For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been building on our understanding of angles – naming them, recognising them, measuring and drawing and using our knowledge to help us work out missing angles. Some pupils wrote out instructions for their peers to use to help them draw angles of different sizes. They then took on the role of teacher, supporting their classmates as they worked and offering advice when needed. The lesson was enjoyed by all and it was clear to see that some pupils had gained in confidence after working in this way. I think we have some future teachers in the class!
What a busy two weeks we’ve had … but it’s been great! The planned activities have really helped the children settle and reconnect. Today, we finally were able to present our learning about life cycles. We started this piece of work during our biodiversity topic and were due to share our work when we started term 3. Sadly, this had to wait! The children worked in groups or individually, to research the life cycle of a living thing. They then had to display this information in an eye catching way. They worked very hard on this project, with great team work and cooperation. Although it was started a long time ago, I know they’d be keen for you to see their work! Happy Easter and we look forward to seeing you all again in the new term!
The Fairy Wasp’s life cycle only lasts for a few days! Eveline shared so much information about this tiny insect.She did a great job sharing her findings!Fiona and Conor’s oak tree display was very eye catching and made good use of resources from outside too!They told us that a fully grown oak tree can be 45m tall and as wide too!This display was about the panda. It was simple but very effective!Kayla and Roma had some difficult words to read and explain about the early stages of life for the panda. Well done!This bright display was all about the flamingo.Isla and Kathryn worked well as a team. Did you know a baby flamingo’s feathers are grey at the start of life?Esther and Aiden worked on the life cycle of a cheetah. We heard how hard life can be for an adult cheetah so its life span is usually quite short.Esther presented this on her own today and coped brilliantly.Hannah and George found out about the pine tree. There are 126 species of pine tree with more being discovered all the time.Here she is showing off her display.Ethan’s was about the salmon. He wrote about 6 different stages in the cycle!Leighton, Anders and Magnus found out about the life cycle of an eel. We realised there were a lot of similarities to the life cycle of a salmon.Here they are presenting to the class. We liked how they made it look like the eel was emerging from the stones!This display is about the life of an alligator. Did you know a baby alligator has a special egg tooth to help it escape from inside the egg?This group did well to present their findings first!Freya and Fearne confidently told us about their seahorse findings.A newborn seahorse can be as small as 2mm in size! Ava helped this group when she was here too.
Today, saw the culmination of several lessons spent discussing what a debate is and what the main aims are before choosing topics for us to debate in class, and then writing our arguments. We spent a lot of time discussing the best language to use when trying to write a persuasive piece and how we could incorporate some facts to back up our arguments. We also rehearsed our speeches in our groups and tried to make our presentations memorable and convincing so as to gain more votes. The class all tried very hard. It’s not always an easy thing to do and they had a lot to remember along the way e.g. using expressive voices, making eye contact with the audience and gesturing as they talked.
Here Liam is sharing his argument for longer playtimes.
Each pupil listening to the debates, left those making the speeches some constructive feedback which we would hope to take on board another time. The results were as follows…some votes were very close!
Jenga Blocks – An Inside Toy For Rainy Playtimes?
FOR 8 / AGAINST 10
Mobile Phones in School Debate
FOR 10 / AGAINST 9
Playtimes Should Be Longer Debate
FOR 14 / AGAINST 6
We hope the class have enjoyed going through this process and that the skills they have worked on, will be of use again in the future. (4 votes, average: 1.00 out of 1) Loading...
In P5/6 we do ERIC time (Everyone Reading In Class) every day. It’s 20 minutes of peaceful, calm reading which really sets us up for the day! Today we joined up with many schools all over Scotland to take part in the Ness Book Fest Reading Challenge. There were 14,200 children all reading simultaneously all over the country! More than double the number reading last year. David Walliams, Michael Morpurgo and David Baddiel books continue to be favourites in P5/6. Keep on reading everybody!
We have been talking about how, for some pupils, learning times tables comes easily, whilst for others, they are really tricky to remember and recall quickly. We looked at different learning styles today and talked about how finding a way that suits our individual learning style might just make it easier to learn these tables. Over the past two weeks, we’ve tried out various ways to see which way we prefer. We’ve also tried aural learning, chanting our tables to the clave rhythm.
Visual Learning…
We made geometric circle patterns with string, moving around the numbers 0-9 to set out the times tables.
Sometimes, a diagram helps a learner find the answer.
Using materials for larger multiplication sums helps us visualise what’s happening too.
Verbal Learners…
Some like to recite times tables or create words, tongue twisters and rhymes to recall the facts. Good job Eveline!
Physical Learning…Some learn by using their bodies and moving to help them learn.
We wrote out the times table we needed to learn in a hopscotch game and jumped using our bodies until we got to the right answer. Chanting the numbers helped too!
Social Learners…Some like to work with others and learn together.
We wrote out a Tic Tac Toe board and the first one to get the multiplication answer right got to put in a 0 or X. We had fun racing against each other!
