Class Novel – The Christmasaurus

We have loved reading Tom Fletcher’s novel The Christmasaurus. We were even more delighted when we found out that Mrs Benzie had the musical edition! It is a story about a boy named William Trundle, and a dinosaur, the Christmasaurus. It’s about how they meet one Christmas Eve and have a magical adventure. It’s about friendship and families, sleigh bells and Santa, singing elves and flying reindeer, music and magic. It’s about discovering your heart’s true desire, and learning that the impossible might just be possible . . .

Lexi said, “I loved this book so much that my elf on the shelf brought me it as a special gift!”

Zaynah added, “We know nearly all the words to the songs now!”

Hannah said. “I like this book because I like dinosaurs.”

 

St Andrew’s Day written by Rory, Daisy, Zoe, Hasnain and Euan

We have learned that Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. Patron saint means protector. He is also the patron saint of fishing and rope makers.  St Andrews day is on the 30^th November each year. We found out that he was one of the disciples of Jesus.

 

Advent Traditions written by Mariam, Kallen, Theo and Erin

The word advent means “coming”. Christians celebrate Advent as it counts down the birth, or coming, of Jesus. Advent starts the Sunday closest to the 30^th of November. In the church there is a wreath with candles. These candles are lit on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas and another is lit on Christmas Eve/Day. We successfully completed research to find out about the symbolism and meanings behind the wreath and candles.

 

Drawing Skills written by Isla, Angus, Ayaan, Murray and Hadia

We have been learning to use easy shapes to create more complex pictures. We have been using the Art Hub videos on YouTube to draw our own impressive versions of the Disney Inside Out characters; Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness.

 

Money written by Scott, David, Preetha and Anniyah

We have been learning about adding and subtracting with money. We have used coins to pay and give change. We have looked at mental calculations and written calculations, making sure we remember the decimal point. We know that there are 100 pennies in a pound. We have also been coming up with different combinations of coins for the same value.

 

Music written by Jessica, Cameron, Ruairidh and Olivia

We have started listening to The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens. We have been listening carefully and commenting on the pitch, mood, volume and pace of the music and predicting which instruments are played.

 

Newspapers written by Dougie, Rahma, Archie and Lakhveer

We have been learning about the features of newspapers. We can now identify the headline, orientation (introduction), main body, photo, caption and reorientation (conclusion). We have written our own headlines for stories. These needed to be short and catchy. We challenged ourselves by trying to use alliteration.

 

Achievements in November

Lots of pupils in Primary 4b are enjoying being a part of music and drama clubs. They have been learning how to sing in different pitches, learning how to sing as part of a choir and taking part in a show where they performed all the pantomime’s there has ever been in thirty minutes!

Many of our pupils take part in an outdoor club after school. They have learned how to make spears, survive in the wild and how to dress appropriately for these activities…always remember your gloves!

Vibrations and Sounds

“Sound is made when air particles bump together and vibrate.” said Rory.

Zoe and Preetha explained, “When the vibrations hit your ear drum, it sends a message to your brain.”

Ayaan added, “You can’t hear in Space.”

“This is because there isn’t the same gravity as there is on Earth and the atmosphere is different” clarified Dougie.

Murray added, “So, in the Star Wars movies there shouldn’t actually be any explosion sounds because you can’t hear the sound in Space!”

Jessica said, “If you cup your hands around your ears, you can hear better! Try it out!”

 

Weather and Climate

Based on the questions collected at Meet the Teacher, we completed some in depth research to find out the answers.

Ahmed shared, “You measure rainfall using a rain gauge. We have collected bottles to make our own.”

Angus found that, “When water on the Earth is heated by the Sun, the water rises as water vapour and makes a cloud. When the cloud gets colder water droplets are formed and then fall to the ground as rain or hail or snow.”

Kallen explained, “The weather reporters know how to predict the weather as they are meteorologists. They use different instruments to predict what will happen.”

