Category Archives: Primary 4 2020-2021

Primary 4 2020-2021, uncategorized, Whole School News

Mount Carmel becomes a Five Star Missio School!

Primary 4 are absolutely delighted to have helped Mount Carmel Primary become a Five Star Missio School, making us the very first school in East Ayrshire to acheive this; what a wonderful achievement!

To become a Five Star Missio Scotland school takes lots of work and commitment. Primary 4 took on the role of Missio Champions within the school and have been very busy highlighting the work of Missio  and reminding the whole school community that we all have a mission to love and serve others.

We were delighted to welcome Gerard from Missio Scotland to our assembly on Monday, during which we received our 5 stars and our very own Missio mascot –  ‘Martin Moo’   (very aptly named in memory of our much loved Fr Martin).

Well done Primary 4, we are so proud of your wonderful achievement and we are looking forward to continuing our work with Missio Scotland.

Primary 4 2020-2021, Whole School News

P4 Curricular Update – Term 3

Welcome back! I hope that you have all had a restful time over the festive period. It is lovely to see all the children back in class and ready for another busy term. Here is an overview of term 3.

Literacy

For our reading focus, the children will explore two class books. In January we will read, ‘The Treasure of the Loch Ness Monster,’ this will tie in with our Scotland theme as we explore Scottish stories and poems. The children will have an opportunity to develop their comprehension skills such as metalinguistics, prediction and summarising.

We will then move on to a non-fiction text,’ Cool Castles’,  which again will be linked to our learning about Scottish Castles. The children will look at the features of this non-fiction text. We will look at the skills of summarising and note taking. Children will continue to be assigned a Bug Club reader as part of their homework tasks.

During writing, we will look at report and explanatory writing. We will look at the features of these writing genres and use of reading and notetaking skills to link our reading and writing tasks.

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 will be looking at various strategies for solving multiplication and division problems.

In beyond number, the children will continue to look at time before moving on to money.

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 programme as well as our various daily mindful tasks.

We will also look at the various ways of staying safe and how to respond to emergency situations. We will link this to the world of work.

PE

PE is on a Thursday and Friday. This term we will be covering;

  • Fun fitness
  • Basketball

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. We will be looking at the months of the year and will be investigating what school is like in France.

IDL

This term, we will be exploring the topic of Scottish Castles. We will look at the features, location and history of these historic buildings. We will link this learning with our literacy tasks and our expressive art tasks, where we will be looking at line drawings and adding shape, shade and tone.

Expressive Arts 

This term, we will be linking our learning in RE with our drama activities, allowing us to retell the story of the lives of some well-known saints. We will work on our characterisation skills and develop our sense audience and space.

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

Religious Education

This term we will be looking at the importance and meaning of the Sacrament of Confirmation. We will explore the story of Pentecost and look at the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and how we can use these in our daily lives. We will read about the lives of some well-known saints, and reflect on how they are an inspiration to us.

As the term progresses we will look at the meaning of the season of Lent. The children will take part of 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.

As we start preparation for the Sacraments, there will also be some home tasks sent home in the Confirmation Work book for those children preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in February.

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.

 

Primary 4 2020-2021, Whole School News

Primary 4 visits to Crossgates

Primary 4 have been really enjoying their visits to Crossgates.

Today, we presented the residents and staff with an Advent wreath. During a previous visit the children, residents and staff designed handprints, we used these to create a joint Advent Wreath to remind everyone of the lovely friendships that we have built with our new Crossgates friends.  We have one in our classroom and there is now one displayed in Crossgates. 🎄

Today we enjoyed making Christmas themed play-doh creations. We shared stories and had lots of fun and laughter with our new friends.

 

 

Primary 4 2020-2021, Whole School News

P4 Missio Champions

P4 have been enjoying their role as ‘Missio Champions’ within the school.

As we all get ready for the beginning of Advent, P4 put together and distributed some fun Advent activities for all the classes.

We also gave everyone a Missio Advent Calendar to remind us all of the importance of keeping Jesus at the centre of our Advent Journey.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful and prayerful Advent.

P4

Advent calendar

 

Primary 4 2020-2021, Whole School News

Primary 4 Curriculum Update Term 2

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.

