Welcome to Primary 4! 

Check out our page each week to see the wonderful learning that is happening in our class!

Our School Trip

Today we went to Fort Evergreen and we had a brilliant day. First we played in the castle. We went on swings, through tunnels, down slides and we even pretended to be pirates. Next we went on the zip line. It was so fast!! After that we played with some toy tractors and finally we got to see the animals. There were pigs, goats, sheep, bearded dragons, hedgehogs, alpacas, dogs and ducklings. We had great fun.

Equivalent Fractions

We have been learning about equivalent fractions. Some people in our class got half of a KitKat and some people got 2 quarters of a KitKat. We soon realised everyone had the same!! We then got the chance to play  a game to find even more equivalent fractions!!                                                                                    

Persuasive Writing 

In Literacy we have been learning about persuasive writing. We have learnt about the importance of emotive language, rhetorical questions, short sentences, bossy verbs and exaggeration, in trying to persuade people to do things. We were given a poster that was very plain and uninteresting. We worked in groups to present the information in an exciting way. We thought about the colours and the size of the font we used. We even added in some half-truths to make it more persuasive.

Penalty Shootout

First Holy Communion

I would like to congratulate all the Primary 4 boys and girls on receiving their First Holy Communion on the 25th of May. I am proud of all of you and the hard work you put in preparing to receive the sacrament. 

Times, Times, Times and Times.

We have been playing lots of games to help us remember the 2,4,5 and 10 times tables. We have also played some games to help us learn the 3 times tables this week.  

Calligrams

This week we have been learning about shape poems. We started to learn about shape poems through looking at shape words. These are words which are written like their meaning. Have a look at some of our work.  

Think Hats

We have been thinking about stories in different ways using our 'Thinking Hats'.

This is what we think of when wearing each hat:

• Yellow- Positives.
• Black- Problems.
• Green- Creativity.
• White- Thinking and ideas.
• Red -Emotions. 

Subtraction Subtraction Subtraction

We have been working on our column subtraction skills. We got to play games this week to help us practice our skills. Have a look at our pictures to see how much fun we had. 

Capacity

This week P.4. have been working very hard to learn how to estimate, compare and measure different capacities. We first got to estimate the capacity of a number of different containers. We then had to use our thinking skills to help us order the bottles from smallest to largest. We discovered that some bottles can look different but have the same capacity. 

Next were given a recipe. We had to follow the recipe and measure out the correct amount of diluted juice to make our own special juice. We had to work in our teams, take turns, share, cooperate with others and listen to each other. We really enjoyed this and our juice was very tasty too.

May is the Month of Mary

We have worked hard to create a lovely May altar in honour of Mary during this month of May. Have a look at all our lovely artwork in the pictures below. 

Cheeky Chimps on the Motorway

This week we have been learning about reports. We got a chance to pretend to be on the news and report a story about cheeky chimps escaping onto the motorway and causing havoc. We all enjoyed this and some people even got to pretend to be witnesses. The reporter had to interview the witnesses and the witnesses had to talk about what they seen.

Prediction and Questioning 

This week we have been working really hard to develop our comprehension skills. We have been taking on different roles when carrying out guided reading tasks. We have been predictors, clarifiers, questioners and summarisers. We really enjoyed doing this and we even got to wear special lanyards to help us remember our job.

We also used comprehension cubes. These are special cubes with questions on each side. We got to roll the dice and then answer the question about the story. This helped us to understand the stories we were reading. It was also helpful as we got to listen to other people’s ideas and learn from them too.

Compound Nouns 

This week we had great fun learning about compound nouns. We sang a song and clapped our hands to make compound words. We played a matching game, with our partners, where we had to match two small words to make a compound word. We also played a game where everyone had one word. We had to walk around the classroom and find someone who had the matching word to make a compound noun. We hope to use what we learnt about compound nouns to help us spell. 

