Mrs White and Miss Greenwood…
Primary 5 are still enjoying their swimming lessons. We have been doing so well with swimming a few of us have even been moved up a level which is so exciting.As well as this we have learned the story of Joseph and are currently practising drama re-enactments. Next week we are going to perform them and have loved doing them so far. “
Intro
How time flies! It only seems like yesterday that we were thinking about what P5 would bring and here we are in the final term. But there’s no time for reminiscing as we’ve lots to cram into these final few weeks including the trip to Stirling Castle, a great new topic (see below) and, of course, the Summer Fayre.
Numeracy
The pupils continue to make great progress across a range of skills. Last term we introduced BODMAS along with multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. We also covered compass direction, chance and data analysis. But there’s no time to rest on our laurels so this term we’ll be looking at fractions, decimals and percentages and how they are basically just different ways of looking at the same information. We’ll also revisit time and money and introduce the idea of ratio. After that we’ll probably have a bit of a rest before heading off to P6!
It is also the last chance to beat the times tables sheets. Will anyone get to the pink sheet by the end of June???
Amber “I like the times tables sheets because they challenge me”
Elise: “We do the times tables sheets every Friday and it’s really fun”.
Literacy
Reading
Earlier in the term we completed Charlotte’s Web.
After coping with the emotional trauma of the ending (no spoilers) we then moved onto factual reading and current affairs (Newsround in particular) which tied in nicely with our writing topics. This term we have just chosen ‘The Queen’s Nose’ which is a novel about magic and animals
Writing
Last term we covered a lot of ground including persuasive writing (where we argued the case for/against zoos amongst other things) as well as procedural writing (instructions/recipes). This term we’ll be covering discursive writing (arguing both sides of a debate) and then returning to narrative writing as this brings together so many aspects of the learning the pupils have undertaken during the year.
IDL
We have now completed our Scottish Wars of Independence topic. The pupils really enjoyed learning about the history of Scotland and showed their acting props in our re-enactment of Braveheart.
Amber “I loved the Braveheart re-enactment because we got to learn about the history of Scotland”.
Haylie “I loved watching Braveheart but was annoyed when Mr Connor turned off the gory bits”.
Iona “I liked acting out the movie in the woods”
Elise “I liked making the swords, shields and helmets”
We also had a blast at Stirling Castle where we got to see the actual battlefield where the Battle of Stirling Bridge took place, as well as an enormous statue of Robert the Bruce.
Kali “The views were amazing and we could see all the way to the mountains”
Cairo “I liked the spooky dungeon”
Amber (and others) “The gift shop was good but it was expensive!”
Haylie “There was a bird’s nest in the dungeon!”
Alex/Elise “I liked all the activities in the tunnel under the Great Hall”
Leland “I liked sitting on the King’s Throne”
Iona “I enjoyed the Queen’s Garden”
As you may have been told, P5 will be running the Summer Fayre. It’s a great opportunity for the pupils to put into practice a lot of the skills that they’ve been learning. It also teaches them responsibility and gives them a taste of enterprise. We look forward to seeing you all on the 9th of June :-).
PE
The pupils loved the gymnastics module (especially the wall bars) and some of them even got to do full somersaults over the vaulting horse!
Jake “I liked doing the vaulting horse (until I hurt my nose!)”
Alex “I got to do a somersault on the vaulting horse!”
Iona ” I liked swinging on the ropes when doing the wall bars”
Haylie “I liked doing the hula hoops”
Elijah “I liked doing the monkey bars and getting from one end to another”
Elise “Gymnastics is really fun”
Sophie D/ Amber “I liked watching people improving and I enjoyed the mats.”
This term it’s badminton for indoor gym and tennis for outdoor.
Although they seem like they’d be similar they are actually very different skills. Let’s hope we get the good weather to fully enjoy them.
Topic
This term’s topic is New York. We’ll be looking at lots of different aspects such as the architecture, famous people, music, food, and culture. Many of the pupils had never heard of Frank Sinatra but we’ll be sure to remedy that by the end of June.
STEM
We have continued our topic of Forces investigating friction and measuring force using a Newton Balance.
We discussed air resistance and the importance of aerodynamics.
