explore what makes a good friend and what strategies we can build upon to help us with our resilience and help us regulate our emotions.

R.E

R.E. this term will look at one of God’s greatest gifts – free will. The children will look at the idea of choices and what makes a good choice. There will also be a focus on baptism, looking at the children’s baptism as well as the story of Jesus’ baptism. This will begin the children’s journey of their sacraments that will take place this session. We will be learning different hymns and prayers throughout the session whilst also taking an in-depth look at what the rosary is used for.

Expressive Arts

Art – Our focus within art this term is drawing and printing. We will explore line, shape and tones of colour.

Music – Primary 4 will continue to work on our appreciation of different genres of music, whilst using our online Charanga music resource.

I.C.T

As our independence develops in Primary 4, so does our ability to use IT equipment. Our focus this term will simply be on the use of the ICT equipment. Logging on and off of the laptops and accounts will encourage independent learning. Typing skills and mouse control are also skills that will be focussed on throughout this term.

Modern Languages

Primary 4 are very lucky to be learning all about the Spanish language with Mrs Fergusson this term. They have already looked at greetings, questions and will soon be moving onto the days of the week etc. I am very impressed!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuing support. We have a very busy year ahead but it a year that will be filled with fun and learning.

Take care and stay safe,

Mrs McCreadie