Braidbar Primary 7 Blog

Last week we really enjoyed our class trip to Rouken Glen Park where Ranger Katie led our learning.  We began our day by visiting the herb garden where we had the opportunity to smell some of the herbs that our mums and dads use in cooking.

Next, we went on an adventure hunt round the orchard.  Not many apples growing at the moment though!  Maybe we should visit again in the Autumn.

Katie also told us why the birds stamp on the grass.   Mrs McNaught didn’t know, so she learned something new as well!!!!

We went to visit the waterfall which was flowing really fast because of all the heavy rain we have been having.

After that, Katie took us to the lake where we were able to feed the ducks and the swans.  We fed them nuts and seeds because bread is not good for them.

Lastly, we were able to have some time at the adventure playground which was great because we were the only children there.

We would like to thank Ewan’s dad and Charlie’s  mum for coming along on our trip.  We all had a super time.

P.S A big thank you to Katie, she was great fun!

 

 

Well done to all the boys and girls for all their hard work in the nativity!

French

We are very excited that we have been linked up with a primary school in France. We are going to communicate with them on a regular basis. We started by creating Happy New Year cards and writing information about us.

‘When we were making our Happy New Year, we learned that you say Bonne annee’ in French.  Aaron

‘I enjoyed writing about myself to let them know more about me.’ Waniya

‘I didn’t realise I was able to write so much in French.’ Emilie

Science

‘We made homemade pan pipes using straws. We lined straws up and stuck them together. Then we cut them making them a little longer each time.’ Alexa

‘We did this experiment so that we could learn a bit more about sound. The longer the straw, the lower the pitch. The smaller the straw, the higher the pitch.’ Alex

 

 Today we were very excited to meet a real life Polar Explorer called Craig Mathieson. He shared many interesting facts about his expeditions.  Here is a sample of some of the many things we learned.

Emilie – There are lots of different types of penguins.

Heather – Craig told us about a very inspirational young boy who joined him on a trip to the Arctic even although he only had one leg and one arm.

Aisha – Don’t listen when people tell you that you can’t do something because you can do it if you really try.

William – I learned in the summer in Antarctica there is 24 hours of daylight.

Alex – I learned the name of a different species of seal called the Elephant Seal.

Rebecca – You don’t really feel the cold in Antarctica because it is a different type of cold – it is not wet and damp.

Adam – I learned that you need to eat a lot of fatty foods to prepare for going on an expedition because you burn off lots of calories each day.

Aaron – I know that seals are found where there is salty water and lots of fish and not just in the Polar Regions.

Imogen – Craig has a solar panel on his tent so he can e-mail his family when he is on an expedition.

Eden – Craig has to do a lot of training to build up strength before he goes on expeditions.

Isla – I learned that when you are in your tent you are always safe.

Zia – You only find Polar Bears in the Arctic.

Alexa – The only way to scare Arctic Foxes is to throw snowballs at them.

Muriam – Craig has never eaten a McDonald’s burger or a KFC.

Zara – You don’t wash when you are on a expedition to the Antarctic.

Waniya – Craig pitched his tent in the same place as Roald Amundsen.

Rebekah – You fall asleep very quickly because you are so tired.

Ewan – There is a place in the Antarctic where meteors have landed and left small holes in the ice.

Matilda – The Inuits think they are wealthy because being with their families and their way of life is very important to them.  They don’t understand why we need so many things to make us happy.

Matthew – When the temperature in Antarctica reaches -70 the moisture in your eyes freezes and you have to scrape the ice off.

Toby – Killer Whales are not really whales, they are part of the dolphin family.  Craig told us he held on to the fin of an Orca and was pulled along in his canoe.

Samyan – Craig told us he only takes one set of clothes on his trips.

Atiya – Craig can only take one photo at a time because his camera freezes.

Katie – On expeditions to the South Pole he will miss Christmas and his daughter’s birthday.

The socks Craig wears  are made of felt and he can mend them if they get worn.  He never has cold feet. Craig brought in Robert Falcon Scott’s undergarments to show us.

This week we had our P4 assembly. Thank you to all the people that came along to support us, we had a great time sharing our learning with you all.

In addition to the assembly we have also started sharing our Polar Explorer Research.

‘My PowerPoint did not work so I switched to plan B and used the board instead. It went very well. It was about Ann Bancroft who is from Minnesota. She has achieved a lot more than just going to the Arctic and Antarctic. She started off as a teacher and then became an explorer’.     Matilda

‘My research was about Rosie Stancer and she wants to go to a desert for her next expedition. She works in a charity shop to help 500 children and adults’. Muriam

We have also been learning about sound vibrations in Science.

