This has been a busy and productive month for Primary 6b.

In Literacy, we have been developing our writing skills and can now use adjectives and similes more confidently when describing both character and setting.

In Maths and Numeracy, we have been working hard on developing our skills when working with fractions, decimals, subtraction with exchange, and place value.  During Maths Week Scotland, we also learnt how maths is employed in various jobs and enjoyed participating in various design challenges including our 3D shape robot challenge.

In Social Studies, as part of our Victorians’ topic, we have been developing our note-taking and research skills and have used Microsoft Sway to present our findings.

In Art, we have been learning all about Charles Rennie Mackintosh and have produced collage pictures inspired by his unique design style.

In HWB, we have been learning about the Eatwell plate and the importance of eating a well-balanced diet.  In PE, we have been doing circuits to develop our fitness levels.  We have enjoyed working on our stamina when doing ski jumps, squats, push ups, crunches, step ups, star jumps and lunges.

Literacy and Numeracy

Our learning in these areas will draw upon the contexts listed above but will differ according to the needs of each class/group. Your support with consolidation of core learning through homework activities will be very beneficial to our children.

Achievements

As well as our learning at school we have been very busy achieving lots outside of school.  There have been lots of achievements in gymnastics. Niamh has been selected for the team for a competition, Iona has learnt how to do an aerial and Freya has moved up to level 6.  In football, Kyle is playing in a Pro Youth team the year above his age and Hamish has moved up to the next football team and has also been selected for a Pro Judo competition.  Matthew has learned some different grabs on the freestyle skiing slope.

We are also becoming more independent in 6b. Emily now looks after her dog when her parents are out and Zara has been helping with the cooking and ironing at home. Katie is able to go out with her friends on her own and Aribah is gaining confidence at swimming independently.  Ellis has been practising his violin and feels he has improved a lot and Kimberley has learned 4 new songs on her guitar.

Article 28: You have the right to education.

Article 31: You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sport, music and drama.

Awesome Achievers

Over the past few months, Primary 5b have been enjoying the outdoors by climbing hills, playing football and flying gadgets like drones. Many of the class took part in the Cross Country try-outs and we had one class member successful in making the Giffnock team. We continue to strive to improve our swimming skills, with some of the focus being on the butterfly stroke recently. Lots of the children have been exploring their artistic side with their drawings and also creating 3D models out of paper and string. One of our class members is the star player in their online gaming team.

Class Blog

Our Health and Wellbeing focus this term is Substance Misuse. We have been sorting different drugs into categories such as “legal, illegal and legal with restrictions”. Restrictions on drugs could be your age, how much you are allowed or where you can buy it. We know that some medicines are helpful while others can be harmful, some are addictive and some need to be prescribed by a doctor.

In ICT, we have been applying our editing skills in a Word document to create a colour picture in the style of the artist Mondrian. We inserted a table and then changed the sizes of the boxes by using the merge cells tool. We have been working on improving our search skills by using quotation marks to search for a specific phrase, or limiting our search results by being more specific with what we search for. As part of Safer Internet Day, we created posters with important messages about preventing cyber bullying and being safe online.

During PE, we have been developing our gymnastics skills. In partners and small groups we have created balances and short sequences of movement. More specifically, we have been learning to do a frog stand, shoulder stand, head stand and cart wheel. This culminated in working as a group to create a short sequence incorporating balances, rolls and simple movements. We have been fortunate to have a coach in for a few weeks to develop our cricket skills. One of the first things we had to master was catching the ball safely, then how to hold the bat as if we were chopping wood. Our next step is to start playing proper cricket matches.

Our new topic this term is the Scottish Wars of Independence. So far, we have learned about the reign of King Alexander III and how he met his untimely death. We have now been introduced to John Balliol and look forward to exploring his role in Scottish history. We have developed some of our art skills by creating split-pin puppets to represent John Balliol, the Puppet King, and we had to create King Alexander’s horse through a mixture of drawing, painting and collage.

In November, Primary 5b have been very sporty, taking part in diving, swimming, gymnastics, cycling, football and running. Our musical talents continue to develop in learning the violin, guitar, piano and accordion. We have been responsible around the house by helping to decorate the Christmas tree and making dinner for our family. In school, we were confident and responsible in our roles with the Fizz Boom Fairtrade stall.

