World Book Day

We have had a wonderful day today focusing on reading, developing a reading culture and enjoying books.

First we had a class competition to create book characters from cardboard cylinders, the winners are still to be decided.

Then we took part in a national Footy and Booky Quiz hosted by the authors Kit Brown, Ben Lyttleton and Alex Bellos. You can have a go at last year’s quiz here:

World Book Day 2024 Footy & Booky Quiz!

After that we had some reading time in class while we ate snack.

After break we learned how to use a resource that is new to us in P4/5, Canva. The kids all made poster showing the kinds of things they like to read about. The kids have their log in information home with them and they will be able to access it if they want to:

1. First log on to glow.
2. Open Canva using the tile on their glow launch pad.
3. Enter glow email address.
4. Once they have entered their email address Canva will send them a code
5. Open mail, also found on their glow launch pad.
6. Retrieve code
7. Enter it on Canva and access the site.

Finally everyone got the change to visit the amazing cosy reading area set up by Carrie-Ann in the open area, it was so beautiful, engaging and interactive, the kids had a great time.  Thank you so much to Carrie-Ann for all the hard work and effort she put in.

Home Learning and Talking and Listening

This afternoon we have had presentations from each of the learners in the class. These presentations were the ‘Dream Menus’  that they did this term as their home learning project.  All of the learners handed in their projects, all of their projects were done to a high standard and they all loved sharing their menus with their friends. It was great to see the improvement in their presentation skills over the course of the year as the learners have become more confident speaking in front of a larger group of peers.

Big Question

This week we have been learning about the skeleton.  The kids drew their own skeletons using oil pastels and then worked together to give each skeleton and interesting fact to “say”.

Maths

The green group have been learning about 3D shapes this week.

Big Question

This week we have been learning about the digestive system.  Here are the kids drawing life sized images of what they thought the digestive system was like before they learned about it.

Food Preparation with Carrie Ann

This week a group was looking at making healthy sandwiches. Hopefully everyone will get a chance to do 3/4 food preparation sessions over the course of the term.

Discovery

Last week in comprehension one group was learning about impressionist and post impressionist paintings. This week for discover the topic everyone chose a painting to recreate. I am so impressed by the amazing art they have produced.

Table Tennis

The kids are having the opportunity to try out table tennis with Mrs Smith, Chris and Kay coaching them. The kids had great fun practicing their forehand, backhand and rallys this week.  Next week they are going to have the chance to work on their serve and full games. Mrs Smith will be at Cunningsburgh Youth Club for the next couple of weeks so the kids can have further opportunities to play there if they want to.

Writing – Adverbs

This week the kids have started a new learning target in writing. This involves using descriptive vocabulary such as adjectives and adverbs. In order to develop their understanding of these parts of speech we have engaged in lots of active learning experiences such as quizzes, stop the bus and capture the flag. It has been great to see the kids confidence, understanding and vocabulary increase throughout the week. This has resulted in a great improvement in their writing too!

Big Question

This week our big question is around being able to read food labels and understand their importance in both a healthy diet and in managing allergies and illnesses. We practiced reading some labels and then sorted foods from healthiest to least healthy based on one specific aspect such as salt content. This helped the learners to understand that deciding if something is healthy or not is not an easy concept and so we have to think about all foods in terms of balance.

HWB

This week we have been looking at anti-bullying in comprehension and discovery the topic. As part of this I did a demonstration using toothpaste. I said unkind things to Mr Chum (our class teddy) and every time I did the learners squirted some toothpaste on to a tray. At the end I asked them to tidy up and pop the toothpaste back into the tube. Lots of the learners quickly cottoned on to the lesson I was teaching, ‘words, once said, cannot be unsaid’.  We then had a great discussion about the importance of stopping and thinking before we speak so we don’t say unkind things in the moment. We also then discussed the fact that we are human and we will get it wrong some times and so the only thing we can do then is apologise and try to make it right. I forgot to take any photos but as you can imagine fun was had a mess was made!

Cunningsburgh’s Got Talent

On Friday and Monday afternoon P4/5 organised a Cunningsburgh’s Got Talent talent show for the whole school.  There were musicians and mimes, dancers and magicians, singers and skits. P4/5 made up the backstage crew, the judges and the hosts. Everyone did an amazing job and had so much fun. Special congratulations goes to Anthea who won the competition with her rendition of Love Story by Taylor Swift.

Healthy Eating

For Big Question this week we have been learning about the different food groups.  The kids designed their own healthy, balanced meal.  I wonder if they can remember the 6 different food groups and explain how they are represented in their meals.

Handwashing

Dawn Manson from Environmental Health visited the school today to give us a demonstration on the importance of handwashing – it was certainly eye opening!

Writing

The kids have been working extremely hard on their writing since returning to school. We have been learning about connectives and how to use them in the texts we create. I have been so impressed with the progress the kids have made, everyone is able to use them accurately. Great job P4/5!

Extra Snaps

One Word

To start the year right we read a story about Martin Luther King Jr. and discussed the word that we would associate with him. We then brainstormed lots of words that we could use and the kids were able to choose their own ‘One Word’ for the year ahead. We then wrote about why we chose the word. Finally we created a amamograph of 2025 and our One Word.

Draw Along and Card Games

On Wednesday morning P3/4 joined us for some art and some games. The kids drew red pandas and then we played lots of different card games. The kids worked so well together and had a great time. Thanks so much to Miss Mann and her lovely class for coming to visit.

What a busy week!

Christmas Concert

Christmas Lunch

Christmas Treat

Active Learning in Maths

This week we played Capture the Flag and Snowball Fight while doing our maths, everyone had a great time especially when they were allowed to throw their ‘snowballs’ at me!