Mrs Sophie McAndrew
P5b have been working hard on writing character profiles on a planning sheet using a storyline approach. Pupils can create their very own Viking character!
What a wonderful and hardworking term we have had. As part of our ‘Our Community’ topic, Mariyah’s Mum very kindly visited P5 to explain how she helps support our local community in working for a race equality charity called SCOREscotland; it was fascinating to give our learning a real-life context. We learned how minority ethnic communities are supported in reporting instances of racism and how the charity helps to remove barriers by working alongside the police, MSPs and the council. It also gave us the opportunity to celebrate our diversity and how our uniqueness is what makes us special.
We have shown our creative thinking in producing impressive artwork inspired by the work of Wassily Kandinsky. We listened to ‘Mars, the Bringer of War’ from the ‘Planets’ by Gustav Holst and drew abstract designs in which we thoughtfully worked with a partner to take line, form, shape and colour into consideration to represent the various changes in the music. As you can see, we have created art that Kandinsky himself would be proud of.
Well done to everybody who has been practising their times tables, this has really helped us when we have been learning about multiples, factors and prime numbers. We also linked our learning with prior knowledge of Venn diagrams to show common multiples/factors and find the lowest/highest common multiple/factor. Continue to practise the grid method for multiplication problems and the formal column method to solve addition/subtraction problems. We had great fun writing on the tables to practise the grid method.
Recently, we have been learning to recognise and create different sized angles. We particularly enjoyed creating different angles using string and using our ‘Angle Eaters’ to find the right angles in the classroom.
In learning about volcanoes and earthquakes, we have been able to conduct various science experiments such as our STEM challenge to test structural designs for buildings in an earthquake and for example, our chemical reaction experiment in which we learned about parts of a volcano and how they erupt. We also had to work as part of a team to make a model seismograph in which we had to had to work cooperatively to fulfil the design brief.
Reading with a Buddy! Week beginning 7th October 2019
This week, Primary 5 were given the opportunity to read a book of their choice with Miss Stewart’s Primary 6 class. Everybody read to their buddy with great enthusiasm. In their reading pairs, the Primary 5s and 6s discussed their likes and dislikes about the Primary 5’s chosen reading book. They also asked questions about the plot and characters in the story. The chance to read aloud to a different audience was not only an enjoyable experience, but, enabled reading with fluency and expression to be practised. Both classes have been exploring Harry Potter novels, it was lovely to see a common interest in their learning and J.K. Rowling’s books proved to be a popular choice when the classes met. Continue to read aloud your books of choice at home, making it as interesting as you can for your audience.
Book Festival
During our first full week of term, P5 visited the Book Festival at Charlotte Square.
We met the author Thomas J. Clark, who has adapted the popular book ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ for the Scots language: ‘Diary O A Wimpy Wean’. We had a fantastic time discovering new words in the Scots language, attempted to beat Thomas in a Scots language quiz, performed part of the story on stage, and had the opportunity to ask questions. He was great fun! The walk there and back was long, but we represented our school well and even kept our spirits up in the heavy rain!
Drummond P5
Last week we had a trip to the breakfast club at Drummond Community High School. In the morning we were met by three of the S6 leadership team, who helped us travel to and from the high school. The breakfast was delicious. We could have second helpings and some of us even had thirds! The S6 pupils were fantastic too. They took us, in small groups, on a treasure hunt around the school. We got to see the science classrooms and spoke to some of the other teachers and pupils.
