🌟 Primary 3/4 Weekly Round-Up – Term 3, Week Four

✏️ Literacy & Writing

Our spelling sound this week was ‘tch’. Alongside this, we also explored when to use ‘tch’ and when to use ‘ch’, thinking carefully about short and long vowel sounds. The children became very confident with this and even spotted it independently in words such as witch when reading The Baddies.

Our literacy focus this week was another Julia Donaldson story, The Baddies. We had some excellent discussions about what makes a character good or bad, looking closely at characters’ actions and choices. The children then created character profiles for the witch, the ghost, and the troll, using mind maps to plan and organise their ideas before writing.

For comprehension, we tried a brand-new approach called I’ll Read to You, You Read to Me. Working in pairs, the children took turns reading parts of the script aloud before answering questions together. This supported fluency, confidence, and collaboration, and was really well received by the class.

🔢 Maths

In maths, our focus this week was rounding to the nearest 10 , 100 and 1000. We began with clear teaching input, giving the children time to practise and explain their thinking.

To help remember the rules for rounding, we learned a rounding rhyme with actions:

• “5 to 9, we climb the vine” 🐒

• “0 to 4, we slide to the floor”

These actions really helped the children remember when to round numbers up or down. We also continued our regular mental maths practice on Friday, helping to build speed and confidence.

💻 ICT

During ICT, the children worked on developing their mouse control skills, using a Dragon drop (drag-and-drop) website to practise accuracy and control. We also used ICT time to consolidate our rounding work through interactive games, reinforcing our maths learning in a fun and engaging way.

🌍 Topic – Vikings

Our Vikings learning continued this week with a focus on longships. Building on the drawings we started last week, the children learned about what longships were used for and began labelling the different parts. This helped them understand why longships were so important to Viking life, travel, and exploration.

On Monday, the class took part in a new play project supported  by Miss Farmer our play support worker. As part of this project, the children generated their own ideas linked to our Vikings topic, including:

• Building Viking galleys using a range of materials

• Creating snap card games featuring Viking facts

• Designing and performing Viking puppet shows

The children showed fantastic creativity, teamwork, and independence. They also began learning how to assess their work against skills, discussing which skills they were using and how well they felt they had demonstrated them.

🎭 Assembly

This week we attended a whole-school assembly led by Primary 5/6/7, where the class listened respectfully and represented Primary 3/4 brilliantly as part of our school community. The assembly was fantastic – well done to P5/6/7 and Mrs Adamson.

🧘 PE – Teacher Led

This week’s PE session took place in the classroom, where we enjoyed a calming Cosmic Kids Yoga session. The children showed excellent focus, balance, and control, and enjoyed the opportunity to relax and move mindfully together.

🎨 Play & Wider Learning

Our play provision continued to be very busy and creative. Alongside our Viking-themed resources, the children explored woodworking with hammers and nails, built structures using a range of materials, and created Viking ruin-style stones. These were turned into messages, with children writing and sharing rune-inspired messages with one another, linking play, writing, and topic learning beautifully.

Primary 4 also got a chance to head into Lerwick to see the Up Helly As parade on Tuesday and attend an informative session at the Shetland Museum on Vikings, they were then able to share all their new knowledge with the class in our topic session.

🌟 Primary 3/4 Weekly Round-Up – Term 3, Week Three

✏️ Literacy & Writing

Our spelling sound this week was ‘ie’. We found lots of creative ways to practise our sound and spot it in books and in other places around the school.

Our writing was inspired by another Julia Donaldson story, The Smartest Giant in Town. The children explored the text in lots of creative and thoughtful ways.

They wrote thank-you letters from the animals to the Giant, showing empathy and understanding of how the Giant had helped each character. We also created detailed character descriptions of the Giant and designed animal profile cards for the animals in the story.

To support our writing, we took part in a fun giant drawing and painting activity, working together to create life-sized giants. This helped us develop our use of adjectives and adverbs and supported our collaboration, communication, and creativity (Meta Skills), which we then used to improve our descriptive writing.

