Maths
Thank you to Miss Brooks from St Ninian’s Maths Department for helping us to ‘soar’ with fractions,% and decimals! As part of our studies, we mastered the skill of identifying links between fractions, % and decimals and learned how to find a fraction and percentage of a quantity. We learned how to convert as well as add, compare and order all three. We ultimately made kites and a patchwork quilt display using 100 squares and then expressed quantities of each colour to correspond. The kites are are now proudly displayed around our classroom and the patchwork quilt is an interactive display. Nathan presented a Thank you card to Miss Brooks on behalf of P7a designed and produced on this theme, thank you once again to Miss Brooks!
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Thank you to Father John from Holy Name who kindly visited our class on Thursday. We enjoyed our question and answer session which was in English and Spanish too! Father John shared his knowledge of the Spanish Language and was able to have a very fluent conversation with Halima.
An alarm continues to ring each Friday at 12 noon to remind us to pray ‘The Angelus’ together. We started this during Advent and decided that our devotion to Our Lady should continue in this way. This is led by volunteers in our class who take the role as the leader and we create a poignant, prayerful atmosphere.
In preparation for Confirmation, we have been learning about the Sacred Symbols of a Bishop and special features of St Mirin’s Cathedral. We have also been exploring modern day saints. We gathered our whole class’ research in a ‘Big Book’ form for all to read. We have also been learning about the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit and continue to pray for our Confirmandi.
Other World Religions
Excerpts from Anne Frank’s Diary led to study of Other World Religion of Judaism and, especially the symbols of Judaism. We devoted our prayer to National Holocaust day on Friday 25th January. Halima sketched Anne Frank and we used ICT for researching further symbols.
Social Subjects (WWII)
We have been learning about the life of evacuees and wrote diary entries in role as a wartime evacuee. We extended our knowledge through research using the Chromebooks and a short excerpt from Goodnight Mister Tom. The Boy in Striped Pyjamas is also proving a very popular read, giving even further insight into a different perspective of life as a child in WWII era. We ‘aged’ our writing for authenticity and they look so believable on our Writing display.
Christina kindly brought in her family’s WWII memorabilia and was rightly very proud of her great grandad’s medals. Finlay brought in a WWII medical card, Connor brought in some old money and we hope to have a WWII exhibition in the near future so that everyone can investigate these items closely. Miss Pasternak kindly gave her time to speak to P7 about the Holocaust and her visit to Poland.
January Blog PhotosSTEM
Chemical experiments have been exciting as we have been exploring the difference between a mixture and a chemical reaction. Cross curricular links with Literacy have developed our skill in report writing of our experiments.
Miss Collins has been really challenged our thinking and perceptions of the engineering profession.
Scottish Power gave a talk to P7. We learned about the National Grid, how electricity conducts and some of the projects their engineers are developing.
Space Pioneer
Halima, our Space Pioneer visited Flux Laser Studio where she was involved in a project to design, create & build furniture to enhance our learning environment. She then assisted in leading an Assembly on the subject, well done Halima!
Art
Our colorful Masks which we designed and produced at St Ninian’s are now surrounding our Art display and will be further enhanced when we extend our Artistic skills through making other 3D masks including WWII gas masks. We even have a genuine gas mask on our WWII display shelf!
Our P7a ‘Artistic Directors’ led a group of peers to produce a very realistic boy and girl evacuee complete with a label, suitcase and clothed in typical attire of the era, well researched art team and super artistic creativity too!
Technical
Our pull along toys are being admired in their ‘raw’ form of MDF. We decided that they look like WWII toys in this form and will continue to enjoy them before ultimately painting them and bringing them into the 21st century in Spring.
Fair Trade
Nathan, our Fair Trade representative, confidently presented a questionnaire to P7a to determine current shopping habits, understanding and contribution to Fair Trade.
Burns Assembly
We learned The Highland Cathedral song and presented it at our Burns Assembly.
Health and Well-being
In Health and wellbeing, we are studying equality and have researched Malala Yousafzai through ICT and gathering facts from ‘Information Stations’ to compile a fact file. This information then allowed us to write a poem about her. We also looked at the events surrounding her assassination attempt as well as the Nobel Peace prize and facts about Pakistan and her background.
Sky Academy
Poalo, Dan H, Sally and Evie had an amazing day at Sky Academy, they returned with a pen drive as evidence of all their efforts and enjoyed sharing their final production with their peers. They were so convincing in role as presenters, interviewers and producers and made it all happen through design and production skills behind the camera. Compliments were made as to their exemplar behaviour and representation of P7a and Our Lady of the Missions during their visit, well done, are so proud of you.
Cluster Ceilidh
On Thursday 31st January, P7 joined with other P7 classes in the St Ninian’s cluster for our Cluster Ceilidh. Great fun was had by all and we left exhausted after dancing the Gay Gordon’s, Canadian Barn Dance, Military Two Step, and a few contemporary dances too. A wonderful afternoon was had by all and we appreciate the leadership of S6 Sports Leaders.
Knitting Bee
Traditional knitting skills are proving very popular in P7a! Our Friday lunchtime ‘knit and natter’ is a big success!
We have two hand knitted WWII teddy bears for our WWII display and we named them Winston and Winnie. A group are now learning how to knit garter stitch with the help of our teacher as well as and Miss Coyle at our weekly Friday lunchtime ‘Knitting Bee’. Thank you to Miss Coyle for supporting us in this way. We are knitting squares which will ultimately be joined together to form a P7a WWII blanket.
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