P4A 2021/22

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

The pupils have been busy rehearsing and recording their festive poetry performance which I will edit and upload for the Christmas holidays. This will be posted on Google Classroom for families to view. We will also be creating our Christmas crafts which will be sent home upon completion. The pupils had a fantastic time at their Christmas party and were also joined by some of their friends from P4/5.

As this is the last blog of the term I would like to express my thanks and appreciation for your support over this term. I hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe Christmas Holidays.

Literacy and English

Hadia – In our writing lesson we learned about the different features of newspapers such as headlines and writing in past tense. Afterwards, we used our understanding to create our own newspaper reports based on the idea that animals escaped from a zoo. To help structure our newspaper articles we focused on including the five Ws and 1 H – who, where, when, why, what and how. We all came up with some fascinating and interesting reports!

Numeracy and Maths 

Mason – Our last lesson in our topic involved adding and subtracting 100 and  1000 from 4 digit numbers. Some of the calculations challenged us to determine if we needed to exchange or carry.

Tia – Our group also finished our fraction topic this week! We learned how to identify fractions on a number line and order them.

Harry – My groups last activity in the tile topic was to create our own colourful tiled patterns.

Expressive Arts

Hadia – We did our final poem rehearsals this week to make sure we were confident with our actions, knew when to use our props and remembered our lines. Mr Atkinson then took us to the Crookfur Primary Christmas tree to record our festive poems. We can’t wait to show you them!

Health and Wellbeing

Darcy – This week we finished our final lesson on Bounce Back. We learned about the importance of staying positive by listening to different situations and discussing in groups how the characters involved could change their mindsets. We also participated in some fun activities which challenged us to decode puzzles to discover the secret positive message.

Emily M – We also shared our own situations with the class about when we looked on the bright side.

Charlie – This week with Mr Atkinson in P.E. we participated in different football exercises that helped to improve our passing and communication skills. One of the activities involved dribbling the ball through gates but making sure were were looking around and speaking to each other so that we didn’t go through the gates at the same time as our partner. Every time we went through a gate we earned a point!

Christmas Party

Mason – We had a wonderful Christmas party! We enjoyed lots of snacks, drinks and festive music in the classroom. Afterwards, we went to the gym hall for dancing and party games – it was so much fun!

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Thank you for all the items that have been donated and brought into class. Next week we will begin to use these materials to create props for our poetry Christmas recording which will be posted in our P4A Google Classroom on the last week of term. We also have our Christmas party next Wednesday. Pupils do not need to bring in outdoor clothing as we will not be visiting the Woodland area for the next couple of weeks due to weather conditions.

Literacy and English

Isla – During our Grammar lesson we learned how to create and use contractions such as isn’t – is not and didn’t – did not. Once we felt confident we then corrected some sentences by applying our contractions knowledge.

Ben – This week we focused on spelling words with “ear” in them.

Mason – We have started learning about a new reading skill called identifying the main idea. This is when you use the title and key sentences within a text to determine the main idea of the passage.

Numeracy and Maths 

Sara and Chenul – Our group has been learning about equivalent fractions and how to draw them. We played online games and did a fun dice challenge which encouraged us to use our knowledge of equivalent fractions to complete the questions.

Charlie – We have been learning how to use calculators to solve challenging addition and subtraction calculations.

Health and Wellbeing

Daniel – Mrs Shaw is going to be coming to our class every Monday for one period to teach us about coping strategies which will help us to manage our emotions. This week we learned about ‘flipping our lids’ and some exercises to help us to stay calm.

Emma – With Mr McMillan  we played a game called Boccia in P.E. It was so much fun!

Tia – We discussed our emotions this week and then we looked at different artists images. In groups we wrote down the emotions each picture made us feel and justified our opinions.

Expressive Arts

Ruairidh – On Friday we all created decorations for our class Christmas tree and Chloe designed a special ornament for the school tree.

Millie – After discussing our feelings we created an emotions colour wheel which involved painting colours and writing down what each one represented. Then we did some sketches on a large piece of paper and used our emotions colour wheels to paint our own pictures. Afterwards we self-assessed our work by justifying why we used certain colours relating it to emotions.

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Pupils in P4A have been issued some lines to learn over the next couple of weeks for a Christmas themed poetry recording. The children are very excited to share this with all the parents and guardians via Google Classroom before the holidays. In addition, the pupils are going to start making props next week for their poems and we would appreciate if any materials, eg. cardboard boxes could be brought into school.

Next Friday is the Christmas Jumper Day and the present room!

