This week, our classroom was transformed into a stage as Primary 6 explored drama techniques inspired by our class novel Wonder. Focusing on the strategies of freeze frame and thought tracking, pupils worked collaboratively in small groups to bring key moments from the story to life.

Working in small groups, the children selected an important scene from the novel and recreated it using a freeze frame—a still image that captures a moment in time. To make their performances effective and engaging, we focused on four key pillars of drama:

• Body – using posture and positioning to show character and action
• Facial Expressions – conveying emotions clearly without words
• Space and Levels (Height) – thoughtfully arranging themselves to show relationships and importance within the scene
• Focus and Tension – drawing the audience’s attention and building a sense of anticipation

Once each group had created their freeze frame, we introduced thought tracking, where individual characters revealed their inner thoughts aloud. This allowed us to dive deeper into the characters’ feelings and motivations, linking closely to our literacy work on inference and understanding.

The rest of the class became active audience members, carefully observing each performance and using clues from the freeze frame and thought tracking to analyse and guess which scene from Wonder was being portrayed.

It was fantastic to see pupils growing in confidence, creativity, and teamwork. Not only were they developing their drama skills, but they were also deepening their understanding of characters and themes within our novel.

A brilliant example of learning coming to life—well done

    We are on a meaningful and creative learning journey inspired by our class novel, Wonder. Through this powerful story, we are exploring an important big question: How our choices shape the world around us?

We began by thinking about kindness, empathy, and the impact our actions have on others. This led us to explore the laws in Scotland that protect children from discrimination, helping us understand that fairness, equality, and respect are not just values we talk about in class—they are protected in society too. The children showed great maturity when discussing rights, responsibilities, and how we can all contribute to a more inclusive world.

Creativity has played a big part in our learning. In art, we developed our skills using watercolours, learning how to create tone and shade to add depth and emotion to our work. We then reflected on our own identities by choosing adjectives to describe ourselves, which we used to inspire a self-portrait in the style of Tod Carpenter. These portraits beautifully captured both the individuality and creativity of everyone in our class.

Building on this idea of identity, we explored the concept of masks—both physical and emotional. We discussed how people sometimes hide their true selves and the impact this can have. The class then applied their learning by experimenting with modelling techniques and choosing to create their own masks using paper mâché. This has been an exciting hands-on project, allowing pupils to express themselves while developing practical skills and resilience.

Welcome back to the P6a blog! We hope you enjoy reading about what we have be exploring with Mr Atkinson in his Learning Journeys.

Last term we finished the Learning Journey, Roads of the Future which encouraged  the pupils to explore the Sustainable Development Goals. P6A investigated how the SDGs could be incorporated into designing a new road and reflected on what were the most important factors to selecting the best place to build them on. They also learned about the properties of a variety of materials and used atlases and online maps to locate different roads in Scotland.  The class also compared different types of road crossings and we discussed some examples that exist in the local area.  Whilst debating the construction of the HS2 the class examined the pros and cons of using other modes of transport which led to some great conversations. The final experience of this Learning Journey involved working in teams to successfully construct a sustainably designed road for the Transport Scotland – Academy9 Sustainable Solutions Challenge which is linked to the A9 road project. The groups displayed excellent communication, collaborating, critical-thinking, initiative, adapting and creativity skills when designing their Tinkercad prototypes which they successfully used to assist with building their models. I was so impressed with everyone’s efforts and thank you again for donating materials.

We have just recently started our new Learning Journey, Adapting to Climate Change. P6A has been researching how far animals can communicate and then we revisited different types of measurements. We started off with converting and then the pupils were challenged to solve calculations involving measurements. Building on this, the class explored how to draw using scales and then we all went outside to draw scaled distances of how far animals can communicate using chalk.

This week in class, we have been focusing on the importance of working together in both small and large groups. Through a variety of learning activities, pupils have been developing their ability to collaborate effectively, share ideas, and support one another to achieve common goals. This was demonstrated through paired reading sessions of our class novel, discussions and research of religious milestones and building and measuring the volume of 3d models. It has been fantastic to see the children encouraging each other, listening respectfully, and building confidence as they work as part of a team.

This was also developed In PE, where we have been developing our athletics skills, with a particular focus on jumping. Pupils explored different jumping techniques, thinking about balance, control, and power. They worked in groups to practise and improve their skills, offering feedback and celebrating each other’s successes. It was wonderful to see such positive teamwork, with children motivating and supporting one another throughout the session.