John Johnston

Fairly Tasty Pancakes

We had a fair trade focus day on Friday. We have been learning about the Fairtrade story of bananas & chocolate this week.

On Friday we started the day by making banana pancakes. These are really simple, just banana, flour & milk along with a little baking powder, no sugar!¹

As well as thinking about Fair Trade we practiced our Food Technology, linked to hygiene and some maths measuring. Following a recipe uses our literacy skills too. Cooking is also good fun and over half the class thought the result was tasty. Banana seems to be fruit marmite.

Fairtrade information

In our literacy lesson Miss Baxter work with us to create wrappers for imaginary Fairtrade chocolate wrappers. We were surprised as to how few chocolate bars are Fairtrade. We had to write in two genre, giving information about Fairtrade on the inside and designing a persuasive outside.

Short information text on /fairtrade written by primary 5-6-7 children.

Designs for Fairtrade chocolate wrappers.

At the end of the day, the whole school gathered for an assembly, where we had a Fairtrade quiz and found out about the other classes about their activities: Fairtrade Friday! – Banton Bairns & Fairtrade Fruity Fun & Fitness for Fairtrade Friday.

At the start of the day I asked the pupils to let us knowwhat fairtrade was in a paragraph, here are some responses:

Fair trade is like a organisation that helps the farmers in the poor countries. Fair trade means the poor farmers can get paid a good amount for their hard work. Fair trade is an amazing thing that helps thousands of farmers that deserve a fair pay.
Tony

Fair trade is an organisation that makes sure that farmers get a fair price for their products that they are selling. You get fair trade bananas, chocolate, coffee and other stuff.
Juliet

FairTrade, it’s a wonderful thing, it has 2 ways it supports farmers, Fairtrade minimum and Fairtrade premium. Fairtrade minimum has a limit to how low the price for cocoa in any Fairtrade product can go with coco. Fairtrade premium gives money to the community for every ton of cocoa sold.
Robert

Fairtrade is an organisation designed to help farmers who grow our food. The price is increased a bit on some of the food we buy that the farmers produce. The extra money all goes to the farmers, not where you are buying it.
Gene

A different group of The Biggies bake as part of their maths program each week, nearly always involving a little sugar ↩︎

Book-markable

On Thursday we celebrated World Book day. As well as las lots of reading and book talk the Biggies made some lovely bookmarks.

On Thursday we celebrated World Book day. As well as lots of reading and book talk The Biggies made some lovely bookmarks.

Arty Cardboard

We had our second visit from Artist Eilidh Manson yesterday. Every one has started on a weird or wonderful piece of Art. We have mill wheels, cats up trees and giant packet of pringles, and a lot more great ideas.

The class are all now becoming increasingly independent in the MakerSpace, working safely with care.

Today in the maker space I started on making my water mill.
I filled my toilet roll with tissue but then I took it out and but a stick in then put tissue back in it.
I cut round card board and hot glued it on.
Calum

Today in the MakerSpace I made a tree and I made it into phase 2 Mr tree.
I made it in one WHOLE day.
When I cut the square on the bottom it was a bit stiff.
I wrapped even more tape to make it less fragile.
Xander

Today I made a drinkable slush made out of cardboard and I made a pop corn which I renamed peep-corn it’s called peep-corn because you can look thru a hole I learned loads of new techniques and you can drink out the slush because there’s a cup behind the cardboard.
Noah

Today in the maker space I made a swan.🦢
I have made the main body.
I have also started a slot so it can stand up.
I haven’t finished it yet but when I do it will look beautiful.
I learned that if something didn’t work try it again and if that doesn’t work leave it for later.
Tony

Today in the MakerSpace I started my art project. I started with making the roof for the first building. It was hard to do it but I kinda weaved cardboard to make it 2 times and put them together with an angle. The I added something to stop the angle from changing. Then I make 2 30x20cm parts and 2 30x30cm parts. I put them together to make a square. It got a lot better at making roofs with tiles and cutting with saws.
Robert

Today in the MakerSpace I started my art project. Im doing it with Chloe and we are going to do a tree with a cat stuck in it. We have got the base done and next week we are going to build it up then make the outside look like bark and add the branches and some flowers.
Juliet

Today we were in the MakerSpace and I made a giant Pringle can.
I started by using a giant tube, then put a lid on the bottom. then made 2 small Pringles then curved them to look like Pringles, then I but some hot glue on the so they would look like a actual Pringle with all the powder things then I add all the labelling and picture of the guys face.
Jason

Outdoor Learning Day – Circles in the Rain

We had outdoor learning day today. We had to change our plans a little because of the weather, or maths went turned from a shape photograph safari to working with chalk & circles. It was too wet for iPads outdoors.

