All posts by Mrs Gilroy

P4 April Blog

Assembly

Our assembly was about St Valentine. St Valentine was a Roman priest and doctor who  married people in secret because the emperor did not allow soldiers to get married. We sang the songs ‘Love’ by Michael Ball and ‘I Want to Know What Love is’ by Foreigner.

Rhea liked our assembly because ‘it wasn’t just about St Valentine but also about love and it brought more people together.’

Lucy thought it was ‘really fun because we were dressed up and everyone watching was enjoying it too!’ And Kayden enjoyed ‘being in front of a big audience too!’

We also discussed the facts we learned about the heart and we told everyone about the heart symbol. Skye liked that there were facts, dancing and acting. She ‘loved being the heart’.

Lailah liked the fact that ‘everyone felt happy because it was heartwarming. She liked that ‘people’s faces lit up and they were laughing!’

 

STEM Day and Science

The whole school also took part in a STEM Day where the children participated in many exciting activities! We learned about our fingerprints, and we used ink and paper to print our finger prints and find out what type of finger print we have.  Heidi particularly enjoyed this! Another activity we took part in was a detective hunt and we had to find numbers and symbols to make a word and the word was detective. Caleb says ‘we also built bridges with newspaper and that was fun!’

We made paper aeroplanes and we tested how far they travelled in the playground. Jacob Le V liked this because ‘I learnt something new’.  We also did chromatography to see the different pigments of the colours. Kaiyah ‘really liked doing different things about STEM but my favourite was chromatoghraphy because I could see the different pigments hiding in black.’

Noah liked measuring noise because, ‘I liked the decibels going up when I shouted banana.’ And Ariana liked that ‘I came third place out of the whole class’ when measuring how much noise they could make! Oly also enjoyed ‘going to P6 to program the Microbits to play rock.  paper, scissors.’

In Science we have continued our topic of forces. We used Newton Balances to measure force and then explored magnetism. We also investigated earthquakes as part of Topical Science.

 

Maths

We learned about algebra.  Algebra is like missing number sums.  The missing number is replaced by a letter and you have to work out the value of the missing number.  Jacob B liked ‘doing algebra because I liked working out the missing numbers. It was fun.’ Bella liked Algebra too because ‘it’s fun to do and I like the greater than and less than symbols.’

We also have been learning to use the standard written method when adding and subtracting calculations.

Fractions is fun too says Jacob P, ‘I really like doing fractions. I like knowing that the bigger the denominator gets, the smaller the fraction.’ Noah thinks ‘equivalent fractions can be hard!’ Calum likes ‘changing the numerators and denominators to make different fractions.’

Literacy

In Literacy, we have been reading the Roman Chronicles.  We learned the difference between fact and fiction and we were also learning about adjectives, subjects and verbs. We all enjoyed writing our own narratives too.

Peyton says’ ‘We’ve been writing loads of stories using different punctuation. We also use loads of adjectives!’

Lacey liked the Roll a Dice Story. ‘It was fun because I never have ideas for what to write my story about and this helped.’ Cooper said ‘this helped my writing get better too.’

 

Outdoor Learning

We went up to the Nature Reserve to learn how to use it more. Leigh from Eolas and Mrs Marnie came too. We made a fire and toasted marshmallows, we also had a lot of fun activities to do like a tightrope, tent, a list of things to find like bugs, make a journey stick etc. We all had a fantastic time!

Millie ‘liked seeing the squirrels jumping around in the trees.’ and Jorjia ‘liked looking at the insects’ and learning more about them.

Now we have started using our Nature area again we will use all these ideas and lots more.

Harrison says ‘We have been trying to spot all the different signs of spring. I spotted a nest in one of the trees.’

Date for your Diary- P4 Class Trip to New Lanark Monday 5th June

 

Gym Days

Swimming- Tuesday morning

Outdoor PE/Learning – Wednesday and Thursday afternoon

Please remember trainers and to wear clothing appropriate to go out in all weathers!

Please  – no jewellery for Swimmimg/PE days including earrings, necklaces and rings

A wee reminder

Some children do not have their cardigans/jumpers/shoes /jackets/ packed lunch boxes/ water bottles labelled.   Please can you make sure you write your child’s name on their items then we can return them. Thank you.

P4 January Blog

Happy New Year!

We’re all really happy to be back at school for another packed year!

Looking back, Rookie Rockstars came to the school in early November. This was a fantastic opportunity for the children to showcase their singing and dancing talents while also learning valuable lessons. The whole school came together and participated in a unique and fun learning experience which tackled anti-bullying, and promoted confidence, self-esteem, and positive friendships. Peyton said, ‘It was fun because we came together to dance and sing in front of our parents and family.’

Teejay found the whole experience really enjoyable, ‘My favourite parts were the penguin dance and challenge time.’ Alexa liked learning the new songs and having fun!

Jacob B. liked the song ‘Bullies Ain’t Big’ especially. He said, ‘I felt like it was a really great song to encourage people not to bully.’ Noah particularly liked the song, ‘Hey, Hey, I’m OK!’ He said, ‘I liked the chorus because when I sang it, it helped me to feel that I’m OK.’

