We are having a fantastic first week back and love being in Primary 5๐คฉ.
Solo Talks
This month we have been busy preparing for our class solo talks. We discussed oral presentation features including speaking in a loud and clear voice, making eye contact, having a clear introduction and including relevant information. We also discussed the features of a good audience such as good listening skills and being able to ask and answer questions.
Some solo talk topics covered hobbies, favourite holidays, famous people, special family members, countries, history and more.ย All the solo talks were well presented using flash cards, posters, Google slides, photographs and pictures and were enjoyed by all. ๐ค๐ฃ
The Twits
Last term our class novel was The Twits. For those of you who donโt know, The Twits is written by Roald Dahl and features Mr. and Mrs. Twit, a spiteful, lazy unkempt couple who continuously play nasty jokes on each other to amuse themselves, and exercise their wickedness on their monkeys.
We absolutely loved reading the novel and enjoyed using jam boards at the end of each lesson to record our predictions for the following week. We were always very eager to read on to find out what was going to happen as the story developed and enjoyed leaving the story on a cliff hanger each week.
We used Literacy, ICT, Drama and Art and Design to link our learning with the Twits. We wrote poems, instructions, comic strips, menus and more. We used materials to recreate Mr Twitโs disgusting beard and we used our drama skills to reenact parts of the story. At the end of the novel we worked in teams to complete a Twits quiz. Each team scored very highly.
We are looking forward to reading another Roald Dahl novel this term. ๐โค๏ธ
Germination
Our science topic this term is germination. Just like humans, plants need certain things to grow and survive. We have been learning about plant growth and survival, parts of a plant, methods of seed dispersal and how plants make their own food through a process called photosynthesis. We decided to plant and grow our own plants. We used soil, seeds, biodegradable pots and water and have enjoyed watching their growth and progress in class. Keep an eye on our blog for an updated photo of our class planters. ๐๐๐ชด
Virtual Reality Headsets
This term we worked hard as a class to fill up our Pom Pom jar. For our reward we chose to have virtual reality afternoon using our school VR headsets.
In VR, you can see all sorts of different places, real or imagined. The headsets let you explore imaginary worlds or places you might not be able to get to, such as tourist destinations.
Some of the places we visited included the Amazon Rainforest, Paris, London, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Maldives! We went up the Eiffel Tower, went on a safari trip where we met lions, elephants and monkeys, went inside an Egyptian tomb, swam with turtles and sharks in the ocean and more.
It was a real treat๐๐๐ฌ๐
Animations
In ICT we were keen to learn about animation. Animation is when drawings and objects look like they are moving. We used a website called Sketch to practise animating our own characters. First we drew a picture of our character and coloured it in.ย Next we took a picture of our drawing and uploaded it to the website. We followed the steps on the website to make sure our character drawing met the requirements for the animation to work. We loved playing around on the website using the animation tool to bring our characters to life! ๐พ๐ป
World Book Day
At the start of the month we celebrated World Book Day. World Book Day is a registered charity on a mission to give every child and young person a book of their own. Itโs also aย celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) itโs a celebration of reading.
We spent our day doing a range of reading activities and throughly enjoyed it.
We took part in a quiz where we had to identify books based on a section of their front covers. Bonus points were given if we knew the author of the books.
We completed a booklet all about our favourite book in which we wrote diary entries, author interviews, summaries, character profiles, word searches and more.
We enjoyed taking part in a Whereโs Wally scavenger hunt in our school corridors.
We worked in pairs and used drama skills to perform a scene from a book which the rest of the class had to guess.
We also enjoyed choosing a story to be read by another teacher in the school. ๐๐๐
XA Factor
A huge well done to Isla and Georgia who took part in the school talent show, the XA factor, on Friday last week. They wore beautiful matching outfits to perform their highland dance which they did with great confidence. The audience and judges were very impressed! ๐ฏโโ๏ธ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ
Gymnastics
We have finished our block of gymnastics lessons in PE. We loved using the frame along with all of the other gymnastics equipment to develop our gymnastics skills such as balancing, rolling and jumping. ๐ช๐ผ๐คธโโ๏ธ
ICT
In ICT we have been learning to use different tools on Microsoft Word. Last week we learned how to use the shape tool to insert shapes and change their size, colour and position. We used this tool to create pictures of Viking homes and longships as part of our Vikings topic.