Primary 4 2020-2021, Whole School News

P4 Curriculum Update Term 4

Welcome back to term 4. We hope you have had a restful time over the Easter break. We are looking forward to a wonderful new term of lots of new learning, fun and new experiences with our fantastic P4 class. 

 Literacy  

For our reading focus this term we will continue to look at building expression and fluency in our reading aloud. We will use the comprehension strategies we have been learning and look at what inferential and evaluative questions are and how we can use the text to help us with this. Please ensure your child accesses their Bug Club weekly to support their reading in these lessons. 

 

In writing, we will look at persuasive writing, focusing on our use of persuasive language and how to structure a persuasive piece of writing. This term, we will also start to incorporate the use of ICT for re-drafting some of our pieces of writing.  

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

 

Numeracy & Maths  

This term we will continue to build on our work with the four operations and will explore how fractions are related to division. We will look at the meaning of the numerator and denominator and will be able to order and compare fractions.  

In Beyond Number we will finish looking at time, children explore digital and analogue time as well as solving time duration problems.  

 

Health and Wellbeing  

We will continue with our PATHs programme, looking at problem solving and the idea of fair/unfair and accident and on purpose. We will continue with our Pupil of the Day, so keep a look out for your children coming home with their compliment sheet! 

The class are also engaging in a mindful activity each day. Through our Do Be Mindful programme and other class activities, we are learning about building and developing life enhancing skills, tools and habits that will foster emotional and mental wellbeing.  

 

PE 

PE is on a Wednesday and Friday. This term we will be covering; 

Athletics 

Tennis /Badminton 

PE kit must be brought in and left at the start of each term. Before the holiday, the kit was sent home for washing to be freshened up and should now be returned for the current term. Lessons may be outdoors if weather permits.   

 

French

This term along with developing our basic conversational vocabulary, we will look at ‘Sports’, ‘Our home’ and ‘Famous French People and Landmarks’. 

 

IDL 

P4 will be continue from our fairtrade topic last term to look at Food production. We will complete a comparison study between food production in Scotland and in another country. In May, we are very excited to visit Dumfries House to participate in their ‘Spring Festival of Farming.’ We are really excited for this visit and it will be a lovely ending to our topic.   

We will then move on to our new topic, Charities. We will look at a range of charities both at home and further afield and the work that they do in supporting and helping those in need. We will also look at how we can give back to our community in different ways. 

 

 

Religious Education  

This term we will be focusing on the importance of the Eucharist, linking to the Last Supper. We will also focus on the Mass as the source and summit of our Christian life and will continue to become familiar with the part of The Mass, including the various prayers and responses. We are all very excited to support our P4 children who will celebrate their First Holy Communion later this term.  

In May, we will focus on Our Lady, we will learn about the Rosary and become familiar with this beautiful prayer.  

  

Homework will be distributed on a Monday to be completed, signed and returned by Friday. Keep an eye on the class blog for regular updates to what is happening in class, recent learning and relevant upcoming events.  

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to a wonderful term with P4! 

Mrs MacKinnon and Mrs McIntyre. 

Primary 4 2020-2021, Whole School News

Primary 4 Term 3 Curricular Update

Welcome back to term 3. We hope you have had a restful time over the festive period. We are looking forward to a wonderful new term of lots of new learning, fun and new experiences with our fantastic P4 class.

Literacy

For our reading focus this term, we will continue to focus on developing our comprehension strategies using our class readers as well as non-fiction resources to link with our topics this term. These will incorporate reading for information, visualisation tasks, metalinguistics and using our prediction skills.

In writing, we will spend a few weeks on descriptive writing tasks, and we will then move on to response writing.

During the month of January, we will look at Scots language, and some well-known Scots poems. We will link this with a mini Scotland topic.

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

Numeracy & Maths.

This term we will look at strategies for solving multiplication and division problems. We will continue with our number talk and mental maths activities to further develop our use of mathematical language and confidence in solving a range of problems.

In Beyond Number, we will conclude our money focus in January leading into our next topic of measure until Easter.

Health and Wellbeing

We will continue with our PATHs programme, with a focus on relationships; how we develop and grow our friendships and the importance of a good manners and having a sense of responsibility.

