We’re currently creating our blogs for the new 2013/2014 session which you’ll find on the Lochardil website.

If you’d like to see last year’s blogs – we’re keeping them in cyberspace to showcase the amazing work within Lochardil. The links can be found below:

On Monday 17th June Highland Youth Theatre put on a production of Snow White in the theatre of Inverness Royal Academy. Many of the actors were from our class and we are very proud of their performances. Kelly took the lead role as Snow White and entranced the audience with her acting, dancing and singing while Andrew as her father, King George, entertained us all with his dramatic skills in portraying the personality of a weak husband and loving father with great humour. Other stars from our class were Iona, Mollie, Kate L, Tara, Amy and Katie as the maids who displayed good timing in their dances and good memory in learning their lines and cues. The maids had other roles to play: Mollie was a very authoratative Doc, Tara was a convincing Bashful, Amy was a credible Sleepy, Kate L was a wise owl, Katie was the back of the horse and Iona was the front and also the clear speaking narrator who explained the story to the audience.

The cast would like to thank Shayne, their leader and coach, for the weekly sessions and for working with them to get ready for all the productions they have put on this year. The pupils have loved going to Highland Youth Theatre and have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to put on the shows.

We are very proud of our class members who have been part of this group and confidently acted, danced and sang in Snow White.

Well done, everyone!

On Wednesday, 12th June, P4 pupils invited 9 residents of Inverness who volunteered to be interviewed about the facilities available in Inverness to come to our classroom. We had prepared and practised our questions in our interviewing trios and we arranged the classroom like an open-plan office to suit the activity. We had a welcoming team to meet the visitors and a hospitality team who baked delicious cakes and sweet treats for the interviewees and interviewers!

 Our guests had interesting answers to our questions and they complimented us on our good manners and behaviour! Mrs M-H was delighted and said she was very proud of us.

We were all allowed a cake to savour – just like Mrs Henderson taught us to do in Term 1. Now we know what other age groups think of the facilities in Inverness and all our interviewees said they enjoyed living in Inverness.

We would like to thank all the people who agreed to come to school today to be interviewed by us. We really enjoyed being interviewers and we could not have had that experience if you were not there. Thank You!

Our final city walk was to VisitScotland Tourist Office and to Zizzi’s Restaurant! We took the same route to the city centre as for Walk 3 and walked so smartly we had time to visit Will’s Dad in his wonderful Aladdin’s cave of a shop on Castle Street. He told us about the customers he had from all over the world who came to Inverness to take part in the traditional sports of fishing and hunting and how important they were to the economy of Inverness.

Then we went to VisitScotland where Jen took very good care of us. She explained what services her office offered tourists and presented us with information packs for each group. We also received a huge poster promoting the film Brave which Mrs Martin-Hodgson had put our class into a draw to win!

When we had a good look around the tourist office we walked to Zizzi’s which was just across the road. There Chrissie looked after us very well. She seated us, explained how a restaurant is run, demonstrated to us how the pizzas are prepared then served us olives, pizzas, calamari and ice-cream! Zizzi’s has a great view across the River Ness and up to Inverness Castle.

As we waited for our food we watched soldiers from the 1st Battalion Scots Guard marching past. We had a great morning and we discovered the walk back along the riverside is a quicker route to town than walking via Drummond Road and Culduthel Road. Now we are looking forward to interviewing some local people to find out what they think of the city’s facilities.

A big thank you to all the parents who accompanied us on our walks. We could not have done it without you!

Mrs M-H

On Thursday, 23rd May, P4 ventured out again taking a different route to Inverness city centre. This week we visited the Town House and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. Our guide at the Town House was Gary who was very helpful and knowledgeable about the place and what goes on there. We visited the Chamber, the Main Hall and a Committee room. There are lots of huge paintings, flags, stained glass windows, busts of former provosts and gifts from other countries displayed around the Town House. We also got to try on councillor robes!

At the Museum and Art Gallery each group had a different section of a workbook to complete. We enjoyed seeing the Egyptian Exhibition where a real mummy was on display!

On Thursday, 16th May, P4 briskly walked to Bellfield Park and checked out the facilities there. We discovered you can play on the playground equipment, hire bikes, pose for wedding photographs, play tennis, listen to bands playing in the bandstand, have a barbeque, work out on the outdoor gymnasium, have a picnic, play mini-golf , paddle in the paddling pool, admire the plants, walk your dog, relax on a bench and read your book and buy ice-cream! What a great place!

