We have had a busy week of learning in P4. Here is a flavour of our learning highlights…

In Literacy we have been learning when to use an exclamation mark, a question mark and commas in our writing. We also analysed the story of Edgar the Dragon and wrote our own version.

We have continued to learn our times tables this week in Numeracy. We have also been learning about grid references, co-ordinates and compass points. We created mnemonics to remember the order of North, East, south and West (Naughty Elephants Splash Water, Never Eat Soggy Wheat and Never Eat Shredded Wheat).

In Science we continued to learn about food chains and habitats.  In Technology we learned to how to use loops when coding and we also created our own advent calendars in PowerPoint.  We used hyperlinks (ctrl k) to move between the pages to give the idea of opening a door.  In RME we worked in home teams and away teams to learn information about past and present Christmas traditions in Scotland. In Drama, we worked in small groups to mime different things associated with Christmas. It was a lot of fun.

Everyone looked very festive for our Festive Friday. Today we researched and recorded Christmas jokes for our Festive Goodie Bags. Every class contributed an item to the bag and our Pupil Council will visit Granary Lane to distribute them to our community.

Today is Miss Fell’s last day with us. We would like to thank her for all of the fun lessons she planned for us and we wish her lots of luck for the future! We think she will make a great teacher!

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Love from P4 and Miss Donaldson

We have had another busy week of learning in P4. Here is a flavour of what we have been learning…

 

As part of our IDL (topic) we have been learning about Scottish animals. We used our netbooks to find the answers to our key questions. We took notes under our sub-headings. We then used our notes and turned them into sentences. We created our own Information Text (poster, leaflet or factfile) and included a title, sub-headings, pictures and our information.

 

In Literacy we learnt about their, there and they’re (homophones) and how we can use them correctly in our written work. We then started to learn about apostrophes and when to use them 1) to shorten a word eg it will = it’ll and 2) when something belongs to a person.

 

In Numeracy and Maths, we have been focussing on multiplying. We looked at the patterns in the 6 times table and how our previous knowledge can help us to remember them! Some of us were multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers by a single digit. We have also continued to learn about time and counting in 5 minute intervals and reading timetables.

 

We have all enjoyed learning the Canadian Barn Dance this week. We co-operated well with our partner and there was a lot of encouragement on show.

 

Everyone looked great in their Festive jumpers today. We can’t believe it’s December already! We have worked hard in Art today to produce our Christmas Frieze which will be displayed in the hall. Just a reminder that our Christmas Post Service begins on Monday 4th December until Friday 15th December. Please remember to put the name of the child (the recipient) and their class on the envelope.

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone and we will see you all on Monday.

 

Miss Donaldson, Miss Fell and P4 xx

We have had a very busy week of learning in P4. We really enjoyed having our families visiting on Wednesday for our Sharing Our Learning event.  Miss Fell, who is learning to be a teacher, has been taking some of our lessons.

 

In Maths we have been learning about Time.  We have been learning about ‘am’ and ‘pm’ and when to use these terms as well as counting in 5 minute intervals.  Reading the time is an important life skill as it will help us with bus and train timetables in the future!

 

We really enjoyed using our coding skills on Wednesday when our families cam to school. We showed them how to code our microbits.  We played rock, paper, scissors and created dice.

 

Our Junior Road Safety Officers have visited our class this week to share the important messages of being bright and seen now the mornings and the nights are getting darker.  We were also reminded about the importance of using The Green Cross Code when we are about in our community.

 

We had our Pupil Committees today.  Here is a flavour of what each committee are promoting and learning:

 

Eco:  we designed posters to promote looking after our rivers and beaches.

 

Enterprise:  we designed posters to promote Festive Friday which starts next week.

 

Health:  we played games which we can promote and play in the playground.

 

Rights Respecting School:  we played a ‘rights’ pair game and have decided to create a video to show rights around our school.

 

In Literacy we listened to a text about St Andrew and took notes. We then turned the notes into sentences.  We created an information text (poster, leaflet or a book) to share what we had discovered.

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

 

Miss Donaldson, Miss Fell and P4 xx

Literacy

We wrote imaginative stories.  We edited our own writing using our new placemats to guide us.  These are for the first level tools for writing and narrative writing. Some of us worked on adding more difficult conjunctions to our writing.

Since we were off last Friday, we chose to do a spelling test with 20 words.  We all did really well.

 

Numeracy and Maths

We used chickpeas to work within a budget. Every chickpea was worth £50 and we had 40 to use within our month.  We spent them on essentials food, shelter, heating and then extra things like cinema trips, manicures and holidays.  It was interesting to see who the big spenders and who the savers were.

