Primary 4 have been impressing their teachers again with lots of great effort and work on Teams this week! Well done everyone.

In Numeracy we have been learning the 7 times table and stretching our brain with different number challenges. We have also enjoyed active learning tasks around right angle turns. Some children sent us video clips of them following instructions to make different quarter turns to the right. Very impressive!

In Literacy we have learned to spell the names of different European countries and have placed them on the map. In writing we pretended we were owners of a 5 star hotel and created persuasive posters for Ed Sheeran to come and stay! We enjoyed reading the first chapter of JK Rowling’s new book, ‘The Ickabog’, and developed our skills in making notes and organising information under different headings.

We had lots of fun on Thursday when we went on a ‘virtual’ class trip to Edinburgh Zoo! All of our activities were based around buying entry tickets, visiting Penguin Rock, researching different zoo animals and creating animal masks to wear. We even visited the online shop and chose a ‘zoovenir’  to buy.

Here are some reflections from our P4 children:

“The tricky part was the right angles and the easy part was reading ‘The Ickabog’.”

“I enjoyed learning about all the animals of Edinburgh Zoo because all the activities were fun.”

“I enjoyed learning the 7 times table because I didn’t know it but now I do.”

“My favourite thing was learning about the European countries – now I know how to spell their names, where they are on the map and what their capitals are.”

“My learning in Numeracy this week can help me work out my change when I go to the shops for juice and sweets.”

“I enjoyed reading the first chapter of ‘The Ickabog’.”

“I really enjoyed researching koalas as they are my favourite animal.”

“I enjoyed the Health and Wellbeing PE challenge because I love gymnastics.”

Primary 4 have had another fun-filled week with lots of activities to keep them busy at home. In Literacy we revised homophones, especially ‘to’, ‘too’ and ‘two’. We also enjoyed some performance poetry by Michael Rosen. This one was called ‘Chocolate Cake’. Yum! He brought the poem to life by using onomatopoeia, so we learned a little about this too.

In Numeracy we revised fractions and applied our knowledge of division to find fractions of money. We also had fun creating our own Tangrams online!

Some children got creative with their food this week and made pieces of art with their meals or snacks! Others followed drawing tutorials online and improved their skills.

On Sunday it will be the Feast of Pentecost so we have discussed how the Disciples might have felt when the Holy Spirit came down upon them like tongues of fire. Some of our P4 children would have been celebrating their First Holy Communion this weekend and are feeling sad that they cannot.  We look forward to the time when we can all celebrate with them.

Primary 4 have reflected on their learning this week. Here is what they had to say.

“The food creation was my favourite. I made a banana car and it was funny.”

“I liked the maths because you can use fractions for slicing a piece of cake or pizza.”

“I enjoyed the onomatopoeia song!”

“I like performance poetry because I found it really fun!”

“Fractions are useful in everyday life, for example when telling the time.”

“This week I had fun making the sunburst painting and I put it on my window so now my room is colourful.”

“I like watching Newsround.”

“I enjoyed fractions. It was hard to start with but I got the hang of it in the end.”

Yes, we have been revising alliteration this week in Primary 4! We have also learned about the Scottish man who is famous for inventing the TV, John Logie Baird.  Our spelling sound this week was ‘tch’ and we took part in some fun activities including making  a pairs game with our words. Tuesday was National Limerick Day so we had lots of fun creating our own limericks. Some of us found this hard but we had a growth mindset and persevered!

In Maths we have learned about volume and capacity and also worked on repeated addition for multiplication sums. Our STEM activities this week included drawing a 3D alphabet and creating bird feeders. It’s been a busy week and lots of fun. Here’s what some of our brilliant P4 children had to say:

“I found the capacity experiment was fun and easy to do.”

“I enjoyed learning about John Logie Baird because I found it interesting.”

“I enjoyed filling the basin with water and guessing how many litres it would take.”

“I can help my mum cook by telling her about the litres and millilitres.”

“I liked making the bird feeder this week. I learned that birds like to eat apples, cherries, grapes, sunflower seeds and nuts.”

“I have enjoyed art and history this week.”

“This week I learned how to write a limerick. It was really fun and and I enjoyed finding rhymes and counting the syllables.”

“I can use volume and measuring at the shops because I can tell how much milk or water there is in a container.”

“I enjoyed art because I like drawing pictures for my comic strip.”

This week in Primary 4 all the children have been working very hard as usual. Their digital technology skills are improving everyday and they are sharing their brilliant work with their teachers through Teams.

