Cunningsburgh – Primary 4/5 – 2025/26

Everyone has been doing brilliantly reading their ‘just right’ books. Lots of people are consistently reaching their target and several people have reached beyond the halfway point with our reading challenge. Reading is one of the best indicators of academic success, it improves general knowledge and attainment, wellbeing, resilience and self-esteem, language and literacy skills and thinking, memory, attention and creativity. My favourite part of our reading ethos is when the kids are searching for new books to read and they start to recommend reads to each other! So whether it is a physical book, an eBook on a kindle or even an audio book all of these count towards our reading challenge (though audio books don’t count towards our reading targets).

These are some photos from the clay models we made a couple of weeks ago that the kids took home last week. Unfortunately I didn’t mange to take too many photos as I was generally covered in clay! I hope that you loved seeing what your children made.

Our science focus for this week was on micro-organisms. We are trying to grow our own mould but we are testing out whether mould grows faster in the light or the dark and also testing whether mould grows faster on bread that has been touched by no hands, clean hands or unwashed hands. It will be interesting to see how this experiment develops.

This week we learned about the Scottish Parliament and Stirling Castle. We investigated when they were built and what they were built for. After that the children created these fantastic pieces of art inspired by Scottish artist Gillian Kyle. The children were encouraged to incorporate iconic Scottish images in their artwork alongside a can of Irn Bru. I think they have done a fantastic job!

Big Question

This week we have focused on Scalloway Castle. The kids learned about ‘Black Patie’ also known as Patrick Stewart, the 2nd Earl of Orkney and Shetland. The kids learned about the different people who would have worked in the castle in the early 1600s. The kids then read an extract from Patrick Stewart’s ‘diary’ . Finally the kids worked in pairs to write a diary entry as one of the people who would work for the Earl.

I saw you SHINE

Since Wednesday this week I have been watching for glimmers – moments when the kids have gone above and beyond with their behaviours, effort or tasks. We are extremely lucky because I could give every child a glimmer every day so I aim to give out 3/4 at day. There are several kids on the wall already and more will follow in the coming days.

Up Helly Aa Artwork

P4 and P5 had a fantastic visit to Lerwick to watch the morning procession of Up Helly Aa. We then went to the museum where the children participated in 2 workshops; a tour of the Viking exhibits and a hands on investigation of some Viking objects. It was very interesting and the kids were extremely engaged throughout asking interesting questions throughout. It was great to be out with them all. Many thanks to Kayla Hunter, Trevor Jamieson and Mrs Teale for accompanying us on the trip.

Big Question

In big question this week we were learning about castle defenses. The children worked in pairs to make notes during our lesson and then create posters on canva to show the main defenses that castle buildings included. The next day the children worked in groups of 3 to ‘build’ their own card castles with as many of the defenses build in as they could. It was great to see everyone working so well together to achieve their goals and I think their castles are fab! I wonder if the children can tell you about any of the castle defenses?

Movement Breaks

We have been loving Waka Waka this week during our movment breaks. We aim to have a movement break in the middle of each of the long learning blocks (morning-break and break-lunch). Sometimes we do a sensory circuit which involves 3 ‘exercises’; an alerting activity like star jumps to wake up the nervous system, an organising activity like balancing on one leg to organise sensory input and a calming activity like giving ourselves a tight hug to focus and settle. Either of these activities takes 3-4 minutes and helps the children to focus better as they have had a chance to ‘get the wiggles out’ and give their brains a rest.

All learners also have fidget tools in their pencil box to help them focus when listening to teaching inputs.

We start the day with either daily mile or Go Noodle to give a soft start and get ready for the day ahead. What is your child’s favourite go noodle?

Writing

In writing this week we have been creating our characters for the writing block ahead. Our characters will be going on lots of adventures in the coming weeks while we work on using interesting vocabulary to engage the reader. Who has your child created?

These are a Few of our Favourite Things

On the first day back the children brought their favourtie thing. We then drew and painted them before practicing our cutting skills by cutting them out and backing them to create a black outline.

Self Portraits

The children we given a photograph of half of their face. They then drew and shaded the other half in pencil.

Maths – Subtraction

This week we have been learning the jump method of subtraction. We have been doing lots of practice with concrete materials and then looking at showing the working on paper.

Science

In science we did an experiment to investigate the properties that resulted in floating and sinking. The children learned to use the term buoyancy and density.

Big Question

This week we have been learning about primary and secondary sources. We looked at different sources of information and discussed the properties that made them primary or secondary. The children then created posters showing possible examples of primary and secondary sources.

Exciting Equipment Updates This Week!

This Week’s Equipment Highlights

• New Heights: One box was set higher, and another had a lower bench leading up to it, adding variety and challenge.
• Ropes Added: The ropes were introduced this week and were a huge hit with the pupils!
• Directional Changes: We included a mix of benches, beams, and tables with changes of direction to keep things interesting and engaging.

In maths we have been continuing our 'speedy skills' work and we have played some times table board games to help us practice. We have also got new QR codes in our classroom which we can scan to find different times table games to play. This has been super fun!

This week our writing has been about Guy Fawkes. In partners, we created fact files about his life and we also have written newspaper articles about The Gunpowder Plot. We imagined we were writing the newspaper report after the event in 1605.

We finished our Big Question about Fairtrade. We looked at different non-Fairtrade products and researched which ingredients in them could be sourced through Fairtrade suppliers.

We also started thinking about our Enterprise project this week and we had two special visitors in who were business experts. They spoke to us about branding, marketing, selling and the finance behind a business. It was great to hear from them before we properly begin planning our businesses next week. We asked lots of brilliant questions and spoke about what made us nervous about the event.

Our discovery club this week was about 'endangered animals', which was sad to learn about but a really important topic to educated ourselves and others on. We created presentations, posters and drawings of different endangered animals with lots of information about how we can help them.

Speedy Skills:




Writing:

    


Fairtrade:



Enterprise:


Discovery club: