This week in RME we’ve been thinking about the Christmas story and we made stained glass windows showing a part of the story.

On Monday, the P4s joined together for their class Christmas party. Kyle and Rosie won pass the parcel, Emma won a prize for being a smiley member of the class during all the games. The most groovy dancers were Teigan, Artjom, Jude and Maddison!

In Maths we have been learning about 3d shapes and thinking about their properties. We know that 3d shapes have faces, edges and vertices! We’ve definitely learnt some new words this week – our favourite shapes are tetrahedrons and triangular prisms!

With Mrs Mackenzie we made our ‘home teams’. In our teams, we are completing an upcycling challenge. We are making useful things from things which no longer have a use. So please keep cardboard boxes, lids, plastic bottles etc for our challenge!

We were very proud of Ehan who was awarded our School Values certificate. He is an exemplary pupil who works hard to display our school values of passion, trust, fairness and respect at all times. Well done, Ehan!

Table of the week with an amazing 620 points was

We have been working very hard this week in P4a to complete our assessments. Mrs Mackenzie and Mrs Collings are very proud of the ways in which we have sat quietly whilst completing our tests and also ensuring that we gave our classmates the best environment to do their best also.
On Monday we had a day full of PE. We had gym with Mr Jeffries playing bench ball. We are looking forward to playing against P4b after Christmas and against other schools in a festival later in the school year.

To complete our RME topic on belonging we talked about the ways in which we ensure that we belong to our school, our families and our class. We discussed the ways in which all these communities have rules to help everyone to be a part of the community. We discovered that our families have a lot of different rules which work for each family.

In our science topic, we created our own fossil skeletons. Some of them are very cool!

In Maths we continued looking at 2d shapes and we learnt to draw them after hearing a description of their properties. Some of them are really tricky – especially the quadrilaterals.
Today we enjoyed a fabulous assembly by P6 all about Space. We are really looking forward to learning about space when we are in the Upper School.
Table of the week – with 390 points

As usual it’s been a busy week in P4a.
In writing, we thought about our classmates and how they contribute to the daily life of our class. We wrote letters for every individual in the class to read for our advent calendar. We are looking forward to finding out what is written in the letters.
In number we learnt how to use counting on as a way of taking away. We learnt that it is often easier to count up from a smaller number to a bigger number, getting up to a friendly 10 and then adding on the ones.
In Science, we learnt about how fossils are formed. When a sea creature dies, its body sinks to the sea bed. It is covered in sand and mud which become rock. The fleshy parts of the creature rot away and the skeleton forms a fossil in the rock.
We looked at a huge ammonite fossil from the Jurassic coast which showed us what real fossils look like.

We made our own fossils using dinosaurs and shell imprints in clay which were then cast in plaster. They look pretty cool!

In maths we have been learning about 2d shapes – our new favourite new shapes are rhombus, trapezium and parallelograms!

We also spent some time learning about St Andrew – the patron Saint of Scotland. He is the Patron saint of Greece, Russia, Cyrus, Sicily, Romania, Barbados and Ukraine. He is also the patron saint of fisherman, fishmongers and rope makers.
Table of the week – with 730

This week has been very exciting as we have been sharing our love of books for Book Week Scotland. On Monday we designed and created the cover to our class book which is called “Mission Planet Protector” written and illustrated by P4a. Our book tells the story of an alien called Echo who is visiting earth to teach us about looking after our environment. We have learnt a lot about reduce, reuse, recycle. In this week’s chapter, Echo told us that he was returning to Planet X and that he was taking 6 children with him from P4a so that he didn’t forget how to look after his planet.
On Thursday we went to the school library to share our favourite books with our friends. A few people chose to read us a short paragraph from their book to ‘wet our appetites’ for their favourite stories! We heard excerpts from Mr Stink, The Butterfly Club, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, A Squash and a Squeeze and we read ‘Girls don’t fart’!
In Science we learnt about Mohl’s scale which is how rocks are graded from soft to hard. We tested the hardness of rocks by scratching them against each other and we discovered that the softest rock we had was chalk and the hardest was marble.
In Maths we learnt about tiling which is when shapes fit together without any gaps. We learnt to copy shapes and tile them and then we drew around geometric shapes to make different tiling patterns.
In Numeracy we are learning to subtract 2 digit numbers from bigger 2 digit numbers mentally. Some of us found this a bit tricky so we are going to practice a LOT!
Table of the week – 330 points
Learning partners of the week – Luke and Jude
Special award for kindness – Emily
Book Week Scotland award – Rosie

