Monthly Archives: March 2013
Let’s get ready to wordle…
An excellent Easter Service today – many thanks to Rev Slack and Rev Nimo for their service and hospitality. Well done to Anna and Finlay who read their passages perfectly.
When Mr Cook’s reading group finish a book, each person is to write an evaluation on our Glow wiki. This is a way of sharing what we’ve read with the class.
However, a way of sharing what we’ve read with everyone else is through a word cloud. We’ve had a word cloud on our blog for a while – a way of displaying key words about a topic or subject.
Here are three word clouds for the novels we finished last week. We aim to use these next term to record information. Have a go at creating one by clicking the link below:
http://www.wordle.net/
See you tomorrow for the LAST DAY OF TERM!
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
What’s your alternative?
Remember – The Easter Service is tomorrow afternoon. You will need sensible shoes and a jacket for walking to and from the CCC
Tomorrow we’ll continue to write our Alternative Fairytales, after spending last week planning our ideas. Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Rhymes’ are an excellent way of using humour and rhyme to grab the reader’s attention.
Last week we saw how Little Red Riding Hood dealt with the wolf. See what happens to the wolf in the Three Little Pigs. Think about how Roald Dahl gives each character their own distinct voice. Even written down, you could work out which character was talking.
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Three Little Pigs – Revolting Rhymes – CLICK HERE!
Hockey Team Success
Well done to the Lochardil Hockey Team who took part in the tournament on Saturday.
See the message from Mrs Campbell below:
The hockey team played really well on Saturday at the hockey tournament. They finished 5th out of the 12 teams that were competing, in extremely cold conditions. They played 6 games of a straight 12 minutes and had 2 wins, 3 draws and only 1 loss. We did have to “borrow” two girls, Alisha from Cauldeen and Katrina from the Inverness Hockey Club as we had no girls able to play, and the rules require two girls to be on the pitch during all games.
Earth Hour
Tomorrow, Saturday 23rd of March 2013, is the day which the world gets together for ‘Earth Hour’.
Tomorrow night, countries around the world will turn their lights off at 8.30pm for one hour – to show their support for action on climate change and a sustainable future.
As part of our climate change topic, we encourage any support which you can give tomorrow night by popping off unused lights and electrics for an hour.
Find more information on the following link – there are some cool games in the ‘Fun Stuff’ section:
Earth Hour Website – CLICK HERE!
Have a fantastic weekend!
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Orienteering!
Cardio exercise (exercise which gets the heartrate going) is excellent for your body when done in moderation. Orienteering is a skill which not only increases the heart rate using short running bursts with small rest breaks; but also develops groups being able to work together, supporting one another, reading maps.
It’s great to see the real team ethos building up within the group over the past two weeks. Our Supportive Superstars – Mackenzie and Lewis – have been excellent at encouraging their groups to succeed.
Mrs MacLeod and Mr Cook made it that bit more difficult today – using a one-way-system, and encouraging pupils to beat their best time as a group.
With excellent sunny, and a little chilly, weather – it’s a great way to spend our PE lesson.
See you tomorrow,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Alternative Fairytales
Today we began our Alternative Fairytale planning. This is actually a trickier job than it looks. To be successful, we have to capture the key features of the original fairytale, whilst adding a new twist which will grab the reader’s attention.
We watched, listened to and read some great alternatives. Many were based around ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, using the wolf’s perspective.
Roald Dahl does this excellently, using his poem below, in which there’s an interesting twist at the end:
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Roald Dahl poem – CLICK HERE
The film ‘Hoodwinked’ also cleverly adds a twist – making the wolf in fact a ‘goodie’. We watched clip from this also:
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Hoodwinked – Click Here!
Next week, we will continue to develop our plans further, and look at how we can structure our writing within the form of a play.
See you in the morning,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
What’s your favourite fairytale?
Firstly, well done to Mackenzie B (P7) – who was awarded the sportsmanship award for all of the boys within the area school group today, whilst playing in the Football Festival at the Aquadome. This is an excellent event for the P7 pupils to get to know one another a bit better, before going to the IRA in August.
