Please take a look at the Primary 7 Spotlight on Learning for this term!
Welcome to Primary 7 – we have a very busy year full of learning coming up! We’ve attached our Spotlight on Learning to this post for all P7 parents/carers and pupils to have a look at to let you know what’s happening in Term 1.
Please don’t hesitate to contact the school if you have any questions for us!
Miss Aitken, Mrs Hislop and Miss May
Primary 7 are continuing to work on their WW2 context and decided this week to look at some basic cookery skills in the kitchen, we discussed the ways we could cook our rationed eggs in the war and had a go at making the perfect poached egg and boiled eggs on toast!
Firstly we had a go at poaching the eggs! Some were eggs-ceptional and some were not such a cracking success…
We then had a go at making boiled eggs and timed them ourselves depending on whether we like hard or soft boiled eggs – they were ouef-elly good!
On Thursday 1st March 2018 we will be celebrating World Book Day in School by encouraging all children to come to school dressed up as their favourite book character!
We will also spend this week completing different book related activities in class and holding whole school DEAR times! Weāve also asked the pupils to find and be photographed in Ā the strangest place to read a book!
Thank you for all your support!
Dunblane Primary Action Team
Click on the link below to find the P7 Spotlight on Learning for Term 3!
As part of their Extreme Earth context, Primary 7H have been looking at the effects of Natural Disasters on communities. One of the problems people might face after an earthquake or flood is access to clean water so we looked at what could be used to filter water in the case of a Natural Disaster.
Miss Campbell set up the experiment with us asking us to find out which materials are best to filter out the mud and debris often found in water after a disaster.
We used sand, stones and cotton wool to try and filter the water, we recognised that cotton wool could be swapped for clothing after the event of a disaster as cotton wool may not be readily available.
We made predictions about what materials would be best at soaking up the dirt in the water and found that putting both the stones and cotton wool together was the best. We decided that it would still be best to boil the water after cleaning it up to make sure it was safe to drink.
On Monday of last week Primary 7 visited Kippenrait Glen (or the Darn Walk) as part of their John Muir Award.
We left at 9.30am to begin the 20minute walk to the Glen, we had to be well prepared with our lunches and sensible clothing and shoes for the day! It was a pretty soggy day so most of us had wellies or walking boots and waterproofs Ā to keep dry!
We made our first stop at the very start of the walk just off the golf course where we stopped to do some activities on Lichen and Tree classification, we used flow charts to identify the different characteristics of the tree to find out what they were!
We then walked on for another 20minutes or so until we made it to a big field. There we completed the majority of our activities, things like…
Eau DāOutdoors – where we created our own perfumes from the leaves, berries and scents of the outdoors.
I Can See A Rainbow – we found a variety of different coloured objects in the field and woods of the colours of the rainbow!
Tree Measuring – Ā we used the strategies we had learned last week to measure the height and girth of the trees in the field and recorded this in our books, we found a variety of different trees and heights.
Senses Alphabet – we used our senses to find something from each letter of the alphabet… Not sure anyone managed to find x and z though!
We also looked at activities with mirrors and looking at the world from a different point of view,
Afterwards it was time for lunch and we were lucky enough to be able to eat it outside!
The final activity we completed after lunch was visiting the Robert Louis Stevenson cave. In groups we entered the cave and thought about words we could use to describe it ready for some imaginative writing this week.
We arrived back at school at 2.20pm, tired and muddy after our busy day!
Each week Primary 7H are going to decide on their Star Writer during our Extended Writing lesson on a Thursday. This person will be someone who has tried their best and included as many of the things Mrs Hislop was looking for as possible.
This week’s Star Writer is Harry, he has been awarded Star Writer for creating a story with excellent use of descriptive language and creating a chilling theme throughout his piece of work. Here is his writing inspired by the cave on our Kippenrait Glen visit.
“I slowly stepped back towards the path, in front of me I saw a dark, gloomy cave and stared at it for what must of been about five minutes. It made me feel strange, like something was watching me! I started to walk towards the cave, still with the strange feeling. I was frightened but intrigued by this cave. Suddenly I heard a ruffle in the bushes, I stopped and it went away. I started walking again and the ruffles came back. Walking away from the cave left me suspicious, something or someone was watching my every move. This made me angry, this made me terrified. I had to find out what it was. So I decided to go back and wait outside the cave to see whatever it was looking at me. Waiting sent shivers down my spine. I was terrified. I started to doubt myself. It might of all been in my head, then I heard it, the ruffles, the echoes from the cave. I was so terrified but so angry I had to go in, if I didn’t I would never know what it was. On I went with what felt like a million butterflies in my tummy. Slowly I stepped towards the cave, I was nearly there, the river crashing on the rocks felt like the crowd cheering me on. I entered the cave, itĀ was slimy and slippy. Drips of water all around me. I could barely see, it was like a different world. The slippery rocks were like ice to walk on. ‘Crash’. I slipped, falling on my back. I saw something, it was a door. This was my chance. I walked towards the door. The handle was covered in slime. I opened it with a creek, then there, I saw it…”
Primary 7 have started working towards their John Muir Awards. As part of this award our P7 learners are starting to learn about their local area, for this we will be visiting Kippenrait Glen (the Darn Walk). Yesterday we had to take our learning outdoors to practise some of the activities we will be completing when we visit the Glen next week!
We worked with Mr Gall to measure the height of trees with just a pencil, measuring tape and a friend, Miss May helped us to use touch to explore some of the plants we have in our school playground and Mrs Hislop taught us to use our other senses – sight, smell and sound to complete a senses alphabet looking at the sights, sound and smells of our local environment!
We are looking forward to taking our learning to the Glen next week!
Ā 
Today P7H did an exciting workshop with Sarah from RHET. First we went outside to the planters to harvest some of our vegetables. We had to pick one onion, four leaves of red and yellow chard and some peas per pair.
Next we took our harvest into the kitchen and started to make our coleslaw. We were split up into pairs and one person had to wash and prepare the chard, squeezed lemon juice, and added oil, cinnamon and herbs, whilst the others grated carrots, washed and chopped onions, ripped mint and added yoghurt and honey.
At the end we mixed both partners ingredients together to get our coleslaw.
Bhayleigh “It tasted so yummy!”
Oscar “Making it was fun and it was tasty.”
Harry “I started crying because of the onions.”
Carys “I tried new foods.”
Dan “It tasted like Santa giving you a hug.”
Emma “I didn’t know chard was thing, now I like the taste.”
Our transition programme is well up and running and our young learners have responded brilliantly to working with each other as a team across our learning community.
This outdoor learningĀ lesson was part of the High School activity days and all the learners gained a lot of science knowledge and practical skillsĀ from this as well as toasting a marshmallow or two!
It was a great pre-cursor to Dalguise and they are all looking forward to further experiences up at the high school.