Full stops

This week we have been working hard to correctly use full stops in our writing. We watched a video to help us understand when to use full stops. We played a fun game where we pretended that pompoms were full stops and we punctuated a paragraph using pom poms. 

Small Differences

We have been learning how to subtract numbers with small differences. We were surprised to learn that we can subtract large numbers like 986 from 987 easily in our heads.  Have a look at some of our work!

 4 Times Tables

This week we have been learning the 4 times tables. We have been playing lots of games to help us understand them and recall the answers quickly. We have also been singing a song to help us remember them.

You can find the song at this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ue9Kux95H0

You can find the words to the song below.

Right Angles

CH and TCH

This week we have been learning the 'ch' sound. We discovered that there are two ways to write this sound- tch and ch.

We watched a video from Nessy to help us remember when to use tch and when to use ch. (You can watch the video too and see what we learnt- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW7_tssT1XU.)  We found this video really useful in helping us to spell, although we still had to learn the exceptions to this rule. We then got to play a game to practise using these rules. We had great fun working with our partners to play this game.

Water Bus

This week we had a visit from the Water Bus. The Waterbus is a double decker bus, which has been transformed into a mobile education unit. We learnt a lot about how water is treated to make it safe for us to use. We also learnt how much water is used in different daily tasks, for example, one toilet flush can use up to 11 litres of water! We each got a reusable water bottle to help us look after our environment. We really enjoyed the Water Bus/

World Book Day

We had such a wide range of characters in Primary 4 for World Book Day. It was so exciting.  To celebrate World Book Day we took part in a sponsored 'ReadOn' and we read our favourite book for 20 minutes. We then got a chance to tell the rest of the class about our favourite book. We also designed our very own book covers.  

Wonderful Weight 

In primary 4 we have been learning about weight. We got a chance to explore different house hold items to estimate, compare and measure their weight. We had great fun trying to estimate the weights of things. We have also been learning about grams and kilograms and how to convert between the two. We really enjoyed doing this and hope we can use our skills to help us weigh out the correct ingredients the next time we bake.

Drawing the reader in!

This week in literacy we talked about how to make our writing interesting to draw the reader in. We talked about the importance of describing the sensual elements of the story setting to help the reader visualise the story and to make them interested. We took a sensory walk round the school and thought about what we could hear, see, feel and taste as we walked round the school. We had some wonderful ideas. Some people talked about hearing the 'water droplets running down the grass'. Others talked about the 'rickety feel' of the branches around the school and hearing the loud rumble of the fan. We all agreed that these descriptions were much more exciting and interesting than just writing 'I walked outside'.

Fractions Frenzy

This week we have been learning lots about fractions. We learnt about denominators, numerators and what the different numbers in a fraction mean.

Have a look at the pictures to see the games we played to help us understand fractions.

Division, Division, Division!

This week we learnt about division. We discovered that when we divide we split the large number into equal sized groups. We got a chance to divide groups of cubes and pop poms into smaller equal sized groups. This helped us to understand what happens when we divide. We also played some games on the interactive whiteboard to help us visualise what happens when we divide. We started to learn how to use our times tables to help us work out the answers to division questions quickly and easily. We also started to learn about remainders too. It has been a very busy week. 

Making maths easy with partitioning

In maths we have been learning how to partition to help us subtract single digit numbers from 3 digit and 2 digit numbers. We played lots of games to help us practise our skills. We even made a video to explain it. We love using this strategy to help us with our maths. 

Marshmallow and Spaghetti 3-D shapes

Internet Safety Day

Tuesday 5th February was Internet Safety Day. To celebrate this we listened to a story about a boy, called Ben, who had just received a new tablet from his granny. In this story Ben had a lot of choices to make about how to safely use his new tablet. The P.4. pupils were a great help to Ben and they were able to help him make the safest choice.

We created some internet safety rules and decided to make posters to warn other boys and girls of the dangers of the internet and tell them how they can stay safe. We also learnt a song to help us remember how to be safe when we are using different gadgets that connect to the internet.

