Primary 4/5 and Primary 5a are learning Mandarin! Grace (mandarin teacher) will be visiting both classes every Friday for the next 5 weeks. Pupils will learn how to speak, recognise and write in Mandarin. This week classes were learning how to introduce themselves and basic vocabulary.
People Who Help Us
Gerry’s dad came in to speak to us about his work at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. We asked him lots of questions and found out how he helps keep everyone safe. He told us how important it was to keep your home safe from fires. He would encourage everyone to use the Home Fire Safety Visit (HFSV) which is a free service to protect your home and family. Please call your local Fire Station on 0141- 881-2222 to arrange a home visit. Keep safe everyone!
The gardening club has been very busy researching seasonal vegetables and designing garden layouts. They also met with the site manager of our new extension to discuss the idea of redesigning the school garden. St Mark’s has now been approved for a new vegetable garden! The design is based on four rectangular raised beds and one flower bed.
Designing the garden
Gardening club representatives met with the pupil council and site manager to show their plans.
The site manager looks at his school plans and agrees to take the garden design to the school architect for approval and design.
The new plan featuring the garden design is agreed by the builders and the authority. The revised plan shows the new garden design.
The gardening club has now started to prepare for our new garden. With the help of three students from St Luke’s we’ve started to sow peas, carrots, spinach and strawberries.
People Who Help Us
Primary 1a and 1b’s new Social Studies topic is People Who Help Us. We decided to find out about different types of jobs by interviewing lots of people. We made a list of questions to ask each person. We interviewed Emily’s mum. She is a physiotherapist. She helps people when they are in pain. She likes her job because she makes people feel better. If you would like to come in and tell us about your job we would love to see you. We have great questions for you.
Primary 1a and 1b
Blog 3
18th February 2014
Lots to update you on! Our eggs have finally started to hatch and the official name we now give them is ALEVIN. The trout are now able to swim around the tank and they respond to loud noises. They have changed colour from orange to brown. To survive they will continue to feed from their yolk sac. Their faces are starting to appear and we have noticed their eyes too. They still huddle together quite a lot, and they are all very protective of each other. They make it very difficult for us when we try to remove a dead egg or alevin.
We love that they seem more confident as they swim around when we are visiting them. We have had to add small pieces of netting over the taps to prevent the trout from swimming into the cooling tank.
Tomorrow we hope to be given an idea of a date for release from Caroline. We will then plan to invite our parents and carers in to see the project first hand.
Primary 5a and 5b’s novel study this term is Michael Morpurgo’s ‘This Morning I met a Whale’. As part of the topic both classes decided to host ‘Whale Week’ to raise funds for a visit to Deep Sea World. Through a variety of enterprise activities the classes managed to raise an astonishing £732.79. Activities included a sponsored dance, selling sea snacks, an acrostic poem competition and lots more.
Thank you very much to pupils, parents and carers for your support. Sea World here we come!
Orca, Competition winner.
Dolphin, Raffle Winner
We have been looking after our 200 eggs very carefully. Since the 3rd February we’ve been checking on our eggs four times daily.
Each check involves – a temperature check, possibly changing ice water bottles, a check for any dead eggs, top up water in tanks and bucket and cleaning the tank. Groups of four children are visiting the Pea Pod to complete this task. They then come back to class, record the information on our checklist and report back to their classmates.So far we’ve identified only one dead egg but we know there will probably be more.
On Wednesday 5 February the eggs had started developing. We noticed that inside their yolk sac eyes were appearing. We had to ensure that the water was kept to the correct temperature during our February holiday and say a big thank you to Mr McDonnell, our janitor, for adding ice on the days we were off.
We’ve returned this morning to a very exciting sight! Our trout eggs have hatched!!!! We were able to watch them swimming around their tank after assembly. They were very fast.Sadly, some more eggs have died over the weekend. We will now remove these eggs and monitor very carefully.
Look out for our next update very soon.
Primary 6
The school will be closed on Friday 7th (staff in-service), Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th for mid-term break.
School will re-open on Wednesday 12th.
Have a lovely break!
Meeting tonight at 7pm, St Luke’s High School.
Please find attached the minute of the Equalities Forum which took place on 16 January 2014 in Woodfarm High School.
Regards
Maureen Sneddon
Quality Improvement Officer
Primary 5a officially opened our new school library last week. They were very excited to be the first pupils in the school to explore the shelves and borrow a book. They loved the new books and scanning equipment-just like a real library! The library is bright and colourful and the children particularly liked the reading quotes which decorate the wall.
Some photos of last weeks panto visit from M & M Productions. The children had a great time watching the performance and singing along with the characters.
On Friday 10th January M &M productions will be visiting the school to perform Beauty and the Beast. We have been fortunate with funding raised from recent enterprise events paying for this treat for the children. Thanks to all parents/carers who support these events throughout the year.
School will close on Friday 20th December at 2.30pm and re-open on
Monday 6th January 2014 at 8.45am – breakfast club as normal from 8am
St Mark’s has entered the Saatchi Gallery Competition. You can see our entries on the link above or view in our website Showcase page.
