We are so excited! The Fitness Crew (a mix of P5a and P5ms pupils) scored the most points today at the Sky Community Challenge. Look at our shiny new trophy.

We hope that Mr Welsh will let us display it in our trophy cabinet.

What a week! We have been very busy this week and a few of us have been busy learning on our own devices!

On Wednesday we were joined by two teachers from Eastertoun Primary, who were very impressed with our use of iPads to support our learning. We learned more about the Earth and created lessons to show to the rest of the class. Here are a few photos of us at work.

In preparation for our Sky Community Games day next week, we created teams and banners. Miss Anderson and Mrs Mackenzie decided to split the classes so half P5ms joined half of P5a in our classroom. Some of us made pompoms.

Miss Anderson and P5a 🙂

This week we all enjoyed performing Scots Wha’ Hae at our Celebrating Success assembly. We made shields and some of us made swords. Five of us won awards.

We have started a new set of class novels – we are reading Shakespeare stories that have been adapted for children. So far we have read King Lear and are currently reading Richard III.

Next week we are going to learn more about William Wallace. We are also going to be able to read all the Young Writer entries from our class – fingers crossed one us wins!

Miss Anderson and P5a 🙂

Last week we learned more about different time periods and what Earth looked like during these times. The Earth has changed dramatically since the Paleozoic era (about 300 million years ago). Here are a few pictures to show these differences.

We all hope that the P7s are enjoying Belgium!

Miss Anderson and P5a

This week we took part in an art lesson with Mrs Clark. We looked at a cross-section of fruit and vegetables and then used chalk and crayon to create an effect.

The whole school took part in the third Big Balbardie Blether, which was on the topic of Home Learning. Most of us had a good time and came up with lots of great comments.

Earlier in the week six pupils from Primary 5a delivered a lesson to parents! At the AAL evening Lewis, Melissa, Andrew, Caitlin, Jason and Nathan taught a group of parents about extinction. Everyone who took part had a great time!

Have a nice weekend,

Miss Anderson and P5a

This week P5a have been learning how to create animations. We started off by participating in a Glow Meet with Bruce Husband (an OOGLIE animator). This was great fun and Miss Anderson downloaded an animation app for our iPads. Using our new app, and iMovie, we were able to create stop motion animations with music and sound effects. Click here and here for a few examples.We used this learning later in the week when we worked with P2lg pupils to create stories on the iPads.

It has also been profile week and we have all written a choose story for our profile jotters. We have all used possessive apostrophes in our writing this week.

Most of the class think that this week has flown by. Alex thinks this is because of all the snow.

We also had our last Club Golf session. We have really enjoyed Club Golf and we think that Mr Welsh has too…

This week in P5a we have been debating whether or not humans deserve to survive, based on our learning in topic. The pupils debating that humans do not deserve to survive won! Although we all would prefer it if humans do not become extinct…

Click here and here for a few examples of our debating skills.

We have had a fantastic time this morning – look at us all dressed up for Red Nose Day. Miss Anderson and P5a

This week we have been learning more about animals and extinction. Did you know that the Passenger Pigeon was the most common species of bird in the world? Unfortunately people liked to hunt these birds and their numbers very quickly dropped. The last bird of this species died on September 1st, 1914 (her name was Martha). This species is the only species that we know the exact date and time it became extinct (1pm to be precise).

On Wednesday we had an important visit from Education Scotland and the Scottish Government. They came to observe how we are using iPads (and other ICT equipment) to support our learning. During this visit we learned about Ospreys in Scotland. In 1916 ospreys were extinct in Scotland. Since then there have been laws passed to protect ospreys, and to try and encourage them to return to Scotland. We were very pleased to learn that humans can use positive actions to promote conservation and to prevent extinction.

There are a few webcams that show nesting sites of Scottish Osprey – although the ospreys will not be back until the end of April.

Miss Anderson, Miss Walker and P5a 😀

Out of school hours, I (Lewis Gemmell) have been writing a story about a boy, who woke up shrunk. I would like to be an author when I am older. I am hoping to publish this story later and Miss Anderson and I have been editing it together. I am very thankful for Miss Anderson’s help. I have 19 pages and Miss Anderson reckons about 7000 words. It took me about a month to do and I think I am nearing an end.

Here is a little bit of the story from chapter 1. I hope that you enjoy it.

Hope that you enjoyed reading it.

Lewis.

This term P5a will be learning about living things and extinction through Rockford’s Rock Opera. Rockford is a dog who gets lost in Battersea Park before meeting a strange creature called a Cocklbur Ick. They mysteriously end up on a leaf boat, with no idea where they are sailing to. We watched the first chapter on one of our class iPads, but you can find the read along audio book here.

We have a new teacher joining us this week. Miss Walker will be teaching, alongside Miss Anderson, for the rest of January and the whole of February. We think she will have a fantastic time teaching us 🙂

Have a good weekend 🙂

Miss Anderson, Miss Walker and P5a

This week we have been learning about Caribbean music. There are African and European influences in Caribbean music. The reason for this is that many people from Africa were brought to the Caribbean to be slaves on the sugar plantations. Don’t worry though – the UK abolished slavery in the Caribbean in 1833. We liked all the styles of Caribbean music. Here are a few of our own compositions.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

This term we are reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane as our class novel. Edward Tulane is a china rabbit. We think that he is a bit rude and selfish, but are hopeful that he will not always be this way.

We have also been reading with our buddies in P2lg.

Miss Anderson and P5a

😀