We also continued to encourage a love of reading through our QR code reading wall, which links to a range of books, as well as our book review and recommendation area, where children can share and recommend texts to others. Our weekly Flashlight Friday continues to be a favourite, giving children time to enjoy reading for pleasure and talk about books they love.

🔢 Maths

In maths, the children worked on shape with Mrs Smith, exploring and identifying different shapes and their properties. We also continued our work on compass points, linking direction and movement, and spent time exploring number sequencing and patterns, looking for rules and explaining how sequences change.

💻 ICT

During ICT this week, the children focused on developing their mouse control skills. They also completed a Story Blast comprehension activity, which was very popular and helped build reading comprehension in a fun and engaging way.

🌍 Topic – Vikings

We continued our Vikings mini-topic, focusing on Viking life and homes. The children explored what everyday life may have been like for Viking families and how their homes were designed and used.

As part of our topic learning, we took part in a draw-along activity to create Viking longships, and the children have begun painting them. We’re looking forward to finishing these next week, in time to explore Viking longships in more detail and learn all about how they were used by the Vikings for travel, trade, and raids.

🧘 PE – Teacher Led

In PE, we warmed up by recapping compass points through movement, helping to reinforce our learning in an active way. We then took part in a yoga session inspired by The Smartest Giant in Town, using movement and balance to represent different characters and moments from the story. The children showed excellent focus, control, and creativity throughout the session.

🌟 Primary 3/4 Weekly Round-Up – Term 3 (Weeks 1 & 2)

We’ve had a slightly unusual start to Term 3 with three snow days in Week 1, meaning we were only in school for two days that week. Despite this, the children settled back into school routines brilliantly and packed lots of learning into the time we had together. Here’s a look at what we’ve been working on across Weeks 1 and 2.

✏️ Literacy & Writing

This term, our new writing focus is Julia Donaldson texts, with a different book inspiring our learning each week.

In Week 1, we focused on Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book. The children enjoyed watching a special video created by Mrs Teale for Shetland Arts during the Covid period, which brought the story to life and sparked lots of discussion about books, storytelling, and imagination.

In Week 2, our focus text was Room on the Broom. The children:

• Took part in hot-seating, questioning one of the animals from the broom

• Wrote from the animal’s perspective

• Invented and illustrated a new passenger for the broom

• Practised sequencing the story, developing important organisational skills

We ended the week with an exciting literacy activity — creating exploding potions in mini cauldrons, linking perfectly to the magical theme of the story!

Across both weeks, we also:

• Continued learning about prefixes and suffixes

• Practised independent reading and comprehension tasks

• Learned our spelling focus, the ‘ore’ sound

🔢 Maths

In maths, we revisited and developed our understanding of comparing two-digit numbers, using:

• Greater than (>)

• Less than (<)

• Equal to (=)

The children worked hard to explain their thinking and justify their answers. This learning will continue to be reinforced through games, particularly during our ICT sessions.

💻 ICT

We introduced a new ICT slot on Thursdays, which will be used across the curriculum. During these sessions, we will:

• Develop typing skills

• Improve mouse control

• Use ICT to support maths games and literacy activities

We have also been learning about QR codes and how they can be used to access information quickly and safely. As part of this, we introduced a new classroom reading wall display, featuring weekly QR codes that link directly to books and reading material. This has been a brilliant way to encourage independent reading and build confidence in navigating digital texts.

Alongside this, we launched our new book review and recommendation area. The children have been sharing their thoughts about books they’ve read and recommending them to others, helping to develop important evaluation, communication, and recommendation skills — and inspiring each other to try new texts.

💖 Health & Wellbeing

In Health and Wellbeing, we read The Magical Yet, exploring goal setting, perseverance, and the importance of believing in ourselves. The children created thoughtful goal-setting artwork, thinking about things they would like to work towards in 2026.

