Mrs Stewart’s Message 

As we move towards the end of term and the school year, we are now concentrating on our P7 Show.  It is a fantastic team effort-the creativity and commitment being shown by the children is outstanding! Thank you so much for the invitation to the 2018 P7 Leavers’ BBQ. It is a privilege to be invited and I’m really looking forward to going.

Mrs Stewart

 

Trips to Cults Academy

On Thursday the 15^th and Thursday the 22 March, our class went to the Academy for our transition visits. Everyone in the class was very excited! When we got to there, we got told to go to a room where we met a man called Mr Sutherland who was the pupil support teacher of a house called Cairn. After the introduction of what life is going to be like at the Academy, we got put into groups. Both the groups got told what subjects they were doing that day. The subjects you do is drama/music and social subjects, the other subjects you do are maths and science. Everyone found the experience amazing. We loved it and we can’t wait to go to the Academy after the holidays. (We’ll tell you about our recent two day visit in our next blog.)  

 

Substance Misuse

On Thursday the 29^th of March our class had an amazing talk from PC Crawford. PC Crawford came to talk to us about drugs and how you can use them very wrongly and everyone was very interested. What we had to do was, we got given a box which had fake drugs in it. On the back of the box they said what they were and what it could do to you. Everyone got to look at them and we all found it very interesting!

 

 

Jemima-Football Final

On Saturday the 18^th of May Jemima went to the DANONE national finals in Coventry. She felt nervous and excited. Jemima and her old school football team won the group stage and proceeded to the semi-final. The score for the semi-final was one all and, after extra time, it went to penalties. Fortunately, they were successful and won the penalties. In the final, it was 1-0 and the goal was from our super star Jemima! Well done!

 

Buddies

Every Thursday we do paired reading with our P1 buddies. Our Buddies come through so we can read stories of their choosing. We have now decided to write a story of our own for them. We are really enjoying writing and getting our imagination juices flowing! We are also really enjoying illustrating the pictures and showing the characters’ emotions!

 

Amy and Olivia-7S Lifesavers

On the 14^th of May Olivia and Amy did a talk about their life saving skills. They did two parts- one part was about lifesaving in water and the other was lifesaving out of water. Amy and Olivia showed the class what position to put someone in if they have fainted. The class also got to see their certificates and medals.  We loved it and are very proud of Olivia and Amy.

 

 

Three good things a day

Every day at the end of school our class focus on the positives of our day so we say three things we liked about our day e.g.-

1. We enjoyed ICT
2. We liked the game we played at lunch
3. Golden time was fun

Saying these three good things helps our class to think happy thoughts and remember positive things in school, not the negatives. Just remember to smile and have fun!

 

Dalguise (Please see photos on Mrs Johnstone’s Blog)

On Monday the 21^st of May, the three P7 classes went to the traditional place for residential visits, Dalguise. When we arrived at school, everyone was ready and very excited! After we said goodbye to our parents and were on the bus, that’s when the real excitement began! When we arrived at Dalguise we got shown around, like a little tour. We met our ‘Groupies’ called Nancy and Ella who were in charge of our school. After we unpacked we had lunch, the food there was so good. Then, we did our first activities. For groups 1, 2,3,4,5 and 6 it was either problem solving or vertical challenge, but for group 7 it was Trapeze then problem solving. On Tuesday, we had breakfast then everybody went to their activities, The activities on Tuesday, were Canoeing, Trapeze, Zip Wire, Tree Climb, Orienteering and Vertical Challenge. Most people liked all of these activities. On Wednesday, we did Raft Building, Hike, Challenge Course, Tree Climb and Giant Swing. All of these activities were great and everybody loved them! On Thursday, our last day the activities were, Giant Swing, Burn Walk, Climbing, Hiking and Challenge Course. These activities were amazing and probably the best ones for our last day!

While we were at Dalguise we did evening activities. Our first evening activity on Monday was Campfire. On Tuesday, our evening activity was Capture the Flag which was really fun! On Wednesday, our activity was Passport to the World which was something that our year had never played before. On the last night/ Thursday night we did a disco which was fun and energetic! Usually the evening activities lasted from 19:15-20:45.

Overall, Dalguise was amazing and we loved it so much that we would definitely go back! Next year’s P7s will love it!

 

 

 

 

 

By Niamh, Eryka and Sophie M.

