Blog  25/04/14

We’re back!

We had a great Easter and hope everyone else did too.

This week we had great fun learning about Louis Braille. We discussed how different our Easter holiday would have been if we had sight problems or were blind.

Sasha – I might not have been able to do my Easter egg hunt!

Dave – I got some nice gifts and I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy them as much if I was blind because I got an x-box 360.

Here are some facts we have learned about Louis Braille –

Lewis M – He was born in 1809.

Sasha – He invented a way for blind people to read it’s called Braille. Braille is raised dots on a page. Each letter is no more than six dots.

Dave – He went blind when he was five years old.

Jamie N – He cut his eye with a knife when he was three years old.

Teigan – He was seven before he went to school.

Eve – When he was ten years old he went to a special school for the blind in Paris.

Lily – He died in 1852.

Sam – He was a teacher at the blind school and died when he was 43 years old.

Some of us tried going upstairs blindfold with a friend guiding us.

Joe – I found it hard to know how far in to put my foot on the steps.

We used the Braille alphabet to make our own names. If you close your eyes and run your hand over the page you can feel the bumps that make up the letter in a name.You can see in one of the pictures how engrossed we all were in the Braille decoding activity!

After a long discussion we understand that we all have the right to be healthy and have access to education even if we had  problems with any of our senses.

BBB April 2014

This morning we held our 3^rd Big Balbardie Blether. We were very good at explaining the rights we have and what they mean. We are now all busy designing a rights respecting schools award certificate. We will transfer some of the skills we have learned this year, about designing posters and leaflets, to our task.

Eve – if you are doing a border make it something about the award.

Ray – Make the key parts stand out with bold writing.

Lily – to make it appeal to people make it colourful.

Teigan – make sure you include what the award is about and who it’s for.

Topic

Our new topic is A Slice of Scotland and we are looking forward to doing some map work next week!

Have a great weekend!

Almost Easter!

Class Talks –

It’s been a busy week as we began our class talks about Victorian inventions. We discussed what our success criteria would be then we each had a recording sheet to make notes on how well prepared people were or if they made good eye contact with their audience and spoke clearly.

Chloe – Rays talk was about Coca Cola and I didn’t know that each day the Coca Cola trucks around the world travel more than 1,000,000 miles.

Joe – Coca Cola wanted a Christmas ad that would grab people’s imagination and they put Santa in red and white (the Coca Cola colours) and he’s been in red and white ever since.

Sasha B – Eve did a really good talk about the camera being invented. I never knew it could take 3 days for a picture to be taken and developed in the Victorian times and the cameras were much bigger than they are now. Eve brought in a Box Brownie.

Topic –

This week we have been busy putting the finishing touches to our assembly about the Victorians. We were all very excited to perform in front of the whole school and our family and friends who made it along.

Sasha B – I found it really hard to play the recorder along to one of the songs but I managed in the end.

Jamie W – I had good fun and I think that Sam did really well and I liked his part.

Sam D – I was the posh butler and I was really nervous during the first assembly but it was easier in the second one. I had lots of fun.

Sophie W – I was really nervous at first but when I saw my mum I was not so nervous.

Jordan R – I thought Ray did really well as the curator.

We are all extremely tired after such a busy week and Mrs Drummond says we all deserve a well earned rest.

Have a great weekend!

What a big week !

Topic – we have begun learning about Florence Nightingale. We were really surprised at how bad the conditions were for soldiers during the Crimean war. Wounded soldiers would have to sleep on dirty floors with rats running around. Thanks to Florence we have much better conditions in hospitals today.

Writing – this week we focussed on poetry. The theme for our poem was PC Arnott. We had a competition and the class voted for their favourite poem which was read out at assembly and then presented to PC Arnott. Eve’s poem received the most votes. Well done Eve!!

Rachel Q – I really liked writing a poem. I think Eve’s was really good.

