Health Week

 Wake Up and Shake Up started the week perfectly! Mindful Monday’s activities included Zumba with Mrs Smith at the Scout Hall. It was a bit of rush but we got there on time…just! We were dancing, shaking, stepping, shaking our arms and moving our legs in time to the beat and it was amazing! The smiles on our faces showed just how much we were enjoying it. Did you know Zumba is a fitness programme involving cardio and Latin-inspired dance? Thank you so much Mrs Smith-we have so missed your Zumba! After break, it was time for Football at the Marian Field with Fern. We loved the warm-up game Link-Tig-it certainly got us warmed up on a rather damp day. The class were split in 2 teams and played two games of Football using the skills of passing the ball, stopping the ball, shooting for goal and marking opposition team members. The rule of tapping your own goalpost when a goal was scored was fun and let the other team have time to plan an attack. There will definitely be a few football players in the future! Rounders was our afternoon activity to help us get fit and healthy and we played brilliantly working co-operatively, encouraging our team mates and planning strategies to get the opposing team out. We can hit the ball so well we lost one over the roof never to be seen again! It was lovely to see the sun come out and have time to laugh and relax with our friends. For the remaining time in the day we rehearsed and filmed our new addition to our presentations this session-The 3 School Values. Excellent ideas were shared and art work created to support the film in raising awareness of Faith, Friendship and Ambition with the rest of the school.

Tasting Tuesday began with the most incredible introduction to Stephanie Inglis, a former Commonwealth Judo Champion. She was amazing to listen to with stories of never giving up and being determined to succeed. We were given some tips on food to eat when training and how water is so important to us. We loved hearing about her travels and Judo competitions all over the world. We lost count of the number of countries. Our favourite part was being allowed to hold her Silver Commonwealth Games Medal-what an honour! It was so sad to hear of her terrible accident which ended her dreams of competing in the Olympic Games. Maybe someone in the room will represent Scotland in the future. Our class were excellent designing a water bottle for the school competition and have lots of contenders for a prize-such lovely colour schemes, patterns and messages. After break we played games such a Link-Tig, Splat and even made up words related to Health using our bodies as letters. We had a visit from a Physiotherapist who told us all about the importance of looking after our necks and spines now to avoid problems in the future. Who would believe a human head was so heavy? Thank you for teaching us that posture and amount of screen time is so important to avoid problems with our necks and spines. The class asked super questions and were very interested. Rounders was the game of choice for the afternoon and we even changed it to make it more challenging linking arms with a partner. It was fun but a bit tricky and very tiring. It certainly got our heart rates up.

Wednesday was The Festival of Engineering at Babcock in Rosyth. It was amazing and so much fun. We learned so much and were able to try out so many different STEM activities. It will certainly inspire the next generation of Engineering Innovators! There was an excellent range of exciting, fun and engaging activities to challenge thinking, solve problems, work in teams and develop creativity. There was a Robotics and VR area, a variety of local companies, Sustainable Ship Building, Chocolate Welding and the Royal Navy Electronics and Pneumatics activities. What a day filled with huge smiles and a learning buzz!  What was your favourite?

Thursday was the big day! Limbering up for the Sports Afternoon and lots of excited boys and girls. The class learned all about the different food groups and their jobs inside the body. We played interactive games preparing a healthy plate of food and then cut and glued different foods into their food groups. In the afternoon the whole class participated in the races and tried their very best so they would be proud of their achievements. The sun shone and it was the most amazing afternoon with a large audience cheering on the boys and girls. What a lovely memory for Primary 6!

Fun Fruity Friday was sadly the last day of our Health Week but began with a Fantastic Fruit Tasting of bananas, blueberries, strawberries and kiwi fruit. They were sweet, juicy, tasty and certainly encouraged us to eat more kiwi fruit. Our Science lesson was all about planning a landslide-proof house and there were some amazing designs that were really clever and thoughtful. The House Basketball final was played after breaktime and was Loch Leven v The Meedies. It was a very close match that ended up with a wonderful win from Loch Leven! Well done team-you worked hard and never gave up. The week ended with a sunny afternoon playing short tennis in the playground. Thank you so much Mrs Main for organising all the activities.