With Mrs Mackenzie we learnt why Echo had come to earth. We discovered that Planet X is covered in rubbish and the water is polluted. We made a pamphlet about the 3 rs – REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE! We are becoming planet protectors trying to protect our planet so that it doesn’t become as polluted as Planet X. Things we can do at home and in school include; washing and recycling cans and tins, plastic bottles and yoghurt pots and making sure that we use paper carefully. We can use sandwich wraps and plastic pots instead of plastic bags and cling film in our lunchboxes. We can use washable water bottles rather than single use ones. We can turn off lights when we leave rooms and we must remember to turn off the smartboard when we leave the classroom. When we grow out of clothes, we can pass them on to someone new or give them to the charity shop.

In anti-bullying week we wore odd socks to school on Monday and Echo had some odd sock combinations too!

We also read a story about it being good to be different, called Odd Dog Out. You can listen to it here.

In Health and Wellbeing, we have been learning some first aid so that we can help people if we are the first people at an accident. We learnt about burns, choking, asthma attacks, bleeding wounds and broken bones.

In Science we looked at rocks and what is under the ground. We started thinking about what rocks can be used for and why certain rocks are used for certain things.

We were very proud of Eva who won the P4 float competition and Luke who was awarded the certificate for displaying school values.

We are looking forward to the Christmas fair and have been working on our stalls and our finances, trying to make sure we make as much money as possible whilst ensuring that all our customers have fun!

We are also looking forward to Book Week Scotland next week and having the opportunity to share our favourite stories and books on Thursday.
Table of the week – with 430 points

Another busy week in P4a with blog contributions from each of our tables.
Red table – In writing with Mrs Mackenzie, we wrote comic strips of Echo arriving on earth and why he came. We discovered that his planet was beautiful and then became horrible because of the rubbish that was left on it.
Orange table – In numeracy we are working on partitioning which is when we make a sum easier by separating the numbers into their hundreds, tens and ones. You then add the hundreds together, the tens together and the ones together. Then you add all the different bits together.
Yellow table – We have started learning about rocks and soils in Science. We looked at different ‘rocks’ which were actually chocolate. We drew them and described them.

Green table-In RME we started learning about the food that Jewish people eat which is called Kosher. Kosher means ‘permitted’ and some foods are forbidden for Jewish people. These include; pork, lobster, shark, birds of prey and shrimp. They are also not allowed to eat dairy and meat at the same time.
Blue table – In Maths with Mrs Collings, we started learning about Chance. The likelihood of something happening can be; impossible, unlikely, even chance, likely and certain. The chance of Daniel going skiing today is unlikely. The chance of Akasha dressing up as Pikachu is even chance. The chance of Ehan playing golf in the dark is impossible. In health and wellbeing we have been learning how to keep ourselves safe with medicines.
Learning partners of the week –Elena and Artjom
Table of the week –
with 690 points
And lastly, don’t forget your odd socks on Monday for antibullying week!

In Futsal on Monday we were learning about different ways to pass the ball to our team mates.
In writing, we described how Echo arrived on earth and we used similes and adjectives to describe his spaceship. These are some examples we thought of
‘as colourful as Echo’
‘as big as the sun’
‘as beautiful as a butterfly’
‘as colourful as a rainbow’
‘as gassy as smoke’
‘as solid as gold’
‘as bright as the sun’

In Maths, we are learning about the value of digits in larger numbers. So we know that in 5380 the 3 is worth 300!

