John Johnston

Highlights Weekending 1 September

Time flies! We have had quite a busy week.

We got started with our micro:bits, homework and more.

We finally finished our class logos:

And the judges came to a decision of which one we will use to represent our class this session:

All the logos are displayed on one of our rotating blog headers.

We have also had a couple of sessions in the Makerspace. The class are modifying their basic Elastic Cars to their own design, this work includes a lot of problem solving and re-design, good fun too.

Today we had a ‘meet the teacher’ classroom visit for our parents. The children showed their parents different activities that we do in class and some of their recent work. The pupils were great ambassadors and I am sure the parents enjoyed their visit.

Targets Set

We have set our first learning target of the session. They are up on the wall for all to see and on our e-portfolios for us to update when we have achieved them.

The Biggies are Back in Class

We have got to the end of our first week. The children are settling well and we are starting to think about our routines.

We have started reading Mr Johnston’s favourite book, Love That Dog. That means we read a lot of poems too. The first one we studied was The Red Wheelbarrow. The class all wrote poems based on this poem. They are great.

We a have also been working on a new class logo to represent out class, more of that later. And starting work on our Rights Respecting School class charter.

Today we had a visit from Steven from Future X, to show us what Future X entails and how to get involved. We had a great time:

The p7s have also been helping out with their buddies in p1, to make play dough and to get used to going for lunch.

Words to Learn by 2023-24

Last session The Biggies choose some word to describe what they would like to learn. These proved useful in reviewing what we had done at the end of the year. So we did it again this session.

Makerspace Robot Roundup

We have been working hard in our Makerspace on our Robots challenge.

The Challenge is to create a model Robot with elements of, Movement, Electricity & Coding.

The class has done an amazing job with lots of fun and failure. I’ve been especially impressed how the groups worked together and adapted their ideas as the went along.

Bobara

Duck

Robot Mike

ECCO Finished product

A.D.A.M

I gathered quite a lot of quotes from the class and have added some below in their unedited glory.

General Comments

His back there is a skewer that you twist so that tightens the rope to make the flaps go up and loosen it to go down
It is a micro bit that plays a song by another micro bit sending it messages to start and stop
We had to change the song a few thousand times but we got there in the end.
We argued about the wheels and some designs but we didn’t argue much. The wheels worked out well and the coding component is working well too.
Yes when we were cutting our blocks of wood to hold up a big platform. The blocks where slanted so we had to make new ones and measure it correctly so it was in a straight line.
We didn’t think of how the weight of the head was going to affect the motor. This was because the head was too large. Also we painted some of it and changed a lot of the outer design and make the packages more realistic by putting things in them.
It’s moving part is the spinning brush on the front, a motor is hooked up to a battery pack and a switch using wires, when the switch is clicked the motor turns a piece of glue tack spins and the brush is attached to it.
My robot is a large Aztec sort of style robot called A.D.A.M. A.D.A.M stands for Ancient Dispenser of Aztec Mummies. As the name suggests it dispenses drawings of mummies.
It is called Adam it is like a box and it has wheels dispense mummies

Enjoyed

I enjoyed working with others and learning how different things work.
I really enjoyed be able to express my creativity
Being partners with the people I was and painting and talking to them.
I enjoyed creative work and doing fun things with saws and hot glue guns
I enjoyed making a lot of the things we made and I think I work well in most of the groups I was put in.
I enjoyed working with the micro bits and coding elements.
I enjoyed using different equipment like hot glue guns.

Didn’t enjoy

I didn’t enjoy the we had a problem with the electronics
I didn’t enjoy all the arguing but then again it was mostly needed because of voting.
I didn’t enjoy the problem with the wheels and trying to fix that because it took a while to find a solution.
I enjoyed everything about the makerspace, and didn’t dislike anything.

Learned

I learned that it’s sometimes people need to learn to try help each other more then we should.
I learned how to put the movie into keynote and I learned how to do wiring.
I learned how to work with others better and how to make different things, I feel like I’m better at arts and crafts as well.
I learned that wires were very complicated and annoying and that you may not be friends with your partners but you can get along in some ways.
I learned how to use glue guns, what materials are better and not just look better and how to find good solutions to problems but still keep close to the original design.
I learned how to use micro bits to control motors.
I learned how to use a saw correctly and I learned how to use a hot glue gun.
How to have fun and work at the same time while being in my zone.
How to make a iMovie video with voice over music and effects and to work in a team to create a machine with electronic components.
I learned that you can make anything out of quite a lot of materials and I learned that using iMovie is quite easy.