15^nd-19^th May

Primary 6 began the day by completing our Morning Check-In, daily question and Reflect on Teams. Our spelling patterns this week are or for Masterminds, wh for Whizz Kids, ow for Bright Sparks and ck/all for Warlords. We focused on look-cover-write-check, learned the word meanings and used Doorway online to upskill our accuracy with common word sets. Measuring shapes in cm and approximate cm was our Numeracy challenge which we did accurately and we revised how to draw diagrams to show the meanings to times tables questions.  Games with tennis balls to learn the multiples was great fun and keeping us healthy too. The groups also read aloud to each other showing skills in clarity, volume, expression and intonation and discussed tricky word meanings. Monday is our new Assembly afternoon so the school came together to share important information and receive the Pupil of the Week Certificates-well done to Lacey and Eva from our class who were very proud.

Tuesday’s learning included calculating approximate areas for irregular shapes; it was tricky but we have a strategy that works now! We are making up lots of games to learn our times tables and seeing the connection with the division table too. It’s fun outside using throwing and catching to recite the multiples up and down. The class learned about Plastic Pollution reading an informative text and worked in pairs answering questions about the effect it is having on the environment. We are skilled at this now and can skim and scan to find the information quickly. In the afternoon we played our favourite Blooket Quiz on French Greetings and numbers and learned about the special job of being a Primary 7 Buddy!

The day came and we were so excited to meet and help our new Buddies! We played and chatted and are so looking forward to doing more next year. Afterwards, we were very tired! We completed out King Charles Magazine Article by asking the readers a question, adding pictures and checking our Steps to Success to see all the features were included. A journalist would be a fantastic job to have writing stories all day. Our Maths work gave us a challenge finding Areas of buildings on a plan that had missing lengths-and we had to find a few to then add them together. An architect would have to do this job to see how big rooms were going to be. In the afternoon we played a Blooket Quiz with times tables to help learn them and had a Girls V Boys game of Rounders as a reward for being such good Buddies. It got quite competitive and was a super way to end an exciting and sunny day!!!

Thursday was an opportunity to extend our learning with Area into irregular shapes and drawing accurate plans for buildings using squares. We had to measure in cm then change to squares. It was fun but needed lots of concentration and checking. Our Reading Comprehension text was, “Long Live the King.” We were reading with a partner and skimming and scanning for answers to questions with tricky vocabulary to look up. Did you know the reign of King Charles III was called the Carolina Era? We also learned the official title of King Charles-you would not believe how long it is! Some of us were helping to plan a presentation on the School Values to share with the other classes. There are mimes, fun raps and super actions to copy to remind classes of the 3 important words-Faith-Friendship-Ambition. The class voted on a revenge match of Girls v Boys Rounders and we had fun outside attempting to stop the opposite team get full runs-our team strategies are definitely improving! We had such a surprise when a player visited from Dunfermline Athletic Football Team with their trophy to tell us about their achievements!

What a quick week again! Friday’s Science lesson was all about the formation of Fossils. We completed a sequencing task accurately showing the stages gone through. The class loved being up at the field enjoying the sun for a Rounders game where it was possible to hit the ball hard and far for a change. We co-operated well in teams and supported our classmates. After break we has the opportunity to show our understanding of calculating areas of plans by designing out own Factory and finding the total areas of the different rooms. I wonder what Areas we will be finding next? Here is a clue? Is it better value to order 1 15- inch pizza or 2 10-inch pizzas? We are improving our Mental Maths scores daily using Number of the Day and giving ourselves challenges. The fantastic week finished with a Hymn Practice in the Hall with the whole school-a relaxing way to end a busy week. Have a great weekend and get your sports gear ready for next week-Health Week and Sports Day!

2^nd-5^th May

It’s incredible to be in May already and we have such a fun week ahead preparing for The Coronation of King Charles III!

Our day began learning all about the order of operations to carry out calculations. We saw that there were various ways to do sums and get different answers so this led us to the BODMAS rule: brackets, orders (exponents), division and multiplication and addition and subtraction. It’s a bit tricky but we are confident now after a challenge and watching some super films and songs.

