Number Visuals

To kick start each maths lesson we have been watching interesting  and inspiring YOUCUBE (a maths website) videos.  So far we have learned that when you learn new things the hippocampus (part of your brain) grows bigger.  If you stop using your brain the hippocampus can shrink!

London taxi drivers have to learn thousands of road and street names – they call it ‘The Knowledge’.  When they retire, their hippocampus shrinks because they don’t think about the roads or work anymore!  Mia

Today we learned to think visually about maths.  When we think about numbers as symbols we are crossing our brains and using different pathways.  This helps us to deepen our understanding and learning in maths!

We noticed that the prime numbers didn’t have any obvious patterns and they were mostly circular.

The prime numbers are round. Beth

We are looking forward to watching the rest of the videos in the series and trying out more interesting maths challenges!

Primary 5 were very lucky to receive a visit from Ailsa McInnes, South Ayrshire’s Children’s Services Librarian

Today’s visit was the first of three sessions that will promote reading for pleasure through a variety of games and activities, which all link into the First Minister’s Reading Challenge. 

Ailsa spoke to us about becoming members at Ayr Carnegie Library.  We discovered how exciting it could be to visit the library and borrow interesting books.  We learned that children’s fiction books all have red labels – these would be the best ones for us to read!  Books with blue stickers are suited to early readers and white are for young adults.

Ailsa showed us a selection of books by several authors including Michael Morpurgo, Janis Mackay, Sarah Lean and David Walliams.   It was fascinating to discover that some authors have different jobs during the day and write stories in their spare time.   We explored the many characters and interesting story lines  across the variety of books brought to our class. We learned that some books are printed on cream coloured paper with unjustified margins  (which make them easier to read), these are called dyslexic friendly books.

We were all allowed to borrow a  book to read before next Wednesday’s visit!  A huge thank you to Ailsa for coming into our class 

It was inspiring to hear about the books we can enjoy! Ben

Learning about all the books was phenomenal!  Very interesting!  Heather

One of the best classes I have visited in a long time.  What a lot of great comments!  Ailsa

Primary 5 are looking forward to parents’ visits today and tomorrow. We hope that you will have a good look around the corridors, classroom and in our trays before you meet with Mrs Shanta.

Here is just a sample of the work we’ve been doing this term. It’s been very busy!

Primary 5 have just returned from a fantastic day at Stirling Castle.

After arriving we explored in our small groups – thanks MIss Bell and to all our parent helpers!  A few of us were taken to look out over the site of the Battle of Stirling Bridge and the Wallace Monument.  It was fascinating to look out and visualise the battles that would have taken place on the fields below!

After lunch we met with ‘Sir Philip Mowbry’.  He took us on a fascinating journey through the castle walls, igniting our imaginations with gruesome tales of defence, battle and attack!

We gathered in the education room to find out about the armoury and weapons used during the battles in the 13th and 14th century.  A few of us even got to dress up as the King, Princess, servant and Jester!

It was an excellent day full of adventure and learning!  Well done to all in P5 for taking part enthusiastically and asking so many interesting questions!

Have a great long weekend!

Welcome to our Primary 5 class blog. It is nice to be back at school after our long summer holiday. We have two lovely (says Poppy, thank you) teachers this year – Mrs Shanta and Mrs Taylor. We have a very busy term ahead full of plenty of learning and fun!

Numeracy and Mathematics

We have been learning about the properties of 3D objects. This was challenging at first but we became more confident as we continued to try our best.  Getting a chance to create our own 3D objects by experimenting with 2D shapes really helped to build our understanding of faces, vertices and edges!   We are now learning about identifying the lines of symmetry on 2D shapes. During Numeracy we have been working hard to deepen our understanding when adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers – exploring the different strategies we can use to find the answers.

Spelling

We are doing so well working through our spelling words on a four week block. We have a two week focus on a particular ‘sound’ and the following two weeks are spent using spelling strategies to practise our tricky words.

Reading

Everyone is enjoying Charlotte’s Web! Mrs Shanta has been introducing the reading strategies that will be used during term 2 to explore our own novels.

Social Studies

The Scottish Wars of Independence has proven to be a very interesting and engaging topic for all in our class!   We are excited to embark on our adventure to Stirling Castle on the 21^st of September. This is an excellence chance for us to continue our learning surrounding Scottish history.

Note from Mrs Shanta and Mrs Taylor

We are thrilled to tell you that all the pupils have settled in very well to our routines and learning in Primary 5. We are excited to continue working with such wonderful pupils who are so keen to learn!

Today we welcomed another interesting visitor to our class. Mr Jack,  a fisherman from Troon Harbour told us all about his job. He owns a fishing boat named ‘Ocean Hunter’ which is equipped to stay at sea for a week. Being a fisherman can mean you’re away from home for a long time. Mr Jack brought a wonderful variety fish for us to look at. We all had the opportunity to handle the fish with our plastic gloves on.

Leah said: “I think Mr Jack is very brave to hold the fish. It looked a bit difficult to hold the lobster without it pinching him.”

Matthew commented: “I really liked the angler fish or monkfish as it’s usually known. I also liked touching the lobster although it was a bit scary because it was still alive.”