We also read The Sour Grape, which led to some lovely discussions about being “grapeful”. The children reflected on the people, experiences, and things they feel grapeful for, sharing positive thoughts and showing great kindness towards one another.

🌍 Topic – Vikings

We kicked off our exciting new topic on the Vikings by:

• Exploring who the Vikings were

• Locating Viking lands on a map

• Beginning a timeline to understand when the Vikings lived

To help bring our learning to life, the children also worked together to create a Viking longship (galley) and Viking figures for our classroom wall display. These have really helped us visualise Viking life and have brightened up our learning space.

🧭 Cross-Curricular Learning

We also explored compass points using a fun Harry Potter theme, helping the children practise direction skills in an engaging way that linked nicely with literacy and topic learning. We also enjoyed a fun class teacher PE session playing compass games to consolidate our learning.

Despite the snowy start to the term, it’s been a fantastic first two weeks, full of creativity, discussion, and enthusiasm. We’re really looking forward to what the rest of Term 3 brings!

🌟 Primary 3/4 Weekly Round-Up – Term 2, Week Five

✏️ Literacy & Writing

This week our Explorer took us all the way to India! Inside the Explorer’s Bag we discovered a bundle of bright, colourful feathers, which inspired some fantastic creative writing.

The children wrote their own fantasy stories about what the magical feathers could transform them into or what special powers they might give them. The imagination, vocabulary, and storytelling were brilliant!

We also wrote exciting stories about being a spy in India, creating missions, disguises, and top-secret adventures.

In literacy, we also:

• Learned the “ear” sound in spelling

• Continued developing our independent reading time and comprehension tasks

🔢 Maths

In maths, we continued our work on addition using the chunking method, becoming more confident at breaking numbers into useful parts.

We also practised our times tables with Mrs Rose, building speed and accuracy.

To revisit data handling, we explored graphing again — this time using Mrs Teale’s sweets to create our own graphs completely from scratch! The children sorted, counted, presented, and interpreted their data with great enthusiasm.

🌍 Topic – Forces & Energy

Our big question this week was:

“Why do magnets sometimes pull and sometimes push apart?”

We- discussed magnets and how they are used in everyday life and we  carried out hands-on investigations to explore:

• How magnets attract

• How they repel

• Which materials magnets work through

• How the poles of magnets affect whether they pull together or push apart

The children loved experimenting, testing predictions, and exploring “what happens if…?” with a wide range of magnet challenges.

💖 Health & Wellbeing

This week we learned about UNCRC Article 31 – the right to rest and play.
We explored what rest and play look like in our own lives, why they are important, and how they help us stay healthy and happy.

As part of this focus, we enjoyed a calming Cosmic Kids yoga session – Betsy Banana, helping us practise mindfulness, movement, and relaxation.

🏃‍♂️ PE – Teacher-Led

In PE we began with some body drumming before moving on to use our pool noodles to drum and rock out!!

We finished with a range of parachute games, practising teamwork, timing, and communication — and having lots of fun along the way!

🎄 Other News

• The Gingerbread Men made another visit to our classroom! They decorated our door and left some fun treats for us to enjoy.

• We are continuing to practise very hard for the Christmas play, learning lines, songs, and moves.

• We also started making some Christmas crafts, which will be appearing around the classroom very soon!

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🌟 Primary 3/4 Weekly Round-Up – Term 2, Week Four

✏️ Literacy & Writing

Our spelling focus this week has been the ‘are’ sound, and the children have been working hard to spot and use this pattern in their reading and writing.

Our Explorer’s Magic Bag delivered a magnifying glass and a letter from Brazil, which led to some fantastic writing. The children created their own detective stories, using the magnifying glass as a key clue in their mystery. We also wrote an informative fact file all about magnifying glasses — what they are, how they work, and why they are useful.

In word work, we revisited prefixes and played Real or Imposter, a fun word-building game that helped us explore which prefix combinations create real words and which do not.