It was not too wet for the Biggies, we all had lots of waterproofs on.

The first thing we did was to gather some nice straightish willow branches for cooking later in the day.

Next Maths, we worked on by drawing circles on the playground using 2 different methods. This helped us think about the properties of circles, and the shape they make when they cross each other. Some folk just had fun with spirals too.

Although some of the Biggies were a bit dismayed at the weather, they all got really involved in making circles and were surprised when it was time for playtime.

After playtime we went back out for some P.E. The rain had really started to pour, this made the wet ground extra slippy and there were some exciting bumps and skids. After about half an hour of this we went back inside got our clothes sorted out and made some bread dough in the hope it would dry up in the afternoon.

Fire pit

In the afternoon the weather brightened and we went out to ‘bake’ our bread on the fire.

When working around a fire we need to follow quite a lot of rules to help us stay safe. One pupil acts as the Fire Chief, and controls all the movement around the fire. When approaching the fire to light it or add wood pupils need to adopt the respect position. The Biggies are really good at this and manage to both stay safe & have fun.

We cooked some ‘damper’ this is bread dough wrapped around a stick. It doent always cook evenly, but almost everyone manage to make something they enjoyed, right of the fire without jam or anything. It takes quite like wookd cooked pizza crust.

Stem to Steam

Yesterday we had a visit from Artist Eilidh Manson who will be working with us for the next few weeks in the MakerSpace. Putting an artistic slant on our making.

Eilidh stated by talking about how important sketch books are and show us how to make our own. We started using these straight away thinking about Banton and places and things important to the pupils.

We then headed through to the MakerSpace, to experement with cardboard and other materials. This is a warm up for next week when the children will be working on turning their own ideas into art.

We will do some more advanced projects. I know what I’m going to make. I have ideas I want to try. What I think working with Eilidh will be awesome.
My techniques I have learnt.

Roll up cardboard to make a tree trunk.

Scrumple up cardboard to make leaves.

Xander

I think I will do well over the next few sessions and also I think other people will do well too.
I know what I am going to make. I’m going to make the shed in the playground.
I think working with Eilidh will be fun.
I have learnt the technique stacking and I don’t really like it.
Gene

I think over the next few sessions we will start to work on the pieces of art. I think I am going to try to make a tree, I think I want to try using little pieces of wet cardboard as bark but glue it on. I think it is going to be fun working with Eilidh. A new technique I have learned is weaving cardboard.
Juliet

I think it’s going to be a good bunch of sessions and it will be all calm and nice.

I do know what I’m going to make and it is: The Swan (the restaurant in banton)

The ideas I want to try are: making textured walls and making a roof that doesn’t fall.

I think it is going to be nice.

I have learned how to thread cardboard and make 2 walls support a small roof.

Robert

I think we will keep on experimenting
Im going to make a slushy and you can remove the lid and replace it
I’m still thinking of ideas I want to try
I think it will be fun and entertaining
Putting your finger into the top of a bottle and it will be easier to cut it.
Noah

I am going to make the Banton mill
I think that we are going to make interesting things
I think it will be good working with Eilidih
Calum

Mud is the New Glue

The Biggies had their first Trip to Dow’s Wood this year. Ice Hair, Adjectives & Land Art.

On Wednesday the Biggies had a trip to Dow’s Wood for some outdoor learning. The plan was to make some Land Art and gather some adjectives.

Our new pupil and Miss Baxter, who is working with the Biggies this term had their first trip to the wood so we had a look around first.

Eagle eyed Noah spotted some Ice Hair:

Ice Hare on a dead stick. — Ice Hair a rare find.

It is quite rare to find ‘hair ice’ in Scotland so I was quite excited. We also had a look at some hazel catkins.