 

 

 

P7S Class Blog

We had a very busy time with regards to visits/visitors last term and are extremely grateful to everyone who supported our learning experiences.  As you are already aware, our Open Day is on Friday 11^th May 9.15-10.30am and 2.00-3.15pm. We would like to invite you to our class debate linked to deforestation in the Amazon rainforests which will take place in the Studio at 2.15pm on that day.  There will be an opportunity to visit our class area afterwards. We very much look forward to seeing those who can manage to come.

Mrs Stewart 🙂

Gordon Highlander’s Museum

On Wednesday the 7^th of March, we went to the Gordon Highlanders Museum to learn more about our local soldiers, the Gordon Highlanders in WWII. When we first arrived at the museum, we watched a short film about WWII which was very interesting. While we were watching the film, we got to eat our snack. After the film, we got into groups and went into different rooms for the learning stations. The stations were called, The Mystery Soldier, A Timeline of WWII, The Battle of Goch and the Uniform of an Army Soldier. For the different stations, we were given a booklet to do the activities. For the timeline, we had to investigate different information about the Battle of Goch, then we had to write all the information that we had learned about it. In the next activity, we had to figure out who the mystery soldier was. Basically, we were detectives who had to figure out who this mystery soldier was. Our last station was trying on army uniforms and we also got to hold a gun. It was smashing! After we had experienced all the stations, we had our lunch then got to play outside in the garden, in the sunshine.  The whole class loved it! Thank you! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rosemount Trail

On March the 7^th we went to Rosemount for a history walk in the afternoon. The main reason we went to Rosemount was because at the end of the trail our destination was an air raid shelter! We met Mr Paterson at Rosemount Place where Skene Square Primary School is. Then, we began our journey-complete with workbooks! Our first stop was Richmond Street where we completed our first activity. It was called, Transportation of People and Goods. This activity was about the transport people used to get around town. After stop number 1 we walked a little further up to View Terrace where we did activity number 2. Our second activity was about the street surfaces and what the ground was like back in time. We think everybody managed it well. After this activity, we started our journey again. We kept looking at different sites from WWII. Our next activity was about garden boundaries. We had to investigate where metal railings used to be and what the metal was used for. We all did well! Following this, we continued our journey to research stop number 4. For this activity, we learned about houses and the materials houses were made of in WWII. Finally, we reached our destination- the air raid shelter! We were all mind blown because it was so amazing! When we were all in the shelter the whole class was a bit nervous because it was a bit scary and damp, although very atmospheric. While we were in the shelter, we heard about the childhood experiences of woman called Mrs Still, she was telling us about her experience during WWII in a recorded interview with Mr Paterson.  It was so interesting! We loved the experience!

Thank you. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rotary Quiz

On Tuesday the 13^th of March Stefan, Gopika, James and Fraser went to Airyhall School to compete in the Rotary quiz with Mrs Dalziel supporting them. In the quiz, there were 10 categories all with a different subjects, for example The Alphabet Quiz. The group found the questions fairly challenging. They gave a 5/5 performance. Before going on the stage, everyone felt very excited but also very nervous. Although our pupils didn’t win, the final score was very good and everyone was very proud of their efforts! During the interval, the team got complimentary cookies to get them through the rest of the session. At the end of the quiz, everybody who competed and didn’t win, got a certificate. So, Stefan, Gopika, James and Fraser were all very happy about that. In conclusion from what Stefan told us, we think that they had a brilliant time. So, well done team! We are all so proud of you! 🙂

 

Sporting achievements

On Saturday the 10^th of March Sophie A. and Amy D. went to Portlethen Academy to play in a badminton tournament. Amy and Sophie both came second in doubles. When they arrived at Portlethen, Amy and Sophie were surprised to see more boys than girls. Amy has been playing badminton for 2 years and Sophie has only been playing for 4 months, even though they had been playing for a short while they did amazing! Later on in the year, they will be playing at Drumoak Primary School and Hazlehead Academy.

