Author: G Atkinson

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Well done to all the pupils involved in the recent assemblies, I have been so impressed with their presenting skills!

Literacy and English

This week we started our new series of instructional writing. We each created a set of instructions for an activity that we are going to teach and share with our classmates in our P.E. lessons. We discussed the importance of writing a title and description as well as listing all the equipment and chronologically ordering our instructions to make them easy to follow.

We have been exploring different types of instructions by answering comprehension questions on some procedural texts and we also used instructions in our digital and technology activities by programming Micro:bits and coding Spheros to travel around a course.

Numeracy and Maths

It has been another busy week in  Maths! Some of us have created our own symmetrical patterns and have been learning how to find the area of shapes. We have also discussed how to determine time durations and we used different phrases that mean subtracting and adding in some calculations.

Health and Wellbeing

On Friday we learned about alcohol laws and how too much of it can impact our senses. One of us brought in goggles that is meant to show you what it is like when you have had too much alcohol and we all tried them on.

Expressive Art – Drama

Over the course of the week our groups performed our versions of Alice in Wonderland using our scripts in front of the class! We tried to apply the skills of tone, gesturing, movement and expression to help create an engaging performance.

IDL – Victorians

It was really interesting learning about some of the different toys Victorian era children played with. We even created our own cup and ball game which was popular back then!

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

This week at assembly P5 were awarded Year Group of the Week for lining up quickly and quietly and as a result will receive some extra minutes at a playtime – well done everyone! I know parents and carers as well as the pupils are eager to see the STEM video that was recorded last week, this can be viewed here: https://x.com/EastRenCouncil/status/1765331934421348708?s=20

Literacy and English

This week we celebrated World Book Day by taking part in lots of great activities. We started the week with Mr Atkinson putting us into reading groups and to focus on learning more about a particular Roald Dahl novel. We also worked in pairs to draw and label a diagram of a new reading area. Some of us swapped with P4/5 pupils so that we could read and share our Midnight Fair stories that we had been creating in our imaginative  writing lessons with Miss Campbell. Throughout the week the P5 Reading Buddies also spent some time reading books with their P2 buddies and we all visited the Eco-committee’s Book Swap which was very exciting! Later in the week we researched and learned about Roald Dahl and we created a massive timeline with all these facts, including the dates when his books were published. Once we were finished our Roald Dahl book we created a character wheel which required us to identify the main characters, summarise key information about them and draw a picture of them. We then combined our sections together and colour-coded them to create large circles.  On Thursday we joined the online World Book Day: Footy & Booky Quiz 2024 with Ben Lyttleton, Kit Brown and some very special guests. We had a great time taking part in the quiz! At the end of the week some of us shared what we had done at the upper school assembly.

Numeracy and Maths

Some of the us have been learning how mirrors can be used to help with identifying symmetrical patterns and how to covert 12 and 24 hour times. We have also been answering questions involving  kg and g and solving calculations by adding or subtracting 100s.

Health and Wellbeing

We started our new topic Substance Misuse by discussing the difference between medicine and substances that can be harmful to your body such as alcohol and smoking.

Expressive Art – Drama

Mr Atkinson shared with us the key techniques that we need to think about when performing our Alice in Wonderland drama scripts that we started to write a couple of weeks ago.  Some of these skills included how we use our voice, body, movement, gesturing and facial expressions when we are delivering our lines.

Outdoor Learning

As part of our LEAF project we have started to learn about different types of habitats, what types of animals live in them and how they have adapted to survive. Afterwards, we went to woodland and were challenged to build our very own habitats that would support the wildlife in the area. When we gathering materials we had to make sure we were choosing materials that could be a food source or provide shelter and warmth.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

It has been a very busy week for P5B! We welcomed a special guest on Friday afternoon who recorded a video of the class engaging in different STEM activities! I will share a link to the video in a future blog when we are given it. It was also great to meet with parents and guardians this week at the Parents Evening sessions and share the progress of the pupils.

Literacy and English

In our Writing session we were encouraged to replace the word said and some of us wrote endings to our Midnight Fair stories!

