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.