Class Blog

In ICT we have been learning to make a short film clip, making an advert for our Fairtrade stall. Our next step is to edit the film clips into a short movie. We have been applying skills by making a PowerPoint that had to include text, images and transition features.

Our Science focus has been about endangered and extinct animals, as well as how animals adapt to their habitat. We found it interesting to see how animals camouflage themselves so that they do not get seen by prey or predators. We also had great fun during our Google Expedition about animal adaptations using the virtual reality headsets.

We have been developing our skills in basketball over the past few weeks, and can now work in teams, pass, shoot and dribble the ball. Now we know that you cannot run when holding the ball or double dribble – you cannot dribble, stop and then dribble again.

During November, we were very busy working at our Fairtrade stall. We had to display our stock and price tags, the Book Keepers had to carefully keep records of the stock that was sold, and the Cashiers had to responsibly handle the money and change.

In Art, we have been using clay to make small pots for candle holders. We had to be creative and work delicately so that the clay did not break. Then we made different types of Christmas decorations, such as snowmen, stars, trees or baubles.

In grammar, we have been learning to identify the narrative voice of a text, so we can tell if it is written in first person, second person or third person. Our focus in reading has been fiction texts. We have been skimming the text to find phrases that will help us to expand our answers. Another reading skill we were working on was comparing and contrasting. In writing, we have been learning to plan our writing before starting to help us organise the information. To get our imagination working, we have been starting our writing by studying a picture. We have used our senses and imagination to build upon the information in the picture, and then have been writing detailed description based on our plans.

Primary 5b have been very busy in October. We have continued to develop our skills in gymnastics, football and swimming. The holiday week gave us an opportunity to be more daring, taking part in quad biking, sailing and sky diving off a high pole! We have been responsible citizens in October by helping around the house, looking after siblings and taking part in the Great Scottish Run.

In music we continue to learn new rhythms and keep the beat to different songs. We now know the rhythm “te ta te” and the song “Epo-i Tai Tai”.

We have finished our block of swimming lessons at Eastwood swimming pool. All of us have grown in confidence over the block of lessons. Our favourite parts included the opportunity to dive in to the water, exploring with the different floats and learning to do different swimming strokes.

In Science we have been learning about classification keys. We were given a group of animals and had to sort them by asking different questions. This was a tricky skill where we really had to think about the types of questions that would help us to identify an animal.

We have been developing our ICT skills by interacting with each other on Glow. Through this, we have successfully responded to discussion questions and have managed to send, receive and reply to emails within our class.

In reading, we have been looking at fiction books. We have been using highlighters to help us find the answer within the text, and this has helped us to focus on the text.  Another skill we have been working on is sequencing the story in the correct order.  In writing, we have been studying the characters from a David Walliams story and creating our own interesting character to fit the story.

In reading, we have been answering inferential questions from a story. We have been learning to scan an unseen text for information and highlighting the key words in the text to help us answer different questions. In Writing, we have been creative by making our own characters. We tried to give them a name using alliteration.

We have had a sporty September in Primary 5b. We have been developing our skills in gymnastics, football, rugby, cycling, skateboarding, swimming, ski-ing and rock climbing. As well as this, it has been a musical month through our guitar, cello and accordion playing.

In August, we started by doing a mini topic about the Rio Olympics. We looked at the work by the Brazilian artist, Romero Britto and created some work in his style.

In music we have been clapping and tapping rhythms and learning to keep the beat. Our favourite song with Mrs Carrey at the moment is John Kanaka. If you ask us, we might sing it for you!

We are half way through our block of swimming lessons at Eastwood swimming pool. Some of us have been using flippers to propel ourselves through the water. Some of us have been learning to dive by keeping our feet together and putting our finger tips in the water first. It is not a good idea to try diving when wearing flippers.

Our Social Studies topic is Fairtrade. In ICT we have been looking at different websites about Fairtrade. We created pictures using paint and collage materials to show Fairtrade farmers. Through our research we have learned some interesting facts about Fairtrade products.

In Science we have been look at living things. We have been sorting animals into 6 different groups – mammals, amphibians, insects, reptiles, birds and fish. We have also studied the 6 groups that invertebrates can be categorised into. Next, we are going to learn about classification keys.

In reading, we have been studying non-fiction texts. We have been learning to scan to find specific information and identify the main idea of the text. We have been able to create a time line of the life of a historical figure. In Writing we have been creating a new character and are now writing a detailed character description. As a focus, we have been trying to use similes and metaphors in our writing.