This week most of the groups finished creating our Alice in Wonderland drama scripts after summarising the main events from the storybooks. We worked together to decide which characters we would need and then we each chose parts. When we were writing the scripts we included stage directions to help us when we perform next week!

Our new comprehension focus is answering different types of questions on instructions.

Numeracy and Maths

In Maths some of us have discussed how to divide and multiply 4-5 digit numbers and how to convert kg and g. We have also been working on becoming more confident with using calculators to help solve word problems. Later in the week we learned some new strategies such as how to find factors and multiples, the best method to add ten to different numbers  and what steps to follow when adding and subtracting 3 digit figures.

STEM

On Friday we had a special visitor come to our class to record us in action at our STEM stations! We were all very excited about this and were eager to share our knowledge of energy.  At one of our stations we had to create a dam experiment and measure which hole in the milk container would best place to help generate energy in real life. We used a stopwatch to help us to accurately track the times of when we needed to measure the length of the water stream coming from each hole. We achieved this by using a measuring tape and recording our results in cms. At the other stations we used Tinkercad to design a sustainable town, created working wind turbines out of K’NEX and programmed the micro:bits to become an automatic light system that turned on when placed in our dark LEGO houses. It was so interesting taking part in all these different activities!

 

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

On Friday the pupils brought home a sample of their work which I hope you enjoy looking at and I have also suggested that the children could share their favourite learning experiences with you that they have been involved in. I look forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming Parents Evenings next week.

Literacy and English

This week in Writing with Miss Campbell we continued our imaginative stories by writing the middle section of our plot. We were asked to further develop our characters, use descriptive vocabulary to create vivid settings and check that our new parts to the story logically followed on from the beginning paragraphs that we wrote last week.

Later in the week we designed front covers for our imaginative stories. We included features like the title of the story, who it was written by and some of us even included the price of our book and a logo of our own publishing company.  We then wrote a blurb about our plot by using our summarising skills and a couple of us wrote reviews to encourage people to read our stories.

Numeracy and Maths

Over the course of this week some of us have been learning about 3D shapes and were challenged to locate and name some around the classroom. We have also looked at how to divide and multiply by 10, continuing to improve our confidence with answering problem solving questions that have exchanging and carrying in  them and we discussed different Mental Maths strategies.

Health and Wellbeing

In our final Growth Mindset lesson we applied all of our knowledge to  create cereals that helps make people become successful learners. Some of the ingredients we included were a spoonful of determination, learning from mistakes, effort and determination.

IDL – Victorians

After feeling inspired from the Open Afternoon we all wanted to have another attempt at building famous Victorian constructions using K’NEX which we were all successful at this time!  We also started a log whereby we took notes and inserted pictures on Google Slides showing the differences between Victorian clothing to current styles, past and present jobs,  the different types of meals and how toys have changed.

Outdoor Learning

For our outdoor session this week we cleared and removed all the fallen leaves and twigs that were in the courtyard and moved them to the Woodland area. We piled them in a sheltered area and we are going to regularly check to see if it becomes a new habitat for insects.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

If you were able to attend the open afternoons last week I hope you enjoyed visiting the class and having an opportunity to see what we have been learning about this term. Last Wednesday myself and the Crookfur team attended the Regional STEM the Flow Exhibition Event at the Riverside Museum. The pupils presented with confidence to the judges and all their efforts were recognised with them winning a second award – the Most Innovative Solution! You can read more about the our involvement in STEM the Flow by clicking on these links.

https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/climate-action-schools/upstream-battle/stem-the-flow/2023-24/

https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/news/2024/jan/national-stem-the-flow-competition-winners-announced/

https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/news/2024/february/young-peoples-stem-the-flow-creativity-celebrated-at-riverside-museum/

Thank you for your support throughout this project!

Literacy and English

With Miss Campbell we have started our imaginative writing series of lessons. As part of our Talk Homework we have been asked to look at pictures involving a fair and animals  and begin to create a story using these images as our inspiration. Last week we focused on introducing our main characters and creating a beginning part to our plot.

In our grammar lessons we have discussed when to use speech marks which we will be trying to include in our story writing and after revising proper nouns we thought of some of our own.