Then we walked across the bridge and met John outside Eden Court Theatre. John gave us an hour long tour of the buildings and explained all about when they were built and what all the different rooms are used for. We loved walking on the stage and seeing the backstage quipment, the pit and pretending to be in a show! Then John took us to one of the dance / drama studios and we had an ‘Inverness Drama Workshop.’ We had great fun!

On the way back to school we stopped off in Bellfield Park again to have our packed lunch on the picnic benches. We just checked out the playground again to make sure it was safe for visitors!

We are really looking forward to our next two city walks!

On Wednesday, 15th May Kieran and Robbie took part in a Football Festival at Caley Stadium. They had a great day there even although it rained quite a bit and met some of the Caley players like Andrew Shinnie, Billy Mackay, and Owain Tudor-Jones. The teams played 9 games each. Lochardil won 7 games, drew one game and lost one game. After the festival all the participants got the Caley players’ autographs and a 10% discount voucher for the Caley Thistle shop!  

Thank you for being such positive ambassadors for our school boys. We are very proud of you all.

On Saturday, 18th May, P4/5 footballers took part in a Football Tournament at Duncan Forbes Primary School. The Lochardil boys were split into a P4 team, a P5 team and a P4/5 team. The P4 team got to the final but were beaten 4-2 by Duncan Forbes, the P5 team got to the semi-finals and the P4/5 team got knocked out in the group stages. However, everyone enjoyed the day and had great fun.

Mrs M-H

Our project this term is the City of Inverness and we have been studying maps and websites to help us become more familiar with facilities, places of interest and the layout of the city. We have had Mr MacLeod, a city planner, talking to us about what city planners do, how Inverness has changed over the last 150 years and what is happening in the future. He has asked us to write down our ideas for the future of Inverness and he will present them to the councillors! Our plans may become real facilities in the future so we must think carefully about our suggestions. 

On Friday, 10th May, we went on our first ‘City Walk.‘ We walked to The Islands, then visited Floral Hall (what an interesting place that is!) and finished off in Whin Park checking out the facilities available to families and visitors to Inverness. All the playing on the equipment was hard work but it was very important for our project work! The weather was great until we started to walk back to school when some people really got caught out because they did not have a hood! We will be more prepared next week when we walk to Eden Court Theatre for a tour and workshop. If the weather is very good we may go to Bellfield Park for a picnic lunch!

Our final star of P4 is Kathryn Brown who took part in the Inverness Gymnastic Club Competition on Sunday 23rd June. Kathryn won Gold in the Under 10 group and was awarded a medal, a trophy and a plate for displaying well. We are very proud of you, Kathryn!

Abby took part in the UDO Streetdance Competition in Glasgow on the 9th June and her team came 3rd. Congratulations, Abby. We hope you perform in our class talent competition heats next week!

Mollie took part in a Highland Dance Competition in Aberdeen at the weekend and was awarded 4 medals in 4 different categories! She is going to take her dancing pumps to school and give us a demonstration of her talent!

Cara was graded at the Highland Kempo Academy this week and was awarded a certificate to say she achieved the rank of Orange Stripe and an orange belt to wear at Kempo. Well done, Cara!

Kate C and Iona raised money by taking part in a 15 mile cycle round the Black Isle for Highland Hospice this weekend. They received special bike badges as proof they completed the challenge. Well done, girls, we are very proud of you!

Charlotte and Kathryn took part in a Gymfest Festival in Irvine at the weekend and were awarded medals for participating. Congratulations, girls!

Mollie has been active again this weekend and took part in the Race for Life! She was awarded a Race for Life medal for running 3 miles for Cancer Research. Well done, Mollie!

Mrs M-H & P4

Kate L was awarded Pupil of the Month in May for being kind, friendly and thoughtful. She  works really hard and  supports others who need help. Kate is very creative – she is great at Art and writes super stories. Robbie was also awarded Pupil of the Month in May because he had an equal number of votes from teachers and peers as Kate. Robbie is a hardworking pupil with a positive attitude. He is friendly, funny and a good laugh to be with. Robbie is a great footballer and has helped the P4/5 team to be successful this year.

Kieran was awarded a Pupil of the Month certificate in February for being such a positive, hardworking pupil. He respects the opinions of others and makes valuable contributions in team tasks.

Kelly was awarded the P4 Pupil of the Month certificate in March for being helpful, kind and cheerful. She has a positive attitude to her work and is very supportive of others. Kelly is popular with everyone and is a great friend.

Katie was voted Pupil of the Month in April for always having a smile for everybody, being a great friend and for cheering others up when they need it.

Well done Kieran, Kelly and Katie – it’s great having pupils like you in our class!

