Month: January 2023

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Thank you to all the families who have donated empty plastic water bottles, these will be used to help keep our hatchery cold once filled with ice.

Literacy and English

John – For our persuasive writing this week we created scripts for our TV commercials. The purpose was to encourage people to buy the items we had brought from home. To achieve this we included persuasive openers, exciting descriptive vocabulary and wording opinions as facts which can sometimes be challenging.

Numeracy and Maths

Harley and Archie – This week P6 finished learning about ml and l and have started our new time topic. We have been revising how to use AM and PM when writing times of events that happen throughout the day. We have also been discussing how to record time in 24 hours.

Ruairidh – P5 have moved onto learning about weight. One of our activities involved making weight estimation of items and deciding whether they weighed more or less that 500 grams.

 Health and Wellbeing

John – We have started learning about Healthy Eating with Miss Ross and this week we took part in a quiz guessing the amount of sugar there is in products we eat or drink.

Alfie – In the MUGA, for P.E. with Miss Hutchison we played a couple of football matches. The captains helped to train their teams and teach them new skills for the upcoming games.

Science

Kate – In Science we did experiments to change the shadows of objects. We discovered that by adjusting the angle or distance between the light and the item this will impact on the shape and length of shadow. We also wrote a report on these tests.

Sara – On Monday, Toby from the Glasgow Science Centre came to set-up our hatchery and answer any of our questions about how to look after the trout eggs.

IDL – Fairtrade

John – In our Fairtrade lesson we created mind-maps on what impacts farmers and affects their basic needs.

Outdoor Learning

Finlay – After working to create updated maps, this week we were challenged to use Tinkercad to design new school grounds that linked with the important messages from John Muir. Some of us built new habitats for animals and others created gardens to encourage creatures to visit so that we could study them.

Expressive Art

Mehr – With Mrs Hutchison, the primary 6 pupils took part in the forbidden rhythm game and played on the glockenspiels.

RME

Aarohi – I shared with the class a drawing I made about a festival that is celebrated by Hindus called Makar Sankranti. Makar Sankranti marks the commencement of the sun’s (the god of the sun is Surya who we pray to) journey to the Northern Hemisphere (Makara rasi).

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

This week the class a wonderful time visiting the Glasgow Science Centre where they explored many different areas and learned about Clyde in the Classroom which will be one of our upcoming topics. We are going to be receiving lots of trout eggs and will look after them until they are ready to be released. The class enjoyed listening to the presentations about the River Clyde, different fish and how to properly look after trout in hatcheries by using cold and clean water. Everyone is very excited for getting our equipment delivered to the school and working with scientists.

Literacy and English

John – This week in writing we created a persuasive flyer on Scotland encouraging people to visit here. We used a lot of engaging, exciting and descriptive vocabulary on different topics such as landscape, food, traditions and famous sites to visit. To make it move appealing and persuasive we drew pictures to match our sub-headings.

Emma – To support our learning of different persuasive techniques we looked at an article about food and eating. We discussed how the writer was trying to get their point across and then we answered different questions based on the the text. We were also were challenged to decode words and phrases we were unsure by looking at the sentences surrounding them.

Numeracy and Maths

Heena – The primary 6 pupils learned how to convert ml in to l including using a decimal point! We also used this knowledge to help us with adding and subtracting ml and l.

Eva – The primary 5 pupils have been continuing to measure lengths by using a ruler, converting cm and m and using this knowledge in calculations.

Spanish

Sara – With Miss Hutchison we learned about how to describe the appearance of someone in Spanish.

Health and Wellbeing

Mehr – In P.E. with Miss Hutchison we played a football match, P6 versus P5!

Harley – With Mr Atkinson, half of the class performed their gymnastics floor routine which we assessed in our groups. Next week the rest of the class will demonstrate their sequence of a roll, jump and balance.

Science

Retal – Last term we did an experiment testing whether ships made of recyclable material float or sink. This week we were taught how to write and structure a science report. Some of the features we had to include were observation comments about the floating and sinking experiment, conclusions we reached at the end of the test, listing our methods chronologically and in clear steps and how to form a hypothesis.