Ava C – It was hard to make the poem rhyme. I found it easier to write the poem using rhythm, I did this by tapping on the table while I was saying the poem.

Maths – We have been learning how to subtract with money and some of us have been changing pence to pounds and vice versa. It has been tricky but we are getting better!

On Monday afternoon we were lucky enough to be able to go along to Bathgate Academy to watch the P6 show, The Wizard of Oz. We walked all the way there and all the way back! We were very impressed with the acting and singing and can’t wait until we are in P6 and it’s our turn to do the show.

As if we didn’t get enough exercise on Monday we did our sports mile on Thursday and we have been raising money for Sports Relief with a bake sale on Friday morning and lots of us have bought Sports Relief wrist bands.

Have a great weekend!

Pupil of the week – Jay M

Table of the week – Giggly Gang

This week we had great fun with problem solving and team work. With a partner we had to tie a shoe lace. It sounds easy but the tricky part was we had to it with one hand behind our back! Some people found it really hard. We all got there in the end.

Ray J – The lace tying was fun but it was also really hard. I kept wanting to use both hands.

Chloe L – It was really hard at the beginning but we worked out what to do by giving each other instruction about how to make the first bunny ear then the second. We got it tied in the end!

Jamie N – It was hard working the lace with my fingers and not using my other hand.

In our maths this week we have begun to build on our existing knowledge of money. Some of us are working with concrete materials making, for example, 20p as many ways as we can. Others are being introduced to the decimal point and how to represent, for example, 36p as a decimal.

Kerry M – I liked using the money to make 10p. I made it three different ways.

Anais P – I liked learning about the decimal point. Now I can write any amount of pence up to 99p as a decimal.

Our writing this week has been a challenge as we try to apply what we have been learning about stretching our sentences. This week we have been encouraged to try this without prompting. Jay M was particularly successful with this task when writing about a day in the life of a chimney boy in the Victorian times. His writing was so good he received a round of applause from the class after he read it out!

Sasha B – Writing was really fun this week because I got to use my imagination and pretend to be a chimney boy. I remembered about using the sentence stretcher ideas to make my story more interesting.

In music this week we have been listening to Vivaldi’s four seasons. We had to listen to the first five minutes and using what we already know about classical music try to determine which season the music represented. Then, while listening to the music, we drew a picture to represent the season.

Sam D – It was fun listening to the four seasons music and drawing a picture of springtime. The music made me think of sunshine, flowers growing, green fields and kids going out to play with their dogs.

….and with that another great week in p5d comes to an end. Have a great weekend!

It’s been a very busy time in p5d!

Last Friday we had a Victorian tea party. All the children really enjoyed sharing their learning with the parents. We did lots of different activities including copper plate writing, making thumatropes, peg dolls and fortunes tellers. We also had a tea party with homemade scones and cucumber sandwiches and we had tea in fancy cups like the Victorians would have! The adults found our Victorian tea party etiquette amusing. We finished the morning off with a Victorian song that everyone really enjoyed.

Lucy M – I enjoyed making a fortune teller with mt mum.

Teigan R – having my mum in class was exciting and we made a peg doll.

This week we visited New Lanark as part of our Victorian topic. We visited the Victorian school room where we dressed up as Victorian school children and had a pretend lesson. We also went on the Annie McLeod ride which told us about her life in the Victorian times. We were all surprised that children would work a 10 hour day and then go to school afterwards. Mrs Drummond thinks this is a great idea!

Rachel Q – I really enjoyed the Annie McLeod experience.

Also, we have been learning how to stretch sentences. We can all see a difference in our work already! We now know how to make our sentences more interesting by using who, why, where, when and what.

Mhairi H – I know when there is a noun I can add an adjective to make it more interesting.

That’s all folks!

A short blog this week!

We have been learning about Twitter this week and how to tweet about our learning. We now know what a hashtag is and how to use it.

Sasha B – after a hashtag all the words go together just like a long row of letters.

Eve H – a hashtag is used to group comments together.

