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Primary 5 had been set this homework task at the beginning of March.  Well done.  Super, spectacular Roman chariots were made.

This morning we had a really interesting visit from a real architect.

Here are some of the things we learned.

Elise – there are lots of different types of architect

Adam – we learned you had to be good at maths, science and english – not just art

Lauren- a lot of an architect’s job is talking to people

Angus – he had to really focus on the structure of buildings

Cristina – it takes 7 years to train to be an architect

Rose – the client is the most important part of the team

Elise and Adam – he designs buildings and houses. He has designed pubs and an amazing office building in London near Kingscross Station

In pairs we took on the role of the architect and and client and had a go at designing a building to the brief of the client.

We had a great time yesterday exploring lots of Roman artefacts.  We got to handle wax writing tablets  with stylus.   We looked at leather fragments of shoes.  We tried on a Roman sword belt and pictish bangle.

There were little oil lamps, cooking pots and containers.

A collection of Roman coins with heads of different emperors.

A mortaria which was a grinding bowl,  There were pieces of grit pressed into the bowl and this helped to grind corn or seeds.

Tara found it cool that Roman people wrote on bees wax tablets but found the smell weird.    Aimee liked this as well as she really wanted to feel what it was like.   Rana I liked the stylus because it looked like gold.

Mr Johnstone came into class to tell us all about his time in the Armed Forces.  He has had lots of interesting, varied, demanding and quite frightening jobs in the Army.  He told us that you begin with Basic Training of 14 weeks which is very intense and then begin your Trade Training which was for Mr Johnstone an Ammunition Technician which involved working with explosives and defusing bombs,    He has worked in many different places such as Belfast, Bosnia, Cyprus and Iraq.  Mr Johnstone also trained using parachutes and did bomb disposal work on oil rigs and ships.   He did tell us that there are lots of sports you can play representing the army.  He let us see special events reported in newspapers and of course his superb medal collection.  We also found out that there are some hard times too in the army as you are away from your family for long periods of time and that some friends do not return home.

Benjamin thought that it was interesting the stories behind the medals.  Frazer could not believe that a lady found in a charity shop a hand grenade and needed to call the bomb disposal squad.   Lewis found it funny that an officer blew up a building with explosives by mistake.   Mrs Scott was amazed at the weapon knowledge of the children in Primary 5.

Chris works in a Creative Agency, Whitespace in Edinburgh.  He told us that his agency works with adverts, logos, videos, games and websites.   Lots of different skills are needed eg designing, art, writing, writing scripts, films, editing, animation, CGI and websites.  Teams of people within the agency work with clients producing what is required.

Every day is different.

Chris showed us how Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality can be used in his work.

We looked at a brilliant advert for Shackleton’s Whisky which was filmed in Finland (Hoth, Star Wars).  Chris explained the 25 second advert and how the ‘hero shot’ was created.

Chris took us through the process of the creation of the front page for  Edinburgh Fringe, Step Into the Unknown.  Starting with a Mood Board, the changes, then working on quality and motion and then CGI.

We looked at the hidden meanings in Logos and this was great fun trying to find the message.  Chris told us about the importance and impact of colours and typography.

Chris has challenged us to create a Personal Brand with a Logo using colour and font to represent ourselves.  We will post these on completion.

Alfie C, William M, Lewis, Alfie J, Aimee, Tara, Oliver R, Oliver J, Daniel, Charlie, George, Benjamin, Thomas, Callum and Frazer really would like to do this job when they are older.

Charlie thought that the games were fun and it was interesting trying to find the special meaning hidden within the logos.

The  Rotary Club of Peebles held a Young Photographer 2019 competition.  Oliver was placed second in the Junior Category.

Well done Oliver.

We had a good time listening to Fire Fighter Scott as he told us about his job as a Fire Fighter.

Alfie C – thought it was really funny seeing Mrs Scott in the fire fighters uniform.

Firemen wear steel toe capped boots and Rana tested how strong they were and jumped on Mrs Scott’s feet.   Mrs Scott reports that it did not hurt!

Sam said that it felt really heavy and really hot wearing the uniform.

We learned about different jobs in the Fire Service – Aimee.

Lewis said that he learned what happens when a 999 call is answered.

Thomas found it interesting that once a 999 call was received, the control room then sent a signal to the fire station giving details of where  and what.

William Mac liked to find out about the uniform and how quick firemen can put it on.

Oliver J felt that the information about Retaining Stations and firemen in Peebles was interesting as they had to keep their pagers with them at all times and no matter what they were doing they would have to drop everything and get to the station as quickly as possible.

Primary 5 were writing letters in Block 3.  One letter was to be written to our favourite author.  Today there was a flurry of great excitement as three letters arrived in school.  One from J K Rowling to William with two excellent stamps on the envelope.  The other  letters were from Laura James the author of the Pug books answering Tara and Freya’s questions.

The children read out their letters and the whole class loved hearing from these authors.

Let’s hope that we have more replies.  Primary 5 are waiting with anticipation.

Andrew was the lucky winner of the Golden Ticket in Primary 5.  It was found in a Jacqueline Wilson book – Double Act.   Andrew was very happy and surprised when he opened the book today.  Andrew will meet with all the other winners tomorrow at the Book Fair for a VIP tour and will get to choose a book.