In Science we made our inventions with magnets from our designs. In the afternoon, four P7s came to judge our designs in the style of Dragons’ Den. We had to present our designs explaining their uses, how they worked and why we invented them. The p7s asked us questions about the inventions and then had a discussion about them and chose a winner which was the extendo-stick.

On Wednesday we enjoyed some Halloween fun for Halloween. We all got to enjoy a tasty, crunchy apple after dookin for it with a fork!

Table of the week – red with 560 points

Learning partners of the week – Archie and Lois.

Eva – I liked learning about Mary Queen of Scots because she is really interesting.
Artjom – I liked having learning partners.
Lilyrose – My favourite thing this term is maths.
Hollie – I like futsal because I like sport.
Rowan – I liked using magnets and I liked futsal.
Ehan – I have enjoyed telling the time because it develops your skills.
Charlotte – I loved maths and science because they’re so much fun
Archie – I have loved having learning partners cause I get to work with so many people.
Lexi – I loved science.
Emily – I loved futsal.
Kyle – I enjoyed Maths because I love it.
Sara – I have enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots because it’s interesting.
Lois – I enjoyed futsal because it’s fun and you get tired!
Orality – I have enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots because I liked earning about her life. I also enjoyed hockey.
Jack – I enjoyed futsal this term.
Grace – I have enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots because it was interesting.
Maddison – My highlight of the term is Mary, Queen of Scots.
Luke – I have enjoyed maths challenges, writing letters and stories, reading books, PE and running about.
Akasha – I enjoyed Movie ‘Night’.
Alex – I enjoyed maths because I love it!
Elena – I enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots because it is really fun (but not at the end for Mary!)
Lucas – I’ve enjoyed maths.
Rosie – My favourite things in P4a is learning partners.
Daniel – I enjoyed maths because I love it.
It’s been a really busy and fun term in P4a and we are all looking forward to a good break.
The table of the week this week is

With 540 points!

This week has been very changeable with lots of different weather. In French we were discussing the seasons and we have talked about the different weather we are experiencing!

We listened to a song about the seasons and we decorated trees to show the seasons.

In Maths, we started learning how to tell the time in analogue using minutes past and minutes to. It would be great if you could ask your children the time from an analogue clock using 5 minute intervals.

In science we found out how magnets could work through certain materials. We even discovered that they worked through our hands!
On Monday, we started a block of Futsal. Futsal is an indoor football game, using a smaller weighted ball so that we have more control. A throw-in in futsal is actually a kick in. We learnt to dribble.
On Tuesday we had Firefly arts in to work with us on drama. We did a song called Peel, peel, peel the bananas and we played some games with them. It taught us about teamwork and cooperation.

The learning partners of the week were Sarah and Sara.
Table of the week –
with 500 points!

We are pleased to announce our Balbardie champions for this term are:
Alfie, Alysheeya, Artjom, Daniel, Ehan, Elena, Emma, Hollie, Jude, Luke, Orlaith, Sam, Sara, Teigan.
We hope all the children enjoy celebrating our champions with them before we break up for the holiday!

Each table took responsibility for writing a paragraph about one part of the week that we, as a class, had enjoyed and agreed should be included in our blog.

In science, we learned how to make a compass move in water with a magnet and it works! Coins are magnetic but only the ones which have iron in them.

In language, We learnt about alliteration because we were writing headlines for our newspaper article. Some examples we came up with are Awesome Alex, Amazing Alfie, Graceful Grace, Rough Rowan and Outstanding Orlaith!

We made hats for the European Day of languages on Wednesday. We look at the flags of all the countries of Europe and chose flags to draw onto a piece of paper which we stuck on a headband. We also learnt the French names for some of the things we use in the classroom.

