Watt’s Watt Challenge

February 25, 2015 User deactivated 2 Comments

On Thursday Lucy D, Lucy F , Jack and I went to Port Glasgow high school representing Gourock Primary for a challenge called Watt’s Watt. We were put up against other schools for 4 tasks. One that we could do whenever we wanted was to create a poster about James Watt and his improvement of the steam engine. Our second task was to make a steam boat which could go using the force of steam. Firstly we had to saw the wood to make it streamline so Lucy D and I went to the station where the saw was and we cut the wood. Then we went back and started to wrap a copper tube around a glue stick to make it a twirl shape. We had to use metal wire to secure the boat so that we could put a tea light under it. The tea light was for when we put the boat in the water we put a syringe full of water in the tubing and lit the tea light so that it would create steam. We also put another candle at the front to balance the boat.

The next task was probably our hardest task. We had to make a train that could carry an apple on a monorail. The first thing we did was we went to the sawing station and we had to saw 2 centimetres off of these cuboids of wood so that they would be the same weight and size. Then we put on the turning cylinders on the bottom and on the top of them we out elastic bands so that they would grip on to the monorail. Then because we were only allowed to use one battery pack we had to put an extension cord so that it would wire the other cylinder to turn. It was very frustrating because the wires kept on falling out and when we had to test the train the wire fell out on the one metre mark.

Our third task was to make light from an apple. The reason why it works is because of the potential difference between two nails going into an apple. What we found was that half an apple will make more volts than one full apple so we decided to cut the two apples and put the nails in as the apple works as a conductor. We put the wires into the nails and it powered the led light. I feel really proud of what I managed to achieve and hopefully we get into the finals. I’m really interested in science and high school science will probably be really fun!

bootcamp, Literacy and English

P7 Bio Poem!

February 23, 2015 User deactivated 6 Comments

Here is our Bio Poem we have written as a class. There were a lot of discussions around what we should choose, but in the end we think it sums us up quite nicely! Hope you like it 🙂

Primary 7

Hilarious, competitive, smart, creative

Pupils of Mrs Hunter

Lovers of TMNT, Football, KFC and You Tube

We feel enthusiastic, determined and confident

We fear McDonalds, a wet play and being last sitting for lunch!

We are proud of being a Fairtrade School, gaining our RRSA Level 1, winning our Rugby tournament, and learning to ski!

We would like to fight for equality, end world poverty and show racism the red card!

We live in glorious Gourock in bonnie Scotland

Gourock Primary School 🙂

bootcamp

Why Blog?

February 16, 2015 User deactivated 16 Comments

This is our first blog post for the blogging bootcamp by Abbie and Luke in Gourock Primary P7. In P7, we think that blogging is a good idea because it allows us to share our ideas with others, so they can be inspired by our ideas too. Also, it allows us to reflect on, talk about and share our learning with the world. Blogging helps us become better writers because it is not just our teacher Mrs Hunter that gets to write on it, we write posts too! It is important to think about our sentences, like punctuation we are using and that what we say is public. We also have a homework task every week called ‘P7 Discussion Directors’, where we have to discuss a topic with our parents at home then be prepared to take part in a discussion in school. We have started commenting about this on our blog now too and we think this promotes using the internet in a positive way. Our class blog is also a diary of our journey through learning, we can look back through this in the future, and remember things that we are proud of, for example, our P7 Burns Supper and Athletics competitions. In conclusion, we feel that blogging is great for our learning and encourages us to use the internet for educational things as well as for our leisure! By Abbie and Luke

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

Health and Wellbeing

Cross Country

February 4, 2015 User deactivated 1 Comment

On Saturday the 31st January our school competed in the Cross Country Competition at Tower Hill. The first thing everyone did was declaring for the race. The declaration point was in the St. Columbas gym hall. Once everyone got their numbers they went and warmed up their muscles in preparation for the run.

Some of us walked the course so we knew where we were running and others did some dynamic stretches. The conditions were anything but great! For example, there was snow which hid the mud which made it was slippery underfoot, but that didn’t stop us from running the race. We all showed great determination and everyone completed the course.

The first to race were the P5-6 girls. Everyone said good luck to each other and they set off to the start line. The course was 1 small lap and a big lap which was nearly a mile long. It was a hard way to start as you had to start on a hill. They did very well and won a team bronze so everyone is really pleased for them!

The next race was the P5-6 boys. They had the same course as the girls. It was a very close race between the leaders and we were all shouting and encouraging the runners on. We managed to come 4th place – well done everyone.

The last to run were the P7 boys and girls running together. We had a mile to run and our course was slightly different from the younger pupils. We had to make sure we paced ourselves and keep some energy for sprinting to the finish line at the end. It was great to have the rest of the team, Mrs Hunter and Miss Meechan cheering us on, it helped us keep going. We were really proud of ourselves when we completed the course, it was really challenging! P7 boys won a team gold with myself earning an individual gold, Lewis in 4th place, Ryan in 11th place and Anton in 15th place. To earn a team medal, you must have 3 or more runners in a top position. The girls ran really well too and Abbi came 15th. It makes all the hard work and practice worth it. We are looking forward to the next competition next month! By Andrew P7

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.

Health and Wellbeing

Super Skiing!

January 14, 2015 User deactivated 5 Comments

Hello everyone, Hazel here, blogging for Primary 7! Last week was our very first week of skiing. We travelled to Bearsden ski centre after school. We all felt excited and nervous because this was the first time for most people. It was a challenge to work out how to put our boots on but we helped each other and the instructors helped too. We had to practice walking in our boots because it felt like moonwalking! We had to jump, hop and run to get used to our boots. Another thing we practiced travelling with one ski on. It was really important that we listened to our instructor because if we didn’t follow instructions we would get a step wrong. As well as using our listening skills we had to work with each other to make sure we were properly spaced out and didn’t crash into each other. Last of all we got both skis on and slid down little slopes. Carefully we made sure that our body was in the middle of our skis and we didn’t lean forwards or backwards too much. I felt really proud of myself for trying a new sport and we are all excited for next lesson. We will keep you updated!

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!

Literacy and English, Social Studies

Victorian Projects

December 18, 2014 Mrs Hunter 1 Comment

As our Victorian topic is coming to an end, we brought in our projects that we have been working on throughout the term. It was really interesting to share our biographies on our favourite Victorians, differences between toys then and now and diary entries of a day in the life of a child in the workhouse. We also designed our own inventions and created Victorian toys and games to play. Jack even carved his very own mini Victorian street child – very impressive! After reading our classmates work, we used peer assessment strategies to give positive feedback on each others work. By writing comments on post-its, we were able to give feedback and pinpoint areas of work we thought were done well. It was great to read the comments left on our projects when we got them back!