Here’s a summary of our slightly shorter week than usual…

Literacy and English

This week in our shared reading of Holes, Stanley Yelnats has made his escape from Camp Green Lake. He stole the water truck before ironically crashing it into one of the holes he had dug. As he struggled through the desert he has been reunited with Zero in the upturned shipwreck of Mary Lou. We’ll find out next week whether they make it to God’s Thumb or not…

In comprehension, we tackled varied questions based on our reading. Mr Logan has been impressed with the improvement in our responses to these. We have been providing evidence from the text to further explain our point and give additional detail where possible.

Our writing this week has been to apply the features of a newspaper article. We were writing our final drafts of an article about the life of outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow from Texas, USA. Next week we will be creating wanted posters

Numeracy and Maths

In Numeracy and Maths we have been using formulae to find the area and volume of 2D and 3D shapes. We found that the perimeter is the total distance around the outside of a shape and area is the space inside a shape. We had to show our units of measurement, formula used and all working to evidence our strategies and thinking.

To demonstrate our learning of volume we made mocktails using a recipe sheet. Have a look at the pictures of this below!

H and N with their accurately measured mocktail.

Learning Across the Curriculum

Art and Design – Our learning this week has been about an American artist called Keith Haring. He creates blob characters that move in different ways along with basic symbols. This ties in with our Science work around the human body. Bold colours are used to create contrast along with bold outlines to make things stand out. We will be completing these next and displaying our work in class.

Science – “We were building electrical circuits with Mrs Doran. We were then shown an example and started planning how to build an electrical game for P1s that contained questions, answers, titles, wires, a bulb, buzzer and motor. We had to describe what theme we wanted. My group decided on an animal quiz.” (Sarah)

P.E – “In futsal we warmed-up by playing a game of handball in teams of 6. We did this to speed up our passing, get into space, help our teammates and communicate. Then we got split into teams and given a number from 1-15. When Neil called a group of numbers you would plat against the other team to score first. In boccia, we started off by learning the rules and playing a game to warm-up. There were three different hoops and each was worth different points. We then played a proper game and were aiming for the white jack ball. Whoever got closest earned points for their team, either red or blue.” (Sarah)

Social Studies – Our work as Dr Robert Know continued this week as we studied the respiratory system of our bodies. The heart and lungs are responsible for this and we found out the journey that oxygen takes as we inhale before it is used by the body. As we exhale, we get rid of a waste product called carbon dioxide. We have been putting together Burke and Hare timelines during Social Studies this week. We researched their crimes and placed these chronologically on our design. Whilst researching, we found that some dates were unknown such as William Hare’s date of birth.

Spanish – This week we had a visit from Jessica, our language ambassador from Linlithgow Academy. She worked with small groups to consolidate our nunbers from 1-30. Next week she will be teaching us about colours in Spanish.

Coming Up

14.2.20 – February holiday
17.2.20 – February holiday
18.2.20 – February holiday
21.2.20 – Achieving Assembly
4.3.20 – Reflective Reading information evening (7-8pm)
4.3.20 – School Show (1)
5.3.20 – School Show (2)
5.3.20 – World Book Day
6.3.20 – BEAR reading event (am)
9.3.20 – Author visiting school (P4-6)
10.3.20 – 80s Dress Down Day for Fame
11.3.20 – Primary Dance Competition (selected pupils)
13.3.20 – P5 Class Assembly (Sport Relief)
25.3.20 – Parents Evening (1)
26.3.20 – Parents Evening (2)
3.4.20 – Easter Service at St Michael’s Church (am)

Enjoy the long weekend everyone!

Written by Mr Logan, Sarah and P5

Literacy and English

We are continuing to read War Horse with an emphasis on analysing plot, character and setting. This week we built up a word bank of adjectives that could be used to describe the main character, Joey. We highlighted which 4 best described him before scanning the text for evidence of where he has demonstrated this particular skill or quality. For example, Joey demonstrated empathy when he felt the pain of Topthorn’s illness and nursed his wounds.