Fairytales
This morning, we began looking at the structure of a fairytale. We managed to summarise the structure of both Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, by using the 5 basic principles: characters, setting, complication, resolution and ending.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/GbzMC6qAzVU" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
Little Red Riding Hood – VIDEO CLICK HERE!
Your homework for tonight:
– Choose a fairytale which you know the story of, and are able to give information on the 5 basic principles. You can write this down if you need a reminder – we will be using it in our writing plan tomorrow.
See you in the morning,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Eden Court – Young Voices
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.
Play Netball this Easter!
An exciting netball opportunity for P5 – P7 pupils has arrisen during the Easter holidays. Click the information below to find out more.
Netball North – Information CLICK HERE!
Rock Challenge
A special well done to Mackenzie.B, Finlay.M, Jamie.G, Duncan.B, Fergus.W, Erin.F and Anna.M who all took part in the Cross Country Championships on Saturday. Well done for representing both P6/7 and Lochardil!
Our Rock Challenge feedback is in – and the word ‘OUTSTANDING’ jumps out to us. Have a look at the feedback by clicking each of the pictures below.
Unfortunately, due to space within our hall we will not be able to put the Rock Challenge performance on for parents/carers. We have contemplated using the CCC or the IRA; however we feel that the lights added to the overall performance, and this would be lost.
FORTUNATELY, Mr Nairn has managed to create the DVDs for us. Once Mr Cook has sorted out the front covers, each pupil will be issued with one copy of the DVD as a gift from the P6/7 team.
See you in the morning,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Hip-Hip Hooray!
Firstly, well done to the Rotary Team last night in the Inverness Rotary Quiz. We were delighted to come joint-second, along with Cradlehall Primary School. We’d like to congratulate Crown Primary School, and every other school which took part.
Today for Red Nose Day it was great to see the sea of red to support the charity. The school raised a massive £267 for the charity – Well Done. Thank you to Anna N who baked and sold cakes at break time – raising £34.70 for comic relief. Well done to Kirsty and Betsy for their sponsored silence – bet you’re glad you can talk now girls!
The finalists for the dinosaur competition in P6/7 were Nadya, Jenna and Amy.b – excellent work girls!
Hope you have a great weekend – and we’ll see you on Monday!
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Do it for Comic Relief…
Red Nose Day/Comic Relief is tomorrow; their red nose theme being dinosaurs. Lochardil are doing a ‘Design your own dinosaur’ competition, organised by the Pupil Council. Your homework for tomorrow is to design and name a new dinosaur.
A reminder that tomorrow is ‘Wear it Red for Comic Relief’. You can come to school in something other than your school uniform, preferably red if you’ve got it, and make a donation to the worthwhile charity which is Comic Relief.
Anna N is busy baking cupcakes which she’ll be selling to P6/7 tomorrow before breaktime. 50p a cupcake – we know we can’t wait to get ours.
Good luck to Charlie T, James H, Katie F, Finlay S and Ellie S who are representing Lochardil tonight at the Rotary Quiz. We wish them the best of luck, and we’ll let you know how they get on tomorrow.
Play the penalty punctuation game by clicking the link below:
Penalty Punctuation – CLICK HERE!
See you in the morning,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Great Glen Duathlon
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.
Mind-mapping!
Red Nose Day/Comic Relief is on Friday; their red nose theme being dinosaurs. Lochardil are doing a ‘Design your own dinosaur’ competition, organised by the Pupil Council. Your homework for Friday is to design and name a new dinosaur.
Well done to those people who had a go at our Fairtrade Challenge last week. The answer Mr Cook was looking for was . . . Drum-roll please . . . Yes, they’re all French speaking places.
Today we developed our ‘Mind-mapping’ skills. We used what we knew about the plot, characters, setting and themes of ‘A Cat in Paris’ to create a mind-map using descriptive WOW words and relevant images. As this was our first attempt we worked in pairs; however next time will try doing this mind-mapping process on our own. We found that a mind-map is an excellent way of showing a snapshot view of a lot of information – a great revision tool which Secondary pupils often use.
See you in the morning,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Une vie de chat!
FAIRTRADE CHALLENGE – Well done to all of those people who have submitted answers in the Fairtrade Challenge below. No one has managed to find the common theme I’m looking for between the three places. Have a go – we’ll talk about it tomorrow!