We learnt how to write in columns and paragraphs as we were writing newspaper reports. The most popular title was ‘Death of Darnley’

Lots and lots of children passed their tables test this week so the fuzzies were once again bouncing into tubs on Friday! The table of the week is the table with a magnificent 650 points……

Although it’s been a short week, it’s been busy in P4a.
Our table captains have collected the thoughts of the children on their table for the blog this week.
Red table – our highlights of the weeks were drama about being a supportive friend and our Cosmic yoga based on the trolls story.
Orange table – we really enjoyed Health and wellbeing about being a good friend and starting our timeline for Mary Queen of Scots.
Yellow table – we really enjoyed acting out our good friend scenes and Mary Queen of Scots.
Green table – we enjoyed doing the Cosmic kids yoga and assembly today which was a post-it party!
Blue table – we enjoyed doing our review jotters and rounding numbers.
Table of the week – yellow table with 250 points!

As part of maths week, we have thought about how technology helps us in Maths. We were learning about how people have told the time in the past and how we do it nowadays. In the olden times, people used sundials to tell the time. We made our own sundials and we took them out to watch where the shadows fell on the dial. It was quite tricky for some of us to line up our dial with the correct time. The other problem we thought about was how people might have told the time if it was cloudy.
In modern times we can use phones, timers, laptops, tablets, cuckoo clocks, ipods, the sky, watches, the news, analogue and digital clocks, alarm clocks, the speaking clock. We even asked Siri what the time was!
We have also thought about and acted out some of our school values of respect, fairness, trust and passion. The hardest one to think about was passion but we all know that passion is a strong emotion and we know that when we are passionate about something we can show it, so it might be that we love everyone’s individuality, we love Maths or science, artclub, drama, breakfast club, drawing, multisports and we can show our passion about all of these by doing them enthusiastically and sharing our passion about them with others.
Table of the week – the table of the week competition was REALLY close this week with the Friday tables test influencing the winning table massively with just 20 points between first and third. However the winning table this week was………
ORANGE with 390 points!
We were really proud of Artjom for winning out mathemagician award this week and of Elena who was awarded P4as very first certificate for demonstrating school values.

As we continue through term 1 it is really interesting to see what makes every pupil’s highlight of the week. We are so glad that the children are enjoying the topics we are covering this term!
Alex – I liked science.
Alfie – I enjoyed learning about the control of the ball in hockey.
Alysheeya – I enjoyed learning about forces.
Akasha – I enjoyed Science because we made a catapult to measure how far a car would go.
Archie – I enjoyed PE with the hockey sticks.
Artjom – I liked learning about maths and the more than, less than signs.
Charlotte – I enjoyed Mary Queen of Scots because we made old paper with tea bags.
Daniel – I liked learning about Mary, Queen of Scots because we are learning the story and we were writing a letter to Mary’s mum who was in Scotland whilst Mary was in exile in France.
Ehan – I like controlling the ball in hockey.
Elena – I liked doing work on the calendar.
Emily – I liked outdoor PE best.
Emma – I loved learning about the forces on the cars in science.
Eva – I liked learning the French days of the week.
Grace – I enjoyed learning about Mary Queen of Scots and reading the story.
Hollie – I enjoyed learning big numbers in Maths.
Jude – I like numeracy.
Lexi – I liked outdoor PE. I liked playing hockey.
Lilyrose – I enjoyed Mary Queen of Scots because I really, really like the story.
Lois – I enjoyed Science.
Lucas – I have been enjoying learning how to hold a hockey stick.
Luke – I enjoyed science because we are learning about Forces and we tested how far a toy car would travel if we applied more force.
Maddison – I liked learning across the curriculum because we were doing Mary, Queen of Scots.
Orlaith – I enjoyed learning to pass the ball in hockey.
Rheagan – I enjoyed making my robot with Mrs Stewart.
Rosie –I enjoyed playing games with Mr Jeffries.
Rowan – I liked the facts about Science about how different forces test how far things go. And I’m thinking of being a scientist when I’m older.
Sam – I enjoyed outdoor PE because we were playing hockey.
Sarah – I enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots when I found out everything.
Teigan – I enjoyed doing Science.

