Class of 2023a

Well, the weather may not have been great, but we all have had a glorious month of May in Primary 6A!

We began reading a new novel, Street Child, and have enjoyed getting to know the characters in this happy and uplifting story set in the Workhouses and hovels of Victorian London! Our topic has been The Victorians and they certainly are an interesting lot! We created a timeline of Victorian inventions and realised that we owe them a great debt! We also learned about life as a child in The Workhouse, Up a Chimney, in school and down pit. We decided that we were glad to be alive now and not then! We got a short taste of life then, when our teacher dressed up as a Victorian teacher and delivered some Victorian – style lessons. (To be honest, he looked like he was enjoying himself a little too much!)

In Maths, we have been looking at Algebra, rounding numbers to nearest whole number and nearest 1 000. We are further developing our understanding of fractions, decimals, and percentages and revisiting the properties of 2D and 3D shapes.

In Language, we have continued to work on grammar rules, spelling and handwriting. We created fact files on famous protesters, wrote sense poems about being a Chimney Child and wrote imaginative Diary of a Workhouse pieces.

We created fact files on the benefits of Renewable Energy for Earth Day. We have been looking at how our Mental Health can be affected and ways in which we can keep a positive mind set. We also began Mandarin lessons this month and we all agree that they are very interesting!

Some of our classmates delivered an interesting presentation about Eid. As it is May, we are saying a decade of the Rosary each week as well as a daily Hail Mary. We also learnt about the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.

We all enjoyed our trip to the Science Centre and the highlight for everyone was when our teacher asked us to write a recount of our visit the next day. Talk about being a Party Pooper!

We are looking forward to our last few weeks in Primary 6, before beginning a new journey next session!

As always, check out Twitter for pictures of what we are getting up to!

Hello again, and welcome to the Wonderful World of Primary 6A…

Maths:
This month, we used Trundle Wheels again to measure the MUGA and calculate its area and perimeter. We then developed our understanding of the Distance, Speed, Time formula. We explored Algebra, Time and the properties of the Circle. We used compasses to create cool circle designs! Mr O’Neill, the HT of St Ninian’s High School visited our class while we were doing Maths and he was impressed with our positive approach to this subject.

Language
In Language this month, we have looked at pronouns, verbs and subjects and predicates. We wrote persuasive letters to the Queen and created anti bullying posters and ‘Stay Safe around Strangers’ guides. We have just finished our novel study, The Boy at the Back of the Class, which we have all really enjoyed!

RE
We continued our journey through Lent and followed The Stations of the Cross. We also learned about St Patrick and the Hindu festival of Holi.

Health
We looked at celebrating our differences and then investigated how racism and discrimination can negatively affect people. We also looked at our own ‘Emotional Well’ and discussed ways in which we could keep it topped up with positivity!

Global Citizenship
We looked at the various Renewable Energy sources and ways in which we might reduce our Carbon Footprints. We also learned about Banana Plantations and how Fairtrade can help them get a fairer price for their products.

ICT
We tried out coding again, using ‘An Hour of Code’ website.

Art
We recreated Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Starry Night’ painting and then sold them on to our parents to raise money for Syrian and Ukrainian refugees. (We raised £150!) Hold on to them… they may be worth millions in the future!

As always, keep an eye on Twitter for up to the minute news and photos!
(Go onto St Cadoc’s twitter and search Primary 6A)

Welcome back to Primary 6A and another exciting Blog!

Maths:

This month, we covered finding percentages of whole numbers, using calculators for large calculations and finding the Area of composite shapes. We can confidently find the area of a right angled triangle too! We used metre sticks and trundle wheels to estimate and then measure larger distances. We also learned how to successfully carry out Distance, Speed and Time calculations! We are now moving on to Algebra and reading timetables.

Language

In Language this month, we have looked at using the apostrophe correctly in our writing. We continued to focus on Setting in Writing and wrote a few pieces on this subject, particularly focusing on ‘familiar places with fresh eyes’. We began our novel study, The Boy at the Back of the Class. We are all enjoying it so far! We also researched Syria and created fact files on this country.

RE

We continued with the Pope Francis Faith Award. We are now working through ‘Piety. We performed a Talent Show in class!  We also found out about Mr McLaughlin’s favourite saint, Maximillian Kolbe.

Health

We found out about the different types of road crossings and went outdoors to practise crossing the road safely. We then created excellent road safety posters and displayed them around the school. We also looked at different types of drugs, and the negative impact they can cause on both our health and others around us.

ICT

We tried out coding again, using ‘An Hour of Code’ website.

Art

We found out about Vincent Van Gogh and are going to attempt to recreate his ‘Starry Starry Night’ painting!

As always, keep an eye on Twitter for up to the minute news and photos!

(Go onto St Cadoc’s twitter and search Primary 6A)

Belated Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to the first Blog of 2022!

Maths:

We have moved on from fractions to decimals and next stop is percentages. We can’t wait! We have also covered division, quadrilaterals, Area and Perimeter. We also learned how to successfully carry out Long Multiplication calculations!