Today we went to watch ‘Une vie det chat’ (A Cat in Paris); it was an extremely enjoyable film. It was great to hear the French phrases and watch along with the English subtitles.
Watch the trailer below:
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‘A Cat in Paris’ trailer – CLICK HERE!
Let us know what you thought about the film by commenting on the blog. Remember to tell us why.
Red Nose Day/Comic Relief is on Friday; their red nose theme being dinosaurs. Lochardil are doing a ‘Design your own dinosaur’ competition, organised by the Pupil Council. Your homework for Friday is to design and name a new dinosaur.
See you in the morning,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Walking in a winter wonderland…
FAIRTRADE CHALLENGE – Well done to all of those people who have submitted answers in the Fairtrade Challenge below. No one has managed to find the common theme I’m looking for between the three places. Have a go – we’ll talk about it on Wednesday!
Just as we thought that Mother Nature had blessed us with Spring, down came the snow… A reminder that tomorrow we are walking to Eden Court for ‘A Cat in Paris’. It is important that you have sensible walking shoes, in case the pavements are slippy. A jacket is also a must – the minus temperatures require suitable clothing.
The Loch Insh meeting is tonight at 7pm in the hall. If you are unable to attend the meeting, we will send the information pack home with your child tomorrow.
Good news – Thanks to Mr Nairn, we will be able to provide each pupil from P6/7 with a copy of Rock Challenge. This will be given out at the end of term for you to enjoy over the Easter break.
We’ll see any primary 7s who are coming to the meeting in a few hours, and everyone else – we’ll see you in the morning.
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Fairtrade Friday – CHALLENGE BELOW!
REMINDER: P7 Loch Insh Meeting – Monday 11th March @ 7pm. Pupils are welcome to attend.
The aliteration of Fairtrade Friday is a phrase which we all like to hear after such a busy week. The P7s, who were not swimming this afternoon, used our Fairtrade packaging to create an information board for display in the corridor. P6/7 managed to collect 48 pieces of Fairtrade packaging; an excellent result. Many of these were hot chocoalte containers – a clear favourite amongst the class.
This weekend’s challenge:
Go back to the Fairtrade post from Monday. Look at the three countries which we studied. Apart from them being Fairtrade exporting countries – your task is to find the common theme between these three places. Post it on the blog. We’ll let you know who our Fairtade Fanatics are on Monday.
Have a great weekend & to all the Mums – Have a lovely Mother’s Day on Sunday.
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
World Book Day!
REMINDER: Last day for bringing in Fairtrade labels/packaging is tomorrow. Well done to those people that have brought items in so far.
What a week this week has been! Two WORLD events in a row have made us extremely busy.
It was great to see pupils dressed up in their pyjamas this morning. The P6/7 team were dressed up, but too camera shy for a photograph.
Our task this morning was inspired by ‘Horrid Henry’s Guide to Perfect Parents’. We began by reading the first few pages of the novel which set the scene. Henry’s aim is to write a guidebook to perfect parenting.
In our groups, using a role one the wall, we had to write/draw the qualities of the ‘Perfect Parent’. We worked on the skill of agreeing to disagree.
We were given ten minutes within our group to complete the task. After this, we visited each group and were greeted by an expert; the expert introduced their character. When we returned to our group, we had to tell our expert everything we had learned.
At the end of the lesson we got back together and discussed the similarities in each of the ‘Perfect Parents’. We realised that many of them contained: money, games, fun and love. However, when we reflected, we realised that getting to do whatever we wanted the whole time, would result in damaging consequences. We thought that we might become spoilt, and fail to appreciate what we have.
Therefore the ‘Perfect Parent’ needs a balance – and we agreed – all of our parents are PERFECT!
See you tomorrow,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
World Maths Day
REMEMBER: Tomorrow is World Book Day – wear your pyjamas and bring your favourite book if you wish. We’re also looking for Fairtrade packaging.
Today is WORLD MATHS DAY. For the event, we completed ‘The Millimetre Challenge’.
Within our groups we had to develop the skills of estimating and measuring both millimetres and centimetres. We found that this was a difficult task, as millimetres are such small units of measure.
