Category: Primary 4

It has been a very busy couple of weeks in P4. Last week we were busy getting organised for the Christmas Fayre. Lots of pupils popped by to help out on the stall and it was lovely to see such a good turnout despite the rainy weather.

This week we have started a new novel for Christmas called the Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher. The class are really enjoying it so far and are keen to find out what happens next.

Everyone is looking forward to our last session of futsal this week. The pupils have engaged really well with these sessions and have shown great enthusiasm and sportmanship.

In maths this week we have been working on the topic of money. We have been calculating change using our mental maths strategies. We have had to revise counting on and back in 2’s and 5’s to assist with this. Pupils have been asked to help work out change or count up coins at home to help develop their confidence and speed when doing this.

Thank you to all who attended the Christmas Fayre on Friday and purchased teddies from our stall. It is lovely to know they have all been re-homed and will be looked after with care and kindness.

We still have some bags of Christmas playdough to sell for 50pence. They will be available to buy in class this week. Thank you.

On Friday morning P4 – 7 children enjoyed a visit from author, Lindsay Littleson. It was a very inspiring session and her positive words left us all wanting to become authors!!!

Thank you to everyone who sent in teddy bears and toys for P4 to use for the Christmas Fayre. We have enough now to keep us busy and we really appreciate your help.

This week we have been continuing to work on our comparison of Scotland and Malawi. Pupils have completed a second piece of information text about elephants and we hope to build on this writing skill next week. They also drew some really effective pictures of giraffes and elephants to add to our information display. Next week we will be comparing the weather in the two countries and developing our skills in finding information from graphs.

In maths we have been improving our skills in doing column addition sums and have worked on carrying across the digits.  Pupils have been using partitioning and number lines as part of their Number Talks sessions. We have also been learning about rounding to the nearest 10 and on Monday we will extend this to rounding to the nearest 100.

Next week will be very busy preparing our goods for the Christmas Fayre which we hope will be just as successful as last years.

 

In maths this week we have been learning new addition strategies in our Number Talk sessions. We have worked on using number lines, partitioning and the column method, (written sum format). Your child may be able to demonstrate some examples of these to you and we will continue to work on them next week. We have continued to revise our number bonds, 5 times tables and counting on and back in 2, 5, 10 and 100’s. It would be really helpful if these were also worked on at home. In our written tasks we have worked on addition sums with and without carrying and pupils are making good progress with this.

In literacy we have just completed a new round of  reading and spelling assessments which will help us plan our next learning steps for pupils. We have also been working on information writing and we based our writing this week on schools in Malawi. Pupils made a good start to this and we will build on this in our next two writing sessions.

In our topic work we have learnt about schools and wildlife in Malawi so far. Next we will be researching some Scottish wildlife and comparing the school system in Scotland with Malawi to identify similarities and differences.

We have been using ICT to help us consolidate our learning. We have set up maths and spelling activities on Education City for each group which is tailored to their level. Sumdog remains a firm favourite with everyone and is great for building maths skills.

In gym this week Mr Patterson led a hockey skills session where pupils worked on dribbling, passing and re directing. The class really enjoyed this and are already looking forward to their session next week. In art we have been drawing some animals from Malawi using the step by step approach which breaks the picture down into smaller, simple steps.

The pupils enjoyed having family members in class during our open afternoon. If you were unable to attend then don’t worry as we will be having another one later on in P4.

 

Primary 4 had been looking forward to attending the handball festival which took place on Wednesday. Our P4 pupils were a credit to our school and participated with great enthusiasm and sportsmanship. We could see a real difference in their ability to pass the ball confidently and at speed. Pupils also showed more tactical awareness and were able to intercept and find a space when trying to get the ball. Well done to the P4’s from both P4 and P3/4!

Our class will be holding a “Sharing the learning” afternoon soon, the details will be given on your child’s homework sheet. If you are available it would be lovely if you could come along and listen to the pupils talking about their learning.

In the run up to Christmas you may be having a clear out of toys. We would really appreciate it if you could send in any pre loved teddy bears which are in good condition.

This week we have been developing skills in handball in preparation for the handball festival next Wednesday. Our teams will be playing in groups of 6 against other schools from the cluster. We have been thinking about team strategies and revising different types of passes. Could you please ensure that your child has their gym kit and a bottle of water with them for the event. Also, a wee reminder that we have weekly gym sessions on a Tuesday and a Friday as lots of pupils are coming with no gym kit on those days.

We have been working on poetry in literacy and have created some excellent Autumn themed poems. We thought carefully about how to use adjectives to create better description and we tried to use alliteration. Next week we will be working on some Autumnal art work to create a new class display.

We have been working on our 4 times tables and it would be great if pupils could continue to work on these at home. Pupils have also been developing skills in written addition and continue to develop strategies through Number Talks sessions.

The class are excited about the Halloween disco and we look forward to seeing everyone’s costume.

What a busy week it has been! We certainly seem to have packed a lot in this week and as I look around the classroom this afternoon after Golden Time and choir with Karen there are lots of tired faces. Hopefully the October holidays will be a good chance for everyone to recharge their batteries. Our class are looking forward to futsal  and the class novel assembly tomorrow. By the way, next term pupils will only need their gym kit on Tuesdays and Fridays.

In language this week we have continued to focus on writing in complete sentences and paragraphs. We have also tried to use a wider variety of joining words in our writing. Every morning when the pupils first come in we use different pictures as a stimulus in our short creative response writing sessions. The class report that they are already beginning to feel more confident about their sentence construction. Pupils have also been working hard to develop correct letter formation and joins in their handwriting. Yesterday we reviewed the grammar terms we had worked on so far; common and proper nouns, adjectives, singular/ plural and verbs by playing a corners type game which the class really enjoyed. We then worked on prepositions which quite a few people are still unsure about so we will re visit this aspect.

In Number Talk sessions this week we have been working on developing the strategy of using doubles to help us work out calculations. It’s taking the class a wee while to get back into thinking about different number strategies and we will come back to this after the holidays when everyone is a bit more refreshed! We are coming to the end of our work on place value but will continue to re visit it throughout the session. After the holidays our main focus will be addition, subtraction and money.

The class have been watching the Charlotte’s Web movie so that we could compare the book to the film. They have really enjoyed watching it as a class and some commented that the classroom was like the cinema with the lights off and comfy cushions to sit on. The only thing missing was the popcorn! When asked for their opinions/ to compare the book and film some comments were;

“The different accents in the film made it more interesting.”

“It was more interesting watching the film cause you could see more details in the picture than the story told you.”

“I prefer the story because if you listen carefully you can use your imagination.”

We have started work on our Scotland / Malawi topic and began with a carousel to find out what we knew about both countries. There were some very interesting ideas which were great for discussion. Pupils worked as a group on these activities and we were reminded of the importance of being co-operative, taking turns and listening to each other.

 

We have been reflecting on our learning from the start of the term. One of the most interesting things has been reading the BFG by Roald Dahl.  We have enjoyed listening to the story and developing our writing skills by taking notes and presenting our information in paragraphs.

Another area we have been focussing on is how we receive feedback and the different ways feedback can improve our learning. “My feedback is to improve my handwriting and the layout of my work”  (Hope)

Our focus in the gym hall has been to travel safely and improve our co-ordination skills. ” I can control the ball with a hockey stick” (Liam)

Our focus in numeracy this term has been to work with numbers up to 10, 000 and to recognise place value.” Primary 4 children have been using the textbook and have enjoyed working out word problems.”  (Cameron)

Our motto for next term is to “continue to work hard but with less chatting!” (Lewis)