Today was School Snack Day!
Big thanks to the Parent Council for organising, to Tesco for supplying the food and to the Canteen Staff for preparing all it for us.
It was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone! (P7 didn’t leave one scrap on the trays – not even a pepper…)
We went outside and measured the size of real Anderson shelters in WW2.
They were 2m long, 1.4m wide and 1.8m high.
We were surprised how small they were! Up to 6 people could be in one so it was not a lot of space and was very cramped.
By Livia
On Tuesday we imagined what it would have been like during the Blitz.
The small Poly tunnel had been turned into a pretend Anderson shelter (the inside was covered in tarp so you couldn’t see out).
In the classroom the air raid siren went off and we had 1 minute to grab any belongings.
Then we had to run as fast as we could to the shelter.
We had three groups: orange, blue and green. Each group had a small space we had to stay in. We stayed inside it for one hour and 15 minutes.
We did activities in our groups and took notes on our work sheet. We looked at old photos, listened to music from WW2 and a recording of the blitz. We also had time to talk, read books and play games with our friends.
We had some juice and biscuits! (Lots of biscuits!)
It was fun but it made us realise how hard it would have been to stay in one for a long time every night with bombs going off. It would have been terrifying!
Anderson shelters in the war were cold, damp and uncomfortable but they helped protect people and saved lots of lives.
By Livia
By Merryn Burgess
We are learning about WW2! We have done a plane experiment and now we are going to do a friction\ air resistance experiment.
The first step was to test which materials were best for our first test we all had the same materials: 1 rounded balloon, white string and 1 paper straw. But we all figured out that these were not the best options.
We had lots of different types of straws, string and balloons to experiment with.
We were learning about how we could maximise the length our balloons could travel. So, we reduced the level of friction made by the balloon and made it as aerodynamic as possible! In a simpler way the combination of all these items created less friction and more air resistance. This meant that our rockets could travel further and faster!
We were learning about how we could maximise the length our balloons could travel. So we reduced the level of friction made by the balloon and made it as aerodynamic as possible!
We had a competition to see how far and how high the rockets could fly. Each group had 3 tries\chances that we had to get our rockets as far as possible. They all got to the end of the gym hall and the top of the rope!
Each group got to the end of the gym hall and get to the top of the rope. Only groups got to the end every time!
This was a fun activity to boost our problem solving brains, engineering and design skills and teamwork and critical thinking. We can’t wait to do another exciting experiment with our amazing teacher Mrs Emslie!
By Merryn
Our school rules posters
By Merryn Burgess
This week our P7s make school rules posters. A school rule poster is a poster with all our school rules on it.
We are safe.
We are respectful.
We are ready to learn.
Mrs Colclough recently introduced us to our new school rules mascots: Safe Snail, Ready to Learn Lion and Respectful Rabbit. We added them onto the posters and it really made them pop!
Mrs Emslie showed us how to add loads of cool things to our posters like adding funky page boarders, cool speech bubbles and making the WHOLE page turn different colours. We also inserted photos of our real life mascots.
Once we are all finished we will give them to Mrs Colclough to judge.
This will also tie in well with our classroom economy. If Mrs Colclough choose you in her top three you will win 25 pounds (not real money) and if Mrs Colclough choses you for the poster that goes up on the wall then you win 50 pounds (also not real money). (Read Merryn burgess’s blog on classroom economy to understand).
This was a fun activity to update our school posters and introduce our new school rule characters (safe snail, ready to learn lion and respectful rabbit)
The whole school voted on which poster they wanted to win and Mrs Colclough revealed the winners at Assembly. Congratulations to Livia and Saoirse on their amazing poster! We are looking forward to seeing them displayed around the school.
Paper planes and their launchers
By Merryn Burgess
In our topic we are learning about WW2. One of the things we did inside of that topic is, learning about the R.A.F. planes and the air force.
This week we did a STEM lesson and made paper planes and launchers!
The first thing we did was make the planes. Mrs Emslie showed us a step by step PowerPoint on how to make the paper planes. It was a little bit challenging at first but when we got into the groove of making them it was quite easy.
The next thing we did was make the launchers. Mrs Emslie also had a step by step PowerPoint on how to do the launchers. The launchers were a bit easier than the planes (and used less brain power).
Next, it was time for decoration! Every one got to work making their planes almost identical to the R.A.F. planes by looking at images of planes from WW2 (it was so much fun). Saoirse and Mia made theirs camouflaged, so that if their planes were on a secret mission they would be harder to see. While others made theirs black and grey, Isla even made hers rainbow!
The Final step was to test the planes. We had 3 rounds, they were: original design and launcher, modifications and launcher and throwing the plane by hand. The winner of the first round (original design and launcher) was Merryn Burgess with a distance of 7m 45cm. The winner of the second round (modifications and launcher) was Grace Morrison with a distance of 8m 60cm. Finally, the winners of the third round (throwing the plane by hand) was Saoirse Robinson 13m 90cm and Andrew Smith 13m 60cm.
There was also a bonus round for best decorated plane. After a lot of consideration from Mo (our janitor) the winner of best decorated plane was Merryn Burgess.
This was a fun activity testing our skills on trial and error, hand eye coordination, time management, understanding aerodynamics, patience and focus, creativity, problem solving and using the right modifications. I can’t wait for our next fun activity!
This week we made self-portraits. Self-portraits are a half drawing of your face with your name in bubble, block or cartoon letters beside your face.
Before we started Mrs Emslie showed us how to measure our paper into sections so we could draw our face in proportion. She also put on the board a step by step slide show to make it easier for us.
Next, it was time to do our names. Mrs Emslie showed us how to write it in different types of fonts (I chose block writing). All of us got to work writing our names.
All of our portraits were looking good, but they were missing something… the colour! We each chose our favourite colours then started colouring it all in.
They will make a really nice display in our school
We also made fingerprint pictures. A fingerprint picture is a picture or drawing of a finger with all its little lines, swirls, indents and marking. Instead of drawing our prints on paper, Mrs Emslie handed out a pieces of paper with a big, black fingerprint printed right on the middle of the paper. It was like a blank canvas waiting for our personality to fill it in!
Mrs Emslie also gave us a sheet of paper with four boxes to write in (first box) people or things we love (second box) Appearance (third box) personality (fourth box) hobbies. And on the back it had sentence fillers like, I’m happy when, I’m sad when, I’m excited when. Sentences we could share and talk about our emotions.
Next, we wrote down all of the words or things that are important to us. Some people filled their print with their family’s names, but others wrote their pets name or their favourite TV program characters names. Everyone’s was a little different, just like every fingerprint is.
This project was a great reminder that all of us have different opinions on what is special, like things we love and things we like.
By Merryn
This week for Buddying we did time capsules so the P1s can open them up at the end of the year.
Our buddy coordinators planned all of the activities.
First the P1s got to decorate a big envelope with their name, pictures and stickers! The envelope was where they put everything inside at the end.
Next we got to dress up in funny costumes. Some people were: pirates, builders, princesses, police officers and some of them just wore silly hats! We took silly selfie pictures to put in our time capsules.
We had a drawing station and writing station. The P1s had to write their name and I would say they all did a pretty good job. They also drew a little picture of something they liked.
At the last station they got to pick a colour of string and we measured how tall they were using a tape measure.
When they finish P1 we can open up the envelopes and compare how tall they are, how well they can write their name and how they have changed.
By Livia
