Category Archives: Primary 4a
Primary 4 Learning Descriptor and Homework Grid April -June 2018
The Link below will take you to a copy of the Primary 4 Learning Descriptor and Homework Grid for the April to June term 2018.
April June Learning Descriptors and Home Learning
Thank you for your continued support,
S Trotter, K MacDonald, K Ford
Come and find out about what we have been doing in P4a!
We are pleased to say that our show rehearsals are going well! We have learned all the songs and dances and we have practised each scene at least once. Next week our rehearsals will move to the big hall and we will start putting it altogether. We have begun making scenery – thanks to our parent helpers – and we have sent out a letter about tickets (get your order in fast!)
Our new health topic is medicines and drugs. We have started by thinking about different types of drugs, why people use them/take them and some of the dangers of drugs. In science, we have continued learning about electricity and this week we made electrical circuits including a bulb and a switch. We also learned how to draw these using symbols. In P.E. we continued practising our Kurling skills and we are now ready for a game. In art, we have been studying portraits of Mary Queen of Scots and we have begun working on our own portraits. We have started by drawing Mary’s face and part of her body and we will soon be painting her.
In maths, our fractions topic involved us learning about equivalent fractions and ordering fractions. For example, we know that a half is the same as 2 quarters and a fifth is bigger than a tenth. We enjoyed our “I love Maths” morning which had a focus on fractions, time and calculations. Thanks to the parents/carers that came along. In language, we presented our group “Big 5” talks about Scotland’s Big 5 animals: the otter, the red deer, the golden eagle, the harbour seal and the red squirrel. We also wrote Robin Hood stories inspired by our show.
Last week we enjoyed the taster Judo session as part of Health Fortnight. We also took part in a orienteering challenge to find different food types – some of us found the map-reading a little tricky and we had to run from one end of the playground to the other!
P4a’s Fun Few Weeks!
Sorry we haven’t posted for a while – we have been very busy!
We had an amazing trip to Sky Academy where we learned about making films and trailers in a real TV Studio. We were the first class in the world to try out their new workshop about creative writing! First of all we talked about favourite films and watched clips on the big screen and ipads. In groups, we came up with characters, settings and stories for an magical action film and then we made trailers for the film. It was fantastic to see them on the big screen and we all got a copy on a USB to take home and share.
We are busy working on our P4 Show: Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies. We held auditions and we all now have a part to play – acting, singing, dancing and technical team. We are busy practising our lines at home and rehearsing at school. We have started designing scenery pictures and we have learned 3 dances already. Any parents/carers that could help us with the show, please get in touch.
Our Scotland topic has seen us research Scotland’s Big 5 animals. We have found information, made notes and we are now using our notes to make group posters. We have a new display up about Mary Queen of Scots and our research trip to Edinburgh.
We have just finished our block of Mandarin lessons with Miss Wang. We learned how to count to 100 and we learned how to write words using characters. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. We loved the songs!
In Maths, we have been calculating durations of time in hours, half hours and quarter hours. We have used timetables as well. We have also been learning about fractions of shapes and numbers: halves, quarters, fifths and tenths. On Outdoor Classroom Day, we enjoyed practising this outdoors in the playground.
We are loving Health Fortnight so far! We have had lessons with special coaches/teachers such as dancing, hockey, football and hula-hooping. We also have started learning to play Kurling in P.E.. This is a version of Curling but is played indoors in a hall instead of on ice.
We look forward to more healthy, sporty fun next week.
P4’s Exciting Week!
What an exciting week we have had in P4! We went on our trip to Holyrood Park and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. At the park, we did a workshop with the Rangers all about the local area around the park and Arthur’s Seat related to kings and queens of the past. We heard stories, designed a banquet and drew pictures of the palace using charcoal. It was very interesting and great fun but very, very cold! We also visited the palace where we took part in a costume workshop to learn about clothes in the time of Mary Queen of Scots. Four of us even got to dress up! We then went on a tour of the palace with our guide and learned more about what it would have been like to live there in the past. The highlight was going into Mary Queen of Scots’ private rooms including her bedroom.
We also met a new teacher this week, Miss Wang who is from Beijing in China. She will be teaching us Mandarin for a few weeks. This week we learned how to say hello, numbers 1 to 10 and thank you.
Our P4 show is going to be Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies, a comical pantomime based on the legend of Robin Hood. We will be auditioning for parts soon. More details to follow soon.
In maths, we have been learning how to tell the time in 5 minute intervals using analogue and digital clocks. We have also been learning how to divide bigger numbers by 10 and 100. We have been revising data-handling using bar graphs and tally marks. Another focus has been answering maths questions and solving little problems. In language, we have been researching Mary Queen of Scots using different texts and using the information to create timelines and quizzes. We are busy writing reports on our school trip.
We have started to present our homework on a famous/important Scottish person from the past. It will take us a while to hear all these wonderful presentations – a few weeks at least – but we will all get a turn eventually!
P4a say Happy Easter!
This week we worked in teams to design, plan and make Easter Gardens. We revised the story of Easter from the Christian Bible and included things like the tomb, the crosses and characters in our Easter Garden models. We enjoyed showing them off at assembly.
We made Easter cards following instructions.
In Language we have been researching Easter Around the World and finding information from different sources. In Maths we have continued our time topic and moved on to telling the time in 5 minute intervals.
Well done to Patrick as his design for a Roald Dahl book cover was chosen to make a door poster. It is now on Mrs Dare’s office door.
We are delighted that our class won the Fairtrade snack certificates for having the most Fairtrade snacks on the Friday.