We also voted for our class representative for the pupil council. The 6 pupils who nominated themselves did very well speaking about what was important and how they would represent the class. We are pleased to announce that Luke was voted by his classmates as P4a rep for 2018-19.

Table of the week – yellow with 390 points

This week we’ve started learning about Mary, Queen of Scots. We found out that she was born in 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, very close to our school! After she was born, her father died but King Henry tried to take the throne by marrying his son to her. We made invitations to the coronation or birth announcements to show what we had learnt.
In numeracy, we were learning to add onto the tens and hundreds. It was a little bit challenging when we did the hundreds.
In PE we were playing heads, shoulders, knees and cones. When Mr Jeffries said cones we had to grab a cone. We started playing hockey with Mrs Collings, learning to hold the stick and dribble a ball.
We investigated some toys to find out if they moved using a push or a pull. We found out that some toys are push and pull!

Mrs Johns is setting up a pupil council to gather the views of the children from across the school, telling her about any problems in the school or suggestions about how to improve things for everyone. We will be choosing our pupil council rep next Friday when the children can explain to the class why they would be a good rep for P4a.
Elena and Grace visited Mr McCabe as 2 class representatives who had demonstrated excellent school values, settling into their new class and working hard at all times.
Sam won a Sunflower competition because hers was the tallest. She started growing it back in the spring. She won a very posh box of chocolates.
At his taekwondo competition, Alfie won a gold medal.
Maddison won an art competition.
Yesterday Sara won a medal in a fishing competition.
Luke and Hollie swam over 20 lengths at swimming!
Luke created his first game on Tinker which is an app for children to developing gaming.
Orlaith moved up to Grade 1 in dancing.
Charlotte is learning to ride her bike without stabilisers.
Eva moved up a level in cheerleading.
Teigan moved up a level in performance academy.

This week with Mrs Mackenzie we did the four operations. We were looking at addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. We were working out calculations using these operations. It was fun and quite challenging.
On Thursday we met our new teacher for P5, Mrs Harrison. We drew profile pictures of our heads and filled them with our interests and things we like. We also talked about the things we might be learning about in P5 including William Wallace.
In Art we drew a picture with charcoal of a desert adding cactuses. We learnt about drawing the background, the foreground and the midground.
In language we started learning more about speech marks. We looked at cartoon speech bubbles and had to make their speech into direct speech. There’s quite a lot to remember when writing speech!
Table of the week – green with 440 points
Learning partners of the week – Liam and Kyle

On Tuesday the 2 primary 4 classes went to Dynamic Earth as part of their climate topic. This is what they enjoyed most about the trip:
Ellie-Rose –My favourite part of the trip was going on the time machine
Annie – My favourite part of the trip was when we watched the 3d movie
Florence – My favourite part of the trip was when we went into the rainforest. It was really cool; it rained and lots of animals moved.
Ruby – My favourite part of the trip was going in the time machine and learning when dinosaurs were around the world.
Orla – My favourite part of the trip was definitely the 3d cinema because it felt really real and we got to fly on a plane. We crashed and saw a rhino and a scorpion.
Noami – I liked when we went to the desert and we crashed on the sand and the people lost the signal when the plane crashed. The rhino ran past us when we fell.
Charlotte – My favourite part of the trip was when we went to the workshop and learnt about the temperature and how we can save the world from getting even hotter.
Olivia – My favourite part of the trip was when we got to touch the ice. It was very cold and when we watched the 3d movie.
Kyle – My favourite part of the trip was when we travelled 14 billion years ago to the beginning of everything and then 4.5 billion years ago to early earth.
Owen – My favourite part of the trip was when we went to the jungle!
Rory – My favourite part of the trip was when the volcano eruptions where magma came out but not real and smoke and the ground shook.
Liam – My favourite part of the trip was when we went in the rainforest and it started to rain. I liked the chimpanzee.
Alfie B – My favourite part of the trip was the bit where the volcano and the ground was wiggling.
Eva – My favourite part of the trip was the iceberg because there were holes and it was so cool!
Max – My favourite part of the trip was when we could touch the iceberg.
Aaron – My favourite part of the trip was when we went in the room and the floor moved and everyone screamed!
Dylan – My favourite part of the trip was when I went in the time machine. It was fun because it showed how much time went by on the earth.
Alife L – My favourite part of the trip was the iceberg because we could touch it.
Holly – My favourite part of the trip was when we got to go in the 3d experience. So cool!!!!!
Brooke – My favourite part of the trip was the volcano room because it was all steamy and the floor started shaking and also the arctic tundra room because we got to feel a real iceberg.
Shaun – My favourite part of the trip was the 3d bit where we put on glasses. It was so cool when a rhino put its head so close.
Ellie – My favourite part of the trip was when we watched the 3d movie because I got to see a hammer head shark.
My favourite part of the trip was going in the time elevator.
Alistair – My favourite part of the trip was the flight and the person was just new and the plane crashed. We saw a rhino and a lobster.
Learning partners of the week – Annie and Ellie.