On the way we gathers a few straight sticks and dead stems. We had been looking at some images and video of Land Art. This is art made from natural materials, that can be left in place after taking some photographs. We were careful not to damage any living things.

Most of the class were quickly absorbed in putting together some abstract shapes, some using their engineering skills to balance, and construct strange shapes. These things often go wrong, this class are becoming expert in making mistakes, meeting failure and pushing on to success.

Pupils 'land art' — Weaving a tangled web

Delicate work, land art — Weaving a tangled web

The first thing we did in the woods was collect sticks and make art. We could work in partners or by our selves, I worked with Gene. The first idea I had was to make a circle but me and Gene couldn’t really get it very Sphere like. We tried making a stick out line first and filling it in with smaller sticks but that didn’t really work. Gene then had an idea of how to make a better one but we ended up making a monster on a giant mossy rock. Gene made a really cool stick line down for hair. I built the face out of muddy leaves and mud which made my hands freezing. But It was really fun.

Mud is the new Glue
Juliet

One morning we went to the woods. About half way through the trip, we made some sculptures next to the big rocks. I started making some gigantic but also wee structure, first I wanted to make a ball but I found out it was too hard to do it, instead I made Some pillars and connected them. I made it all with sticks. It was very hard but it turned out very well! It kind of looked a bit like a circle of pillars with one in the middle and a roof.
Robert

Me and Juliet built a sphere and a rock monster. First we built the sphere. It didn’t really look like one. We built it only out of twigs/sticks. Just a sphere. But I thought of a different way to build it. We didn’t build the different version because Juliet thought of and excellent idea. We built a rock monster on a mossy rock. It went tremendously. It went better than I thought. I’m still baffled that the twigs/sticks didn’t fall off. I had a lovely time working with Juliet.
Gene

This morning, we went to the woods. We made some art, we used sticks, rocks, and leaves, and maybe some moss. Me and my friend Alexia Were partners with each over. Luckily we both have creative minds. We started off putting a bunch of twigs together, and then we added the big sticks. Then Alexia’s strange but creative mind took over, she added hats to all the sticks! It was strange but it was also cool because it was a cup of an acorn, after a little while I asked Alexia about putting clear rocks in it and she put it around the centre we called these moon rocks. After that Mr. Johnston showed us other people ideas, after seeing Mr. Johnston’s we decided to do a leaf circle like him and then we were finished.
Chloe

MakerSpace Christmas Challenge

For the last few weeks the Biggies have been spending their time in the MakerSpace tackling a Christmas Challenge.

Design & construct a Christmas Model 🌶
Design & construct a Christmas Model that includes a moving part 🌶 🌶
Design & construct a Christmas Model that includes a moving part & a simple electrical circuit. 🌶 🌶 🌶
Design & construct a Christmas Model that includes a moving part, a simple electrical circuit, & a programmable element. 🌶 🌶 🌶 🌶

We started off by making plans:

We talked a bit about the skills needed for carrying out or plans and the design cycle.

He results show not only our pupils imagination but a range of skills.

For the last few weeks we made some Christmas models in the Makerspace. We could make anything we wanted, as long as it is Christmas themed. I decided to make a Christmas tree! I was the only one who made a Christmas tree.

There was a lot of problems we had. Here are some of the problems I had:

The motor didn’t work

The tree was moving when the motor was on

The motor was falling of a bit

Here are the solutions I had for the problems

Check and re-wire the electronics

Add some weights to the tree

Tape it on a bit

Robert

I made a train with a carriage carrying presents. I thinked about connecting both the locomotive and the carriage together. So I used pipe cleaners to hook them together. The final product was a success. I liked how I added presents to the carriage.

Problems & Solutions

I used wood to make the presents but they were too tiny so I used Lego to make the presents. I wrapped some wooden circles in tin foil to make some presents.
Xander

I used lots of my skills but I used five main skills. 1. I used planning and organising because I had a plan on what to do. 2. I used ICT for my micro:bit. 3. Numeracy for measuring things. 4. Problem solving for my short and tall stuff. 5. Creative thinking to add details.