Numeracy and Maths

We have been exploring lots different concepts over the last two weeks! We have been making links between degrees, different types of angles and compass points. Some of us have been learning how to recognise symmetry, solve 3 and 4 digit calculations involving exchanging and carrying,  revising rounding to the nearest 10, writing numbers in the word format and how to estimate and measure the length of an object.

Health and Wellbeing

In gymnastics we have started using the apparatus which is so much fun! Our tennis lesson this week had a bit of a twist to it, we played rounders with a racket but we could only hit the ball with either a forehand or backhand shot.

In our Growth Mindset lessons we have discussed what words and phrases are linked to a Growth or Fixed mindset. Using this knowledge to create top trump cards of characters from a book but their qualities had to be linked to Growth Mindset, for example determination or effort. We also explored how a rubber band is like our brains as learning and making mistakes stretches the brain helping to make it grow!

Some of the digital leaders came to our class and showed us a presentation and then we watched a video which had more information about technology.

IDL – Victorians: Open Afternoons

Our open afternoons had a Victorian theme and we had different stations that we went around over the two days. Having learned about life at a Victorian school we used Tinkercad to create our very own Victorian classrooms. Using our knowledge of Victorian jobs we wrote diary entries of a poor child that had to work and we created job adverts for the worst jobs which we later voted on! Over the last couple of weeks Mr Atkinson has been reading a modern version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and we compared the illustrations between our copy and the original artwork. At this station we then tried drawing some of scenes in both the modern and original style. We also used K’NEX to build famous Victorian constructions such as Forth Bridge and we drew Victorian houses. 

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

We are all excited about the open afternoons next week which will have a Victorian theme! Miss Campbell will be hosting Wednesday’s session as I will be attending the STEM the Flow Exhibition Event at the Riverside Museum where our P5B team will be sharing their project with the public. I look forward to meeting parents and guardians on Thursday. The pupils also enjoyed having the opportunity to prefect this week whilst the P6 pupils were away on their trip!

Literacy and English

As this was our final week of exploring poems we applied all of our knowledge to help us identify the different features of the poems such as the rhyming patterns and then we answered questions on what they themes were and the messages within the poems.

Numeracy and Maths

This week in Maths we have covered the concepts of adding 3-digit numbers involving carrying, drawing shapes with the same areas but different perimeters, using our knowledge of converting CM and M to help solve calculations and categorising information into Venn and Carroll diagrams.

Health and Wellbeing

In our indoor P.E. session we created a gymnastic obstacle course which challenged us to perform rolls on mats, jump distances and balance across beams. In the MUGA we learned and further improved tennis skills such as how to volley and do a drop shot.

RME

With Miss Campbell we created some storyboards from different religions.

IDL – Victorians

Mr Atkinson read the popular story of Alice in Wonderland which was written in the Victorian era and was supposedly loved by Queen Victoria!

We have also started learning about different types of Victorian architecture that was used when designing buildings in Britain.

We also spent some time researching major events that occurred in the Victorian period which we  summarised to help us create an illustrated timeline that we ordered chronologically.

 

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

I am delighted to announce that our P5B entry for the first National STEM the Flow Competition has won the Best Overall Project! The pupils were so pleased with the result and we are all very grateful those who voted.

Literacy and English

In our Writing lesson we created poems based on Victorian items such as popular children’s toys. Applying our knowledge from the previous poetry writing lessons; some of us included similes, alliteration, rhyming patterns, onomatopoeia and for a challenge personification in our stanzas! Personification was tricky but as a class we discussed some ideas that we could use. We also all redrafted our seasons poems on the Chromebooks!

We have also enjoyed reading our new group books, doing some active spelling and answering comprehension questions based on different poems.

Numeracy and Maths

In Maths we have been working on different Mental Maths approaches and the steps involved to reach an answer.  We have also learned the process to calculate the perimeter of shapes, how to convert CM and M, the probability of an event happening and different ways to record data for example in bar chart or tally chart.

Health and Wellbeing

In our Growth Mindset lesson we discussed what frustration feels and looks like and if we could think of any examples of when we have experienced it due to making a mistake. Following this we explored how Growth Mindset is like a bouncing ball as it represents bouncing back from challenges and tough times. A Fixed Mindset might look like a flat ball because if you don’t persevere or try something then you are just staying stuck in one place.

