Play has been our theme this week as the children have explored construction kits, Cuisenaire rods, and measure.

The children had mixed results with their construction of a plane but their teamwork, collaboration, reasoning, questioning, imagining, planning, listening and talking skills have all been stretched.

This week the children have begun to explore measure.  They have been marking out the wingspans of some airplanes in the playground or the field when the playground was not big enough.   The children had to first recognise how to measure out 12m with only a 1m tape and chalk. Once they found their way and shared roles in the group, they were measuring up to 60m in the field.

In class the children had the chance to ‘play’ with measuring tapes, weighing scales and  measuring cylinders to explore their use and reading scales/number lines.  Many of the children need to work on their pouring skills however, they were very good at mopping up! (I think this will be a good excuse for measuring outdoors one sunny day.)

We have also looked at the story of the Wright brothers and noted their perseverence to achieve their goal. The class is continuing to learn about uplevelling writing through proof reading and editing,  all are working on their final draft of their flight linked story.

This week we had a go at sketching outside, the children were challenged to draw things in the smallest detail. This is a difficult concept for the children as many want to draw landscapes with each picture including the sun and ground level. With encouragement they began to get the idea.

What a great time we had at the Flight Museum and the sunshine meant we had lunch outside too. The children had a work shop where they explored the forces of gravity, lift and thrust. As scientists they learnt to repeat experiments to check that things really did work or to make changes and try again. They had a go at making simple rockets and paper planes.
After lunch, they children went in groups around the museum exploring the Fantastic Forces ‘play’ zone and some of the other planes on display including Concorde.

My favourite things about the trip:

CL, AS, MS, – gift shop,
AM, AP, OC, KF – going in the planes,
EH, NS, AB, PM, – the Fantastic forces zone,
LM – all of it,
GS, LRB, AR, MV – Concorde

I learned:

EH, GS – how to make a rocket
PM, CW – about Concorde the fast plane
NS – that planes need to be made carefully or it could all go wrong!
PH – there are so many interesting planes

I want to know:

LM, OC, PH, KF, – more about Concorde
MV – what was the first passenger plane?
NS – can we go again next Thursday?

I didn’t like:

The bus journey was too long.
I would have like to sit in the cockpit of a plane.
That it was spread out and we had a two minute walk between buildings!
I would like it to have been bigger

It doesn’t need to be better – I loved

Over last week and this week we have had two trips to the library and Morrisons att Carmondean. In the library we had tasks to do to help us find books using alphabetical order for fiction books and the Dewey decimal system for non-fiction books.  In Morrisons we tasted some fresh fruit, and talked about canned fruit and dried fruit. We met a fishmonger who gutted a fish and a butcher who showed us pieces of meat and talked about what animals they came from. The baker showed us how he made donuts and rolls.

This week we had an extra adventure on the way up to Carmondean . We saw a Blue tit caught in some fishing string.   Mrs Smith picked up to the Blue Tit in her scarf and tried to untangle the fishing string. She asked Mrs Findlay for her car keys to try and cut the sring.  Meanwhile, Mrs Findlay and Mrs Farrell stated to open the first aid bag to find scissors, but the scissors were not sharp ended so the twine could not be cut enough to loose the birds  toes.  Mrs Smith decided it was best to call the SSPCA and continue to Carmondean.

While at the library Mrs Smith lay the Blue Tit down on the librarians desk, wrapped in the scarf, so she could help with a task.  When it was time to go, we were going to put the bird in a box to keep at the library until the man from the SSPCA arrived.   However, we found out the bird was gone!     It was now time to leave so the SSPCA man just had try and find it himself,  we still dont know how it escaped or where the bird hid.  Later, back at school, Mrs Young got a phone call from the SSPCA man and he said that he had found the Blue Tit, taken off the string and it was back in the wild.       By Owen, Lily-rose and Mrs Smith .

As I was renewing some of the diplays in the class this week, I realised that many will not have seen the finished pieces of weaving that the children did in class at the start of the year.  They look so good that I am leaving them up a little longer.

This week we have been extending our understanding of nets of 3D shape by linking our learning to our topic on flight.    We have been learning about the Montgolfier brothers who developed the first hot air balloon.  The   children were tasked with making a cube basket and hot air balloon to build on their learning, and further develop their craft technolohy skills.

We have also been out exploring what the perimeter and area of a shape are, it was great to see them problem solve and use the skills knowledge they have to try and work out the perimeter of the football pitch.

Click on link below

P4 2018_04_09 Primary 4 Term 4 overview

Ask the children what they did today?  What did they observe?  What were the differences between the different liquids?  Did the penny float or sink?  What about the grape and bottle top?

Maybe you could have a go at home?

Can you remember our lesson on distilling?  Is there a link?

Great time of learning and problem solving last week in P4.  The children were celebrating the arrival of snow, and set the challenge to plan and build an igloo.  This involved planning, discussion and a little bit of research and they were ready to begin building.  After their first attempt they reflected on their activity and were able to recognise the skill learning and development they had been experiencing.  The second attempt was better than the first and their enthusiasm didn’t fade throughout, they were only thwarted by lack of snow!