We used thinking cards this week as part of our big start activities. Table 1’s card said this – You find an invisibility cloak, where would you go? What would you want to see or do?

There was lots of good discussion with everyone in the group taking part (we really do know what a good discussion looks like now) and Eve had this to say – I would put the cloak on and go into all the shops and steal all the cigarettes. Then I would burn them so that people couldn’t smoke anymore.

In our topic we have been comparing our school day with a Victorian childs school day.

Becky H – children were not allowed to speak until the teacher spoke to them and if they were asked a question and got it wrong they had to wear the dunce’s hat and stand in the corner. We are allowed to talk quietly in class and if we answer a question wrong the teacher or someone at our table will help us to get the right answer.

Mhairi Hinton – in the Victorian times children sat in rows but we get to sit in groups. I like sitting with my friends.

Lewis M – we have jotters, laptops and I -pads to help with our learning but the Victorian children only had a slate. They had to spit on it and wipe it with their sleeve to clean it.

Jamie W – girls would learn how to cook and sew and boys would learn woodwork and maths. In our class everyone learns the same things.

Oh and there were 8 contractions in last weeks blog!!

 Have a good weekend!

This week we have been developing our knowledge of right angles and we can now identify a right angle in a shape. We used right angles that we had made to help us.

Lewis McCallum

We’ve also been busy learning about contractions. Did you notice the contraction in the last sentence?

We did a fun activity where we had two words on a piece of paper and we folded the paper to make the contraction. We’re going to try to use our new skill in our writing next week. Here’s hoping we do well. Here’s an example –

step 1   step 2

In topic this week we turned our classroom into a Victorian classroom. The desks were all set out separately and we had to sit on our own and we weren’t allowed to speak unless we were spoken to by the teacher. We had to stand and wait to be told to sit down when we entered the classroom and we had to stand up and say all the times tables out loud as a whole class. If someone gave a wrong answer they had to stand in the corner with the dunce’s hat on.  It’ll be a while before we all do that again!

Here we are lined up for class.

Saying our tables!Handwriting

It’s been such a hard week with all the Victorian rules we had to stick to so we’re all glad it’s a holiday weekend!

Spot the contraction  – how many contractions are there in our blog this week?

Pupil of the week – Sasha Brown

Table of the week – Giggly Gang

We have had two birthdays this week – Dave and Jordan who are now 10 years old!

In maths this week we have been building on what we learned about shapes and now we are able to identify angles in different shapes.

Through our topic on Victorians we have been learning how to write instructions to make toys. Some of us found it a bit tricky and we soon realised that if we miss a step out then whatever we are making won’t work so it’s important to think the task through.

We made a toy theatre this week. The class were really enjoying the task and Jay was very imaginative  and  even made a backdrop for his one!

In music we are continuing our work on the classical composer Johannes Brahms. We have been comparing the lullaby he wrote with his piano concerto. After a lot of discussion about the similarities and differences of the two pieces we realised that although they are both different they are also both waltzes. Ava and Sam danced to both pieces of music to demonstrate this.

Sorry there are no pictures this week to accompany our blog but it would seem I had the camera on the wrong setting !

Have a great weekend.

We have had great fun in the class this week. In maths we can now all identify the sides, corners and angles in a shape. We can identify shapes that tile and have enjoyed making tile patterns. We are now learning about 3D shapes and some of us have used polydron to make nets.

Sasha B – I have learned about triangles. There are three kinds – isosceles which has two sides the same length, scalene which has three sides all different lengths and equilateral which has three equal sides.

Joe M – I really like doing tessellations and that means it’s a shape that tiles.

In writing this week we have been writing a biography of Queen Victoria. We used books and the internet to find information.

Ray J – I didn’t know that I knew so much about Queen Victoria until I started writing about it and I know that’s metacognition because we have been learning about that. It’s knowing what you know and being able to show it.