Archie and Zaynah added, “Weather is what is happening now, and climate is what we expect to happen. The climate zones are the arctic, desert, mediterranean, temperate and tropical.  ”

 

Art

“We have looked at painting by Metzinger. He used little squares of paint to make his art,” said Hannah.

Jessica said, “You have to try and make the squares the same size. This is quite difficult!”

Hadia added, “He used lots of different colours but didn’t let them mix or touch. This was to keep the colours vibrant.”

Cameron said, “When you look at his painting you are not sure exactly what it is meant to be. You need to look for clues and can decide for yourself!”

Angus shared, “Metzinger used a style of painting called Neo-Impressionism.”

Isla added, “We also looked at Esher. He was famous for his tiling, tessellation and repeated pattern designs.”

Theo said, “Escher experimented with lots of different shapes that can tile. We had to work out what shapes we could use in our own designs.”

Erin explained, “Squares, rectangles, triangles and hexagons are easy to tile.”

 

ICT

Lexi said, “I made a stop motion film for my Identity Collage. The rest of the class wanted to make their own films.”

Scott explained, “Using Lego, we built lots of props and made a movie by taking lots of pictures and moving the Lego pieces.”

“My group made Morph from playdough and filmed him dancing!” said Livvie.

 

PE

“When looking at possession games, we learned how to dribble the ball in Basketball,” said Hasnain.

Anniyah said, “We also learned how to pass and catch the ball.”

Ruairidh, “We have a tennis coach from Giffnock Tennis Club coming to teach us about playing tennis.”

 

RME

Rahma said, “We have started learning about Shabbat. This is the day of rest for the Jewish faith.”

Maraiam agreed, “Shabbat is held every Friday evening.”

Euan added, “We also spoke about The Ten Commandments. Jewish people believe they are the rules given by God to Moses.”

 

Class Novel

Lakhveer said, “We have been reading The Creakers by Tom Fletcher. The Creakers have been sneaking about the homes in Whiffington and have stolen all the grownups. ”

“The grownups are throwing out all the rubbish that the Creakers need to live and survive. As there are no grown up left, the children make the town messy and the Creakers love this! It’s how they make their houses!” added Olivia.

“The message of the book is about keeping eco-friendly and recycling…even though you think it’s just about the monsters under your bed!” explained David.

 

Literacy and Numeracy

Our learning in these areas will draw upon the contexts listed above but will differ according to the needs of each class / group. Your support with consolidation of core learning through homework activities will be very beneficial to our children.

 

Achievements in September and October

We have been snowboarding, skiing, singing in choirs and playing cricket.

We have had pupils helping grandparents make rice and making cakes.

Scott won the Honesty award for the school last month and we were incredibly proud of him!

 

Article 29: You have the right to education which develops your personality, respect for other’s rights and the environment.

Primary 4b’s first weeks back at school have been action packed!

We can’t wait to share our learning with you at home.

 

In Science we have been using our knowledge of the interactions and energy flow between plants and animals in ecosystems to explore food chains and webs.

Jessica shared, “At first I didn’t know what a food chain was, but now I feel confident with them.”

Preetha added, “Food chains show which animals eat each other.”

Kallen said, “An example food chain is that a bird eats a frog and then the frog eats a fly.”

 

Our next science study will be based on Vibrations and Sounds. We will explore how sound vibrations are carried by waves through air, water and other media.

Anniyah said, “I know about an experiment with cups and string to make a telephone! We could do this to show how sound travels using vibrations.”

Lexi added, “I think that this topic will be exciting!”

 

Social Studies this term will have a geography focus. By comparing our local area with a contrasting area outwith Britain, we will investigate the main features of weather and climate, discussing the impact on living things. We will also be setting up our own weather stations in order to measure and compare the weather.

Theo shared, “We have already learned about the storm names for this year.”

Rahma added, “A storm is named when the wind levels are between moderate and high.”

David said, “Storms are named to raise awareness and keep people safe!”

 

Escher patterns will provide a stimulus for our expressive arts study this term. Through Maths, we will discuss and explore the properties of 2D shapes and identify those that tile. Using this knowledge we will design our own tiling patterns based on the style of Escher.

