This week, we have been enjoying lots of activities to support World Book Week. We joined a very interesting online author session with Holly Webb, who wrote A Girl’s Guide to Spying, hearing about her inspirations and writing process and having lots of chances to ask questions. We also enjoyed a British Library event called Global Food Stiries with Michel Rosen and friends. We experienced the magic of fantastic story telling and loved having the opportunity to follow instructed drawing activities with each of these. Some people used this session as their inspiration for their writing too. We loved dressing up as our favourite book characters and sharing our favourite stories.

In our writing, we focussed on word selection by creating a mini saga (100 words!) to enter into the Great Writers Nonsense stories competition. This really pushed our editing skills.

We explored multiplication word problems and checked we could identify and lay out the correct sum to solve each question. We continued to work on defensive play in rugby, considering how to cover the playing area to be most effective.

We also looked at significant events through the timeline of the Victorian period and sorted them into categories of Monarchy, Empire, Innovation and Social change.

This week, we have been learning about the day to day life of a child working in a Victorian cotton mill- what they may have eaten, worn, how they washed and what their working conditions were like. In our writing, we created imaginative recounts to describe what a day in their lives were like, focussing on writing in the first person and in the past tense.

We started to use a column multiplication method to multiply a one digit number by 2, 3 or 4 digits.

We learnt about defensive techniques in rugby, practicing working as a team to defend against attacking runners.

We also completed our ‘book creator’ information texts on our experiment into how sound waves move, including learning to change the format of a photo so it can be uploaded into our book.

This week we have been using the grid method to support our multiplication learning with the aim of increasing our confidence in being able to manipulate sums to solve them efficiently. Some of us moved onto identifying prime numbers.

We created symmetrical insect art using a collage technique, inspired by the Victorian fascination with entomology.

We learnt about the Victorian poet, Edward Lear, and looked at some of his nonsense poems such as the Owl and the Pussycat. We considered how the number of syllables effects the rhythm of a poem and then created limericks, following the AABBA rhyming pattern.

We worked on moving into space to support attacking play in rugby and had a great judo session.

This week we have been consolidating our work on multiplying, looking at the nine times table and starting to explore a column strategy for multiplication. We also practiced moving from one operation to another, to check we could apply the correct procedure.

In literacy, we used a picture of a dragon as inspiration for our imaginative story, and focussed on revisiting our work to make sure we had met our success criteria and to edit to improve. We consolidated some of our grammar and punctuation learning, in particular looking at identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions.

We have started two new initiatives- Monday morning Mile and Four minute Fridays, both to challenge ourselves to improve our ‘daily mile’ performances. We also set up our ‘bakery’ which is to encourage handling money and counting change in a real-life inspired play setting.

This week we have continued our learning of multiplication- looking at multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000, some of us progressing onto decimal numbers. We then furthered this learning by multiplying by multiples of ten, growing in confidence to manipulate sums to maximise efficiency.

In our writing we moved onto using onomatopoeia and created a story around a given title and starter sentence. We revisited apostrophes for possession and looked at their, there and they’re- identifying their correct application.

We continued with ‘Strip the Willow’ and progressed onto picking up and putting down the rugby ball at speed, safely. We also completed a series of investigations around waves and vibrations and started using book creator to record our experiment and findings.

This week we have finished our work on addition and subtraction by looking at word problems, identifying which operation was needed and then choosing the best method for completing the sum. Some people moved onto multiple step word problems. We then started our learning on multiplication – using arrays to show that multiplication was commutative – we could swap the order of the numbers over, and we still got the same result. We linked this with finding the area of a space or shape.

In grammar we revisited determiners – identifying whether we should use this, that, these or those depending on distance and whether the item was singular or plural. Our imaginative writing was inspired by a spooky piece of music, and we created stories with lots of description and alliteration. We completed reading comprehension on Charles Rennie Macintosh and Robert Burns, working on answering in sentences and including the question in our answer. In rugby, we worked on observational skills so we could move into space. We started learning Strip the Willow in Scottish Country dancing.  

We all presented our Scots poems, and the standard was very high. So many pupils had put lots of work in. We are very pleased that Donald, Ariyah and Olivia M are going to share their poems on Monday in together time. 

