Our second Blog is brought to you by the Yellow Group who are:
Harrison, Ariana, Adam, Oly, Bella, Rhea and Lacey
We hope you like it!
House Captain and Vice-Captain Update
During last term we hosted a fun morning! All children got to enjoy active activities such as BOCCIA, bowling, football, basketball and dance.
Our House Captains and Vice-Captains are quite busy. We look after each of the pupils in our House and make sure they feel included in everything they do. At assemblies, we sit at the side and make sure everyone is listening. We try to get house points so we can win extra playtimes and the shorts and shades party at the end of the year!
This term we will be organising Neilsland’s Got Talent ( on February 13th) and a Dance-a-thon which we will host to raise money for a charity that we choose.
Buddy time
Last term, we wrote Christmas poems for our wee Buddies. We like to meet our wee buddies when we can, and here are some photos of us doing some cosy reading together.
Numeracy
In December we did some math and science presentations in front of our class and some of the P6 pupils. Here are some examples of our presentations:
- Lacey and Heidi did a speech about Isacc Newton
- Harrison and Jacob B made a PowerPoint also on Isacc Newton
- Bella and Rhea did a Google Slides presentation about Rachel Carson
- Lailah made up a poem about Albert Einstein
- Caleb made a great poster about Isaac Newton.
We learned lots!
In maths just now, we are learning all about fractions, decimals and percentages. We know how to simplify fractions, and we are getting good at converting fractions to decimals and percentages and we sometimes use a calculator to do this. We know that we need to be very good at out times tables to work quickly with fractions. If you are going to a shop and you want to see what 10% off comes to, then you need to be able to do this.
IDL
As you know, we studied WW2 last term. We finished the topic by hosting the Remembrance Day assembly and we enjoyed entertaining some of the residents from Lornebank care home. Here are some photos of us with our model Anderson Shelters which were amazing!
We have just finished our topic on Scottish Landmarks. We learned to read Ordnance Survey maps (including contour lines) and we researched some famous landmarks. Our new topic is….’ITALY’! This ties in with our book, ‘The Thief Lord’ which is set in Venice. We have already learned that Vivaldi (the famous composer) was born in Venice, and we have listened to one of his famous compositions, ‘The Four Seasons’. We recognised the music as a lot of it is used in games even though it’s 400 years old!
HWB
In indoor P.E. this term, our focus is be gymnastics, and we will be self and peer assessing to help improve our skills in jumping, rolling and balancing. In March, we will do a short tennis or badminton topic. Outdoor P.E. this term will be football and basketball skills and some other team games like rounders and Kennedy ball.
We have recently learned how to stay safe in a kitchen. We looked at all the hazards in a kitchen. For example, knifes, tripping hazards, boiling water, hot pans and slippery floors. We learned about the importance of practising excellent hygiene in a kitchen including how to wash your hands properly, how to store raw meat and how to prevent cross contamination.
We are now ready to go into the kitchen and cook! We have two new ovens for the school so hopefully we will be the first to use them!
Literacy
Last term we finished reading Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo.
The story was about a young boy (Michael) and his family going on a boat adventure around the world. Before the boat adventure, Michael’s parents split up over a financial problem, leading to the dad selling the house and buying a boat called the ‘Peggy Sue’. There were multiple characters we came across in the story like Michael’s dog Stella (who was a black and white collie), Kensuke, his father and his mother.
Mrs Kennedy requested for the film to be released from ‘ClickView’ so we could then try out the film as well! We made a comparison of the book and the film using a Venn diagram and we all concluded that the book was way better.
This term we are studying, ‘The Thief Lord’ by Cornelia Funke
So far, we haven’t read much but from what we have already read, we learned the story is set in Venice, Italy. We have met a couple characters like Victor Getz the private detective, Esther Hartlieb and Max Hartlieb, the cruel aunt and uncle, and also Prosper and Bo, the two run away orphans.
In writing this term, our genres will include exposition, report, explanation, poetry and narrative. We will also have solo talks to deliver on the 19th and 20th of February. Some topics we have chosen are: Black holes, the Titanic, Texas (the state), rock music and Scottish Munros.
STEM
We delved into our senses last term and what it would be like if we were deprived of a given sense. Here’s a link to a YouTube video showing how we got on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6XKAMgcOVE
We had some great discussions on how we might cope in situations where we were deprived of a sense and how individuals learn to adapt.
This term we are moving on to forces: What a force is, how we can understand how particular forces work and, most importantly, how this is practically applicable in our daily lives. Over the term we will be working on aerodynamics, reducing friction and improving efficiency – all of which encompass engineering, design and teamwork skills. Watch this space for future YouTube videos!
Transition
We have already had two visits from Mr Wilkie who is one of the deputes at Calderside Academy. We did two workshops on our transition to high school where we covered everything a new S1 needs to know- from timetables to lunch arrangements.
This term, we will hopefully have a visit from one of the English teachers at Calderside who will give us a typical S1 English lesson. We are also scheduled to have Pupil Ambassadors / House Captain visits from pupils at Calderside, including some from the science department who will deliver a STEM lesson.
