This board will be our weekly digital window into the classroom. Every Friday, I’ll update it with a recap of what we’ve been learning, highlights of the children's fantastic work, and key reminders for the week ahead.

If you ever have any quick questions or need to get in touch, feel free to reach out!

I’m looking forward to a brilliant year working with our Primary 5's!

Miss Mackay x

PE will be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I would appreciate if children could come into school in their PE kit on these days!

We are also planning to have some outdoor learning time every second Monday so if you could make sure children have appropriate clothing (jackets, shoes) for this!

Thank you!

Miss Mackay x

I am planning on doing a lot of STEM work and building challenges with the class this year to start their use of critical thinking and other Meta Skills that we teach in school!

If you have any empty cereal boxes, cardboard boxes, toilet roll tubes etc that could be used for building things, please send these in with the children as this would be a great help to get all the resources we can!

I am also planning on entering the children in a STEM competition which is very exciting, I will put the flyer above if you would like to have a look.

Miss Mackay x

The children will be given spelling words each week with the aim to test their learning on a Friday, they will do a short spelling activity every day in class but I would appreciate if children could be learning their words at home too.

The children will have their words copied down in their spelling jotter but I will also include the spelling lists on Padlet each week too!

We encourage children to use the Look, Cover, Write, Check method and I have also included a range of spelling activities in the grids above which children should aim to tick off as the year goes on.

Thanks!

Miss Mackay x

See home learning Padlet section for more info on this.

Thanks,

Miss Mackay x

We will be moving on to revise addition and subtraction with written and mental strategies.

Topical Maths:

As well as our numeracy, primary 5 are looking at shape and geometry, exploring shapes and angles and looking at where we can identify these in the real-world!

Sumdog will also be available for your child to use at home. Passwords will be sent out ASAP, once we have it up and running in school!

The children were given the opportunity this week to plan what they already know and what they would like to learn more about which I will take into consideration when planning!

This is an exciting topic with lots of science experiments, artwork and hopefully some visitors to our class too. I hope the children are as excited as I am!

As previously mentioned I am planning on doing a lot of STEM work and building challenges with the class this year to start their use of critical thinking and other Meta Skills that we teach in school!

I am also planning on entering the children in a STEM competition which is very exciting, I will put the flyer above if you would like to have a look.

French:

We have been doing daily French sessions each morning where we have been revising topics such as weather, numbers, the date, birthdays and colours. We are starting to look at food and are going to be spending a little more time working on some roleplay - creating our own cafe dramas with handmade props and hope to perform these to the class at some point using our knowledge of French foods as well as our conversational skills!

We are going to be doing a big block of creative writing to begin the term, we have been looking at a few non-fiction texts such as the Harry Potter, The Worst Witch, Mystical Creatures and also reading 'The Enchanted Wood' (The Magic Faraway Tree) as our class novel and have been really enjoying using this as inspiration for coming up with our own ideas in the fantasy genre. We are going to continue this work by writing our very own chapter for 'The Enchanted Wood' and then moving on to write our own creative story. I am also planning on entering the children into the BBC 500 words competition as part of the creative writing.

Spelling:

We will work on a new spelling rule each week and the children will be given spelling words which they will have the opportunity to learn in class as well as practising at home!

Reading:

The children have really been enjoying our class novel 'The Enchanted Wood' which we have been reading every day as well as using it as inspiration for our writing lessons. We also have reading groups in class that meet with Miss Mackay every Monday to read a chapter of our book and to discuss what we have previously read. Based on our reading, each child will get a varied task each to complete, tasks include 'write a summary of what you have just read', 'write what you think might happen next in the book', 'find 5 words you don't recognise and find the meaning of these words', or 'pick a character and write a description of this character' as well as a few other tasks.

Primary 5 also have lots of opportunities for reading for enjoyment in class. The children are able to select books from our class library as well as our bigger school library, or can bring a book in from home if they prefer!

At the beginning of Primary 5, we created a class charter based on the UN Rights of the Child, we agreed on some rights that we thought were important and some values that we wanted to instil in our class throughout the year!

Primary 5 are currently learning about the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators and the importance of these in our lives. We are working through each of these individually and exploring what each one means to us as an individual.

PE:

PE will be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, please remember to send your child to school in PE kit on these days.

This term we will be working on fitness as well as field games which will work on fine motor skills as well as general teamwork and class bonding!

Children should be practising these words using the 'Look Say Cover Write Check' method and choosing at least one spelling activity from the grid in the home learning section!

Thanks,

Miss Mackay x

Above I have attached the home learning grid for term 1. On it there is some 'must do' tasks and some optional 'could do' tasks. I will continue to post the spelling words each week on to padlet and the spelling tasks grid can be found under the home learning section on padlet! I will also post some useful links below that are mentioned in the grid. Happy home learning :)

Useful Links:

General | Primary 5 Miss Mackay (class teams page for home learning)

https://onceuponapicture.co.uk/the-gallery/

2nd level climate research project - Copy.docx

https://freetimewiththekids.com/kids-science-experiments-using-water/

Science Experiment report write up.pdf

Color 40 Book Challenge Recording Sheet.pdf

Book Review Worksheet.pdf

Thanks,

Miss Mackay

Children should be practising these words using the 'Look Say Cover Write Check' method and choosing at least one spelling activity from the grid in the home learning section!

Thanks,

Miss Mackay x

We have dedicated forest time every other week as well as plenty of outdoor learning in other curriculum areas too! Our class novel ‘The Enchanted Wood’ (The magic faraway tree) also gives us some great role play opportunities! 🧚🏼

Children should be practising these words using the 'Look Say Cover Write Check' method and choosing at least one spelling activity from the grid in the home learning section!

Thanks,

Miss Mackay x

I will continue to use Padlet as the main communication for parents but be aware that the Teams page is now live too!

Thanks,

Miss Mackay x

Here's some extra activities that children could do to consolidate their reading at home!

Thanks,

Miss Mackay x