We continued working on our multiplication strategies and money calculations.

 

Art

We looked at painting reflections and drew objects that were gradually getting further away.

 

French

We looked at classroom items.  We had to look at the pictures and write what they were in French.  We then wandered round the classroom and pointed out different items in French.

 

PE

We looked at fitness and continued doing circuits.  This time we did different exercises such as skipping, a ladder run and a plank.

 

Music

We continued learning our songs with our glockenspiels.

 

ICT

We competed in the Sumdog competition.  We also created targets for literacy, maths and HWB.  This involved saving our own word document and typing our targets in the appropriate box.  We hope to upload these to our eportfolios next week.

 

Other

We drew a bag filled with items all about ourselves and shared our bags with Miss Fell.

We designed how we would like our tables to be set out within the classroom.

 

 

 

Numeracy and Maths

In Numeracy this week, we worked with Miss Donaldson to work on our times tables.  Some of us worked looking at the 3 times tables.  Others started looking at multiplying 2- or 3-digit numbers by a single number.  We enjoyed playing times table bingo.

With Miss Donaldson, we explored numbers in the past.  We also started looking at change we would get from either 20p, £1, £2, £5 or £10.  Some of us found this challenging and will continue to work on this next week.

Literacy

We read a story about wolf spiders and investigated the structure of the text.  Then, we wrote descriptive pieces of writing on an animal of our choosing.  We then looked at peer assessing our friends work based on the success criteria using pink and green pencils.

In handwriting we started looking at joining an “i” to various ascenders (b, h, l, t, k and f).

PE

In PE we continued looking at our fitness and participated in a shuttle run challenge.  We marked down whether we were able to run to a cone and back 6 times between a set time scale.  We started at 2mins and worked our way down to 20 secs.  When back in class we compared the results on excel and investigated pie charts showing how many students managed.  We saw clearly that all the class were able to complete the task in 1 min and over, around half could manage in 30 secs and very few managed in 20secs.

 

Art 

We made pictures of poppies looking at different lines and patterns.  We also looked at the difference between light and dark colours.

Music

As part of our lesson using charanga, we started using glockenspiels to play along with “Three little birds.” We really enjoyed playing along with the music.

HWB

As part of our health and wellbeing, we looked at the importance of a big or little deal.  We also looked at the importance of appreciating the people in our lives and wrote positive things about our classmates.

Other

We investigated Rememberence day and made posters about what we had learnt.

Numeracy and Maths

In Numeracy, we have been looking at times tables and learning to use the strategies “groups of” and repeated addition. Some of the us struggled with “groups of” so used stickers or drawings to help us with our learning.  During these lessons, we showed resilience and perseverance to show we conceptually understood how to solve these equations.

In Maths we started looking at Money and money equations and we finished looking at data handling and working with units of 5 for our pictographs.

 

Literacy

We planned our spooky stories using our story mountain plan.  We read the story “The Heaviest Pumpkin” to help look at the structure of writing and the various elements the writer included.  We talked about time related openers and the importance of nouns, verbs and adverbs in our writing.  On Tuesday, we wrote our story.  All of us were able to include some full stops, capital letters and adjectives in our writing.  Most of us also managed to either write with paragraphs or include them in their editing.  Some were also able to add some interesting adverbs to their writing.

We marked our classmates work with “pink for think” and “green for got it”, looking carefully at what they had included against our success criteria.  On Wednesday, the children then edited their work with the corrections suggested.

 

We started our novel “Kaspar Prince of Cats” by Michael Morpurgo and answered comprehension questions about it.  We are learning to take different roles in groups.

In handwriting we started looking at joining an “e” to various ascenders (b, h, l, t, k and f).

PE

In PE we continued looking at our fitness and went to different stations in PE.  We compared results over the last 3 lessons and looked for where we may have made improvements in our fitness.  We talked about how we could continue improving our fitness and we made tables to track our fitness at home.

 

Art 

We made pictures of a forest at sunset in art.  We focused on showing near and far, using various shades of grey/black as it got closer to the picture.  We talked about the importance of details as it got closer to the artist and that further away it wouldn’t need as much detail.

 

Music

As part of our lesson using charanga, we were learning “3 little birds”.  We were able to find the pulse of the music and copy dance moves.  We then looked at sections of the song to learn how to sing it.  We then tried to perform the music without any back vocals.

ICT

We continued to work on our eportfolios.  These are like the folders that go out at the end of term so parents can access them then.  Before that, please be aware that anything uploaded may be incomplete and unfinished.

We carried out research using google to find out more facts about magnets.