This week we enjoyed sports day out at Balbardie Park. We were really proud of the sportsmanship showed by so many of the children as they cheered their friends on in the races. We were pleased that Rory and Kaycee were overall winners and that Rory and Charlotte contributed to the house relay winning for Strachan.
Winners in P4b included: Rory 1st place for Sprint, Long distance and the sack race. Brandon and Jamie came second and third in the Sprint. Liam came 2nd in the sack race. Annie came third in the sack race and first in the egg and spoon. Eva came first in the sprint. Kaycee won the long distance and came first in the sack race. Holly came third in the sprint race.
On Thursday we finished f our block of writing on instructions by writing some game instructions for the Primary 1s to learn some new playground games. We had great fun out in the playground with them seeing if our instructions worked!
I liked teaching the P1s games – Brandon.
We finished off learning about length and have started thinking about capacity! We were very surprised that the Haribo tub held more than the 2l bottle. We all thought it would have a smaller capacity!
Table of the week – blue table with 660.
Learning partners of the week – Eva and Annie
Pictures to follow.

Our highlights of a busy week –

Charlotte – I enjoyed having a picnic at break today
Jamie – I enjoyed making my paper fish in language.
Brandon – I enjoyed peace and quiet during the reading rave.
Lewis – I liked making the origami dogs
Aaron – I enjoyed bring outside for lunch.
Rory – I enjoyed measuring in maths
Owen – I enjoyed my drumming lessons.
Alfie L – I liked playing on the iPad
Kaycee – I enjoyed making a book with Eva during the Reading Rave
Alfie B – I enjoyed making the paper fish.
Max – I enjoyed eating outside
Eva – I am enjoying making animal arks with Florence, Annie and Ruby.
Bryce- I learned how to make a paper fish.
Ellie- I enjoyed doing PE with Mr Jeffries – we played extreme tunnel tig!
Alistair – I liked playing football before school.
Holly – I enjoyed playing outside with Ellie and Charlotte.
Orla – I enjoyed art this week.
Dylan – I liked learning how to make a paper fish.
Ruby – I enjoyed the reading rave.
Jay – I enjoyed learning the greater than and less than signs.
Jackie – I enjoyed eating outside.
Florence – I liked making the books with my friends.
Ellie-Rose – I enjoyed French with Monsieur Perrard.
Shaun – I enjoyed art this week as I managed to finish my Kraken.
Noami – I enjoyed reading in the reading rave.
Kyle – I enjoyed talking about flowers on Science.
Annie – I enjoyed writing our animal ark books.
Olivia – I enjoyed art because I’ve almost finished the water with the watercolours.
Brooke – I enjoyed doing the water colours for my Kraken.
Learning Partners of the week – Charlotte and Rory
Table of the week – yellow 710 points

You are most welcome to come to our sports day on Wednesday at 1.15 pm at Balbardie Park. Children should ensure that they come in their outdoor PE kit and bring a water bottle and sunscreen if the weather is looking good!