2D shapes and 3D objects

We are learning about 2D shapes and 3D objects this week in maths.  We are thinking about how the faces of a 3D object are made up of 2D shapes and using this to help us create ‘nets’ of shapes.  We began today by trying to make some 3D objects out of playdough. It was really difficult to get the shapes accurate and to have faces the correct shape. 

 

 

After a while we decided to move onto using paper.  Miss Shearer gave us the challenge of making a square based pyramid out of paper.  It was even harder!  In fact some of us thought it was impossible!  We tried our best but again, we didn’t manage to make a very accurate shape so we then went on to use a ‘net’. This made our models much more accurate but it was still very challenging!  We are going to use squared paper to create some more nets and they will be even more accurate. 

Improving our stamina and skills.

In class gym we are using a resource called ‘Cyber Coach’ to help us improve our fitness and also our skills in PE.  We have been working on some ‘body combat’ type moves these last two weeks and we have really been enjoying it.  It’s hard work as we have to follow instructions and moves from our ‘coach’ on the screen.  Miss Shearer also helps us by repeating the moves and instructions so we know what to do.  We found it tricky to begin with but we’ve realised practice makes perfect and are now seeing improvements in our stamina and skills from week to week.  We are enjoying seeing a difference and we quite like the cyber coach too! 

Parlez-vous francais?

This week we have continued our learning in French.  We have learned how to say some simple greetings in French and have been trying them out on each other!  We can say ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’ and can ask and answer the question ‘how are you?’.  We are working on our pronunciation too.  It’s hard work trying to remember all the different greetings but we are really enjoying it.  We are going to learn how to say the numbers, days of the week and months of the year too.  Ask us to speak to you in French at home – see how we get on! 

Au revoir!

Doodlebug Instructions.

Today we were learning how to write a set of instructions.  To help us with our learning we made doodlebugs!  We went through the whole process of organising our equipment, measuring our ingredients and actually making the doodlebugs.  Then we wrote out a set of instructions or a recipe for making doodlebugs.  We had to think of a title, an opening sentence, a list of equipment, the method and a closing sentence directed at the reader.  It was quite a lot to remember and think about.  We all agreed that actually making the doodlebugs helped us write a much clearer set of instructions, of course it had nothing to do with the delicious aroma of chocolate in the classroom!  As our writing was so good we were able to take a doodlebug home to eat!  A great writing activity!    

Number Bond Blitz!

This week we are improving our number bond skills and developing our understanding of increasing numbers by 10 and 100 and how we can use our number bonds to help us.   We have made good progress with this and can do calculations such as 9,000 + 8,000 by using our knowledge of 9 +8!  We've been doing a variety of different activities to help us with this.  Any practice of number bonds at home will also help us with our understanding and accuracy in this area.

Mapping the World!

As part of our learning in our ‘Around the World’ topic we have been ‘mapping the world’!  We began by colouring in the countries which we visited in our ‘families’ and then we coloured in the key countries we should know and also countries we have visited on holiday.  It was very interesting and we were very good at identifying the countries on the map and were also good at knowing their capital cities.  Test us at home to see what we know! 

 

 

Tracking our Learning in P5

We have started to use our learning jotters and 'P5 Skills' Wall.   We are hoping to develop our skills in the four capacities and be able to see the progress we are making throughout P5.  We are using booklets with the different skills on them and deciding which ones we have developed and what evidence we have for this.  We enjoyed doing this for our ‘Roald Dahl Day’ and we were able to pinpoint the skills we had developed.  We will hopefully have a few things in our Learning Jotters before the end of term and will be sending them home for everyone to have a look at!

Roald Dahl Day at SPS

Roald Dahl Day at SPS

P5 and P6 celebrated Roald Dahl day on Tuesday with a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed day.

Some pupils dressed up! 

We started the day with an activity called Chocolate Creations.  Both classes mixed up and formed 8 chocolate inventing teams.  The task was to design and make a brand new chocolate sweetie.  We had to package our designs too by making a wrapper.

We thoroughly enjoyed this activity and had to use a lot of self control to not gobble up all the sweeties!!!  

 Above:  First look at the chocolate factory.  Amazing! 