Mrs M-H & P4 Pupils

We have all been busy enjoying our Easter holiday and some people worked really hard to achieve awards.

Ava took part in a Treetops Horseriding one week course and was awarded a medal and certificate of Efficiency when she was graded. Well done, Ava.

Charlotte participated in the Le-Ellen Festival of Dancing which was held in Charleston Academy on 13th April and she received two medals: one for the Highland Fling and one for the Trophy Fling. Great job, Charlotte.

Mrs M-H

P4 had a brilliant time visiting Urquhart Castle as a finale to our Castles topic. We were looked after by the education officer, Di, who allowed us to investigate all kinds of artifacts from castles in the past before we walked down to the castle and explored all the different areas. We thought the film at the start was really good and the view of the castle was impressive when the curtains opened. At the end of the trip we were allowed time in the shop to buy a souvenir of our day at the castle. It was a great day out and we would like to thank Miss MacRae, Mrs Scott, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Traill and Mrs Wilson for accompanying us.

We hope lots more parents will volunteer to accompany us on our trips around Inverness when we work on our Inverness topic in term 4.

Mrs M-H

This morning we had an Eater Egg Competition. We had to bring in hardboiled eggs and we were given 45 minutes to decorate them. Mrs Scott judged them while we had our final RME lesson from Mrs Macdonald. Kate L, Iona and Lauren were the winners! They will get a lovely Easter prize tomorrow.

This afternoon we had our Easter service in the CCC with Rev. Donald and Rev. Slack. We sang some really jazzy Easter songs!

Happy Easter everyone from P4 & Mrs M-H

Kathryn, Jamie and Charlotte from our class represented Lochardil in the P4/5 cross-country team at the McRobert Cup Cross-Country Championships. The boys team ran well and the girls’ team won GOLD and were presented with individual gold medals and the Team 4/5 trophy! The girls were exhausted and emotional after their success! It was quite hard because ‘ we were running into the wind and it was bitterly cold weather.’

We are very proud of all the pupils who participated and represented Lochardil.

P4 went outside in the cold this morning to crack a code and read a message on flags. We went into pairs and had to know our 8 times table facts which we have been learning this week. On our sheets we had

Mollie & Abby work it out!                                 Robbie, Katie, Andrew S & Adnane

numbers and they matched up with sums on flags which also had letters attached to them. By working out the tricky sums like 8 x 8 x 2 and 8 x 9 – 12 we were able to figure out which letter went where on our secret message. Andrew S and Katie were the winners and they were awarded 5 housepoints each! Robbie and Adnane came second and were awarded 4 housepoints. We had great fun – but it was very cold and we were quite glad to warm up back in the classroom!

Please see the message below about a new and exciting music workshop at Eden Court, available to 9 – 17 year olds.

EDEN COURT YOUNG VOICES

My name is Claire Campbell, I’m a local musician, music teacher, song writer and performer, I teach piano and violin privately as well as being a Youth Music Initiative tutor, I am also involved with Music Plus as a mentor. I write and record my own songs. I was recently approached by Eden Court to help run their Young Voices workshop – please see attached poster for timings.

The classes will be accessible, fun and friendly with repertoire ranging from the Beatles and ABBA to current pop hits, the singers will be encouraged to choose their own songs which I will arrange for the group, there will be vocal techniques and songwriting included in the weekly class. All melodies and lyrics will be learned by ear, there will be no auditions for the group and no previous experience necessary – all welcome! As well as focusing on vocal techniques and singing the class aims to build confidence, improve memory and build social skills and networks, this class will suit aspiring and established singers as well as young people who are looking to be part of something new and fun. The class is open to anyone age 9 – 17 years old and will run on a Monday after school starting after the Easter break.

On Red Nose Day we had to hunt for dinasaurs Miss Melville hid in the playground, draw a dinasaur for a competition and wear red to school. We were encouraged to donate money to Comic Relief. In class we  told jokes and voted for the best joke of the day. We had a draw for 1st place! Here they are:

What did the traffic lights say to the car?

Don’t look now, I’m changing!   Eilidh’s joke

What did one curtain say to the other?

Pull yourself together!  Kate C’s joke

On Thursday, 14th March 4 judges came to Room 8 to judge our castles! We were all very excited and some of us were nervous. However, each castle group presented their castles and explained how they made them and how they overcame any problems in the build.

Mrs Fraser, Mr Graham, Mr Grant and Mrs Neil were the important judges we had to impress! They said they thought we had all done a super job and they enjoyed their visit to our classroom. They decided to award 2nd place to the Rock group who made the partly ruined castle. 1st prize was awarded to the Sparkly Castle by the Sparkle group! Congratulations to Abby, Iona, Kathryn & Mollie!