Literacy and English

Ruairidh – This week we finished our letter series of lessons by writing a letter to a pen pal about an alien crash landing in our school!

Emily B – In our letters we were challenged to use a range of adjectives and WOW words to create an engaging description of our alien.

Sarah M – We also used question marks in our letters as if we were writing to a real pen pal whom we had not seen in a long time.

Zak – Another feature we included in our letters was the recipients address.

Daniel – This week we have been learning how to spell words with “ey” in them. We were also taught how to join these letters together in our handwriting lesson and Mr Atkinson challenged us to use “ey” words in our pen pal letters.

Charlie – In our Grammar lesson this week we learned that speech marks are used when characters say something. We have also been correcting sentences by including speech marks.

Numeracy and Maths 

Emily M – One of the mental maths strategies we have been learning is how to use two numbers to reach 100.

Chenul – To help us with some of the more challenging fraction questions we have been learning the 6, 7, 8 and 9 time tables.

Sarah M and Hayyan – Some groups have been learning how to carry and exchange with three digit numbers. We have also been applying our understanding to solve word questions involving addition and subtraction.

Health and Wellbeing

Mason – With Mr McMillan we have been continuing to develop our rallying skills in tennis. This week we had to create a rally in a group of four. This was challenging as we had to carefully position ourselves and hit the ball to someone on the other side.

Darcy – A couple of P6 pupils visited our class and gave us a quiz on road safety. Afterwards, we created a poster and took part in a couple of activities about how to be safe near roads.

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

I have been so impressed with the children’s wonderful acts of kindness both in class and outdoors as part of Anti-Bullying Week. With the Scottish weather becoming more unpredictable please can pupils ensure that they bring appropriate clothing for P.E. in the MUGA and the outdoor learning sessions.

In addition, you can see some of the activities P4A undertakes on the school Twitter page: https://twitter.com/CrookfurPrimary?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Literacy and English

Isla – This week in writing we wrote another formal letter. Mr Atkinson created a scenario whereby a building company wanted to construct offices in our playground, MUGA and woodland area. He challenged us to create a letter of complaint using facts, opinions and some persuasive arguments.

Maira – In our letters we focused on including a range of openers such as firstly, secondly, in my opinion and finally.

Emma – This week we used dictionaries to help us to understand the definition of our new “or” spelling words.

Zak – We have been using our “or” spelling words to help practise our handwriting.

Numeracy and Maths

Chenul – This week our group started learning about the links between fractions and dividing. This helped us to calculate the quantity of a number.

Freya – We have been learning how to solve 3 digit addition calculations involving carrying. Some of our activities included working in pairs and creating our own calculations as well as solving word problems.

Yousaf and Hayyan – Our group have been revising place value and how to solve 2 digit calculations by using carrying.

Outdoor Learning

Daniel – As part of the RSPB Bronze Wild Challenge award we took part in a Minibeast safari. This involved searching under logs, amongst leaves and around the trees. After we found beetles and worms we made sure that we carefully returned the creatures back to their habitats.

Emily M – Whilst we were exploring the woodland we created ‘journey sticks.’ We made these by collecting materials from around the school and then connecting them to our wooden sticks.

Health and Wellbeing

Sarah M – As part of Anti-Bullying week some Primary 6 pupils came to our class to talk about the importance of kindness. Afterwards, we created kindness banners which will be displayed around the school.

Steven – This week we were developing our rallying skills in tennis. We were challenged to try to hit the ball in the direction of where our partner was standing and then they would return the ball by aiming and hitting it back.

RME

Tia – We have been learning about the story of Jonah and the Whale with Mr McMillan. One of our activities involved ordering and sequencing events that happened from the story.

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

It was fantastic speaking to everyone and sharing the pupils incredible effort at Parents Evening this week. The children have been eagerly participating in the Book Week Scotland activities over the last few days!

Please remember that homework should now be completed in the Maths and Literacy homework jotters that have been issued. These must be handed in on Monday morning for me to check and return on Tuesday.

Literacy and English

Ruairidh – This week was Book Week Scotland! During the school assembly we took part in a quiz and had to guess which book each teacher loved!

Charlie – We read the book Look Up! Afterwards, we created drama scripts with our partners. One of us pretended to see the meteor shower like the event in the book and the other pupil acted as the news broadcaster. We even created props to make the drama more realistic.

Millie – We were so inspired by the book that we created our very own meteor shower!

Hadia and Emily –  This week in spelling we were writing “ou” words! One of our tasks involved trying to use dictionaries to help us discover new “ou” words. Afterwards, Mr Atkinson showed us how to join these letters together for our handwriting lesson.

