Last week, the children in primary 1 at Deerpark had a visit from Mr McGrath from Education Scotland.

Mr McGrath spoke to us about different animals and also introduced us to the word habitat. We learned that a habitat is where an animal lives and that different animals have different habitats. Mr McGrath challenged us to sort different animals into their correct habitats.  Even if we weren’t sure, we tried to work out the answer together as a team by using our communication and problem solving skills.

Mr McGrath also brought a special visitor with him. He brought a Panda that had travelled all the way from China! The panda was a wee bit shy meeting us all but we told him that he could be part of our class.

Mr McGrath told us that the panda wants to learn lots of science with our class and he wants to learn all about Scotland as well. We reckon that we can teach the panda lots of new information and we are really looking forward to getting started.

The next day, we learned where China is in the world and how far away from Scotland it is. We compared the two countries using Google Maps. China is a much bigger country than Scotland.

We decided that, since he was a new member of our class, the panda needed a name. We suggested lots of names, but the winning name after our vote was….Santa.!  So, please welcome Santa to primary 1 at Deerpark.