Whilst reading chapters 14 and 15, we summarised the main ideas and events by note taking. We discussed the features of good note taking and how we can do so more effectively. This included using bullet points, not writing in full sentences and drawing out the key information.

In writing, we wrote instructions of how to create a volcanic eruption. This style of writing required us to apply various features such as sub-headings, a numbered list and sequencing openers and connectives (e.g. firstly, next, afterwards, finally). Next week we will carry out our volcanic eruption experiments and write a scientific report based on our findings.

Numeracy and Mathematics

We have been continuing to use written methods for multiplication and will shortly be introduced to the inverse operation of division. This week we consolidated our learning of our 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables before multiplying 4-digit numbers by a single-digit and multiplying 2-digit numbers by smaller 2-digit numbers. Here’s a reminder of the method we’ve been using…

Learning Across the Curriculum

Social Enterprise – This week we will be meeting up with our group’s to prepare a Dragon’s Den style pitch for Mr Logan. In this pitch we will set out who our group are, what cause we want to raise money for, why it’s important to us and how we intend to go about raising the money. There have been lots of exciting suggestions so far. Keep an eye out for information on the Christmas Hampers we will be organising for the residents of St Michael’s Day Care Centre and what we’ll be doing at this year’s Christmas Fayre.

P.E – In P.E we have been introduced to the basic rules and principles of handball. This is going to be our focus in P.E up until January as we prepare for our Linlithgow cluster schools handball festival. We watched this video to introduce us to the rules of the game…

Art and Design – We have been using layers and textures of paper this week to create Remembrance Day artwork and reading the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae. These will be displayed in class, come and have a look at them next week and ask us what the poppy symbolises.

Our News and Achievements

We’ve been super busy over the October break, here’s what we’ve been up to:

Jude has been on his travels to Castle Douglas and brought in various types of stone to show us including rainbow quartz.
Freya shared her news about her trip to Oban over the holidays.
Sofia told us of her trip to LEGO Land and showed us the brick she created.
Eighlin went to visit Eilean Donan castle which is what she was named after.
Nairn had a tour at Manchester United’s stadium and brought some items to show us.
Ava continues to excel in gymnastics and has a number of upcoming national competitions.
Lucy told us about her visit to a lighthouse and seeing her Grandparents.
Finlay B and Jack G attended the Hearts v Rangers match which, luckily for them both, was a draw.
Oliver travelled down south to Northumberland and Manchester over the holidays.
Eva told us all about her sister’s birthday and what they got up to.
Finlay M was also in Northumberland over October for his Gran’s 70th birthday.
Mairi flew to Copenhagen and visited a number of attractions whilst there including the original LEGO shop.
Megan spoke about her segway tour and her trip to watch Scotland beat San Marino 6-0.

Coming Up

10.19 – Rugby taster session (1), sports gear to be worn to school
11.19 – Homework grids for Term 2 to be sent home, due for 13.12.19
11.19 – Rugby taster session (2), sports gear to be worn to school
11.19 – Golf session (1) with Stephen Gallagher Foundation at Kingsfield
11.19 – Open Morning (Number Talks) at 09.00
11.19 – Remembrance Day Assembly
11.19 – Rugby taster session (3), sports gear to be worn to school
11.19 – Golf session (2) with Stephen Gallagher Foundation at Kingsfield
11.19 – Rugby taster session (4), sports gear to be worn to school
11.19 – Golf session (3) with Stephen Gallagher Foundation at Kingsfield
11.19 – Learning Showcase event at 14.00 – 15.00
11.19 – Golf session (4) with Stephen Gallagher Foundation at Kingsfield
12.19 – Christmas Fayre event at 09.30 – 12.00
12.19 – Christmas Church Service at St Michael’s
12.19 – Christmas Carol singalong event
12.19 – 6.1.20 – Christmas Holidays

Have a great weekend everyone!

P5 and Mr Logan