Ben – Our writing piece this week was a formal letter addressed to a world leader. We had to include facts, our own opinions, addresses and it had to be written in a formal tone.

Numeracy and Maths

Emma – We have been continuing to learn about coordinates and grid references. One of the tasks was to create our very own grids and draw shapes on them. Afterwards, we had to accurately record their coordinates.

Mason – We have been revising adding two digit numbers together with carrying. We also practiced writing the calculations in the correct format.

Hayyan – Some of us have been learning the strategies to add 9 and 10 onto different numbers.

IDL

Charlie – Over the course of the week we have been researching, note-taking and rehearsing in preparation for our debate on the topic Deforestation. In our groups we decided which order to share our arguments and voted on the best responses to the opposing groups questions. It was so much fun!

Outdoor Learning

Lewis – Before we created our animal homes in the woodland area, we first learned about different types of habitats and what animal need to live. Afterwards, we worked in groups to plan and build animal shelters to help nearby creatures survive the colder days ahead.

Health and Wellbeing

Chenul – In P.E. with Mr McMillan we started developing our aiming skills in tennis.

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Thank you to all the pupils and parents/guardians for the kind words upon my return to class this week. I am really looking forward to sharing the pupil’s hard work and achievements so far in P4 on Parents Night next Wednesday and Thursday.

Literacy and English

Millie – We have started our letter writing series! Over the next few weeks we will be learning how to structure and write informal and formal letters. This week we wrote a letter about Bonfire Night to a relative.

Darcy – In our letters we had to use a range of descriptive vocabulary how the fireworks looked. Some of us even used similes.

Tia – Another important feature we had to include was an address!

Freya and Hadia – The class has started to learn about a reading skill called “inferencing.” This requires you to use the hints and clues the writer mentions in the text and combine it with your own knowledge to make a sensible answer.

Numeracy and Maths

Emily – We have been revising and developing our halving and doubling Mental Maths strategies.

Rohan – Some of us finished our multiplication and division topic and are about to start addition and subtraction.

Yousaf – My group has been learning about AM and PM and how to record and order schedules.

Ruairidh – We have started learning about grid references! It has been so much fun identifying, plotting and recording coordinates.

Outdoor Learning

Mason – We have been learning about the trees that surround the school as part of our RSPB Wild Challenge award. First we discussed the different types of trees and then we went on a leaf hunt to see whether we could match the fallen leaves with nearby trees.

Health and Wellbeing

Sarah M – In P.E. with Mr McMillan we started developing our dribbling skills and attacking tactics by playing games such as Captain of the Court.

Chenul – We were also challenged to see how many keepie-uppies we could do.

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Well done to the P4A pupils for participating in the Maths Week Scotland Sumdog contest. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm you demonstrated. As a result of your incredible efforts, P4A finished the competition in 133rd place out of 7761 classes from across the country. The class also achieved the highest score in the school! A personal thank you to all the parents and guardians who allowed the pupils additional time on devices at home.

Due to my absence this week this blog will be very short. Please come back to visit our blog soon as I will post an update when I return to school.

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

I have entered the class into the upcoming Maths Week Scotland Sumdog contest. Participation is optional and time will be provided in class, however, some pupils may wish to spend additional time on it at home.

Literacy and English

Darcy – Our focus this week during our cursive handwriting lesson was oe. First we discussed what words have oe in them, such as shoe and poem. Then we wrote our oe words four times. Finally, Mr Atkinson challenged us to create a sentence using some of the oe words.

Ruairidh/Lewis /Freya – Throughout the week we have been learning how to spell words with ai in them. Some of the activities involved growing ai words, searching for their definitions in dictionaries, identifying improper and proper ai words, rhyming and recognising syllables.

Charlie – After reading more chapters from our class novel, George’s Marvellous Medicine, we then created persuasive adverts for our own potions. We were encouraged to include important information such as price, use alliteration for the name and descriptive vocabulary. After designing our adverts we presented them to our friends.

Numeracy and Maths

Yousaf – Terrific Timers and Awesome Adders have been learning how to record and identify half past and o’clock in the digital format.

Maira – This week Marvellous Measurers were making links when dividing and multiplying by 4 and 5.

Chenul/Tia – Super Subtracters have been applying their knowledge of dividing and multiplying by 10 to challenging problem solving questions.

Expressive Arts

Millie and Mason – This we learned a new song and hand gestures. Some of us also participated in a challenging game whereby we had to bounce and pass the ball to a friend in timing with the beat of the song.

