Welcome to Primary 4 / 5 class. This term the boys and girls are loving their new topic of ‘Polar Lands’. The classroom has a range of non-fiction books related to this topic which they enjoy using to research facts. Work will focus on animals within these habitats, the geography related to these areas of the world, scientific explorers who have visited in the past as well as many scientific experiments to explore the regions.  

In Literacy the children are exploring the novel ‘The Penguin Who Wanted to Find Out’ by Jill Tomlinson. They will investigate, character, setting, plot related to the story as well as learn about the grammar and authorial techniques used by the author.  

One of the main writing genre the pupils will focus on is writing Report texts. They will also explore a range of report texts as well as non-fiction books in modelled, shared and guided reading. Comprehension strategies related to this topic will be exploring Fact & Opinion and literal comprehension – retrieval.  

In Numeracy the pupils will revise and become familiar with subtraction, including mental strategies as well the written process with decomposition.  Money will also be a topic for this term, related to addition and subtraction as well as use of coins / notes. The children will continue to focus on place value to 999 and 9999 for some Primary 5 pupils. Pupils continue to develop quick recall of the times tables facts 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and will develop further the link to division.  

ICT lessons, Personal Development and Mutual Understanding sessions as well as PE and music, drama, art lessons are ongoing with lessons related to topics, literacy and numeracy.  

In religion the boys and girls follow the Grow in Love programme. Over the coming months many of the children will also spend some time preparing for their sacrament of First Holy Communion on Saturday 31st May.  

Shared Education visits commenced on 28th January with Millburn boys and girls coming to visit St. Malachy’s. The pupils enjoyed ice breaker games, the use of the Parachute and iPads to develop Coding skills. Further visits are planned throughout the year.   

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