Author: Mrs Ferguson

In French we were playing a yes or no game to learn about French numbers up to 100.  We then did a worksheet where we had to work out calculations in French and colour match the answer to one of the number answers in French. We had to think about it for a while because sometimes we would forget what each number was in French.

In literacy we were creating a summary in our jotters about the books we were reading at home or a text in class.  A summary is when you get the main idea out of a story or a text.  The Editors and Publishers created a ‘Summary Slider’ which is a burger shape with the text summary in it.  We also included evidence from the text and detail to support the main idea.

On Thursday we were making decorations which were paper lanterns for Diwali.  Diwali is the festival of light and Sikhs, Hindus and Jains celebrate it.  There are lots of fireworks during Diwali.  It is mainly celebrated in India but can also be celebrated in other countries around the world.  During Diwali they eat yummy food and it’s on the 27th October this year.  It is normally celebrated around October/ November and the date depends on the position of the moon.  Pictures of flowers are also made out of sand.  People wear fancy clothing with patterns and colourful scarves.  We watched a story about Diwali in assembly and the main idea was that it is about good and evil and good always wins and light wins over dark.  We learned that lights are significant in order to guide people home.

In the pictures below you can some of P4b telling the school about Diwali and showing them the paper lanterns that we made.

P4b would like to wish you all a Happy Diwali!

 

            

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your hard work, Primary 4 and thank you to all who provided us with a range of materials to create recent artwork in class.  They are looking FAB! Photos to follow very soon! 🙂

Have a great holiday!

Miss Murchie and Mr Smith

On Thursday, we were learning about inheritance in science.  Inheritance is what characteristics are passed on from your parents and grandparents and previous generations. We did a task on a worksheet where there was a picture of a mum and dad  and they had 3 kids and you had to draw each child in a box.  We looked at the mum and dad closely and used some of their characteristics to draw the children.  Characteristics that we focused on were hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, dimples, mouth shape, nose shape, chin and head shape, ear size and shape and eyebrow shape. We have also made a front cover page in our jotters for our new topic.

Today we started making notes or a poster about our climate zone shoe box diorama to present in front of the class after the October Week holiday. We will be assessed on how clearly we can speak, the pace we are talking (not too slow or too fast), a medium volume, the information we are sharing with the class and the expression in our voice.  We also need to remember to hold our notes in front of our chest or below because the audience will need to be able to see our face and hear us.

We have finished our wonderful shoe box dioramas…

Can you guess which climate zones each of them are representing? Is it before or during climate change?

         

         

         

        

 

The Estimators group have been using Numicons for division. We used the Numicons to split them up into equal parts.

The Multipliers have been learning to multiply 2 digit numbers.  We have been counting on a number line partitioning the numbers into groups to show repeated addition.  We used the Numicons to multiply numbers by laying them out in groups. We also tried a different strategy which was like a chimney sum but with times tables by multiplying the units first and then the tens.

The Timers have been using Geoboards to make symmetrical patterns with elastic bands and checked them with a mirror.

 

Shoebox Diorama update: We have started to paint our climate zone dioromas and we started making the different objects and sticking them down like cotton wool for the snow and broken plastic for ice. We have really enjoyed making them but still have a little more to do to finish them and there will be some pictures of our dioramas coming very soon…

On Friday we split into 8 groups with 3 or 4 people in them. We each had a different climate zone to focus on: Polar, Temperate, Tropical and Arid. 4 groups focused on BEFORE climate change and 4 focused on DURING climate change. We were drawing pictures as a plan to get ideas and sharing them with our groups. We decided on what ideas we would use and wrote down each person’s role in the group. For example; some people have the job of making mountains out of white clay or playdough, other people have chosen to create sand out of cotton wool dipped in yellow paint and some other roles include; making birds out of cardboard and using brown clay to create logs to represent deforestation.

This week in Art we were drawing endangered animals and we coloured them in using the Pointillism technique. We used coloured dots and spaced them close together to show areas that are darker. We focused on tone to show areas that are lighter and darker.  Some examples of animals that we drew were turtles, cheetahs, dolphins, polar bears and snow leopards.