🔢 Maths

In maths, we learned how to use the chunking method for addition, building on our knowledge of number bonds (friends to 10) to help us break numbers apart efficiently.

Our Speedy Skills focus this week has been times tables, and the children have been practising quick recall through games and challenges.

We continued exploring symmetry, looking at symmetrical patterns in the world around us and creating beautiful symmetrical butterfly images.

💖 Health & Wellbeing

This week’s UNCRC focus was Article 29 – the aims of education. We read A Superpower Like Mine and discussed how everyone has their own superpowers, skills, and talents. The children reflected on what makes them unique and set personal goals for something they want to grow or improve.

🌍 Topic – Forces & Energy

Our big question this week was: “What happens when forces are equal and unequal?”
We read The Great Paper Caper and explored the forces involved in flying paper planes. The children investigated how pushes, pulls, lift, and air resistance impact speed, distance, and motion.

🎉 Other News

On Friday, the whole school enjoyed Big Play — an afternoon of open classrooms where everyone was free to explore, play, and spend time together. It was a fantastic opportunity to help build a strong sense of community, with children of all ages sharing spaces, activities, and plenty of fun. We also had a visit from Winnies mum and her new puppy. We all loved getting cuddles and watching him play.

🌟 Primary 3/4 Weekly Round-Up – Term 2, Week Three

✏️ Literacy & Writing

Our spelling focus this week has been silent ‘h’, and the children have been working hard to spot this pattern in their reading and spelling activities.

In our Explorer’s Bag, we discovered some mystery keys left by the Magical Explorer, who also told us he had been travelling through China! This inspired lots of fantastic writing — the children wrote imaginative stories about unlocking a mysterious door, described a disgusting sandwich the Explorer found in his backpack, and created their own acrostic poems. They even created their own mysterious doors out of Lego, junk and blocks.

We also learned about prefixes, creating bright and creative prefix flowers to show how adding prefixes changes word meanings. This week also saw the introduction of our new independent reading time and task, giving the children space to enjoy reading and reflect on what they’ve read.

🔢 Maths

In maths, we worked on counting in tens, hundreds, and thousands, and continued exploring symmetry — this time using LEGO to build symmetrical designs and patterns. The children showed great focus and teamwork while creating their builds.

💖 Health & Wellbeing

Our Health and Wellbeing focus this week was Article 12 of the UNCRC – the right to have a voice. We read The Day the Crayons Quit and discussed why it’s important for everyone to have a voice in our class, school, and community. The children shared thoughtful ideas about how we can listen to others and make sure every voice is heard.

🌍 Topic – Forces & Energy

Our big question this week was “How do different surfaces affect how things move?
We read Mr Grumpy’s Motor Car friction and how friction affects movement on different surfaces. The children took part in a hands-on investigation using ramps and toy cars, experimenting to see what makes things move faster or slower and how motion changes depending on the forces applied.

🧘 PE – Teacher-Led

This week’s PE session was calm and creative — a yoga session based on the book Dear Zoo. The children used movement and balance to represent different animals, showing great focus, imagination, and coordination. We did have to finish with some parachute fun too!

🌟 Primary 3/4 Weekly Round-Up – Term 2, Week Two

✏️ Literacy & Writing

This week, we continued practising our tricky words and began an exciting new writing adventure! The Magical Explorer left us a map and letter in the special bag, telling us all about his recent travels to Egypt. We used atlases to find Egypt on the map and began to plan how we could track his journey as he continues to explore the world.

The children wrote about where the map might lead, described what Egypt might be like, and created thoughtful diary entries about how they felt when they first received the map.

In writing, we have also been working on using adjectives to make our sentences more interesting, and continuing to focus on sentence openers. We were lucky to have Miss Farmer join us during our writing slot this week — she led a brilliant STEM challenge where half the class worked on building pyramids, linking our literacy to our Egyptian theme!

