This week in topic the Darwin explorers have been looking at plant adaptations and the special features plants have to survive in their habitats. We are now going to create our own species to live in a habitat we have previously created!

• Pondweed has long stems to hold it to the river bed.
• Daisys are brightly coloured to attract insects.
• Venus Flytrap can trap insects.
• Climbing plants grow up other things to get sunlight eg Ivy and Honeysuckle.
• Holly had red berries in winter which are easily seen by birds.
• Thick leathery leaves mean plant can retain water in different temperatures eg Ivy and Holly in cold temperatures and the Cactus in extremely hot temperatures.
• Some plants have prickles and thorns to stop them being eaten by wild animals – eg Holly, Cactus and Hawthorns.
• Bluebells store food in their bulbs.

This week I enjoyed learning about the Cactus – Ross

This week I really enjoyed learning about the Ivy and the Cactus plants – Abigale

This week I enjoyed looking at the Venus Flytrap because it was really cool! Sophie and Nadia

I enjoyed learning about the Ivy plant. Lily

I learned that birds see red really well and it is their favourite colour! Craig.

Josh learned that the leaves at the bottom of the Holly trees are more prickly than the ones at the top so that animals don’t eat them.

Abby learned that the Cactus stores water under its thick leathery skin.

In writing we have been learning about contractions – using an apostrophe to join two words to make one shorter word.

I learned this week that you can use an apostrophe to join 2 words together to make 1 shorter word! Taylor and Erin M.

Travis has enjoyed learning how to use an apostrophe.

Some other things we have learned…….

Leon learned that earth once was a ball of lava! Leon – wow!

Through my mini project I learned that the Volcano Maunaloa is the biggest in the world. It is 5,486 metres high! Ava – wow!

I learned about Cobra snakes, that when they are born the baby snakes sometimes kill or eat their sibling’s heads. Adam – wow!

As you can see, P5m have been very eager Darwinian explorers this week!

We are all looking forward to Fitness Fortnight!

Another short week in P5m but still lots of learning to be done and interesting news……

Eva, Emma B and Katie are looking forward to singing our song at Celebrating Success.

Adam is looking forward to performing with his dance group, Pulsation Z at Deans High School! Well done Adam!

Nadia really enjoyed watching Rockford’s Rock Opera and learning all about extinction!

This week Sophie learned that all living things need MRSGREN!!! Can anyone remember what they stand for?

Ross is really enjoying singing ‘Let it Go’! (And is doing really well at it – Mrs M)

Aaron, Cameron and Josh are looking forward to our Darwin walk! (If it stops raining!)

Lily enjoyed showing the class her dad drumming in his bands called Eden’s Curse and Code of Silence! We all thought it was really cool!

Keep pracitising our song for CS!

P5m are really glad to be back in school after the holidays!!!

There are lots of exciting things happening this term.

We have the Sky Sports Festival on Wednesday 7 May.

Our topic is What a Wonderful World – a biology focus (Ava) , we will be looking at plants and animals (Emma B).

Here are some of the things we are looking forward to…

Mirren is looking forward to Celebrating Success.

Leon is looking forward to the Golden Club event already!

Nadia is looking forward to learning about Darwin.

Ava is looking forward to doing the topic it sounds fun already and we’ve barely started.

Eva and Lily are looking forward to learning about animals and plants.

Travis is looking forward to Fitness Fortnight.

Erin H is looking forward to the home learning task – where you have to give a talk on any subject!

Taylor is looking forward to learning about how plants live.

The term sounds really exciting! 

Mrs McClafferty is really looking forward to getting outside and investigating all the different species of plants in different habitats!

We researched Florence Nightingale and I learned about her childhood.  Sophie

I learned that the first car ever made only had 3 wheels! Craig

I learned that the sewer system was invented during the Victorian era and because the poor people had to drink dirty water they contracted cholera. Emma C

I enjoyed learning about flexibility in PE. Charlie

Taylor learned that yoga can calm you down a lot!

I enjoyed running 10 laps of the hall for Sports Relief. Josh, Erin M and Ross

Drew enjoyed giving his class talk on the invention of the train.   It was invented by George Stevenson.

I enjoyed watching the Wizard of Oz.  Leon and all of P5m!

This week the following people did their class talks on Victorian Inventions:

Nadia did her talk on the sewer system.

Katie did her talk on the electric light bulb.

Emma B did her talk on the telephone.

Megan did her talk on toys during the Victorian era.

Robbie did his talk on the telephone.

Mirren did her talk on oil refining.

Drew did his class talk on the train.

Cameron did his class talk on the camera.

Craig did his class talk on the car.

Well done to all those people that gave a class talk.

Finally, a huge well done to both P6 classes and all the staff involved for putting on a wonderful production of the Wizard of Oz!

Here are some things we have enjoyed so far this week…..

Aaron, Craig and Travis enjoyed having an extra PE lesson on Wednesday!

In PE this week Sophie enjoyed learning about strength and play Bulldogs and Beetles. 

Taylor, Josh, Robbie  and  Lily enjoyed making Easter eggs with Miss Henderson.

Cameron enjoyed the Big Start weighing challenge!

