P3B 2023-24

Here is the curriculum information for 3B for term 4.

P3B – Curriculum Information – Term 4 2024

This term we have been learning all about the Vikings.

Our main focus was the following three questions:

• How are our lives different from the Vikings?
• How are the Vikings remembered?
• Who were the Vikings and where did they come from?

In January we learned about how the Vikings are remembered and we looked at Up Helly Aa. We learned about Viking shields and then designed our own to use for Lerwick Up Helly Aa day. We also went on a trip to the street to see the Jarl squad. The pupils were all very excited!

The pupils said that they enjoyed learning about:

– The foods that the Vikings ate.

– The different parts of a longship.

– Viking shields.

– Viking gods.

We also looked at Viking runes and we practised writing messages using this.

We have finished the term in PE doing skipping with a focus on stamina.  We started the block with a discussion on stamina and how skipping is a really good form of exercise to develop this.  We also discussed other areas that skipping develops, like

• co-ordination
• rhythm
• timing
• muscular endurance in legs.

P3 have been participating in general games.  These are games that we can practice all the skills we need for games like football, basketball, hockey and many more.  Some of the skills include team work, cooperation, competing, communication, attacking, defending, aiming, catching, throwing, decision making and following rules.

This week in music we have been learning about the importance of music during Chinese New Year. As part of our learning we watched a Musical Storyland episode called ‘The Great Race’ by BBC Teach, where members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra play a range of instruments and tell the story.  We saw a new Chinese instrument called a guzheng which is played by plucking the strings.  You can see all the instruments in the picture below.

Photo courtesy of BBC Teach

We also learned that this year is the year of the dragon and in the clip below, you can see us using scarves to move like the dragon dancers that perform at Chinese New Year celebrations.

We finished the block creating our own Shetland dances.  From the 9 dances we had learnt we had to think about some of the actions and positions we had done to create our own dance.  We also had to remember that a Shetland dance is just a small section that we repeat.

Here we are performing our creations.

Tuesday 30^th January 2024 was a special day at Sound Primary School as we were visited by both the Junior and Senior Jarl Squads of 2024.

The Junior Jarl Squad, led by Guizer Jarl Skeppare Nokkvesson (aka Oran McCulloch), were in fine voice during their time with us, supported by a group of young local musicians who did a brilliant job. ‘Yes Sir, I can Boogie’ was definitely a highlight! The clip below shows all the pupils from p1 to p7 joining in with the Up Helly Aa song.

The Senior Jarl Squad, led by Guizer Jarl King Harald Olafsson (aka Richard Moar) were also pretty spectacular both in sight and sound. A fantastic line up of local musicians provided the music for the Up Helly Aa song and also their squad song which made us all want to get up and dance! Here is a clip of all the pupils from p1 to p7 joining in with the Up Helly Aa song. The Jarl commented how loud and enthusiastic our singing was. High praise indeed from a ‘King’!

We started a Shetland and Scottish dance block this week in PE.  In our first lesson we did circle based dances, the Circassian Circle, the Norsk Polka and The Ferry Boat.  We explained that this kind of dance takes the format of small sequences of actions which are repeated for the length of the music.

Here are our first attempts of the Circassian Circle and Norsk Polka.