Teamworking – We worked with a partner to build a paper aeroplane. The tricky thing was we were each only allowed to use one hand and the other hand had to be behind our back.

Becky H – It was really hard and the best way to get the job done was by talking to each other.

Dave J – I thought it was quite easy and lots of fun.

Jamie and Sam having fun!

Have a great weekend.

It’s the last blog of 2013!

We have had a good week in p5d learning about solids, liquids and gasses. We carried out lots of fun experiments. We are now able to identify and categorise solids, liquids and gasses using our knowledge of matter to help us. We did a fun activity where the class split into three groups and each group had to be a solid, liquid or gas and they had to travel around the room in their group. This really helped us to understand the properties of each state.

We made a potion using bicarbonate of soda, water and vinegar. Adding vinegar to bicarbonate of soda causes a chemical reaction to take place and produce carbon dioxide which made the mixture fizz up and over the container.

We had great fun learning in science!

We have finished our class novel, Billionaire Boy and eagerly await the choices for our next novel starting in January 2014.

We have used Christmas as a theme for our symmetry work in maths and everyone agrees it’s much more fun.

Well that’s it for our last week of term. I would like to say a huge thankyou to all the pupils for their hard work and I look forward to hearing all their stories of Christmas when they return in January.

Merry Christmas everyone !!

Mrs D

 It’s almost December !!!!

WE are feeling really Christmassy in P5d this week. Making tree decorations to sell at the Christmas fayre has been great fun and a little messy.

Outdoor P.E.

This week we were developing our dribbling skills while travelling with the ball. Some of us found it tricky to move around and keep the ball under control. 

I like getting out for fresh air – Shaun H

I am getting better at keeping the ball bouncing when I move around -Sophie W

Topic-                                                                                                                             We had great fun learning about how to make a good headline for the Battle of Stirling Bridge. . We used a game on the smartboard to identify what a good headline is and then made some of our own for display.

How we are developing as learners-    We are pretty good at discussing how we know what we know (metacognition) so now we are looking at how we manage ourselves to help our learning (self regulated learning). We are all able to follow basic class routines so that we are ready to learn, now comes the hard part …..managing impulsive behaviour! We will let you know soon how we are doing.

That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend !

Another week done!

We all deserve a rest this weekend because everyone has worked really hard in P5 this week.

Pupil of the week – Carter W

Table of the week – Minions

Maths –

We have been working really hard to identify the strategies we use when doing mental maths calculations. We have all found this a bit tricky.

Lily – This is really hard but I think I am getting better at talking through the strategies I use.

Ray – I am finding it easier to find the missing number in my sums because we talk a lot about different strategies and I know what ones I need to use.

Topic-

We have used our topic as a focus for our writing this week

Eve – We wrote a letter to a nobleman about the death of Alexander III. I think the Scottish Wars of Independence is a really good topic.

Kerry – I enjoyed making a wanted poster for William Wallace.

HWB –

We all made posters on the theme of friendship. We focussed on words associated with what a good friend is.

We all wrote a post-it note about what happiness is . Here are some of our contributions –

Lucy – Happiness is …..

the smell of a cake                                                                                                          a friend                                                                                                                             love                                                                                                                                        a box of chocolates

Catherine – Happiness is ….

teachers                                                                                                                    laughing                                                                                                                    singing                                                                                                                             family

We have all had a great week although we are sad that we have come to the end of our class novel Gangsta Granny. On the bright side we will start Billionnaire Boy next week.

We’re back!!

Everyone seems to have enjoyed the holidays and we are all refreshed and ready for the new term.

This week we have discussed our new topic The Scottish Wars of Independance which we’ll start next week. This morning we had our first Big Balbardie Blether of the year. We are all excited to see  the new look house point system! We all have the chance to design a new shield to represent each house system.

Rachel is busy designing a new shield for Hardy House.

Halloween!!!!!!

Some of us dressed up in our halloween costumes to scare the teacher…..

job done !!!!!

Have a great weekend everyone !!