Tony

For the maker space Christmas challenge I made a sleigh pulled by a rain deer. It had a light collar and a micro bit in the sleigh. It also moved. We had to make it max 30cm wide, long and tall.

A few problems I had were I didn’t have enough space to make two reindeer like on my plan so I had to move the micro bit to my sleigh. Another problem I had was that my reindeer was to heavy causing my sleigh to tip forwards so I had to pup my rubber in the back until I got the wires and batteries in which held it down.

Some skills I used were planning and organising, ICT, creative thinking and practical skills.
Juliet

First I made a net. Then I hot glued the net together to make a square then I made a roll for the front. Then I added 2 light bulbs and with then I wrote Santas express on it. Lastly I added an spoiler and an antenna and that was me finished

I used my practical skills and my ICT. My problem was the clips would not connect to the light bulb. My idea totally changed at one point because my original plan was a slay that you pull Back against an elastic band.
Noah

Creative Thinking Badge — Creative Thinking

Planning & Organisation Badge — Creative Thinking

Outdoor Learning Day November 2024

The weather outside was frosty, so the Biggies wrapped up well. We also popped in for hot juice and to warm up now and again.

The target for recognition today was “to stay on task” and the pupils were brilliant.

We started off in random pairs working on measure. We measured the length, breadth and height of different structures around the playground. The target was to measure accurately. After we finished we compared results and were almost all within a few centimetres of each other.

After the interval we worked on Art. The idea was to compare different medium. Looking at the bare trees, everyone made some pencil sketches, a charcoal picture and took some photos. The results speak for themselves.

1. The thing I like about the pencil sketch is the way I made the branches and how exactly I made the branches.
2. The thing I like about the charcoal sketch is how I outlined the thing and blended it together to make it look nice.
3. The thing I like about using a pencil to sketch is how easy it is to fix mistakes and how you can shade especially easy.
4. The thing I like about using a charcoal to sketch is that blending is very easy and blending can also be used to make very cool drawings.
5. The difference between pencil and charcoal is that charcoal is on black and can blend easily and pencil is grey and can’t blend together but you can make it lighter or darker shades of grey. I personally prefer charcoal because with blending you can make some beautiful artworks.
Robert

I like my pencil sketch because it looks a lot like the tree is used to draw it.

I like my charcoal sketch because it was my first time using charcoal for art because I have only used charcoal pens not actual sticks of charcoal.

I like using a pencil to draw because you can rub out mistakes when you make when drawing and you can also shade if your doing a black and white drawing because if you do it with only black when doing a black and white drawing it will just be black and white with no shading.

I liked using charcoal because you can smudge it with the drawing but it is really messy and it is like rubbing out because you can make the black lighter if you go to hard.

The difference between the charcoal and the pencil is that charcoal you can’t rub out with a rubber but you have to use your hand or arm to rub out mistakes and it is also smaller than pencils but you can rub out stuff with pencil unlike charcoal.
Jason

I like my pencil sketch, I’m pretty sure it looked quite accurate but I didn’t get all the details. I was quite alright with just doing a little bit of it.
My charcoal sketch was pretty good but I think it was a bit messy. But I quite like how it feels and how smooth it is.
Using a pencil to draw is quite easy and fun, the same goes for charcoal but it is a bit harder. But at least it’s good for shading and smudging in stuff.
I prefer pencil it is way easier but I would pick charcoal for shading stuff.
Chloe

In the afternoon we had a show rehearsal inside and then out for the final hour. The Children revisited their tress and wrote some poems. It was getting colder so we didn’t spend too long on that and finished the day with a game of capture the flag.

Football!

Yesterday the coaches from Clyde FC Community Foundation came to run some training sessions.

You can read a bit more on the Bairn’s Blog

We had a great time, here is what some of the class thought:

First we did a warmup called traffic lights, Chris had 3 cones a green cone, an orange cone, and a red cone. When he held up the green cone we were to dribble about, but we were to keep the ball close and have control over it, Chris calls this penguin taps. If Chris held up the orange cone we were to do this motion called toe taps, a toe tap is when you tap the ball with the tip of your feet one after the other. If Chris held up the red card we are to hold it still and sit on the ball
Chloe

The second game was hungry hippos. We had to dribble a ball Back to our team and to get the ball we had to high five a partner and go on my team was Jason and Juliet we won 2 times in a row.
Noah

I got better at dribbling the ball the session was really fun I like the football training a lot because it was very fun.
Jason

At that lesson I got a bit better at football. I didn’t really learn anything as far as I can remember. I felt competitive in the session and I really liked it. I had a lovely day yesterday in school and I enjoyed the session so much.

