The Tallest Class in Banton Primary
On the 20th of September Primary 5-6-7 had a visit from Mr and Mrs Carter and Mr Coalman. We learnt a lot about the mining history of Banton.
We have been making this podcast ever since. It has taken quite a long time as we lost all the audio and had to record again!
The Children took some pictures on the day:
We had a very exciting visit from Google Expeditions yesterday. Kostas from google came in with a set of Google cardboard viewers and phones loaded with the expeditions app.
Here are some of the response that the pupils wrote on the e-portfolios.
On Wednesday morning google came in to show us google expeditions. These are like VR head sets but cardboard. There is are phone in the cardboard box and there were two circles on the phone. We see only one in 3D.
Aaliyah
First we went to see a tipi the arrows showed you were to look and there was a very weird feeling That you were going to fall. You could see native Americans and other people gathered round a table eating. Then we entered the tipi we were only the size of a boot though because the bed was giant.
We then moved onto the next most interesting world it was Everest of course you felt like you were flying and then you had to cross a bridge across a massive bridge made of ladders it was very high and scary.
Finally we moved onto a giant mosque with people In the background the carpet in the praying room weighs 35 tons and the chandelier weighs 12 tons then we went outside at the top of the building and we saw some sort of airport in the distance. It was very dizzy once you took the headset off.
Fergie
We went all over the world 🌎 and it was awesome. We went to a camp that had a lot of Teepee and we went inside one. Next we wine in to space and it looked so cool because there was a moon and the Milky Way and it was a galaxy 🌌. We saw two men on the moon and that one was in 1969 and it was Neil Armstrong with his space shuttle and it looked as if we were actually in space with him.
I really liked the google company who came in because it was really fun and it was as if we were actually in the places we were at. I wish I could keep the phone and the cardboard box so I can look more around the world. I really enjoyed the morning.
Alex
On Tuesday the whole class went next door and we met Kostas.
Kostas works in google. Kostas gave us a google cardboard it had a phone in it the phone was on an app called Expedition. Kostas took us to a camping site in America.
I saw two horses and two people drinking tea .it was very sunny and bright there was a massive tipi 😲. Kostas let us go in the tipi .it had a big bed and little bed I felt very dizzy.
We went to space next it was cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool we saw the milkyway it looked crumbly like a chocolate cookie😛. I saw the moon and earth to was awesome . I felt like I was going to fall of my feet.
Islay
Then we went to the ocean 🌊 and we saw sharks and fish 🐟. Then we went to a cage with 2 scuba divers and there were sharks outside of the cage. The sharks were giant and there were also fish 🐟 there were a lot of fish 🐟 outside of the cage.
The expedition was amazing and fun. It seemed like we were actually at these places.🏕
Ava
Google expeditions with Kostas.
He came in to Banton primary school with 32 Google cardboard and 32 phones and we went to loads of places it was very disorienting.
We travelled to the human body. We started at the mouth and then we went down to the throat we were surprised what it looked liked. The stomach was all messy and dark. The last two were the small intestine and the large intestine.
Callum
Today Kostas from google came in and he brought google cardboard glasses and it was really cool. We all got one and we put them on. He used his tablet to control it and we went to Mount Everest.It was quiet scary and we started of at the bottom and worked our way to the top. We went right up and it was really high.There was a big river and it was frozen over with a wee village beside.
We then transferred over to the ocean and he made us go for a shark hunt and it was like they where going to eat us the fish where all different colours. They was a diver beside us and a wheelie bin tied on with rope and it was letting fish guts out to attract massive sharks.
Adam
Today we went into another class room so we talk to Kostos he had an iPad and he used Expeditions and he gave us eye goggles things. We put on the goggles we were in a camp they’re was a tipi and then and all around us was people and horses.
They put us inside the tipi and they’re was a big bed and lots of weird stuff.
Alexander
The next place we went was the ocean we so the bull shark it is the most aggressive shark we were surrounded with bull sharks and fish there where scuba divers that had fish guts in massive silver barrels so it would attract sharks to the location.
Then we went to the a ran forest we so all the very tall trees it was very interesting we were looking up at sky all we could was green leaves
Emily
We then went to space at first we all had to guess what the line was. It was the Milky Way it looked so cool we could see earth with all the different colours and the bright moon. We then went to the moon it was at the time where the first man in the moon so over 50 years ago.
Zara
Tuesday 11th of October the class went to Mrs Rae’s classroom.
We have glass and we saw camping ⛺️ and two horses 🐎 and a bike 🚲. We went to space 🚀 and we saw the earth and the moon we landed on the moon 🌙.
After being in space went to Mount Everest. It feels weird. I was on top of the world.
Ellie
We went on Mount Everest climbing it that was very cool. I thought it was very exciting. You could see the river under neath you. It was amazing I really enjoyed looking at Mount Everest with the google cardboard 3D goggles. We could see beside the river some pray banners so when the wind blows it would pray for them.
