Next week is June and I thought it would be a great time to inject a little bit of fun into Google classroom as I assume that a lot of us are over it by now. That is why I am officially naming next week Emoji Week!

Originally, I was very opposed to using emojis particularly in a classroom setting but recently I have learned the importance of using them to convey the thoughts and feelings behind our written words. Communicating solely with pupils through typed comments and blog posts, misunderstandings can happen and the tone of messages can be lost or even altered.

For example, when you respond with “Ok…” it appears that you are frustrated or feeling impatient. When you utilize emojis and instead respond with “Ok… 😊” it causes less worry and more displays a true understanding from the sender.

Further research illustrated the importance and far-reaching effect of these modern-day pictographs, as Oxford Dictionaries named the “face with tears of joy” pictograph its Word of the Year 2015. Educational scholars have indicated that emojis can help pupils link ideas and can lead to greater understanding, engagement and learning. So who am I to disagree?

All that’s left to be said is

🌞🏡😎🍹🍔👋

 

 

How did you get on with yesterday’s Book Island Quiz? Answers are posted on Google classroom if you want to check.

Quizzes were one of the things that were highlighted in my recent Distance Learning Evaluation form: the children have really enjoyed participating in them and have asked for more quizzes. Therefore, I thought it might be fun if the children created their own Book Island Quiz. One of today’s activities was to create your own book character island, littering the island with visual clues to who lives there. Unfortunately, I can’t share any of the islands with you at the moment, because that would give it away, but rest assured that the children have been sharing lots of great drawings.

I will create a new Book Island Quiz using the children’s work in the next week or so.

A few late entries from last week’s themed Lego Week. Delisha has made her time-lapse Lego build movie using captions.

Hibah build a speed boat here.

And finally, Alesha builds a scooter for her minifigure.

The questions for Abi Elphinstone have been arriving and I will hopefully select which ones we will put to the author. So far, more than 50 questions have been submitted and I will have to get them down to a more reasonable figure.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend break.

EXCITING NEWS!

Over the last few weeks, I have been busy organising something exciting in the background and I finally revealed what it is on Google classroom this morning. Our topic last term was “Our Frozen Worlds” as this was the ecosystem assigned to Primary 6 as part of the “Our Planet” STEM fortnight. Through this topic, we learned about the people, animals and environments in the frozen poles of our world.  A core part of this topic was our class novel Sky Song. I chose this novel for many reasons: the setting was in the frozen North, the author is Scottish but many because it is a great adventure story that would challenge the children.

As I thought, the children really loved this story of a boy and girl on a quest to save their world. We used the book as an inspiration for many activities in and out of school:  Ice Queen portraits, Winterfang Palace 3D models, Letters to Ma, Eska’s diary entries, Erkenwald cartography, animal fact files, inventing villains and magical creatures, and much, much more.

I am so impressed with their work that I contacted the author, Abi Elphinstone, and told her all about P623. She was so pleased to hear about all the things we have been doing that she agreed to be interviewed by our class and even hinted about an exclusive gift that she would like to give the children.

I have asked the children to submit any questions they would like to ask Abi and I will keep you informed of how this is progressing.

A few weeks ago, I posted my first Book Island quiz on Google classroom and I asked the children to identify which book character lives on each of the islands.

Today, I post the second Book Island quiz. Can you identify who lives on each island?

 

Today is our final day of Lego Week and I’m sure you will agree that it has been a huge success. The children have really extended their digital skills as well as consolidating existing Maths and Literacy skills.

Time-lapse Lego build movies

Grace has added a background track to her time-lapse Lego build movie making it more interesting.

She also shared this movie that she helped her brother make for his ancient Egypt activity. Good job!

Lucy has really challenged herself with this Lego time-lapse movie. She has given it lots of thought and planning: adding transitions, titles, background music and I particularly like the camera work and lighting. Very professional!

Kara’s Lego house build.

Stop motion Lego movies

Delisha has added voice-overs to her stop motion to tell her story.

 

Jamie’s Star War inspired animation. I’m afraid I had a problem turning this video around. It plays on my PC in the correct direction but posts on the blog in this direction. Sorry!