Jessica said, “You can tile with squares and rectangles and triangles, but not with circles. Circles don’t fit together neatly.”

 

In ICT we will be developing our knowledge and use of safe and acceptable conduct while using different technologies to interact and share experiences, ideas and information with others. We are very lucky at Giffnock to have a range of equipment that we can access and use to enhance our learning and it is important that we all understand how to stay safe.

Livvie said, “In ICT we have a pen pal in the class. We have been sending emails to them using our Glow email.”

We have been developing our fitness levels over the past couple of weeks and are looking forward to experiencing rugby, basketball and football sessions in term one.

 

Linked to our work on the Health and Wellbeing Wheel, this term’s Health and Wellbeing focus will be on the indicators for staying Safe, keeping Healthy and staying Achieving. Our first lessons have looked at people who help us at school, home and in the community.

Rory shared, “There are different food groups- Fruit and Vegetables, Carbohydrates, Fats and Sugars, Dairy and Protein.”

Zoe added, “At least twice a week you should try to eat fish.”

Dougie explained, “This is because fish has good oils to keep your brain healthy.”

 

Through RME and Bounceback we have been developing our understanding of the values of respect and honesty. We will also be studying Judiasm and how different religions celebrate Christmas Around the World.

 

Literacy and Numeracy

Our learning in these areas will draw upon the contexts listed above but will differ according to the needs of each class / group. Your support with consolidation of core learning through homework activities will be very beneficial to our children.

 

Achievements in August

Lots of children in our class have taken part in the Summer Reading Challenge. Two of our pupils have earned the Bronze Badge at Beavers and some of our class have recently joined Cubs.

 

Article 29: You have the right to education which develops your personality, respect for other’s rights and the environment.

ICT

“In ICT we have been learning to make tables on the computers.  I can now make a table and a bar graph independently.  Some of us were teaching others in our class how to do it” – Rory.  “We have been learning how to send emails to our teacher.  We can now send emails independently” – Angus.   This term, we will also be exploring the use of search engines to research some Scottish inventors so that we can create a presentation on one.

 

Social Studies

“We have been learning about Scottish inventors.  The telephone, metal detector, toaster, bike, toilet and fridge are all Scottish inventions” – Anniyah.   “We can write facts about Scottish inventors.  I know that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone” – Scott.  “We have been learning about Scots language by reading the Glasgow Gruffalo and the Gruffalo in Scots” – Angus.  “We explored the different dialects” – Rahma.  “We created our own Gruffalos by using information from the text of Glasgow Gruffalo and the Gruffalo in Scots” – Cameron.    We will continue to explore  various inventors and inventions throughout the term to help us have a greater knowledge and understanding of Scottish history.

 

HWB

We have been using mind-set wheels to evaluate our learning.  “We have been learning to use our self-evaluators” – Rory.  “This helps us tell if we have had a growth mindset or not” – David.  “They help us see how much challenge and how much effort we have been putting in to our work” – Zoe.  “In P.E. we have been learning about Scottish dances.  I can now do a turn with a partner for the Canadian barn dance and the Gay Gordon’s”   – Dougie.  We have been exploring the different moves and even used these to help us create our own dance in groups.  This term we will be exploring courage.

 

ART

“In Art we have been exploring different shades of colour” – Lakhveer.   “We have been learning how to create texture”  – Isla.  We have used this knowledge to create our very own full moons.  We will continue to explore the use of texture and colour in art this term to create different images.

 

Music

“In Music we have been listening to Peter and the Wolf  identifying the instruments the characters are played by.  I know that Peter was played by the violin” – Cameron.  We will continue to explore the sounds of the various instruments in the orchestra and increase our knowledge on rhythm.

 

Drama

We will also be prasticing our ability to present to an audience using voice and body language when we present our findings on a Scottish Inventor and taking part in the Spring Service.