We have enjoyed active spelling activities and P.E. challenges, as well as practising subtraction strategies and learning more about weight in Maths. Our Famous Scot this week was Charles Rennie Mackintosh and some children enjoyed drawing their own ‘Mackintosh Rose’.  Every week children in Primary 4 are improving their writing skills through ‘Weekend News’ and story writing tasks. Well done boys and girls! We have finished our week by praying a Hail Mary as today is the 1st of May (the month of Mary).

Here are some Friday Reflections from our P4 pupils:

“I enjoyed learning about art because I can get better at drawing and making posters.”

“I learned new number talk strategies and how to write in paragraphs.”

“I enjoyed learning about plurals because it’s really fun.”

“This week I got more confident with subtraction strategies. I think the formal strategy works best for me.”

“I can use what I learned about weight when i’m baking.”

“The Maths quizzes were really fun.”

“I found the subtraction sums hard to start then it was easy.”

“I have been enjoying Health and Wellbeing because it’s really fun.”

“I enjoyed mindfulness because it’s relaxing and it makes me calm.”

This week in Primary 4 we have been busy as usual.

In topic we have learned a little bit about deforestation, for example every minute in the forest trees the same size as twenty football pitches are cut down.

In P.E. we have been playing Continuous Dodgeball.  We need to be quick and alert.

We have been challenging ourselves in times tables this week. We have a sticker chart in our classrooms to show what tables everyone knows well.

We have also been learning about adverbs. An adverb is an adjective to describe a verb.

We used adjectives and adverbs to describe a rainforest setting in our writing.

This week in Maths we did some rounding to nearest 10 and 100. – Julia B

We’ve also been writing stories. We were thinking carefully about setting, character, build-up and ending. – Cem

We enjoyed learning about Saint Bernadette. October is the month of the Rosary and we prayed the Rosary with Peter and Moira. We also went to church to pray and sing beautiful hymns – Alfie, Julia, Isabella P

We learned some Spanish. We played a card game to practise the numbers and another game to learn the names of the animals – Isla.

In Music we practised pizza talking rhythms. – Damian

We learned about the history of football and made a timeline with the facts. – Megan

In PE we did dodgeball and line-tig. – Olivia

We also celebrated the last day of term with a cookie! Yum!!

Lucas- I enjoyed drawing the patterns in art this week
James F- I liked doing the football strips and the the sports ed topic
Matthew-I enjoyed the bleep test because I enjoyed the challenge and got better at it
Oona-I enjoyed reading and talking about James and the Giant peach.
Lovisa-I enjoyed the Maths where we had to order numbers from smallest to largest
Olivia-I liked the visit to the library because I reading books

We have been working with our learning partners to help each other learn. We will have a new partner each week to help us talk about our learning and share ideas. From now on we will do TOP TEN every morning [ten maths sums]. We will work with our learning partners for this to share strategies.

We have started a new topic in Maths and that is measurement. We will do length for now but we will do different types of things like weight and distance.

In Literacy, we have been writing an adventure story called ‘Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories’. We have tried our best to describe the settings and characters using adjectives and adverbs, and to write in paragraphs. We will create front and back covers for our stories next week.

On Thursday we went swimming for our swimming assessments. If we get a letter in the next week or so, that means we are being offered free swimming lessons.

We have also been lucky enough to learn about Ramadan from some children in our class who are celebrating this Muslim festival. We now know that during Ramadan, Muslims pray more, give to the poor and fast. Adults fast everyday between dawn and dusk!

Written by Matthew and Zofia (P4a)

It has been a great week in P4b, jam packed full of learning and fun ! We particularly enjoyed our trip to Duncarron Fort.

Here are some of the things that we did this week.

Catherine – On Tuesday we went on a trip to a mediaval village.

Gerard – On Wednesday we practised hymns for our Stations of the Cross Service.

Gaby – I learned about the weapons that would have been used long ago.  I enjoyed having a shot of the axe (YIKES !).

Shay – I enjoyed learning about Mary’s Meals.  A man called Magnus started it off.

Liam – We learnt that Jesus travelled to Jerusalem on a donkey with his disciples.

Brooke – I learnt that salt was used a lot in a long time and it cost a lot of money.

Holly – When Mary Queen of Scots was alive you had to take your spoon and cutting  knife with you when you went to dinner.

Lucas L – We visited our Church for Stations of the Cross.  There are 14 altogether.

Olivia – We visited the Shrine next to our Church and it was peaceful.

We also made a wee something for all of our lovely mums. Have a good day on Sunday !

We have had another great week in P4b.  We have been learning how to spell words that need a prefix and working on the proper use of exclamation marks.  We have been learning that it is more effective in writing to use one exclamation mark and not lots !!!!!!!!! (ha!).

In numeracy, we have moved onto telling the time in one minute segments and are still practising our times tables as we know important these are.

We are just loving our topic, ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’ so much. She led a very interesting life.  This is what we have learnt so far :

Liam – She was born in 1542.

Cameron  – She was born in Linlthgow Palace.

Natan – When she was 6 days she became Queen of Scotland.

Catherine – She married three times.

Lily – She moved to France when she little because her mum did not want her to marry Price Edward.

Hamza – Her cousin Queen Elizabeth the First was jealous of her.

Alicia – She was a Catholic.

Lucas L – She was imprisoned for 18 years.

Shay – The axe fell on her head three times.

Oliver – She watched her friend, David Rizzio being murdered.

Freyja  – Her mum was Mary of Guise.

Leonard – Henry the 8th the King of England wanted his son to marry Mary Queen of Scots.

Holly – Her first husband was the Dauphin of France.

Mya – Her second husband was Lord Darnley.

Gerard – Her third husband was the Earl of Bothwell.

Wojciech – She was beheaded.

Gaby – She did not have a good life.

Olivia – Her mum was born in 1515.

Lucas C – Her mum died in 1560.

Haroon – When she died one of her dogs was found hidinhg under her dress.

This week seems to have gone in a flash ! What have we been up to ?

In literacy we have been talking about how important reading is.  We are making a real effort to read more books for enjoyment and not just the reading book that we are given at school.   We also been learning about prefixes and our sound of the week has been ph.

In maths we have been practising telling times on analogue and digital clocks.  We have also spoken about area and are continuing to practise our times tables.

We drew some daffodils this week and used wax crayons and watercolour to colour them in.  We are proud of these are we all made a beautiful job and put in a lot of effort.  In digital learning some of us manged to finish recording our books for the P1s and we have also used the laptops and ipads to play maths games on.

And for the exciting part ! In our music lesson earlier today we were taught how to read music using two notes , ‘so’ and ‘mi’ .  This was challenging to begin with but we got there in the end.  We are great at using our growth mindset in P4b.  We certainly don’t give up when there is a challenge.  Have a nice weekend everyone !

What have we enjoyed the most this week ?

Catherine – ‘I have enjoyed completing all of the maths games on the computer’.

Shay – ‘I have enjoyed balancing in P.E’.

Gerard – ‘I have enjoyed completing more time activities’.

Liam – ‘I have enjoyed recording ‘Mr Big’ for the wee ones’.

Freyja – ‘I have enjoyed reading because my book is exciting’.

Alicia – ‘I have enjoyed doing the deliberate mistake task.  This is when we read a story and have to find the silly words and highlight them’.

It may have been a short week but we have managed to pack a lot of learning in.  What have we been up to ?

Well firstly, we welcomed a new friend to our class, Natan.  We are delighted to have another friend in P4b, welcome to Saint Nicholas Natan.

In maths we have spent more time on how to tell the time using all of the numbers on the clock.  We are becoming really good at this.  We have also been practising counting up and back in 7s.  Quite challenging for some of us but we know that we will become experts soon enough.

In literacy, we have been learning how prefixes can change the meaning of a word.  We have also revised nouns, adjectives, verbs and alliteration.   We have also been reading more texts for inference and have enjoyed listening to Mrs Macdonald reading our class novel, ‘The Witches’ by Roald Dahl. It is sooooo funny !

In P.E with Mr Muldoon and Mrs Smith, we have been perfecting our gymnastic skills which has been fun too.  As part of our digital learning, we worked together in groups and used the Ipads to record us reading a story for the P1s.  We will finish it next week and then use a QR app to make a code which we will then stick inside the book so that the P1s can scan it and hear us read !

Sadly, our topic, ‘Famous Scots’ has come to an end. However, we are excited to start our new topic next week although we do not know what it is yet , it is a surprise !

What have we enjoyed the most this week ?

Haroon – I have enjoyed P.E  because it has been fun in gymnastics and learning how to balance.

Oliver – I have enjoyed learning about time.  I find it cool how every number represents five minutes.

Lucas C – I have liked designing my famous Scots poster because it is fun learning about the different famous Scots.

Ethan – I have liked reading ‘Kipper’s Balloon’.

Natan  – I have enjoyed learning about the time and have had fun in my new school.

We have had another busy week in P4a.

In Topic and Literacy, we wrote about Famous Scots who inspire us.