 

IDL – Forces

In Science we have been learning about magnets.  We learnt about north and south poles. Including that the north and south poles will connect but the north and north poles repel each other.

We used notes we had gathered to make posters with facts about magnets.

We were using cereals with magnets to see if it was magnetic, we found that when in water it did have iron that was attracted to the magnet.  During this, we talked about our hypothesis.  We found the best cereal to show this was “Shreddies”.

Other

We met Miss Fell who will be joining us as a teacher in two weeks for 4 weeks. We planted our plant from eco committee green flag.

Numeracy and Maths

This week, we looked at rounding and estimating. Some children looked at rounding to the nearest 10 or 100, whilst others rounded to the nearest 1000. During estimating, we used rounding to help us work out a rough answer to sums.

In maths, we looked at Carol and Venn diagrams.  We discussed how we would sort information in a Carol diagram.  We created our own Venn diagrams sorting numbers into different groups.  With Miss Allan, we looked at Roman Numerals.

Literacy

In writing, we looked at a descriptive story about road trains.  We analysed how the story was set out and how they described each part of the train.  We then discussed our own houses and how we could do a step by step description of each room.  On Wednesday, using notes Mrs Skilling left in our jotters we edited our work.  On top of this, we looked at paragraphs and added paragraphs to our stories.

We investigated adverbs and verbs.  We looked at what verbs match certain adverbs and wrote descriptive sentences using them.

In handwriting we started looking at joining an a to various ascenders (b, h, l, t, k and f).

PE

This week, we pushed ourselves during circuits to try and raise our fitness levels.  We made tables to track the amount of times we could do each exercise within a minute. We will compare times with next week to see if our fitness has improved.

HWB

We talked and discussed the importance of fitness inside and outside of school.  We shared ideas about what we can do to help keep us fit and healthy.  The children were introduced to Kitbag with Miss Donaldson this week and continued this with Mrs Skilling.  We enjoyed talking about our feelings and showed respect when listening to others.

Art & Music

We created a card for Jim the Janitor retiring and made our own song to sing for him leaving to the tune “Bob the Builder” called “Jim the Janny.”

RME

With Miss Allan, we looked at mosques and learnt about what it looked like on the inside and outside.

ICT

We used Scratch programming for the first time in P4 with Miss Allan.

IDL – Forces

This week, we started exploring magnets and forces.  We watched a video about how magnets work and worked at 6 different stations to explore magnetism.

Other

As a whole school we have introduced “Fun for 31.” This is in relation to article 31, a child’s right to play.  The children really enjoyed these 31 minutes on Thursday to explore and play.

In celebration of our green eco flag, we participated in a scavenger hunt to find something in nature that matched each letter of the alphabet.

Numeracy and Maths

This week we looked at rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100.  We also looked at best ways to record data and averaging data collected.  Using data collected from a science experiment using loose parts, we created our own tables and some of us also created bar charts of our results.  On Thursday, we also showed our learning so far by completing a maths assessment.

 

Literacy

In our writing this week, we created our own characters and settings using a planning sheet that focused on the five senses.  We used our plans to write our own imaginative stories. We revisited our previous learning and discussed what is important to include in our stories.

For Listening and talking this week, we read stories, wrote notes about the story and drew pictures to help us remember the story.  We then had discussions with a partner about what happened in our story.

 

PE

This week, we looked at hockey skills and learnt how to control the ball in groups.  We did a relay race where we had to move the ball in between the cones and pass it to the next person.  We also learnt how to stop the ball before passing it to the next person.

Since Thursday was our last PE lesson of this term, we were allowed to choose the activities we wanted to play.  We chose bench ball, hospital tig and a different version of dodgeball.  We really enjoyed this.

 

HWB

We finished and presented our powerpoints on children’s rights.  We all took turns to show and talk about the powerpoints we made.  It was interesting to see the different priorities of rights and hear the opinions of our classmates.  We gave feedback to our peers about their presentations through two stars and a wish.

 

ICT

This week we continued to add to our eportfolios, including learning how to crop photos and add them to our eportfolios.

 

Art

In Art, we looked at Vincent Van Gogh.  We looked at how he used different techniques and shades of colour to create multiple pictures of wheatfields.  We watched a video and looked at his harvest series of paintings.  Using what we learnt, we created notes and combined them to write what we wanted to say at our harvest assembly.  Several of us volunteered to talk at our assembly and everyone did so well sharing their artwork and their learning. We also did a “wheatfield meditation” while looking at some of his paintings.

