We had a very informative and hands on time at Cornalees today. We were able to share some of what we had already learned about habitats with Peter (the ranger) and he also introduced us to food chains, reading keys and other habitat based facts.

The first thing we did was pond dipping. Look at our super techniques.

Look what we caught!

We used keys to find out what we had caught.

We went for a walk to see some other habitats.

We looked at some pitfall traps.

We tried some other sampling techniques.

The Christmas play on the 18th and 19th December is the only event that parents are invited to this year. There is no Christmas service. We began practising for the play this afternoon and scripts will be sent home soon.

Well done to Stewart, David and Joel who are all pupils of the week in P4/5. Stewart always includes everyone and is a consistently kind member of the class.

David's number work, in particular his table facts, are outstanding.

Joel is doing really well with his reading, putting in a lot of effort with his books.

Keep up the excellent work boys!

Parents night is Monday 17th November. Appointment times will be issued in the next few weeks. As always I am more than happy to see any of you after school, before school or on another day that is more convenient for you. Please let me know and I will make arrangements. Thanks.

We researched colour wheels on the internet today and shared our findings with the class. It was interesting to see how the colours change quite gradually and that there are different tones too. This forms part of our visual element work. We will be recapping on primary and secondary colours and will then do some work with hot and cold colours.

School photographs will be taken next Monday. Full uniform should be worn.

Due to the weather we were unable to go down to Largs for gymnastics however we did enjoy a very active session at Fun World.

For the Christmas play P4/5 are looking at the traditions in Germany. We began our research today and will be gathering more over the next few weeks.

We are collecting money for the Scottish Poppy Appeal. P4/5 are going round the classes each day. Please send in a donation if you would like your child to have a poppy too.

We had a very busy and full first day back. P5 were working on spelling words with 'ir' and 'ire' while P4 were looking at words with double letters at the end. We managed to do a spelling check up as well and it was helpful to revise some of the spelling rules we have already covered.

In maths we were working on the connection between multiplication and division using number triangles to help. This will be part of number homework this term again. We were also adding doubles and P5 will be moving on to do more addition with hundreds, tens and units.

On Friday we are going to Cornalees in connection with part our science topic on habitats. We will be exploring some of the habitats up there and finding out what organisms live in certain ones. It could well be wet so could you please ensure that your child comes clothed for the weather. It will be trip uniform but if they could bring a waterproof jacket, trousers and wellies if they have any to put on, that would be great. There is a small shop so children can bring no more than £5 if they would like to buy anything.

We discussed the Christmas play today as well and everyone was very excited to hear about it. Each class will be looking at Christmas traditions from a particular country and we will also be incorporating the Nativity. It will be on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th December in Struthers Memorial Church. More details about tickets and times will follow soon.

We even had time to change our seats in the class! What a super day!