We enjoyed our visit to the Lanthorn Centre for the P4 cluster Fair Trade service with Darren from the Chaplaincy Team. All the schools presented what they had been learning about Fair Trade and also sang their chosen song. We presented our findings from our research on Fair Trade products and the countries they came from. Thanks to Darren and the parent helpers that supported us. We are looking forward to Fairtrade Fortnight next week.

We also took part in a Reflective Spaces workshop on the value of the month “Fairness”. Here we thought about places around the world where things were not fair, for whatever reason, and wrote our ideas for a fairer world. We also thought about what fairness means to us.

In maths, we have been focusing on linking multiplication and division and making array patterns and number lines to help us with this. Also, we have started a topic on time and we have been measuring how long a minute is and trying to complete different activities within one minute. We began revising telling the time with o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to the hour.

In language, we learnt some Gaelic words and sang Scottish songs with Mrs Logan. In French, we have learnt about pets and food and how to ask if we like something or not. We now have a lovely new French display about pets and food. In writing, we wrote thank you letters to Darren and the Handball helpers and we finished our internet safety posters.

The fish are growing well and will be released in about 10 days – more details to follow. In our Scotland topic, we located places in Scotland on a map by using atlases and Google maps/earth. In Art, we finished our wave pictures and we learned about cold/warm colours and mixing colours. In P.E., we continued with yoga and also Futsal.

We look forward to an exciting Fairtrade week, next week!

Our P4 Handball teams competed in the P4 Cluster Handball Festival recently. We have all been learning handball with Mr Muldoon in P.E. in P4 and the teams had extra practise sessions with some helpers from JYHS. All our teams did really well and won lots of games. We demonstrated good sportsmanship too!

The rest of the class took part in a Fair Trade afternoon workshop where we prepared for our P4 Cluster Fair Trade service which is next week. We split into groups to research Fairtrade products using I-Pads and laptops and find out where they come from. Everyone had a different role in the groups – painting pictures and flags, making PowerPoint slides and writing words for the script. We presented this at the school’s Fair Trade assembly and we are now ready to do it for the other P4 children at the Lanthorn Centre on Tuesday 21st February (please return permission slips asap and parent helpers needed also).

Our Brown Trout are progressing well as alevins and soon they will turn into fry and be ready for release. We are continuing to chill the water with ice bottles twice a day and monitor the temperature.

In Maths, we are now focusing on division and linking this with multiplication and times tables. We have explored division using cubes, pegs, people (!) and other objects and we are developing our understanding by drawing pictures. We have also been using different types of calendars to find special dates and work out how long things are in days and weeks.

In Language, we had a reading assessment to test our comprehension skills in finding facts and opinions, identifying the writer’s purpose and point of view, and finding causes and effects. We studied the Robert Burns poem Willie Wastle and used Scots wordbank sheets , dictionaries and the internet to work out what the Scots words meant. We showed we had understood the poem when we drew a picture of Willie Wastle’s wife and cat. We then wrote our own Scots poems about a “beastie” or animal, again using the Scots wordbank sheets and dictionaries to help. We are also working on the presentation of our writing by re-drafting our work and learning to join letters.

We are busy preparing for Parents Nights next week. We have been setting and evaluating our targets and identifying our next steps in learning. We have also done lots and lots of I-JournAL filing! We look forward to sharing our I-JournALs with our parents and carers soon.

We are delighted to announce that most of our Brown Trout eggs have hatched and have turned into alevins. We are doing a good job of looking after them and making sure their tank is cold. Amy from Forth Fisheries visited us and delivered another batch of alevins too – so now we have hundreds!

For the I-Solve morning with parents and carers, we focused on problem-solving strategies. We did some activities and games that required us to work with others to solve a problem. In Number Maths we looked at the 5 and 10 times tables. We discovered that the 5 times table is half of the 10 times table and this can help us to multiply bigger numbers by 5. In Topic Maths, we have been using our calendars and practising finding dates and working out durations of time in days and weeks.

In Language, we wrote a story about our personal experiences of a time when we have had to persevere at something. This linked to the “Value of the Month” for January – Perseverance. In Reading, we focused on identifying facts and opinions in texts.

