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.
Tag Archives: Active learning
Engineers in the making
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!
French in the sunshine
Today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and used the multicourt to cement our recent French learning. The pupils competed in a game of dictation.
They had to run to the opposite side of the court to read a French phrase, try to memorise it and repeat to their awaiting team members – correct spelling and pronunciation was key as they later found when peer assessing their efforts in class.
The pupils really enjoyed the activity and are looking forward to playing it again in the future – next time some will focus on the attention to detail and not just the speed.
Investigating shadows
Pouncing on the brief spell of sunshine this afternoon Miss Budge took P5/6 outside to investigate shadows.
Working in pairs the pupils drew around each other to show the shadows that were created on the playground.
Balloon rockets
This afternoon we have been building on our understanding of forces. We began the afternoon with discussions over what forces are and how they are used to propel rockets to space. We also looked at the impact friction, air and water resistance have on movement of objects.
These discussions then created more interest on rocket launches, with questions of how is a rocket launched and what happens when it goes wrong? We watched a few video clips to gain a better understanding.
After this, it was our chance to put some of this learning into action with investigations into how size and material (friction) impact on the distance a balloon rocket travels along a “track”.
This will form the foundations for further understanding and applications of our forces investigations.
Paper bridges
This morning we worked in pairs to see how strong we could make a bridge using only paper …
We investigated how a simple activity of adding folds or additional support structures could greatly increase the mass that one piece of paper could support.
Some then explored how this differed if we used card instead of paper.
There was a clear buzz in the classroom during the activity and it was great to see so many groups working so well together.
Well done P5/6
STEM Activities
There has been much excitement this term for both myself and the P5/6 pupils as we have started our 4 week block of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) sessions with Emma Chittick, from Skills Development Scotland (SDS).
SDS are trying to encourage more pupils to consider future STEM careers by introducing them to ‘fun’ STEM activities through the latter years of primary school.
All pupils have been working really hard and enjoying the challenges set by Emma. So far we have used our coding skills to get our robots to orbit the Earth. Some of us were able to simulate a launch and change from a small orbit to a large orbit. This week we looked at “space junk” – we were able to programme the robots to orbit the Earth and divert around an obstacle to prevent dammage to our satellite.
I think the below comments from the pupils show how much they are enjoying this activity.
“STEM is really good” – Frankie
“STEM is really good because we get to learn with robots. I enjoy learning different things to do.” – Isabel and Kelsi.
“It’s good because it’s about robotics.” – Robert and Ronan
“We are enjoying it. It is fun” – Carla and Kayla
“It is quite hard at the moment but it’s fun.” – Robbie and Lucien
“It’s good, I love it, it’s my favourite thing to do.” – Amy
Remembrance Crosses
This week we have been concentrating on Remembrance, discussing who and why we remember and why the poppy is used as a symbol for this.
After our class trip the pupils have taken note of some of the names of local people who lost their lives in WW1. Some pupils have also found members of their own family who were involved too – we hope to research this more in the future.
As part of the act of remembrance the class were introduced to the Remembrance Cross, where crosses are decorated with a poppy and dedicated to a particular soldier. We decided to use the information from our trip to dedicated a cross to our own local hero.
Each member of the class was given two pieces of wood, some sandpaper and string to create their own cross. The pictures above show them sanding down the rough edges in preparation. They then decorated the cross with a poppy and dedicated their cross to a soldier they were either related to who had lost their life during the war or one that we had learnt about during our trip.
The pupils have taken their crosses home with them where they will either keep them to remember their soldier or leave it at a War Memorial this weekend.
Well done P5/6 the crosses look fabulous and you have all done a great job in understanding and respecting the meaning of Remembrance.
Bee and Insect Plants 🐝 🐞 🌱
Primary 5/6 have been taking home their plants. Let’s hope in all the wind that some of them grow.
Circulatory System Demonstration
On Thursday 14th June, Mr Rose came to do a huge demonstration of the circulatory system. He out a huge outline of a heart on the hall floor and we were all blood cells travelling through the body!
