Yesterday we had a super trip to the V&A. We got to see around the Scottish Designers Exhibition and saw some of the amazing things people have designed. We then got to design our own product for the gift shop. After our workshop, we got to spend time in the museum doing some of the fun activities like building, drawing and doing rubbings.

Today, we have written a recount about our trip in the form of a comic for Comic Relief and celebrating Dennis the Menace which was created in Dundee.

In Numeracy, we have started dividing and thought about it as sharing into equal groups. We can use circles and share the number out equally.

In Health and Wellbeing, we learnt about what we should eat as part of a healthy diet and how we should eat more and less of certain food groups.

As part of our Scottish Culture and Traditions topic, we wanted to learn about Scottish Castles so we chose a castle and researched it with a partner to make a poster about it.

We also painted out Nessies and they look great!

We are really looking forward to the Talent Show this afternoon!

This week in P3/4 we have been reading a folktale about the Loch Ness Monster. We had group discussions about whether Scotland should keep looking for Nessie. We came up with 3 reasons why we should and 3 reasons why we shouldn’t. In our groups we had roles to help the group stay on task and all be involved. The jobs were Manager, Reporter, Recorder and Encourager. We then wrote a discussion with our ideas that we came up with.

In Art, we made clay Loch Ness Monsters. Children could choose what they wanted their Nessie to look like. We are going to paint them once they are dry. We also made Mother’s Day cards. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums!

In Numeracy, some children were multiplying 2-digit numbers by a single digit number using grids. We also practised multiplying by 10 and 100.

In PE, we created sequences in pairs using the gymnastics skills that we have been learning. They had to perform some movements together with our partner. W have been working on giving feedback related to the Steps to Success. Today we played Dodgeball.

We joined P2/3 to do Loose Parts on Tuesday which was great. Children played really well together.

We all had lots of fun dressing up for yesterday’s World Book Day. We read a bit of Bunny vs Monkey and watched an interview with the author Jamie Smart. We thought the book was funny and good to read because it was a comic and written in small stories. We designed our own new animals or monsters for the story by drawing a quarter each. They turned out pretty crazy! We also designed our own book covers for a new book about Buttercup for the P7 competition. Everyone enjoyed the fashion show with the whole school! We got to browse the Book Fair to see if there was anything we would like to buy. We will have time on Tuesday 10th to buy books.

We have been writing a set of instructions to tell people how to make a piece of Scottish art that we had made the week before. We had to use adverbs and openers. We drew a picture to go with each instruction.

In Numeracy, we have continued practising our times tables and n Maths we started learning about 3D shapes.

In PE, we were balancing and jumping from different heights.

In Science, we tested different materials to see if they were conductors or insulators. We tested different metals and materials like plastic, cotton and glass. We found out that all metals are conductors and the other materials were insulators. We also learnt about static electricity and tried out different activities to see if we could see static electricity.

In Outdoor Learning, we are working through a cycle of 3 activities – sketching, creating a habitat and orienteering.

 

This week we have designed and made model rooms out of boxes and then attached a light and switch using our knowledge of circuits. Our rooms have things like wallpaper, clocks, beds, tables and even a staircase!

As part of our Digital Technology, Literacy and Science learning we have written a set of instructions on Book Creator to show people how to make a circuit. We had an introduction, an equipment list and steps of what to do with pictures too. We had to use adverbs, openers, different fonts and different backgrounds. We did a self assessment and gave ourselves 2 stars and a wish.

In PE, we were learning some different rolls and turns. we had to work on balance and control. We have been performing our own sequences of what we have learnt.

In Numeracy, we are continuing to learn and practice our times tables. Children are working on 3, 4, 8 and 6 times tables.

We have also been writing questions and making sure we use a question mark!

This week we have started doing multiplication using arrays or revising prior knowledge. Some children have been working on 2-step questions using their multiplication knowledge.

In Literacy, we have been practising using our dictionary skills, looking up words to check meaning and spelling. In Writing, we wrote a newspaper article about Matt Weston’s gold medal win at the Winter Olympics. We watched him winning and also being interviewed. We took what he said to make quotes for our writing.

In Art, we designed and painted our own tartan. We then drew an image of something that was  traditionally Scottish and either used our tartan or black paper to create a silhouette on a background.

In PE, we have started working on our gymnastics skills. We developed our balance skills using point or patch balance points and learnt a straight, star and tuck jump. We created sequences of balances and jumps to perform in groups. We gave feedback to other children.

In Science, we learnt about what electricity is and how we can use mains electricity or batteries. We made circuits using batteries, wires, switches, bulbs and buzzers. We know that for the bulb or buzzer to work it needs to be in a complete circuit. The switch breaks the circuit to turn things off and completes it to turn things on.

As part of our Digital Technology learning, we all logged in to our own Book Creator account on the netbooks. Next week, we are going to make a book about how to make an electric circuit.

We enjoyed a Karate taster session. We learnt some different stances and movements.

This week we have been writing poems with the theme ‘I Have  A Dream’. We are entering them into a competition. Children were able to write any style of poem and some have chosen acrostic while some have chosen free verse or rhyme. They are all super and have themes like being an astronaut or footballer or winning an Olympic medal or having a monster creep up behind you!