An anonymous pupil stated that this was about the dynamics of chocolate bars. We shall say no more……
More recently we have been looking at magnets and magnetic fields and experimenting with balloons and static. The whole school also took part in a STEM Day where the children participated in many exciting activities!
Amber “I really liked when we did the scavenger hunt because it helped us work together.”
Akillez “I really liked programming the Microbits, because I got to play with my friend.”
Welcome to 2023! This term is often where we really start to consolidate and build on the work we have done in the previous months, but we continue to learn new things too! We’ll be touching on all sorts of areas – highlights of which may include using the apparatus during gymnastics in PE and (fingers crossed) a trip to Stirling Castle some time after Easter.
Numeracy
BODMAS – The class were introduced to BODMAS last term which outlines the order in which calculations should be completed. This is a rule which will be applied all the way through High School so it is particularly important to learn.
Fractions Decimals and Percentage – We started learning how these three things are connected (they are basically the same thing expressed in different ways). It’s very early days with this tricky subject and we’ll be sure to revisit it before the end of the year.
Number Patterns – Over the first couple of weeks of the new term we’ll be looking at number patterns, from the very basic to quite complicated. We’ll also be examining how this is used in the wider world and where it appears in nature, such as in the examples below – do you recognise the picture on the right?
Chance – This is an area which is a lot of fun to learn but has some serious maths behind it. For those of you old enough to remember it there may be a little bit of Bruce’s Play Your Cards Right as part of this!
Literacy
Reading
Our class novel at the moment is Charlotte’s Web. Yes, it’s an old book but it’s a classic for a reason and the ideals and issues it deals with still resonate today. Much like DOAWK the book has been almost universally enjoyed by the class.
“I really enjoy reading this book because it has lots of animals in it – especially the pig as I have a pig at home!” : Lewis.
Writing
At the end of last term we finished off narrative writing with some fun Christmas stories and now we have moved onto procedural writing. This relates to any form of instruction like a how-to or recipe. We’ve already made chocolate pudding in the classroom and hope to follow this up with curry sauce before the term is out .
After this we will move onto persuasive writing so be prepared for your child to be even better at coming up for reasons why bedtime should be put back by an hour.
IDL
Our main topic for this term is the Scottish Wars of Independence. This is a huge topic and will not only take in the Wars themselves but also the national geography of Scotland, its battlefields and how the nation of Scotland was forever changed by the events of this tumultuous time.
Kali is really looking forward to starting this topic because she likes history.
PE
Our main focus for PE this term will be gymnastics. We’ll start with the basics of strength, balance and flexibility and then build on this as we progress onto the use of the apparatus. This area of PE gives pupils the chance to try some entirely new skills and is great for building confidence.
Please note that your child will require suitable indoor shoes to take part in any apparatus work. The pupils were informed of this requirement on Monday.
Elise is looking forward to this as she already belongs to a gymnastics club.
Music
The lessons with the visiting specialist music teacher are drawing to a close this term – the pupils have enjoyed them. However, they will also be taking a 3 week lesson course as part of their normal learning where we will try to make a class rap culminating in a short video. For inspiration have a look at the 4 o’clock club videos on CBBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/shows/the-4-o-clock-club
STEM
Last term and this term we are looking at ‘Forces’ and so far have been looking at friction in particular.
Kali enjoyed making friction posters because, “It was fun for colouring in and it’s relaxing at the same time. You also learn when friction is needed and not needed.”
Lewis enjoyed our jelly experiment where we added oil to the jelly and made it hard to pick up. “I think it was fun because we learnt that the slippier it is, the harder it is to pick up.”
Hello everyone and welcome to the first P5 blog of the year. We’ve already crammed in a lot and it’s not even Christmas yet. Let’s see what the class has been up to…
Numeracy
Every week we do times tables sheets. There are lots of different colours – at the moment the hardest sheet is the red one but we are trying to get to the yellow sheet – nobody has got there….. yet! Tables are at the heart of so much of the maths we do in P5 so we’ll keep practising!
We’ve been learning about decimals and how whole numbers can be split up into 10 smaller pieces called tenths. Knowing about this will help with the trickier work to come in P6 and P7.
We’ve recently started division and learned how division is just times tables backwards (see above! :-)). Now we’re doing vertical division, which is also sometimes known as bus-stop division. Once this is complete we’ll be starting on fractions which is a whole topic in itself – busy times ahead!
