In PE we used balloons to help us develop our grip control for forehand and backhand strokes in badminton.
It was much easier to think about and control the racquet. We then practised hitting to a partner making sure that we moved to return the balloon. We practised a sideways chasseé movement so that we could move and still look at our partner.
As part of our learning about climate zones, we have shown the four zones that we are focusing on by using colours and a key on a world map.
Primary 4 are creating stories linked to Fairtrade products and are either using Scratch or PowerPoint to create their animations.
In HWB we were thinking about the health benefits of being active.
When we were learning about prepositions- the position of one thing in relation to another, we acted out the preposition word and in teams we had to guess the word. Some like beside and next to were similar or meant the same thing so they were trickier to guess!
Today we started our new topic by thinking about what we already know about climate zones. Some of us looked at the equator on a map of the world for the first time and the country of Greenland fascinated us because most of it is covered with snow and ice!
We will be learning about how the weather affects life in the different zones, how living things adapt to live no in the areas and how people use the different types of landscape in the arctic, temperate, tropical and desert zones.
In a few weeks everyone will have an opportunity to share their learning about their chosen zone. This can be using a model, PowerPoint, fact file or other method along with a spoken presentation. More details about this will be given out soon.
Please ensure that spelling words are written each week in your homework jotter and are brought in for me to check.
The food and activity diary that was given out a fortnight ago should be ready for marking this week, so please make sure that it is completed and given in.
Activelearn games and Sumdog are available all the time and there has been very little recent activity, so please ensure that these resources are being used to help your skills progression.
On Sumdog, there are also spelling and reading activities linked to skills being learnt and practised in class, so this is another way in which homework can be more varied.
We have been learning about forces and the effect of friction by finding out how long it takes a car to go down ramps covered in different surfaces. We used stopwatches because the times were very quick except for the bubble wrap surface when the cars stopped!
In PE we experimented with friction and forces by playing Tug of War. 
Our biggest boy against our smallest girl is an example of unbalanced forces.
We learnt that having the correct soles in the gym hall will create friction and help us not to slip!
The final photos show an example of balanced forces; both teams were using the same amount of force, so they hardly moved.
I hope that everyone has a great few days break.
Clare fro Kodaly has been working with us in music to learn about beat and pulse. This week we started to learn about the musical notation.
In P.E. we are learning some basic badminton skills. We are learning to control the racquet to hit the shuttlecock successfully.
Here are some photos from Snowball Madness yesterday – it was great fun!
