December 2022
The pupils hard work this block has meant they are ready for a much needed rest over the winter holidays.
Literacy
In Literacy, we have been exploring visualisation and settings and using this to help us to create stories that come to life. The pupils have been able to use their five senses to describe different settings. They have also been exploring the use of similes and how this can help the reader to visualise and understand the image the writer is trying to create. When reading at home you can help support the children by focusing on the language and descriptions writers use to describe characters and settings as this will continue to support them when creating their own stories.
The pupils used all their knowledge of plot writing, characterisation and setting description to create a story about sneaking down on Christmas morning to find something had gone terribly wrong!
"I liked when we got to write our own story and use our imagination to create an interesting story" Cameron
"I liked we had a choice to decide if it was going to be funny, scary sad and got to create our characters along the way." Adam
"I like that the reading questions are the perfect level of challenge." Zander
" I liked creating our own Christmassy themed stories as we got to be very creative." Janvi
Numeracy
In this block in numeracy we had a theme of fractions with two of our groups exploring them. The groups have been working to explore where fractions fall on the number line, how to find equivalent fractions, find the simplest form and compare fractions. They have all been working hard with this and have been able to join in with our pizza station tuff tray which has helped them to visualise the different fractions.
Our other maths groups have been working on their 3 and 4-digit addition and subtraction. They have been working with a range of questions including two-step word problems and missing numbers to help to challenge them. The pupils can identify when a question requires them to add or subtract along with when they need to carry or exchange numbers.
"I think that in maths I found I struggled before but after Miss Mercer taught me the box method for multiplication it has been much easier to solve the question." Finlay McE
"I liked the word problems because we got to identify which operation we had to do to find the answer." Zander
"I found carrying and exchanging tough but with help, I was able to get the answers." Adam
"I liked that during the morning starters for maths as we got to explore large calculations multiplying by two digits. I like the challenge of it." Murray
"I like that usually after the summer holidays I forget how to do chimney sums but Miss Mercer has helped me to remember how to do them." Jonathan
"I found addition and subtraction difficult but Miss Mercer was there to help me." Cameron
"I like our morning starters in maths as Miss Mercer chooses different people to answer and we go over all the different strategies that you can use to solve the problems." Charlotte
Christmas Party
The pupils' had their dancing shoes on and were ready to party! P4/5 and P5s had their party together where they got to dance and join in with different games. The pupils joy and excitement was clear to see they seemed to thoroughly enjoy their time dancing and then the snacks and juice afterwards. There was a surprise of some new books when they arrived back in class and some of them immediately jumped into reading.
"I found the Christmas party really fun and I liked all the games and snacks." Noor and Adam
"I liked the Christmas party because it was fun." Fatima
"It was fantastic I absolutely loved it because of the juice and different types of games." Sarah
STEM ambassadors
The school was very lucky to have some STEM ambassadors from Morgan Stanley visit on Friday. They were able to teach the pupils about coding and the children even got to create some coded instructions for a Minecraft character to follow and move. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed this and were very engaged and respectful to the visitors.
"I liked the Minecraft programming because we got to do it in our own time and it was really fun to make the characters move." Murray
"I liked it because I liked coding, I found it hard because some coding might be hard but I still enjoyed it." Janvi
"It was fun finding new codes to make the characters move." Oliver
Volcanoes research
The pupils have been working hard to research facts about a volcanic eruption case study using the Chromebooks. They have had to choose how they will share this information with the class along with identifying the key pieces of information to include in their presentation. The pupils will be presenting their research to the class and then any posters or leaflets will go up on the wall for everyone to be able to see.
"I liked doing the research because I liked making the sway and it was fun to research." Adam
"I found it fun because we got to work together in our pairs to make our sways or powerpoints to show our findings from the volcano research." Finlay McE
"At first I found it tricky but then I started finding some good facts and put it in my sway and it turned out really good." Charlotte
"I found it fun because we got to work with people we don't usually work with." Zander
