All posts by Mrs Hunter

March

Biodiversity at Culzean

On Friday 1st of September P6 had a fabulous time exploring biodiversity at Culzean. We took part in two workshop activities. The first was a woodland walk and the other was pond dipping. Our rangers were James and Eilidh.

Caiden, Paul and Mya said: “We found the pond dipping most enjoyable because we got to see and learn about water life. We learned that the great diving beetle is at the top of the food chain and eats the other pond creatures. We also learned that the baby diving beetle is larger than the adult and baby mayflies are called nymphs.”

Daisy added: ” I enjoyed going on the woodland walk and learning about the animals and their different habitats. An interesting fact I learned was that rhododendron and bamboo plants are invasive species because they spread quickly.”

Gregor mentioned: “I learned how to go pond dipping and that you have to keep the net off  the bottom of the pond. I caught a lot of pond skaters and enjoyed pond dipping. I also learned that red deer eat forests so we need to put cages around the forest or bring back predators.”

Amy, Eryn-Rose and Ethan commented: “We learned that red deer are the biggest native land mammal. The grey squirrel is a threat to our native red squirrel. Grey squirrels can eat unripe seeds whereas red squirrels can only eat ripe ones. They eat the acorns which red squirrels need to survive. We all enjoyed pond dipping. It was so much fun when we found the pond animals.”

Emma added:” I learned that a rhododendron is an invasive plant which grows and spreads quickly, threatening native plants.”

James said: “I learned how to clean a fishing net when we went pond dipping. I enjoyed the pond dipping because there were so many creatures to see.”

Mhirren explained:” I learned how to identify a leaf by its shape and size.”

Reece, Sam and Taylor reported:” We learned that a great diving beetle breathes through spiracles on its abdomen. Hattie caught one when we were pond dipping.”

Gemma told us: ” I learned that bamboo is an invasive species which was brought to Britain from China, Asia and Africa.”

Devan said: ” I learned about gall wasps which are small insects, mostly black or reddish brown in colour. Galls are the strange lumps, that develop on  oak trees after being invaded by gall wasps. Gall wasps lay their eggs inside the galls.”

Oriana mentioned: ” The Great Diving Beetle is larger when it’s a baby and smaller as an adult.”

Morgyn-Lea added: “I enjoyed catching the pond creatures. I learned that the tadpole turns into a frog.”

Hattie commented: “I learned that red squirrels only eat acorns.”

We all thought this was a wonderful trip which has helped us gather lots of information for our science topic.

 

 

 

 

 

March

Visit from Scottish SPCA

Today we had a visit from Andy from the Scottish SPCA. He told us how the organisation rescue animals in danger, find pets new homes and investigate abuse and prevent cruelty to animals. We enjoyed watching video clips showing aspects of the work they do as well as taking part in a game and quiz where we tested our knowledge of animals and their welfare.

Here are some of the things we learned.

Emma said: “There were over 80,000 incidents dealt with by the Scottish SPCA last year.”

Mabel commented: ” RSPCA and SPCA are different because RSPCA cover England and Wales while SPCA cover Scotland. I learned that the wing span of a swan is 2.5m long and a squirrel’s home is called a drey.”

Gemma added: “The SSPCA help every type of animals. They take them to animal shelters and give them homes. We played a fun game of Trivial Pursuit, animal version which I won! A fun fact I learned is that common seals are also known as harbour seals.”

Jack explained: “A red deer is the biggest mammal in Scotland and a female fox is called a vixen.”

Hattie said: ” A squirrel spends 75% of its time in a tree and 25% on the ground. Animals are being endangered because of loss of habitats.”

Amy added: “There were at least 24,000 calls last year to the SSPCA and 6000 animals were rehomed.”

 

Uncategorized

Welcome to Term 1 in Primary 6!

Welcome back, to our P6 pupils and their parents. I hope you all had a wonderful summer holiday and are settling into the new stage. It was lovely to see everyone looking so smartly dressed in their school uniforms last Thursday and great to see all the gym bags ready for PE back on the pegs.

Health and Wellbeing

Our PE lessons will be on a Monday and Tuesday and we’ll also be continuing with our Fun and Fit 15 activity outdoors. As part of our Health and Wellbeing this term we will be participating in a wide range of fitness activities as well as developing our gymnastics skills. We will be discussing the importance of being ‘Active’ and looking at different ways we can achieve this. We have been involved in discussing the rights from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and have selected five of these for our new class charter. It is important for the pupils to understand the rights to which they are entitled and ways in which we can respect these rights.

Language

This term the class are reading the novel, ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Morpurgo. We are developing skills in making predictions about the text, finding new and unfamiliar words, identifying and summarising the main ideas and demonstrating understanding through comprehension activities. Groups will then go on to read different novels where they will engage in paired and group reading. Open ended questions will be used to stimulate meaningful discussion and develop children’s confidence in talking about ideas, themes, events and author’s craft. During our listening and talking sessions the children will be encouraged to participate in discussion about ways in which they can respect each other’s rights. In writing this term we will focus on personal writing as we write a short autobiography. We will  develop skills in functional writing as we research and present information about our class topic on biodiversity.

Science

Our Interdisciplinary Learning Activities this term centre around our Biodiversity topic. We will study energy transfer, food webs, habitats, adaptation and lifecycles. We will later look at the topic ‘Separation’. Investigations focus on separating mixtures using the methods of sieving, decanting, filtering and evaporating. We will develop our skills in working cooperatively, using equipment carefully, observing and recording accurately and understanding a fair test.

Maths

We will be looking at calculations involving the addition and subtraction of 3 and 4 digit numbers and applying knowledge of place value when setting out calculations. We will discuss mental strategies for the mental addition and subtraction of 2 digit numbers. We will also be looking at fractions and where these are used in everyday life. We will be working on measure and carrying out some practical activities involving measuring in centimetres and metres, selecting appropriate measuring tools and converting between related units of measurement. We will look at the properties of triangles and describe properties of 2D shapes using appropriate terminology. We will investigate why particular shapes are used in the environment.

Technologies

Pupils will have access to our I-pads to compliment our learning across different curricular areas. In the ICT suite we will access web-sites to help us gather information about our science topics. We will continue to develop our word -processing skills as we type our autobiographies for presentation.

Outdoor Visit

As you already know we are going to visit Culzean on Friday 1st September to help enhance our knowledge of ‘biodiversity’. We will be taking part in a study of the woodland, looking for insects, animals and plants as well as having the opportunity to go ‘Pond Dipping’.

Homework

Pupils will be encouraged to keep a note of their homework activities in their new pupil planner which should be brought to school each day. They will be provided with regular weekly tasks in spelling, reading, maths and topic related activities.