Lewis has used an app called VideoScribe to tell his story of Pixie Lott and Steve. Very interesting!

Lego presentations

Zaina’s History of Lego presentation.

Alex has included a quiz at the end of his presentation.

 

Lego bar charts

Yesterday it was Venn diagrams and today it’s Bar charts. Is there no end to the versatility of Lego. Follow a Google classroom survey about favourite crisp flavours, the children were supplied with the data and asked to build a Lego bar chart.

This is George’s bar chart with colour coded Lego brick to represent the flavour of the crisps, following the controversial Walker’s blue for Cheese and onion flavour. He has decided to stack his bricks to give his bar chart a 3D feel.

Jamie has used a Lego baseplate to attach his bricks and he has remembered to label his axes. Good job!

Dylan has used his ingenuity and decide to draw his bar chart. Good thinking!

Similar to Jamie, Wint is laying her brick down flat but without a baseplate.

Zac has colour coded his bricks and included visual labels. Very eyecatching!

Finally, Kara has done a great job here with her vertical bar chart.

Lego Board Games

I supplied the children with a very simple Lego board game today and challenge them to make it better or come up with their own.

Jamie has created this very cool looking Lego board game and written out the rules.

Lewis has devised this game to help soon-to-be Primary pupil with her maths skill. What a lovely gesture!

Zac has improved the game of Snake and Ladder with the introduction of Lego.

 

Lego Bridge Building Challenge

Alex’s solution to the river crossing problem from yesterday.

Lego art

Kara shared her Lego minifigure design. I love the bright coloured clothes and the crown.

This is a Lego minifigure, Hermione, that Delisha shared.

Finally, Wint has built a house for Lego Week.

Day 3 of Lego Week and I have so much to share with you.  The children have really been embracing the Lego theme and as a result, have produced some amazing pieces of work. They have been extending their digital skills, working with a range of media and applying various video making techniques.

Firstly, Lucy has created this Harry Potter inspired Lego movie reenacting the iconic “wingardium leviosa” scene from Philosopher’s stone and has included her own audio effects. Magical!

Next, Ibrahim has used stop motion animation just like the Lego Movie to create his very own Lego movie.

Jamie has used time-lapse video recording to shorten his Lego vehicle build into just 34 seconds.

I set the children a STEM challenge to build a Lego bridge over a 10cm river that was strong enough to support a Lego car. As you can see from the photo above, Lewis was definitely successful.

As was George…

… and Jamie…

…and Ibrahim.

Zac designed this bridge with toilet room support columns. A few weeks ago this might have been the most expensive bridge built 😂.

Lucy’s bridge demonstrates how strong Lego is as a construction material.

Although her first design looks a little bit tight.

This Lego minifigure was unfortunately unsuccessful in my STEM challenge (thanks for this image Zac).

Lego such a great Maths manipulative material and this is demonstrated perfectly by using Lego to create Venn diagrams. Jamie has used his Venn diagram to sort his Lego using the simple categories “red” and “4 studs”, also showing clear where these categories intersect. Fabulous!

Lucy has done something similar here using the categories “8 dot bricks” and “green”.  She has taken it a step further by showing Lego pieces that are neither “8 dot bricks” or “green” on the outside of her circles.

Of course, she has included the Hogwarts trio in her Venn diagram as they are neither “green” or have “8 dots”.

Alex proves here that you can still build a successful Venn diagram with very little bricks. Quite correctly, he has sorted his using the categories “1×4” and “colour grey”. Well done you for trying this activity with such little bricks!

Another great Venn diagram from Alesha…

… and Wint.

Ibrahim has created his with slightly unconventional pieces but is still a successful Venn diagram.

I set the children the task of creating a presentation on any aspect of Lego that they wanted. They could choose to do theirs on the founder of Lego, the history of Lego, how it’s manufactured or global sales. Above is Jamie’s presentation which includes a few personal touches making it an excellent example.

Finally, this is Lewis’ presentation on the History of Lego.

Day 2 of Lego Week and you are still sharing amazing work with me. Following on from yesterday’s amazing Lego build movies, today I set you the task of creating your own Lego stop-animation movie inspired by the original Lego Movie.

