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.

We have been discussing  the Olympic Athlete, Usain Bolt and considering  whether he was born to run! We did this in our home teams and later had the opportunity to write our thoughts in a speech bubble.

Leah and Poppy both said: “I think Usain Bolt was not born to be a fast runner bacause we know he has to train for 90 minutes, 4 times a day and eats healthily.”

Jayden added: “I think he couldn’t be born to run because Growth Mindset is about working hard and sticking at it to get better.”

Sofiye commented: ” I think Usain Bolt was not born to be a fast runner. No one is the best unless they practise.”

Ailidh said: “I think Usain Bolt was not born to be a runner because he wouldn’t be able to run when he took his first steps. My opinion is no.”

Emma said: “I think Usain Bolt was born to be a runner! He has always been good at running.”

Millie explained: “I think Usain wasn’t born to be a runner because he has to train hard and eat a healthy diet. When he was very young he wouldn’t be able to run fast. He must have ‘Growth Mindset’ because he has tried hard and never given up to become the best at running.”

Morgan added: “I think Usain Bolt was not born to be a runner because anyone can be what they want to be in life. You can’t be forced to do something you don’t want to do. When you are just born you can’t get your running shoes on! Usain has to train for 90 minutes a day at least 4 times a week. He was not born to be a runner, he chose to be a runner!”

Mylo continued: ” I think Usain Bolt was not born to be a runner. He has to have a perfect diet and train for 90 minutes, 4 times a day. That must mean that all the training has made him a runner. My opinion is that you can’t be born to do anything.”

Charlotte explains: “I think Usain Bolt was not born to be a runner because even though he is a good runner, practice makes perfect. He must have tried so hard and look at him now – he’s the fastest man on earth. He has a great diet and eats a lot of healthy things. He trains for 90 minutes, 4 times a day so that’s the reason he is so fast when he runs. Nobody is born to do anything however as I said ‘practice makes perfect’.

Today, more of us brought in our cabin models. A few of us have created models of the Titanic itself! Two of us made models to show the ‘Grand Staircase’ for the exclusive use of First Class Passengers. We  have had a tremendous time sharing our hard work with others. The cabin models provide a very useful insight into living standards on board the ship. Thank you to all the parents at home who have supported this project!

We have been busy designing and making models of the Titanic as well as cabin interiors as a homework challenge. A tremendous amount of effort has gone into these and we’re sure you’ll agree that they help to provide a clearer insight into what the ship looked like both inside and out! More are still to be completed and we look forward to these adding to our great display. We have also been researching interesting facts about the  ship and adding these to our P4 Book of Amazing Titanic Facts.

This week we have been learning that positive things can happen from mistakes through our ‘Growth Mindset’ lessons.  We enjoyed listening to the story of ‘Mirette on the High Wire’ by Emily Arnold McCully which is about a young girl who fulfils her dream of walking on a tight rope after being inspired by the great Bellini! Even Bellini himself had fear of the wire. We were encouraged to identify how someone feels when he or she fails and suggest ways of encouraging someone to try.

Matthew said: “I say to Bellini – you used to walk the high wire and crossed the Niagra Falls on a one thousand-foot wire in ten minutes – so try again, never give up.”

Heather added: “I would say to Mirette to start on the high wire for a couple of seconds and even if you fall get back up.”

We thought of how having a ‘Growth Mindset’ applies to us personally.

Mylo said: “If I have a few mistakes in maths, I keep trying and have another go.”

Mitunand commented: “Growth Mindset is a good thing because you know you must keep trying and never give up.”

Harley explained: ” Growth Mindset is important because it means you always keep trying. Fixed Mindset means you don’t believe in yourself and give up easily.”

Alfie said: “We’ve been trying to develop our thinking skills in maths. I’ve been trying hard to solve some addition pyramids.”

Beth added: “I think it is important to keep trying and trying and never give up. Today in maths I definitely wanted to keep trying until I got the answers.”

Wednesday 25th January

We have now started our ‘Unsinkable Ship’ topic  and we are having an enjoyable time learning about the Titanic. We have been working very hard to recreate this amazing luxury liner in our classroom as you will see from our photos. Here are some interesting facts we now know or want to find out more about.

Lilli said: “The topic is really interesting because we’re getting to learn about a fascinating ship.”

Jayden added: “I’ve been interested in learning about the Titanic for about three years. Now I’m in P4 I want to find out why the Titanic hit the iceberg and what happened exactly.”

Emma commented: “I’ve learned that first class passengers had wonderful accommodation like private bathrooms.”

Morgan explained: “First Class passengers were very rich and posh. They were the people who were mostly saved from the disaster.”

Scott continued: “I have learned that First Class passengers had use of a swimming pool, a gymnasium and a library!”

Rubi said: “Titanic was an amazing 882 feet in length and 175 feet in height.”

Charlotte added: “The Tower Bridge in London is the same height as Titanic.”

Mitunand stated: “Travel by ships was potentially dangerous in those days and ship companies wanted to make the travel safer.”

Poppy said: “The Titanic had a crew of around 900 people.”

Dylan commented: “I like the topic because it’s fun and I like history.”

Leah explained: “It cost £872 for an exclusive First Class ticket which is estimated at £32,000 in today’s currency. It must have been very expensive.”

Millie said “I find the topic interesting because there’s so many facts to find out.”

Fiona explained:  “I found out that it took a long time to build the Titanic because it was so big.”

Ailidh commented: ” I found that there were 109 children on board.”

Kacy added: “I’m finding the Titanic topic fun and interesting.”

Researching the Titanic