Michael – Andy Murray inspires me because he is a very good tennis player and when I grow up I want to be the same.

Kaylan – John Logie Baird inspires me because when I grow up I want to be an inventor too.

Lara – Saint Margaret inspires me because she helped the poor and when I grow up I want to help others by being a teacher.

Leon – Andy Murray inspires me because when I grow up I want to help children play tennis too.

We have started making giant posters about all the ‘Famous Scots’ we have learned about the past few weeks, bringing together our skills in ICT, reading, writing and research.

In Numeracy we have changed our focus to ‘Time’. We learned about using a calendar and we made our own, adding some important events such as class birthdays and the February Break! We played games with the clocks too, recapping o’clock and half past times.

On Tuesday, Archbishop Leo Cushley came to visit our school. His Grace came to our classroom and we sang him some songs about the 12 Disciples. We also prayed together for all the people who help us in Primary 4, especially as we prepare for the Sacrament of First Holy Communion.

Finally, in Music we played ball games, sung songs and learned about the rhythm names: ta and te-te.

Have a lovely weekend!

We have been very these last two weeks!

In literacy we have continued to brush up on our grammar skills.  We have become very competent at identifying adverbs, verbs, nouns, adjectives and homophones.  We also had fun with alliteration. In reading we have been making good progress with our chapter books.  Some of us are reading a book that has been written by Chris Hoy, ‘Flying Fergus’. Chris Hoy is actually one of the famous Scots that we have learnt about , however, we did not know that he had written a book !  We have also read lots of texts and completed reading comprehensions which have focussed on inference which some of us have found challenging, however, we know that these will become easier the more we practise.

In numeracy, we have moved on from fractions and are now learning how to tell the time using all of the numbers on the clock.  We have used lots of interactive games to help us with this.  Our favourite one is called, ‘Beat the Clock’.  You have to read the time sentence and press the buzzer to stop the big hand and make sure that it is in the correct place.  It is great fun !

Our topic, ‘Famous Scots’ has almost come to an end which is a shame because we have really enjoyed it.  We are in the middle of making a HUGE poster which will showcase our learning.  We will post pictures as soon as we have finished them.

Wednesday was very exciting because Archbishop Cushley visited us.  He gave us a special blessing and spoke to us about our First Communion.  It was lovely to meet him.  As part of our learning, we have also studied the life of Saint Margaret.  She was a special queen and led by example.

The last few Fridays have also been fun as Mrs Curle from NYCOS has been in to teach us about rhythms and beats in music.  We have learnt some great songs including: ‘I Like Coffee’  ‘Starlight’ and ‘Lemonade’ and now know one beat in music is called ‘TA’ and two beats are called ‘TE TE’.

What have we enjoyed the most ?

‘I have enjoyed learning about what all the numbers mean on a clock’ – Freyja.

‘I have liked doing my times tables in maths this week’ – Holly.

‘I have enjoyed making my poster  because it has been really interesting researching people’. – Cameron.

‘I have enjoyed learning using the computers’ – Lucas L.

We have had another great week.  Some of our highlights include, working with fractions, learning the ed ending for our spelling and sharing our presentations on ‘Famous Scots’.  Our presentations included some very famous Scots l about James Watt, John Logie Baird, Mary Queen of Scots, Charles Rennie Mackintosh Muriel Johnston, Rob Roy, Rabbie Burns, Andy Murray, Gordon Ramsay, Steven Naismith, Scott Brown and Alexander Graham Bell.

We are all feeling very proud of ourselves as our presentations were really good and lots of technology was used to help us to make them.  Gerard used Sway, Freyja used Glow and lots of us made a powerpoint.

We also got some irn bru and shortbread to celebrate Robert Burns Day. It has been a really enjoyable week.

Primary 4 have had a busy week!

In Writing we had to describe a picture. The picture was a setting for a story. We had to include adjectives, nouns and adverbs. Next week we will begin to write character descriptions.

On Tuesday we walked to Broxburn Academy for the Benchball Festival. We were sorted into teams and we played some rounds of Benchball against other schools. We really enjoyed this even though we had to use mats instead of benches!

In Numeracy we have been learning about Money. We can convert pence into pounds and pounds into pence. We can also add sums of money together to make totals. Some children brought in different currencies for us to look at. Cole brought coins from the Czech Republic, Michael showed us some euros, Adam brought in Algerian money and Kyle introduced us to the Indian rupee.