Outdoor Learning – LEAF

For our outdoor session we went around the school grounds to identify an area where we could study the changes over the seasons. We looked at the colour of the trees and branches, if they had any leaves on them, the plants growing around or on the trees and if there were any insects nearby. Afterwards, we went back into class and drew a picture of our chosen area and wrote a description about. We will update our records in Spring!

RME

In our RME with Miss Campbell we were organised into groups and given a religion to research. We have started to gather information on them such as major events, beliefs and religious symbols. Next week we will use the information to create posters.

IDL – Victorians

We drew artwork inspired by the Victorian artist William Morris who created tapestries, stained glass windows and patterned wallpaper. His wallpaper designs included floral features and sometimes had a repeated pattern in them. Using this style, we all created our own wallpaper which can be seen in our classroom Victorian art gallery!

 

 

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

If the Scottish weather allows for it we will be resuming our outdoor learning sessions next Thursday so please can pupils have appropriate clothing in order to fully participate. The Woodland rotas have also been sent out with the Weekly Round Up which lists all the dates that we will be going outside, again weather and state of grounds dependent. Thank you for your support with STEM the Flow, we are eagerly awaiting a further update on the results of the voting.

House Spirit afternoon

All the pupils had a great Friday afternoon in their houses where they researched different ideas for the banner designs.

Literacy and English

Continuing with a our poetry writing this week our theme was a season of our choice. We decided to organise the class tables into different seasons and we sat around the table that was our season. This meant that we could talk and share our ideas which helped to inspire us with our writing. We were encouraged to include a simile, adjectives and alliteration as well as using the rhyming pattern ABAB to create the stanzas.

With Miss Campbell we also answered questions about our reading books to to ensure that we had a good understanding of the story.

Numeracy and Maths

Everyday this week we have been doing Mental Maths as our starter tasks and discussing the wording and strategies. We have also been learning about order of operations, how to calculate the area by using the formula L x B, creating timetables and determining the duration of events.

Health and Wellbeing

In gymnastics we developed our balancing techniques by performing them on benches and walking across beams and holding a pose which was more challenging.

Expressive Art

To support us with creating our poems we drew scenery of our season to help us visualise actually being there.

IDL – Victorians

On Friday we learned about some of the toys children from the Victorian era played with and discussed the differences with toys we like now.

RME

In our RME lesson with Miss Campbell we were learning about Judaism. One of our activities involved researching key beliefs and celebrations of the religion.

Science

In Science, Miss Campbell taught us about the electrification of transport. This is done through using green hydrogen as fuel. We looked at the process of electrolysis and how this is the splitting of water molecules to make green hydrogen.

 

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

The class had a fantastic time at their Christmas party with the other primary 5 pupils, I was very impressed with the different dance moves! Well done to the pupils who, alongside Miss Campbell,  demonstrated Growth Mindset and determination with threading and sewing to create their Christmas craft.  I would also like to express my thanks for your support and generosity, I hope everyone has a brilliant Christmas and New Year when it comes!

Primary 7 Lesson

Earlier in the week three primary 7 pupils came to our class to deliver a Christmas themed art lesson. We all really enjoyed drawing and colouring in our penguins and winter settings.

Christmas Party

At our Christmas party we played lots of games like corners, musical statues, musical bumps and a best dancer competition! Some of us even won prizes for winning these games! Afterwards, we went back to our class and enjoyed some food and drinks.

STEM the Flow

We listened to one of the STEM the Flow sessions and during it we were challenged to build bridges using certain measurements out of Lego or KAPLA. It was very difficult to create a stable bridge and when we were testing them we discussed what we would do next time to be more successful.

Our winning design for the STEM the Flow competition can now be viewed here: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/climate-action-schools/upstream-battle/stem-the-flow/2023-24/crookfur-ps/ we would really appreciate your vote!

Science

We had a great time this week learning about renewable and non-renewable energy that is used in Scotland. Using our summarising skills that we learned in our Literacy lessons, we researched some of the different types of energy and wrote short definitions of them, recorded where some of these energy sources can be found and if they are renewable or not.