Thank you Clyde football club for coming to Banton.
Gene

Lastly we played football we split into teams then to. Then we started Calum was great he would find away to get the ball of you every time. It was 1&1 it was great
Tony

Finally we played a game of football the opposite team got a point then I got the ball under every ones legs and Jason got it in the goal.

I learned some new games practiced and got better at dribbling the ball. It was really fun and I really enjoyed it.
Juliet

Dow’s Wood November

We are trying to visit the woods at least once a month this session for some outdoor learning.

The weather today was drizzle with some windy spells. So it was rain-suits on.

This morning we headed to the woods. We putted on waterproof clothing and went. Leaves were falling down on the way to the woods. Different colours of leaves. When we entered the woods it was muddy, filled with leaves and sticks. We were on a scavenger hunt looking for many different things. We had a list. After a certain point we stopped and had a break. We wrote interesting poems and heard them. They were nice. Near the end we did something about natural disasters. We had to save stick people affected by a flood and make a shelter for them. Then we headed back for lunch and on the way I found a big leaf.
Alexia

It was quite muddy and beautiful leaves where falling on the ground and our faces.
Lexi

A group of children walking along a woodland path.

As we travelled through the paths we had a bit of a scavenger hunt, this was supposed to lead to making some art at the end of the morning but we ran out of time.

Poems of all sorts

Children sitting along at the edge of a wood a wall writing.

We stopped at the big rock pile among the oak trees and talked about different forms of poems. This included a couple of types we had not written before. Then the children found some quiet spots and did some writing.

We gathered back at the rocks and read the poem out as loud as we could over an increasing wind.

Tanka snow
Snow
White soft cold
Falling with the wind
Covering the wild grass
No ears to listen to birds
Tony

Oh! look a crow look! look! What ?what happened CRASH!!!!!!!!
Calum

Look what I found
A fish swimming
I wonder if a cat will find it? MUNCH!!!!!
Noah

The woods – acrostic poem

The woods is a place of beauty
Having fun in all weather sun, rain, snow, rain
Everyone finds one thing to remember about the woods

With friends or family
Old and young
Old and young in joy it
Days go bye and the woods changes
So go to the woods
Juliet

Look what I found poem
Look what I found
a A stick
Moss and shaped
Next to the rocks
I wonder if it will break?
Billie

Look what I found?
A rock
Staying still
Sitting on the grass
Wow! It looks amazing
Xander

Tanka
Leaves
Multicoloured, thin, wavy
Sailing off trees
No eyes to see where they’re going

Look at what I found
Look what I found
Moss
Growing and sitting still
On top of old cranky rocks
Will it ever stop?
Alexia

Look what I found
Moss
Growing and still
On a old tree
Does the tree like it?
Lexi

Some concrete poems written by a child, rock, leaf & squirrel — Concrete Poems Juliet

Stick People in Danger

After the poetry session we had some snacks, being careful with our litter then headed over to School Wood.

We have been learning about Natural Disasters in class, when we got to School Wood we found some tiny stick people who had been flooded out of their homes. The Biggies were challenged to create some shelters the right size. Some of the refugee sticks got together others made solo efforts.

We discussed the features that the class had created to help the sticks have warmth and shelter.

We also built dens for two refugees and we could team up with other people. (The refugees are fake small sticks). Our class built dens for them because a flood hit their homes. We needed to build dens that were flood proof, wind proof, safe, warm and some other things for them. We did all of this in this paragraph because our topic is natural disasters.
Gene

But the thing I liked the most was building houses for the little people also known as refugees who were in a flood. We did it because our topic was natural disasters.
They were made of wood they were also tiny.
We had to build them a house it was hard I had 4 sticks. I also put-put walls on it and added I fire place, a bed, and an umbrella to keep their fire wood dry.
Tony