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’.