Language

In Language this month, we have looked at Synonyms and Homophones. We are focusing on Setting in Writing and wrote a few pieces on this subject. We also read some Rabbie Burns poems and learnt some Scots words. We then created Rabbie Burns Fact Files… they were braw!

RE

We continued with the Pope Francis Faith Award. We are now working through ‘Wisdom’. We hope you enjoyed our Rabbie Burns presentations… look out, we are going to be dazzling you with our talent show soon! We read about The Epiphany and heard the story of The Good Samaritan… a good life lesson for us all!

Health

We have been exploring our Dreams and Goals and set targets for home, school and life! Wish us luck!

 ICT

We used search engines to carry out some research on Robert Burns and The Egyptians and then created fact files.

Art

We drew realistic portraits, focusing on line, shade and tone. Mr McLaughlin said they were fantastic!

Music

Mr McGlockenspiel taught us to play some tunes on his namesake, which we really enjoyed. We also accompanied some real musicians too! We listened to some, and commented on, a selection of Reggae, Blues, Classical and Asian music. We also had to listen to some of Mr McLaughlin’s Johnny Cash songs too!

As always, keep an eye on Twitter for up to the minute news and photos!

(Go onto St Cadoc’s twitter and search Primary 6A)

Hello, hello… anyone out here?

Well, if you are, make a cup of tea, take a seat and read on to discover what we have been up to over the last few weeks.

Maths:

We have started looking at fractions; simplifying and equivalent ones, as well as finding fractions of a whole number, to be precise! We looked at rounding numbers to the nearest 100, 1 000, 10 000 and even to the nearest whole number! We have also completed lots of Arithmetic activities.

Mr McLaughlin emptied out his plastic recycling bin and we found out about millilitres and litres. It was very exciting!

Language

In Language this month, we looked at direct speech, adverbial clauses and apostrophes. (As Mr McLaughlin’s old granny used to say, “If in doubt… leave it out!”) We also wrote reports on COP26 as well as St. Cadoc’s.

RE

We continued with the Pope Francis Faith Award. We delivered presentations to our classmates about aspects of our chosen country. Topics ranged from animals, landmarks, food and sports. Mr McLaughlin said that they were excellent! We also made cards for our parents to thank them for looking after us. (We hope you liked them!)

Canon Eddie came into school for a Remembrance Service. We also wrote the names of family and friends who have passed away and remembered them in our daily prayers.

ICT

We did some coding and also used our IT skills to research COP26 for our reports.

Next stop… Christmas!

As always, keep an on Twitter for up to the minute news and photos!

Well, here we are coming towards the end of October. The leaves are turning brown and falling to the ground and the nights are fair drawing in!

If you have been keeping an eye on Twitter, then you’ll see that we have been very busy over the last few weeks. Here’s a quick run down:

In Maths we have been looking at Data Handling, 3D shapes, angles and Measure. We have also been adding and subtracting ThHTU. We also drew some geometrical shapes like Mr McLaughlin did when he was a wee boy twenty or so years ago…

In Language, we have been completing Comprehension activities and looking at verb tenses. It’s been great fun! We have also written some amazing stories based on Characterisation. We looked at what a person does, says, acts like and how others react to them. Mr McLaughlin said they were some of the best stories he’s ever read!

We wrote Haikus.

They were all about Autumn.

Excellent, they were!

Our Australian topic trundles on and everyone agrees that it’s a fantastic subject to explore. Mr McLaughlin is looking forward to our presentations in a few weeks time.

We have continued our Pope Francis Faith Award and have spoken to our peers about our hobbies and the different jobs our parents do. We relected on things we are grateful for in our lives. As October is the Month of Mary, we have been saying the Rosary in class.

As always, photos of our many achievements and activities are regularly posted on Twitter.

Yes, amazingly, it is the end of September and that can mean only one thing… another Blog!

So….welcome to our second Blog of Primary 6. We have been very busy since the last one!

In Language, we focused on plurals and pronouns and how they can be used to show possession. We wrote instructional pieces on How to Make the Perfect Cup of Tea and also How to be a Good Friend. We are now focusing on Characterisation and will be creating our own characters soon.

We have all moved on to Time in Maths. Some pupils are reading digital clocks, some are focusing on 24 hour time and some are adding/ subtracting time. (Mr McLaughlin says he feels like he’s ‘doing time’ trying to teach it!).

We voted for ‘Australia’ to be our first topic. So far, we have made fantastic fact files about Amazing Australian Animals. (We looked at Alliteration in Language!) We also investigated The Great Barrier Reef and the dangers it is facing due to Climate Change. We found out about the top ten most dangerous spiders in Australia! Aaaaarggghhh!!!

In Art, we created portraits in the style of Romero Britto, which were fun and colourful. Drama saw us act out a scene from Oliver Twist (the focus of some comprehension activities.)

Cannon Eddie came in to launch the Pope Francis Faith Award, and we are looking forward to beginning this journey at home and in school.

Sam said, “I liked the self portrait. I enjoyed the way we created it.”

Aleeza said, “I liked making the fact file on Oz Animals. I also feel better doing Art.”

Zahra said, “ I enjoyed doing the self portraits, because they were about ME!”

Remember, Mr McLaughlin regularly posts our work on Twitter… so check it out and if you like lit… like it!