Literacy
We’ve been improving our handwriting with Mrs White – we use our spelling words and common words to improve and practise our joins which helps us to write with greater speed and fluidity.
We are nearly finished reading Diary Of A Wimpy Kid – it’s been a great book because of the way it mixes funny text with cool cartoons – we also made our own comic strip using Greg and Rowley.
For writing we’ve been doing information reports. Recently we wrote about the jobs we might like to do when we grow up:
Harrison would like to be a YouTuber, Kali is looking to be a vet, Alex is going to be a skateboarder! It will be very interesting to see what everyone actually ends up doing!
STEM
We have been learning about our Solar System. We have discussed present day attempts to go back to the moon, and we have developed our engineering skills by building with the KAPLA blocks.
‘I love how the blocks (KAPLA) challenge me and I love learning about space because it’s so interesting!’ Kali
Sophie D said, ’I enjoyed learning about space and how big the universe is.’
Ethan enjoyed researching a planet because he used the computer.
Lewis found the DART mission to move an asteroid interesting because he didn’t think it would work!
IT
In IT we’ve been logging into Sumdog as well as using Google Jamboard to write about our favourite topics.
We’ve also been using the Chromebooks for music using Google Music Lab and Incredibox.
“I like the music lab because you get to make your own music!” Elise
“I like incredibox because you get to make your own music!” Charley
PE
At the start of term our PE lessons were all based on fitness, we went round stations and did different exercises like… tree pose, mountain climbers, star jumps and hopping on one foot. Some of us were not quite as fit as we thought (including Mr Connor 😀 ).
“I liked doing the fitness because we got to do lots of different exercises” Elise
We’ve just started learning Handball – it’s a bit like basketball but the ball is about the size of a grapefruit. It’s great fun because there’s no physical contact and you can’t run with the ball so everyone gets a chance to have a go.
At the moment Ben says he doesn’t like handball – we’ll have to see if he changes his mind once we start playing proper games.
“I like handball because it’s tricky, fun and takes you to your limits” Kali
MUSIC
We have a teacher that comes in on a Friday to teach us music – we have learned about what the notes are called, about pulse and beat. We also used the musical plastic tubes to beat out rhythms and give Mr Connor a big headache.
H&WB
We had a special visitor in the school who taught us how to do Yoga. Some of the exercises were quite tricky but it was great fun!
Other Info
We had our class assembly just before the holidays.
Jake loved doing Bear Hunt with the P1s and P2s.
Everyone enjoyed recording the ‘cheese touch’ scene – did you see Kali’s amazing stunt in the playground?
Ethan (Dumbledore) nearly tripped on his costume because it was so long! But he made it on the stage OK and did a great job 🙂
We were all so impressed with what the boys and girls achieved – they absolutely excelled! If you haven’t seen the assembly yet, here’s the link:
Class Admin
Now that the weather is turning more inclement can you please ensure your child has a change of shoes. This helps to keep the school clean and also stops your child from having to wear soggy shoes during class time.
Literacy and English
Before the Easter holidays, P4/5 were learning how to create clear pieces of procedural writing. “We have been writing instructions on how to make different things like tea and jam sandwiches” – Alex. The children worked extremely hard on their pieces of writing and listened carefully to the success criteria that they had been asked to follow. “We had to remember our title, goal, materials and our steps in the right order” – Ben.
Since returning to school, we have started to look at exposition. “We have been doing exposition writing. It’s when you give a series of arguments for something. Our first argument was to persuade Mrs Kelly to let us go on a school trip because we want to and they are fun and enjoyable” – Elijah.
Primary 4/5 are continuing to learn new phonemes and spelling words that they are tested on every Friday. “Dictation is when we make sure we have learned the words that we have been doing every week. We are learning quite long words and we split them into chunks so we can remember them” – Kali. “With my sound sheet I have learned some new sounds that I haven’t done before. I use them in my writing” – Haylie.
Numeracy
Before the holidays, Primary 4/5 were exploring analogue and digital clocks to help practise telling the time. Although this is a tricky topic, the boys and girls showed lots of effort and enthusiasm, even using their knowledge to work out duration problems. “Before the Easter holidays we did time. I enjoyed it because I wasn’t that good at it before but it helped me learn my skills a bit more” – Amber.