🔢 Maths

In maths, we combined creativity with number work by making firework pictures using glitter and arrays for windows to help us visualise times tables. We also explored addition and subtraction fact families through fun games, and consolidated our knowledge of friends to 10 and 20 by creating chatterboxes.

We also continued our work on symmetry, recognising symmetrical patterns and shapes around us and creating our own symmetrical designs.

🌍 Topic – Forces & Energy

Our big question this week was: “How do pushes and pulls help us move things in the world?”
We explored different examples of forces in action, from everyday movements like opening doors and pushing swings, to bigger forces like pulling up fishing line to dropping a ball. The children made great links between what they already knew and what they observed in action.

We also tried out some live movement activities, experimenting with how our bodies push, pull, and balance — helping us to consolidate our understanding through play and exploration.

💖 Health & Wellbeing

This term, we are learning about some of the UNCRC articles and how they relate to ourselves, our class, and our community. This week we focused on Article 2, exploring what equity and inclusion look like in our class and school. The children shared thoughtful ideas about how we can make sure everyone feels valued and respected.

We also read the inspiring story “What To Do With an Idea?” and discussed its message — that all ideas are important and worth sharing. We talked about how even big ideas like kindness and respect have to start somewhere, and how our own ideas can grow if we nurture them. The children then created beautiful artwork based on inspirational idea quotes, which turned out so well that Mrs Johnson has proudly displayed them at the front office for everyone to see! 🌟

🕺 PE – Teacher-Led Session

In PE, we had a firework dance session! The children used movement to express different fireworks, played a teamwork game called “Pass the Spark”, and worked together with the parachute to show rhythm and coordination. Everyone showed brilliant teamwork, creativity, and enthusiasm — and our firework finale was spectacular!

Term 2, Week One

Primary 3/4 Weekly Round-Up

✏️ Literacy & Spelling

This term we’ve moved on to a new writing focus: vocabulary. Our first area is adjectives – describing words. To get us started, we created our own slime monster pictures and wrote fantastic descriptions using lots of interesting adjectives to bring our monsters to life!

🔢 Maths

We began the term by recapping place value with a fun skeleton hunt around the classroom. We also started exploring symmetry, learning how to identify when something is symmetrical and what makes it balanced. The children then created their own symmetrical skeletons, showing great creativity and accuracy!

We also revisited our addition and subtraction skills, which we’ll continue to build on throughout this term.

🌱 Topic – Forces and Energy

Our new topic for Term 2 is Forces and Energy. We kicked things off by exploring magnets and investigating what materials they attract. We then used our new knowledge to create our own flying ghosts, learning how magnets can cause movement without direct contact — a very spooky science start! 👻

🏰 Visit to the P5/6/7 “Museum of Life in Medieval Scotland”

This week, Primary 3/4 were invited to visit the P5/6/7 Museum of Life in Medieval Scotland. The older pupils had transformed their classroom into a fantastic museum space, filled with exhibits, artefacts, and information displays.

Our class loved exploring and learning from their peers about what life was like in Medieval Scotland. They discovered fascinating facts about food, fashion, housing, and daily life, as well as many other interesting details from the past.

It was wonderful to see the children so engaged, asking questions, and showing curiosity about history — and to see the older pupils confidently sharing their knowledge. Everyone came away inspired and impressed by the amazing work P5/6/7 had created!

🌼 Visit from the Botanic Gardens

On Friday morning,  Primary 2/3/4 the Botanic Gardens came to Cunningsburgh School! The visit was full of imagination and storytelling as the children took part in an adventure to help Heather, a girl who had become lost in the forest.

Working together, the children explored the gardens, searching for natural items to help them retell Heather’s story. Along the way, they discovered clues and met mythical creatures, all while hunting for some very special magic yellow flowers that would help Heather find her way home.

The class showed brilliant teamwork, curiosity, and creativity as they explored, listened, and shared ideas. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect storytelling with nature, and the children had so much fun immersing themselves in this magical learning experience.