‘We learned that sound is made by vibrations. We used a tuning fork and hit it off a table then put it against a ping pong ball hanging from string. We found that the tuning fork made the ball move’. Ryan

‘When we hit the tuning fork off the table and then dipped it in the water, the water squirted everywhere because the fork was vibrating’. Samyan

‘The water experiment was my favourite experiment because it was funny splashing everyone’. Adam

 

This week we enjoyed an extra break on Tuesday for winning line of the week 2 weeks ago. We had great fun!

‘During our extra break Rebecca was teaching us how to Irish Dance.’ Imogen

‘We managed to get Mrs McNaught onto the nest swing, it was funny.’ Eden

In ICT we have been continuing to research facts about France that we will share with you at our assembly.

‘I really enjoyed the P7 assembly, it was magnificent!’ Isla

‘Today we worked with Mr Gordon to learn about different food groups.’ Heather

‘We were sorting different types of food into groups. I liked working with my group, we worked well together.’ Aaron

‘I learned that cucumber is a fruit and not a vegetable. Lots thought the same as me.’ Adam

‘Today I got use the bow in my violin lesson, I was very excited’. Alexa

On Wednesday we went to the ‘Secret Garden’ to make notes for our writing. We had to pretend we were a little lego person that had been left in the garden and create a piece of writing to describe the setting.

 

This week we have been learning about a famous explorer called Sir Ernest Shakleton in our IDL topic.

We have also been learning about Article 24 of the UN Conventions of the Rights of the Child with a specific focus on the ‘right to clean water’. We learned that not every child in the world has access to clean water like we do and that we should support charities that try to helper poorer countries get access to clean water. We took part in a quiz about this, using the interactive pods.

We also had our first swimming lesson which was great fun. We were all learning different things.

‘We were learning the front crawl.’ Toby

‘In my group we were learning about the streamline move’ Emilie

‘Our teacher showed us how to breathe under water.’ Aisha

 

We also had an early break because of the swimming which meant that we got the playground all to ourselves. Yipee!

‘We had great fun pushing Mrs Andrews on the nest swing.’ Rebecca

 

In Science we are about to start a new topic about ‘sound’. We discussed what we already know, what we would like to know and how we will find this out. We also went outside and took notes on every single sound that we could hear.

 

What would I like to know? 

 

How can things make sounds? –William

What is a sonic boom? – Alex

How far can sound travel? – Toby

How does sound travel? – Rebekah

How can we hear? – Heather

How do our ears work? – Ewan

Why do we have earwax? – Ryan

How do sonic booms happen? –Matilda

How is sound made? – Atiya

If you don’t have ears, can you still hear? – Heather

 

How will we find this out?

 

Use internet search engines. – Waniya

Read Science Books – Waniya

Carry out experiments. – Atiya

Ask people. – Aaron

Share what we already know with each other. – Heather

This week we had our Halloween Disco and had lots of fun at it. We have lots of photos to share with you.

In class we have been learning the days of the week in French.
‘My favourite French day word is dimanche because I like the way it is pronounced.’ Waniya

‘My favourite French day word is lundi because I can remember it very well.’ Atiya

‘The day I remember the most is jeudi because we learn new French words on a Thursday.’ Alexa

lundi
mardi
mercredi
jeudi
vendredi
samedi
dimanche

‘In France they do not use capital letters for days of the week.’ Aaron

In IDL our new topic is called Polar Lands.

‘I learned that the Arctic is at the top of the world and Antarctica is at the bottom.’ Toby

‘There are huge difference between The Arctic and Antarctica.’ Matilda

 

 

 

Just before the October break we made Vegetable Pasta. We were revisiting our chopping and peeling skills that we learned in P3.Thank you to all the families who helped us with this as we couldn’t have managed it without you! Our dish was very successful and many pupils enjoyed it, some even asked for the recipe to take home!

We have had another busy week in Primary 4. We had a visit from Scottish Water, linked to our Science topic. They taught us about how to keep the water cycle flowing by being careful about what we flush down the toilet. They also showed us how the pipes work that go in and out of our houses.

‘We learned what should go down the toilet and what shouldn’t. We found out that cotton buds should not be flushed down the toilet because they block the screens that clean the water. I got to shake the bottle of water and toilet paper. I learned that you should not flush wipes down the toilet because they do not dissolve like toilet paper does.’ Alex

‘I learned that lots of people put things down the toilet that they shouldn’t because things can get stuck and people have to go and unblock the pipes. I really enjoyed the visit.’ Atiya

We learnt that only 3 things should go in the toilet and everything else should go in the bin. The three things are pee, poo and a little bit of toilet paper.’ Aiman

We also went out to our school garden this week to give us inspiration for our writing lesson this week. We were very lucky that we avoided the horrible rain!

‘We went up to the secret garden and listened to the sounds of nature, smelt different smells and looked for signs of autumn. We used this in our writing to create stories with an autumn setting in a park.’ Eden