The first two new topics we are looking at this term are algebra and angles. We will be using a variety of resources to create and help identify different angles. Learning will then be extended as children can link this learning to angles within shapes in their environment, as well as creating their own angles using protractors.
As well as our new topics, we also regularly spend time consolidating previous learning throughout each term. This is done through oral Number Talks sessions, worksheets and written tasks. “We have been practising our mental strategies by making our own ‘Daily 20’ which includes adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplication, fractions and shapes” – Lewis.
HWB
“We designed letters to make up the word ‘SHANARRI’ and used them to film a video for our class assembly. We spoke about what they stand for and what they mean” – Jake. The children had a fantastic sense of pride with the video they created to showcase their learning last term. This was played at the whole school assembly – everyone was extremely impressed!
The children are continuing to participate in weekly gym sessions both outdoors and indoors with a range of equipment. The boys and girls have loved using the gym hall for gymnastics. “We have been doing gymnastics with Mrs Gilroy and we have been learning straddles, back bends and cartwheels. We have been getting the apparatus out and using the benches as balance beams and people sometimes do forward rolls” – Kelsie Ann.
Google Classroom
Homework is still posted weekly on Google Classroom – we encourage children to check this throughout the week as it consolidates everything they have been learning in class. “Google Classroom homework helps me concentrate because I can take a break and do fragments of it during the week” – Macy.
Some children also had the opportunity to engage in additional language, technology and science based virtual lessons at home. “Supported study really helped the Primary 5s because it helped to get us ready for high school and learn more. I did Spanish and technology. I liked that we were learning something new” – Amelia.
STEM workshops
Over the last twelve weeks, the boys and girls have been taking part in STEM workshops. “We have done engineering, science and coding. My personal favourite was coding because I love devices and we found out how to customise our characters and make them speak” – Kali. The boys and girls displayed strong teamwork, problem solving skills and enthusiasm throughout their sessions, using a range of resources. “I enjoyed that we have learned about lots of different topics. I liked the coding because it’s fun and you can control what the character does” – Alex.
Science
We have started a mini topic on germination. The children chose four different seeds from fruit and vegetables and are excited to see what happens. “We have used jam jars with seeds in them and we water them every day and we are waiting to see if they germinate” – Callum.
We will also be looking at different characteristics and how these are passed on through different generations. “I am excited to learn about inheritance because I can learn about how my eye colour has been passed on to me” – Lewis. We will be looking at our own characteristics and exploring our family trees to find out where these came from. “I’m excited because my Mum got her eye colour from her Dad and I want to think about what I got from my Mum’s Dad” – Amber.
P4/5 Newsletter
January 2022
Literacy and English
Our new class novel is ‘Flat Stanley’ by Jeff Brown. The descriptive language in the book has allowed the children to use their visualisation techniques to picture the different characters and settings in the book. The class are continuing to enjoy getting cosy in our new Reading Forest and book nooks during their daily DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time.
Before Christmas, the children spent time creating fantastic pieces of descriptive writing, and impressed everyone with lots of fabulous adjectives and descriptive phrases. We have since started looking at information reports. “You need a title, general statement, description and evaluation” – Ethan. The boys and girls are using the new knowledge they have gained from their ‘Extreme Earth and Natural Disasters’ topic to create their own detailed reports about earthquakes and volcanoes.
Numeracy and Mathematics
Before Christmas, the boys and girls were developing their knowledge of 2D shapes and 3D objects, money and different fractions of amounts and shapes. “We learned that the top part of a fraction is called a numerator and the bottom part of a fraction is called a denominator” – Elise.
Mental maths skills remain an important part of every maths lessons, and the children have regular opportunities to revise their tables. “We have been practising our times tables in class and at home using songs and on our whiteboards” – Sophie A. We always encourage the children to keep practising their tables at home using the website and game links posted on Google Classroom.
Our new maths topics that we are learning are measurement and time, as well as consolidating learning from before Christmas.
HWB
This term, we will be looking at how to live a healthy lifestyle, as well as increasing our knowledge of healthy foods and balanced diets. We will undertake both discussion and practical activities to increase the children’s knowledge on the different ways they can keep themselves healthy both physically and mentally. “I am really looking forward to making our fruit kebabs because I’ve never had one before!” – Kali.