We will also link our Health and Well-being with our topic work, looking at food choices, and how our diet can help us to stay healthy.

We will continue with our Pupil of the Day, so keep a look out for your children coming home with their compliment sheet!

PE

PE is on a Wednesday and Friday. This term we will be covering;

  • Gymnastics
  • Developmental play (Parachute games/Team-building challenges)

PE kit must be brought in and left at the start of each term. Before each holiday, the kit will be sent home for washing to be freshened up and returned on the first day back.

Expressive Arts

After lots of fantastic work in art before Christmas including 3D modelling and craft work, P4 will continue to develop their artistic skills focusing on colour, tone, line drawings and using varied materials. We will be looking at famous artists and imitating their unique styles in our own way.

In Class, we will undertake drama lessons each week looking at various conventions such as improvisation, mime, hot seating, freeze- frame as well as building confidence in our presentation skills for any shared learning within school.

French

In French we will look at using everyday language in different conversational situations e.g., buying food, ordering in a café, school life (subjects/classroom objects) and finally sports and hobbies. We will also learn topic specific vocabulary nearing Easter and a French prayer during Lent.

IDL

Our topics this term will include a mini-Scottish focus in January.

In February and March, we will then look at ‘Fairtrade and Food Production’ as our topic focus with links to science (food chains / food webs). We will be having a “Sharing the learning session” for parents and carers on 24th March during which the children will showcase some of their learning. Further details will follow, we hope that you can join us!

 Religious Education

This term we will looking at some of the political, historical, social and religious elements of first century Palestine to help us gain an understanding of Jesus’ life on earth.

As we journey towards Lent, we will reflect on the signs and symbols of the season and relate these to our own personal journey.

In preparation for the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation, we will be looking at the meaning of the sacrament and learn more about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

Homework will be distributed on a Monday to be completed, signed and returned by Friday. For the children who will be celebrating the Sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Communion, there will be some tasks sent home to complete, please assist your child with these tasks as they prepare for an important step in their faith journey.

Keep an eye on the class blog for regular updates to what is happening in class, recent learning and relevant upcoming events.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to a fabulous term with P4!

Mrs McIntyre and Mrs MacKinnon.

Primary 4 2020-2021, Whole School News

P4 Curriculum Update.

Welcome back! We hope you have all had an enjoyable summer. It has been fantastic to see P4 settle into their new classroom and routines.

We have had a great start to the term, and look forward to a fun filled term with lots of fabulous learning taking place.

Here is an update on the upcoming term.

Literacy

For our reading focus this term, we will be developing our comprehension strategies such as visualisation and metalinguistics through our class novel ‘Venus Peter saves the Whale’. This will also incorporate themes such as science, the environment, animals and friendship.

During writing, we will focus on building our characterisation through descriptive skills and language in our narrative writing. We will then progress our note taking skills using headings and paragraphs to present different types of information in a report.   Writing activities will also be based around a mini novel study on the ‘Mr Gum’ series of books.

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

Numeracy & Maths

The class will review Place Value knowledge and will use this to build on their sense of number. We will look at 3 and 4 digit numbers and we will read, write order and recite these numbers. Through our place value work, we will be able to identify the value of each digit.

We will then progress to looking at our addition strategies. The class will participate in a daily number talk, to develop of mental maths strategies.

In Beyond Number, the class will start with information handling, looking at data, surveys and creating charts, graphs and tables.

 

Health and Wellbeing

This term we will be begin our PATHS programme for P4. Lessons will include setting up our class rules, looking at individual emotions, building friendships and community within the school, Self-Control and Anger Management.

PE

PE is on a Wednesday and Friday. This term we will be covering;

  • Games
  • Basketball
  • Football

PE kit must be brought in and left at the start of each term. Before each holiday, the kit will be sent home for washing to be freshened up and returned on the first day back.  Please make sure your child is not wearing jewellery on these days as they will be unable to participate in the lesson for health and safety reasons. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.

French

We will be revising the alphabet, basic French phrases and numbers this term through, songs, activities and games.

IDL

P4 will be learning about the Vikings. We will be looking at the Vikings in Scotland and life at the time. Writing, ICT and expressive arts lessons will link to our Vikings topic.