Charlotte added: “Usually when Mr Jack is out fishing he trawls the seabed for prawns.”

Dylan said: “I thought it was very kind of Mr Jack to bring in all his fishing equipment to let us look at it. I liked trying on the inflatable lifejacket. Mr Jack pulled a cord to make it inflate and I felt a bit squashed!”

Millie explained: “My favourite fish was the lobster because it had a really hard shell on its back. I also liked the sea urchins which looked green and spiky.”

Emma said: “I liked touching all the slimy fish but the lobster was my favourite with its hard shell which felt strange to touch.”

Harley added: “I really like fish. Mr Jack told us that cod is used to make fish fingers.”

Beth said: ” Mr Jack allowed us to try on his fishing gloves. They are rough on the outside to help him grip the fish.”

On Wednesday 31st May, fifteen pupils from our class were fortunate enough to visit West FM where we learned how to produce and present the weather forecast. We were met by radio presenter, Zoe Kelly who gave us a tour of the studios before giving us the opportunity to record the weather forecast. We enjoyed listening to our voice recordings before the end of the visit!!

On Tuesday 30th May, Miss McEwan visited our class to talk to us about sea plants. She told us all about different types of seaweed and algae. We learned about macro algae and micro algae. Macro algae is large so we can see it without a microscope however micro algae is tiny so we need to use a microscope to see what it looks like. We had fun playing a sorting game where we had to try to identify both macro and micro algae from picture cards.

On Friday 26th May, we enjoyed a visit from Tara Proud who works for MCS. We learned about rock pools, the common seal, basking sharks, blue whales, minke  whales and turtles.

Leatherback turtles are named for their shell, which is leather-like rather than hard, like other turtles.

They are the largest sea turtle species who are critically endangered. They are not cold blooded and can live in cold seas. For most of their lives they live in the open ocean and feed almost exclusively on jellyfish. Tara told us that leatherback turtles can’t distinguish between jellyfish and plastic bags. Once leatherbacks eat plastic, thousands of spines lining the throat and esophagus make it nearly impossible to regurgitate. The plastic can lead to the obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract.

We were encouraged to help to keep our beaches clean. We were astonished to learn that some sea areas are thought to contain 46000 pieces of litter per square mile! We can all play our part by cutting down on the amount of plastics we use for example we could use a refillable plastic bottle for water and adopt re useable plastic bags.

Rubi said: “My favourite part of our visit to Culzean was collecting shells and smooth glass on the beach.”

Charlotte commented: “At Culzean, I learned all the different ways to predict the weather. My favourite thing about the lifeboat visit was learning that when the lifeboat capsizes it can get back up again. This is called self righting.”

Lilli explained: “I enjoyed learning about all the different rocks. My favourite rock was the black rock which came from a volcano many years ago.”

Millie added: ” At the beach we were given a card showing a list of things to find. I enjoyed looking for things like shells, crabs and sandstone.”

Beth said: ” My favourite part of the Culzean visit was the seashore hunt. Aimee and I found a crab which we named Crabbie! At Troon Lifeboats I enjoyed getting to go on board the small and the large lifeboats.”

Jayden commented: “Holmston is a small school with loads of opportunities to go on trips which we are all grateful for!”

Primary four travelled  by train to Troon this morning  where we visited the library for a story telling session with librarian, Annette. We then walked to RNLI lifeboat station. where we were met by Coxwain, Joe Millar. He informed us that the station covers the lower Firth of Clyde with its two lifeboats – a D class inshore lifeboat and a Trent class all-weather lifeboat. We really enjoyed the opportunity to board each of these. After lunch we made our way back along the ballast bank and spent time gathering shells on the south beach before heading back to the railway station.

We’ve had a fantastic day out at Culzean where we have been learning about weather forecasting and life on the seashore. Our rangers, Karen and Michelle, engaged  us in a variety of outdoor learning activities. We recorded today’s wind direction, lowest and highest temperatures, wind speed and humidity. Down at the seashore, we searched for different types of shells, feathers, stones, driftwood and crabs.

More to follow from the pupils about what they learned and found most enjoyable.

Today we welcomed two visitors to our classroom. The first of our guest speakers was Colin Hume, Commercial and Administration Manager from the Port of Ayr, owned by ABP (Associated British Ports). He started off by telling us about the history of the port, dating back to 1197 when King William the Lion granted permission for fishing boats and trading ships to use the River Ayr. We also learned that construction of ships began on the River Ayr in the year 1236. These were built from wood from the forests in Ayr and Alloway. Nowadays the Port of Ayr receives cargoes of fertiliser, animal feed, grain, soda ash, limestone, dolomite, white salt and brown salt. Each year the port of Troon receives timber in excess of 120k tonnes and has an excellent fish market.

Our second visitor was, Olly Epson, a Marine Engineer who talked to us about oceans. We learned about some of the key differences between Oceans, discovering that the Pacific Ocean is the largest while the Atlantic and Indian oceans are the next largest. Olly talked to us about tides, informing us that gravitational forces from both sun and moon continually pull the earth. We found out that although the moon is much smaller than the sun, the moon’s gravity is the dominant force behind the Earth’s tide. He also told us about ocean life and showed us the depth at which different creatures live.

