October has been such a busy month in Primary 4a. We have celebrated lots of class birthdays and following on from the excitement of the Tour de France, we were also delighted when the Giro d’Italia was won by Tao Geoghegan Hart, whose Granny lives in Edinburgh.
We started the month with a collaborative art task creating a beautiful squirrel using the colours of autumn, identified on our trip to the outdoor classroom. When we completed our own ‘piece’ we didn’t know what the finished outcome would be – it was so exciting to see all our hard work come together!
In this month of the Holy Rosary we have enjoyed getting together at lunch time on a Friday to pray the Rosary and remember everyone who needs our prayers. It was also very special for our class to celebrate the Feast Day of St Jude – with our very own Jude!
During our Tuesday trips to the forest we have had so much fun using our five senses to explore how the season of autumn changes our surroundings. We collected leaves of red, orange and brown and then used them to create squirrel and hedgehog art – we all agreed that they looked amazing. As well as visiting the forest we were also able to use our time out of the classroom to gather ‘Beat the Street’ points for St Cadocs while walking up to 5k. While exploring Newton Mearns we were sure to be the best versions of ourselves and outstanding ambassadors for our school. Some of us even got to walk past our own homes and were able to give our mum a wave. Thank you so much to the Mum’s and Dad’s, who have helped on our outdoor learning days – we would not be able to do it without you!
In the classroom we have used the Chromebooks to build on our literacy and numeracy learning. During Maths Week Scotland we learned about famous mathematicians Ada Lovelace and Katherine Johnson. Through our investigations we were able to discover some of the many ways maths influences our daily lives. While she is not able to visit the school, we are still able to take part in our music lessons with Mrs Duggie in true 2020 remote style.
During these uncertain days we are taking lots of time to take care of each other and ourselves. Everyday someone in the class is our VIP and we all love giving compliments to that person to make sure that they know how very special they are. We have been reading the book ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ by Charlie Mackesy. We have learned that love and kindness are the greatest gifts to give and receive, and that asking for help, when you need it, is the bravest thing to do. This beautiful story has provided inspiration for pastel and ink drawings, while also developing our prediction, character description and questioning skills. We rounded off our learning by writing book reviews and all agreed we would highly recommend the book, while the mole was our favourite character, due to his love of cake.
Our teachers really enjoyed talking to our parents over the telephone. Everyone agreed we were very happy to be back at school and were all working really hard.
Finally, the month came to a Spooktacular end when we celebrated Halloween together. Our costumes were fabulous, with Wolverine Matthew picking up a special prize! We played games, listened to scary and funny stories (Ghost Boy was definitely our favourite – we watched it twice!), took part in the Halloween Parade and even danced sooo much!! We only had one or two treats though…..
