What a week! So many great learning opportunities to share with you, enjoy!
Please leave a comment or two to let us know your thoughts.
This week began with a very different assembly.
Due to extreme weather our pupils who had been rehearsing for annual Burns competition did not have opportunity to perform. We decided to make this better and they all performed for our whole school at Monday morning assembly. Photographs were published on our App. Well done to our solo singers who performed:
Esme Colenso, Rhiannon Boyd, Emma Bonnar, Sara Millar & Luisa Kerr
To our recitation performers:
Lilly Moore, Elizabeth Ross, Marc Findlay, Wiktoria Rydlewska, Sarah Allan, Paige Brennan, Finn Kearney & Zoe Clifford.
Huge thanks to Mrs Shevlin and Miss Cawley who trained the pupils to such a high standard. Each and every one of the performed magnificently.
Tuesday night our bi-annual Parent Evening was a great success, many thanks to all who took the time to come along to speak with the teacher and look at their children’s work. This is such an important evening for your children to showcase their work to those who matter most. We had an 89% attendance which is fabulous. We aim to turn this on it’s head and reach for 98% in October!
Wednesday was both a sad and a happy day. Primary 5 have been working very hard on their Clyde in the Classroom Project, learning so much, taking great responsibility and having so much fun too. Wednesday it was time for their little charges to be released into the wild.
Here’s what they thought:
‘I really enjoyed raising the fish from eggs to alevin, then fry and I was really sad to release them. Maybe I will see them again one day.’ Honor Bulloch P5a
‘I thoroughly enjoyed releasing the fish. It was great to get close to the river and Davie was really nice. I really enjoyed the day as it put all our hard work to fun.’ Finn Kearney P5a
‘ It was really fun when P5a went down to the Calder to release our fish. Davie held onto everyone so we could release our fish. I loved it.’ Lucia P5a
‘When we went to take the fish down to the Calder I was upset a bit because I didn’t want to let the fish go but I know they will be happy in the river.’ Grace P5a
‘In Clyde in the Classroom I most liked checking the temperature’ David P5b
‘I really enjoyed taking care of the fish. I was really worried on the snow days. It was the best topic ever.’ Wiktoria P5b
‘I enjoyed looking after the fish and I liked when the fish started to move.’ Filip P5b
‘I liked releasing them because going to the river was fun.’ Lennon P5b
‘I was nervous walking to the river with the fish in my hands. We have been taking care of them for so long, they were part of the class. Thankfully, everything turned out ok.’ – Isla P5c
‘I’m glad they are in the river now because it means they can find food. They must be hungry!’ – Saul P5c
‘It is weird to think the little orange eggs are now somewhere in the River Clyde. I hope we will see them again some day.’ – Nikki P5c
‘I named mine Amy. I hope it was a girl.’ – Ellie P5c
As part of this project P5c opted to enter the video competition, please click on the link below to see their final entry, it is fabulous. Well done to all in P5.
On Thursday we welcomed police officers Adam McManus, Gregor Mackie & Fraser Hart to our school. This was part of the Secondary School Attainment Challenge focusing on working together to ensure safety in our communities and building stronger communities within the Motherwell area.
The officers enjoyed a tour of our wonderful school and nursery and then spent some quality time in some of our classes, feedback from the pupils was very encouraging and great fun was had by all, as you can see in the photographs, we hope Mrs Campbell will be released soon!
Also on Thursday Mrs McDerment and P7b enjoyed a wonderful day at Motherwell Heritage Centre for an exciting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) challenge. Here’s what they thought:
Sophie Marshall: I thought it was so amazing, I loved it so much. We did fun activities such as – Will it sink Will it float? We were put into groups and I got to program a Bee -Bot to go right round the car park then park in a taxi spot. We learned about Iron and Steel and about the olden days with trains and coal mining. We also made boats out of clay and then tested them with marbles to see how many it could hold and float, one of my friends, Lucy got 6, I got 5.
Laura McCann: We learned about different types of engineering, then me and my group made a car park with multiple exits our of marble run. We learned about sinking and floating. Next we made boats out of plasticine and put marbles in them to see if they could float. We went up to the top of the tower and could see across Motherwell. Here we are hard at work.
Thursday was a very busy day indeed. Mrs McCarthy set off with her trusty team of Super Readers to take part in North Lanarkshire Council Annual Reading Quiz. This was the regional heat and our wonderful pupils excelled earning a fabulous 1st Place! Excellent work. They now go through to the final at the end of April. Well done to Hollie McInnes, Rory McCarthy, Zarah Khalil, Marc Findlay, Maria Moss and not forgetting Mrs McCarthy. Our readers have been giving up their lunchtimes to prepare and it obviously paid off. Good Luck in the finals.
Moving onto Friday, our Lenten appeal this week was themed around ‘Charity begins at Home’. Children were asked to donate items of food requested by Motherwell Food Bank. As always, your generosity has been outstanding. This was a whole campus event with nursery, school and Firpark Primary all working together to help those very near to us all. A huge thanks to all. Special thanks to our Enterprise Committee, CaFi Council pupils, Miss Cawley and Mrs. Ellis (Firpark DHT). A wonderful example of working together for the greater good.
Meanwhile, our youngest pupils in the nursery are busy, busy, busy as always!
During a visit last Monday around the school grounds the children discovered a crocodile and some dinosaur bones which sparked a conversation about other things they might find on their outdoor adventures. The very next day the children spotted something sparkling under the bushes. Treasure, then they found a book, a gold magic lamp and just before they were heading back to show all the children in the nursery they discovered a monkey and a letter. The letter was from Abu. Some of the children recognised Abu from the story of Aladdin. The letter stated that he had taken his friend Aladdin’s magic flying carpet and had fallen off it and low and behold ended up stuck on a branch in the school. Abu wants the children to help him get back safely to Arabia to find Aladdin.
The children listened to and watched the story of Aladdin and from this made a mindmap of how they could help Abu achieve his wish and promptly got to work on their ideas. Please have a look at all of these displayed within the nursery.
First things first try the children wanted to find the magic carpet but as we all know magic flying carpets have a mind of their own and the one that brought Abu here is probably back safely in Arabia especially when the ‘Beast from the East appeared last week’
Outdoors the children got to work on making their very own magic carpet with lots of sparkly materials. Watch out for these next week when they are completed. They also discussed how to transform outdoors into the ‘Cave of Wonders from the story.
In numeracy the children decided Abu needed a map to help him return to Aladdin. So they made a range of detailed maps,
to help him navigate from the nursery to Arabia. These will e displayed next week.
They changed the house corner into a market place to make Abu feel at home and filled it with lots of shiny fruit and vegetables. They made a mindmap of what kind of foods they would find in the stall and placed an Asda order(other supermarkets are available) of exotic foods from other countries. They have been smelling cinnamon, star anise and tasting pomegranates, this will continue next week.
Then they looked out the Aladdin costumes and have been busy role-playing Aladdin, Jasmine and the market seller. By the end of the week they had built a palace from the nursery climbing frame and are playing imaginatively in it.
In construction a few children drew plans of how they wanted their palace to look before using the block construction to build their very own palace.
Over in the story corner the children have been using the stick puppets to create their own stories. Some children decided to act out the different characters and this was recorded as a script. This quiet corner has been transformed into the ‘Cave of Wonders’ with a magic lamp, treasure and a magic carpet prompting lots of imaginative play.
The maths area has had a makeover too. A shiny shape palace has been created for display.
On Friday all the children made something special to take home. Can you guess why?
