It’s been a busy but a fun month in P4.2! November has been packed with learning, new experiences and achieving goals. We have been working with a lot more independence and have enjoyed learning outside, with new technologies and in the classroom.

Our new topic is based around learning about different climate zones around the world and how they affect living things.  We have explored Polar, Temperate and Tropical climate zones and we are starting to name countries within each zone. We are becoming more familiar with the seven continents and five oceans and can point them out on a globe and on a map in an atlas.

We have been focusing on social skills a lot in P4.2. We continue to hold circle times, class discussions and workshops to take a closer look at friendships, working together and compromise. To apply the skills we have been talking about, Mrs Denny has been setting us challenges and tasks to work together. Lots of decisions have to be made and discussed and everyone needs to be involved. One of the biggest challenges Mrs Denny has set has been for P4.2 to create their own display wall for Climate Zones. Everyone discussed who should do what, thinking about what skills would be best for the job with no help from the teacher. We helped each other to make decisions, gather resources and complete the task. We all think the wall looks wonderful – team work makes the dream work! ⭐️

We joined a live lesson ran by the National Museum  who explored biodiversity in Scotland within  a temperate climate zone. We have also been learning to take notes whilst watching and listening.

We shared the animals that we knew from four different ecosystems: urban, rural, forest and coastal. This fantastic lesson brought artefacts from the National Museum in Edinburgh straight to our classroom! We studied different insects and animals, including microscopic images and looking at the skulls of different animals and learning how they have adapted to their surroundings.  

We read books, watched and listened to videos and researched how living things, such as animals, people and plants, adapt to different climates and made notes. We used these notes to create some excellent non-chronological reports.

At the end of November, the fantastic Parent Council organised a special Christmas surprise for us. Dasher and Dancer, two of Santa’s reindeer, came to visit our school. We learned a lot about reindeer from the people who look after them for Santa. The reindeer were lovely and soft when we patted them. They gobbled up all the carrots we fed them and were ready for more! One reindeer only had one antler as they often shed their antlers at this time of the year. We LOVED meeting them and we are so ready for lots of Christmas fun in December! 🎄🦌