Welcome to our first blog post of Primary 5. Everyone has been working hard and we are now settling into our new class routines and getting back into the swing of school life. We have been busy discussing Children’s Rights and have created our Class Charter. We have also begun creating some new artwork to personalise our classroom. Please visit regularly to keep up to date with the fantastic work we will be doing over the session. 

P4.1 have been extending their learning beyond the classroom and into our beautiful school grounds. 🌳

As part of our community IDL, we are looking to dedicate our time and talents to bring about a positive change to our school and community. The children in P4.1 decided that they would like to litter pick as they felt this was a bit of a problem in certain areas of Barrhead. P1 were also holding a campaign to litter pick in the grounds of Cross Arthurlie for World Oceans Day, so we joined them outside. We were in charge of the area next to the fence and Active Trail. We see a big difference now! It didn’t take long as we all worked as a team to get the job done!

The Diamonds maths group have recently been learning about area so we put their knowledge to the test with the BBC Playground Survey Area Challenge. This would help them to understand the size of a squared metre. Pupils had to work in small groups to estimate then measure the length and breadth of the playground with trundle wheels. They used the formula A=LxB to work out the area. We then calculated an average of all of our measurements to get our final answer. We were very accurate in our measurements as most of them were very similar!

We are very lucky to have such a large playground. Did you know that the length of our playground is a whopping 224m by 71m! The areas where we can play take up half of the overall school grounds so we estimate our playground is about 7.952 squared metres! That’s a lot of space!

Primary 4 were lucky to welcome ladies from a local Barrhead sewing group to teach them the basics of sewing. This was a realitively new skill for most pupils in the class and everyone really impressed with efforts.

Over the next month, children will be learning life skills such as finance, business, cooking, sewing and building. Pupils were able to discuss how sewing is an important life skill. Pupils suggested things like:
– you can mend your own clothes and be more environmentally friendly.
– you can customise your clothes and items.
– the skill of sewing can be used in jobs when you’re older (for example, a surgeon).

Pupils used Binka material, needles and thread to create a running stitch, a cross stitch and sew a button on. Everyone was encouraged to go at their own pace. We listened carefully to the instructions and gave it a go! We showed a lot of resilience and asked lots of good questions. We are delighted to hear so many boys and girls want to continue to try sewing at home. Well done P4!

The sun was shining for our Sports Day this year and Primary 4 were very excited to take part in their first P4-P7 potted sports and races.

Everyone was in good spirits and wearing their house colours. Well done to everyone for taking part! A special congratulations to all the pupils who put themselves forward for the races and tug of war. 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️💪

Primary 4.1 have completed their block of swimming lessons at the Barrhead Foundry.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the last 6 weeks of lessons and we feel that we have really improved when swimming. Many pupils have said that they feel much more confident in the water now.

I really enjoyed the pool games!

I can go to the bottom of the pool and touch the floor!

I was able to swim lengths in the big pool.

The swimming instructors at The Foundry awarded us with certificates. We are very proud of our efforts whilst swimming, changing and organising our belongings.

The circles have been busy in maths learning all about place value. We are able to order numbers up to 1000, as well as write the numbers in words and digits. We have also used the number blocks in order to build numbers to show our understanding of the value of each digit within a number. This week we have focused on rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. The circles have demonstrated great learning and understanding of numbers up to 1000 – well done!

Primary 4 have been learning about electrical circuits in Science. They have explored what a circuit is, drew circuits with symbols and then built them to test if they work. P4.1 can now identify why a circuit isn’t working and can suggest a way to fix it. Pupils can now jdentify conductors and insulators.

Primary 6 have also been learning about electricty in a more advanced way and decided to share their learning with p4. They built Scribblebot robots with a simple circuit and coloured pens! Each robot made a different colourful pattern on the paper.

This is British Science Week. P4.1 took part in the BBC Micro:bit Playground Survey. Our first challenge was to investigate the surface temperature of different materials in our playground. We learned the difference between natural and synthetic materials and picked out examples in our playground.

We split into small groups and discussed the need to repeat the thermometer test. We wanted to make sure we got the same reading 3 times to make sure it was accurate.

We worked together to make sure the test was fair. We discussed what we should all do the same. For example, the way we hold the micro:bit to make sure we get the correct temperature reading.

Finally, we coded our micro:bit using MakeCode software so that it acted like a thermometer. We were able to do this all by ourselves, from making the code to downloading it to the micro:bit via a USB cable.

Thanks to all our families that turned up on Open Afternoon. It’s always so lovely to see you all. The children of P4.1 were delighted to show off their work and they enjoyed the help with their Viking artwork.

We have finished reading Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, our class novel. We had the exciting opportunity to interview the main characters Ottoline and Mr Munro. We explored tbe job of a journalist and the different ways information can be shared. We decided to play characters in role, pretending to interview individuals on the sofa of Newsround. We had lots of fun and managed to stay in character the whole time. We used our imagination and evidence from the text to answer the questions. We took turns when talking and listening.