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!

What a spotty week we have had in P4a! We have enjoyed dressing up in spots for Children in Need and helping to raise money for this charity. We had a competition to design either a pair of spotty wellies for Pudsey, a spotty bow for Blush or a spotty t-shirt. At Golden Time we made Pudsey and Blush puppets. We enjoyed the assembly and disco – well done and thank you to P6 for organising. We also spent time finding out about the charity and how it helps children. We discussed why some children might need some help and found out about some of the projects and children the charity has helped.

For Anti-Bullying Week, we watched some films about bullying and reviewed some presentations. We talked about what bullying means, different types of bullying and what to do if you, or someone you know, is being bullied. We also considered why some people might become bullies. We made posters about these issues to display around the classroom.

In Language we have been practising joining sentences together to make longer and more interesting sentences using different joining words (or connectives). We have also continued with our poetry theme and written poems about the “Value of the Month” – Peace. We are looking forward to Book Week next week.

In Maths we have continued investigating and exploring symmetry, especially shapes and patterns with more than one line of symmetry. We have completed an assessment activity for our I-JournALs. We have also continued exploring addition strategies – this week focusing on using number bonds to help us add bigger numbers (e.g. 5+3=8 so 45+3=48) and drawing number line diagrams to help us add numbers that bridge a multiple of 10 (e.g. 78+6).

In Topic we have begun learning about climate zones around the world while developing our skills in listening for information. In Health we are continuing to develop a growth mindset and this week were discussing what effort in our learning means. In P.E. we began playing games of Handball in teams – great fun! We have also been out in the playground and begun a mini-topic on Playground Leadership. We are going to be working in teams to develop new playground games. In Music we are learning about pitch and how to read music.