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.

Today is the start of Inquiry Week. The children have the chance to learn about something they are passionate about. It should be something they are interested in but don’t have much knowledge in. It should be big enough to fill their whole week and not something that can be Googled in a few minutes.

The choice of topic is completely open and no two inquiries should look the same. A few examples could be,

Example 1

Topic: I want to learn how to plan and prepare a 3-course meal

Actions: create a menu, plan recipes, create a shopping list, make a budget, etc.

Outcome: a PowerPoint presentation with text and photos.

Example 2

Topic: I want to learn about making and editing movies using iMovie

Actions: looking at online tutorials and videos, planning and creating a storyboard, finding locations and actor, using props and costumes creating a project in iMovie, etc.

Outcome: A finished movie with a storyline using multiple movie editing techniques such as transitions, cutaways, background music, special effects, etc.

Example 3

Topic: I want to learn about a famous scientist in history.

Actions: researching into the earlier life, working life, achievements, discoveries, personal life, death, etc.

Outcome: a recreation of one of their experiments with a completed lab report with results and graphs.

Following our excellent interview with Abi (still can’t believe this happened), I received a package to my house from her. Abi has kindly sent every child in P623 a three-chapter sneak peek copy of her new book, Jungle Drop, which doesn’t hit the shops until 1st October 2020. Amazing!

She has also signed every copy which makes a great keepsake and positive memory from our time in lockdown. I have thanked Abi on your behalf and she congratulated you on all your hard work in and out of the classroom.

This the last day of Field Trip Week and I saved the best till last. Today’s trip is out of this world. Literally! Today we blast off for Mars.

Today’s music is provided by David Bowie and it is an instrumental version of his 1973 classic “Life on Mars”.

Zac has again created another great presentation.

Just in case you missed it in his presentation, here is the drawing of his Mars bugging. I love it!

Lewis has designed his own Mars rover called Galatica 0.0.

He has also packed his suitcase for his trip to Mars.

Jamie has also created a buggy and put it in his logbook.

Ibrahim enjoyed the VR tour of the surface of Mars.

Hibah has been researching the age-old question “was there life on Mars?”

Lots of great facts about Mars here Daniel.

As always, a few update from our previous field trips. Some great facts here from Jamie.

A closer look at his pyramid with some hieroglyphics too.

Wint has been completing her logbook. This is from our trip to Egypt.

She drew and build a pyramid.

A beaver fro our trip to the Hall of American Mammals.

And finally, her logbook entry from Day 3 and a drawing of the Empire States Building. Great work Wint!

I hope you will agree, but there has been lots of great work this week and I for one have really enjoyed Field Trip Week. Digital badges will be sent to all participants.

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you on Monday.

 

Yesterday, I thought I would do a check-in with children since I was working in the Mearns Hub. I asked the question: Are you enjoying Field Trip Week so far?

I’m glad to report that they are and not only that but every people that answered the question said yes. A great result! (phew!)

 

I don’t know if you have noticed but this week I have been putting some music on our blog themed with the location of our field trip. Today it’s “Walk like an Egyptian” by The Bangle as we are in ancient Egypt today. Tuesday it was “Starry starry night” by Lianne la Havas (not Don Maclean), and Wednesday it  was the instumental version of  “Empire State of mind” by Jay-Z.

 

 

Lea has been making her own pyramids out of paper.

Zac has made another one of his informative PowerPoint presentations.

Lewis has been making a collection of pyramids of different sizes. It looks very like the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Delisha has learned about mummification.

Amaani liked finding out about who made the tombs.

Lucy enjoyed the tour of the pyramids.

Daniel found out the role dogs played in ancient Egypt.

 

I’m still receiving logbooks from our previous field trips.

All of these are from Delisha  

George research hummingbirds when we visited the San Diego Zoo. Great sketch! 

Ibrahim liked my hotdog bitmoji.

Lucy thought Yosemite valley was the best thing about our trip to the Natural History Museum.