Welcome back to Primary 5B and our first blog of 2023. Homework will be posted in TEAMS from Monday 16h of January.A written copy of spelling activities has been given to each pupil. Pupils will have wordboost or spelling activities to complete each week as well as a written math task. Pupils can still use Prodigy and Sumdog to develop their math skills. There are a few suggested activities for John Muir topic but these are optional.

This term we are learning about decimal numbers. How to recognise them, add, subtract, multiply and divide. We will also be learning about fractions and percentages as well. During January we will be developing understanding of SCOTS language and using it in some narrative writing.

We continue with our Rights Respecting Journey delving into the history behind Holocaust Memorial Day which will be on the 27th of January. We found out about Anne Frank and her captivity during the second world war. The rights we talked about where

• Article 2 – The Convention applies to every child without discrimination
• Article 19 – Protection from violence, abuse and neglect
• Article 37- No child should be tortured, sentenced to death, imprisoned unfairly or treated in a cruel or inhuman way
• Article 38- No child under 15 should join the army and children should be protected in war

Our topic is all about John Muir. He was a Scottish-American naturalist who is known as “John of the Mountains” and “Father of the National Parks”. Aside from being a naturalist, he was also an environmental philosopher, glaciologist, and one of the proponents for advocating the preservation of wilderness.  At the end of this topic pupils will receive a certifcate from the John Muir Society.

As an introduction to this topic we went out for a walk around Eliburn Reservoir taking photographs of nature in the local area. Seeing the swans and ducks was exciting. We are looking forward to finding out more about the changes in our local environment.