On Thursday the 22^nd of March, Jemima went to Sheffield in England to play in the DANONE regionals final with all her friends from her football team in Newcastle. Jemima’s team won overall and she was thrilled! It was an amazing experience-she loved it!:)

Well done girls! 🙂

 

Codes Workshop

On Wednesday the 14^th of March we had a marvellous workshop with Lesley from TechFest. She told the class all about how codes were used in WWII. We all found it intriguing how they used these codes during such an important time in history. One of the codes we learned about was Morse Code. Morse code is a certain code that the very famous ship Titanic used for distress calls in case of an emergency. While we were doing the workshop we worked with partners on a variety of activities to find out information about codes and how they were used. Thank you 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodnight Mr Tom

A few weeks before the end of term, the whole class watched Goodnight Mr Tom. The reason we watched this movie was because it was related to our topic WWII. While we were watching the film, we looked for the differences between life back then compared to now. After we watched the movie, we discussed what we liked and what we didn’t like about it.  Overall, it was a brilliant movie which gave us an even better understanding of what life was like for people in Britain during WWII! 🙂

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

On the last few days of term, we watched the powerful film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. This film helped us learn more about how WWII affected people in mainland Europe, particularly people of Jewish faith who were treated so terribly. The class enjoyed the film, but some people were a bit emotional. We shared our feelings about the story afterwards. We were all struck about what happened during The Holocaust and the whole class found it hard to believe that people could be treated so badly. We talked about how learning from the past can make for a positive future. As with Goodnight Mr Tom, we discussed what we liked and didn’t like about the film.

We really learned a lot about WWII from watching both of these incredible films!

 Raising Money for Kira

On Tuesday the 4^th of May, the Red Unit may come to school with crazy hair to raise money for a girl named Kira. If people want to take part, they can bring £1 to raise money for Kira who is a family friend of a member of our class.  Kira has been fighting cancer for three and a half years and she’s meant to be going from Edinburgh to America to have an operation carried out by a specialist to remove the tumour. However, she needs to raise £340,000 for this to happen. Over half of the amount needed has been raised already, so if you would like to help Kira, please bring £1 to school along with crazy hair on Friday. Thank you so much.:)

 

By Eryka, Niamh and Sophie.

 

P7S Class Blog

We have had a very busy time with regards to visits and visitors this term and are extremely grateful to everyone who has supported our learning experiences. Our Open Day is on Friday 23^rd March 9.15-10.30am and 2.00-3.15pm. We very much look forward to seeing everyone who can manage to come.

Mrs Stewart

Class Debate

We really enjoyed our latest class debate about whether or not advertisements persuade people to buy things they can’t afford. On the day of our debate, there was a special visitor in school to watch our debate. Both teams had two speakers with Amnah and Ryan-arguing for the motion and Eryka and Aidan-arguing against the motion. The leaders were Niamh and Jamie Baghurst! For the debate, we all made posters and leaflets. We found fabulous facts to put on our posters which we found at school and at home for homework. Everyone put forward a great argument and the end result was a draw!

WW2 Workshop

On Monday the 5^th of February, we had an amazing workshop from Mr Paterson and Dr Brown to teach us about the impact of WWII in Aberdeen.  First, we watched a powerful video about what happened when a bomb hit people’s homes. Next, Mr Paterson showed us some photos of bombed places in Aberdeen and what they look like now. He also told us about the main targets in the city that the Germans were planning to bomb and why.  After that, we went to different research stations to learn more about WWII in Aberdeen. There were a lot of stations, so most people only got a few completed within the time.

Visit from NSPCC

On Thursday the 15^th of February, Heather from the NSPCC came to talk to our class about children’s rights and how to stay safe. A good way to remember the Childline number is to act out the numbers with your hands. Heather showed us some videos from real life problems that children have. One of the activities that we did was completing a quiz in groups.  When we were in our groups, we had to discuss the questions. All the groups got the right answers! Near the end of the workshop, we completed sheets which had book marks with the NSPCC number on it.  After that, we made fortune tellers and you had write about things that make you feel safe. Heather also brought a speech mark toy called Buddy to motivate us and remind us to speak out!

 

Sporting achievements

Sophie M. and Ihsan have made some super sporting achievements!  Sophie achieved great success with her ice skating. She didn’t skate in one team, she skated in two! Sophie did a fabulous ‘Show and Tell’ to the class,  showing pictures and videos. We all really enjoyed seeing this and think she’ll go far with her skating!

Ihsan also had great success in his rugby tournament. Ihsan showed both of his trophies to the class, one of them was very big and the other one was smaller. He won the smaller trophy in Edinburgh at Mackie Academy. The second trophy Ihsan showed the class, was the bigger one which his team won at the Deeside tournament at the rugby club. Ihsan won these trophies last year, but the whole team only got the trophies for a week each. It was Ihsan’s turn last week. So, well done Sophie and Ihsan we are all really proud of you both!

Visit from Mr Gerard Vlaar 

This term, we have been learning about World War Two. As a very special treat, Mr Vlaar came in to teach all the P7s about his experience as a young child during the War in Holland and how hungry they were during that time. He told us what he remembered about where the planes dropped bombs.  Mr Vlaar had some interesting stories to tell. There were some scary parts, like when his brother got lost in another part of the country! We all really enjoyed his visit, so we decided to make him a thank you card. We didn’t feel like that was enough, so we gave him some presents. Mrs Stewart bought a cake, some chocolates and a box of biscuits because Mr Vlaar told us stories about how serious the lack of food was when he was a child.  He ended his talk on a happy note when he told us that when he first tasted bread after the War, he thought it was cake!

Thank you so much, Mr Vlaar!

Electromagnetism Workshop

On Friday the 23^rd of February, we went to the Aberdeen Science Centre to learn about electromagnetism. While we were there, we were filmed by Roy Stewart who is a fabulous cameraman! It was very exciting! During the workshop, we all went in groups and carried out different experiments with magnets and discovered how magnets are made and when they were invented. After the workshop was done and we had our lunch, we got to try out different experiments at some stations. Some were quite challenging and some were quite easy.

At the Science Centre, they have this room called the Theatre Room and the audience sits in seats and watches the staff do different experiments.  When we went, we were the only class in the theatre room so it was amazing to see and take part in the cool experiments. For the different experiments the instructor, Bob, needed some volunteers, so he asked some people to go up to the front. The first experiment was with a plasma ball and it was very cool. The next experiment, was seeing through things with a special torch that you usually wouldn’t see.  Thank you to all our volunteers!  Thanks also to Aberdeen Science Centre and Mr Stewart from all of us here in 7S.  We had a great time!

We told you it has been a busy month. Here are some additional highlights! 🙂

World Book Day Drama

Rotary Quiz Heats

Thinking Day

Our Gleeks

Guess the contents in an evacuee’s bag?!

Fun in the snow and fun in the class!

 

By Eryka, Niamh and Sophie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

P7S Class Blog

2018 has got off to a very positive start, as can be seen in our latest blog. We are looking forward to our Aberdeen at War workshop with Mr Paterson and our visits to the Gordon Highlanders’ Museum and Rosemount air raid shelter on Wednesday 7^th March.

Mrs Stewart

Current Conflict in Syria

We recently had a closer look at the continuing civil war in Syria. We were surprised to find out how many children had been forced to leave their homes and schools. It was really sad to see how many people risked their lives travelling on small boats to escape to Turkey.  As a class, we have been discussing different ways we could raise money for the children who are living in refugee camps.  We might do a sponsored activity!

WW2

We are really enjoying our new class topic learning all about WW2. We have worked in teams to create timeline posters and learn about all of the significant dates between “1939-1945”.

We also learned about the different types of propaganda that was used in WW2 and the messages that they sent to different people. We had the chance to be creative and either design our own propaganda poster or replicate one from the past.

Our class novel at the moment is ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’. It is about a little boy who has been evacuated to the countryside during the war.  After learning all about why children were evacuated from big cities, we got to read some letters that children from WW2 sent their families. We then imagined what it would be like if it had been us sent to the countryside and how we would have felt.  We wrote an imaginative and personal letter describing our first week away from home.  We even used tea stained paper and created name tags for authenticity!

We took time and effort to make very realistic gas masks. We learned that sirens would go off and everyone would run to their Anderson bomb shelters for safety.

Drama

This term we have loved learning how to do ‘still frames’ in drama. We listened to Neville Chamberlain’s official announcement of the beginning of WW2 and we had to create a scene of a family hearing the announcement over the radio.

Health and Well Being

We took part in a school competition to create a healthy eating poster. All of our class submitted their entries and they look great!

A Touch a Tartan

Next week, we will be reciting our Scots Verse poems to celebrate the work of Robert Burns. To celebrate, we all brought in something tartan and got a class picture taken.

Maths

We are continuing to develop our research skills, looking specifically at famous mathematicians and jobs that use math skills every day.

We have also been learning about how to manage money.  We all became interior designers with a strict budget and are now looking at planning holidays to faraway destinations with a budget of £5000!

Paired Reading with Primary 1

We are looking forward to continuing working with our P1 buddies this term. We really love developing our reading when we share stories with them.

One of our P1 buddies came through with a gift to say thank you.

Written by Robert and Miss Lowry

 

We all had a wonderful time at our Christmas party today!  Many thanks to the parents who helped with the food.  

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

P7S Class Blog

We are very fortunate to have Miss Lowry, our student teacher working with us. We all appreciate her positive approach to school life.  I am happy to tell you that Miss Lowry and her colleague Miss Dunne (who taught us Irish dancing recently) will be accompanying us to Aberdeen Science Centre on Monday 4^th December. We are also looking forward to singing in ‘The Evening Express Christmas Carol Concert’ on the evening of Wednesday 6^th December at 7.30pm.

Mrs Stewart

Class Debate

We really enjoyed our latest class debate, ‘THERE MUST BE LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS’.   It was our second debate and it was in front of our “celebrity guest” Mrs Nutkins (Miss Lowry’s tutor).  We made eye-catching posters and badges to support our teams in the debate. We learnt that there is bacteria on other planets and that it’s living! The team for life on other planets WON!

  

Learning Irish Dance

Last week, we were EXTREMELY lucky as Miss Dunne, an Irish dancing teacher, came to Cults to teach all the P7 classes how to Irish dance. We learned how to position our hands and feet when you dance. We also learned how to start a dance by counting to eight beats.  The best bit was when we learned how to combine all of the steps into a dance and then added the music.

Anti-Bullying Week

For ‘Anti-Bullying Week’, we started off with an assembly to remind us of the importance of talking to someone you trust when you’re being bullied, so they can help. The first activity we did was an acrostic poem using the word ‘BULLYING’. This progressed into a drama activity where we had to act out a situation of someone being a bully and someone being a victim.  Lots of people found it fun and enjoyed getting into character. However, it did help us understand how people feel in those situations and how we can help.  Also during the week, we did a homework activity which made us think about what makes a ‘good friend’.

Volcanoes

As our topic is Earth and Space, we took a closer look at volcanoes.  In science, we decided to create a chemical reaction that would look like a volcanic eruption.  First, we added baking powder and red food colouring to an empty coke can.  We then used our artistic skills to mould the plasticine around the Coke can to make it look like a real volcano.  We worked in groups of twos and threes and when we finished the design, Miss Lowry added vinegar to the mixture.  BOOM! Out flowed ‘lava’ from the slowest erupting volcanoes known to man!  The classroom was a bit smelly, but we all had so much fun.

 

Soil Lab

On Monday 20^th November, Mr Paterson from Aberdeen Urban Studies Trust visited us so that we could participate in a series of experiments and investigations in the ‘Soil Lab’ experience. This was a series of experiences to help us investigate Earth’s materials and understand our environment.  We really enjoyed using a microscope to investigate three different types of soil. We were surprised to discover which materials were biodegradable.  We all learned so much!

By Eryka and Niamh.

Awww moments!

 

P7S Class Blog

Welcome to our first class blog which reflects a very positive start to P7.  I am very much looking forward to meeting everyone who is able to attend our Open Evening on the 20^th September.

Mrs Stewart

 ‘Grow a Fiver’

We are really enjoying our ‘Grow a Fiver’ project! It’s certainly bringing out our confidence.  Across the three P7 classes, there have been some fantastic ideas!

Class Debate – ‘Is it Cruel to Keep Animals in Zoos?’

We feel that we learned a lot about debates and why it’s important to understand a different point of view through a structured argument. The speakers from each team- Stefan and Niamh (Team A) and Olivia and Jamie Baghurst (Team B) were fantastic! Although both teams had strong arguments, team A, who argued that it was cruel to keep animals in zoos, won by a whisker!

Buddies

This week, our Primary 1 Buddies are in school full time. We have enjoyed helping them to feel at home and become independent at break and lunch times.

Amy

We are lucky to have a new member in our class, Amy!  We hope she has had a nice welcome and enjoys it here in Cults Primary.

By Stefan and Harris.

 

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