This week we have still been learning about fractions in maths. We have been ordering fractions and some of us have been learning about mixed numbers and improper fractions.

On Wednesday we were given a challenge to build a model of a rainforest shelter. We had to use only things you can find in the rainforest (branches, vines, leaves, moss etc.) and it had to be waterproof, keep out wild animals and fit two peolple. We had lots of fun and made some great shelters. Some people’s shelters didn’t stand up at first so they had to change their designs or the way the branches were held together.

We have been learning about classifying different living things and practiced putting animals into groups of vertebrates and invertebrates. We also learnt about the different features of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles.

We have been doing talks for homework and some people have presented theirs to the class already. They have all had lots of information and did a great job of remembering to speak clearly and to try to look at their audience.

Here are some photographs of us this week.

Here are some pictures of us this week.

On Wednesday P4/5 were making up our own rainforest Just So stories. Just so stories are stories that tell us how animals got some of their features, for example ‘How the Zebra got his Stripes’. The Just So stories are made up so it is not really how the zebras got their stripes.

This week P4/5 were learning about fractions. We were learning how to compare fractions.

P4/5 have been doing athletics at PE for the last 4 weeks. For the first week P4/5 were doing long jump, for the second week high jump and for the third week we were doing the 80m and the 150m in running. For the final week we were doing running and cricket ball throwing but not with real cricket balls.

It was sunny on Monday so we went outside to read our reading books.

Here are some pictures of P4/5 this week.

Blog by Maya

We are still very busy in P4/5.

In maths we were trying to decide whether you solve a word problem by adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. We had to sort different sums into columns then solve them. Now we have started to look at fractions. Some of us were very fast at putting a fraction wall together.

In writing we have been practicing using different connectives. VCOP stands for vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation and helps make our writing better. We wrote about a journey through the rainforest and tried to make our writing really descriptive.

We have been learning about rainforest animals and how they adapt to their environment. Spider monkeys have very long limbs and no proper thumbs to help them to swing through the trees. Jaguars have short, strong legs to help them climb and spots for camoflage.

We also looked at food chains and how they join together to make food webs. We thought that food chains should really be called food circles because when the animals die their bodies are broken down and the nutrients go back into the soil for the plants. We made our own food webs in the PE hall.

Today Ripley brought in some animal skulls and told us all about them. The carnivores had very sharp teeth. Lily has been doing lots of swimming and brought in one of her certificates.

Here are some pictures of our week.

From P4/5

At school this week we have made rainforest layers books. We found the information and we wrote about the rainforest. We are making our classroom into a rainforest. We are not finished yet. The layers of the rainforest are the emergent layer, the canopy, the understory and the forest floor.

In maths we have been dividing and in PE we were doing the high jump. We looked at the features of non-fiction books so we can find out more about the rainforest.

By Ripley, Henry and Matthew

P4/5 have had a busy start to the new term.

We have started our new rainforests topic by finding out where the rainforests are and making fact-files about some of the countries with lots of rainforest in them. The country with the most rainforest is Brazil and Nicholas and Oliver found out lots of information about it. Some rainforest animals have started to move into our classroom so we are going to have to make them a suitable habitat next week.

We have also been talking about adverbs. Adverbs usually end in ‘ly’ and they describe how we do something. Some adverbs are quickly, happily, slowly and enthusiastically.

We read a newspaper article about a space shuttle crash and thought about what you need to remember to put in an article. Then we wrote our own articles about a very special discovery in the rainforest!

In maths we have been finishing off our work on time and have been practicing working out how long things take and using different timetables. We had lots of fun with the TV guides.

Miss Reeves will put up some photos of our week once she has fixed the camera!

From P4/5

We have been very busy again this week!

It is science week and Nicholas’s dad came to teach us all about bacteria. We used clickers to answer questions on the whiteboard. We found out that some bacteria is good and that we have lots of it in our bodies. Then we grew bacteria from different places on our agar plates. We found out that there was the same amount of bacteria on our hands after we washed them as before but they are probably good bacteria. We also found out how we need to think to be scientists.

Today Nicholas’s mum came and taught us about DNA. Miss Reeves forgot to give us the camera so we had to tell her all about it! DNA is really important for living things.

Ripley did some great science experiments at home last week. He brought in honeycomb and showed us a video clip of his other experiment (http://youtu.be/F_TvE-PqA8Q).

Yesterday we went outside to make dens with P2/3. It was lots of fun and we had to work together and use lots of different things. Here are some photos of the dens and bacteria.

From P4/5

It’s been another busy week for P4/5.

In maths we are learning different methods of dividing quickly in our heads. Some of us are getting really good a halving big numbers. To divide a number by two you half it and to divide by 4 you can half it twice!

We are getting ready for science week and have been writing some experiment reports. You have to put them in different sections and describe things really well.

On Wednesday we had a Treasure Island workshop and learnt the moves that we are going to be using in the performance on the 18th of March. We had lots of fun and everyone was really impressed with how well we knew the songs. Now we’ll have to concentrate on learning the different moves.

On Thursday it was World Book Day and the whole school had to ‘drop everything and read’ whenever a special long bell went. We had to read in class, in the cloakroom, in the playground and even in the PE hall. We were also really lucky because Lorel’s gran and Ripley’s mum came in to read to us from their favourite children’s books. Lorel’s gran read some great poems in Scots and English and Ripley’s mum read from Through the Looking Glass.

Here are some pictures of World Book Day and also of some of the belts and trophies that we have won recently!

From P4/5

P4/5 have been as busy as ever and have been getting up to lots of different things since the February week.

Last week Miss Lindsay was teaching us and we had lots of fun with her. We wrote poems about a magic box with lots of weird and wonderful things inside. In science we looked at separating different things and learnt how to make a fair test and we also finished off our Fergusson portraits.

In maths we have been learning about time. We have been learning to tell the time on digital and analogue clocks and some of us have even been looking at the 24 hour clock.

This week we have been working on the laptops and using atlases to find out information about Scotland. We are going to be making booklets about Scotland for Miss Reeves to send to a teacher at a school in the Ukraine.

It is fair trade fornight and we had a really interesting talk about fair trade on Thursday. We thought about why people don’t always choose fair trade products and even got to taste some. They were really yummy and we all think it’s important for people to buy fair trade.

Here are some photos of the last two weeks in P4/5.

We have had another busy week in P4/5 (so busy that we didn’t manage to finish our blog post so Miss Reeves is having to help!)

On Monday we started to talk about time with Miss Lindsay and were learning all about the different units of time and how they connect to each other. It’s amazing how many seconds there are in an hour!

We have been learning about similes and made some great simile monsters. We wouldn’t like to meet a monster with teeth like razor blades or claws like cranes!

On Tuesday Sam the ranger came back to see the P5s and spoke to us about identifiying different birds. She brought lots of fun things like feathers, skulls and even an owl’s wing. We went outside and played some fun games to help us understand why we need to protect birds’ habitats.

We have all been thinking about our favorite places in Scotland so that we can make a class map with information about the places that are important to us. We have also been practicing our Treasure Island songs and found time to start our portraits in the style of J. D, Fergusson and also to finish our research into our famous Scots.

Nicholas’s dad wrote us a fun poem about a Haggis last week (you can see it in a comment on our blog post) and Caitlin T managed to find time to write one as well: We hope he likes it!

Haggis

Short, stubby

Running, hiding, helping

Playing in the hills

Food

Here are a few photos of our week. There are some of us with Sam the ranger and some of us making still images of scenes from our reading books. We had to decide what all the different characters were thinking at each point.