Category Archives: Expressive Arts

bootcamp, Expressive Arts, Sciences, shareourlearning

Felt Making Tutorial

March 19, 2015 Mrs Hunter 7 Comments

During Science Week we were learning about friction. We found out that friction is a force between two surfaces that are sliding, or trying to slide, across each other. The wool fibres are felted or fused together using moisture, friction and heat. As the wool shrinks the fibres interlock and mat together. You may have noticed that if a wool jumper is washed too hot in a washing machine it will shrink and felt! The wool fibres are layered out horizontally and vertically then soap and warm water are applied and the felt is massaged and rolled. It was challenging and very time consuming but we all enjoyed learning how to felt. We are really proud of our felt pieces but had sore and tired arms at the end! Watch Alana’s felt tutorial below for step by step instructions.

Here are some photos of the felting process:

Some photos of our felted pieces:

bootcamp, Expressive Arts, Literacy and English

Scots Language Learning

March 11, 2015 User deactivated 4 Comments

In Primary 7 we have been learning all about Scots Language. We have learned the meaning of words like ‘stramash’ and ‘bairn’ and it has been really interesting! It’s sad to think that Scots might not be remembered as a language in the future because not everyone knows about it. It’s a really important language and it is our Scottish culture and heritage. Some people think it is slang but it is actually a language just like French or Italian.

We have made a Scots ABC Picture Dictionary with words that we have enjoyed learning about to help teach others about Scots words. Everyone was allocated a letter from the alphabet and then made a little poster with their chosen Scots word and a picture of something that represents it.

We were inspired by a really informative and fun website called Scots Hoose. It has loads of great ideas for learning about Scots Language. It helps you get better at writing and reading Scots because it’s not really that hard, you just think about the words you use everyday!

We also have tried one of the activities which is writing poems in Scots. We chose an object to write about like an ipad, dog or even a football team!

Everyone has had great fun learning all about Scots, and we hope it will be a known language for years to come 🙂 Look at our Discussion Directors ‘Responsible Scots’ page by clicking here to see more about our thoughts on Scots Language.

By Dionne 🙂

Expressive Arts, Literacy and English

P7 Burns Supper

February 12, 2015 User deactivated 6 Comments

This term we have been learning all about Robert Burns and his life, as well as Scots Language. We started to plan our annual Burns Supper; firstly we learned how to pronounce Scots words within our poems. As well as that, we translated some of burns most famous poems into English before writing our own poems in the style of ‘To A Mouse’ in English then translated to Scots using Scots dictionaries and previous knowledge.We then had to responsibility for our own learning by learning words, adding drama and writing scripts.

However before we started we had to set up the hall by;

Setting tables (cutlery, placemats, programs, tablet and shortbread)
Decorate hall (art and flowers )
Place water, Irn-bru and bread on the tables

As well as setting up the table we also had to make programs, invitations and the table plan. The table plan was simple to write but incredibly important on the night. We had to show people to their seats and because of the table plan, we managed to start on time as everyone was in their seats chatting to the people in their table.

We also had to learn appropriate conversation and manners while at the table, for example, not pouring out your own drink first by offering all the adults before yourself as well as giving adults the basket of bread before yourself. The hardest thing to do was making sure everybody was happy with their night!

One of the many lessons we learned was about teamwork, to us this was a really important lesson because we all knew that if only one person had set up the hall then we would never have been ready in time for our Burns night! The only reason it was ready was because we worked as a team and helped each other out.

The highlight of the night and topic was probably the toast to the lassies and the reply. It was hilarious to listen and relate to what they were saying and although both toasts where amazing, the girls definitely won!!

The Burns Supper was a great success and we all enjoyed it very much as we saw all our hard work and energy pay off!

By Hannah and Lucy D

Expressive Arts

Tartan Art

February 4, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

In preparation for our Burns Supper this year we have created Tartan Art to be displayed in the gym hall. We started this by looking up our family or clan tartan or making up our own if we don’t have one. It was important to look at the pattern involved in the tartan and how it all fitted together. We had to either use the colours of our chosen tartan or create our own complimentary coloured tartan design.

First of all, everybody had to draw straight lines in their chosen colour on to special cartridge paper. We did this using Oil Pastel so that we could get the Wax Resist effect. Next, we had to paint over the lines in a wash of the background colour of our tartan. This had to be a thin mixture of pallet paint or our paint would be too thick and the oil pastel wouldn’t show through. It was great when we saw our pattern all come together! We had to do this 3 times so that we had some spare pieces to make tartan place cards for the Burns Supper.

After our paint had dried, we got a piece of small, black paper and another piece of our tartan. We looked at a silhouette of Rabbie Burns, then drew our own onto one of our tartan papers. Then we carefully cut it out and glued it on the black piece of paper. After that we decided to cut the black bit of paper into an oval as we thought it looked better than a rectangle.

Last of all we had to carefully glue the black paper with the tartan Robert Burns silhouette onto a full page of tartan that was the same as the one on Burns. We had to be patient when copying our tartan as some of the designs were really tricky. Everybody in the class really enjoyed it! By Martin P7

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing

Snow Portraits and Sculptures #Gilbertt

January 19, 2015 User deactivated 14 Comments

On Friday it was snowing so we decided to go outside and do some art. We split into groups and designed either a snow portrait or snow sculpture. We created Gilbertt (with two ‘t’s) the snowman and his son Gilbertt jr. Some people went and got snow by using the cones to collect snow and used it as a shovel, we all worked together to make him. He was protected by some snow walls with twigs on them that we found in the playground, it looked good. Dionne built a snow dog because that’s her favourite animal. Andrew and Martin made a puny imposter Gilbertt that was found melted and never to be seen again. Hazel and Rebecca also created a snowman called Henry and hid him in petal gardens to keep him safe! Rachael managed to draw a portrait of Robert Burns with a pencil, it looked just like him! Gilbertt made it until the end of the day and then sadly someone decapitated him, we were all sad and wrote some speeches. It was fun trying to play sports in the snow. It was difficult trying to hit a snowball with a racquet! We all really enjoyed being outside, it was a bit cold but fun to do something different. Written by Aidan and David P7.

Expressive Arts, Literacy and English, Numeracy and Mathematics, Social Studies, Technologies

A Very Victorian Fairtrade Cafe!

December 18, 2014 Mrs Hunter 1 Comment

To complete our learning on the Victorians, we organised a Victorian themed Fairtrade Cafe for our school community. In preparation for our cafe, we each worked in co-operative groups to investigate a different area of the Victorian era. Groups researched areas such as Victorian education, famous Victorians and inventors, rich and poor lifestyles and jobs for example, chimney sweeps, servants and working down in the mines. We prepared to showcase our learning by delegating tasks. As a group, we decided who would create the powerpoint, design games for our visitors to play and who would dress as a Victorian for the day! Alongside this, we also had to plan for the running of our cafe. We split into groups to work on a homebaking stall, serving the tea and coffee, selling Fairtrade Christmas products and raise awareness of Fairtrade by talking to our visitors to the cafe. Our P7 Fairtrade group members headed up each group and kept things running smoothly. Have a look at some of our pictures below to see how we got on!