We are sad to say goodbye to our other P4 teacher Mr Mackie. We wish everyone a Happy Easter! Enjoy the holidays!
Red Nose Day Thank You
Thank you to all who supported Primary 4 and contributed to our Red Nose Day fundraising. We are pleased to announce that we have raised a total of £191.08 so far and the money is still coming in! In addition to donations, Primary 4 also sold 680 red noses and 120 wristbands in 5 days! That’s a total of £800 worth of Red Nose Day goods! Thanks to all for making it a big success!
Red Nose Day 2017
We are the Publicity Team from P4 and we would like to remind you about Red Nose Day 2017.
Red noses and wristbands are being sold for £1. Going fast!
Joke competition – enter your year group competition to try and get into the final on Friday. it is free to enter but you have to be funny!
Design a Red Nose competition – this is 20p to enter and there will be red nose themed prizes. Get your sheet from P4 now. We will collect entries and money on Wednesday and Thursday.
Red on the Head – on Friday it is a dress-up day and you can wear something red on your head for a donation. A red bow, red hairspray, red nose, red mask, red wig etc etc.
Assembly – this is on Friday. You will learn more about the charity and how it helps others around the world. This is for pupils ad staff only (sorry – no parents!)
Have fun! Thank you!
P4a’s Exciting Fortnight!
We are delighted to announce that we released some Brown Trout fry into our local Murieston Water last week. Amy and Jonathon from Forth Fisheries brought us some new fish that they had reared and we all got a little bag to carry down to the river. Once at the river, we released our fish and wished them well in the big wide world. We also took part in some investigations of the river-life and looked at samples of water to see what creatures we could identify using the magnifying glasses and cards. Thank you to Forth Fisheries and Murieston Environmental Group that supported us in this project.
In Maths, we have been problem-solving by finding patterns in number sequences. This was quite tricky, even for Miss McMillan! We have been learning to multiply bigger numbers by 10 and 100. We have continued practising telling the time on analogue and digital clocks to the quarter hour.
In our Hinduism topic in RME, we learned about the Spring festival of Holi. This festival celebrates good triumphing over evil. We found out that it is celebrated by people throwing coloured paint at each other, dancing and processions, and having a bonfire. We watched a video about Holi made by the boys and girls in Mumbai, India. We thought it looked fun and we would like to take part too! We also learned about Hindu worship and Hindu shrines. We made our own model shrine using some artefacts and learned the five senses are important in Hindu worship.
Primary 4 are busy organising Comic Relief fundraising activities for Red Nose Day next Friday. We all got to choose a team to work in and now we all have different jobs to do – Sales Team, Publicity Team, Assembly Team, Joke Competition Team, Design a Red Nose Competition Team, Dress-Up Day Team, Drama Team and Dance Team. We are hoping to make it a big success! In Language, we have been finding information from different sources to learn more about how Comic Relief helps people around the world.
It was British Science Week and so Isabel’s mum, who is a scientist, came in to help us with our learning. We talked about different jobs that are science-related like doctors, engineers and nurses. We learned about solids, liquids and gases. We did an experiment mixing water with food dye, oil and washing-up liquid. She also showed us some gloop made with cornflour and water and gave us an experiment card to take home. We could complete the experiment then fill out the card or online form and send it back to the scientists at Edinburgh University. Of course, we need adult help and permission to do this!
We have sent some of our work over to the Universal School in Mumbai with Mrs Logan. We made books about Scotland, translated some of our own Scots poems and also sent our water posters. We are excited about sharing our work with the children there.
In Drama, we worked in groups to create and perform comedy sketches. In Art, we have finished our paintings inspired by the work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. In Dance, we are now able to dance the Gay Gordons in a circle! We also worked in groups to make up our own dances using Scottish steps.
We enjoyed taking part in the Big Fairtrade Break and eating our Fairtrade snacks together in the playground. Well done to our most recent Achievement Award winners. Well done to Hailey who represented Primary 4 at the West Lothian Scottish Poetry Competition at St Kentigern’s Academy recently. Well done to Emma, Eilish and Eloise who took part in the Dance Festival at Deans Community High School this week, along with the rest of the lunchtime dance club. We have started doing our online CEM tests. We will continue these next week…
A sad week in P4a
We have some sad news to share. Unfortunately our Brown Trout alevins died last weekend. We have consulted with Forth Fisheries and they have explained what they think happened to them. They told us we had done a good job looking after them but there was something wrong with them that meant they did not survive. Luckily, Forth Fisheries have some Brown Trout alevins/fry that are nearly ready for release and so we will be releasing those into Murieston Water next Tuesday.
In Maths, we are learning all about time. We have revised o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to on digital and analogue clocks. We need some more practise at quarter to the hour – it is tricky! We have been exploring how long a second, a minute and an hour are. We used the timers to see what activities we could do in a minute – activities like running up and down the playground, step ups and going round the obstacle course. We also continued our division topic and we are feeling a bit more confident with this.
We enjoyed World Book Day. We learned about famous illustrators and looked at some of their illustrations. Then we practised sketching designs for the Book Token competition. Most of us took part in the Book Swap and got a new book to read.
We have been researching Fairtrade using leaflets and the internet and making notes about this. We used the information to make a quiz and a leaflet. We have been playing Fairtrade games and writing a Fairtrade poem also.
In RME we have continued learning about Hinduism and this week we covered Hindu shrines. We looked at different objects used in a Hindu shrine for prayer and worship. In our Scotland topic, we researched famous landmarks and places using the laptops, i-pads and leaflets. We worked in a group to make a page for a Scotland tourist brochure and this brochure will be sent to the children in our partner school in Mumbai.