This was my attempt at animating the Knight bus scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Thank you to the pupils you gave me this set as a gift. 😁

Kara has been developing her digital skills by using stop-animation to animate her Lego. You may need to turn up your volume as the voice-over is quite quiet. Fantastic job!

Lea has also submitted her stop-animation movie.

Also, our Literacy lesson today was developing characters for story writing and storytelling after studying the Lego Movie trailer. The children were asked to create their own Lego minifigure character by considering their personality and physical traits.

Lewis has created this very apt for the time minifigure character, Social Distance Bot who cannot abide rule breakers.

Jamie has created a military-inspired character called Captain Camo.

Ibrahim has created a character called Andre.

Finally, Lea has created a fierce and strong character with superpowers called Luna.

 

Due to lockdown, Mearns Primary was not able to host its annual Sports Day which is a huge shame as it is a chance for us all to get together as a larger school community. Determined not to be deterred, we organised and hosted our own back garden games that have collated in this P623 Sports Day video.  I hope it goes some way in keeping us connected until we can be together again.

I wanted to apologise to Jamie because, although he held his own sports day and shared a photo with me, I wasn’t able to include it in the final video. It is an excellent collage photo but it gave me some technical problems. I didn’t want to leave it out as it is a great photo so I’m sharing it here along with a few additional photos.

I’ve used the Pic Collage app before and I highly recommend it for linking photos together and creating themed photo collections. Well done Jamie!

This a great photo of Lucy and her family competing in a three-legged race.

Wint held an egg and spoon race with her family.

Another egg and spoon race with Ibrahim and his family.

Today is the first day of Lego Week. I love Lego and I know most of you do too. What I most love about Lego is its versatility. You can do almost anything with Lego and hopefully this week you can prove me right.

One of the first tasks I asked you to do is to record yourself doing a Lego build. This is Alex’s Lego build movie of his Star Wars inspired vehicle. I particularly like his commentary on this video. Well done Alex.

This is Lea’s Lego build movie using a mixture of tradition Lego and Lego Friends.

Finally, we have Hasan’s movie of a Lego Ferrari racing car build. He really challenged himself here using video editing tools, transitions and background music. Great job!

I noticed yesterday evening, while I was posting yesterday’s blog post, that in the last 30 days we have had more than 1,000 visitors to our class blog, which is just amazing.

Thank you to everyone who has visited and I will continue to endeavour to update the blog regularly. I think it is so important to keep the class blog updated, especially in these difficult times, to keep us all connected as a class, school and community.

Today’s task to prepare for tomorrow’s big event was to get all your snacks and drinks ready, to keep your athletes energised and hydrated.  Jemma was ahead of the game yesterday when she prepared a shopping list, making sure that her brother, Dad and Mum have their favourite snacks and drinks at hand.  She reliably informs me that Mum has been sent to the shops and they are all ready for Kerr’s Sports Day.

Zac has planned his sports day and it looks amazing. I particularly like the look of his closing ceremony.

Gregor is finalising his plans for tomorrow.  He looks like he’s taking his sports day very seriously as there are cash prizes for his winners.

Lewis’s snacks look supper healthy and they should as he sought professional advice.

“I got advice from a personal trainer about all things on my menu.”

That’s commitment!

Another health snack selection here from Ibrahim and an illustrated menu to go with it. Good job!

Well done everyone who has taken part in our preparations for Sports Day. I can’t wait to see the actual events tomorrow.

 

The third task for Sports Day preparation was to create certificates and medals to celebrate the success of your winners.

As usual, you have been working on this task and your results are amazing.

Delisha has made these beautiful rosettes for her winners. What a great idea!

Zac has decided to give a different reward for each of his winners.

He has also made theses name badges for each of his participants. I love the names, very unique.

Lewis has also designed his own number badges.

Lea has made a certificate for the winner of each of her events…

…and has medals ready and waiting.

Alex is giving out party bags to his winners…

…as well as honorary titles.

Jemma has been busy making her own beanbags for her Sports Day.

They look great! Well done you!

With all this hard work, Sports Day looks like it’s going to great fun.