Christmas Fun!

The children chose what they wanted to tell you all about in their Newsletter-

Jacob Le V. ‘liked having a wee shot of putting tattoos on people’ at the Christmas Fayre, while Lily ‘loved buying things for my family.’

Millie said she, ‘liked when I bought Heidi a gift’ and Bella, ‘bought loads of nice things for people.’

Art and crafts were great fun around Christmas. The children were very proud of their salt dough ‘baubles’ they made. They wrote a super set of instructions for other children to follow.

They also designed their own Kandinsky tree with colourful baubles. Jacob P. said that he liked making these trees because he liked how ‘Kandinsky colour mixed to make different colours.’ Skye stated that she, ‘liked designing the trees however we wanted and had fun with it.’

Peyton felt that she learned that, ‘you could mix to make any colour using other colours apart from primary colours,’ and Jorjia liked mixing to find the perfect colour!

The Christmas show was a great success. Lailah said, ‘It was fun to actually be in the show and perform in front of the adults,’ while Peyton, ‘liked singing and dancing and that everyone was taking videos and pictures of us.’ Heidi ‘loved doing the dances’ too!

Kaiyah shared that she thought, ‘it was a fun experience to be acting in front of everyone and I got acting tips like how to add expression when saying my lines.’

Caleb, ‘liked playing the saxophone because my Mum and Nana were laughing and smiling at me.’ Skye also relished being on the stage saying, ‘I liked when I went on the stage and everyone laughed because of the wig I was wearing!’

The children even saw a fantastic magic show! Ariana liked when the puppet tried to kiss Heidi. We’re not sure Heidi was so impressed with that though! She said,  ‘I liked that I got a magic wand and a bracelet. I liked that the monkey kept asking me questions but not when he wanted to kiss me!’

Caleb liked when the magician pretended to be Darth Vader and ‘he gave Jake a light sabre balloon and he pretended to chop his arm off!’ Lucy added that she thought it was so funny ‘how the monkey kept pulling the handkerchiefs down into the suitcase.’ Peyton noticed that every time the magician said ‘Let It Go’ to the monkey, the music from Frozen would play. She thought that was very funny!

The Christmas Party was a lovely chance for the children to get dressed up and have a ball! Rhea ‘liked that we got to do all the Scottish dances with my friends.’ Alexa and Harrison both commented on the fact that they loved playing all the games and spending time with their friends. Calum stated, ‘It was so much fun, and I wanted to stay forever!!’

Literacy

We have been working well on finding ways to improve our writing.

Noah tells us that, ‘we are working on our punctuation so we can get better at our writing, and we are trying to use good vocabulary in our sentences.’

Jacob B. says that, ‘we are adding adjectives to our writing to make it more interesting for others to read.’ Lucy also mentioned that, ‘we are making our writing neater by using our joins.’

Our Reading Champions are Alexa, Kaiyah and Millie were busy organising reading challenges for November and December. Kaiyah tells us that, ‘It was fun to make up different ideas for the challenges.’  Cooper shared that liked reading under the Christmas tree because, ‘he could hear about what everyone was reading.’ Oly liked, ‘sitting under the tables to read then we sat on top too!’

Jorjia ‘liked sitting under the teacher’s desk to read because we got to pick a friend to read with.’

Adam enjoyed reading ‘in a random place- we went behind the stage and it was great!’ Lacey liked this opportunity too because ‘I hadn’t been there for a long time.’

Google Classroom

All children have been issued with the log in information they will need to access this.  Games and other resources are regularly posted here to help with your child’s learning at home. Minecraft logins have also been issued, this is a great new additional resource.

If there are any problems with getting access, please let us know.

Numeracy

We have been working hard on place value and multiplication tables. Please continue to practise these at home. Also remember to ask questions in terms of division too eg How many 5s in 25, how many 8s in 64? Etc We have also been looking at how fractions relate to division. Eg What is a third of 27 and a quarter of 24? etc

We have also been learning more about measurement with Mrs Potter.

IDL

Our IDL this new term is Scotland. So be prepared to find out more about all things Scottish!

Date for your diary-Our P4 Assembly is going to be about St Valentine’s Day and all things heart based! It will be on Friday 10.2.23.

 

STEM

We have investigated forces last term and will continue this term. We have looked at push and pull and balanced forces. In the playground we had a fun time with the tug of war! We also used ramps to think about gravity and how different surfaces affect how far a toy car will travel. The children particularly enjoyed using straws to move ping pong balls! Recently we have started to explore magnets.

Gym Days

Indoor Gym – Tuesday afternoon.

Outdoor PE/Learning – Wednesday and Thursday afternoon

Please remember trainers and to wear clothing appropriate to go out in all weathers!

Please  – no jewellery for gym days including earrings, necklaces and rings

A wee reminder

Some children do not have their cardigans/jumpers/shoes /jackets/ packed lunch boxes/ water bottles labelled.   Please can you make sure you write your child’s name on their items then we can return them. Thank you.