We have started to explore a new area of Maths this week. We braved the February weather to take our learning outside into the playground. The markings on our play areas were perfect for helping us explore parallel and perpendicular lines. We looked for right angles too. It’s amazing how many you find when you actively go looking!
On Wednesday 5th February we enjoyed an afternoon of Biosecurity activities. Biosecurity is the protection of a species from other non-native invasive species.
We learned about the Storm Petrels on Mousa and the importance of keeping the island clear of any predators who would be a threat to them.
Afra Skene, a Biosecurity Officer in Shetland, provided lots of games and activities to get us thinking more about Biosecurity and how to spread the word to others in our community.
The children were asked to think of the ways in which they enjoyed learning and to invent activities, songs, games and challenges to try and teach others about Biosecurity. Hopefully some of our ideas will appear in a teaching resource being produced for schools in Scotland!
Today we looked at the next aspect of our topic – electricity. It was great fun exploring the electricity boxes and trying to make an electrical circuit to light the bulbs! Lots of exciting discoveries were made and I’m sure the hilarity could be heard throughout the school as we tried to create a complete circuit with our bodies!
Today was our last STEM session with Emma Chittick this year. The children were asked to use all of the knowledge and skills gained over the past couple of weeks to build something that would generate electricity. Everyone was raring to get started and it didn’t take long for their designs to take shape!
Some made wind turbines, some used solar cells, while some used both in the same structure. It was great to see the children interacting and problem solving together to try and achieve success. I was very proud to see everyone working so well as a team and providing support for each other. Well done P5/6!
That’s been a fast term!
What have P5/6 been up to on their final day of term? They all worked on grammar activities first thing before heading out to the multicourt for class P.E. where we scored a record number of frisbee goals! Then we all worked on our own personal learning goals before lunch so all different types of activities were going on at the same time. The afternoon saw us gather together to have a whole school photo to celebrate our 50 years and this was followed by a great JRSO assembly. Happy holidays everyone and here’s hoping this weather holds!
The current favourite game to play in class PE is “Crounders” (a combination of rounders and cricket). The pupils have had so much fun playing it for the last couple of weeks, I finally managed to take some photographs to share with you…
Today in our Health and wellbeing we started to discuss the changes we and our body make in preparation for parenthood.
There was a lot of discussion around the different types of relationship we will face throughout our life. Sharing thoughts for how these relationships can sometimes be good and sometimes not, yet it is how we face these that will help to mould the person we become in the future.
The class split into groups and discussed the important decisions that we must make before (in adulthood) a couple decides to have a baby. This was a great exercise that proved to be much trickier for some than they expected as there was no right or wrong answer.
We had some good discussions over what was perceived to be right and not in the types of relationships and environments in which we could raise a family. It was lovely to hear that the pupils had a very open mind to all of the questions asked and their main concern was that a family was loved and cared for as this was the ideal environment for a family to flourish.
We’ve had a super morning today launching our bottle rockets at the sports pitch!
The pupils have been using our learning on forces – notably friction, air resistance and thrust – to try and adjust their own bottles to build the best rocket design possible. There have been some variations in style and we have all been looking forward to the day when we finally got to test them out…
We set a challenge to see which group could get their rocket to fly the furthest.
Becca and Hannah were the winners with a magnificent 24metres!
Once all of the groups had launched their rockets for distance the ones who struggled with coverage were given the chance to “take to the sky”.
It was a lovely, slightly chilly, morning and a fantastic way to extend our learning outside the classroom. I hope the pupils enjoyed the activity as much as I did – though they did work me hard with the hand pump and I did get a little wet a few times …
In Health and Well-being our new focus is on our changing bodies.
With this being a sensitive subject for the class it has been encouraging to see and hear some good group discussions relating to self image and areas that can cause us embarrassment.
This term we have been exploring forces. Using this knowledge and understanding we spent the morning designing and constructing our own bottle rockets.
The pupils were working in pairs to design a rocket that they thought would be aerodynamic and light, but withstand enough pressure to create optimum thrust (and distance) for launch day.
We are looking forward to finishing the project at the beginning of the next term and seeing who’s rocket performed the best on launch day!
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