P6/7M are busy learning all about angles.  There was great excitement today as they got to draw on the tables!  First masking tape was placed across the tables, then where they crossed the pupils had to identify whether it was an Acute, Right, Obtuse or Straight angle.  Zack said it had been the most fun numeracy lesson he had and he was sure it would help him remember which angle is which!

This afternoon P6 and P7 held a Tea Party for their parents, grandparents and members of the community from Meadowlark and Cameron Court in order to find out more about school life in the past.

The Tea Party was an opportunity to put their interviewing techniques to good practice, having been given tuition from the Scotland’s Urban Past team earlier this term. Rebecca Murray rang her great great grandmother’s school bell to signal the welcome given by Maija Jones. The pupils partnered up and armed with their clipboards and questions set about chatting to their guests over tea and biscuits.

There was soon a buzz in the hall as the generations mixed and it was lovely to see so many happy faces as memories and experiences of school life were shared.

The pupils had also created a ‘pop up’ museum with the artefacts they had gathered. Many guests enjoyed seeing these and used them as prompts to reminisce.

Rebecca again rang her bell and David Creaney thanked everyone for coming.  As they left many guests commented on the exceptional manners of the pupils as well as showing real interest in what they were being told.

Today the marble runs were completed and tested. Unfortunately, none of the groups managed to create a run that would last for 1 minute so we agreed that the slowest marble would be the winner. Each run was also assessed on it’s structure and design.

There was a tense but exciting few minutes as each marble run was put to the test.
The winners were…..
In Mrs McRitchie’s group – Emily, Caitlyn, Maddie, Dylan, Lauren and Grace’s design with a time of 3.36 seconds.
In Mrs Hunter’s group – Olivia, Lauren, Erin, Faye, Ben and Logan’s design with a time of 4.44 seconds.

All groups enjoyed the task and have ideas on how they would improve their designs.

Today, the P6 and P7 non skiers had a fun day out. After watching P3W’s assembly on toys it was soon time to head to Elgin.

First stop was Pinz for an hour of Ten Pin Bowling. Lots of fun, laughs and competition was had. Many showed their skills with numerous spares being scored but only a few were lucky enough to get a Strike – Dylan, Claire, Chloe, Cameron R and James. After enjoying the crisps, biscuits and juice provided by Pinz, it was time to find out the final results. The lane winners were: Claire (87 points), Rachel (76 points), Farah (77 points), Jake (92 points), Erin (93 points), Emily (75 points) and James (83 points). Cameron R won his lane and with a score of 100 was the overall winner of the day – congratulations to all 🙂

After a quick lunch on the bus, due to the rain preventing us from visiting Cooper Park it was time to ‘dive’ into Moray Leisure Centre. Everyone enjoyed the pool especially when the flume opened!

Many thanks to Pinz and Moray Leisure Centre for having us and to the parents who helped accompany us.

Today four pupils from P6 represented the school at the Moray round of the P6 Euro Quiz – a national competition with the finals being held at the Scottish Parliament.

They have spent many weeks studying in preparation for today. Their hard work paid off as after answering questions on Europe’s Geography, History, Politcal Leaders, flags, currency, sport, culture, langauges and landmarks they made it through to the head to head round against St Sylvesters.

A fierce competition took place and it came down to the final question where they were unfortunately pipped to the post by the oppposing team – congratulations and good luck to the St Sylvesters team.

The team were pleased with themselves and felt they had worked well as a team. We are proud of their achievement. Well done to you all. 🙂

Many thanks to the parents who accompanied the team.

The Presiding Officer starts the debate with two strikes of the gavel.

Today, Primary 6 gained insight into the workings of the Scottish Parliament from Mrs Miller, who works for the Scottish Parliament Outreach Programme. They learnt about Scotland’s regions and constituencies, how to vote, what the Parliament had control over, what MSP’s did, what the Presiding Officer does and how decisions are made in the Debating Chamber.

After listening to Mrs Miller and using the ‘clickpads’ to give their answers to an interactive quiz, it was time to become candidates for an election. In groups, they formed political parties – Save the Earth, Music, Computer, Animal Welfare, School and Sports. Each group had to come up with a Manifesto which was then delivered by each party leader to the class. Votes were then cast on  Ballot papers, counted and the winning party announced.

There was also the opportunity for a debate, just like the MSP’s do in Edinburgh when they want to make changes to things like Education, Transport, Farming or Health. Todays motion for debate was ‘Should smoking be banned?’ The newly elected MSP’s discussed their ideas and then under the watch of the Presiding Officer gave their opinions. Everyone voted and the motion was passed – this meant it would become law and signed by Her Majesty the Queen.

On Tuesday afternoons, we are going up to Forres Academy for our PE lessons, this is part of the transition programme. We are taught by the S5 and S6 pupils who are completing their Leadership Qualification.

We go with P6W and P7H and begin our lesson altogether in the Games Hall where Mr Fraser gives us our warm up. The last two weeks we have been focusing on control, listening and timing and carry out activities with a tennis ball. This week we did some skills that the Wimbeldon Ball Boys and Girls are taught!

After that we remain in the Games hall and Jordan and Daniel are teaching us the skills of short tennis. P6W and P7H go to the other halls to do different activities. After 3 weeks we will rotate so we all experience the different activities.

Today Nettie, the mascot for the 2017 Badminton World Championships which was dedigned by P7 pupil Aidan Matthews, came to visit. She brought with her Katie and Duncan who gave everyone in the school some Badminton coaching.

In Numeracy recently P6/7M have been investigating number patterns. We have been investigating the rules for square, triangular and cubed numbers and using this to then continue the sequence.

We also looked at Pascals Triangle and worked out the rule for continuing it. In the pattern we were also able to spot triangular numbers, odds and it was interesting to see the patterns made when we identified multiples of 3, 5 and 7.

The pictures below show us working together to investigate cubed numbers.

On Friday, P7 pupil Bruce Evans travelled to the Dollan Aqua Centre in East Kilbride to participate in the Scottish Schools Swimming Finals.

Bruce competed in the 50m Fly final and achieved a PB with a time of 37.76seconds. He was placed 11th overall and was pleased with his result.

Congratulations Bruce 🙂

His swim can be viewed by following this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K844M8B-4_w (his swim is about 28minutes in)