Kathryn and Conor made up their own symbols!
Logical Thinkers…Like to ask questions and see the whole picture. This group were setting out the 4 times table in a way that helped them count up in 4’s.
In P5/6 we have been creating a list of things we would like to use at playtime. Our budget is £60, so we need to try to find the best deal for each item on our list.
We have been learning how to navigate around shopping websites, using filters so that we can find exactly what we are looking for. We found out that it was important to check how many items were being advertised and to compare products. Some products were very cheap but the delivery charge was very high!
Ethan discovered that if he looked a little further and narrowed his search a little more, he was able to find 3 basket balls for the same price as 1 in an earlier search. Well done Ethan!
Ava and Freya thought they had found a great deal on chunky chalk with 100 pieces in the pack! It’s a good job they read the reviews as that particular product had a low rating with lots of complaints! Well done for spotting that girls!
We have noted down all of the things that we think could be bought and now we have to add it all up to check that we are within our £60 budget. Fingers crossed!
Fiona was looking for chunky chalk to use at playtime. She tried to find the best deal by looking at how many were in a pack, the price and the delivery charge.
We have started to explore a new area of Maths this week. We braved the February weather to take our learning outside into the playground. The markings on our play areas were perfect for helping us explore parallel and perpendicular lines. We looked for right angles too. It’s amazing how many you find when you actively go looking!
A perfect example of perpendicular lines and right angles!
Fergus and Hannah used their metre stick to create a perpendicular line and right angles.
Today Tory, Kayla, Evie and Lois from Primary 6, represented our school in the Shetland Heat of the Euroquiz. We are delighted to say that they came third equal! Congratulations to them! It shows that all their hard word paid off.
I hope you have found your lovely Christmas card that was sent home today! This class enjoy craft work and created really striking winter tree paintings for their cards.
We also used these pictures to inspire us to do some creative writing. We went out into the nature garden to look at the winter trees and gather words, phrases and ideas for our work. Back in class, we looked at various free style poems to give us more inspiration before creating our own. The poems needed to sound as if we were having a conversation with the tree. They needed to have questions and repetition within it and they were not to rhyme. This proved harder than we thought! Some excellent pieces were created, very quickly. Here are some of my favourite lines…
Dream and dream until the sun shines through to wake you up, winter tree. (Amy)
Tall and elegant, but dead looking inside so bare and brown. (Fergus)
Will your leaves ever return? Lying dormant on the ground but in the summer you’re tall and proud. (Magnus)
Trees do you hear me? How do you feel? What do you see? Dusted with frost. (Fiona)
Oh winter tree, how do you survive the harsh, harsh cold winter? (Matthew)
Oh cold frosty tree, how do you stand so strong and proud in the strong winter breeze? (Hannah)
I’ll speak to you next year but now it’s time to sleep, sleep, sleep. (Isabel)
No reply came from the winter tree. Then I wonder… Is he alive? (Robbie)
The newly fallen snow is…hair. It’s winter, tree. (Ellie)
I don’t know how you can stand so tall and proud in this bitter wind. (Kelsi)
Are you cold? Surely you are! Will your leaves ever come back? You’re so naked. Soon your leaves will return. Just keep dreaming and dreaming. (Liam)
Oh tree so cold, bent and old. Your pine cones so spiky. Do you feel it if you bend so bold? (Kathryn)
Winter tree, your leaves have fallen. You’re covered in a cloak of snow. You are freezing in the bitter temperatures. (Bella)
How do you live outside in the cold lifeless winter, tree? You must have thick skin. (Bobby)
You dream about the summer and the flowers and the grass and how you’ll have leaves at last. (Ava)
Winter tree, how can you live like this…in the vast winter wind where your life has faded…? (Abi)
Yes, yes, yes! I can get cold on the outside but in the inside I can feel happiness. (Anders)
Do you want my jacket? Wait, no, that strong, insulating bark of yours will surely keep you warm. (Evie)
Mum said you’re dreaming of spring with your green, vibrant leaves but I can not see it! (Fearne)
Bare, chilly and frosty, you need some warmth. Dream of spring, summer, flowers and the sun. (Tory)
Your fantastic green leaves, gone but when summer comes around, you will be remade and beautiful once again. (Koll)
That’s too many questions! Let me stand here until spring! (Hayden)
Are you ever going to take off in this winter breeze? Swaying in the wind, bare and cold. (Kayla)
The full versions of our poems will be displayed in school next term. Please feel free to come and have a read in the new year!
What have P5/6 been up to on their final day of term? They all worked on grammar activities first thing before heading out to the multicourt for class P.E. where we scored a record number of frisbee goals! Then we all worked on our own personal learning goals before lunch so all different types of activities were going on at the same time. The afternoon saw us gather together to have a whole school photo to celebrate our 50 years and this was followed by a great JRSO assembly. Happy holidays everyone and here’s hoping this weather holds!
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