Right:  Getting into our groups and making a start on planning our new sweetie.  Tough decisions - what ingredients to choose and what to call it!!! 

                                                            Left and below:  Groups getting started on making their

 chocolates.

Lots of creativity and imagination being used here! 

 

We were so relieved to see that our chocolates turned out well when they had set.  We managed to get them out of their moulds with little difficulty!  Phew! 

Here are our finished sweeties!  We were so proud of them! 

Below: here are our finished packaging designs with our sweeties inside.

 The Taste Test!  

We couldn't wait to get munching on our chocolates.  

Mr McIntosh was the first to taste test one of the groups sweetie!  He very nearly broke a tooth on a piece of toffee hiding inside!  Oops!  

I wonder if Aimee is enjoying her chocolate?  Is it a face of delight or a face of horror???

We also tuned into the online show from Puffin Virtually Live.  Helen Skelton presented a 30 minute show dedicated to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Michael Rosen was interview and we had to listen carefully to what he was saying as we were completing a quiz later which would include some of the information he was telling us about. 

We also took part in a virtually live draw along with Sir Quentin Blake - illustrator of the Roald Dahl books.  We all had a go at drawing Willy Wonka in the style of Quentin Blake.  We have displayed our drawings outside our classrooms - come and have a look! 

We ended the day with a Roald Dahl themed quiz.  We demonstrated a super knowledge of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book and original film as well as other Roald Dahl books.

What a busy day!  

Kakatsisi Drummers

On Wednesday we were very lucky to have a visit from the fantastic Kakatsitsi Drummers all the way from Ghana.  They performed for the whole school first and we got to hear some great rhythms and heard about the different types of drums they play and about how they work together in the group.  Then P5 and P6 were very lucky to have a workshop with them for the rest of the afternoon.  We all got the opportunity to play a drum and learned different drumming patterns.  It was an excellent opportunity and great fun too.  Then we had a dance lesson from Cynthia who taught us some excellent moves.  It was very energetic and we were rather hot and sweaty by the time we finished but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We hope they come back to visit us again.  Miss Shearer didn’t manage to take many photos as she was busy joining in, as did Miss Kelday, Mrs Bevan and Mr McIntosh  There are a few photographs and Miss Kelday managed to take a video which we will link to this blog soon!

Our Dynamic Earth Timelords

Today we were very lucky to have a workshop with Dynamic Earth.  We heard all about Scotland’s ‘Time Lord’s’ and how, thanks to them, we know how old the world is.  We heard about their research and got to take part in some activities which helped us to understand about the formation of rocks better.  We also got to test if the classroom was radioactive and got to hold the oldest rock in the world!  We found out this rock comes from Australia and that Australia is the oldest continent in the world!  We made a human timeline to show when different events happened on our planet and were most disturbed to find we were holding fossilised dinosaur poo!

 It was a very interesting workshop which will all enjoyed a lot!  Here are some pictures of us busy experimenting and researching!

 

 

 

Active Maths

We have been working on our times tables in maths since we came into Primary 5 and Miss Shearer is impressed with how speedy we are at our tables.  We have been doing lots of active games and activities to help us recall our table facts quickly and accurately and over the last two weeks we have become much quicker at the facts – practice makes perfect!  We’re going to move onto working with money next week but it will be important to keep practicing times tables at home to keep us recalling them quickly! 

Here are some pictures of us playing a game earlier this week.  It was good fun using the spinners to make up multiplication sums! 

Around the World

Today we had an interesting afternoon!  Miss Shearer put us into ‘families’.  We had to decided who was who in each family and what our family surname was. 

We created ‘profiles’ about our characters and thought carefully about what our character liked and disliked and who the rest of their family were.  Then Miss Shearer delivered a letter to each group.  The letter was from the World Travel Company and told us our family had won a trip Round The World! 

 

 

We had to choose 3 countries we wanted to visit.  This was tricky!  We had so many places we that we were interested in it was hard to narrow it down to just 3 but we managed.  Now we are busy researching these countries and capital cities and finding out facts and information about them and the kinds of things we can do when we visit them!  Watch this space for the next part of our adventure!