Finlay – With Miss Ross we used torches to determine if light travels in a straight line or not – it was so much fun!

Ruairidh – We discovered that tinfoil and mirrors are reflective.

IDL – Fairtrade

Alfie – Before beginning our new Fairtrade topic we all completed a KWL which Miss Ross will read to help shape our lessons and activities.

Aarohi – With Miss Ross we started our new IDL topic – Fairtrade! In our first lesson we discussed what wants and needs are. Afterwards, we sorted  statements into the two categories.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Welcome back, I hope everyone had a great holiday and are looking forward to the new term ahead. Miss Ross will be joining the class for the next couple of months and will be teaching a variety of subjects. Homework was issued this week and should be returned on Monday. Our Woodland sessions are on Mondays and they are scheduled for the weeks beginning January 9th, January 23rd, February 6th, February 20th, March 6th, March 20th, April 17^th, May 1^st, May 15^th, May 29^th  and June 12th.

Literacy and English

Alfie – In our Grammar lesson with Miss Ross we were focusing on punctuation and revising how to correctly use capital letters and full stops. We visited different stations and either fixed sentences, identified where punctuation is needed and upleveled sentences.

Maya – This week our writing was based on a personal experience. We chose from four of the options and then wrote three or four paragraphs on the memorable events. Mr Atkinson challenged us to include a variety of connectives, time openers, descriptive language and punctuation.

Numeracy and Maths

Chloe and Harley – Miss Ross taught us different Mental Maths strategies this week. The primary 5 pupils discussed the counting on method and the primary 6 pupils answered questions that were worded in a variety of ways.

Health and Wellbeing

Emma – In the MUGA, for P.E. with Miss Hutchison we continued with our Football training. This week we were developing our dribbling, passing, shooting and defending skills.

Mehr – Miss Ross did a Getting To Know You lesson with us all. It was really interesting learning some facts about her!

Sara – In gymnastics with Mr Atkinson we began to practice our individual floor routine involving jumps, roles and balances.

Isla – In our primary 5 Bounceback lesson we learned about the word catastrophizing and what strategies to use to avoid doing this.

Heena – In our primary 6 Bounceback lesson we discussed how to give ourselves reality checks when faced with difficult situations. Some of the ideas we came up with included asking for a second opinion or gathering and checking for evidence.

Outdoor Learning

Aarohi – This week we wanted to update old maps of the school grounds. First we walked around the school to see how it has changed over the years and then we returned to class to create our own versions with a key. Mr Atkinson also challenged us to find different locations on the maps and some of us discovered that our houses were not even built at the time of when the map was published. We also learned about Ordnance Survey and some of the features on a map.

Science

Aarohi – With Mrs Lamont the primary 5 pupils did experiments involving ice. We were challenged to find out what material melts ice the quickest.

Spanish

Lewis – Miss Hutchison has taken over from Mr McMillan. We have started learning how to greet people and to say some colours in Spanish.

Expressive Arts

John – On Friday with Mrs Hutchison the primary 6 pupils learned about the different notes in music and we got a chance to play the glockenspiel.

RME

Sara – This week we learned about good deeds and how they are linked with karma and reincarnation in Hinduism.

Mr Atkinson’s comment:

Once again the primary 5 pupils did the class proud when they performed the Christmas Window show to the whole school this week! Thank you to all the parents and guardians for supporting the children with learning their lines and songs. The class thoroughly enjoyed having pupils from primary 7 visit and teach a drama lesson which they performed to their peers as well as creating their Christmas crafts. Both P5 and P6 pupils joined their friends in the other classes at their stage Christmas parties this week. The children had a fantastic time dancing, playing with their friends, taking part in games and enjoying snacks and drinks. Finally I would like to express my thanks and appreciation for the kindness, generosity and support over this term from everyone. Have a wonderful festive period and I am looking forward to hearing all the stories from the pupils in the New Year.

Highlights from the week