Outdoor Learning

Emma – Mr Atkinson shared with the class what the RSPB Wild Challenge is and what is required at the different levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold). Afterwards, we went outside to the Woodland to consider what activities we could do over the course of this year in this area. Finally, we discussed our ideas, created a list and voted which activities we wanted to try first. 

Health and Wellbeing

Daniel – In our hockey lesson with Mr Atkinson, one of our activities involved competing in group dribbling races! 

 

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

We have had a very exciting week! As part of an overall school visit, a Headteacher from another school came to see what we have been learning about in P4A. The pupils enthusiastically shared their knowledge about their most recent Maths topics and displayed excellent manners. Well done everyone!

Literacy and English

Millie – This week we started cursive handwriting, our focus was joining ee together throughout our work.

Darcy – In Writing our focus has been creating Diary entries from the perspective of the characters from our class novel, George’s Marvellous Medicine. This week we pretended to be the Grandma and Mr Atkinson challenged us to include VCOP and to write in first person.

Zak – One of our comprehension tasks involved correctly matching statements from the most recent chapter with the characters that said them in George’s Marvellous Medicine.

Numeracy and Maths

Chenul – This week Marvellous Measurers started learning about dividing by 3 and using their knowledge of times tables to solve various problems.

Lewis – Super Subtracters have begun to apply their understanding of division and link this with fractions such as 1/4, 1/2 and 1/3.

Yousaf – Terrific Timers and Awesome Adders have been investigating different methods of telling and recording the time. Some example we came up with included; sundials, digital watches, timers on ovens and the classroom clock.

Outdoor Learning

Harry – This week we used clay and natural resources to create tree faces. In our pairs we had to sketch a picture of what we wanted the face to look like. Next we gave the tree character a name. Afterwards, we were challenged to think of adjectives to describe our tree character. Finally, we went to the Woodland to create our tree faces, it was so much fun!

Health and Wellbeing

Freya – In hockey with Mr Atkinson we have been learning how to dribble. Mr Atkinson set up lots of obstacles that we had to move around. To ensure we kept control of the hockey ball we had to stay very focused.

Mason – In P.E. with Mr McMillan we played basketball and benchball matches.

Welcome to the P4A class blog! We cannot wait to share all of our learning with you and hopefully this will give you an insight into our week.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

What a wonderful week we have had in P4A! All the pupils are thoroughly enjoying the class novel, George’s Marvellous Medicine.

Homework will be issued this week. This will comprise of 40 set Sumdog questions, pages from group novels, Talk homework which usually links with upcoming writing lessons, a Maths online worksheet with answers, group spelling words and spelling activities. Homework should be completed on the Google docs and submitted/handed in online. I have issued all the pupils with their Glow and Sumdog login details so please ask your child to show you these when they bring them home. In the P4A Google Classroom, I have posted additional guidance.

Literacy and English

Charlie – This week Mr Atkinson gave us all our new group reading books which we were very excited about. We also had the opportunity to read a few pages aloud with our friends.

Mason – P4A are really enjoying reading and listening to our class novel, George’s Marvellous Medicine. It is so exciting finding out what George uses his potion for! One of our activities this week involved recreating drama scenes from our favourite chapters. Some of the groups created scripts and props which they later used when they performed to the class.

Numeracy and Maths

Millie – Marvellous Measurers have been using concrete materials such as cubes and pencils to help with mastering how to confidently multiply and divide.

Darcy – At the start of some of our Maths lessons Mr Atkinson has been giving us a selection of “numbers of the day”. We then draw our Mental Maths strategy triangles and create a story, calculation and a picture about the number we have chosen. It is very fun and we enjoy sharing our strategies with our friends.

Emma/Daniel – Super Subtracters have been continuing to develop their knowledge of multiplying and dividing by 3, 4 and 5.

Lauren – Terrific Timers and Awesome Adders have been revising how to write and record o’clock and half past. We have been challenging each other by using clock faces and asking our friends to record the times.

Emily – Some of us have been playing games with the number fans to help us develop our understanding of number facts.

Outdoor Learning

Isla – We explored the Woodland area and collected different types of leaves for our art activity. In class, we placed our leaves onto black paper, traced around them and then we blended a range coloured chalk together to create a background. Some of us used our spare leaves to create animals!

Health and Wellbeing

Chenul – In P.E. with Mr McMillan we learned how to tackle and defend in our ball games.

French

Zak – This week we learned how to say and describe classroom objects in French. To help us remember these new phrases we created signs and labels which we displayed next to the different classroom objects.