All posts by Miss McMillan

Primary 4a

Welcome back to P4a

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We all enjoyed our October holidays and we shared our experiences with each other in Check-In and in our personal stories that we wrote this week. We are ready for Term 2 in Primary 4. We are lucky to have an extra teacher this term – Mrs Knowles is a student teacher who will be helping us in our learning for the next 5 weeks.

In Maths this week, we have started revising number bonds to 20 and linking addition and subtraction facts. We should be able to recall these number facts quickly and accurately so it would be great if adults could help us to practise these at home also. We have been taking part in “Number Talk” sessions where we are given a problem to solve and we discuss our strategies for finding the answer.

In our Water Topic we  thought about how water is used in our houses and we each made a water drop with one of these uses for our display. We considered what we need water for and what we want water for – we all agreed that the most important use of water was for drinking to keep us healthy and alive!

In RME, we are learning about naming ceremonies in different religions. This week, we learned about Christian Baptism and Christening ceremonies. Some of us created a poster to show the important practices and traditions. We have also been thinking more about the Value of the Month – Patience – and talking about how we have been patient in our lives.

We are continuing to read the BFG and have had fun exploring some of the language used by Roald Dahl. We made our own mini-dictionaries to explain what some of his words mean.

Many of us enjoyed attending the Halloween Disco. We loved dressing-up and taking part in the pumpkin competition. Thank you to the PSA parents and staff for organising this event.

Happy Halloween!

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Global Citizenship, Primary 4a

This week in P4a – week beg. 10.10.16

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In P4a this week we have been busy with our literacy learning. We read a selection of “blurbs” from our class and group reading books and then created a blurb of our own for a book of our choice. We were careful not to give away the ending! We wrote another imaginative story too. We looked at our self-evaluation sheets on our stories from the previous week and tried to meet our writing targets. We also started learning about different types of words: nouns, adjectives and verbs.

In maths, we have been counting in 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1000s and finding the number 1, 10, 100, or 1000 more or after a given number.We also had an assessment on place value to see what we have understood and what we still need to work on.

In our Water Topic, we learned about how water is treated and cleaned before it comes to our houses. We watched videos to discover more about the different processes involved and we investigated filtration by filtering some dirty, muddy water using filter paper.

We have been learning about The Global Goals as part of The World’s Largest Lesson. There are 17 goals that aim to end poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030. The focus goal  for 2016 is Gender Equality. We heard a story about a girl called Malala who campaigns for the right of girls to go to school. We read a comic strip cartoon about gender equality too – Chakra the Invincible – which is set in Mumbai. We all had homework to complete where we had to find out if the important people and leaders in our local area and country are male or female. We are looking forward to studying the results soon. All this links with the UNCRC and our Rights Respecting Schools work – Article 28: You have the right to a good quality education.

We have had a good first term in P4a, but there’s lots more to come after the holidays. Happy holidays!

Religious and Moral Education

Reflective Spaces Workshops

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Lots of classes have taken part in “Reflective Spaces” workshops on the Value of the Month – Patience. These were run by Darren from the Chaplaincy Team. There was a range of activities that pupils could choose from to help them to think about this value in more depth. These workshops will complement our Values Education programme and will run once a month this session, with alternate classes taking part each time.

Primary 4a

Fantastic Times in P4a! Week beginning 3.10.16.

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This week in P4a we have been learning about The Water Cycle. We talked about our evaporation and condensation experiment and then watched some film clips about The Water Cycle. We drew labelled diagrams of it in our jotters and we even made a big poster using collage for the wall.

We took part in money-related activities with our parents and carers during Terrific Tuesday, for example games on the computers and a Fruit Smoothie challenge. These activities will continue next week during Money Week. We have been learning to measure in millilitres and litres and to read scales to the nearest 100ml. It has been fun exploring this at the water tray. We are still working on place value of a number and building our understanding of bigger numbers.

In P.E. we did a Beep Test where we had to run between targets and try to get faster and faster. Also in tennis, we enjoyed practising our skills with a partner outside in the sunshine. We learned backhand and serve this week.

In writing, we have learned to use a vertical plan to plan our stories in three parts. Our imaginative story was about going on an adventure with a giant and was inspired by the BFG. We also read lots of poems with the theme “messages” on National Poetry Day. The poem we studied was “Cracking the Code” by Ciara McLaverty and was about giving a message to squirrels. We enjoyed writing our own poems based on this poem and we tried to add rhyming words and follow the same pattern.

In French we have been revising basic greetings and asking how someone is feeling. We practised these things with a partner. We also located France and Paris on a map and learned more about the city of Paris.

Fantastic times in P4a!

