This week I have enjoyed all the Scottish art we have done, I found the tam o shanter translation quite hard but I managed because I got the English version online and next week I would like to make a friend in the p1 playground because I am on that duty.

One thing I have enjoyed this week is working on our Scottish work. It was very fun and I can’t wait to see some of it in the assembly.

This week I found maths hard but then I worked it out.

If I could do anything next week in school I would create a moveable highland coo model. We would need cardboard and split pins and things.

This week we have been continuing with our learning around our Scottish topic as the children have continued to practise their Scottish poems and have explored the Scottish vocabulary within Tam O’ Shanter and have spent time sequencing the story. The class have also enjoyed learning about different Scottish artists, discussing their work and creating our own artwork in the same style. We look forward to sharing more of our work with you in our Scottish Celebration Assembly.

In Literacy, we have been revising the qu sound in spelling and challenging ourselves to grow new words with different prefixes and suffixes. Reading for information and finding evidence to answer comprehension questions has also been a focus this week and all of the children have been working hard. We have continued to work on writing our own limericks, considering which lines should rhyme and thinking about the specific rhythm of the poem. A link to how to write your own Limerick can be found below:

How to Write a Limerick

In Numeracy we have continued to learn about fractions and we have been learning how to calculate the fraction of a quantity. For practical maths, the children have been looking at position and movement in relation to compass points and can plot points on a grid.

In Health and Well-being, we have been engaging with our Resilience resources focusing on the theme ‘Respect Yourself’. The children had to come up with a minimum of eight positive words which described them and had to create a word search. Some of us found it hard to come up with positive words but luckily our friends helped us.

A big thank you to the Prefects this week who carried out their duties this week. Many of the adults in the school have commented on your hard work and good manners. Keep it up!

Questions to consider:

1. Name one thing you enjoyed this week and why.

2. Was there anything you found hard? Why was it hard and what did you do to overcome the challenge?

3. If you could do anything in school next week, what would it be? What resources would you need?

A huge thank you to Mat for starting our big drum adventure today. We had a great time learning about all the different drums and getting our first chance to play them.  A huge shout out to Violet (p5b) who got the drummer of the week certificate!

It was great to welcome P5 back this week, and everyone was chatting enthusiastically about the holidays.

We have started lots of new learning:

Maths – fractions of shapes. We are also continuing to link multiplication and division and see how they link to fractions.

Writing – poetry. We are collecting words! Firstly we used thesauri to find words for the verb ‘moving’. We are also looking at Scots words as we read and write Scots poems.

Scots – we have two poems to learn – Oor Wullie and To a Mouse. We have read Oor Wullie and split into 4 groups to learn a verse each as a group. We can also learn the whole poem to recite if we want to.

Rocks and Minerals – our topic is about rocks, the surface of the Earth and natural disasters. We have learned that there are many minerals and that there are three types of rock defined by the way they are formed. We are excited about becoming geologists and collecting our own rocks to study!

Health and Wellbeing – we are learning about emotions and how they can be categorized in zones. We talked about ways to get ourselves out of some zones so that we are in the best place to learn.

We are poets and we know it!

We have been writing rhyming couplets this week where we had to come up with lots of rhyming words, but also had to think about the pattern and number of syllables in each line.  We enjoyed writing about colours but found getting the right number of syllables quite tricky. Here is one by Allan and Harris:

Colours

I really like the colour pink

Because it always makes me blink.

And if I try to rhyme with red,

It always makes me think of bed.

I often use the colour blue,

It always makes me think of you.

My favourite is the colour orange,

The only thing that rhymes is SPORANGE!

We are looking at 2 poems in primary 5, Oor Wullie and Tae a Moose.  Choose the one you prefer and try and learn it off by heart.

Oor Wullie

Fair fa’ your rosy-cheekit face,
Your muckle buits, wi’ broken lace,
Although you’re always in disgrace,
An’ get your spanks,
In all our hearts ye have your place,
Despite your pranks.

Your towsy heid, your dungarees,
Your wee snub nose, your dirty knees,
Your knack o’ seeming tae displease
Your Ma an’ Pa.
We dinna care a tuppenny sneeze
We think you’re braw.

You’re wee, an’ nae twa ways aboot it,
You’re wise, wi’ very few tae doot it,
You’re wild, there’s nane that wad dispute it,
Around the toon. But maist o a’ ye are reputit
A lauchin’ loon.

Weel-kent, weel-liked, you’re aye the same,
Tae Scots abroad and Scots at hame.
North, south, east, west, your weel-won fame
Shall never sully.
We’ll aye salute that couthie name:
Oor Wullie.

To a Mouse,

on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785

by Robert Burns

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? Poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
‘S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An’ never miss’t!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin,
Baith snell an’ keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary winter comin fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell-
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro’ thy cell.

Thy wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld!

But, Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e’e.
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!

What an exciting week we have had.  It has been lovely to hear about  the holidays and see all the smiles.

We explored New Year traditions, making resolutions, reviewing the previous year and re-enacted the bells.

Maths

We explored shape and symmetry this week.

Numeracy

We revisited addition with missing numbers, we used counters, played daily 10 and engaged with problem solving. We also reviewed  the two times table.

Reading

We practised finding the main idea from our books. We then undertook challenges related to the main idea of our books.

Scots

This month we are exploring Scots. We have explored poems, Scots words and stories.  We have been  very enthusiastic with this topic and have been laughing a lot.

Have a safe and happy weekend.