 

RME

“We have been learning about Chinese New Year.  Like the story behind Chinese new year and how the animals had a race”  – Theo.  “We have also been learning about the traits of the animals and how people would take on those traits if they were born in the year of that animal” – Kallen.  “This year is the year of the dog” – Zoe.  “To celebrate Chinese New Year you get red envelopes with money inside” – Rahma.  This term we will also explore how different religions welcome a baby, in particular how Muslims welcome a baby.

 

Science

“In Science we have been dissolving different materials in water” Livvie.   “We had a restaurant to find out if different foods would dissolve.  We discovered that salt dissolved in vinegar and oil” – Jessica.  This term we will also learn about the sun, moon and stars.  We have already been challenged with keeping a moon diary which we will use to explore and talk about the different phases of the moon.

 

French

“We have been learning the days of the week in French.  I know that Mardi means Tuesday” – Erin.

 

Awesome Achievers

Some of us have been improving our skills in swimming by learning to successfully float in the water. While others have been exploring their problem solving and building skills. One of us has been improving their cutting skills in the kitchen. Others have been practising their skills in sport through dribbling, catching, dancing, volleying and saving. One person even celebrated getting a trophy for kicks and punches in Karate.

P3B have been very busy this November with our class assembly and school Nativity.  Here are some of the things we have been learning in class this month.

Drama

P3B have been learning to use voice, volume, clarity and pace when taking on different roles in our assembly and Nativity.  “We have been learning lots of drama and how to express ourselves” (Kallen).  We learned to use expression and movement to convey our characters.  “I expressed myself by being loud and clear” (Zoe).  We have all experienced the energy and excitement of performing for an audience.  “We practiced a lot and we did not give up” (Jessica).

 

Music

In Music we have been learning to keep a rhythm.  We demonstrated how well we can keep a rhythm at our class assembly by “Keeping the rhythm with the cups” (Livvie) along to our song.  “It was tricky but we did not give up” (Livvie).

 

Science

In Science we have been learning more about the human body by exploring the function and position of the organs.  We created a scientific diagram of the human body.  “We used a text to help us find out information so that we could arrange the organs in the body” (Angus).

 

Art

In Art we have been busy “creating posters and images to display at our assembly” (Rory).  We used lots of colour to make them stand out and worked well as a team to make a large poster to demonstrate the learning pit.

 

RME

In RME “We have been learning about different religions” (Zoe), and “that we should respect other religions” (Isla).  We have been investigating and celebrating diversity.  Along with this we have been learning to accept people who are different and to show racism the red card.

 

Health and Wellbeing

In Health and Wellbeing “We have been learning about Growth Mindset” (Ruairdh).  We have been learning to challenge ourselves and not give up, having a positive attitude and a growth mindset.  “We have been learning about a fixed minset and a growth mindset” (Cameron). We explored the concept of the learning pit.  “To have a growth mindset we need to jump into the pit” (Dougie), “and challenge ourselves” (Scott).  When we jump into the pit it can sometimes be scary and feel difficult.  Sometimes we might feel like we want to give up.  But we have learned that if we keep trying hard, ask for help, persevere then we can do anything!

 

Awesome Achievers

P3B have been amazing with all their achievements this month.  Many of us have been thrilled with our performance in our class assembly and Nativity and our ability to be able to memorise our lines.  Some of us have been proud of excelling in our computer games.  One person celebrated being able to ride their bike without stabilisers.  Others have celebrated their successes in sport and music.  One of our class mates has even been learning to sew and created a beautiful outfit to wear for our festive day in school.  Keep it up P3B, having a growth mindset means you can achieve anything!

Throughout the month of October we have been working very hard and exploring new things in Primary 3.

 

Science

In Science we have been learning about the human body.  This month we have focused on the circulatory and nervous system.  We learned about the different components in the blood by making it.   We also explored our senses and how different stimuli are picked up by the body and messages are sent along the nervous system to signal a reaction.

 

 

Social Studies

We enjoyed our trip to Giffnock Library whereby we learned more about our local area by exploring some maps of Giffnock from the past.  We were able to use our map reading skills to identify different areas in Giffnock.  We also began our topic of “Plant to Plate” by exploring the journey of milk.  We developed a better understanding of how it is made, processed and sold in Scotland.