Reading work focused on a text all about King Charles. We read with a partner, highlighted key information, looked up unknown words and then formed good quality Bloom’s Questions about the text. We were surprised to hear that King Charles studied anthropology, archaeology and history and that he was a helicopter pilot in The Royal Navy. He even commanded his own ship during his service. We also had fun with a Crossword all about the vocabulary of The Coronation. In the afternoon the class were very competitive and showed their knowledge with Blooket quizzes about King Charles and The Coronation and worked well in groups to collect ideas for our Coronation Party on Friday. We can’t wait-it’s so exciting! Although we knew of the importance of The Stone of Destiny, we did not realise the mysterious history and just how long it has been used in these ceremonies. Lots still to learn of its disappearances and travels…

Tuesday began by consolidating our learning on BODMAS with a timed challenge. We did very well and are making great progress. We just need to remember to do the working out to keep track of our numbers. We joined an online Workshop called Smoke Factor and had fun watching an enjoyable, informative show all about Smoking. Who knew there were so many dangerous chemicals in them? Nicotine, carbon monoxide, tar, benzene, arsenic, formaldehyde to name a few… The class learned that smoking has an effect on your lungs, hair, teeth and nails and can even hurt our pets too! It was comical when our resident cat was trying to squeeze in our window during it! Cigarettes are so expensive and addictive so it is better off not to even try them and be firm with peer pressure.  Completing a Reading Comprehension answering questions in sentences was the focus of our Literacy today and we learned so many new and interesting things about King Charles and Queen Camilla and also the very sad death of Princess Diana in 1987. It is fun learning about who is in line to the throne after Charles. We are doing so well answering in full sentences and using words from the text as evidence. In the afternoon the class watched a video all about The Coronation and learned about the ceremony, what will be used and what will happen. We can’t wait to watch it now! Designing Coronation Banners was our task for the afternoon where we focused on the wording, layout, colours, picture of the King, his crown, orb and sceptre. They are going to look fantastic displayed for our party.

A real challenge using BODMAS on Wednesday showing our working out and we were really successful. Some of worked on extension activities to upskill our learning by adding in the processes and brackets to get a particular answer. The class learned more about King Charles such as his interests in global warming, climate change and sustainability. Did you know he established more than 20 charities and makes significant donations to support survivors of natural disasters from his own money. Pupils answered Reading Comprehension questions focusing on finding the exact words from the text and giving all the information. We enjoy this work and are getting good at skimming and scanning the text for information. In the afternoon we visited the Library, returned our old books and choose new ones. It was exciting to see books from the authors we had meet in virtual meetings throughout the session like Ross MacKenzie and Phil Earl. We feel fortunate to have such a super library in our community. More work followed on our Coronation Banners to add detail, perspective and colour and putting up our Coronation decorations brightened up the room ready for tomorrow!

Friday began with our P.E time where we went to the Community Centre and learned the new games Nuke Ball which was similar to Dodge Ball with added fun rules to throw behind and get the whole team back. Basketball tig was super fun and improved our skills in throwing, catching and bouncing while under pressure.                                              This lesson was followed by Science where we learned about thick and thinner lava and how quickly they bubble and travel. The class helped prepare for our Coronation Party and then we had an amazing afternoon singing and dancing as well as playing Coronation Statues, Pin the Jewel on the Crown and Coronation Bingo before a well-earned snack and drink before home.

Have a fantastic, long Coronation weekend everyone!

Another amazing week full of new learning and experiences!

On Monday we used Look-Cover-Write Check to work on our spelling patterns for the week-c-tch-ou-ck. Area was the Numeracy Topic of the day and we learned to find the area of rectangles by counting the squares and multiplying the length by the breadth. The class were very accurate when learning about the homophones to/too/two and can now used them correctly in Writing.

Time was available for the learning trios to finalise the poster and information for the Egyptian God task. Some incredible facts and detailed illustrations of the Gods.

On Tuesday we travelled to Edinburgh to visit The National Robotarium at Heriot Watt University. It was incredible…and huge! We were greeted by a robot dog called Spot which could dance and roll over. Our hosts let us ask lots of questions and we learned how robots can help humans do dangerous, dirty and dull jobs. We spoke to a robot head receptionist and had a tour of all the robots being built and tested before a tour of the sports facilities. There were so many different halls for football, rugby, dancing, table tennis, hockey. The list goes on… We saw a special wall that had holes in it to represent the notes for Flower of Scotland. After lunch a fantastic activity was organised for us to learn about robotics and how joints move. It was fun working in groups with different materials and testing our creations in the air fan. A super day enjoyed by all. Thank you to the National Robotarium.

