Today p7r had a visit from Martin and Hazel who are civil engineers. They showed us some famous engineering landmarks in Scotland and around the world like the Falkirk wheel, the Eifel Tower and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. They told us about how these structures were built and designed. It was interesting to hear that the site of the Forth bridges is the only place in the world where there is bridges from 3 different centuries next to each other.

Martin and Hazel speaking to p7r

Next, they set us on a design challenge in our groups. We were to build as tall a structure as possible using pieces of spaghetti and small marshmallows. The object was to work as a team and see how tall a structure we could build in a 20 minute period. The group with the tallest freestanding structure would win.
Here are some of the results:

The winning group was Lauren, Beth, Haris and James, their tower was 36cm tall.

This was a good opportunity for us to find out about engineering and what an engineer does, in May we will be working with the primary 7’s at Park and Sunnyside to design even bigger structures.

P7R have just finished their term 2 gymnastics block with Miss McDonald, we have been learning how to perform routines, balances and how to use equipment like ropes, beams, vaults, springboards and the climbing frame.

Your child should already have a times tables booklet home with them and should all have a target table to focus on, I have noticed an improvement in times tables mental agility already so please continue to practise tables with them at home if possible.
This term we will be examining the relationship between fractions, percentages and decimals and looking at these in a real life context. We will also be looking at some 2d and 3d shape work which should tie in nicely with our Space topic when looking at the circumferences and sizes of different planets.

We will continue to use VCOP strategies to improve the quality of our writing across a variety of genres. We will use our Space topic as a stimulus for a variety of imaginative and functional writing pieces. Finally we will continue to complete comprehension and Book Detectives work based on our class reading books. Reading homework is issued every Tuesday and should be completed for the following Tuesday, please ensure reading records are signed.

This term we will be learning about Space as Tim Peake is about to be the first UK astronaut to visit the International Space Station(ISS).
Through this topic we will:
• Further develop our understanding of the solar system and life on other planets.
• Learn about Space exploration and its history and also the International Space Station.
• Find out about Tim Peake and what things he will be doing when he visits the ISS.

Tim Peake