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’.
