We’ve been back for nearly 3 weeks now after the Christmas holidays, and what a lot we’ve packed in!

It’s been full steam ahead for Literacy and Numeracy as we build on our knowledge from last term and look more closely at Subtraction, Multiplication, Time and Fractions. The children in P4 should be able to explain to their adults what links Time and Fractions. Tell your adults, P4!

We have been focusing even more on phonemes during Spelling lessons and have even been working altogether on Diacritically Marking everyone’s spelling words. This is helping the pupils of P4 to recognise that a phoneme is just a sound. Some of our pupils can explain what a digraph, trigraph and split phoneme is, too! Ask your children, adults!

The theme of a lot of our learning this term will be around Space. We have watched videos of real astronauts reading aloud books from the International Space Station; we have started listening to a novel by an author from Edinburgh, Alistair Chisholm, called Orion Lost; and we have found out some really interesting facts all about Space. Perhaps the pupils from P4 could share some of these facts – or their favourite activity linked to our Space topic – in the comments below.

P4’s budding artists:

The class has also done some excellent group work about Healthy Eating; lots of different foods had to be sorted into food groups. This created a lot of discussion and a better understanding of the importance of eating a balanced diet. Staying active is also a huge part of a healthy lifestyle and I’m delighted to report that every P4 pupil is trying their best in our new block of PE: Gymnastics!

We’re all very happy to be back in school and some of our P4s are preparing for their First Holy Communion. Keep this short prayer in mind: As we receive the body of Jesus, may we remember what He told us to do — love one another as I have loved you. We wish them all the best with their preparation for this holy sacrament.

Mrs Daisley left you all some reminders on our class’s page on the website in the first week back. I thought they were so good, I’d share them with you here again:

Reminders

• Sort out your bag so that you always have your reading book and other things that you need.
• If your parents put a note in your diary, remember to let one of us see it. Also, remember to show your parents notes that we send home.
• It will be cold so remember a jumper or cardigan.
• Bring water, not juice for drinking in class.
• Leave toys at home for now.
• Talk to your parents or teachers if you have a problem so we can sort it out.
• Remember to use kinds words when talking to other children- stop and think how you would feel if someone said those words to you.
• Do your best to listen in class and work hard on taking turns.
• Remember that you have lots of talents but they may be different from your friends which is ok. Be proud of the things that you can do!
• It’s ok to make a mistake- teachers do every day!!

We are so sorry you haven’t had an update from P4 for a while now. The good thing in, there’s lots of news to share with you!

We started the year harvesting fruit and vegetables from the school grounds. The children absolutely loved this experience and trying all the different flavours; some of them for the very first time!

In RE, we learned about how Liturgical Colours are different depending on the time of year in the Christian calendar. We worked in groups to create decoupage vestments to be displayed.

In PE, we have been working on our ball skills. We’ve used footballs for passing, dribbling and shooting using our feet; basketballs for passing, dribbling and shooting using our hands; and tennis balls for bouncing and returning shots.

We have been studying The Victorians and learning all about Queen Victoria’s reign. What do you think of our Victorian portraits?

As an extra project, the pupils in P4 are helping Mrs Cooney sort the library. They have had some great ideas about how to improve the area and have been a great help gathering and sorting some of the books.

During Maths Week Scotland, we looked at 2D shape and tiling. Look at all these happy faces doing active maths:

(some of their ideas for the library)

HHelping to sort the library and also using it to do some independent reading.

During October, P4 learned about the Mysteries of the Rosary. Here is some super artwork showing the Joyful Mysteries:

Some of our FANTASTIC readers from the past few weeks:

As part of our Eco work on Climate Change, we took part in a live lesson involving schools from all over North Lanarkshire. We watched and responded to presentations by NL Youth Climate Ambassadors about Travel and one from Stuart Naismith from Gartcosh PS all about renewable energy.

Look out for a letter from your child very soon!

Of course, there was also Hallowe’en! Everyone came in dressed up in weird and wonderful outfits! Even Mrs Cooney was dressed as Cinderella – but after making messy donut-and-pretzel spiders, she felt a lot more like Cinders BEFORE she had met her Fairy Godmother!

We bowled a pumpkin at some toilet rolls and we did a spooky parade. I will also send everyone their very own Hallowe’en portrait – check your emails, P4!

It won’t be long before I’m updating you all about the Christmas activities we’ll be getting up to!

P4/5 have been working harder than ever this month! We have all been reading our novels, Poppet and Tilly and the Badgers, as well as the first Harry Potter book: The Philosopher’s Stone.

Not only have we been working hard reading, we’ve been doing so much maths including times tables, 2D and 3D shapes and objects, and, most recently, fractions.

As well as all this wondering learning, we’ve been busy in the playground and garden doing litter picking, weeding and planting. It has felt really good looking after our planet and keeping active.

Health Week has been great fun, with Sports Day, Outdoor Clean Up, and gardening.

Our certificate winners for this month:

Looking back over this last month, we have achieved a lot here in P4/5! After the Hallowe’en celebrations, it was soon Bonfire Night and then Remembrance Day. This gave us some great opportunities to make beautiful artwork – we hope you enjoyed seeing it when the children brought home their pieces. The children have started their Christmas-themed Art; having made reindeer pictures already.

We will continue getting arty during December. There are so many restrictions in place at the moment, Art is something we can all do safely and can be a great way to take our minds off any worries.

The boys and girls have been working hard in Maths. We do Daily Ten mental maths warm-ups, Number Talks where we explore different ways to calculate the answers, and have been focusing on times tables recently, too. We also started looking at measure and the children knew that the safe distance adults are meant to keep is 2 metres, but they were surprised to see how long 2 metres really is! We also made hugs to send to a loved one of their choice. We hope these were well-received. Here are some photos of them being made:

The boys and girls have especially enjoyed reading their reading books this month for Literacy and got a special treat in Book Week Scotland of being able to bring in their own books and read more in class. Some of our fabulous pupils also volunteered to read books for the nursery children and we all made bookmarks to use in our favourite books. What’s your favourite book?