The children are continuing to participate in weekly gym sessions both outdoors and indoors with a range of equipment. The boys and girls have loved using the gym hall to practise gymnastics. “I have learned how to do a straddle and I am practising my forward rolls” – Robert.
Google Classroom
We are continuing to utilise the ICT suite to develop our typing and general computer skills – we are getting quicker at logging on, using the internet responsibly and finding out information. As well as undertaking research tasks related to their topic, the children have also been discussing the importance of internet safety and being responsible online.
We are continuing to use Google Classroom to complete homework tasks and share links to support learning at home. “We post on Google Classroom so that Miss May and Mrs Gilroy can see how good our work is and make sure that we are getting better” – Amber.
Expressive Arts
Primary 4/5 have enjoyed further music lessons during their FUNdamentals of music block. “We learned about the woodwind, brass and string families and high pitch and low pitch” – Ross.
We have also been linking our topic tasks with our art activities, and have used a wide range of different resources to create some fabulous pieces of artwork. Our new ‘Glasgow and Edinburgh’ topic will provide opportunities for children to enjoy junk modelling opportunities to create famous landmarks.
Social Subjects
Our current topic is ‘Extreme Earth and Natural Disasters’. “We have learned all of the parts of a volcano and the temperature of the centre of the Earth” – Robert. The children used the internet responsibly to find out about different types of volcanoes and where they are in the world, as well as making and labelling a volcano using different art materials. We also recreated a volcanic eruption – it exploded all over us! “We talked about how people keep themselves safe when a real volcano erupts” – Lewis. The other topic we will be learning about this term is ‘Glasgow and Edinburgh’.
October 2021
Literacy and English
Our current class novel is ‘Cliffhanger’ by Jacqueline Wilson. The children have loved using the book as a basis for practising different reading strategies. They have enjoyed looking at the different characters and their personalities.
Exploring adjectives in our PM Writing texts has helped the children visualise characters and setting, and the trickier words are also giving them opportunities to develop their dictionary skills.
We have also been practising recount writing in class. The children are becoming confident at following more complex structures and creating their own recounts. The children have created writing targets for themselves that they will continue to refer back to.
“My writing target is to use my thesaurus to help me learn new WOW words” – Robert.
Numeracy and Mathematics
This term the boys and girls have been developing their knowledge of estimation and rounding and place value. They have also been practising our written and mental strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. “I have enjoyed doing multiplication with Mrs Gilroy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and division with Miss May on Thursday and Friday” – Lewis.
Mental maths is incorporated into our daily learning and children are improving their times tables, sequencing and place value through interactive games, both as a whole class and in small groups.
From now until Christmas we will be continuing to practise the skills we have learned already as well as starting on money and fractions, decimals and percentages.
HWB
To keep us healthy and active, we have been participating in our mile walk every day. This has proved to be a great opportunity for not only keeping fit, but also talking and getting to know one another a lot better. Our outdoor and indoor gym sessions have proved to be very popular – the children have participated in lots of team games and practising ball skills. It has been great to be able to be back in the gym hall. “I have enjoyed playing games with my friends in gym and competing with other people in my class” – Amber.
Google Classroom
During ICT lessons, we have been exploring our Google Classroom. We had some practice at creating posts on our class stream as well as undertaking partner research to find out more information about our ‘Tudors’ topic.
We would encourage you to continue spending time with your child at home looking at the homework and resources that are posted weekly online. “I enjoy doing my homework with my spelling words in it and when I do it I learn more” – Haylie.
Expressive Arts
We recently started our FUNdamentals of music block, where a specialist music teacher delivers lessons via a live video link. The children participate in music-making games and develop their performance skills. Everyone has thoroughly enjoyed using body percussion to add sounds to ‘Firework’ by Katy Perry. “We have learned that ‘tempo’ means ‘the speed of a beat’ and how to say ‘slow’, ‘medium’ and ‘fast’ in Italian” – Kali. These sessions will continue until the end of January.
Social Subjects
Our topic at the beginning of the term was ‘The Tudors’. The children learned lots of interesting facts about Tudor houses and the birth of the Tudor Rose, and used different art materials to create their own. “I learned that Tudor houses are made out of animal dung and wood” – Kelsie Ann.
