Pow Wow

Both primary 4 classes will be taking part in a “Pow Wow” programme.   This will involve them working with visiting specialist in drama, dance and art.  They are exploring the history of the “Blackfoot” people and their stories and beliefs.  They have learned about the stories of Raven and Thunderbird through drama and have been put into different teams of animals.  Which animal is your child? Next they will be creating artwork and images for those animals and a dance sequence. 

Rugby

On Thursdays the primary fours are developing their rugby skills.  They are working with a rugby coach to play tag rugby and work on teamwork and co-operation in a fun way.

Drama

We have been very lucky to be working with a visiting drama teacher to deepen our knowledge of the history of Tranent.

 8 and 1/2 project

We have all been waiting patiently for our gifts to celebrate our 8 1/2 movie birthday.  Yesterday they arrived in beautifully presented giftboxes which we enjoyed opening.  It was like Christmas again in our classroom!  We are looking forward to sharing the movies we choose with our families and friends.

 

 Shape

We have been learning about 2D and 3D shape.  We have explored nets of various shapes and using shapes to explore tiling.

 

Badminton Festival

This morning all P 4′s had a taster session of badminton in preparation for next weeks festival.  On Wednesday the 8th February all P4′s will be going to Ross High to take part in a badminton festival with other local schools.  The classes have all been developing their badminton skills in school over the last few weeks and are looking forward to attending this event.

 

African Drumming – January 17th

Both Primary 4′s took part in a 2 hour “African Drumming” workshop.  This was a fun, high energy workshop that the children really enjoyed.  They explored body drumming and had a bit of a dance.  They learnt about the drums, the way they’re played, their different names and African culture.  They worked on rhythms, rumbles and drum roles.

 Christmas

Miss Gillies and Mr Reid would like to wish all the children in P4 and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

                             Magnets                                           

In January we will be learning about magnets.  We will be looking at how they attract and repel and doing experiments to test various objects. Please look for as many objects that work using magnetism and bring them into class to share.

 

Ancient Egypt

Both Primary 4 classes have just finished learning about Ancient Egypt.  Please look at some of the things we have been learning about.

Scottish Book Trust

Primary 4B were invited to be in the audience for the awards ceremony at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.  We all had a fantastic afternoon and were very pleased when the book “Zac and the Dream Pirates” won in the 7-11 years old category. 

The Scottish Children’s Book Awards are Scotland’s largest book awards, judged by children. Both primary 4 classes are reading the 3 shortlisted books in class and will write book reviews on each book.  They will be asked to vote on which book is their favourite in January.  The P4 children are also developing their reading skills through book detectives.

Eight and a half project

Both primary 4 classes are taking part in the 8 1/2 project.  This is organised by the 8 1/2 foundation who work to introduce world cinema to children.   The classes have explored the website http://www.eightandahalf.org/ and discussed their experience of cinema and movies.   This week they have written letters to the project giving their opinions on the eight movies from across the world.  They have selected the ones they would like to get on their movie birthday.   The project is to celebrate their movie birthday (their eight and a half birthday).   The classes have found this very interesting and are now waiting on the delivery of their own special 8 1/2 gift of world cinema.

Primary 4B’s Assembly

On Thursday P4B presented some of the work they have done on Ancient Egypt to the rest of the school and their families.   They started by working together to generate some ideas they wanted to share and then selected the most frequent ideas. They then worked out which part they all wanted to say and picked some songs to sing.   The class made art work to support their ideas and learnt their words.   The results were a fantastic assembly which everyone enjoyed.   P4B and Miss Gillies would like to thank all the parents who helped the children learn their parts.      Well done P4B.                           

 

Visit to the National Museum of Scotland  

Both primary 4 classes went to the National Museum of Scotland to learn more about our current topic on “Ancient Egypt”. We were able to examine evidence from the past by handling artefacts and asking the question. ” What  can the objects left behind tell us about the people who lived in Ancient Egypt?”  We then explored the Ancient Egypt gallery and found out more facts about our topic.  Both classes had a fun day and learnt lots about the past!