This week, we were brilliant, wonderful, tremendous and magnificent in our P5 Cakes and Carols performance.

We spoke clearly, sang beautifully, danced elegantly and acted awesomely.  We hope you enjoyed it.  We thought you did very well during the 12 Days of Christmas too.

Some of us also performed our writing this week.  We wrote the dialogue of two snowman from an advert.  By using different words for “said”, we could tell how the snowmen felt and then performed it.

I enjoyed doing impressions if they were super excited so you acted super excited – L 

I liked reading out my dialogue and using the different emotions – A 

I enjoyed watching other people because they were funny and dramatic too – B A 

I really enjoyed acting out the drama – S 

As part of our Learning Journey on castlesm we had researched 4 weapons and made notes on a sheet during the open afternoon.

This week we had a choice of how to show our information.  We could choose between making posters, a Google Slide or using Chatterpix.

If we chose a poster, we had to include facts and make sure it included colour and pictures.

If we chose Google Slides, you have to includes facts and pictures from the internet. You could also choose a more interesting background.

On Chatterpix we had to choose a picture of a knight and then record ourselves for thirty seconds so you have to choose your words carefully. When we press play, our voices come out of the knight’s mouth.

Hello,

This week we developed our ideas as part of our work on Upstream Battle with Mr Atkinson.  First, we created our plans on paper and then used Tinkercad to create a 3D representation on the Chromebooks.  Next, we will vote on our favourite designs and create a model using junk materials.

This week, we learned about the features of a castle and how they can be used in defence. We learned about portcullises, drawbridges, moats, arrow slits, battlements, parapets, towers and keeps.

From there, we worked in groups to design a castle that could withstand an attack and then we used the Make-Do kits to create a model during the Open Afternoons.

On Friday, we celebrated our wonderful models with a museum walk-round.  We visited P5b’s museum classroom too!

This week, we built on our knowledge about Castles by using some of the resources from the Glasgow Science Centre.  We worked as forensic scientists to find out information from the bones of a skeleton that was found under the floorboards of the chapel in Stirling Castle.  The skeleton was one of ten found during renovations in 1987.  Looking at information about isotopes in its bones told scientists what he ate and where he came from.  They even worked out exactly who it might be… Sir john de Stricheley who died in 1341!

In Expressive Arts we practised our tinting skills to make beautiful sun or moon backgrounds for silhouettes of Scottish Castles, concentrated on shape and line work.  They look fabulous!

This week in P5a we used Hallowe’en to theme some of our work.

In Writing, we created spooky themed poems. We used onomatopoeia, similes, alliteration and excellent adjectives.  Some of us used rhyme too. If we wanted to, we could perform our poems to the class!

In French, we created monsters using a beetle drive to practice our new vocabulary for body parts.  Monsters are useful because they can have lots of arms, legs, ears and eyes instead of just two!

And finally, on Friday afternoon we made some spooky mummy eye art. We chose colours carefully and used our blending skills too.

This week we started our Castles Learning Journey.

We were researching castles, how strong they are, when they were built, interesting facts about them and people who lived there.

Me and my partner did Edinburgh and Glamis. We learned that Glamis is haunted! (AN)

On top of the research, we made Top Trump cards about the castles. the categories are on this photo.

We used collaboration to compare the castles we researched and work out a score (SS) 

We looked at the bits of paper to work out the scores like 10 or 6 (SK) 

Then we made Top Trumps to play with! Mrs Allan will laminate them for us.

We played with some original Top Trumps to help us with the design of them.

This week, we have started our lessons on Kindness and Friendship.

We did some “silent graffiti” where we answered the questions Mrs Fry had asked us silently, but using pictures, and words with different colours and writing styles.  Then we talked about how to show kindness and what friendship means to us.

After that, we started work on some friendship and kindness slogans which will be put around the school.

This week we have been focussing on Science.  We have explored forces, and looked at buoyancy.  We completed experiments on floating and sinking, making predictions and then comparing materials to work out what affects if something floats or sinks.   Then we applied that knowledge to make boats to be as buoyant as possible while exerting a force (Marvel characters!)

This week we have been learning about floating and sinking. sometimes it’s because of how big it is. (Y)

We had to choose one things we thought would float and sink and check if we were right (A)

We tested cans to see if they would float and sink.  The ones with the highest density sunk.  That was about the sugar levels. (S)

We made tin foil boats and we had to try and make it so that 24 Marvel figures would fit on it. the ones that were more successful had a wider surface area (S)

At the Science Centre we got our first taste of the science of castles at the Castles Rock! show.  It will be part of our learning for the next few weeks. Lots of the activities we did included forces!

On Thursday we went to the Science Centre and we explored lots of different stuff.  My favourite part was the upside down house (I).

I tried some stuff and I really liked when we built the Lego around the water (M)

I liked pumping the water with the lego and seeing how much water the dam would support (F)

I liked the spinning cars that you powered by spinning the wheel to move it. My friend got the top score! (F).

We played an air hockey game with four sides. It was harder because it kept hitting off the table.  (H)

My favourite part was between how fast you can run or the hanging bars (A)

My favourite part was the game where you had to hit the germs before the get inside your nose. I got the top score of 35 (L)

We played a game with arrow buttons and make the snake eat the apple. We got 4th place! It was about teamwork. (J)

We watched a show on Castles Rock! we learned if there was a hole in the brick then water gets in and it would break the castle apart.  If you put moss on it then it stops the water and it doesn’t break it (A).

This year’s theme for Maths Week Scotland is Wild Maths to encourage us to look for the maths in the outdoors.

To combine this with our work towards the Junior Forester Award, we measured trees outdoors.  To do this, you walk away from the tree and look upside down between your legs – when you can see the top of it, that should be the height of the tree if it was lying on the ground! We also created a forest with chalk in the playground by measuring the height of different British trees as saplings and at one year and two years.

And then… the Colour Run!