It has been a productive week in P4b. It was lovely to have the opportunity to talk to parents about all the wonderful things we have been getting up to so far.

This week in Maths, the circles have finished their topic on direction and have moved onto time with calendars. The squares have finished division and are moving onto fractions and the triangles have finished data handling and are moving onto symmetry.

In literacy, we have been exploring setting descriptions; gaining an understanding of how to create a certain atmosphere in your writing through use of sensory words and the 5 W’s. (Where, When, What, Who, Why).

We have also been exploring the difference between a simile and a metaphor, and writing our own similes to describe the features of an owl.

In Art we made our own owl pictures to complement the spooky similes that we have written. The children also created some fantastic 3D haunted houses with Mrs Houston.

In Health and Well-being, we are still looking at friendships and empathy. Today we were gaining a better understanding of feeling intensity, constructing a sliding scale and exploring scenarios in which we may experience some of these feelings.

In topic, we have been exploring the different levels of the ocean and the difference we see in environment and wildlife as we move further down into the depths. We used iPads to  research animals within the ‘sunlight zone’ in more detail this week and have now embarked into the ‘twilight zone’.

We have music every second week over ‘google meet’. Last week, we were learning about writing beats. We learned a new beat which is ‘ti-ri-te’, which we can now clap along to and recognise by sight and sound.

We have been finishing our learning on ocean pollution before moving onto another area of the topic.

We decided to make a classroom installation out of the types of plastic that make their way into our oceans. We worked as a whole-class team with everyone contributing to every aspect of the project.

At this station, the children were creating colourful fish to swim in and out of our installation.

Here, we were writing facts about the effects ocean pollution has upon the ocean environment and eco-system.

We used all of the bottle tops that everyone brought in to create a wave for our display.

We spent some time as a class on Thursday, creating the tentacles for our installation by stringing pieces of plastic onto strips of plastic bag.

For the main body of our installation, we painted an old umbrella and decorated it with strips of plastic bag to look like tentacles.

Our finished product. Great job, team!

It may have only been a four day week but we have managed to squeeze in a whole lot of work!

In Grammar, we have been looking at past, present and future tense verbs. Today we made our own tense time machines and travelled forward and backwards in time to explore the tenses in more detail. We can also tell the distance between regular and irregular past tense verbs!

In French this week, we have been learning how to introduce ourselves; asking and answering simple questions such as ‘what is your name?’, ‘How old are you’ and ‘how are you?’

It was ‘Maths Week’ this week, and the children were tasked to create their own board game for a competition. The winner will have their design painted on the school playground for the whole school community to enjoy!

Our groups are still working on multiplication (circles and squares) and capacity (triangles).

In topic we have been exploring ocean pollution and the effect it has on the natural environment and the animals who live there.

We decided to do our bit by going out into the playground to pick up any rubbish that was left lying on the ground. We learned that if rubbish isn’t disposed of properly, the wind will blow it away and it will inevitably end up in the ocean.  We investigated the way plastic breaks down once it reaches the ocean and how micro-plastics can impact the whole ecosystem, creating ‘dead zones’.

We did a marvellous job picking up all of the playground trash and undoubtedly saved more than one life in the process!

In reading, Our Rubies are just about finishing their first novel of the year. They have been conducting comprehension activities on it throughout the book which is culminating in them creating their very own mystery story using techniques learned from the book to create an element of suspense and intrigue.

Our Emeralds are also just finishing their book ‘Flat Stanley’ and have been using their sequencing and summarising skills to prepare a short film, capturing the main elements of the story using puppets!

The Amethysts and the Sapphires have been continuing with their Project X books, working on fluency and reading with expression. This week, the Amethysts were tasked to write a letter to one of the characters in the book as another character; recalling key elements of the book and using effective language to set the correct tone of the letter.

The Sapphires have been recalling key elements of their story in a fun way by recalling and visualising a map of the scene and inputting information of what happened in each place.