Thank you very much to the 4 judges for their time and positive comments about our castles.

Primary 4 pupils

An exciting opportunity for P4 – P7 pupils to take part in a Duathlon (run – cycle – run) in Glenurquhart has arisen. If you’re interested, download the information below. The event is on Sunday 24th March 2013.

Duathlon: Registration and Info Sheet – CLICK HERE!

P4 made Mother’s Day cards by quilling paper and card to make a bunch of flowers on the front of the cards. They also decorated cardboard boxes with tissue paper to make beautiful gift boxes for their mums.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mums!

The P4/5 Football Team participated in a primary tournament at Charleston and came third. They were awarded medals and the P4 boys in our class proudly posed with the medals for our blog!

Well done, boys!

We came to school in our pyjamas on World Book Day and took in our favourite bedtime stories to share with each other. Each group selected a best book which was presented to the class. We swopped books to see what books other pupils enjoy reading at home. Mrs M-H wants to borrow a few of them to take home and read!

All pupils in P4 wrote a character description for the P6/7s to judge. Eilidh was the proud winner in P4 with her description of ‘Laura’ and she was delighted to win a £5 token to spend at the book fair. Well done Eilidh!

Several pupils from our class took part in the production of Dick Whittington at the IRA this month as part of the Highland Youth Theatre. They performed their roles with confidence, wit and skill which the audience thoroughly appreciated. Well done to all the Lochardil pupils who took part in the show.

P4 Acting Stars:

Iona, Kate, Kate, Abby, Amy, Tara, Andrew, Katie and Kelly

After last year’s success- Culduthel’s got talent is back!

Message from the Culduthel Christian Centre:

“Do you have a talent? If so, audition for Culduthel’s Got Talent. Cash prizes are up for grabs at the final on Saturday the 2nd March with a prize and certificate for the p1-p3 category and £50 first prize, £20 second and £10 third prize for p4-p7.”

Pick up a registration form at Culduthel Christian Centre, or download it by clicking the link below.

The closing date for entries is Friday the 1st of March, so be quick!

Culduthel’s Got Talent- REGISTRATION FORM

Mollie has received dancing medals, certificates and a trophy at her dancing school. She was given the trophy for being in the most shows for tourists in the Thistle Hotel.

Kathryn and Charlotte competed in a Highland gymnastic competition this weekend at the Aquadome and proudly posed with their medals for our blog.

Congratulations, girls!

Our spelling pattern this week is ‘ly’ eg. slowly,  quietly, respectfully etc. Pupils should write out their personalised spelling list twice using the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK method then list 5 words from the letters in courageously, outstandingly and cautiously.

 We are learning the 8 times table facts and the maths homework task this week is to complete Homelinks 22 & 23 in the maths homework jotters .

 All pupils would benefit from regularly practising recall of the 2-7 tables facts at home.  Some pupils also need to practise reading time as often as possible.

Thank you for supporting your child with their homework tasks.

Mrs Martin-Hodgson

Happy New Year to everyone! P4 have written their term targets to focus on what they feel they need to improve and work on this term. Several pupils realise they need to learn their multiplication facts more thoroughly to help with number work and others need to think more carefully about where to put fullstops and capital letters in their writing.

Our project this term is CASTLES and we are looking forward to our Castle Competition. Each team has to design and make a castle which will be presented to a judging panel of adults and pupils in March. The castle can be any kind of castle from one of the early Brochs or Motte and Bailey Castles to a Disney style Fantasy Castle or a futuristic Castle! We are also going to visit a nearby castle this term. Details will be sent home soon. First of all we have begun our project by researching early castles and finding out the main features of castles. We know how to use a search engine to research anything on the internet. We are also going to write adventure stories set in a castle! It is going to be a very busy and interesting term. We will announce the Castle Competition winners on our blog.

We had a great time at our Christmas Party! We started with an exciting game of corners which Andrew W. won! Other games we played were Pass the Parcel, where we had to do forfeits if we had the parcel when the music stopped, Musical Arms and Islands. We danced the Canadian Barn Dance and the Virginia Reel then finished off with a disco dancing competition which Andrew S won! Half way through the party we went up to Room 7 where our delicious party food was laid out and we sat down to a feast! Thank you very much to all parents for the food donations – we thoroughly enjoyed it!

We would like to thank the P6/7 classes for a great Hallowe’en Disco! Everyone made a super effort with their outfits and Adam won best boy costume!

