All posts by Miss Berrett

Outdoor Learning, Social Subjects

Outdoor learning – mapping

This week, we have been working with the primary 6’s from St Clare’s to begin our new Social Studies topic which will focus on the natural and social geography of our new school and surrounding area.

We began by investigating the outside of our school, sketching the building from a  bird’s eye view. This will develop our sense of place and also help us to create a final aerial view map, like the one below.

Areal view of our Joint Faith Campus


We will continue to develop our mapping and geography skills throughout this term by studying ordinance survey maps of the local area and rest of Scotland.

Science, STEM

STEM week

This week  some of the parents at our school have come into class to discuss their jobs in the STEM industry. We learnt about what a statistician and researcher does which was fascinating! We asked lots of questions and found out that subjects like maths and science are really important for these kinds of jobs.

Later on in the week we continued with our science topic on forces by developing our scientific understanding of static electricity. We learnt about electrons and atoms which is how electricity flows and what happens to cause static electricity.

“We now know that static electricity is caused when an electron is knocked off course and creates a positive atom and a negative atom. This means the opposite atoms attract and cause static electricity.” Liam

We explored this through a range of balloon activities such as bending water, moving an object, sticking the balloon to the wall and making hair attract to the balloon. We can now scientifically explain why these things were happening with the balloon and enjoyed developing our knowledge of static electricity.

                 

Social Subjects

Researching Victorian Inventions

In social studies, we have been learning about inventions from the Victorian era. We worked in groups to research a Victorian invention that is still important today and compared how it has changed from the Victorian times to now. Using the chrome books meant we could find out a lot of information about our chosen  invention and create an eye catching poster to present our research to the class. 

From the presentation we learnt a lot about inventions like the radio, electric train, moving pictures and even ice cream! We are now going to create our own inventions in groups and make an advert to encourage people to buy our invention. We can’t wait to record our adverts!

Israel70 project

Israel70 project

Over the last month we have been working on our Israel70 project which is a programme that is being run in 25 Jewish schools across the UK to celebrate the 70th year of Yom Ha’atzmaut.

The idea of the project is to select an object from an Israeli museum to explore its cultural, artistic and historic purpose. This then leads to the creation of our own piece of work.

We chose to study a sculpture (see below)  by Menashe Kadishman (1932-2015) which represents the story of the Sacrifice of Isaac which symbolises Israeli National Service.  We researched this sculpture and the meaning behind it and presented our research in our project book.

 

The class decided to focus on the ram for our art work and make our own horns. They hot glued wire to a headband and wrapped plastic bags around the wire to give it more thickness. Pupils then wrapped a lot of plastic twine around each piece of wire and when that was complete, the favourite bit, we spray painted the horns.

Everyone really enjoyed making their own sculptures and learning more about the original piece of art work by Kadishman which had such a profound meaning.

 

 

 

Science

Testing Gravity and Air-resistance

This week we went to the science lab to learn about gravity and air resistance.

We planned our science investigation by deciding to investigate if the length of a spinner (helicopter blade) affects the speed its falls. Pupils planned the investigation by choosing a variable  to study (length), writing a hypothesis and stating the method as well as how they will keep it a fair test.

The class then went out to the hub, which they decided was the best place to drop the spinners. Once all the spinners were dropped and timed, the results and averages were calculation. Finally, pupils were able to conclude and evaluate their investigation.

“the spinner with the shortest blade fell quicker because  there is less surface area for the air resistance to slow the fall of the object” Hadi

“we kept the test fair by only changing one thing, the length of the blade. Next time we could test a different variable like weight by adding paper clips to the spinner” Jake

Drama, Expressive Arts

Drama Workshop

This week we looker deeper into what it was like for children in the Victorian era compared to childhood nowadays.

Through a range of drama techniques (as seen in the pictures) we developed our understanding for what life was like for Victorian children who had to work. We created still pictures which then changed into scene making where we improvised in our roles as Victorian child workers. By putting ourself in their shoes and expressing our feelings through actions, it was clear how tough life was for children back then.

We then started to explore the progress for children that came from   the Education Act of 1870 and how people like Dr Bernardo were pioneers for protecting children. Finally, we compared it to our own lives and discussed how far our rights have come by discussing the UN’s Rights of the Child and expressing, through drama, what it means to experience the SHANARRI indicators at Calderwood Lodge.

 “Thought – provoking” Sophie

“Interactive and effective” Daniella

“Interesting and moving” Leo

“It made me think about children’s rights around the world and how fortunate we are” Jake

Role on the Wall

Thought Tracking

 

Still pictures and scene making

 

Conscience Alley
Social Subjects

Scotland Street Trip to experience a Victorian Classroom

This week we travelled back in time to experience what life was like for pupils in a Victorian classroom.

We walked into Scotland Street and as soon as the boys put on their waistcoats and the girls put in their pinafores we were marched in straight lines to the classroom. The terrifying teacher came out and get us our orders to sit in silence and not speak unless spoken to. 

In the classroom we had to address the teacher as ‘ma’am’ and completed work on slates. She even brought out the belt which had our knees trembling!

Luckily we were brought back to 2018 after a nerve wracking lesson. We learned a lot about how tough it was for children at school during this time and how different it is today. It was a fantastic real life experience that we will remember for a long time!

Burns Celebrations

P6 & P7 Burns Lunch

This week we celebrated our favourite Scottish Poet, Robert Burns! On Thursday we came together with primary 7 to host a Burns supper where the families were invited to come along and be entertained with lots traditional songs, poems, dancing and of course, haggis tasting.

We thoroughly enjoyed dancing the Dashing White Sargent, performing the Address Tae a Haggis and singing Auld Lang Syne to end the Celebrations. Have a look on our Twitter to see videos and pictures of our performances.

Thank you to all the families that came to celebrate with us and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

 

Social Subjects

Our new topic: The Victorians

This week pupils have began their new Social Studies topic, ‘The Victorians’ which everyone is very excited about starting. Pupils were given the opportunity to explain what they already know about this topic and more importantly, what they would specifically like to find out about this era.

The class are very interested in finding out what life was like for children their age during this time, so over the next few weeks we will carry out research to find out what life was like for Victorian children which will then allow pupils to compare it to  their own lives. Everyone is looking forward to developing their knowledge of this era and visiting Scotland Street in a few weeks to  become Victorian Pupils!

 

 

 

 

 

Chanukah

Chanukah Enterprise

This week we have been taking part in a Chanukah Enterprise with P5 and P7. Each class made something related to Chanukah  which was sold for charity. We all came up with a company name, catchphrase and prices and create a poster to advertise our product.

We developed the company ‘Chanukah heroes’ and made beautiful Chanukah cards to sell. They were really popular and we also enjoyed buying the dreidel packs and the Chanukiahs which were made by P5 and P7. It was a great experience to develop a company and product as well as be the sellers and  buyers.  We all managed to make £123.85 for Camp Simcha-well done everyone!