Month: December 2022

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Well done to all the primary 5 pupils who performed brilliantly at the Christmas Window show and it was also great to see so many families attending it!

Information regarding Christmas parties will be in Mrs McGuigan’s weekly round up.

Literacy and English

Leo – My group read a diary entry and answered literal, deductive and evaluative questions. We then shared our answers with our peers and explained how we reached our answers.

Ruairidh – We have been learning about perspective, which is when people have different points of views. We need to be mindful of this when reading sources as the writer may have experienced the same event as someone else but have a different opinion on what happened. An example of this is when we read two primary sources of passengers on board the Titanic. One was written by a male teenager who was first class survivor and another was an account from a women who was a third class survivor. They shared some similarities but also had differences which we explored and discussed as to why this may be.

Aarohi – We also learned that not all sources are based on facts and that posters, newspapers, documents can be created for a certain purpose.

Numeracy and Maths

Aarohi – As part of our new measurement topic we were challenged to design houses out of Lego. We recorded the the length, height and width in centimetres of the building and some of us also wrote down the measurements of our doors and windows. It was great fun!

Ruairidh – We programmed Spheros to move forward, estimated how far they travelled and then measured the actual distance using measuring tapes in both centimetres and metres.

Health and Wellbeing

Emma – With Mr McMillan, we play a couple of games of Boccia because of the weather. 

IDL

Kyler – At the start of the week we began our preparations for debating who was responsible for the sinking of the Titanic. Mr Atkinson shared the question, was the Titanic an accident or avoidable mistake. We then formed teams and chose a historical figure who played an important role in the events surrounding the sinking of the Titanic. We read a range of primary and secondary sources and then created defences for our person and accused other teams that their historical figure was at fault for the sinking. This again showed us that their are lots of different facts and opinions and that there are many points of views based on one event.

Science 

Isla – Using our knowledge of floating, sinking and buoyancy we were challenged this week to build ships that could carry different weights. Mr Atkinson encouraged us to reflect on our understanding as to why boats float and what happened inside the Titanic to cause it to sink. As naval architects we first designed our prototypes. We chose from either using Lego, Tinkercad or made our own sketches however, for all of these options we had to accurately measure them in centimetres and metres. After creating our prototypes we then used our donated materials to construct the actual models. Afterwards, we tested them in water and commented on why some were successful and how we could improve the designs of some that sank.

Kapla

Retal – One afternoon this week we used wooden blocks and instruction books to create different structures including buildings and animals! It was so much fun working in groups to create these objects.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

On Friday primary 5 parents/guardians should receive two tickets from their child inviting them to the Christmas Window performance on Tuesday 13th December at 2.00pm. If you have not done so already can all primary 5 pupils bring in a Christmas jumper or accessories that can be worn on top of their school uniform. It is recommended that these items are brought in a bag with your name on it. Please do not buy anything as we will be able to provide some items, however, if you have anything spare we would appreciate if these could also be brought in.

Just a final reminder that there will be no more woodland session this term.

Literacy and English

Sophie – We have been continuing with our diary writing! This week we tea-stained a piece of paper to make it look old and then we wrote an imaginative diary entry from the perspective of a Titanic survivor. We assessed these by reading them aloud to a group and then gave each other verbal feedback by using the success criteria.

Alfie – Before writing our diaries we thought it would be useful to think about the different senses and emotions the Titanic passengers would have experienced. We created a list of helpful vocabulary and phrases and organised them under senses headings.

Heena – This week we have been learning about the differences between fact and opinions, particularly within sources. We then explored opinions further and discussed how people can have differing or the same opinion but this can be affected by their point of view/perspective. We looked at an example of when Matthew Perry visited Japan and how the Japanese and Americans  viewed him differently in picture sources.

Numeracy and Maths

Finlay – This week all the groups completed check-ups covering different topics that we have been taught this term.

Health and Wellbeing

Finlay- With Mr McMillan, we started our football block focusing on dribbling and passing this week.

IDL

Heena –  We created ships logs and chronologically ordered events that happened on the day of the sinking of the Titanic to create a timeline. This also challenged us to use our reading skill summarising when writing done some of the key facts.

Science 

Heena – In science this week we have been learning about floating and sinking. We discovered that molecules affects the density of an object. Items that have closely packed molecules are more dense than loosely packed objects. Density is one of the factors that causes some items to float and sink. We tested this out but changing the shape of play-doh. A ball of play-doh sunk but play-doh in a flat shape stayed afloat.

Technology

Kate – We also finished designed our safe roads on Tinkercad. Some of us created speed bumps, signs, traffic lights, fences and  pedestrian crossings.

RME

Mehr – The P6 pupils visited the Baptist Church and learned about Jesus. We also took part in a range of fun activities such as creating decorative tiles.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

This week in the blog we have a couple of important updates. The primary 5 pupils all thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the Science Centre and next week it will be the primary 6 pupils turn to attend the annual ADVENTure Trail event at Newton Mearns Baptist Church.

Next Friday primary 5 pupils will be having their final rehearsal for the Christmas performance. If possible, on Friday 9th we would like you to come in your school uniform with Christmas accessories (for example a Santa hat or tinsel) or bring a Christmas jumper. Please could you bring these items in a bag with your name on it. We will store these in school so that we have everything that is required for the actual performance on Tuesday 13th. Please do not buy anything as we will be able to provide some accessories, however, if you have anything spare we would appreciate if these could also be brought in.

With the weather being so unpredictable I have decided to cancel the final Woodland session on the 12th. Instead we will use this time to reflect on our progress towards our John Muir award.

Literacy and English

Ruairidh – In writing this week we were challenged to create diaries for inanimate objects. At first it was tricky as we had to image how these items might react and feel. We also had to include pronouns to show that we were writing the diaries from the objects perspective.

Numeracy and Maths

Harley – This week all our Maths groups created posters for some of our topics such as angles and directions, area and perimeter, multiplication and division, function machines and symmetry.

Health and Wellbeing

Alfie – We updated our personal goal books which we will review at the end of every week. We hope this will improve our work and encourage us to check over things.

Mehr – With Mr McMillan in P.E. we completed more fitness stations such as hurdles jumping, relay races, ladders and skipping.

Harley – On Monday the primary 6 pupils worked in groups to created their very own dances inspired from different styles. We plan to perform these to our friends in a couple of weeks.

Science

Kyler  – The P5 pupils joined the other P5 classes and visited the Science Centre in Glasgow. It was incredible! We watched a performance about how the climate is changing, this included experiments and answering questions. We also explored the different floors such as the human body section, the space zone, technology area as well as test out some of the interesting equipment.

RME

French

Emma –With Mr McMillan, we learned how to express and say whether we liked or loved a certain sports in French.

Retal – We have started to use our daily French calendar which will help us to practice how to say the weekdays, months and weather in French.

Expressive Arts

Sara – On Friday P6 pupils went with Mrs Hutchison to learn about the various types of lines that are used in art and how they can create different effects.

Chloe – The primary 5 pupils have been incredibly busy learning their speaking parts and trying to remember the different songs. We have been joining the other P5 class in the gym hall to practice the entire performance.