Hi P5/6 readers, I wanted to update you on what we have been doing in our Learning Journeys since our last entry.

I am delighted to share that Primary P5/6 have achieved the FairAware Award from the Fairtrade Foundation after confidently sharing their knowledge with the rest of the school at a recent assembly!

After exploring the META Skills of Communicating and Collaborating, P5/6 started their current Learning Journey – The Water Treatment Campaign! So far, the pupils have revisited prior learning by creating and labelling diagrams of the water cycle. With this knowledge the pupils researched and plotted the locations of different reservoirs around Scotland. The class also had a rich discussion about why dams are located in specific areas, taking into consideration the Scottish landscape features such as the height of hills. Mr MacDonald, who is a project manager at Mackenzie Construction, visited the class and shared with the children his role and what his organisation does to help with transporting and managing water supplies. Interestingly he mentioned aqueducts which has led to the pupils learning about how they were constructed by the Romans and they even attempted to make some using clay. Visitors from Scottish Water also came and delivered a workshop to help the children plan their campaigns focusing on water wastage and conserving it. As part of this project the pupils calculated the amount of water their families use on a daily basis and discussed how they could improve on their results. All the pupils went on to confidently and creatively present their group campaigns to the class in a variety of formats including Google Slides, posters and Adobe Express. P5/6 have also begun to design water filtration systems after conducting some research as to how water is treated and will be testing these shortly.

Mr Atkinson

This week we were able to get outside during our writing lesson to enjoy the sunny weather!

We had a great day today learning about Eid ! We got a chance to cook and even a boogie in the afternoon!

This week we were looking at place value and specifically looking at millions. The children were very excited as we were showing our working for the problems by writing on our desks!

Hello to all the P5/6 blog readers, it’s Mr Atkinson here! As you will know this year I am doing NCCT for primary P5/6 with a focus on developing Crookfur’s Inquiry Based Learning approach so I wanted to give you an update of what we have been doing.

In our first Learning Journey – Exploring the Solar System, we revisited the planets and recorded some of their features in a comparison table including their size, distance from the sun, length of day etc. In the beginning we researched astronauts who had ventured into space and answered questions about them. In our investigations we discovered how planets have been studied by using Rover explorers. We were then set a challenge to design and construct a working 3D model of our very own Rovers! We were taught how to draw to scale and we revised different types of measurements. Afterwards, we used recyclable material to build the models and we had to make sure they had real-life features such as cameras, arms and an energy source. It was very challenging making wheels and a pulling system so it required a Growth Mindset to overcome the successes and failures during our tests. At the end of this Learning Journey we did a showcase with the other P6 classes and presented our model rovers and showed how they worked. Amongst all of this we visited the Glasgow Science Centre and experienced the IMAX: Space – The New Frontier 3D show.

The class were then introduced to the META Skills of Creativity and Curiosity. We reflected on how these skills had already been utilized in our previous Learning Journey and discussed how they could be used in our upcoming focus on Fairtrade.

Our second Learning Journey –  Fairtrade, has been supported by the organisation Fairtrade International. First we discussed wants and needs of people from other countries and compared them with our own. Next we discovered where products are from and how purchasing Fairtrade items environmentally, socially and financially help those that farm and gather the resources. Working in groups or with a partner we created presentations using information we had researched and summarised about a specific Fairtrade product that most people would not know about. There were a lot of surprises! Afterwards we learned how solve profit and loss calculations using coins and we were shocked to discover where the profits go in the supply chain process! To finish off our Learning Journey we designed our very own Fairtrade items using Tinkercad and then applied our persuasive skills to create advertising posters for our products as well as an advert which we recorded on the iPads and some of us edited on iMovie.  Alongside our work and evidence gathered we are hopeful that our efforts will be eventually recognised by successfully renewing the FairAware Award.

We are now focusing on applying the new META Skills of Communicating and Collaborating in both school and in real life situations. After reflecting on the different ways humans express themselves we researched how animals communicate and presented what we had discovered to the class. We have also looked at how laughter is an important form of communication but that we need to be mindful of when we are doing it.

We are just about to start our third Learning Journey – Water Treatment Campaign, which we are all excited about!

Mr Atkinson

Here are some photos from this week!

Here is a sneak peak of the P6 show and some photos of what we have been getting up to in P5/6!

MMS- We were learning about volume in maths. We were learning about Millilitres and Litre using measuring jugs and other things to measure out water.

SM- This week in PE we learned about catching and teamwork when playing rounders. I enjoyed it and would like to play it again.

JT- This week during writing we were redrafting our stories. We checked for spelling and tried to improve our story by adding extra bits. I really liked this and would like to do it more.

AJ- In Maths we were adding ,subtracting,multiplying and dividing decimals. We completed word problems that helped us see real life situations where we would use decimals.

TL- We have been working on fitness during PE. This week was the last lesson so we were trying to improve our scores from the first week. Some of the exercises were wall sits, push ups and lateral bound jumps.

JT- We decided our new topic as a class and decided to focus on avalanches.

AJ- On Thursday we played Netball/Handball in the MUGA and had a tournament to see how our teamwork skills have improved.

MMS- In Science we created a grid of 9 things we would take with us on a journey to space. I chose my bestfriend,KFC my goalie gloves and many more.

EP- On Wednesday we were introducing Plot to our Theme Park stories. We added a problem and the characters within our story had to solve it to keep the readers engaged.

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