Well, this is my final post on the P6.23 class blog. I want to thank everyone who has supported our class by visiting here regularly, over 1600 visits in a month at one point. Wow! 😲🤯

Of course, I want to thank the children who have worked so hard to allow me to share their awesome work with you. Their imagination and hard work are evident when you look back on these pages. I feel that the blog has allowed us to stay connected during this unprecedented period in our lives and I’m happy about that.

From all the Primary 6 teachers and the rest of the school staff, we wish you a very enjoyable and restful summer holiday and look forward to your return in August.

Well, this is my final post on the P6.23 class blog. I want to thank everyone who has supported our class by visiting here regularly, over 1600 visits in a month at one point. Wow! 😲🤯

Of course, I want to thank the children who have worked so hard to allow me to share their awesome work with you. Their imagination and hard work are evident when you look back on these pages. I feel that the blog has allowed us to stay connected during this unprecedented period in our lives and I’m happy about that.

From all the Primary 6 teachers and the rest of the school staff, we wish you a very enjoyable and restful summer holiday and look forward to your return in August.

The children are looking ahead to Primary 7.

Primary 7 Flipgrid MixTape

Last week was Inquiry Week and I received lots of amazing work that I shared with you on here. Over the weekend, I continued to receive work from Grace and Lewis that I have posted below.

Grace already submitted her report for her inquiry but I couldn’t share it on here as it was a written report in a Google doc. However, she has included this nice little addition to her inquiry. Not only is it relevant to her topic, history of ballet and the Scottish Ballet, but it demonstrates several digital skills such as time-lapse recording and video editing. Of course, it also shows her artistic skills. Well done Grace!

Lewis made this brochure on Nutrition in Sport and Fitness which is something he is passionate about and demonstrated previously in Sports Week. He interviewed two professionals in the field who, as well as providing him with a wealth of information, also advised him to make a brochure as they thought young people were more likely to read a brochure handed to them rather than looking up a website later. Either way, it is a great piece of work with a nice recipe at the end.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown of all schools, we missed out on a lot of experiences in our last term. One of those experiences was our end of year show. Understandably, some of the children were quite upset about this so I came up with a solution to allow us to be together, in some way, one last time.

Four pupils and I have been working very hard to record and create this special video. It has been challenging to combine 4 videos and 5 audio tracks together without the proper hardware or software, but here it is our “Breaking Free” song from High School Musical.

Hopefully, this is a suitable ending to our year and let’s hope that next year brings lots of special moments like this.

This is the last day of Inquiry of Week and I have a few more of the children’s project to share with you. Inquiry Week was a great opportunity for the children to take ownership of their own learning, providing them personalisation and choice.

For instance, Grace in our class is passionate about ballet and we are all very proud of her success with the Scottish Ballet.  However, she has admitted herself that she did not know much about the history of ballet or of Scottish Ballet. Given her normally hectic schedule with school and extra-curricular activities, she wouldn’t have time to research this topic that is close to her heart. She has used Inquiry Week to research ballet and has produced a written report with lots of historical facts.

Again,  Lucy shares a  common passion to me, the Harry Potter book series. She has used her time this week to research into the making of the movies and particular the magical creatures.  I like the parchment background used in the slides.

Wint has done her inquiry into the very interesting phenomena, the Mandela Effect. Give it a Google search, you won’t be disappointed.

Zac has continued his interest in animals, and particular big cats, with this presentation on tigers. Love the thank you dance!

George’s inquiry is about peregrine falcons. Great illustration as always.

Aatish has made great use of diagrams and tables in his inquiry presentation.

Jamie has been looking at a few very interesting questions about space and grappling with some huge numbers.

Ibrahim has been looking into the rules of basketball, old and new, and learning a few new skills along the way.

When sharing work with your teacher, you should always share through Google drive in the first place otherwise it may become lost in the mountain of emails teachers received. Here is another pleasant surprise I found in my emails from last week. These are Safa’s drawings from Field Trip Week and they are great.

This is Safa’s “Starry night” and it captures perfectly the movement that Van Gogh has in his paintings. Look at that sky!

This is Safa’s very friendly-looking Mars buggy.

The children’s inquiries have been slowing arriving today and I hope to share them with you over the next two days. Jemma’s inquiry was to plan and make a 3-course meal for her family. Here is her PowerPoint presentation.

I like that her inquiry has lots of different elements to it and she has executed them in a logical order. She carried out a survey, she did research both online and offline, created a menu, a shopping list and recipes. My favourite part is her great feedback from her family and of course the delicious food.  Can I book a table for three in the name McKenna when lockdown ends?

This is Lea’s inquiry on Ada Lovelace. Lovelace was a famous mathematician and widely thought to be the first computer programmer ever.

Zac shared with me this presentation of the endangered snow leopard.  I liked all the facts and the quiz at the end. My son loved the Stitch gif at the end so here’s my impression for all the Stitch fans.

Teachers at Mearns Primary (and other schools) have two email accounts: the main email that we use every single day and our glow account which is connected to all our Microsoft and Google apps. The Glow account receives an email every time I or one of my pupils does something online, like making a comment or handing in an assignment on Google classroom. As you can imagine with more than 30 pupils this account receives over 100 emails a day and is very difficult to manage. However, every now and again I check the account and I am sometimes treated to a nice surprise like Jemma’s presentation you just saw and this one too. Lea has created this great summary of our amazing Field Trip Week. I particularly love the Mars gif on Day 5. Very cool!

The children have been adding their best memories of Primary 6 to our class Flipgrid. Flipgrid is a social learning platform that allows pupils to post video responses to questions or stimuli posted by their teacher. Furthermore, pupils can then respond to each other’s videos promoting discussion and collaborative learning in a safe and controlled environment.

Grace and her family shared this fantastic movie of them discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun. It will definitely have you screaming for mummy!

The detail on the sarcophagus is amazing and the acting is great too. Well done!

I’ve been in school all day today preparing for next year. Soon it will be time to meet your new teacher, so keep checking here and on Google classroom for any updates.

As this is Inquiry Week, I don’t have slot to share until later this week. However, I can share with you that the inquiries I’ve heard about so far sound amazing. Someone is learning about the early days of computer programming and it’s pioneer, Ada Lovelace. Another pupils is learning how to plan and make a three-course Italian meal for their family. And finally, somebody is learning about the mysterious Mandela effect. I can’t wait to see your results.