More information to come from the pupils on what they learned and how they have been following up on these visits.

This term Primary 4 are enjoying reading ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’ by Jill Tomlinson. We have been working hard to research and present information about barn owls which we will use to create leaflets in ICT. We also created atmospheric poems about the darkness. It has been fun sketching barn owls which we hope to have on display very soon.

In maths we continue to develop skills in multiplication and division strategies. We will be exploring fractions and their use in the real world. We have been using Silva style directional compasses to help us plan and record routes around the playground. We are learning about clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation, particularly through right angles.

Our topic this term is a study of the local area where we are looking at how land is used in different areas of the town.

In science we are learning to classify animals through our study of vertebrates and invertebrates. We have looked at some well produced you-tube clips to gather information and are making posters to share.

Our “Big Splash” fortnight starts on Monday 22nd May. Highlights will include a visit to RNLI Lifeboats in Troon and Culzean Country Park for a shore life study.

We are currently working on fitness training through taking part in the ‘Fun and fit fifteen’ activity most days. We are also gearing up for sports day in June by practising athletics activities.

More updates to follow. Watch this space!!!

After completing our newspaper articles about the tragic sinking of Titanic, we received feedback from a special visitor. Catherine from the Ayr Advertiser came to give her thoughts on our fantastic reports and gave us key pointers on how to make them even better. We then had the opportunity to ask her questions about her job.

If you were an engineer in Scotland what would you do?

Following our visits from two engineers Wendy Pring and Susanne McInnes, we were given the challenge of designing a product which would help ourselves or someone else. After creating our designs we wrote to an engineer to try to persuade them to build our product.

Product design.

During STEM week we enjoyed taking part in a number of exciting investigations. These included making our own teabags and toothpaste, investigating friction in the jelly and oil experiment, making a paper clip float and writing a message using invisible ink. We also investigated how our lungs work in the balloon lung experiment and observed ice melting after adding salt and food colouring.

Lilli said: “I have enjoyed making toothpaste. To begin with it looked very watery so we added more cornflour to thicken it.”

Poppy added: “I had fun making the toothpaste and learned that you need to mix together cornflour, baking soda, glycerine, peppermint essence and food colouring.”

Making Toothpaste

Heather commented: “We made a mark with a permanent marker pen on a mini whiteboard and worked hard to scrub it off with the toothpaste we had made.”

Millie explained: “My favourite experiment was making teabags because we had to test out the best material to use. We made them using pieces of material like J-cloth, kitchen towel or newspaper.”

Making Teabags

Fiona said: “I liked the invisible ink experiment. We made the ink from lemon juice and water, painted a message on a piece of paper and let it dry. The message disappeared but we could see it again when we shone a lamp on it.”

Invisible ink

Harley and Sofiye explained: ” The experiment we most liked was the one with the floating paperclip. It was really tricky to get the paper clip to float. First we filled a bowl with water, then put a piece of tissue paper on the surface of the water and placed a paperclip on top. Then we had to carefully push the tissue away with a pencil. It was amazing when the paperclip floated on its own.”

Floating Paperclip

Ben said: “I really enjoyed STEM week. My favourite experiment was the ice block melting when we added the salt and food colouring. I could see the colours spreading through the ice and could also see that the ice was cracking because of the salt.”

Melting Ice

Beth added:  “My favourite experiment was the ‘Balloon Lung’. It was easy to craft. All you had to do was cut the end off a 2 litre plastic bottle, attach a balloon to the top then cut a piece of plastic from a plastic carrier bag and attach with an elastic band to the end. When we pulled the piece of plastic the balloon started to inflate. This is like the air getting into our lungs.”

Balloon Lung

Ailidh commented: “It has been fun learning about science. I really enjoyed moving the jelly cubes with the chopsticks from one bowl to the other. Then I tried moving them when they were covered in oil which was more of a challenge.”

Jelly and Oil

Today we enjoyed a visit from Susanne McInnes who works as a Structural and Civil Engineer for CH2M in Glasgow. She told us about the job of an engineer and about many of the skills an engineer needs. Susanne also shared with us some of her recent projects such as her roof design for Sainsbury’s, Prestwick and a new building for Haymarket Station hosting a ticket office, shop and café. She was also involved in the design of Prestwick and Belmont Academies. We were pleased to have the opportunity to ask her lots of interesting questions about her job.

On Friday,  March 3,  Primary 4 embarked on an exciting adventure to the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine where we learned more about ship building in the 19th century. We had fun travelling on the train and when we arrived we were met by Claire and the staff. They gave us a guided tour around the site and on down to the river to explore the steam puffer there. Later we visited the tenement flat, owned by the museum which enabled us to see what living conditions were like for ship builders over 100  years ago.

Today was ‘World Book Day’. We had a great time dressing up as our favourite book characters, taking part in a quiz, reading stories to each other, designing book covers and swapping some of our books with others. The P7 pupils arranged a ‘Where’s Wally?’ search for all the classes which we had lots of fun taking part in.