All posts by Mrs Smith

Primary 4

This week in P4.

We have been on our first outdoor excursion!  We went to the village and took the opportunity to sketch some of the houses and inn. We were taking note of the details such as drain pipes, chimneys and if the windows were in line or strange places. This work is to build the children’s awareness of houses to help them build a display in school which has been inspired by Laura Sayers’ visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our return journey the children spotted berries, only one knew they were blackberries.  After discussion and confirmation they were safe some of the children tucked in to a quick snack!  However, close by there were also elderberries, I informed the children these were not so tasty and were best for the birds.

In maths the children are learning to break down times table questions to what they know, and to understand word problems. We have begun to explore what a legend is through work on the Dragon Slayer.

The children loved their first science lesson with Mrs Fraser on micro-organisms, and could tell me all about what they had learned. Well done P4.

Primary 4

Welcome to P4 2018-19

Today we reflected on our first week in primary 4 and the children listed their highlights.

Most of them enjoyed the maths this week especially the treasure hunt and their times table work.  They told me almost all are happy with their new teacher with some needing more time to think about it!  Most of the children enjoyed doing writing this week as the subject was their favourite Disney film.  Almost all thought that golden time was great fun, especially those that had been trying the wireless headphones and dancing in a silent disco.

All of the children enjoyed meeting our visitor on Thursday, Laura Sayers, an up and coming illustrator, who spent time sharing a book she has written and talking about how she did the illustrations.  She encouraged the children to talk about their dreams and to make some art work like the Roadliner character in her book.  The children have been inspired and plan to make houses to frame their road marking pictures and to put their work on display in the school.

 

P4 are looking forward to finalising their topics, doing more artwork, learning science with Mrs Fraser and are hoping for exciting trips away – no pressure then!

 

General Information, Primary 4

In P4 This Week…

Hurrah, the Quail chicks hatched on Tuesday and the children were so excited (the staff more so!). P4 had done a great job caring for the eggs, turning them 4 times a day, checking temperature and humidity and taking care not to drop any!  On Tuesday we arrived to find four hatched and two on their way, over the day, another three arrived giving a grand total of 9 chicks.  So, even if Mrs Smith is missing p4 she now has plenty of ‘children’ to be looking after in the holidays!  All the classes had the opportunity to come and see them and watch them hatch on the incubator webcam.

I think you’ll agree they are just so cute.

To finish off the end of term and our flight topic we have been making rockets. On Tuesday we had an experimental lesson where we revisited our knowledge of how things fly and thought about what was important to make the rockets successful. On Friday we took this further and tested the rockets with a pressured rocket launcher!  What great fun trying to get the rockets as far as possible (one or two may still be on the school roof!).

Well done to those children who were brave enough to perform in the talent show, you were fantastic.

Thank you for all your support over the year and I hope you all have a great summer break.

General Information, Primary 4

This week in P4

We have been hearing the last of our class talks, some independently prepared power point presentations and auditions for the class show.  What enthusiastic and busy children we have in P4!  Fitness fortnight has been great fun so far , we have had some training in Basketball, football and a fun run (well some were running) too.   Our pyjama day was relaxing and was great way to enjoy our sports assembly and  golden ticket movie award.

We are looking forward to Monday when our eggs are due to hatch…

Primary 4

This Week in P4

This week we have been listening to our class talks. The children have impressed me with their confidence to stand up and speak out.  They have all spoken clearly and have made good choices in their flight linked topic. I am much better informed about Concorde and pleased to hear that it might be bought back in the future. Most children have made good use of the resources they have created, some have shared power points, others posters, 3D models, and even items to illustrate their talk such as feathers and kites. I am looking forward to hearing the rest of the class next week.

All the children have made a Swiss roll this week with Mrs Findlay, even sharing a sample with Mrs Mill and Mr McCallum-McKay who were very appreciative of their hard work and learning. By the look of the sticky faces they all loved it!

The children have been taking turns to turn the eggs in the incubator and cross off the days, one more full week to go…

 

General Information, Primary 4

Learning in P4 This Week. – things are hotting up in the classroom for some!

This week we have been exploring our art skills further looking at landscapes, perspective and line. The children seem to have an appetite for creating power point presentations so despite preparing a class talk for home work, they have set off independently, and are creating a presentation in class on a topic of their choice. We are continuing to explore the work of the Wright brothers and their introduction of wing warping with some flight trials of our own.
On Wednesday, The children had to problem solve the mystery of the eggs – What type of eggs were we going to incubate and how long was the incubation period? It took some time for them to work out what question/s to put in the search engines as they worked through the thinking process and the clues. We had many suggestions such as chickens, crocodiles, turkeys, peacocks, choughs and ducks. Each one was crossed off as they found the incubation was took too long, that they were definitely bird eggs, they could be bought in shops for eating, and no, Mrs Smith was not going to take home snakes or an emu once they had hatched!

  

This is what the Quail eggs look like.

The children are charged with monitoring and turning the eggs, they go in the incubator today and should hatch on Mon 25th June (fingers crossed).

General Information, Primary 4

This Week in P4

The children have been revising maths and completing some check-up tasks and activities.  They have been exploring measure further and are developing further understanding of numberlines when reading scales. We have made opportunities to practice our writing inspired by our outdoor learning walk this week.  The weather was kind to us and we were able to have another go at drawing detailed pictures of leaves etc. with the aid of magnifying glasses, and closer inspection of the bark!

Over the week the children have also been challenged to complete some team tasks in silence to extend there observation skills, challenge their communication skills and their consideration of others.  They found this hard at the start of the week but are showing signs of improvement as the week went on.  I will continue to challenge them next week too.