It was Health Week -we’re all exhausted but are feeling the benefits of such an action-packed week.

On Monday we learnt many new football skills and boogied to Zumba music. Then on Tuesday we listened to an inspiring talk Stephanie Inglis a ‘Judo master’. A physiotherapist taught us the importance of posture we tried to balance a book on our heads which we practised on Friday during our writing. Wednesday took us to the Scout Hall for archery and then back to school for basketball and netball. We had gym three times playing team games, rounders and practise for the main event sports day on Thursday. The sun shone and so did the children with everyone receiving medals for their achievements.

On Friday we reflected on our week writing a diary including our thoughts and feelings. We also discussed peoples differences and learnt a new word stereotypes. In the afternoon it was our time to shine as we sang our songs to the Kelty Club members and our celloist played too. Well done to all we returned to school to celebrate with a refreshing ice lolly.

We finished the Demon Headmaster and wrote Speeches for what we would say if we were about to rule the world. We looked at a very famous speech ‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King. We used his passion and repetition to help persuade our audiences. After the rush of sports we had a bit of downtime watching the Demon Headmaster TV show which we compared to the book. Most of the class through the Headmaster was not as scary on screen as how they had imagined.

This week we even read a complete short story ‘The Problem with Pulcifer’ a boy who preferred reading to watching the TV in society which favoured TV watching. I am hoping it will inspire the children to explore more books in the future.

In Writing we watched a clip from the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks and imagined that we were him stuck on the desert island. I enjoyed reading tales of survival and innovation. We continued our topic work and took each others fingerprints and learnt that a koala has fingerprints too.

This week in numeracy we continued our data analysis drawing our own pie charts both inside and outside the classroom. We also completed problem solving worksheets on line graph drawing and used the interactive whiteboard to share our results. We have been practising our addition and subtraction calculations challenging ourselves, sharing methods and tips with each other.

We continued with our topic Forensic Science and learnt about Toxicology and worked out what the unknown sample was. We have talked about different crimes and punishments in past times and were shocked that being sent to Australia used to be a punishment. We learnt a new song about the Lambton worm who lives near Durham. We each made our own Kelty myth so keep your wits about you in case they come alive!

Our writing lesson links to myths and legends we learnt about Midas who wished for everything he touched to be turned into gold. We wrote about the consequences of his actions we all agreed he would be very lonely and hungry.

We were inspired by Jackson Pollock and made our own abstract pictures- the pipe cleaners worked really well to give the spatter effect. We learnt what neurodiversity means and why it is important to understand that others may think and feel differently to ourselves. We enjoyed the Would you Rather quiz and listened to each others reasons.

This week we wrote a short creative story based on a picture (crime scene). Our job was to be the detective and write a report as to what had happened. We then played some memory games based on different images. We are continuing our comprehension and are getting into the flow to answer questions in full sentences using the question to help us. Our reading is improving Miss Graham is pleased with our fluency she can tell that we have been practising at home. All groups have moved up at Level – well done everyone.

We used our ICT slot to look up population facts last week we watched a short video so we were able to do our own research. In RE we talked about what freedom means and retold the story of Moses. During numeracy we continued with Mental maths and drew a histogram of our heights.  We have been practising our Big Sing songs to sing to the Kelty coffee club.

What an action packed 4 days.

During our writing task we used Cluedo characters, murder weapon and room layout to create our own murder mystery. We made sure that there was a motive (a reason for the murder to take place). This has been part of a series of lessons linking together, a description of place, people and object.

For our topic we completed many science experiments including ink analysis to work out which pen/ suspect had written the confession note. We also learnt about tyre tracks and took part in a hands-on activity using paint and Lego wheels to try and pinpoint the suspect vehicle. We also examined our shoes looking for wear and tear, drawing a detailed diagram which we could match to an impression in the sand.

During maths we have started a new topic based on analysing data and charts. We explored some facts about population there are over 8 billion people in the world. We worked in groups to question what is population what are the advantages and disadvantages of an increase or a decrease in population. We have also been revising bar charts based on how we got to school and also counted the colour of cars which passed by. Miss Graham was very impressed what we remembered from her previous lesson and drew the graphs independently.

We completed lots of activities for Coronation including learning about the Commonwealth and designing our own flags and crowns. We look forward to watching it at the weekend.

This week during writing we wrote about an object without revealing what it was so gave clues. We had fun reading them out loud to the class for our classmates to guess what it was. We made our own wanted poster based on an animal/ soft toy scenario of who stole the hay? We have a culprit, accomplices, a policeman and a getaway driver. The artwork produced is excellent and has formed our wall display. We also learnt about DNA and made our own out of pipe cleaners and beads we joined them all together so create a double helix.

We are continuing with our comprehension activities, Miss Graham is very impressed with our reading and is seeing a whole class improvement every week.

We have continued our revision on time focusing on 24 hour time and made our own perimeter person. We have been learning about sign language/codes and have been learning to sign popular music videos. This week was National Coding day so we completed challenging ICT activities.

This term we have started a new topic work Forensic Science over the coming weeks we will take part in many hands-on practicals, try to solve our own crime and will create a mock court complete with jury and witnesses.

This week during writing we made our own board games thinking about bonuses, forfeits and the main aim of the game. After the writing task we played each other’s board games and took time to self and peer assess. We increased our talking and listening skills explaining the rules of the game to each other.

During numeracy we have been revising time and have worked on perimeter and area of shape using practical activities. We have been working on our speed typing using ICT lessons we are starting to get the hang of where to place our fingers.

Following our topic we have been learning about forgiveness creating a heart which we broke and then healed our partners heart to symbolise the act of forgiveness. We wrote a message when we felt upset by someone else’s actions so we could reflect and let it go and move forward. We set up our very own lie detector tests using eye contact, touch and difficult/ confusing questioning. It was interesting to see who could handle the pressure.

We kicked of the week with a creative writing task a creepy story where you walk into the house and everything has completely changed. Many included a cliffhanger and odd and missing furniture and relatives. We have completed writing assessments based on our various trips some of us have an even better memory than Miss Graham. We have enjoyed taking part in drama activities based on the plague and linking this to recent events such as Covid.

This week was St Joseph’s Day so we attended mass at church and heard about Joseph’s career as a carpenter which inspired us to discuss our strengths and future career choices. We designed our own trainers thinking about design, comfort and materials used. We are continuing to work hard on our mental maths. In numeracy we are learning about Venn diagrams and have been completing times tables challenges.

We have been completing lots of artwork to enter the Kelty Young Artists Competition, including Cow Art inspired by Peter Diem and technical tractor design drawing. Next week we visit Hilton of Beath Farm.