 

 

Technologies

We have been using Sumdog to develop our skills in numeracy.  We have also been learning how to log on to GLOW and navigate to our class page.

 

Expressive Arts

In Music we have been learning to keep a steady beat.  We are now able to recognise and read a rest symbol and can incorporate this when practicing rhythm.  We have also continued to develop our knowledge of pitch through exploring different songs.   In Art we explored the use of different shades of colour by making a night sky for an image of a haunted house. We have also been developing our ability to use line and shape to draw a scientific image of a butterfly. We learned how to give constructive feedback to help our friends improve their work. We also demonstrated our ability to use colour and texture through outdoor learning by creating images of butterflies using things from the ground such as leaves and twigs.

 

French

In French we have continued to explore our knowledge of numbers through a variety of games and activities.

 

RME

We have been learning the story of the Good Samaritan.  We have discussed the positive impact of doing something good for others and how we can be more like the Good Samaritan.

 

Our learning in these areas will draw upon the contexts listed above but will differ according to the needs of each class / group. Your support with consolidation of core learning through homework activities will be very beneficial to our children.

Article 29: You have the right to education which develops your personality, respect for other’s rights and the environment.

 

 

Awesome Achievers.

We have been celebrating our successes in sports.  Some of us have moved up a level in swimming while others have developed their skills in football.  Some peoples skills in dance, drama and gymnastics have been improving.  One of us have even learned how to do a front flip.  Others have been celebrating their achievements in music, video games, art and reading.

So far in Primary 3 we have been learning lots of exciting things.  We started of the term by reading lots of Dr Seuss books which inspired us to create posters, poems, graphs and pictures.

 

Science

We have been learning about the human body. So far we have focused on the skeleton and why we need it.  We can name some of the major bones in the body.  We have been reading non-fiction books about the human body to find out more useful facts.  We also learned about how germs are spread and “we made instructions about how to wash our hands correctly” (Scott).  We know that “we should always cover our mouth when we cough or sneeze” (Zoe) and “we should always was our hands afterwards” (Lexi).  We will continue to investigate the function and position of the skeleton and major organs and how to keep healthy.

 

Social Studies

In social studies we have been learning about our local landscape in Scotland.  We have investigated the differences between the landscape in the city compared to the countryside.  We explored our local landscape through outdoor learning by identifying different features in our local area.   “In social studies we have been learning about maps, what they are used for and what we can see on them” (Rory). We used this to help us identify different aspects of Scotland’s landscape by looking at a map.  We even made our own maps of the school and we labelled it with a key.

 

This term we will continue to investigate characteristics of our local environment to learn more about our area.  We also look forward to learning more about our topic “plant to plate” in which we will explore the variety of foods produced in Scotland.

 

Technologies

“In ICT we have been practicing our maths skills on Sumdog” (Dougie).  “We have also been using 2Publish to create pictures and comics” (Archie).  We will continue to explore using technologies to enhance our learning.

 

Expressive Arts

In Music we have been learning about rhythm and how to keep a steady beat.  We have learned the beats “ta” and “te te”.  We have also learned to sing “so” and “mi” and can recognise these sounds in songs.  We will continue to develop our knowledge of rhythm during term 1.  In art we will develop our skills by using line, shape and colour to create images.  In drama we will use texts to explore character and setting by taking on different roles using voice, movement and expression.

 

Health and Wellbeing

In PE we have been building our fitness. We have been working on our listening skills, following instructions and improving our balance.  This term we will also develop our skills in rugby, basketball and dance.

 

French

In French this term we have been revising our knowledge of the French numbers.  Throughout the rest of the term we will be linking to our science topic and learning some body parts in French and will continue to develop our understanding of instructional language in French.

 

Our learning in these areas will draw upon the contexts listed above but will differ according to the needs of each class / group. Your support with consolidation of core learning through homework activities will be very beneficial to our children.

Article 29: You have the right to education which develops your personality, respect for other’s rights and the environment.