Primary 4a, Religious and Moral Education

P4a Update – 30.9.16

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This has been a really busy week in P4a as we were working hard to prepare for our class assembly about the value of Thoughtfulness. We had lines to learn and practise at home. We had songs to sing and actions to add. It was great fun making up our drama sketches, taking photos and filming our library video clips. We learned a little about the work of the MacMillan Cancer Support charity and we were proud to link this charity with the value of thoughtfulness. We did a great job presenting the first P4-7 class assembly of the year and we would like to thank our parents and carers who helped us practise at home and also came to watch as part of the audience. (N.B. The green balloons were recovered safely!!!)

In maths, we have been measuring capacity and volume in litres and millilitres. We all got to investigate this at the water tray. We should now have a look at home to see what items we can find that have been measured in litres and millilitres, e.g. fruit juice or shampoo. We have also been working with bigger numbers including thousands, hundreds, tens and units. Some of us even worked with numbers including tens of thousands!

P4a have begun NYCOS music lessons with Mrs Poynter. She will be helping us to learn more about rhythm and keeping the beat, as well as reading and writing music. This will all be done through fun games and songs and the course will run up to the Christmas holidays.

In language, we have been continuing our study of Fantastic Mr Fox and have explored the setting for this story. We also wrote an imaginative story about what might happen next to Mr Fox and his friends. This was an assessment piece of writing to help identify our next steps in writing. We started our spelling homework properly and we had our first spelling patterns and tricky words to practise.

In P.E., we have continued to work on our tennis skills with the tennis coach Eoin. Mr Muldoon has also been helping us to develop our fitness further through partner activities. We enjoyed welcoming parents and carers into class for our first Terrific Tuesday. There was lots of fun to be had with the games and activities. We dressed up in green to support the MacMillan Cancer Support charity and we took part in the coffee morning by singing one of our assembly songs.

What a busy week we have had!

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Primary 4a

P4a News 21.9.16-23.9.16

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In P4a we have continued to learn about water as part of our topic. We checked our water tubs that we set up in an experiment last week. We found that in the tub without a cover, the water level had gone down and in the tub with a cover, the water level was the same and there were droplets of water on the side. We will be learning more about evaporation and condensation and the water cycle soon.

We are busy learning about the value of Thoughtfulness in preparation for our assembly next week. Stephanie, the new minister, came into help us with this. Ms MacDonald has also helped by teaching us two songs. We are looking forward to our assembly next Friday, 30th September, at 9.05am. P4a parents and carers are invited to attend.

Other News: In P.E., we are developing our fitness as we take part in circuits with Mr Muldoon. We have been revising correct letter formation to improve our handwriting. We have been comparing two characters and finding similarities and differences between them. Our new novel is the BFG in preparation for Book Week Scotland and a drama workshop in November. We have been learning about the Global Goals – there are 17 goals to achieve by 2030, when we are 22 years old. They aim to respect the planet, end poverty and fight inequality. We have been thinking about our learning targets for the term and setting ourselves new challenges. We enjoyed the House Captain campaigns and we all got a chance to vote for two candidates.

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Primary 4a, Uncategorised

P4a Learning Experiences

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This week in P4a, we have learned lots about Roald Dahl as it is the 100 year anniversary of his birth. We watched some film clips and read a factfile to find lots of interesting things about his life. We practised writing in sentences to show what we had learned. We also chose characters from Fantastic Mr Fox to draw and write about. We tried to use “wow” words – interesting adjectives – to describe them. The most popular character in our class was Farmer Bean.

In topic maths, we have been measuring capacity and volume using the water tray. We discovered that cups are different sizes so they are not the best thing to measure with! Next week we will instead be using litres and millilitres. In number maths we have been revising numbers and place value using tens and units. Next week, we will be moving on to bigger numbers including hundreds and thousands. To improve our mental maths and quick recall of facts, we have started Big Maths Beat That tests. We have also begun practising setting out our maths work neatly in our jotters.

As part of our Wonderful Water topic, we have set up a science experiment. We have put water into two tubs and covered one with clingfilm. We were careful to make sure this was a fair test so we used the same size of tubs and amount of water. We have made predictions about what will happen to the water in the tubs and we will find out next week!

Our Class Charter is now finished with UNCRC articles and friendship pictures. We have said what we think we need to do and what adults need to do to make sure all children have their rights. We have been learning more about the Paralympics and Team GB. The Paralympic values are: courage, equality, inspiration and determination. We love the Paralympic mascot Tom! We enjoyed watching Stephen Clegg competing in the swimming finals as we remember when he came into school to visit last session.

Art, Drama, Working with others

P4 Show

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Rehearsals for the P4 show are in full swing! Parents and carers – please help us to learn our lines at home as we will soon be rehearsing without our scripts. We are busy singing, dancing, acting, learning to work the sound system and computer and designing and painting scenery. More information about hte show, including costumes, will come out by letter soon. Thanks!100_8642