Primary 5 February Update
Primary 5 have had another busy month in class with lots of fun learning activities. As a nice treat for all their hard work in class they celebrated Pancake Day and Valentine’s Day with a pancake and hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. Below describes just some of the learning they have experience over the last month.
Maths and Numeracy
The children have been continuing to work on their mental agility and have been putting this to practise by competing in a variety of mental maths games. They really enjoy this, and it encourages them to quickly apply many of the strategies that they have been learning through Number Talks. They have also been learning how to measure, length, mass and capacity and are able to calculate perimeter and area. They measured the length of the corridor and various items within school. Having explored weights of varying grams and kilograms, they could combine a variety of sizes to make various amounts. They are learning to convert between various units of measurement. In addition to measurement, with Miss Cairney the children have been learning to gather and analyse data. They put their skills to use by surveying every class in the school in order to gather information to use in their Enterprise initiative.
Literacy
The Blue Group have now finished reading The Worst Witch and have used a variety of reading strategies to help them understand the story. They are looking forward to starting a new novel ‘The Queen’s Nose.’ Please provide time for children to read this aloud at home as this will help with their fluency. It is also a great idea to have the children summarise verbally (in their own words) what they have read as this helps to clarify their understanding.
The children in the Red Group are reading The Demon Headmaster and most are reading fluently and with expression. They are developing their comprehension skills and demonstrating this in their writing. You can help them with this by asking them to make sure they answer in full sentences when discussing their homework.
The Yellow Group are making good progress and are enjoying the range of novels that they are reading.
Children have produced some excellent writing this month, they have been exploring the genres of Instructions and Persuasive. They have utilised the knowledge and skills gained by completing a series of science experiments such as The Gummy Bear Experiment, the Lava Lamp and the Walking Water Experiment. They have explored the genre features specific to each and they’re able to write instructions that would help others to carry out these experiments. The children also wrote persuasive letters to Mrs Harley and our local supermarkets looking for their support for our upcoming Enterprise project. Needless to say, the persuasive language used was enough to convince our target audience to comply with our requests and Morrisons kindly donated a supply of diluting juice.
Religious Education
This month our class focus has been on Lent and reminding ourselves of ways that we can get closer to God through, prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Many of the children have attended mass during Lent. The children have also been learning about Blessed Mother Theresa and her work with the poor and dying. They have also begun to learn the Stations of the Cross and the responses to this.
OTHER CURRICULAR AREAS
Enterprise – our topic has been learning about our skills and qualities and considering what we would like to do as we grow up. We had a workshop delivered by Social Schools Enterprise that encouraged us to think about the ways that we can use our knowledge, skills and experience to make a difference in our world. We learned all about ‘social’ enterprise and giving back to our community. As a class we considered many enterprising projects that we could deliver to raise money for our chosen charity, and we look forward to managing and implementing our business idea after Easter.
Science/STEM – the children all expressed that they were looking forward to doing lots of science and STEM this term so we have been completing a variety of experiments which the children have been enjoying. They have been exploring Osmosis, Capillary Action and Density and are now learning about Newtons Laws of Motion. We look forward to sharing some of this learning when you visit during Science Week.
PE/HWB – We have now concluded our hockey sessions in PE and I was extremely impressed with the skills and progress made by many of the children. They were able to demonstrate safe use of the equipment, can hold the hockey stick correctly and can pass and stop the ball accurately. We have now moved on to Gymnastics and the children are learning how to move, balance and perform a variety of shapes safely on various apparatus. In HWB we continue to talk about Respect for ourselves and others and how we should consider or words and actions and the impact they can have. We will continue to explore this as we look at Emotions and behaviours, triggers, and responses.