The games were fantastic fun and the disco was spookily good. We loved the Popcorn Dance and the Lucky Dip was very popular! All in all the evening was a monster success and all of the ghosts, witches and goblins were on their best behaviour in class the next day!

 <   Adam in his skeleton costume.

Arianna, Tara & Kate C pose for the camera.   >

 Thank you very much P6/7 pupils and teachers.

P4 & Mrs M-H

Project

This term our project is Magnetism and Electricity. We have already started with some magnetism investigations and we are really looking forward to making games using both magnetism and electricity.

A good website to learn more about our topic by playing some fun games is www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/

P4 have come up with some good questions they would like answered while working on this project and we are looking forward to lots of team activities as we investigate.

Art

In Art we mixed primary colours to make Autumn colours. We then made our painting into leaves to display in our Art Gallery.

Mrs M-H

Megan, Fiona, Charlotte and Kate L took part in a reading challenge at the Inverness Library. They each read 6 books during the holidays and were awarded medals and certificates for their efforts. Well done girls!

Mrs M-H

At the weekend Ava, Charlotte and Kathryn took part in the Baxters 5K run and were awarded bronze medals for their efforts. Well done girls for demonstrating how to keep fit and healthy – which fits right in with our Term 1 Project! We are all very proud of you. P4 would like to say well done to everyone who took part in the races this weekend – it’s a great example to everyone in our community.

P4 & Mrs M-H

In August Aimee was voted our Pupil of the Month for settling in well to Lochardil Primary School, for being a cheerful, positive pupil and for being a good friend.

In September two pupils received an equal number of votes so we have two Pupils of the Month! Abby is friendly, cheerful, responsible and welcoming to all. She tries hard in all tasks. Andrew W. has settled in well to class, he’s a good friend and he tries hard in tasks. Well done, to you all!

Mrs Martin-Hodgson

On Thursday, 6th September we walked to the Aquadome to investigate what facilities and activities were there for us to enjoy. Our guide, Mike, was very informative and interesting and we learned lots of things we did not know about the Aquadome. We are now very excited and will be asking our parents to take us to some of the great activities at the Aquadome!

Thank you very much to Mike, the 3 parent helpers who accompanied us and to the P4 pupils who were so well-behaved, polite and asked good questions while we visited.

Hopefully this is the first of many out of school visits we will enjoy this year.

Mrs Martin-Hodgson

P4 Homework

This week we are looking at the spelling pattern  ck e.g. trick, packet, lucky. Pupils should write out their personalised list twice using the Look, Say, Cover, Write Check method then record as many ck words as they can inside a sketch of a sock, truck, jacket or clock.

In maths we are continuing with our money topic especially on how much change we get from £1 and money problems. For homework pupils should complete Unit 1 of the Mental Maths Worksheets and practice paying for items at shops, either in play situations or in real shops.  We are also continuing to revise the 3 , 4 and 5 times table facts so any extra practice at home would benefit the pupils.

Thank you for supporting the pupils with their homework tasks and things they need to remember to bring to school.

ART

In Art we made Healthy Plates of Food using paper plates and crafts. They will be displayed in the lunch hall at school. We posed for a picture with our Healthy Plates of Food! We are very proud of our art work!

In Art we made Fruity Fitness Fanatic Friends with real fruit and crafts. Here are some of our Fruity Friends for you to admire!

Project

Ava’s Mum visited our classroom in her professional role as an Intensive Care Nurse with specialist experience in heart care. She taught us lots of technical details about the heart, gave us health advice and arranged fun activities for us to use our new knowledge. We loved the Doctors and Patients game so much she left the equipment for us to play this week! On the left we are exercising after taking our pulse rates to see the effect exercise had on our pulses and on the right Ava’s Mum is explaining what can go wrong with our hearts if we don’t look after them. Thank you very much for coming to our class and teaching us how to keep our hearts healthy, Mrs Henderson!

Mrs Martin-Hodgson

This term P4’s project is about Health and Fitness. We are looking at how we can keep healthy, where we can keep healthy and what a healthy body can do. We have started by learning about skeletons, joints and muscles and this week we have a special visitor, Mrs Henderson, who is going to teach us about healthy hearts. We are also going to visit the Aquadome on Thursday to investigate what we can do locally to keep our bodies healthy. Later this term we will be getting into groups to plan a presentation to the class about health and fitness. Already many keen pupils have been bring in some super posters they have made at home to support our project. Top marks for enthusiasm – well done P4.

Visit this website to learn more about our bodies and to play some great games!

WOODLANDS SCIENCE

Mrs Martin-Hodgson