On Wednesday we were calculating the area of rectangles in centimetres which required us to draw and measure lines accurately and then multiply the sides. A bit trickier but we did well. The class completed questionnaires on How I Am Smart and found out about Multi-Intelligences. They were pleased to find out the top scoring sections and were interested in the results. We found it can help us when thinking about future careers. Poster were designed to show all the individual results. Later, two class members made up a super quiz after watching Newsround and focused on good quality, open questions.

Thursday’s task was to write a Letter of Thanks to The National Robotarium for a super visit. The focus was upskilling vocabulary and using a set of words related to electronics, technology and robots. That was fun with some tricky and long words like Artificial Intelligence. We played interactive games about Area on our Chromebooks and found some challenging ones where we had to build shapes of a specific area and perimeter. The French Alphabet was the lesson of the afternoon with a catchy song and the class doing a French Alphabet Dance Off! It was a fun way to learn the trickier letter names. Later the class played Dodgeball to test their skills of aiming, strength and strategy. It certainly got the competitive spirit going.

On Friday the class learned all about the locations of volcanoes in the world and looked at types of rocks. We completed our posters showing our intelligences in order and had a lovely afternoon reviewing tasks done and having time to spend playing games with our classmates. We hope you all have a lovely long weekend.

What an exciting week we had at school!

On Monday, we began with our Smart Start as usual and were discussing the properties of 2D shapes. One of us found out that a megagon is a million-sided shape or polygon. We were using the terms vertices, sides and symmetry well. Numeracy today was learning to turn improper fractions into mixed numbers and look at the diagrams on an interactive game site called Building Fractions. The class Spelling Groups were working on the spelling patterns dge/drop the e and add ing and double consonants. We used the look-cover -write-check strategy really well and underlined the patterns. Reading Groups were focusing on fluency, expression and intonation. We recorded our learning about The Luminous Mysteries and had a super time creating a dance for modern music. Working together as a team was a focus as was keeping to the beat of the music and moving together.

Tuesday was our second session at St. Columba’s for Transition work on Science. The class were investigating a crime scene and collecting evidence. Today’s job was collecting pen samples and paper chromatography to separate the ink and match with a sample. It is so much fun being in the school, meeting teachers and seeing where the classes are. It is a bit bigger than ours!

On Wednesday, the class had a challenge to work out how many people, cats, sacks and kittens were going to St. Ives and it was tricky but fun. We were learning to show our working out and continue patterns. We read and discussed the poem, “The Eagle” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and wrote a detailed review sharing our thoughts and opinions. We learned to comment on vocabulary used, the effect of figures of speech, sentence structure and punctuation used. We really enjoyed it and would like to read some more of his poems. The afternoon was Drama time and we listened to the start of Macbeth and created our own Three Witches scene with the famous words, “when shall we three meet again…” Also, the class created battle sounds and paired up to use the sounds in a sound effect conversation. We wonder what will happen next?

Thursday’s Smart Start was an interesting challenge about a Book Worm eating through books of different widths. We used our skills adding mm and cm to find out how much it had munched through and remembered to turn the mm in cm when adding. Fraction’s learning was consolidated playing a game of Bingo matching improper fractions and mixed numbers. It was exciting but tricky to listen and then convert the fractions to find the partner. We worked a little more on our Writing Reviews and edited ensuring the Steps to Success were followed. One of our favourite activities is playing Blooket quizzes on line and today we learned about many different Sports and the names of Musical Instruments. We love the fun games that go along with the questions and we can see the leader board and so can get quite competitive! Our P.E involved using throwing, catching, marking and passing skills in a Benchball Tournament. It is fast and furious but so much fun and we are doing well encouraging our team members and passing the ball around quickly to keep possession.

Fridays are the day our Homework is returned and checked and we had a fun challenge placing the numbers 1-6 in boxes in the shape of a plane to see how many solutions we could find where the horizontal and vertical numbers total the same. Easy adding but tricky to try out all the different combinations. Fraction matching was excellent today as the activity was colouring in matching all the equal fractions to a colour. We are getting quite skilled at these now. Assembly today was reporting back from all the Pupil Voice groups and ours is Rights Respecting Schools so our Ambassadors reported back the excellent ideas we have to raise the awareness in school of this subject.

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