3-D shapes

This week we have been doing some work on 3-D shapes. We worked hard to distinguish between the faces, edges and corners of 3-D shapes. We played lots of games to help us practise our skills and develop our ability to visualise the 3-D shapes. Developing our ability to visualise 3-D shapes is important to help us identify and count the number of different features that 3-D shapes have, even when the shape isn't in front of us. 

5 Times Tables

This week we have been learning the 5 times tables. We have been playing lots of games to help us understand them and recall the answers quickly. We have also been singing a song to help us remember them.

You can find the song at this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrk70Fhad8

You can find the words to the song below.

Remember to keep practicing.

Library 

On our visit to the library this week we got a chance to learn about non-fiction books. We learnt that they are organised using the Dewey Decimal System. We played a game where we were given a picture of a book and we had to figure out where we would find it in the library. We got to take a non-fiction book home with us this week. We had great fun learning lots of different facts when reading them.

Sound Families

This week we have been playing lots of phonic games to help us remember the different sounds. This will help us to spell and read. One game we played was 'Find your family'. In this game we each got a sound card. We then had to race around the classroom to try and find the other ways our sound can be written. We had a lot of fun. 

Chocolate Rice Krispie Buns

As part of our WAU topic we got the chance to make some lovely buns. We loved the smell of the melted chocolate and the taste of it too. We had great fun decorating our buns. Next week we are going to write the recipe for our buns.

Kilkeel Library

Today we got to visit Kilkeel library. This was great fun and we were so excited. We got a tour of the library, we completed a word search and then we got to check out two books to take home with us. We can't wait to start reading our new books. 

Explanation Writing

We created a display to help us remember the key features of an explanation text. This is bright and colourful and the burger helped us understand that explanation texts can have a different number of paragraphs depending on what the text is about, just like a burger can have a different number of fillings depending on who it is for. We can use this to help us remember what to include when we are doing our explanation writing. 

Bread Art

As part of our WAU topic food we experimented painting on bread. We used food colouring and milk to make the food paint. We then experimented painting different shapes and patterns on the bread. We created some lovely designs. We got to eat our creations. It was so yummy and fun.

Plural Nouns 

Christmas Toy Day

News Reporters 

This half term we are learning how to write explanation texts. This week we started by exploring explanation texts and becoming familiar with their purpose and features. We read an explanation text called ‘The Ants’. We then got into pairs and pretended to be news reporters and we reported the important information.

 Shopping time 

Our topic for this half term is food. As part of our learning in this topic we decided to set up a roleplay food shop area. We had a café, restaurant, fruit shop and a vegetable shop. We took turns to be the shop keeper and we pretended to buy different things from the shops. We had great fun. We practised making different amounts of money as we bought the different items. We also got a change to practise giving change.  We really enjoyed this hands-on learning and we are going to continue to practise using money at home.

Chinese New Year

As part of our topic Celebration we have been learning about Chinese New Year. We learnt about the history of Chinese New Year and discovered some of the traditions associated with the festival. We made Chinese Dragons and had a Chinese Dragon Dance.

Christmas Fun

We had some Christmas fun in Primary 4. We made Santa Claus and his elves. We even had a Christmas party and got to watch a Movie.

Adding 'ed' to verbs

Have a look at our videos to see the spelling rules we learnt. 

Instruction writing

Making Connections 

This week we were working on making connections between different myths. We read a myth called 'Thunder and Lightening' along with a myth called 'The Sun and the Moon'. We then worked together in groups to compare and contrast the two stories. First we matched up sentences from the two stories. We then used a Venn diagram to sort the sentences based on whether they showed similarities or differences in the myths. This helped us to develop our comprehension skills. 

2-D shapes 

This week we had great fun learning about pentagons, hexagons, octagons and nonagons.  We made these 2-D shapes out of playdough, gems and sticks. We also played shape snakes and ladders and another game called shape slap. 