In Health and Wellbeing we have begun to learn about the importance of keeping ourselves clean and healthy. Miss Doolan brought in two pieces of bread for us to use in an experiment. We all touched one piece without washing our hands, and Cole touched another piece AFTER washing his hands. We put the bread in separate bags, labelled them and hung them up in our classroom. Our aim is to see which piece gets more mouldy in the next week or two.

In P4, in preparation for our assembly we learnt all about the 1twelve disciples.  In no particular order, they were : Peter, Andrew, James, John , Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, (son of Alphaeus), Thaddeus, Simon and Judas.  However, we learnt that Judas betrayed Jesus so he was replaced by Mattheus.

We learnt that these men followed Jesus and continued his good work here on Earth.  We too are being followers of Jesus and following their good example by : praying for others, helping one another, reading the Bible and by looking after our world.

Primary 4 have been learning about the very famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. We now know lots of facts about him!

Milo – Robert Burns is sometimes called ‘Rabbie’.

Erin – He is a famous poet and songwriter who lived in the 1700s.

Tatenda – He started writing poems when he was younger to impress the ladies.

Finlay A. – He lived in a cottage in Alloway.

Alex – Robert Burns grew up on a farm. His Dad died when he was 25 so Rabbie had to take over the farm with his brother.

Ellie – Robert Burns died when he was only 37 years old.

On Robert Burns Day we celebrated in class by tasting some Scottish foods and celebrating our Scottish culture.

Neve, Neve, Fallon and Carson entertained us with some Highland Dancing. Finlay F. treated us to ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and both he and Connor played ‘Scotland the Brave’. Matthew read one of Burns’ famous poems called ‘Address to the Haggis’.

We got to taste haggis, shortbread, oatcakes and Irn-Bru. Yum! We took a vote to see which was the most popular of the foods. Irn-Bru had the most votes, while haggis had the least number of votes because it was ‘too spicy’!

What a great variety of outfits today, Primary 4.  I have been taking notes to give me ideas for next year.

Primary 4 have made good use of the fact that the library is now located in the Strathbrock. They enjoyed visiting the library today for a chat about The Rainforest.

Primary 4 enjoyed visiting the Science Centre on Wednesday. It was an action packed day with lots to see and do, including a trip to the IMax Cinema for a special movie all about looking after our planet and natural habitats. Here is a snap shot of some of the things we got up to!

Well done to all the Primary 4 children for working so hard on their times tables this week.   We know how tricky they can be but you are doing well.

We also checked each others spelling.  Working with our buddies to ask and check our words.   Not forgetting our “silly sentences”.  Ask your children about those!!

Grace and Zak were extra busy last week-end, they wrote stories at home and brought them in to share with the class.  Well done both of you, great to see your enthusiasm for your writing.

P4a enjoyed a Movie Afternoon, with popcorn, on Thursday.  This was a reward for achieving 3000 Dojo points as a class.  Well done everyone.

As part of their science topic, Primary 4 were treated to a talk by Mrs Swinney and Mrs Purves on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.  The children were able to ask lots of questions about the heart and lungs.  They also got the chance to look at a model heart, listen to their heartbeat with a stethescope and check their pulse with a monitor.  The children are enjoying their  journey in discovering more and more about the major organs of the human body.

Primary 4 have started to learn about the major organs in the human body. So far they have been learning about the brain. They have looked at the three main parts – the Cerebellum, the Cerebrum and the Medulla. Please chat to your child about what they have learned.

They liked the following video, and were encouraged to ‘have a go’ at making their own rap!

All of the above covered by P4 this week, what a busy time.

Primary 4 have been busy getting to grips with “benchball” all in preparation for the benchball tournament later this month.  Lots of team work going on.  Excellent.

This weeks “Star Writers”.  The whole class created some fantastic acrostic poems about Fireworks.  Our star writers this week are Luke, Isla, Maya, Grace and Ciaran.

Skye proudly showing us her trophy for dancing.  She passed her exam for modern dance earlier this week.  Well done Skye.

P4b have been researching the Vikings on the internet. They have combined this research with all of the facts that they have learned in class and they have created leaflets to display their information. They also enjoyed making Autumn window pictures. Here they are all dressed up for Halloween – what fantastic costumes!!

Primary 4a proved they could work as a team and researched Viking Housing, Food and Clothes.  They then created posters to display their work and present their findings to the class.  Great effort by all.

Scary day for P4a. Brilliant costumes everyone.

Big congratulations to Monde Jnr.  Coming Second in the British Karting Championships.  Well done.

Well done to Primary 4 in creating such fantastic swords, shields and longboats as part of their Viking project.  Lots of great ideas and hard work.