This week, we arrived at the end of our learning journey exploring “How can materials change?” by investigating how materials freeze and how temperature can impact the speed of freezing. The highlight of this lesson was making ice cream in a bag! The class got hands-on experience as they used ice as a variable to see how it changed the freezing speed of a liquid. They learned the importance of fair testing by keeping all other factors the same, ensuring that their results were reliable and valid. It was a fun way to connect scientific understanding to a real-world process, and of course, they got to enjoy the delicious outcome (we decided if doing this to home, we’d probably add some sugar/sweetner.)

Finalising our lesson off,  we played a game of Cops and Robbers to review everything we’d learned. Each pupil shared five key facts they had discovered during the journey, then “stole” five more from their peers. This was a great way for the class to reinforce their knowledge, while also practicing teamwork and communication.

Throughout this learning journey, P6a practiced important scientific skills like forming hypotheses, observing results, and recording data. They also developed their collaboration skills, sharing insights and learning from one another; one of the Metaskills.

What an on point week we’ve had! Our class have been exploring the fascinating world of angles. We’ve been busy measuring, building and moving to understand how angles shape the world around us.

We used K’nex to rebuild the Eiffel Tower! As we built, we had to identify the specific angles required to give the tower its iconic shape. We saw plenty of angles helping to create those sturdy triangles that keep the structure standing tall.

We headed outside in small groups for a game of Pac-Man. Instead of joysticks, we used mazes used from sticks and directional language and angle turns (90°, 180°, and 360°) to navigate the “maze.” It was a fantastic way to see how angles relate to movement and position.

The rain didn’t stop us creating stick art outside. In groups we created images, ensuring they had different types of angles. We identified and classified angles, using angle names, we estimated angle sized and then measured using a protractor.

This week in class we have been developing our meta skills, with a strong focus on collaboration, curiosity, sense making and critical thinking.

Our learning journey is exploring the big question “How can materials change?” The class began investigating their own smaller question: “What materials are soluble?” Pupils worked together to test different materials in water, sharing their hypothesis before observing what would happen. Through discussion and experimentation, they demonstrated fantastic curiosity and teamwork as they tried to make sense of their results. It was great to see the pupils questioning why some materials dissolved while others did not and explaining their thinking to their peers.

In maths we continued developing our understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages. Pupils worked in pairs to solve Tarsia puzzles, where they had to correctly match triangles by converting between the different forms. This task encouraged lots of mathematical discussion, problem solving and perseverance as pupils worked collaboratively to complete the puzzle.

To celebrate World Book Day, P6a have begun to create their own storybooks to read and gift to their P1 buddies.

Developing their fine motor skills, hand eye coordination and life skills, P6a used a needle and thread to create a felt bookmark for their personal reading book. They have been putting these to good use during the class DEAR time (drop everything and read).

Working in small groups P6a made a scene from a story. Their collaboration, creativity and problem solving was impressive throughout.

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This week, our classroom was filled with excitement, curiosity, and plenty of wonderful sounds as we welcomed two  S6 pupils from Eastwood High School. They led an engaging and interactive music lesson all about the different instrument families found in an orchestra.

We learned about the four main instrument families: strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion. The pupils explained how each family produces sound and shared examples of instruments.

The highlight of the lesson was having the opportunity to explore and try a variety of instruments ourselves. Everyone had great fun experimenting with the different sounds and learning how each instrument works. It was wonderful to see so much enthusiasm, teamwork, and curiosity.

A huge thank you to the S6 pupils for sharing their knowledge and inspiring us. Who knows—we may have some future orchestra members in our class!

This week we have been using lots of different materials to help us make sense of number patterns and sequences, including squared numbers, triangular numbers and Fibonacci sequence. Not only have we learned about common difference, terms and nth numbers, we have been able to apply our learning and create patterns for our peers to solve.

We have recently completed a block of lessons developing key skills through rounders, including communication, teamwork, coordination, throwing, batting and catching. This week, we have begun transferring many of these skills into the sport of cricket. While learning new rules, procedures, language and techniques, we are continuing to work together, communicate effectively and support one another as a team. This has helped them see how skills learned in one activity can be applied successfully to new sports and challenge.

Hi P6a readers, I wanted to update you on what we have been doing in our most recent Learning Journey since my last entry.

The pupils have been fascinated with learning about AI and they have effectively used the Meta-Skills of critical thinking and curiosity to investigate the impact of this technological development in our lives. P6A displayed excellent collaboration, leadership, communication, initiative and adapting skills when working in groups for the Sky Up Academy Studios project. This challenged each group to research and summarise facts about an aspect of AI and use their extensive notes to create a script for their team’s news reporters. They then selected media clips, music and green screen backgrounds before recording their news reel. The class has also been discovering how the internet works and have learned about the different hardware pieces in computer that make it function. In addition, we discussed the limitations of AI and then the class attempted to create their own AI programmes to solve maths questions by giving it accurate and clear prompts. P6A also participated in an online workshop as part of Maths Week Scotland called “Defend the Rhino with Maths and AI” which taught the pupils how AI is being used to help assist organisations with protecting endangered species. This involved pupils applying their knowledge of maths, numeracy, and data science skills to analyse CCTV data from across a South African national park. Then they used a machine learning model to recognise images of poachers.

P6a were delighted to welcome visitors from Newton Mearns Baptist Church to our class, who came to teach them about the New Testament of the Bible and help them learn more about the Christian faith. As part of the Bible Alive programme, which will run over a three-week period, we explored key stories in a fun and engaging way. P6a especially enjoyed acting out some of the stories, bringing learning to life through drama and discussion.

On Thursday afternoon with Miss Lamb, P6a started learning how to play the Glockenspiel. We started with learning ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.’ We’re looking forward to learning more notes next week with the aim of learning a pop song!

Happy New year! 

From 2d drawings to building 3d models, we have had a busy start to the year as we revisited prior learning on 2d and 3d shapes. We have been naming, sorting and categorising as we used different materials, supporting our learning based on the properties of some 3d objects. This revision will support our learning as we begin to focus on area and perimeter.