Cookery group, persuasive letters and book boxes for 'Wild Readers'

What is a Wild Reader 

by Aneisha and Erin K.

A wild reader is someone who takes their reading to the next level. Like reading outdoors at places like the play park, Muddisdale and Wideford Hill.

A wild reader is also someone who reads different types of books like fiction, picture books and information books, and people who want to try reading books by different authors like Jacqueline Wilson ,Roald Dahl and David Walliams. A wild reader is someone who takes there book out whenever they have time to read without being asked. So that is what a wild reader is. Are you a wild reader?

Preparing our book boxes.

We continued today with preparing our presentations on multiplication. This can be tricky because its not just doing a sum but explaining how and why we use a strategy or a method, all the steps, useful advice, helpful hints - AND you need to confidently know your tables.

The most recent 10 point group chose to do a cookery activity. they made peppermint creams and drizzled them with chocolate. Mmmmm.

Today we also wrote a letter using persuasive language to Tesco, Lidl and the Co-op. 

We hope we will get a positive reply.

Mental Strategies for Addition

We have made a video to explain some of the mental strategies you can use for adding mentally. It is now added to the P5 Maths Channel where there are lots of videos about number at the P5 stage. This is quite a useful way of revising how to work things out in number and helps parents understand how we do it too. We hope you enjoy the video and find it useful. Explaining how to do something always helps us with our thinking when we are learning something new.

Volume and capacity

 We have been finding out about volume and capacity. As well as estimating and measuring litres and millilitres we made up some cuboid puzzles in 3 parts - it was surprisingly difficult to visualise how they could be put back together again!

 

Next week we will be starting to prepare for our class assembly and the School Fair which will be all about Fair Trade. Keep visiting the blog to see how we get on!

The Water Horse

We have been watching The Water Horse based on the novel by Dick King Smith. The author used traditional Scottish legends about kelpies and The Loch Ness Monster to creaste a story about a boy who finds a mysterious egg on the shore.

Now it is our turn to write our version of the Scottish tale. I wonder what kind of creatures will be in our stories? Who will the main character be? What will happen to them in the story? Stay tuned to find out!

 

In maths we have been estimating and measuring weight using a 2 pan balance, and recording grams and kilograms in different ways.

Meanwhile some of us have gone down to the Nursery for the last three weeks on Thursday afternoons to read to the youngest children in our school. Have a look at their blog here.

 

 

Times tables, solid shapes and crystals.

This term we are getting to grips with tables. Our aim is to be fast and accurate with the 6,7,8 and 9 times tables - alongside the simpler ones we already know. In fact we already know quite a lot of these tables becasue if you know the 2x table you already know 6x2, 7x2, 8x2 and 9x2.

 

Finishing off a tables session with a number quiz.

 Now that we know all about flat shapes and can name and describe them we are exploring solid shapes and their properties.

 

Using a kit to make nets for 3D shapes.

 Marion Ashburn came in to share her shape models with us. She is interested in how flat shapes and solid shapes fit together and has made some amazing models explore and find out about them.

 

The Crystals group have prepared a new solution for a second type of crystal - we are looking forward to seeing how it grows.

Scientists at work!

Viking board games

The Vikings loved board games. A famous one is called Hnefatafl and spread all over Europe wherever the Vikings went. It was the most popular game before chess.   Jarl Rögnvald Kali Kolsson, boasts about his skill at Tafl in the Orkneyinga Saga, so it was most probably played here in Orkney during Viking times.

We have invented our own board games using chequerboards and playing pieces.

 

 

Making maths movies

We know the best way to find out if we understand something is to see if we can explain it to someone else. This is what we have been trying to do in number at the end of our place value topic.

We have recorded a few of the explanations for our maths channel which you can see below and you can find the maths channel on the sidebar.

How to set up a tent

Today we wrote instructions which explained how to put up a tent or how to make a free standing shelter with a ridge pole. First we had to  the success criteria for the instruction writing then we went outside to put up the tent and make the shelters (remembering what we did that was successful for later!).

Making the free standing shelters.

 



Putting up the tent.

The nice thing about putting up tents and making shelters is that you HAVE TO have hot chocolate with marshmallows when you have finished as a reward for all the hard work.

We can all fit in!

Some people worked really hard today, concentrating on getting the job done and thinking hard and persevering - well done! You have earned Learning Rule points. Throughout the day lots of people visited the tent and enjoyed being inside. Thanks to Mrs Humphries and the local Guides for allowing their tent to come to Glaitness for its second career. We will make good use of it!

Kakatsitsi

Kakatsitsi, the world famous drummers came to our school today and gave a performance and a drumming and dancing workshop.

Indigenous people website describes them like this:
'Their music takes traditional rhythms and chants from their own Ga tradition and those of a variety of other West African cultures, rearranging them in a modern and accessible way. Since 1996, Kakatsitsi have toured the UK 11times, working with a wide variety of festivals, arts centres and local authorities. The recent addition of a strong dance element, to complement the already outstanding drumming and singing components, has established Kakatsitsi as the leading African traditional group in the UK, with the leading Ga singers, drummers and dancers among their number'.

 

It was very energetic! We had to concentrate and listen very carefully to the rhythms and remember the dance moves and keep up! The video is quite long because we will be using it to help us with drumming and creating our own 'Trash' bands this term.

 

 

We started with the Scrapstore materials this afternoon!

 

 

Our Dynamic Earth and a story

 

Today we had a visit from 'Our Dynamic Earth' as part of the Science Festival.

We learned about 'Scotland's Time Lords' - how old the earth is and how Scottish scientists found out.

We saw dinosaur poo and a real meteorite from outer space!

 

 Here is our timeline:

We finished the day with a story from Ruth Kirkpatrick, and we thought carefully about what skills a good storyteller needs to have. These are skills we may need soon...