Diwali

We made our very own salt dough candle holders to us help us remember that Diwali is the festival of light. This was a bit messy but lots of fun. 

Danceathon

Symmetry

We have been learning about symmetry in Primary 4. We first looked at lines of symmetry in 2-D shapes. We experimented folding 2-D shapes to find the line of symmetry. We then played some games on the interactive whiteboard to help us learn how to create a symmetrical pattern. We put our new knowledge into practice and created symmetrical patterns on T-shirts.

Rounding in Primary 4

We have been learning how to round numbers to the nearest 10. We learnt a rhyme to help us remember the rules. We then played some games with our partners to help us practice our new skills. After we finished playing the games we took turns to stand up in front of the class and explain which numbers we rounded up and which numbers we rounded down. We used our maths language to help us explain what we had learnt.

Measuring in P.4.

We have been developing our measuring skills in P.4. and we have been using metre rulers and 30 cm rulers to help us measure different objects around the room. We worked in groups and recorded our answers on our whiteboards. We also had to use our problem solving skills to find the distance round a ball and a cylinder. In our groups we came up with the idea of using string to measure around the curved objects and then measuring the length of the string using the metre ruler. We loved this lesson and had great fun working together in groups. 

Pirate hats

This week we made pirate hats. As a class we then wrote the instructons to help other people who do not know  how to make a hat. We used imperative verbs, time connectives, diagrams, numbered points, subtitles and a title to help us make sure our instructions were clear and easy to read. We also worked together to make a display of the key features of instruction texts. This will help us remember what we need to include when we do our independent instruction writing. Have a look at our pictures see our work. Try and follow our class instruction to make your very own pirate hat.

Fun in Maths 

In maths this week we have been working on adding two multiples of ten to make a 3-digit number. We have been carrying out addition sentences such as 60+80. We used partitioning along with our number bonds to 10 to help us make one of the numbers into 100 and then we added on what was left over. This helped us to add big numbers really fast. We used cubes to help us visualise what was happening. Then we played games with spinners to help us practice our skills. Ask us about it and we will tell you all about what we learnt.

Anti-Bullying Week

This week was Anti-Bullying Week. The focus this year was on showing respect to others. Primary 4 talked about how even though we are all different, we are all unique and special. We talked about the different ways we could show respect to others. We also talked about what sort of words could hurt other people’s feelings. We wrote these words on pieces of paper and threw theses hurtful words in the bin. We made a display to remind us to always show kindness and respect to others.

Instructional Writing

Our focus for this half term is instructional writing. This week we started to look at all the different types of instruction texts. Miss Cunningham gave us instructions on how to draw a stick man. They were very bad and hard to follow. Every stickman turned out different.  Then Miss Cunningham gave us really clear instructions on how to draw the stick man. She included diagrams too. These instructions were much easier to follow and they helped us to understand the importance of giving clear instructions. We then got a chance to look at instructions on how to make a windmill. We worked with our partners to find the key features of instructional texts. We found bossy verbs, adjectives, diagrams, time connectives and numbered sentences.

Mental Maths 

We have been brushing up on our mental maths strategies. We partitioned numbers and used the ‘Make A Ten’ strategy to help us add numbers together quickly. In the beginning we used counters and tens frames. This helped us to build up an image in our minds of what was happening so that when we don’t have counters to help us we can visualise what we are doing in our minds to help us carry out the calculation. Have a look at our pictures to see what we have been up to.

Dividing 

Primary 4 have been working on dividing numbers by 2. We started learning about division by splitting packets of sweets equally between all the people at our tables. We then used playdough to make different shapes and split them into equally into two groups. We also learnt about dividing through using cubes. We had a lot of fun and we even got to eat the sweets at the end.

