Author: Mrs Grieve

This week Tay clan have been learning how to measure length using metres, centimetres and millimetres. We discussed how when measuring length we are investigating how high, wide or long something is. We also explored a range of measuring tools we would have to use in our learning, such as: rulers, measuring tapes, metre sticks and trundle wheels.

As a starter to our lesson, we were set a challenge to find objects in our clan area that were 5mm, 30cm and 1m long. We managed to find lots of things in our clan and we were very surprised with how short 5mm actually is!

As a clan we were set a car race challenge. We had to build a ramp that would allow our racing cars to travel the furthest. We were able to select our own materials for making our ramp. We had to let our car go down the ramp, estimate how far it had travelled and then check our estimations using different measuring tools. Some of our cars travelled more than 4m long! Miss Redmond was also very impressed by our creativity in building the ramps.

This week, we have been learning how to structure a narrative text in writing. We have learned that a narrative text should have: a title, an orientation, a complication and a resolution. 

Across this week, we have engaged in different activities to help us learn the structure of a story. We played a jigsaw game, where we all got a different part of the text. We had to match up and make a complete story. Miss Redmond was proud of how quickly Tay clan managed this! We have been applying this into our reading where we have had to describe and predict the plot of our reading book.

Today, Tay clan arrived into the classroom to find all the laptops on the tables with the words: Game Over. Tay received an email from Mrs Blair to let them know she had found the laptops like this when she arrived at school and found Miss Christie’s car in the car park. As a clan, we decided to plan and write our own narrative story about what had happened here at Calderwood. We created a box-up plan describing the setting, characters and language features we would include in our story.

As we were writing our story, we did a checklist to make sure that the 4 main parts of the structure were included. Tay clan will now be able to use this story example to help them plan and write their own narrative texts next week.

The investigation of this event today still continues. Why did the laptops say game over? We have added the orientation of our story for you to read:

It was a dark and gloomy morning in Calderwood. Miss Christie had forgotten her pass and was locked in Calderwood Primary School. She tried to call for help but there was no signal. It was 3 o’clock in the morning and the lights were flickering on and off, and no one was in sight.

Miss Christie tip-toed nervously up to Tay clan and got out her laptop. She went on to Teams to try and call the other champions in the school. However, no one answered.

Over the last few weeks, Tay clan have been learning how to write an information report. This week we have been doing hot writing which is when we show everything that we have learned about reports. The context for our writing was castles. This is something we had learned about through STEM. We had to make sure we were using our writing toolkit by including: sub-headings, photographs with captions, evaluation, labelled diagrams, description paragraphs, title, general statement, topic words, adjectives, proper nouns, common nouns and verbs. We even tried to challenge ourselves by using a ‘did you know?’ fact.

In our reports, we described the different parts of a castle, what it was like to live in a castle, what a castle is, who lives in a castle and why, and what does a castle look like.

We can self-assess our writing using the writing toolkit. This will allow us to check that we have everything that we need to make a fantastic report. Miss Redmond will also mark our writing using the report writing targets and share this with us.

At home, we can share what a report is with our families. We are going to ask family members at home if they need to write a report for their job, school, university or college. We are going to show them how they can structure their report and what they could include. Here are some examples of the writing we have created below:

LI: I am learning how to keep myself and others safe online.

This week Tay Clan have been learning how to be respectful to others when being online. Firstly, we watched a video which showed us how Smartie helped his friend who was receiving unkind messages from others when playing games. We learned that it is important to stop and think before we click. Tay discussed what respect feels like, looks like and sounds like online. We described how we should be calm, positive, using kind words, excited and nurturing towards our friends.

Next, we worked in partners to explore the Interland game. We had the job of blocking and reporting any gamers who were using unkind words online. Tay also created examples of what a respectful chat online would look like. We selected which chat room we wanted to create- Minecraft, Xbox, PlayStation, Roblox and Fornite- and made our own examples of kind messages. We shared the chats we created in our clan and we described what made them respectful.

At home, Tay can continue exploring the Interland game to find out more about internet safety. They should make sure they follow the steps if they feel someone has been unkind to them online.

To showcase our learning in PE, Tay Clan performed a gymnastics show. The pupils worked in groups to create and perform their own gymnastics routine. They had to make sure their routine included jumps, balances and rolls. Miss Redmond was very impressed to see tricky movements being used such as a pike jump, a teddy bear roll and an arabesque balance. Each group selected their own song for their performance and joined a series of movements together. The pupils shared their routines with the rest of Tay Clan and we gave peer feedback using yellow for yes and green for growth.

There was lots of creativity and confidence being demonstrated by Tay! Miss Redmond was proud to see all the learners trying new things and persevering when movements were challenging! Well done!

Tay Clan should share their routines with family and friends at home. I would love to see you performing these different movements in safe and new places!

In Tay clan, we have been learning to use conjunctions to join our sentences together. We learned how to use the conjunctions: and, because, but, so. We also learned alternative conjunctions and tried to challenge our learning by using these in our sentences.

Last week, we played conjunctions corners where Miss Redmond read out two sentences and we had to decide what conjunction we would use to join the sentences together. We had to dance and then go to the corner with the correct conjunction.

We then practised using conjunctions in our own writing. We had to think of a place that we would want to take our string to. Some of the places we decided to write about were: Australia, the jungle, the ocean, fidget land, Fortnite land, space and America. We had to describe what our place would look like and explain what we would do there.

We read our writing to Miss Redmond and others, and we noticed that we all tried really hard to use the four different conjunctions in our writing. We have discussed as a clan that we need to work on reading over our writing, making sure that we are using full stops and not writing too many conjunctions in one sentence.

To help us continue learning about conjunctions at home, Tay have come up with some ideas. We could spot conjunctions when we are reading at home. When travelling in the car, we could go on hunt for conjunctions around us. We could also write postcards to our friends and family.