Lockerbie Manor
In February we went on a school residential trip to Lockerbie Manor. After we put our suitcases on the bus then we got on. We were super excited to be on the bus and even more excited when we got there. As soon as we got there, we had to do a health and safety briefing then we saw our pods. Everyone had a pod number, starting from pod 6 up to 23. There wasn’t a lot of space and there were only 4 beds, but it was amazing. After our first activity, we had dinner. The food was brilliant! Some of our favourite activities were high ropes, tug of war, axe throwing, abseiling and rock climbing. Everybody loved going to Lockerbie Manor and we wish we could go again.
Please click on the link below to see some photos of Lockerbie Manor!
Jake, Sophie and Lewis
Literacy
Reading
Last term we studied Why the Whales Came by Michael Morpurgo. It is about two children called Gracie and Daniel who are best friends. They carve wooden boats to sail in water, but Daniel’s brother Big Tim and his friends keep on annoying them which made them have to move to a place where the Birdman lives. Everyone tells people to stay away from the Birdman because he’s cursed. However, they find out that the Birdman is nice and kind and he has a really good way with animals. Some adventurous things happen in the story and there is more bullying. At the end of the book, there is a really good surprise!
Iona
We also studied some poetry last term, such as Spring Awakening, Winters Whisper and Grey Geese. We explored many language features like personification. Some of us read an extract from the book, ‘Maurice and Maralyn’. It was very descriptive, and here is my favourite bit as it has good examples of metaphorical language: “Up on deck, they discovered the cause. A whale was next to them in the ocean, massive and alive. Water was streaming down the dark cliffs of its body as it twisted and writhed. It looked like it was trying to climb out of the waves, hauling its dark bulk up then smashing back down, a meteor landing in the ocean, showering spray. It’s tail, ten feet across the flukes, was beating at the surface in a kind of fury. Blood poured from its body into the ocean.”
We made a collage of this image and put it outside our classroom. Here is is:
Callum
Listening and talking
Last term we did our solo talks. It was really entertaining because you could pick your own topic and most people did something different to everyone else. Mrs Kennedy gave us a sheet telling us everything we needed to know for the solo talks and what the success criteria was. Arfa did her solo talk about art, there was a quiz and a challenge during her solo talk, and the winner got group points or a prize! Her solo talk was arty and fun! (Alex) Alex did her solo talk on Hatsune Miku, a Vocaloid virtual singer, it was a fascinating topic and she did the griddy (a little dance) at the end. (Arfa). Elise did her solo talk on gymnastics because she is a very talented gymnast. Charley, Sophie A and Haylie did their solo talks on dance because they have been doing dancing for years. Impressive, right? Amber did hers on her dogs, and it was super! Cairo did his solo talk on Freaky Folklore which was spooky but absorbing too! A lot of boys did their solo talks on football players which was engrossing and never failed to impress us. Ross did his solo talk on dreams and their meanings, which was comical because of all the funny jokes he made. Ben did his solo talk on paranormal stuff which was scary but fun the same time! Everyone did exceptionally well and chose the topics they could ace at. We had such a good time during our solo talks, and we really loved listening to each other.
Alex and Arfa
Writing
Last term we focused on functional writing. We finished our discursive writing block then we went on to exposition writing then procedural writing.
Exposition writing is writing that exposes facts about a topic. You do not try to persuade the reader to try to do anything, you are just stating the good things about the topic. For example, we wrote about the topic, Every Child should have a Residential Trip whilst at School. Some of the points we wrote about were:
- you develop new life skills
- it can get you away from technology
- you develop social skills
For our procedural writing, we got to make homemade pasta sauce and pasta then write down the recipe and method for our assessment.
Elijah
Sky Academy
On March 28th, we went our trip to Sky Academy. When we got there, we had our lunch then we split into three groups. We watched a clip about the film Wicked, and how it was made. Then we went into our studios and we gave ourselves different roles such as, director, actor and editor. We then had two hours to make our film trailers and if you come to our Leavers Assembly, you might get to see them!
Ellie-Mae and Haylie
Transition
We are doing a lot to prepare us for high school. In January, Anne McMullen came in and spoke to us about the Scottish Parliament. She said that if we take modern studies as a subject, we will probably find out more about parliaments in different countries.
In February, we did a book study at the same time as Townhill and David Livingston primaries. The book was called ‘To the Other Side’ and was about refugees. We all did the same work then we met on a Google Meet to show and tell each other what we did.
Mrs Scott from Calderside’s English department came in to work with us one morning. She did some non-fiction with us, and she said she was impressed by our skills in metalinguistics.
In March, Hazel Kelly from UC worked with us for two sessions. She told us that high school isn’t that scary. We shared our worries and the things we were looking forward to.
On 7th March, we had a Google Meet with the two P7 classes at Woodhead. We discussed the books we were studying in class and gave each other book recommendations.
On Monday 24thof March, we all went to Calderside and took part in a Rights Transition Day. There were other primary schools there too, such as Townhill and David Livingstone. We rotated round different activities like cooking, sports and yoga.
We have our two-day visits to high school on 20th and 21st of May, followed by a STEM event on 22nd.
Elise