It was an very exciting morning and I loved spending the morning looking at different places.
Emma
The Children wrote some great titles for their posts too:
GOOGLE EXPEDITIONS VISIT
Epic Expeditions
The cool adventure of google
Expedition adventures
Invisibility trick
Google expedition
Google cardboard eye things
The cool adventure with google
Another world
Google cardboard technology
In maths we had made movies about shapes and the nets how they fit and join together. We had to make it with different shapes.
They were made by the app the lego movie, what you would do is you would take pictures of the shapes and move them around to make it look real.
You could add music and different themes to make it look so cool.
Mr Johnston had put all of our short movies in to one big movie and I posted it on the Banton biggies website on glow so we can all see it.
HOW TO TRACE YOUR LIFE ON BRUSHES REDUX
THINGS YOU WILL NEED
iOS device and brushes
Redux
Internet (for photo)
Today I am going to be telling you how to make a photo that you have drawn thanks to an app called BRUSHES REDUX.
Let’s get started
1.First go onto safari and look for a photo you would like to draw on and if you don’t want to then go onto camera and take a photo of something.
2.Hold down on your screen on the photo you want and a pop up will come up saying copy or save image click save image.
3.Now go into brushes redux and make a new picture landscape way or portrait way.
4.Press the import button and click your photo then make sure it almost fits the page (if possible)
5.Now drag the photo you took or the one off the internet to the bottom by going into layers and using the drag icon then lock the bottom one
6.Now draw around your photo and end up with stunning detail if you zoom in but it may become a wee bit more pixelated.
7.Once you are finished your photo click the export button and send it to photos.
8.Now if you want you can print your photo and put it up on your wall . HORAY 
A WILDLIFE ADVENTURE AVA
On the 7th of September 2016 Mr and Mrs Carter took us on a walk to Banton loch. Before we went we got our jackets and wellies on but some people brought a change of clothes. When mr and Mrs Carter got to the school they told us to get a pen and paper to write this down that we found.
On the way down we passed the Mill pond and there was a swan, ducks and there were swallows. Swallows are a type of bird that when they are hatched it has a couple of weeks to catch as much food as it can and when is has eaten a lot of food it flys all the way to Africa. It has to find its own way there and back with no food or plane.
The reason why we were going to the Banton loch is to know more about the water wildlife. We also saw a puddle of orange water which you should never go into because it is iron from the mines and you could get stuck in it.
Once we got to the loch we got put into groups of 4 and each group had an adult and I was in a group with Mrs Carter, Zara, Alex and Ellie. Each group had a child net and an adult net and Alex and I took the adult net and went searching and Zara and Ellie took the child net. Alex and I found a land slug on a rock in the water but it wasn’t supposed to be in the water that’s why it’s called a land slug. Alex and I found 3 land slugs but they were all on rocks.
Then Alex and I saw a bug flying around above the water and I caught it with my hand and took it to Mrs Carter then we put it in a tub that is has a magnified lid to you could see it better. Then Alex and I moved to another part of the water and I found a very big spider hanging from its web and it was eating a wasp and it was quite creepy. One of the groups found 4 fish. Once people had found a lot of things everyone got to see the creatures that other people found.
Then once mr Carter had showed us the creatures he put them back in the water Then we headed back to school and on the way back everyone was eating brambles. When we got back to school we took our very dirty wellies off and we wrote things on the board that we saw and found after that we said good bye to Mr and Carter then we went home. I Loved the walk and it was very fun.
The Biggies worked hard on paintings for the Banton Flower Show art competition which is on Saturday. We looked at pictures by Georgia O’Keeffe and worked with either hot or cold colours for the most part.
This year our teacher gave us iPads
We have done some work on these iPads and do taught writing too and we have done a little bit of maths. Sometimes we log on to glow and use yammer. We spend some afternoons and mornings on our iPads we do reading tasks too.
They will be useful to help us work and learn and have fun there are cool apps.We all know how to create documents and share them and we have set up our own blogs and eportfollio. We have used yammer it is an app so we can talk to people. We do art work on these iPads.
We have good fun on these iPads learning and working and having fun.
This year we have been doing some art work and we made some silhouettes and we made them all different colours. Lots of us made them different kinds of flowers and they all looked really cool.
Here is a picture of the work that we have done of the flowers.
We were thinking of the different shapes and colours and how they went together. The pictures were stuck together on black card.
We did this other piece of art when Mr. Johnston gave us a flower and we had to sketch it out. We had to draw flowers while looking at them so they had more detail.
We also made a pattern of leaves thinking about the negative shapes. 
These pieces of work are for the Banton flower show. We are going to be making one more piece of art and we will be picking out of one of them each to send to the show.
By Alex, Ellie and Luke
This is the class blog of primary 5-6-7 in Banton Primary in North Lanarkshire.
Currently it has some links to our new ePortfolios and some links. You need a Glow logon to see the ePortfolios.
More to come!
