Hi P6A 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 P6A have achieved the FairAware Award from the Fairtrade Foundation after confidently sharing their knowledge with the rest of the school at a recent assembly!

Following this, the class then spent some time investigating how they use the META Skills of communicating and collaborating in their lives. After reflecting on the different ways humans express themselves the pupils researched how animals communicate and presented what they had discovered to the class. P6A have also looked at how laughter is an important form of communication but that people need to be mindful of when they are doing it. The class also discussed examples of  transferable skills that can be used in school or in future jobs, with many in the class agreeing that communicating and collaborating are essential. Finally, P6A enjoyed thinking about how superheroes also need these two META Skills to accomplish their missions and that even they have weaknesses.

The current Learning Journey is called 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. 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.

Mr Atkinson

Today was our Eid celebration.

Throughout the week we have been exploring Islamic art. We were looking at arabesque art in particular which has a repeating pattern or curved shapes. RM

Today we wore traditional clothes which represented our culture. There are a few people wearing kilts and Scottish football tops as well as some fancier, colourful outfits. JM

Throughout the day we have taken part in activities such as making samosas, churros and mango lassi. We were so grateful for the parent helpers who organised this activity.

A lot of us also got henna on our hands. AR

P6A would also like to say a huge congratulations to Rose and Kayla who competed in the regional K’nex challenge this week and came 4th out of 27 schools. We are excited to hear how they get on in the final.

This has been an exciting week for P6a! At assembly this week we received our certificates for completing the Playzone Leadership course. Over the past 4 weeks we have received training from Tony about how to lead others when playing games. On Thursday we had an opportunity to use our new skills and play some games with primary 2.

This week we also started our new art project. We have researched a French artist named Georges Seurat who invented the art technique ‘pointillism’. We have started using this technique in our own art pieces.

This week we brought our Engineering topic to an end. We have been working in groups to develop a new invention which we presented to the rest of the class in the style of Dragons Den.

This week the pupils in P6a have been using recycled materials to create a silly invention as part of their Engineering topic. They have used collaborative, problem solving and communication skills to complete this task. We can’t wait to see their pitches ti the judges next week.

This week was very exciting for 2 of our P6 pupils. They attended Eastwood to compete in the Creating Engineers cluster challenge. The girls were challenged to build an exercise bike using K’nex and they scored an amazing 96 out of a possible 100 points. Well done R and K!!

Thank you to our Junior Road Safety Officers for talking at assembly this week and sharing information about the Big Walk and Wheel competition.

In P.E. we have started a block of Basketball. We were learning about some different passes. We were learning chest passes and bounce passes. We have to think about how to correctly hold the ball as well as thinking about the force we pass the ball with. OC

In maths we worked with different groups to solve calculations. We didn’t focus too much on the answer, the focus was more on the strategies we used to solve the calculation. It was cool to see all of the different ways our brain works. BH

This week we have been continuing to read the novel wonder. We have has some good class discussions about the book and learned how to summarise different chapters. BM

This week we learned how to write a set of instructions. We watched a clip from the minions movie and created a set of instructions on how to steal the moon. HR

Hello to all the P6A blog readers, it’s Mr Atkinson here! As you will know this year I am doing NCCT for primary P6A 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. Using the Chromebooks we researched astronauts who had ventured into space and created fact files on 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 class and P5/6 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.

P6A were then introduced to the META Skills of Creativity and Curiosity and were encouraged to apply these in a variety of lessons. We are going to revisit new META Skills this terms to help to continue to develop important life skills.

Our current Learning Journey – Fairtrade, is being supported by the organisation Fairtrade International. We are working hard towards renewing our FairAware Award by learning about the wants and needs of people from other countries, where products are from and how purchasing Fairtrade items environmentally, socially and financially help those that farm and gather the resources. 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. We hope to show all of this at a future showcase!

Mr Atkinson

It has been a busy couple of weeks to start term 2. With our show just around the corner we have been working hard at learning lines and lyrics.

Rehearsals

We are so excited for our show which will be taking place in less than a week!!!  We all know our lines off by heart and we are so excited to perform.  EF

Now that we have learned our lines our focus next week will be adding actions and bringing the show to life. JM

Problem Solving

In problem solving we did a game where we were in groups of 9. Each of us had a card 1-9 and we had to get into smaller groups of 3 where our cards made a total.  HR

We have also been looking at different skills we use in problem solving.

P.E

In P.E we have been doing Scottish dancing, we learned the Slosh which will be in our Scottish show. We also learned the Canadian Barn dance and we did it to a less traditional song called ‘Bits and Pieces’. JM

IDL – STEM

This week, we learned about how buildings are made in areas prone to earthquakes. We learned that buildings are constructed on top of flexible pads that isolate the foundations from the ground. When an earthquake hits, only the base moves, allowing the structure to remain steady. This effectively helps to absorb seismic waves and prevent them from traveling through the building.

We decided to try making our own structures, using spaghetti and marshmallows/playdoh. The spaghetti acts as the flexible steel and the marshmallows represent the building’s flexible and absorbent joints. We then placed our structures on top of whiteboards and gave them a good old shake!! Have a look at the video below to see one of the successful creations in action.

STEAM

In the STEAM room with Mr Atkinson, we have been learning all about space. We made the solar system on string and created a scaled model of their distance from the sun. Most recently, we have enjoyed making Mars Rovers. In real life, these rovers would land on Mars and capture data about life on the planet.

“We had some malfunctions at first but we worked through it once we figured out how to build the wheels.”

“We used someone’s genius idea to use the centre cardboard piece inside sellotape to create the wheels.”

“Our rover can rotate even just with one wheel.”

“We used a plastic bag for a parachute and if the wind catches it while it is moving, it will go up in the air.”

“It was quite hard to build the rovers because of all the tin foil that we were using for solar panels.”

“It was hard to find the right pieces to fit the roof of the rover and it was difficult to keep the wheels in place but we worked hard to.”

Glasgow Science Centre

Today we visited the Science Centre and were lucky enough to discover all 3 floors, as well as watch a movie in the IMAX theatre all about the journey to space.

“Testing my sprinting speed.”

“There were 8 pads on the floor, 4 each. We had a dance battle and had to bounce up and down to earn points. Whoever has the most by the end of the time won.”

“This was really sore on my legs because you had to jump about for so long!”

“We had to grab the metal part and spin it and it would make a windmill.”

“It was very interesting trying to find out what the objects were by just using touch.”

“We had to carefully place the blocks at a certain angle to make a freestanding archway.”

“It was an amazing day going to the Science Centre.” (Matthew & Finn).

“It was a lot of fun learning about all things science and how things work.” (Benjamin)

“It was a super fun day and hopefully we can go back again.” (Rose)