P5m have been presenting their class talks on Victorian inventions.

Erin Hardwick, Ava and Adam class talk was  on the telephone! How did people ever survive without telephones!!

Eva’s class talk was on the X-Ray!

Charlie’s class talk was on Coca Cola! Nadia learned from Charlie’s talk that Coca Cola was used to make cough medicine taste nicer!

Lisa’s class talk was on the type writer! 

Erin Madden’s class talk was on the camera! Say cheese!

Ross and Mirren really enjoyed listening to all the class talks!

Scott’s class talk was on the car!

Aaron’s class talk was on the train!

Well done to all those who gave their class talks and good luck to those who still have to present.

P5m are really excited about making scones and delicate cucumber sandwiches for our open morning on Friday – we hope you can join us!

This week we have been learning ……

A Victorian work song – Ava & Leon

We learned about how rich Victorian children lived – Erin H

Emma C  & Ava  learned that the youngest age for a chimney child was 4!

Craig learned that a lot of Victorian families had up to 10 children! Crikey!

Eva learned that rich Victorian families liked to holiday by the seaside. ‘Oh we do like to be beside the seaside, oh we do like to be beside the sea’……………

Adam learned that rich children were scared of their parents and that they were raised by a nanny and a governess.  Adam also learned that rich girls would be married off as soon as possible and boys would have to go to work.  Well done Adam, you have shown that you have learned alot this week!!

Ross learned that rich Victorian children were only allowed downstairs to see their parents for 1 hour a day.  There wasn’t very much love between parents and children.

Nadia learned that Victorian children had no rights, but children today do have rights that protect them,

Ali learned that children that worked in the factories often feel into the machinery and got killed.

Josh learned that later in the Victorian period children at the age 10 were banned from being chimney sweeps.  Ross learned that chimney sweeps  often lied about the age of the chimney children. 

Robbie enjoyed painting the chimeny for our chimney child wall! And what a great job Robbie, Lily, Emma B, Mirren and Mrs Oag did! Thank you!

Brilliant blogging P5m!

I’m looking forward to seeing who can remember the Afternoon Tea Party Etiquette tomorrow! Remember, get that pinky in the air!!

Mrs McClafferty & P5m!

The Post Blog this week was to write  about, ‘Something that I know now that I didn’t know on Monday.’  Here are some of our responses.

Writing skillls – we were learning how to use speech marks in our writing and used a sandwich as an analogy!

I now know where to put speech marks.  Cameron

I now know that speech marks are like the bread in a sandwich! Emma C

I now know that closing speech marks come after the punctuation. , ? ! Charlie, Scott and Ali

I  now know an easy way to use speech marks. Ava

Handwriting

I now know how to join ‘d and e’.  Ross and Lily.

Maths

I now know an easy way to do missing number sums. Mirren

I now know how to do missing number sums.  Katie

Drama

I now know that in drama, you need Confidence, Cooperation, Communication, Concentration and Coordination. Eva

LAC

I now know that teachers would cane you if you were late! Erin H

I now know that Victorian toys were fun.  Megan

I now know that Queen Victoria was the Empress of India.  Drew and Taylor

I now know that chimney children go to clean the chimneys with a chimney sweep but the chimney child will do all the hard work.  Emma B

I now know that the chimney children could die from all the soot and smoke.  Craig

I now know that if you didn’t clean the chimneys in the Victorian days all the soot would go into the rooms.  Abby

Finally……and perhaps most importantly…….

I now know that Monday and Tuesday are holidays! Sophie

Hope you all enjoy the long weekend!

I’m looking forward to our Victorian tea party!

Mrs McClafferty

This week in P6 we have been practising our assembly again and nearly ready to blast off into space!

On Thursday afternoon the children that had been the Musical Theatre and Dance  electives put on a show for P6 and P7 at the Regal Theatre.

“It was awesome” Luke

“It was really cool and fun and I liked watching all my friends” Rabeea

“It was really fun and nerve wracking, but we really developed our skills and I would do it again.” Christopher Allan

Some of the class have been looking after the nursery children that will join us in Balbardie after the summer!  The children were very excited about coming to P1!  Some were quite shy, some were quite loud and noisy!

We are really looking forward to the gala day tomorrow and wish Balbardie Primary School float  ‘good luck’!!!

P6m

This week we had visit to the library! The librarian read us a Horrid Henry short story and some of us were able to choose a book that we will read for our class presentation.

This week was our last sports elective week. 🙁

Here are some of our thoughts on the sports elective.

I really enjoyed the Badminton and I won a badminton racquet – Fraser

We had a fun day and went on the big floats and kept capsizing them! Taylor

The swimming elective was really fun and one day we had to swim 25 lengths! I forgot my swimming costume one day so had to buy a new one (on my birthday)! Rabeea

Musical threatre was really inspiring and the amount of progress we’ve made in such a short time is amazing! Everybody has got lovely singing voices and are amazing dancers.  Christopher A

We have had lots of fun practising for our class assembly!  We hope you are going to be able to come and watch us perform on Friday 14th June.

Finally, we were all really proud of our school when the 4th Green Flag was raised at Grounds Awareness Day!