We had to agree on a way of estimating, without using a ruler; this was the first tricky task. Working together, we also had to know how many millimetres were in a centimetre.
Finding the objects outside was a bit of a scavenge, but 10 minutes just gave us enough time to complete the task.
When measuring, we found out that some groups had excellent estimation skills. Other groups weren’t far off.
We were at a tie-break situation at the end, with three groups estimating 3/6 correctly. We decided the winner by checking the difference in each of their answers.
Well done to group 3: Morven, Beth and Finlay M who were our WINNERS!
Play in the World Education Games by clicking on the link below:
WORLD EDUCATION GAMES: CLICK HERE
See you tomorrow,
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
This week’s Mathletes…
REMINDER : It’s World Book Day tomorrow – you can wear your pyjamas and bring in your favourite book to share with us.
Fairtrade Task – Bring in any Fairtrade packaging/labels you have at home by THIS Friday, 8th of March. We will be counting our packaging, and creating a display on Friday.
The time challenge for last weekend was a little bit more challenging this week, but we’re glad to see many more Mathletes.
Well done to everyone who attempted the problems. To be put into the final, answers had to be written with either am/pm or in 24 hour notation.
Well done to Anna who won the grand prize of an Easter egg produced by Fairtrade company, Cadbury.
Look out for future maths problems to join our Mathletes.
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Pupils of the Month
Fairtrade Task – Bring in any Fairtrade packaging/labels you have at home by THIS Friday, 8th of March. We will be counting our packaging, and creating a display on Friday.
After our success at Rock Challenge, P6/7’s Pupils of the Month could easily go to ALL pupils in P6/7. However, there are three pupils who were voted as providing that additional contribution.
Finlay – Finlay successfully worked with the technical team to create the lighting and video plan for Rock Challenge. On the night he was our lighting director, and called his cues perfectly. The lighting was crucial to the success of our piece.
Georgia – Georgia had the important job of introducing our performance. She persisted at rehearsals working on the clarity of her voice. Her introduction on the night was flawless, instantly setting the high standard for Lochardil.
Ellie – As one of the main characters within our performance, Ellie had a fundamental role in convincing the audience that Global Warming needs to STOP. She listened to all of the teachers’ guidance during rehearsals – and perfected her performance!
Well done from everyone in P6/7!
Euro Challenge!
Well done to Erin, Finlay, Georgia and Ryan who all represented Lochardil today at the Euro Challenge in Millburn Academy. This year the pupils had limited preparation time for the quiz, as we did not receive the materials until a few weeks ago. We’re all very proud of them for going and taking part. Arriving back with smiles suggests that they all had a great time.
Fairtrade Fortnight!
Fairtrade Task – Bring in any Fairtrade packaging/labels you have at home by THIS Friday, 8th of March. We will be counting our packaging, and creating a display on Friday.
Fairtrade Fortnight – Monday 25th February to Sunday 10th March – are two weeks in which we can put an emphasis on Fairtrade within the classroom and the school, with a hope to it being part of our daily routine.
Click the image to the left to go to the Fairtrade Foundation website!
Today we learnt about Fairtrade Fortnight through three different ways.
1. Watching the French video: Mange te banane – this told us about the story of Javier
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Mange te Banane – CLICK HERE!
2. Learning about Martin – a farmer’s son from Martinique. The PowerPoint below tells you all about Martin’s life.
Fairtrade – MARTINIQUE – PowerPoint
3. Fact finding activity – using 3 websites, we worked as a group to find out information about bananas, cocoa and mangoes. The websites links are below:
Bananas
Cocoa
Mangoes
Think Fairtrade this fortnight!
Mr.Cook, Mrs.MacLeod and Mrs.Prentice
Tic-Toc!
REMINDER: ECO mascot homework due in for Monday
Time really has flown by us this week – It’s not only Friday, but also March – the beginning of Spring.
The video below shows how the 12 and 24 hour clocks are connected:
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24Hour Clock Video – CLICK HERE!
Here’s another time problem for the weekend. Remember to post your answers on the blog and we’ll choose a winner on Monday. Last week we had a small successful group of Mathletes – we would love to have a bigger group next week.
Click the document below, or the photograph to see each of the problems:
