P5 have been taking part in many different and varied outdoor learning experiences. They have completed the Ellon Circular walk. explored the woods by making dens for small animals and nests for birds. They have seen the world through many different colours and made wishes on the trees. They have experienced glorious weather, cold weather and freezing winds. Here are a small selection of the photos we took on our adventures.
Category Archives: Social Studies
Jacobites
Jacobites
On Thursday 12th March a man came and talked to the p4 p4/5 p5 classes about the Jacobites. He came with all the clothes the Jacobites would wear. Everyone enjoyed looking at the weapons he brought in. The pupils had a chance to have a mini battle some people were Jacobites and some people were redcoats. Everyone enjoyed it.
Written by Lucy
K’Nex Challenge
Our P6 and P7 pupils all had the opportunity to take part in a K’Nex Challenge.
The K’Nex workshops employ active learning to develop problem solving, communication, teamwork, planning and critical thinking skills. The pupils were all thoroughly engaged in the team activities and gave very positive feedback. Here are some of our P7 pupils working together.
Bringing History to Life
Today the Primary Seven class went on a trip to Ellon Library where they carried out tasks related to World War 1. This included looking at what the soldiers wore, looking up soldeirs who died during the war and finding out information by using the iPads.
The feedback from the P7s was all very positive:
Sally – I liked using the iPads because it was something I had never done before. I also likes seeing the uniform that the soldier wore.
Sam – The iPads were weird but I liked it because it talked and you could move the aeroplane.
Logan – The iPads were really interesting. I have never done something like that before. It was good that it all comes out of the paper.
Romi – I quite liked the computers and how it could search those who died by using the British War Graves Commission website. It’s really good technology.
Maja – The 3D iPads were awesome! It’s amazing what you can do with a printed sheet and an iPad.
Eleanor – I found the soldiers clothes interesting and the helmets must have been very uncomfortable because it looked like a deep frying pan. The iPads were awesome too.
Robbie – I enjoyed all of the facts. I though it was interesting.
Fraser – It was cool.
Shanna – It was awesome, especially the iPads. I liked it because you could look at the 3D things.
Ada – I enjoyed the iPads because you see 3D things.
Callum – My favourite was the iPads as you could see 3D things out of a picture.
Cameron – My favourite part of visiting the library was when we used the iPads and looked at tanks and planes in 3D.
Mark – The library was good, I really enjoyed it.
Ericka – I think going to the library was a good idea. I liked working with the iPads
Alanna – I liked going to the library and learning about the topic. I enjoyed working on the iPads it made our topic more interesting.
Emily – The trip to the library was very good, I really enjoyed the iPads. It was cool seeing the 3d aeroplane.
Chloe – It was great. I liked the iPads the best. I liked that the tanks looked real. It was awesome.
Amber – It was so much fun. I liked the iPads best because I hadn’t seen anything like it before.
James – I enjoyed the library when we got to see all the clothes they wore.
Lucas – I enjoyed the part when we looked at the clothes that the army wore.
Jennifer – I liked the iPads best because the tanks look more real.
Marie – I liked the War Graves Commission website which gave details of how and when the soldiers die and where they were buried. I liked it because you got to find out more information about the soldier.
Brendon – I liked the iPad work because I did not expect it.
Abbie – I liked the army objects, there was a bomber jacket which was pretty cool.
shape, topic, art, Romans, Celts, Alec caravan
The P2s were making symmetrical t-shirts and shorts with patterns on them for maths. We looked at shapes for maths. The P2s and P3s were making different patterns with shapes.
At story writing we were writing a postcard from a roman soldier. We made Celt torcs.
We were learning about the body inside the ALEC caravan. We touched parts on Tammy and when we touched them they lit up. We learned that our heart keeps us alive. There was a fancy dress party for Harold.
At art, we were drawing a picture of roman soldiers. We folded the paper and in each part we had to draw a part of the body. Some of the parts had two parts of the body in them.
Romans and Celts, Story Writing, Archaeology
We have been painting Romans and Celts. Some people have been painting shields and swords. In Art we have been painting Mount Vesuvius which is a famous volcano. We are writing stories about a time machine. Our story about the time machine is in chapters. We have written one chapter.
We have been learning about time. The P3s have been learning quarter to and quarter past. The P2s have been learning about o’clock and half past. We went to cooperative learning groups to learn the months of the year and make a paper chain of them. Some people knew all of the months and some people didn’t.
Some people have been digging for finds in the playground! Some people think that they have found things from the Roman times or a long time ago! We have put them in our Roman museum.
Romans and Celts
We thought about what we thought Romans looked like and what we wanted to find out about. We were archaeologists and we were digging up objects and some were old and some were new. We played the archaeology game on the computer. Some people have been looking for old objects out in the playground! On Friday we drew round a person to make Roman and Celt warriors and ladies. We are making volcanoes with Mrs Connell at Art.
P4
This term we have a new topic called Do You Live Around Here? We went for a walk in the woods to look for animal homes. We have designed our ideal homes. We designed our own rug too. We also made our own mood board. We were mapping continents and looking at climate around the world. We made our own garden on the computer.
BAKING BUDDIES – Christmas treats to share
Over the last three weeks the baking buddies have been getting into the spirit of Christmas by making a variety of festive goodies to take home and share with their families.Following each Christmas baking sessions the children have discussed Christmas and shared stories. Some of the buddies have then had the opportunity to create craft related to those discussions. All the results can be seen in the photo selection below.
Christmas Tarts
One of our buddies had requested that we bake jam tarts. To give these a more festive feel we adapted the recipe and filled our tarts with mincemeat and decorated them with a star. The children made their own short crust pastry and used cutters to make the tart base and cutters for the star shaped decoration.
Cinnamon and Vanilla Stars
This recipe was for a basic biscuit recipe that we adapted slightly by adding cinnamon and vanilla to the ingredients.
When we introduce our recipe each week we spend time looking at all the ingredients and talking about them. The children are encouraged to smell the ingredients before we use them describing what they notice or if they like it. Some of the buddies recognised the smell of vanilla from ice cream and sweets they had before.
As we made star shapes we discussed where we see the star and how relates to Christmas. This week we were very lucky to get invited along to see the nursery nativity as our biscuits cooked in the oven.
Reindeer Cake Pops
This recipe is called a cake pop because a lollipop stick is used to stick onto the end of a ball of cake to create a lollipop cake. The buddies decorated the cake pops with melted chocolate and cake decorations to make a reindeers face.
For this recipe the children had to crumble up a ready bought Christmas cake. We added a vanilla flavoured butter icing which is mixed in together and dough is made. The buddies rolled the dough into smaller balls and they were put in the freezer to harden slightly. The cake pops were then dipped into the chocolate and decorations added.
Snowmen
Whilst we waited for the cake pops to harden in the freezer the children used a selection of marshmallows, melted chocolate, fruit string chews and cake decorations to make their own snowmen lollipops.
Primary 4
We have been learning about the Jacobite advance. They managed to get all the way to Derby but not to London. They battled at Culloden with the Redcoats and lost. We have been learning about the Highland Clearances too.
We have enjoyed practising for our play called The Christmas Story. Our voices have improved a lot over the last few weeks. We hope mums and dads enjoyed it.
Merry Christmas from P4!
Enterprise Part 2
We finished making the popcorn strings for the enterprise and put them in bags. We made labels for them. We were talking about how much they will cost. The popcorn strings are 25p. We made bird food too and we were making shapes with the bird food. We have been making mars bar crispies to sell. We put the spare bird food into bags to sell. We are going to the Christmas fair on the 1st of December and that’s when we are going to sell the stuff that we made. We are hoping to make money for the school.
BAKING BUDDIES – BIRD CAKES
The baking buddies have been finding out about the change of season and how it makes food scarce for the birds. During our baking session today the children got the opportunity to make ‘cakes’ for the birds. Each buddy made one feeder to take home and an extra one for school – this will hopefully encourage birds to visit. We gave the extra feeders to the nursery for their garden, so hopefully the children in nursery will get watch the birds from their window.
The bird cakes were fun to make but very messy as the children used their hands to mix the lard and dry ingredients together. The lard was useful to bind the mix however the buddies did not like its smell! The children used a mixture of oranges and yoghurt pots to hold the bird cake. To use the orange the buddies had to remove the juice and scoop out the rest of the orange leaving just the skin. The buddies got the opportunity to taste the orange juice at snack. After our baking was finished some of the buddies made robin pictures.
enterprise, money
We are threading popcorn with sharp needles and thread to make strings of popcorn. We have to be very careful we don’t stab ourselves! We are doing it for the enterprise. We got to pop the corn. We stirred it with a spoon until it started popping and it looked like fireworks when it popped out of the pan!!! Next week we are going to be pricing them. Some people are being sneaky and eating the profits!
We have been counting money to make different amounts so we can give change at the enterprise and to count up the money that we get. P3s have been doing harder amounts than the P2s. The P2s that were more confident were allowed to do the P3s and the other way round.
BAKING BUDDIES – BAKING FOR PUDSEY
The Baking Buddies agreed to create some cakes to sell at interval time and give money raised to Children In Need charity. This meant the buddies had a very busy morning as they only had one session to prepare all the cakes ready to sell for 10.45am!
The buddies split into two teams. Mrs McBride helped one group of buddies make TOPHAT cakes using chocolate, marshmallows and smarties. The rest of the buddies worked with Mrs Wilson and Mrs Reynolds to make gluten free SHORTBREAD.
Once the shortbread was cooked all the baking buddies worked really well together to decorate the shortbread with Pudsey Bear yellow icing and coloured spots.
The Baking buddies went round some of the classrooms to tell their classmates about their project and to encourage children to visit their stall. Two buddies kindly gave up their play-time to sell the cakes at the tuck shop. The cakes were very popular and they managed to sell all cakes and raise £16.10 for Children in Need!
BAKING BUDDIES – MOON ROCKS AND ROCKETS
Earlier this session the Baking Buddies spent time looking through books and recipe cards to find things the children wanted to make during our baking slot. Rock cakes was one of the recipes selected that day.
Rock cakes allowed the children to get messy hands again as they tried the rubbing in technique that they had enjoyed doing whilst making shortbread. The rest of the dried ingredients were mixed in with a wooden spoon and then the egg added to make a dough. The children had to share out the dough as a group and then used their dough to make small balls. These were put on baking tray ready to go into the oven. At this point we adapted the recipe and added silver balls as decoration. The silver balls melted slightly in the heat of the oven and made our Rock cakes sparkle. We decided to change the name of the cakes to MOON ROCKS! Following on from our ‘Moon Rock’ baking some of the group decided to use construction sets available to create their own rockets to fly to the moon.
