WELL DONE P4/5! You were all WONDERFUL in ‘Straw and Order’.

This week has been full of concert practice and the beginning of Christmas fun. In between that we found time to work with P6/7 to learn how to programme Micro-Bits.  The kids were amazed at how quickly they were able to learn how to create code and download it to the micro-bit. Big thanks to Mrs Adamson and P6/7 for teaching us how to do this.

In our ‘Big Question’ this week we have been learning about inherited and non-inherited characteristics.  The kids created their own monster family with inherited characteristics.

On Friday Christmas arrived in P4/5 , the kids were so excited to see the classroom decorated and the class advent calendar up and running. It was s lovely seeing their little faces full of joy as they arrived this morning.

Another exciting week of gymnastics.  We only had two changes from last week’s equipment,  a double bar at the A frame and the ladder at the big frame was higher.  Our aim this week was to use our arms when we jump.

Here we are in action.

It has been a busy week in P4/5 with a few visitors and it has made me very proud to see the kids through the eyes of people coming in for a short time.  On Wednesday Andrea Henderson and Lauren Smith came to see the work we are doing with writing.  They were very impressed by P4/5 and their excellent work.  On Thursday Davie Sandison and Catherine Hughson came for a visit. They were very impressed to see all the children working very hard and commented on how happy our school is.

Personal Projects were due in this week and we spent a lovely afternoon watching everyone’s presentations.  Presenting to the class group is such an important experience for the kids as they develop skills that they will use throughout their lives including conveying information, engaging an audience and having confidence in their own abilities.  They all did a fantastic job and every single one of them had become more confident and capable since the presentations we did in term 1.  Well done P4/5/

In PE we are doing gymnastics, focusing on Confidence and Self-Esteem.  Our confidence was definitely challenged today with all the different apparatus out.  Here are some pictures of us in action.

We have now moved on to a gymnastics block in PE.  We started with a week on the mats, focusing on 10 basic shapes

• straight, tuck, star, pike, straddle, front support, back support, Y, T and L

We performed the shapes and then put them into sequences on our own and with a partner.  Here are our partner sequences.

This week we have been learning about the Hindu festival of Diwali.  We watched videos and made notes then we had different craft rotations relating to the festival.  The kids were able to make diva lamps, design henna hands and paint rangoli patterns.

It has been another busy week in P4/5; we have been learning times tables, examining arctic animal food chains, visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter through our Trials and Tales and some pupils went to the community polycrub with Mr Clark.  We have introduced a new way to check learning in a simple way called “Post a Plenary”.  The learners are asked a question or a series of questions and have to write their answer on a post-it before placing their post it on their square.

Tales and Trials

Before the holidays each of the children created a character that they will be writing ab out this term.  This week their character landed in ‘Pirate Peninsula’.  The characters faced 4 trials over the week that the kids had to write about.  I was really impressed by the fantastic stories that they wrote!  I hope they are able to tell you some of the adventures that their characters went on this week and look forward to revealing next week’s map.