Category: Primary 4

This week P4 have completed their first information writing session. They were writing about the importance of the River Nile to the people of ancient Egypt. Pupils said that they found the session challenging but enjoyable and we will continue to work on this genre next week.

We have continued to do our vertical learning sessions with P3 and P3/4. The classes have enjoyed working in mixed groups and the opportunity to work with different staff on new activities. We would like to thank Mr Patterson for working with one of our groups this week.

In art P4 created some excellent pictures of pyramids and are looking forward to working on clay scarab beetles next week.

Pupils have been encouraged to focus on improving their presentation in jotters this week and we hope that parents/ carers will be able to see a difference next week at parents’ evenings. If you haven’t made an appointment there are still spaces available so please get in touch.

Well done to Joshua Duncan-Coat from P3/4 for creating the winning Fairtrade poster. Joshua’s poster will be displayed throughout the school to promote Fairtrade products and encourage us all to buy Fairtrade.

This week our class have enjoyed working with pupils and teachers from different classes. They have been learning about different aspects of Egypt such as Tutenkhamun, timelines, hieroglyphics and how we find evidence from the past. Those pupils who attend homework club also drew pictures of Egyptian jewellery. We look forward to more sessions next week.

We have started work on fractions and have been learning about the related vocabulary such as numerator, denominator, sharing and grouping. We have been able to buy some new maths games and resources which pupils have enjoyed using.

Education City has been updated with new fraction and grammar activities, your child should have brought home an updated password for the site at the beginning of the week.

 

 

The weather has been lovely this week and everyone has been enjoying the sunny, fresh mornings when out playing at break and lunch time. P4 have been encouraged to make sure no one is left out when playing games and always to involve others.

We also spent time this week recognising the qualities and strengths of our classmates. These were then recorded onto certificates which are displayed in class. This was a very valuable exercise as recently there have been a few disagreements between classmates. It’s important to understand that whilst we might not always agree with each other we should still value our classmates for who they are.

In maths we have been very busy working on reviewing multiplication and learning new skills in division. We discussed the maths vocabulary for these topics and did lots of practical activities to help us understand the concepts. We were reminded how important it is to know our times tables for these skills and it would be great if you could encourage your child to revise these at home.

In literacy we worked as a pair to complete a creative writing activity. Everyone really enjoyed this and many said they found it helpful to share and build on the ideas of their partners.

Next week we are looking forward to working with P3 and P3/4 on our new topic of the Egyptians.

 

We have been working on our assembly about Fair trade fortnight for the performance next week. As it’s only a short week next week we have had to try to cram the rehearsals in. Your child should have a letter giving details of the assembly and also their lines for the script. Please encourage your child to learn their lines off by heart and to speak loudly and clearly.

This week we have been finishing off our work on time and are looking forward to starting work on division next week, (everyone might need a big rest at the weekend to prepare for it!).

Pupils really enjoyed the buddy writing session in literacy with P3/4 and they found it useful to share ideas. We hope to follow this up by doing buddy writing sessions with P5 as well.

After the long weekend we will be moving onto our new topic of the Egyptians which everyone is really excited about. There will be lots of joint learning opportunities as P3/4 and P3 are doing the same topic.

Enjoy your weekend.

Hello everyone,

This afternoon P4 have just been to watch our upper school perform with members of the Scottish Opera organisation. It was a fantastic performance and the class were very impressed with their efforts, particularly the fact that it was put together in such a short time.

We have been learning to convert between analogue and digital time in maths and the class are making good progress with this. It would be great if they could continue to work on this at home as this would help pupils become more confident in their abilities.

We have continued to develop our skills in persuasive writing. This week our theme was whether or not children should use social media and computer games. As you can imagine this provoked lots of discussion and pupils gave some strong arguments for their point of view. For our final session in persuasive writing our class will pair up with a buddy from P3/4 and they will produce a joint piece of writing. We hope that they can learn from each other and share their ideas. The class have asked that we do creative story writing next for which we will also do some pair writing sessions.

This week we looked at some videos of early Livingston and discussed the reason the town was built. Pupils recognised lots of different locations, though there were a few giggles at the hairstyles and fashions of the time! The class were put into groups to role play a family coming to settle in the area and the pupils really enjoyed this activity, as well as gaining more of an insight into the event.

 

This week we have started work on our new topic ‘Mystery tour of Scotland’. We have been identifying what we already know about Scotland and what we would like to find out. So far we have completed some map work and have been learning some Scottish poetry for the assembly on Friday. Next week we will be looking at how Livingston used to be  and watching some historical videos of the area. We will be learning about shale mining in West Lothian and why it was such an important industry at the time. Pupils are looking forward to creating art work in the style of famous Scottish artists and will be doing Scottish country dancing with Mrs Moyes.

In ICT we have been learning about coding and using Blockly to create simple instructions. The games we have worked on so far have proved very popular and the class are really keen to learn more.

Since the start of term we have had a big focus on learning / revising key spelling words and have been working on them for Smart Start every day. We have also been trying to improve fluency when reading aloud and pupils have been encouraged to apply their decoding strategies for tricky words. It would be really helpful if pupils could continue to work on this at home. Our next target area will be to focus on handwriting to improve written presentation.

In literacy the focus has been on developing persuasive writing skills. Our first theme for the writing was homework and our subject for next Monday will be whether pupils should have to wear uniforms. We have also been learning to peer and self assess our writing which the class find quite challenging and we will continue to work on.

In maths we have been working on time. Everyone should now feel quite confident about o clock, quarter past and to and half past times. Our focus just now is telling the time using minutes past and to. Next we will be converting between analogue and digital time. Finally we will be interpreting simple timetables such as train and bus times and programme schedules.

This term gym time with Mrs Moyes is on a Tuesday afternoon and the class will also have futsal on a Friday so pupils will need gym kit on those days.

It is nice to be back together after our Christmas holidays and are looking forward to the term ahead. A reminder to Parents/Carers to ensure your child brings gym kit on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (P4 children only) and please ensure your child has appropriate indoor shoes.

Literacy

After watching Newsround, we were interested to learn that schools in Paris may open later, allowing children to spend more time at home. This inspired us to write a persuasive piece of writing on the subject and to include different points of view.  Fraser thought it would be a good idea to stay home longer as he could” spend more time caring for his guinea pigs.” Debbie thought it would be a good idea for schools in Scotland to open at the normal time as she has to ” get up at the same time anyway as her Mum goes to work.”

Numeracy

During our number talks sessions we have been revising our strategies to help us double numbers. Aleena and Liam suggested two different methods to use. Please keep practising this at home.

 

Primary 4 have been quite excited all week and have come to school every day with tales of what their “Elf” has been up to at home. They are looking forward to their Christmas party next week and tomorrow we will create the party plan for P4.

Today was our last session with Karen from NYCoS. The pupils gave their best effort in singing and joined in with the musical games with gusto and enthusiasm.

In maths this week we have been working on subtraction with exchanging/ borrowing. We have used the multi link cubes to help pupils visualise how this happens before we will move onto the written format next week. Pupils initially found this quite challenging but are now growing in confidence.

Last week we had written letters to invite a visitor into class to share their knowledge of Malawi. Our visitor came on Tuesday and pupils had prepared lots of relevant question to find out more about the country. We learnt lots of useful information and saw some great photographs of the area.

Today we created some fantastic Winter tree collage pictures which will make an excellent display outside class. Next week will also be the final week of our topic comparing Scotland and Malawi so we will be reviewing what we have learnt so far before completing it.