Hello and welcome to our first class blog in Primary 6!

We have all settled in nicely into life in The Learning Lodge and are looking forward to an action packed year!

We have revisited nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. We also wrote a piece about our favourite topic… ourselves! 

We are doing lots of revision in Maths and will soon be moving on to fractions, time and number work. Mr McLaughlin is ensuring that we are trying our best and presenting our work as neatly and accurately as we can. Our pencil sharpeners and rulers have never been busier!

We worked together to create a Class Charter and looked at our rights. We also created ‘Life Islands’ which we used to show what makes us, us. They were very good!

Enzo says, “I like doing the work in Maths just now, because I forgot a lot over the Summer!”

Hafsa A says, ” I like being in the Learning Lodge, because we’re out the way!”

Leon says, “I like getting a time in the MUGA and the adventure trail.”

Kirsten says, ” I liked creating My Life Island and creating goals for the year.”

Connor says, “I liked creating the My Life Island and the Starbursts.”

Mr McLaughlin regularly posts our work on Twitter… so check it out and if you like it… like it!

In literacy we have been learning how to become Thinking Readers by using different strategies to help us before, during and after reading. We’ve been reading a book called Rainforest Calling to help practice these strategies but to work on our prediction skills we watched a short animated clip called Hunted. A hunter caught a small person native to the jungle, but they managed to escape and we had to use clues from the video, as well as think about other stories and shows that the clip reminded us of, to work out what might happen next. ‘Skinny Jimmy’ managed to escape and draw the hunter that looked like a gorilla into his own cage and trap him. The last thing we saw in the clip was the hunter trapped in a cage with lots of native people gathered around him. We used our prediction skills to guess what might have happened next and we don’t think things are looking good for the hunter. 

In writing we’ve been focusing on persuasive essays this month but we also had a chance to write our own sea shanties too. It was good fun listening to some of the old songs and then trying to write our own. Afterwards, we danced along to ‘When I was one’, a sea shanty style song that had us jumping this way, that way, forwards and backwards over the Irish Sea. 

The 19th of May was National Numeracy Day and we celebrated in lots of different ways. We went outside for a numeracy lesson where we did a number of the day task with chalk in the playground. Then we measured the track with all sorts of equipment including metre sticks, tape measures, our feet and even our bodies. We also had a maze challenge where we had to use our directional language to guide a friend with their eyes shut along a winding path. It was really tricky to stay on the line and Ms O’Donnell gave us chalk so we could create our own and play at lunchtime too. 

Sports day was fun but wet, very wet. It was completely pouring down! The hurdle races were one of our favourites because it was like the running race but with an extra challenge. The sack race was fun but the handles were a bit hard to hold onto in the rain. Three people from our class made it into the P5 finals. It was really exciting and we all cheered loudly as they made our class proud. Well done!

In art we have learned about Steven Brown and responded to his colourful acrylic paintings of different animals. We worked hard to create our own drawings using pencils and crayons to make big blocks of colour and took our time to add in lots of detail too.

Today, we had a demonstration of some woodwind instruments. The instructors explained how they work and why they are called woodwind instruments (it’s because most of them use a wooden reed to make the noise). It was really interesting to hear all the different songs that could be played on these instruments, we even heard the theme from Harry Potter on the oboe! Some of us may be lucky enough to learn some of these fantastic instruments next year. Next week, there will be a demonstration of brass instruments which we’re looking forward to and we’ll let you know how that goes in our next blog. 

Thanks for reading our blog!
P5a

We’ve only been in school for just two weeks of April and we have accomplished so much.

We have been using a new tool called Rainbow Editing to help us improve our own writing. It also has the added benefit of making our writing pieces look really colourful too. We have used this tool to revise and edit our diary entries of characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We heard a fantastic example that told the story of how Veruca…. sorry Princess Veruca found her golden ticket and we loved it so much we wanted to hear it again! The writer chose to remain anonymous so there has been a lot of speculation and guessing about who this writing superstar is.

We are very lucky to have Mrs Shaw regularly coming into our class to teach us French and PE. We’ve revised colours and body parts, even miming Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds (that’s head, shoulders, knees and toes) to practice. We also played one of our favourite games, 21, to practice our numbers. In PE we’ve been practicing our possession game skills, passing, dribbling and moving with the ball, then used our skills in friendly hockey and basketball games. We’re looking forward to improving our skills further.

We are so glad to be back out in the sunshine for our outdoor learning sessions. This week we learned all about pollination, bees (did you know that a honey bee will make less than 1g of honey in its lifetime?) and butterflies (the painted lady butterfly can fly for 2500 miles without stopping!). We also showed off our cool dance moves as we pretended to be bees showing our followers what direction the food was in and how far. Check out our twitter post for some fabulous pictures!

After that, we then got mucky mixing and stirring all the ingredients to make seed bombs. We decorated envelopes and wrote instructions on them to give to someone at home. Let’s hope the bees and butterflies are hungry as there’s going to be lots of beautiful brightly coloured flowers around for them to gather nectar and complete all their important work.

Thank you for reading and we look forward to letting you know what we’ve been learning next month!

5A