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! 

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.