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)

This week we continued using a column strategy to solve addition sums, now including carrying over to the next column. As we grew in confidence, we started to add numbers with different amounts of digits together, ensuring we are placing the digits in the correct column when laying out our sum. We started looking at persuasive language and completed note taking from a power point on the effects of littering on the Fife Coastal Path. We then returned to our information report structure to create a persuasive piece of writing. In grammar, we started to look at speech marks and where and how we should include them in our writing. In P.E, we focussed on different passing techniques in basketball and began our  Scottish Country dancing focus, starting with the Gay Gordons. We learnt about charities and the work they do and returned to one-point perspective with our art, including local businesses and Newport landmarks in our buildings. With Mrs Skilling, we have edited our own scripts in drama, made characters and recorded them acting out several scenes.   

This week we moved onto using a column strategy to solve addition sums, ensuring we were laying our sums out clearly, with one digit per square in our jotters. On Wednesday we learnt about ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs! For our report writing, we wrote about the River Tay, including information about its location, wildlife and human uses of it. Our grammar focus was on exclamation marks and question marks. We continued with our dribbling skills in basketball, aiming to grow in confidence by adding changes of direction while maintaining control while dribbling. We also played basketball traffic lights which was challenging but lots of fun. In dance, we added music to our dance ‘algorithm’. We created a mixed media art piece, using paint spatter techniques, oil pastel and a collage effect. We continued with our strategies for managing stress and worry with more storybook massage – a big hit – and we returned to our work in our committees.

This week we have been working on split strategy in addition, partitioning our numbers and adding the parts individually, before putting the answers back together. We also looked at directional co-ordinates. In our information report writing, we wrote about Balmerino Abbey, looking at the history and previous occupants. For our grammar focus, we learnt about directives – this, that, these and those – and why and where we would use them. We focussed on dribbling skills for our basketball – learning to move with the ball. In French, we created a game of snap for classroom items. We really enjoyed welcoming some of our adults to the class and they helped us create paper sculptures to represent different emotions. We did this using a variety of folding techniques.

This week, we have been using lots of different strategies to complete our addition sums, including compensation, to ten and more and recapped near doubles and jump stategy. We looked at a variety of addition problems and identified which method would be the most efficient. We also enjoyed plotting co-ordinates to reveal pictures. We have looked at identifying the correct article to use before different nouns and adjectives and wrote a collaborative information report about the Tay Rail Bridge disaster, focussing on sorting our facts into a logical order. We practised passing in basketball and linked our learning about algorithms to dance, creating a series of steps for each other to follow. We read ‘My Many Coloured Days’ by Dr. Seuss and discussed which colour we felt represented each emotion for us. We looked for emotion words in our reading books and started pieces of art to represent different emotions. We learnt about one-point perspectives, the horizon line and vanishing points in art and drew a picture of the Tay Rail bridge, using different watercolour techniques to create the impression of light on the water. 

This week, we have been investigating the features of an information report and learning about contractions, identifying the correct placement of the apostrophe. We have been developing our note-taking skills, gathering information on the Tay Bridge Disaster, as part of our Along the Tay topic. We have been focussing on fluency of expression in our reading groups and have started our new class novel, The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh, by Helen Rutter. In numeracy, we looked at different addition strategies, the jump strategy and near doubles. We also started working on co-ordinates. We played team-work games in P.E, as a starting point to our block on basketball and enjoyed completing the daily mile, both alongside the rest of the school and as a class. We spent our afternoons at our Skills Academies, as part of the Lego, Animations, Games or Print-Making teams. 

Lastly, we welcomed Mr Watson to our class, who will be teaching our class part of the time until January. He has been a big hit and we are very excited to have him.

This week, we completed our final piece of writing for our narrative block. The children each planned their own story for the motivational meerkat character, picking a suitable name and setting and storyboarding each phase of their narrative, ensuring motivation would solve the problem. In numeracy, we have been working on mental maths skills and skip counting to build our confidence in the place value system. We started or mini topic on electricity, looking at what electricity is, how it is made, whether it is from a renewable source or non-renewable and considered safety and identifying hazards on the home and outside. We also started to look at circuits – what you need to create a circuit and why some materials conduct, and others do not. We enjoyed playing Capture the flag in our games block and played inter-house Yoshi with the upper classes. We have also worked very hard getting some of our work uploaded to our e-portfolios. 

With Mrs Skilling, we created our own Carroll diagrams and sorted information into the appropriate categories.