Lochie’s Mum came in on Friday and talked to us about working for the Scottish book trust.  She showed us some of the information available on the website and also read us one of her favourite stories.

P4a made art in the playground. We could use any natural materials and had the theme of ‘nature’! We had to be responsible and tidy up after ourselves when we were finished.

Robyn’s Mum came in to class to tell us all about being a GP. We got to try out some of her equipment including the puffer which you blow into if you have asthma, the blood pressure test to see what your blood pressure is and the medicine books that tell you how much medicine you should take if you are unwell.

Mr Mulligan came in and talked to us about his job as a Renewable Energy Engineer. It was fascinating to see all the different tools and materials he uses daily. We learnt the difference between waste, water and heating pipes and the different ways they would be attached – either by filing, gluing or soldering. We got to try bending a pipe using a special tool too. Mr Mulligan told us about some of the important skills for his job – for example, maths for estimating and measuring and literacy for filling out paperwork and talking to customers. He also told us a bit about the difference between working for a company or being self employed.

P4a were delighted to have a visit from Clare Prenton, who is a theatre director. We were amazed at how many different jobs there are within the creative arts industry – when Mrs Prenton directs a play she has to lead a massive team of different people (joiners, lighting engineers, vocal coaches, writers, costume designers, and loads more)! We talked about how there are jobs that would suit all interests and skills – creative types may prefer acting, writing or designing, while technical jobs may involve sound/light engineers or set designers and builders.

P4b had a very exciting start to careers week with a visit from Police Constable Taylor.  He told us a bit about his job, his uniform and some of the equipment he uses.  We got to try on some of his protective clothing and Mrs Stevenson got handcuffed for being bad!

Today was World Book Day so we have taken part in lots of reading inspired activities: we have had lots of time to read our own books in class, and have read some of our class novel all together. We have used our Information Handling skills to show which of our class novels have been the most popular so far. On the World Book Day website there are some book quizzes, so we had a go at both the KS1 and KS2 quizzes (they’re tricky!). Finally, we thought about what our favourite books are, what happens in them, why we enjoy them and who we would recommend them to and put this all on a poster to try and persuade people to read our favourite books!

Both p4 classes are looking at the properties of different materials this term and why and how we recycle some of these materials.  At the end of the block we are hoping to design and make some outfits and hold a fashion show.  In order to make these clothes we need some materials that we can recycle e.g. old boxes, foil, plastic bags, cardboard tubes etc.  Please sent things into school over the next few weeks so we can see what materials we have to work with. Thanks