This week we have continued with our subtracting using the column method, with exchanging, and the whole class have grown in confidence, some progressing onto decimal numbers. We looked at counting coins and identifying the change that would be owed to us. In our writing, we have returned to imaginative writing, using a short, silent animated film as our prompt and inspiration. We learnt about the literacy device of alliteration and had to incorporate that into our writing to make our descriptions more interesting. In grammar, we revisited commas in a list and had to be the teacher – identifying why sentences had been incorrectly punctuated. We have been presenting our PowerPoints on a Scottish animal of our own choosing this week – and have really impressed Miss Tannock with our skills, preparation and confidence. 

We started our rugby block – working on using our observation skills to ensure we were in the correct place on the field to help our team and worked on passing and catching in groups.  

We created ‘Rose and Thistle’ art, inspired by Robert Burns and Charles Rennie Macintosh, which involved close listening skills to follow instructions carefully. 

A gentle reminder – please could we have all spelling jotters back in school for Monday morning at the latest, as this is when the following week’s homework is set. Also, could reading books be back in school on Monday, if possible, to enable reading groups to start again promptly. 

Welcome back everyone! What a chilly start to the term. We hope you had a lovely break. 

This week we have started using the column method for subtraction and are working hard at remembering all the steps we need to be successful. We have been learning that subtraction is not commutative – so we cannot change the order over like we could do when adding. We have also started our learning about money and have been budgeting for everyday life with our budget of chickpeas! 

We picked the Scots poems that we are going to learn to recite in class – copies have come home with us so we would love it if you could help us practice. We have been studying a Scots poem – Willie Wastle’s Wife by Robbie Burns. We have been identifying the language that we do not know the meaning of and using a glossary to translate these terms. We also drew an annotated drawing of Willie Wastle’s wife, using evidence from the text. 

In PE, we avoided the cold and ice and did some calming yoga – talking about how this can support flexibility and strength.  

We have also been enjoying our skills academies – ask us what we have been doing! 

In Numeracy, we have been solving a problem with a missing number. Once we identified whether we needed to add or subtraction we continued using our split strategy to solve the problem. We did some Christmas maths where we had to work out which symbol was missing from the equation.

In Literacy, we wrote Christmas acrostic poems. We used our description bubbles to help plan our poems and then wrote our poem in our jotters. We looked at using context clues to help us identify the meaning of unknown words within our reading.

In Topic, we were learning about the Middle and lower course of the River Tay, identifying geographical features and how they are created.

In French, we have been learning the french song “Quand le Père Noël vient me visiter” which we performed at the church on Thursday.

We revisited Scottish Country dancing to perfect our Gay Gordons, concentrating on the hold position.

We had great fun at our Class party and enjoyed games like musical statues, Christmas Corners and Pass the Parcel. We created a Christmas bauble using a variety of media – messy but fun. We joined in the ‘Santa Dash’ and played some Christmas themed P.E games.

 

Hope you all have a lovely holiday and looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Mrs Skilling, Miss Tannock and Mr Watson.

In Maths we have been learning subtraction strategies. We have learnt the split strategy and counting backwards on a number line. We have also been learning about angles. We have learnt 45, 90, 180, 270 and 360 degrees. Along side this we also learnt clockwise and anticlockwise which we used to follow instructions such as turn 90 degrees clockwise.

In Literacy this week we were learning about persuasive writing. We explored why local businesses are good and how they help us within the local community. We also learnt how to edit our writing adding in better vocabulary to make our writing better.

In h

Health and Wellbeing, we were learning about our rights. We learnt about different types of abuse and who we can speak to when we feel stressed. We learnt the Childline number and how we can use this to speak to an adult to reduce our worries. We learnt about what our safe adults can make us feel and who our trusted adults are.

In our PE this week we were learning how to tackle opponents in basketball. We worked in two groups, one group worked one vs one with a partner where one person was dribbling their ball, and their opponent had to try and tackle them safely. The second group were working in a three vs three group, three people had the ball and were trying to pass it to their teammates while the other three were trying to defend and get the ball off the other team.

We have been learning how to make a difference in our local community as part of our first Festive Friday. We were creating jokes which we will be putting in goody bags for those less fortunate than us who may be spending Christmas alone. By doing this we are aiming to spread joy around Christmas time.

 

Blog written by Mr Watson (student teacher)