Category Archives: Health and Wellbeing

Our busy term

Term 1 has been a very busy term for us here in Cullivoe. We have learnt a lot and achieved a lot too. Here is what we have to say about our learning and our term!

Numeracy

Primary 2 – we have been learning our 2x table and what greater than and less than means and looks like. It was easy!

Primary 3 – We have been learning our 3x table and have worked hard in numeracy. We liked learning about place value.

Primary 4 – we have been learning the 8x table!

Primary 5 -we have been learning the 8 and 9x table. We have been playing beat my score which is really fun!

Literacy

We have all been learning about newspaper reports and the features of these. We have enjoyed learning about this and writing our own articles! We know that a newspaper needs a name, headlines, it has to be interesting, it is written in paragraphs, they have adverts in them, they are written in the 3rd person. We could give you more but that’s enough for now.

P5-7 have also been learning about superlative and comparative adjectives and looking at dictionary skills as well as recapping punctuation and developing comprehension and reading with expression.

Health and Wellbeing

We have been learning about the body and the organs. Here are a few that we have looked at: lungs, small and large intestine, pancreas, heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, bladder, gall bladder, oesophagus, rectum and the brain.

We have done an experiment which looked at the digestive system. It was really fun but also disgusting!

We had a couple of visitors in to talk to us about our topic. The health improvement practitioner talked to us about how to keep our body healthy. We had a scientist come in to talk to us about her work and different diseases/how to keep ourselves healthy.

The younger ones have been looking at throwing and catching in PE whilst the older ones have been learning about netball.

Other things within the school

Primary 4 have really enjoyed learning the recorder and have picked it up well.

We had our termly concert on Tuesday which was really good. The recorder players, both primary 4 and 5, all nailed their tunes which was fantastic!

The JRSOs have had a visit from a police officer to show them how to use a speed gun.

The pupil council have organised a coffee morning to support the charity Macmillan cancer support.

P4-7 have been learning about the global goals in eco this term. We have been picking topics to look at; life below water.

We have been learning to have a conversation in French and the older children have been looking at food.

Our feel good song we learnt this term was ‘Always look on the bright side of life.’

We focussed on article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which is: You have the right to the best possible health.

We took part in a STEM challenge to make a bridge for the three billy goats. We were in groups and had to design and make a bridge that would hold the 3 billy goats and the troll! It was really fun and we worked really well as a team. The bridges were all successful and held a lot of weight!

Out with school

We took part in the Harvest service and performed our Harvest Samba.

We had a lot of prize winners at the Yell Show AND Cullivoe Primary School have been awarded a trophy for the most prize winning entries!!

A few of the children have made the achievement wall this term due to passing their deep end test, winning medalsat various things. So a big well done!

 

Only 2 more days of school everyone! We are excited for the holidays and for Halloween.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fruit glorious fruit

Today we learned about knife skills and how to cut food properly. We all had an opportunity to have a go at cutting different fruits. We had a diverse range of fruits and tasted each one. There was:

  • papaya
  • avocado
  • black figs
  • watermelon
  • passion fruit
  • supersweet plums
  • mango
  • blueberries
  • pomegranate
  • lambrusca grapes
  • blackberries and cherries

We all tried everything, somethings we liked and others we didn’t like so much but at least we tried them! That’s the main thing!

We also discussed what a healthy diet is and why it is important!

We completed a worksheet at the end where we had to tick all the fruits we tried (everyone tried them all so they were all ticked) and then we had to place a tick in either the ‘I liked it’ or ‘I didn’t like it’ column. Some of put ticks between the two as we kind thought it was ok.There was a forth column asking us what it tasted like so we tried to answer all of these but some of them was hard as they didn’t really tast of much. At the bottom we showed our understanding by answering the question ‘What is a healthy diet?’ and the older children had a second question of ‘Why is it important to have a heatlhy diet?’

 

 

Tottie experiment

After undertaking the hand washing experiment last week and discussing the importance of why we wash our hands we decided to undertake another experiment as germs can be found everywhere, but some places have more germs than others. So this this experiment was used to see where germs are hidden.

This is what we did:

  • Miss Nicholson washed her hands, put gloves on and then cut a tottie into five equal pieces.
  • We took the first tottie piece and put it in a bag and sealed the bag. We used the marker to write on the bag and labelled this bag as our ‘control’. This is so that we can see what would happen to a tottie without anyone or anything touching it to be able to compare the others with it at the end of the experiment.
  • We then picked a surface, we decided on the classroom floor. Whilst wearing gloves we took a second piece of tottie and rubbed it on the floor. After this we placed the piece of tottie in a different bag, sealed it and labelled it with classroom floor.
  • We took the third tottie piece outside and lay it in a dirty puddle before placing it in a different bag and labelled it with outside after sealing the bag.
  • The fourth bit of tottie was passed around peoples bare hands but since we had washed our hands after the glitter experiment we thought we would rub the tottie on our arms as well as our hands. We then placed this tottie in a bag with a label ‘hands’
  • For the final bit of tottie we decided to rub this on the toilet! We placed this in a bag, sealed it and labelled toilet.
  • We then took all five bags and place them in a dark cupboard at room temperature in the classroom. We left them for a week.

After we put these away we wrote up what we did and our predictions as to what we thought would happen to the totties.

After the week had passed we pulled the bags out of the cupboard and look at the potato pieces. This is what we found:

  • The control tottie had a little white mould on it but hadn’t changed much.
  • The tottie that was rubbed on the classroom floor was brown with a little more white mould on it.
  • The tottie that was outside in a puddle was dirty, a little bendy and had more more mould starting around the edge. It had a bit of a skin on it so when you bent it the skin broke a little.
  • The tottie that was rubbed in the toilet went brown and had a skin on it. It was really quite bendy and when you bent it the skin started to crack and come off.
  • The tottie that everyone touched with their bare hands…had the biggest difference! It was squishy and had juice coming out of it. It smelt really bad too!!!

Once we looked at the totties we discussed the germs that are called mould or bacteria. The number of germs has grown so much that we didn’t need a microscope to see them. The mould that we could see on the control is important because it shows us how many germs already existed there. The other pieces started with this many germs but once they had touched other things the tottie picked up more germs.

After our discussion we wrote up our results and discussed whether our predictions were right, close or not what actually happened. The older pupils were really good at supporting the younger pupils.

We then started making posters to remember to wash our hands so that we can put these up around the school.

Germ Science – How Clean Are Your Hands?

On Tuesday we were learning the importance of hand washing and how to describe that germs may be present even if they are not seen.

Whatever we do, we come into contact with germs. It’s easy for a germ on your hand to end up in your mouth.Washing your hands is the best way to stop germs from spreading.

We think some of the best times to wash your hands are:

  • When your hands are dirty.
  • Before eating or touching food you are helping cook.
  • After using the bathroom.
  • After blowing your nose or coughing.
  • After touching pets or other animals.
  • After playing outside.
  • Before and after visiting a sick relative or friend.

We undertook an experiment to show the importance of why we should wash our hands. Here is the steps for this experiment:

  • 1. Put a drop of lotion on your hands and rub them together to spread the lotion out evenly.
  • 2. With your hands over newspaper, ask your partner to put a pinch of glitter in the palm of one of your hands.
  • 3. With your hands still over the newspaper, make a fist with the hand that has glitter on it, then spread your fingers out. (We had to say what we saw)
  • 4. Now press the palms of your hands together and pull them apart. (We then had to look at our hands and notice what happened)
  • 5. Touch your partner’s hand. (We noticed that the glitter moved onto our partners hands)
  • 6. Get a paper towel and use it to wipe your hands clean of all the glitter. (the paper towel only took some of the glitter off but it didn’t take it all off)
  • 7. After using the paper towel, try using soap and water to wash your hands. (After thoroughly washing our hands the glitter did come off – some of us had to go back and wash our hands again as we noticed one or two bits of glitter in between our fingers)

The glitter was acting the same way that the germs on our hands act. There are a lot of germs, they spread around easily, and it can be hard to get them off. The difference between the glitter and germs is that germs are so small you can’t see them without a microscope. You have to know when you may have come into contact with germs and then wash your hands.

If we accidently touched our mouth, nose, or eyes while doing this experiment, we may have found glitter getting left behind. Germs travel the same way and can easily enter our body if we touch our face with dirty hands and germs can make us sick. That’s why it’s important to wash our hands before we eat. It is also important to wash our hands after touching something that might have germs, such as when we use the bathroom or play outside. If we don’t, the germs can easily spread to more places and to other people and cause sickness.

Growth Mindset

We are learning about growth mindset in health and wellbeing this term. We have discussed the difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset.

Today primary 1-3 were colouring in their brains to show the difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset.

Primary 4-5 were deciding whether or not the statements they had were growth mindset or fixed mindset.

Primary 6 and 7 were looking at different words associated with growth mindset and write our own definition of the word – we also had to put them in alphabetical order.

Cooperative learning

This afternoon we are working cooperatively to find out more about our organs. We have split ourselves into different groups and chosen an organ to research:

  • heart
  • lungs
  • liver
  • kidneys
  • intestines – both large and small
  • pancreas
  • gallbladder
  • stomach

We are researching what it does and why it is important. We are going to make a poster to show all our learning and research. Miss Jamieson and Miss Nicholson has found us videos on Twig to watch linked to each organ to help us, they were really interesting and fun to watch. Each group will then present their findings to the rest of the school so we all know about each organ.

House Points Challenge

Today Miss Nicholson and Miss Jamieson set us a challenge.

Each group had a pile of papers which had the bones that make up our body…we had to put these bones in the right place to make our skeleton.

Everyone worked really well and there was great discussion as to where we thought the bones would go. Once we thought we were finished we got the teachers to check it for us. We all did a great job with only a few mistakes with arm/leg bones. We then cut out the bones so that we could use split pins to put our skeletons together. Once he was complete we named it! (We tried to think of one linked to our group names)

Then Miss Nicholson and Miss Jamieson threw another challenge at us….This time we had to put the organs where we thought they went. This was a challenge, some groups only just started cutting out their organs but Sir Swagsolot Junior was the only one to have his organs placed in his chest/stomach. They got nearly every one in the correct place or very close if not. There are a few organs that we weren’t sure on so we are going to be learning about these in topic!

Photos to follow

Virtual Walk

This term we have started the daily mile again. Primary 1-3 complete half a mile and primary 4-7 complete a full mile. We can walk, run, cycle, skooter or roller blade. We have signed up to an online virtual walk on a website called World Walking, this is where you add in the number of miles you all complete and virtually walk around various parts of the world. We have chosen to walk the length of Canada. You can see our progress through the link below.

https://worldwalking.org/walks/ytn90

Learning about Smoking

Today Lauren Peterson, who is the Health Improvement Practitioner, came to visit primary 4-7 this afternoon during topic.

We began by letting her know what we knew about what smoking does to the body. She went over all our ideas before giving us her facts – we had nearly all of them already so she was impressed with our knowledge! Here are a few of the facts:

  • it can lead to heart disease
  • less oxygen gets to your heart
  • your hair smells and so does your clothes
  • you are more likely to get coughs and colds
  • your skin can get dry and wrinkly
  • it stains your teeth

Did you know that 1 cigarette contains more than 4000 different chemicals.

Lauren had taken some chemicals in bottles for us to see – we had to get into pairs and choose 2 to research. We then had to take a leaflet and find the chemical we chose, noting down how that chemical affects your health. We all shared one chemical that we researched.

She then split us into two groups and asked us to think of the health benefits if you stopped smoking and to put these into a timeline. We share our timelines to each group before Lauren shared a few facts with us:

  • After 20 minutes of giving up smoking your blood pressure comes down so you get health benefits straight away!
  • 8 hours later the oxygen levels in your lungs return to normal
  • 12 hours later the level of carbon dioxide reduces in your body
  • 36 hours later the nerve endings that wee damaged from smoking  begin to come back
  • 3 days later your sense of smell and taste comes back
  • 2 weeks later your circulation gets better
  • After 1 year the risk of getting heart disease reduces by half from when you were smoking
  • After 5 years your risk of having a heart attack is no more than that of a non-smoker

We really enjoyed Laurens visit and thanked her very much for coming in to see us.