In Numeracy, we have continued learning to use column subtraction and also finishing off our subtraction topic with a mini assessment.

In Dance, we learnt how to do the Flying Scotsman and the Dashing White Sergeant. We also created our our dance to Scottish music thinking about sequences fitting into 4 counts of 8. We watched each other and gave constructive feedback.

We had an amazing visit from Robert in P7 who told us all about his bagpipes and played for us! It was amazing! We were able to ask him  questions too! We have made bagpipes in art using a weaving technique to produce a tartan for the bag. They look fantastic.

In Science, we learnt what energy is and all about different types of energy, like sound, heat and light. We also discussed how electricity can be produced using renewable or non-renewable energy sources. We know that sources like solar, wind and hydro are better for the environment because they won’t run out and they don’t produce harmful gases.

This week we have been learning about Robert Burns. We read about him and used the internet to write a fact file. We have also learned about what would happen at a Burns Night celebration and have made invitations on PowerPoint to our own Burns party. We worked in pairs to plan our invitation and developed our design skills when making our invite. Miss Amy was very impressed with how the pairs worked together and showed the skills they had learnt.

In Art, we drew a thistle and used pastels to colour it. We also used black pen to outline and make the image pop out. They look great.

In Literacy, we wrote a newspaper report about a section of our class novel, The Twits Next Door. The Twits had been tricked into wearing Mrs Lovely’s Disco Pants and ended up dancing in the town centre with a big crowd watching them. Local newspaper reporters saw what happened and wrote about it for the evening newspaper. Some children have started using quotes from onlookers in their newspaper articles.

In PE, we have been learning different Scottish dances. This week we learnt group dances called the Virginia Reel and the Flying Scotsman.

In Health and Wellbeing, we used KitBag to share how we were feeling and also share any worries. We spoke about how we can manage some of our worries and used feathers to ‘blow’ them away. Blowing the feathers away is also a good way to calm our breathing if we are upset.

In Numeracy, we learned how to do column subtraction and have started exchanging.

On Monday, we did our assembly! We performed Giraffes Can’t Dance and it was fantastic! We got lots of great feedback from the other classes and from the families. We then wrote a newspaper article about it. We looked at a newspaper article to find the features and came up with the Steps to Success. They included a headline, an 4W introduction, WOW words and openers.

In Numeracy, we have continued to learn and practice strategies for subtraction. This week we used a split strategy and some children moved on to subtracting 3-digit numbers.

In French, we learnt some of the French words for things in the classroom, like table, chair and computer. We labelled a picture of a classroom and then had to show someone around the room, showing theme where things were in French.

In PE, we did circuits and Scottish dancing. We learnt the Military 2-Step and and the Canadian Barn Dance. We managed to do a progressive Canadian Barn Dance too where you change partners as you go. We discussed why we learn Scottish Dancing in school. We decided that it was fun and helped form friendships plus it is part of Scottish Culture. Our new topic, is Scottish Traditions and Cultures. We learnt some Scots words and the children also performed the Scots poems that they had learnt. From our class, Lochlan, Victor and Orla are going to perform for the school on Monday! Congratulations!

This week we have each made a fantastic mask for our assembly on Monday. We have lots of different jungle animals. The class have learnt their lines brilliantly and their dancing is amazing! We have also got lots of props including a violin and two guitars made from card! They are going to be awesome.

We have written a diary entry, imagining that we were the boy from the short animation ‘The Present’. We were able to include lots about how the boy was feeling and we also added lots of great description. We have been colour marking our work and if we feel we haven’t shown enough of one of the Steps to Success we write another sentence at the end. For example, maybe we didn’t use ‘because’, so we write another sentence with ‘because’ in it just to show we can!

In Numeracy, we are working on different subtraction strategies using a number line to take a number away in 2 or 3 steps. Some of us can do this in our heads, while others prefer to jot it down or use a number square.

We are enjoying our new class novel The Twits Next Door. The Lovely family have moved in next door and it has been funny finding out the ways in which they spread their loveliness! Today, we designed our own new ‘Lovely Invention’ to spread more loveliness!

This afternoon, we learnt about different animals that could be pets. We learnt how to say if we had a pet or not.

Welcome back, everyone! Happy New Year.

This week we have been working hard rehearsing our assembly, Giraffes Can’t Dance. Children have been learning their lines and different dances as well as preparing props. It is all looking great so far.

We have also written an imagined response to a dream that a little boy had about his Grandpa. We had to pretend we were the little boy and write to our Grandpa all about it. We had to tell him what had happened and how it made us feel. We included openers, connectives and describing words.

In Numeracy, we have started learning about subtraction. We have been using 2 and 3-step strategies and number lines to take away single and double digit numbers. The P4s have been working with 3-digit numbers.

In Health and Wellbeing, we read The Huge Bag of Worries and thought about any worries we might have and talked about what we can do about them. We realised that not all worries are that big once we have let them out and some of our worries aren’t for us to worry about and we should try to blow them away.

In PE, we have done circuits and also lots of dancing!

This week, we have also been doing our Skills Academy. Children were either developing skills through Lego building, playing board games, creating animations or printing.