A warm welcome back to pupils – and what a lovely short week it has been. It was fantastic to hear all of the wonderful things everyone has been up to during the break – I’m sure it’s also nice to get back into a routine!

Easing gently back into our class routines and learning, the pupils have focused their skills in developing numeracy, spelling and topic work.

Next week we have exciting editions to the class timetable such as Feis Rois and masterclasses. I’m sure the pupils will be eager to share on the blog! 😊

It’s a little late but in the Christmas holidays we did our karate grading.

We all passed the grading, not all the marks we wanted but we’re not perfect. Max got a green belt, Hari and Jake got a yellow belt. Jaya got a red belt. It was really intense!

We had a lesson before the actual grading. It was 1 hour!  We were already sweating!

Here’s a picture of our belts.

By Hari and Max

It’s 2019 and to end the school term, we have got one of the best school plays ever at Hottsbridge! Trust me this is one for the history books. So get ready for ‘Lights Camel Action!’

Lights Camel Action is Strictly the Nativity. There are a range of twists and turns from the standard nativity with guest appearances such as the people of Nazareth and Caesar Augustus.

You can buy tickets right now!

Concession: £1.50

Adults: £2.50

On the first day of advent in school P1/2/3 listened to the Nativity story and discussed how they count down to Christmas with their Advent Calendars. We then explored other ways people mark advent and then made our own Advent Wreath complete with the five candles. Once we were finished we lit the first candle, the Candle of Hope. We learned that as they look at the light of this candle Christians celebrate the hope they have in Jesus Christ. Christians believe they can have hope because God is faithful and will keep the promises he made to mankind.

Last Tuesday, the P4-7 class had a lovely visit from Mrs Pickles, one of the Ambassadors for STEM.

Fitting in very nicely with our Water topic, the pupils were given the chance to show off their knowledge about what they had been learning. Mrs Pickles was very impressed with their answers, especially the vocabulary the pupils were using!

Mrs Pickles had shown us different experiments that helped to reinforce our learning of the water cycle, and the states of water. We got to watch steam and condensation form from a kettle boiling, observe water as a solid (ice), liquid (water) and gas (aerosol room spray), and pretend to be different states of water.

One particular experiment we were very interested in was the ‘cloud in a bottle’. This involved a bicycle pump, 2L plastic bottle and some liquid solvent. Air pressure from the bicycle pump was pushed into the bottle (which contained the liquid solvent) and a tight seal was formed around the top. We counted to 30 and the pump was released – this created a very clear ‘cloud’ inside the bottle! It was fascinating to watch.

We also enjoyed creating our very own paper plate water cycles. This helped us visualise the water cycle being broken down into the different stages. They will make a lovely addition to our wall displays!

A popular question – one that can be answered with a whole list of things!

Last week, the pupils had transformed into young investigative mathematicians – using different instruments to measure solids and liquids for our Water topic, recording what they had found out. It links perfectly with our Maths as we are learning to estimate and measure accurately with length. No surprise – the pupils are really good at this!

As a reward, one of the pupils was given the chance to pick the art focus for the week. She chose to create underwater pictures – great link with our Water topic – using paint. We concentrated on using the technique texture to add life to our pictures. They are turning out great, and we hope to finish them this week.

Rounding off our Christianity topic, the pupils were busy learning about the values of the religion. Using what we had learned in the lesson, we then got to act out a small drama piece to demonstrate some of these values.

Mentioning drama – did someone say Christmas show?! This year, the pupils will take part in ‘Lights, Camel, Action’ with a strictly twist. We have been reading through the script, practising our parts, listening to the music and having a sneak peek at the choreography. We can’t wait!

P6-7 pupils also had the pleasure of meeting James Docherty, who spoke to them about well-being and how to keep mentally healthy. We hope they enjoyed it as much as the teachers did.

I hope to keep posting weekly updates of the P4-7 class learning, so keep an eye on the blog for these. You can also encourage your child to join in by writing a reply to the posts 😊

Second week after the October break and the pupils have been busy learning lots of different skills. Here are some of the highlights:

We have continued with our Water topic, investigating soluble solids (how heat and stirring can affect substances), volume, capacity and weight. Lots of messy fun!

Through our Christianity topic, P4 were learning the order of Christian calendar events while P5-7 discussed different Christian denominations and their differences. Next week we will be using ICT to make a PowerPoint about these topics to show one another in class.

On Thursday, Mrs Carter started our social dance lessons and we got to listen to music we really liked.

We also started our class novel ‘Kick’, which (so far) has been a thumbs up!

Today also marks the start of the Sumdog Dumfries and Galloway Maths Contest. P4-7 pupils are encouraged to join in with this in class and at home, so we are able to compete with other schools across the region. ☺

Last Wednesday (30th October), the P4-7 class enjoyed a wonderful visit from John at ComputerXplorers. He delivered an excellent discussion about augmented and virtual reality in gaming, and provided the pupils with hands-on experience using augmented software. The pupils first used Quiver to make their coloured in pumpkins come to life; they then used Kodu to create their very own games. As you can imagine – they all had a blast! And if that wasn’t enough – John had brought his very own robots to show everyone how they moved.

As part of our, “Sun, Moon and Earth” topic we have learned that the tilt of the Earth causes the seasons so we went on a walk to see signs of the changing seasons. The children had requested that we go to the Bluebell Woods sometime but because it is autumn we didn’t find any Bluebells! We did find lots of signs of autumn though, plus a few  summer flowers  and we picked apples from the school apple tree on the way back. We also tried measuring the fatness of trees with people’s arms!