We have been busy in our STEM corner this term! STEM means Science, Technologies, Engineering and Maths.

We are exploring how STEM involves collaboration, communication, research, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. These are skills that we need to be successful in today’s world, regardless of our interests or career goals.

Lovebug Sewing Project

To mark Valentines Day, we created these adorable Lovebugs by sewing felt together with a running stitch. We filled them with stuffing and added googly eyes. We were very patient when sewing and worked carefully when cutting the felt. ❤

KAPLA Building Blocks 

The 11th February was International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022 which was the perfect day to give our new KAPLA blocks a go!

We started by exploring influential women in science and the impact they have made. We have been discussing diversity, including gender equality, in Health and Wellbeing and linking it to the Global Goals.

We then all had a go at a build. Everyone had a great time and it allowed for loads of discussion, both about the build and careers in STEM. We were so creative and proud of our builds!

Maths NRich Projects

We continue to apply our Maths skills into a variety of problems and projects. We explored cubed numbers by building them with interlinking cubes and looking for a pattern. This introduced the formula that we used for volume V = l x b x h because when we multiplied the number of cubes on each edge, it was the number of cubes used to make each cube. (E.g. 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 cubes)

Engineering Week

We have been exploring what ‘engineering’ means and the variety of careers you can do. We learned about famous and influential Victorian engineers and inventors as part of our Social Studies topic. We also designed our own inventions as part of a Dragons Den challenge!

To celebrate the Winter Olympics 2022 in Beijing, we built some speedy skiers. On our devices, we watched videos of Olympic skiers to give us ideas for what posture was the most aerodynamic. We raced them down ramps to test our designs!

In Art & Design, we have been exploring using watercolour paints with increasing control.

We learned how to hold and wash the paintbrush, mix different colours and blend watercolours.

We read an interesting article on the Northern Lights which were spotted across Scotland in January. This influenced these gorgeous landscape paintings.

Pupils were able to blend a variety of shades or colours with control, not going over the line. We used thin black pens to add details, ensuring the trees in the foreground were bigger than those in the background.

Since it’s also been so cold,  we created some bobble hats using the wax resistant technique. We had to ensure we used enough water in our paint to create an effective wash.

We are so proud of our beautiful artwork 🎨

Miss Hamilton is finally getting married and we made little tree decorations that will be on display at the wedding so that Primary 6.1 are involved in the big day! Miss Hamilton will be Mrs Denny in the new year.

We learned how to work with air drying clay. We used lolly sticks to ensure the baubles are the same width. We used cutters and stamps to change to shape and add details. We finished them off with a satin ribbons.

They will be displayed on the Christmas tree at the front door of the venue. Thank you do much P6 for making such a special keepsake with such care and attention. I cannot wait to display them!

Primary 6.1 celebrated St Andrew’s Day, learning all about their patron Saint and exploring their own Scottish culture.

In maths, we have been focusing on applying mental strategies with speed and accuracy. Today we applied partitioning when solving addition and subtraction calculations to reveal a St Andrew’s Day picture! We were so happy with how much our pace has improved since August.

Later, we heard the story of Saint Andrew’s life and discussed how he came to be Scotland’s patron Saint. We now understand why Scotland’s flag is a saltire, reflecting the x-shaped cross Saint Andrew was crucified on.  We now know that there are many other countries that also have St Andrew as their patron saint, including Tenerife who also has the same flag as Scotland!

We had a quiz on what we had learned on Google Forms via Google Classroom, showing that we had learned a lot about our patron Saint. We challenged ourselves with a crossword or a dictionary challenge to strengthen out dictionary skills and spelling.

In the afternoon, we finished out stain glass windows decorations for our St Andrew’s Day party. It was exciting to push all the tables back to create space for a good ol’ Scottish ceilidh! We had a true or false quiz about what we had learned and made little Scottish kilts from shortbread. We learned all about how traditionally each clan had a tartan which was made from select colours and a striking pattern. We were very pleased with them!

We learned the steps to a progressive version of the Circassian Circle and had a dance in the classroom. We stopped for a break to have a Scottish snack – a sugar-free Irn Bru and our shortbread kilts. We learned that ‘Slàinte’ is a Gaelic phrase which is similar to ‘cheers’ but it actually means ‘health’

Happy St Andrew’s Day! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This term in P.E, we have been learning about possession games. We have really impressed with our skills in basketball and now we are learning about rugby.

We have learned about the rules of rugby and watched some action-packed highlights from the recent Six Nations. We saw for ourselves how fast-paced and physical it could be. In school, we play tag rugby which is a non-contact version of rugby that everyone can participate in. We learned how to wear our tag rugby belts and put the skills we had been learning into action in some 5v5 games.

We now know we can run forward with the ball, low kick the ball forward, and pass the ball backward only. It takes a lot of teamwork and communication to play tag rugby. It was so exciting watching the attacking team trying to score a try whilst our defense team tried to not let them past. Very impressed with P6.1’s quick learning and enthusiasm over the last few weeks. We look forward to another game next week. 🏉

• Primary 6 were invited to Barrhead High’s Taster Day where the Modern Languages and Home Economics departments worked together to provide demonstrations of cooking from China and France.

The pupils learned a lot of practical tips for chopping and frying whilst making a stir fry. They then had the chance to use chopsticks to eat our stir fry after a demonstration. We were all confident individuals and gave it a good go!

We had the opportunity to read recipes I’m both Mandarin and French and discuss the translation.

We had a great time exploring Barrhead High and meeting some of our future teachers!

“I loved the screens in the Home Ec department! It was so easy to see what the teacher was doing when she was chopping the onion.”

“The stir fry was really yummy. I’m going to try make it at home.”

“That was my first time using chopsticks and it was so hard at first. All I got was a noodle! After a while, I got better at it!”

Primary 6.1 have been learning crucial first aid skills in Heartstart. By watching videos, P6 learned how to react to someone who is suffering from a cardiac arrest. We discussed how the heart works normally and how a cardiac arrest could occur. Using mannequins, pupils were able to try administering chest compressions  using the anagram DRS ABC

• D – Check for Danger
• R – Are they responding?
• S – Shout for help.
• A – Clear the Airways.
• B – Check for breathing.
• C – Call 999 for an ambulance and begin chest compressions.

We are so excited that Halloween is here this year. We had a brilliant afternoon dressing up in our costumes, listening to Halloween songs, dancing and watching Tom and Jerry Trick or Treat!

At our party we dooked for apples, took photos in our Halloween photo booth, made drinks potions, played Ten Pin Boo-ling 👻 and made beautiful colourful candy skull decorations.

Everyone had a great time!

Mandarin lessons have returned to Cross Arthurlie, taken by our lovely new Mandarin teacher Mrs Cao.

Mrs Cao is a very experienced teacher who is teaching in our colourful  Mandarin Room. We are learning all about Chinese culture and language. It has been fascinating to learn all about Mrs Cao’s hometown and we have loved seeing pictures of her family. We are revising Greetings, Numbers and Countries before moving onto Days of the Week, Months and Colours.

Our first day of Primary 6. We can look back on these photos at the end of the year to see how much we’ve grown.

We look forward to a great year of learning in P6.