Maths Week 

This week was Maths Week. We had a lot of fun doing maths activities. We played maths games in our class and then on Friday we were invited to the Primary 7 classroom to play games that the P.7. pupils made for us. The games were amazing and they helped us to practise all the skills we have learned so far this year. The P.7. pupils were so helpful, and they even gave us awards. We had great fun and would like to thank the P.7. boys and girls for all the effort they put in.

Buzzzzz

Thank you to Liam and Charlie who kindly brought in an abandoned wasps' nest for the class to see. This was really exciting and interesting.

3-D shapes 

Primary 4 have been learning the names for lots of different 3-D shapes. We have learnt about cubes, cuboids, spheres, triangular prisms and cones. We played shape bingo which was great fun. We also searched in the shape bag to try and pull out right shape without looking. 

Habitats around our school

As part of our topic WAU topic, Houses, Homes and Habitats, we explored the habitats around our school. We found lots of minibeasts who live in different places around our school. We talked about how they are all adapted to live in different environments. We used a tally chart to record the number of creatures we found each habitat. We had really good fun.

Leaf Rubbings

We looked at some materials that insects use to make their habitats. We explored the lines, shapes, colours, patterns and textures of leaves and twigs. We discussed what we could see with our friends and then created some leaf rubbings.

 World Mental Health Day

 World Mental Health Day was on Wednesday 10^th October. We all dressed in purple to raise awareness of the importance of looking after our mental health. In class we talked about how to deal with our emotions. We also made a worry box. This will help us to deal with our emotions as we can write down what we are feeling and put it into the box. We also played a game which helped us to talk about our emotions.

Conkers!

Conor Sloan very kindly brought some conkers into school to show the class. We put these conkers to good use and used them to play a fun time game. 

 Subtraction 

We have been looking at how to subtract two digit numbers using vertical subtraction. We started by using cubes to help us understand the concepts. We then we moved on to writing the sums down. We hope to learn lots more next week.  

Roald Dahl Day

All the children celebrated Roald Dahl Day by dressing up as characters from Roald Dahl’s books. The children were very creative and spent a lot of time making their costumes and coming up with imaginative ideas. Well done!

  What Roald Dahl characters can you find in our class?

Tiger Dead! Tiger Dead!

Primary 4 have been learning about the structure of a story using a story mountain. We read a story called ‘Tiger Dead! Tiger Dead!’ and in groups we picked out which part of the story was the introduction, build up, problem, resolution and ending. Then we had fun acting out the story using our story mountains to help us make sure we didn’t leave any parts of the story.

Material Madness

The WAU topic in Primary 4 this term is Houses, Homes and Habitats and already we have covered a lot of work.

We went on a walk around the local area to find out about the features of the houses. We also looked at different materials and talked about what they are used for in a house. We learnt about bricks, insulation, pipes, PVC, wood, wires and sandpaper. We even got to feel the materials! It was great fun. We then talked about the properties of the materials. We worked in groups to identify if the materials were smooth, rough, hard, soft, opaque or transparent.

Number Words

In Primary 4 we have been learning how to spell numbers up to 999. We had some very hands on active lessons to help us learn. We played some number- word matching games. We used hula-hoops and beanbags into make numbers up to 999 and then we tried writing the numbers in words. We also played donkey and tried to guess the word that was being spelt. We even played a number board game. Well done to all the primary 4 boys and girls who worked really hard.

Quick recall of addition facts to 20.

Primary 4 have been developing their addition skills this week. We have been playing lots of games to help us add numbers up to 20 really fast. We played an archery game, a ball game, a shooting game and snap. We even played a game called Funky Mummy on the interactive whiteboard. We had great fun.

Italiano Celebrazione

On Wednesday 26th of September we celebrated European Day of Languages. Italy was the chosen country for our class. We all dressed up in green, white and red just like the Italian flag! We had an Italian food tasting session and we learnt how to say to say hello in Italian. We also learnt about the festival called Carnevale di Venezia, which is world famous for its elaborate masks. We got a chance to make our own masks too.  

What's The Time Primary 4?