Author: Mrs Johnson

Writing

This week we returned to story writing after finishing a block of work on note-taking. Learners used Canva AI to create an illustration for their story and had to include 4 out of the 5 key elements of storytelling: character, setting, conflict, and theme.

Once the images were created, we began writing. Our lessons focused on the purpose of writing at paragraph, sentence, and word-choice level. The first paragraph introduced the character, the second introduced the setting, and the third introduced the problem within the story.

We also revisited the writing tools we learned about last term using SAACOO (similes, adjectives, adverbs, connectives, openers, and onomatopoeia). Learners were encouraged to think carefully about which of these tools they could use within each sentence to make their writing more interesting and effective.

I have been so impressed with the stories so far. The learners’ imaginations have been working overtime, and everyone has been making excellent progress towards their writing targets.

Next week we will finish the stories by solving the problem before sharing the completed pieces with you. I cannot wait for you to see them! In the meantime enjoy these photos of them hard at work creating their masterpieces.

Topic

This week we have been learning about Pythons. Learners made notes from a set text and then worked in pairs to create their own posters.

Amazonwatch

The kids wrote, prepared and performed their Amazonwatch Assembly, serendipitously coinciding with David Attenborough’s birthday. The kids were extremely brave preforming in front of the whole school despite some pre-show nerves. They brilliantly demonstrated the depth and breadth of their learning over the last few weeks. Well done P4/5, I am really proud of you.

Some more sensational sewing from this week. Everyone has now successfully made a pin cushion, I am so impressed that they have all managed to embroider their initial, sew their cushion and stuff it.

Piano with Mrs Peterson

On Monday Mrs Peterson took all of P4 and P5 into the hall to talk to them about piano lessons. She talked about what the lessons entailed, the practice expectations associated with music lessons, how a piano works and explained the process of applying for music lessons. Next year there may be piano/ fiddle space available for any P4s or P5s who do not already have lessons in school. Waiting lists for instrumental tuition are held centrally at the Education Department in Hayfield House, this information is not held by individual schools.

Rainforests

This week we have been learning about plants of the rainforest. The kids have researched different plants and created factfiles about them and then created menus for a tropical rainforest themed cafe with a focus on foods from the plants we researched.

Folk Festival

On Thursday afternoon a duo who are appearing at this year’s Shetland Folk Festival came to visit the school and perform for us. It was great to see the kids enjoying the tunes, responding to the change in tempo and intensity and having a lovely time.

Rainforests

This week we have been learning about the different layers of the rainforest, the seven continents of the world and identifying where rainforests are located. Everyone made a pipe cleaners chameleon which was much trickier than it first appeared.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This week we were learning about identifying key information in a text. We read a chapter about the first two golden ticket winners and the kids had to try to find clue about what the characters looked like.

Sewing

We have been learning to use simple sewing stitches making our own pin cushion. Two groups out of four have now had the chance to participate in this activity with the other groups having their shot in the coming weeks. I think they have done a fantastic job!

Healthy Breakfast

On Friday 24th April the kids participated in a healthy breakfast event where they were able to taste different breakfast options.

Grammar

In grammar we are looking at note taking. We tied this in with our Rainforest Project and learned about venomous plants. The kids practiced taking notes and using them to create posters.

Novel Study – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This week we started our novel study for this term, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. The kids are really enjoying it so far and have written Haikus about Willy Wonka, identified the main features of the story and analysed Roald Dahl’s writing style linking this to the illustration style of Quentin Blake. We then did a draw along of Willy Wonka and an Oompa Loompa. I think they have turned out fantastically well!

Maths

Speedy Skills – These are the speedy skills sheets that were sent home this week. Practicing these skills is so helpful for all numeracy tasks.

Class Maths – In maths this week we have started a unit on division using tables and beyond. We will continue to build on this as the term progresses working towards using formal written methods of dividing.

Big Question

This week we were learning about Glasgow Tenements. We watched a tour of the Tenement House Museum in Glasgow and learned all about the life of the lady who lived there. We read a poem all about Mrs Johnson’s Great Gran who lived in one for the Tenements from 1912 when she was born until she died in 2007. From the poem we were able to learn about all the changes that happened in the time of the Tenements such as the invention of the washing machine, the telephone & the television, the addition on indoor toilets, the change in music (we listened to some Elvis and Beatles), the Queen’s coronation (we watched a bit of this) and the moon landing (we watched a bit of this). The kids then created venn diagrams about life in the Tenements versus life now then illustrated parts of the poem with what they had learned. We also drew Mackintosh Roses.

Maths – 2D Shapes

In maths this week we were learning about 2D shapes and their properties. We drew shape aliens and then wrote clue cards to describe them using the properties of the different shapes we included. I wonder how many of the 13 shapes that we learned that the kids can remember? (6 x 4 sided shapes then 3,5,6,7,8,9,10 sided shapes)

Music Festival

I was so proud of the kids for both their behaviour at, and their performance in, the music festival on Monday. They were absolutely brilliant! Well done to each and every one of them and many thanks to Mrs Pottinger for all her hard work in preparing them for it. We are very lucky in Shetland to have such a rich culture of music and such great provision for the arts and it is very important that we continue to support this very important part of Shetland’s unique heritage and the young people who shine through this medium.

Huge congratulations to our very own Junior Young Musician of the Year finalist, Kaela, you did a phenomenal job and we are all so proud of you.

SMUHA

We enjoyed a visit from King Karl Hundason and his squad on Friday.

BIG QUESTION

This week in Big Question we were learning about the Wars of Independence. The kids made time lines showing the main events, researched some of the key figures and then did a free writing project to show their learning.

World Book Day Maths

We did some book related maths activities. Well done to the Dastardly Diarists who were the winners of the competition.

World Book Day Activites

We had some exiting activities set up for World Book Day. These will be available all through the next week too.

World Book Day – Book Landscapes

We made book landscapes based on a book, or book series, that everyone in our group had read.

Dogs Against Drugs

Megan and Bravo came to visit us to teach us about the work that Dogs Against Drugs do.

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!