 

Expressive Arts 

This term, we look at the illustrations from our class novel and use these as inspiration to create our own artwork using a variety of materials.

As we move on to our Vikings topic, we will create Viking art and models.

 

Religious Education

This term we will be reflecting on our uniqueness and thinking about our God given talents. We will reflect on the importance of friendship and link this with various stories from the Bible. The children will take part of class prayers and School Masses, and we will continue to build on our knowledge of common prayers and Mass responses.

 

Homework will be distributed on a Monday to be completed, signed and returned by Friday. Keep an eye on the class blog for regular updates to what is happening in class, recent learning and relevant upcoming events.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to a fabulous term with P4!

Mrs McIntyre and Mrs MacKinnon

Primary 4 2020-2021

Primary 4 Curricular update

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 22nd 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 8th 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 2020-2021

Primary 4 Term 2 update

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 2020-2021

Primary 4 Term 1

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

 

 

P1 Transition Blog, Primary 1 2020-2021, Primary 1/2 2020-2021, Primary 3 2020-2021, Primary 4 2020-2021, Primary 5 2020-2021, Primary 6 2020-2021, Primary 6/7 2020-2021, Whole School News

As this term comes to an end we would like to say a huge,

thank you,

to:

Our fantastic staff – those who work in the kitchen, our cleaners, our janitor, EAST support staff, all of our classroom assistants, our clerical staff and our teaching staff.  This has been a challenging year and each and every one of you have risen to overcome these.  Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for all that you do each and every day.  We hope that you enjoy a well-deserved rest over the summer.

To our Primary 7 children it is with great pride that we get to say ‘Good Luck’ to you in the future.   Do not forget us, you will always be part of our Mount Carmel family.

To our new Primary 1 children we can’t wait to welcome you into our family in August. 

To our amazing parents, thank you, for all of your support throughout the year.  Enjoy the time with your family over this holiday period.

 To Father Martin, Sister Mabel, Sister Juliet and Sister Rose, thank you, for supporting us on our faith journey.

 

And finally…

Thank you

…to our amazing children, you are reason that we come to work every day.  We thank you for your smiles, love and laughter.  Have a fantastic break and we look forward to welcoming you all back in August.

Together we are,

#TeamMC

 

 

 

 

P1 Transition Blog, Primary 1 2020-2021, Primary 1/2 2020-2021, Primary 3 2020-2021, Primary 4 2020-2021, Primary 5 2020-2021, Primary 6 2020-2021, Primary 6/7 2020-2021, Whole School News

Uniform Exchange

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Uniform Exchange.  We now have a wide range of items in various sizes available for families.

 

These can be collected from outside our main school office until 12.00pm today.   In the new term these items will continue to be available daily in our main foyer.

 

 

Primary 4 2020-2021

P4 First Holy Communion Party 🥳

Primary 4 had a wonderful time this morning at our special celebration to mark the 1st Holy communions that have recently taken place throughout June. It was lovely to celebrate all together in school and have some snacks and dancing in our big hall!!

And a big thank you to Mrs McConville for organising our beautiful cake and Mrs Fergusson for sorting the music!! 🎉🎉🎉

P1 Transition Blog, Primary 1 2020-2021, Primary 1/2 2020-2021, Primary 3 2020-2021, Primary 4 2020-2021, Primary 5 2020-2021, Primary 6 2020-2021, Primary 6/7 2020-2021, Whole School News

Uniform Exchange

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Uniform Exchange.  We now have a wide range of items in various sizes available for families. These can be collected from outside our main school office until 12.00pm on Friday.

Please remember that when accessing the Uniform Exchange adults should wear face coverings and maintain social distancing from other families. Hand sanitiser will also be available.

Thank you.

Primary 4 2020-2021

Primary 4 Dean Park Visit

Primary 4 had a wonderful day at Dean Park.  We saw the animals, had fun at two of the park’s swing parks, had a lovely lunch and had some time for games too.

A great day was had by all!!

As a special treat for our pupils who have recently had, or are about to take part in their 1st Holy Communion, Primary 4 will have an extra special party on the morning of Wednesday 23rd June to mark this special occasion.  All children can wear party clothes and we will have some treats, music and dancing in our big hall in school.  It will be a lovely way to mark the end of their primary 4 year too!