 

In Science we were planting seeds in sand and soil and some people planted theirs in a light area and the other half of the class were planting theirs in the dark. The aim was to see if the plants would grow in the light or dark better.  We were also trying to discover if the plants will grow in the different conditions of sand and of soil.  We are going to water the plants each day using a cup with a marker on it to show how much water to add in so that the experiment is fair.

 

In Numeracy we did a problem where 8 people stood in a circle and said a number in order from 1 up to 13.  Whoever says number 13 goes back to their seat and it continues as the next person starts from 1 again.  You have to go round the circle clockwise.  The problem was that you could make yourself win every time but we had to work out how this was happening.  We worked out that to get the same person to win every time they had to stand 2 people away from the person starting the game, anti-clockwise.

 

In Social Studies, we were learning animal adaptations and how some animals change the way they live or what they do to suit their environment. We learned that the desert tortoise adapts to live in the desert by trying to get water from what it eats. A camel takes a sip of water every 7 hours and has 2 lumps on its back.  We thought that the lumps were to store water but it’s actually to store fat.  Camels can actually last a week or more without water.  They also have hair inside their ears to stop the sand from being blown in their ears.  Penguins have black feathers to absorb the heat from the sun.

 

Today we were learning to sort animals into a Carroll Diagram under Arid, Polar, Endangered and Non-endangered criteria.  Sand Viper Snakes live in the Arid climate zone and are non-endangered and the Arctic fox lives in the Polar climate zone and is also non-endangered.  One of the Polar endangered animals is the Polar Bear because there’s not that much ice left. An example of an endangered animal in the Arid climate zone is the antelope because they are being hunted.

In French on Thursday we were making a calendar.  We made the calendar so that we could put our birthdays on it and so we could practise the months of the year, days of the week and numbers for the date.  We did a month in pairs or trios and one person designed the ‘month’ page with pictures and the French name for that month whilst the other people in the group completed the calendar.

In Science we have been learning about plants.  We are going to learn about whether plants will grow in sand and soil in the dark and in the light.  Before our experiment next week, we wrote up our hypothesis which is our prediction.  Some of us think that the plant tht is grown in the soil will grow and then decompose quickly in the dark.  Some of us think that the seed in the sand will grow in the light and not decompose initially but will die slowly.

In Social Studies, we have been learning about Climate Zones.  The 4 new Climate Zones we have been learning about are Polar, Temperate, Arid and Tropical. It is freezing in the Polar Climate Zone so not many people or animals live there.  We would see snow and ice in a Polar Climate Zone. In a Temperate Climate Zone it can be rainy and warm at the same time.  It is not super hot or super cold, it is somewhere in the middle. An Arid Climate Zone is very hot and usually a sandy desert area. An example of a desert is the Sahara Desert in Africa.  In a Tropical Climate Zone there are 2 seasons: long, wet and warm and short, dry and warm.

This week we have been drawing the world through our eyes by drawing what is good and what is bad to us in the world.  We drew what we do like in the world on the land and what we don’t like on the sea.

We have also been drawing ROBLOX characters for our class charter. We discussed our Children’s Rights by looking at a picture which included a child who got the blame for stealing but it wasn’t him that was the thief.  We linked this to the right to be listened to and believed.  We also worked with a partner to write our own Rights linked SHANARRI.

The class had the opportunity to play maths games and in their groups did mental maths with Miss Murchie.  One of the games was Mathopoly which included Chance and Challenge cards which gave you an instruction to follow.  We had to roll the dice and move our counter onto that space which had a multiplication calculation on it.  If you got it correct, you got points.  Another task was a number search, scanning for numbers next to each other which show a multiplication calculation ( 6  6  36).

On Friday, we voted for who was going to be representative for The Rights Respecting group, Sports Committee, Eco Committee, Pupil Council and Pupil Leaders.  Every candidate gave an excellent presentation and one pupil was chosen for each.