 

IDL – Forces

On Monday, we looked at friction and what it can do to a force.  In groups, we discussed and wrote plans with diagrams of an experiment we would carry out with loose parts to show the effect of friction.  Some of us chose to use different textured balls while others changed the surface the ball was rolling on.  We then carried out our experiments and timed how long the ball would take to roll along the chosen surface.  We discussed the importance of a “fair” experiment and we showed our understanding of this by rolling the ball along a surface that was the same length and only changing one variable of the experiment.  We recorded our results on our clipboards.  On Wednesday, we transferred the data collected into tables.  Some of us found the average time of each variable and also made a bar chart with their data.

 

Other

On Thursday, the children enjoyed the enterprises butterfly hunt.  In total our class found 19. Neave won the prize for most butterflies in the class by finding 4.

Numeracy and Maths

On Monday, we started looking at using blank numberlines and numberlines to help us work out subtraction equations.  On Friday, we looked at word equations.  We underlined the key information to help us work out the answer.

 

Literacy

In our reading groups, we read guided reading cards together.  One the members of our group was leading and making sure everyone had a turn reading and answering questions. On Monday, we learnt our new spelling words and practised our joined handwriting.

 

HWB

On Monday, 5 children read their acrostic poems at together time.  The spoke really clearly and loudly and we are very proud of them all.

 

ICT

On Monday, we logged into glow and wrote on our team’s page so we knew how to access this when working from home.

On Friday, we were working on our e-portfolios and we are looking forward to sharing them with you.

 

Forces Topic

As part of our topic, we planned an experiment showing how friction can effect a force.  We look forward to carrying out our experiments on Monday using loose parts.

 

Other

We shared our online learning with Mrs Skilling.  Please bring this in on Monday if you have not brought it in already.

Numeracy and Maths

This week we have started looking at subtraction and how we can use a numbersquare and numberline to help us work out difficult equations.  We have enjoyed our mental maths and challenging ourselves to subtract 1-digit numbers from either a 1, 2 or 3 digit number. In maths, we discussed and decided what information we would like to collect data on. Most children picked from favourite food, sport or animal.  We then carried out a survey and tallied the answers our classmates gave us.  Using the data collected, we created a table of results and some of us also created a bar graph. We made our own spinners in probability with Miss Allan and we used language like; “It was impossible to…” “It was certain to…” “It was likely to..” “It was unlikely to” and “It had an even chance.”

 

Literacy

In our writing this week, we read a story about following directions.  We discussed and looked at google maps to help us remember our trip to the library last week.  Using a spider diagram, we planned out what we would need to include in our writing; materials, bossy verbs, steps, etc. Using our plans and the book to help support us, we wrote our first piece of instructional writing this term.  We then used a self-assessment grid to check that we included our goal, our materials, bossy verbs, numbered our steps, wrote in a chronological order, etc.

Using our feedback from our Acrostic poems from last week, we were able to edit our work on Microsoft word.

In our reading groups, we have started independently reading PM guided reading cards and have answered questions in our groups.

 

PE

This week, we have practised our throwing and catching skills.  During Wednesdays PE, we played a game of Dodgeball.  On Thursday, we started looking at our tennis skills.  We focussed on throwing the ball with the opposite hand.  We then practised serving the ball to our partners.

“This week in PE we did tennis. We had to throw the ball in the air and serve to our partner for them to catch. At the end we played a game of Jungles on fire,” Finlay.

“This week my favourite thing has been PE because I really liked dodge ball,” Ada.

“This week I have enjoyed learning tennis skills. I liked learning how to catch the ball and hit it with a tennis racket,” Grace.

 

HWB

This week we revisited the SHANARRI wheel and wrote comments about how we felt these needs are met in school.  We also continued our discussions about mistakes and failures.

“Best thing of this week was health and wellbeing,” Olivia A.

 

Drama

In Drama, we looked at how we respond using different senses.  We imagined what it was like to experience good and bad things through all 5 of our senses.

 

French

We looked at the numbers 0-31 using songs.  Then we tried to match the numbers to the correct French terms.  Some of us found this very challenging this week, we hope to keep practising these.

“I enjoyed FRENCH this week because we got to look at the spelling,” Lewis.

 

RME

In RME we named parts of a religious building and items inside the religious church with Miss Allan.

 

ICT

This week we worked with another pair to give feedback on our powerpoints so far.  The groups gave each other two stars and a wish.  They then edited their work using the feedback given to improve the slides created so far. With Miss Allan we added a word cloud to our e-portfolios.

 

Art

In Art, we created our Christmas Cards.  We used templates of trees to paint a beautiful night sky around.  We then removed the template and used cotton buds to create our trees with Christmassy colours.

“I really enjoyed art. I really liked when we had to mix the paints to make pretty colours. It was so fun,” Neave.

“Art because it is so fun,” Winnie.