Futsal has continued with Laura. We practised our dribbling skills and were competing against each other. Soon some P4s will be taking part in a Handball Festival with other schools so this week those involved had a practise session led by pupils from James Young High School. We now have our SHANARRI display up in the classroom – this shows lots of ways that we can keep safe, healthy and happy at home and at school.

Some of us performed at the Scottish Evening – and we were fabulous! Emma did some Highland Dancing, Hailey recited her Scottish poem and our drama group performed Address to the Toothache by Robert Burns.  In Art with Miss Trotter, we started our wave paintings using shades of blue.

Our Skype session with our partner school in Mumbai was a big success! One of our groups presented their poster about saving water, as did a group from P4b. The children in India also presented their work and posters on saving water. It was fantastic to see them and talk to them in real life!

We are pleased to announce that we have now received the brown trout fish eggs and they are in our tank! Forth Fisheries delivered the eggs last week and it is now our job to look after them! We have to keep the water cold and we do this by using bottles of ice which we change twice a day. We are looking forward to seeing them grow…

One Day Creative, the drama company, worked with us on Robert Burns’ birthday, 25^th January. We took part in a half-day of drama workshop about the life of Robert Burns and Burns Night. We practised our dancing and acting skills and worked together with others. At the end of the day we teamed up with P4b to present a short play to the rest of the school.

We have been learning the Robert Burns poem Address to a Toothache with Mrs Thomson our drama teacher. Some of us will be performing this at the Scottish Evening soon. Well done to our finalists in the P4 Scottish Poetry competition – Hailey, Rocco and Patrick. We are so proud of you all!

In Maths, we have been focusing on developing our problem-solving skills. We have been exploring different strategies for solving problems and working with our peers to share ideas and support each other.

In Futsal, we have continued to practise a variety of skills and we are now playing mini-games. Team spirit is important! We are getting better at participating calmly in our meditation and yoga sessions. We are focusing on our breathing and holding poses for longer.

In Science, we carried out an experiment to see what solids dissolve in water. We made predictions and then tested these out.

We have now finished our posters about saving water and have been presenting these to an audience in our groups. We will soon be sharing our learning with our partner school in Mumbai when we hold a live Skype meeting. One group from our class will present to the children in India in an online meeting and we look forward to seeing their presentations too.

In Maths we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We have been discussing their properties and sorting them into groups. We have learned about quadrilaterals and regular/irregular 2D shapes. Our homework for next week is to find an object at home that is a 3D shape and bring it in to show the class. Also we have been working on developing our strategies for subtraction – using number lines, friendly numbers and number bonds. We have had another lesson with the numeracy teacher Mrs Millar – we used bundles of straws to help us with understanding place value and subtraction.

Sadly, we had our last NYCOS Music lesson with Mrs Poynter. We have enjoyed learning musical notes, reading/writing music and playing lots of games and singing lots of songs.Thanks Mrs Poynter! We had our first Futsal lesson for P.E. where we practised our dribbling skills  and quick turns. We had to work closely with our team to compete in some fun games. We have begun a block of drama lessons with the Drama Teacher, Mrs Thomson. We made puppets of our favourite characters and next week we will work in pairs to make a puppet show. In R.M.E. with Mrs Cameron, we have been revising the Christmas story and turning it into a drama sketch. In our groups we are retelling the Christmas story in the form if news reports for Star News and we will be filming these next week. Some of us made scenery and props at home for our drama sketches. Also in R.M.E this week we learned about a Hindu baby naming ceremony and we are busy making a poster for our display. In our Water Topic, we learned about the importance of using water wisely. We discovered lots of ways to save water at home and at school and we will be making posters and presentations about this soon. We read a book about making mistakes and how everyone does this and mistakes are important for learning. This should help us with developing our Growth Mindset.

In Language, we wrote our Road Safety Ziggy stories. We focused on adding connectives and wow words. Next week we will write out these stories and illustrate them  and then read them to P1. The comprehension strategy we are working on at the moment is identifying cause and effect – we will continue next week.

We have begun opening our class advent calendars and we are looking forward to lots of Christmas activities next week like the Christmas lunch and the trip to the cinema!