We have had a short but busy week at school. We have started our new topic “World War 2”. We are really excited about learning about different aspects of the war. We would like to learn about Adolf Hitler, women’s role during the War, the Blitz and much more. We also wanted to learn some German so this week we learned some basic German phrases such as ‘Guten Tag’ which mean good day and ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ which means good bye. We are researching some other German phrases related to the war such as ‘Blitzkreig’.

This week we have started reading ‘The Boy in Striped Pyjamas’. It has about a boy called Bruno who has to move house with his family. At the moment he does not know why he has had to move house but we know it is something to do with his father’s job.

In maths the Decahedrons have been finishing work on fractions and began to explore some third level concepts such as dividing fractions. The Hexagons have begun to learn about long division and the pentagons are beginning to use a standard written method for division.

Have a good weekend!

This week has been a short week but busy!
Luke did his class talk this week on Viking weapons.
‘I thought it was great’ Elliot
‘I liked his powerpoint’ Louie
‘I like the facts he had’ Jaime-Lee
‘I liked that he had notes to help him and didn’t look back at the powerpoint’ Dani
‘I think he made a lot of effort for it’ Ela.
In language we wrote about our trip to the Museum. We had to write in chronological order – the order that events happened. We had to write in the first person as it was about our trip and write in the past tense because it had already happened. We had to use time connectives to link our paragraphs together. We tried to use adjectives to describe the things we saw and what we did. This was the hardest part for lots of us!
In outdoor P.E. we are preparing for a Benchball festival. We are learning some ball skills and how to pass and receive the ball in spaces.
In Maths, we created symmetrical patterns for our partner to copy. Some of them were quite intricate and complicated. We also enjoyed playing this game about symmetry.
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?a=activity19
In French we watched a song to learn about the French names for our family members. You might enjoy it too!

This morning Dani told us a bit about her diabetes. We watched a video about what diabetes is and what happens in the body of a diabetic. Dani explained about taking her bloods and her insulin. We hope that the class have a better understanding of her condition and why her monitoring is so important. Thanks, Dani.
Table of the week – 580

P6B have had a short but very colourful week!

Over the last month, we have been learning about the culture and heritage of Scotland and the geography of the land. What we have been learning has helped inspire our art work this week.

Firstly, we used pencils to sketch a Scottish landscape consisting of mountains and lochs. We then used oil pastels to add detail and colour. We had to choose our colours carefully and consider the effect we wished to create. The end results were very good and an example of how much effort we gave to the activity. We have really showcased our artistic talents and should feel proud of ourselves!

Noah: I liked the detail. This is the best artwork I have ever done. 

Casey: I took my time and I’m really pleased with my drawing. It’s the best picture I’ve made using oil pastels.

Luca: I particularly liked the effect of shading my drawing to make it lighter or darker. 

Further enhancing our attention to detail, we studied the ‘Coat of Arms’ of Scotland. We learned all about the meaning of the different parts of it and this helped draw our attention to the many different elements it contains. We also explored the purpose of a coat of arms and when it might be displayed. We were tasked with using our very finest drawing skills to recreate the Coat of Arms of Scotland in all its detail and colour. Through taking our time and focussing well, we created fantastic replicas. Take a little look!

Skye: I was impressed with mine. It actually looks really good. 

Fiona: The collar on the unicorns neck shows symbolises that Scotland is tied to the union. 

Class Assembly Reminder

As you may be aware, our P6B assembly will take place on Friday 24^th February at 9.15am in the main hall. Please, if possible, may I ask the pupils to wear an item of tartan or any other ‘Scottish’ wear that the children may have at home?

We hope you can make it along and look forward to seeing you then!

Mrs Murdoch & P6B

This we have been learning how to measure the length of large objects using hand spans, feet and meters. We know which is more accurate!

In topic we have been learning about the River Nile and why it was important to the Ancient Egyptians and still is important to Egypt even today. We also learned about the daily life of Ancient Egyptians by investigating pictures.

In literacy, we have been learning about verbs and some of us had to differentiate between nouns and verbs. We were quite good at this!

Kyle won a Gold medal and trophy in the tournament at his Tae Kwon Do club and Aaron won a Silver medal and trophy at the same tournament. Well done boys!

Did you know we have our very own app?

This is a new and exciting way of communicating with parents/carers which we are in the early stages of developing. You can download the app for free now by searching in Apple or Google Play stores for Balbardie Primary School. At the moment we have 60 downloads and would love to see this number on the up.

We look forward to using this tool to help us keep in touch about upcoming events, news and to provide another way of  sharing messages with you. Let us know what you think and hAPPy downloading!

This week we have been learning about Ancient Egyptians as part of our new topic. We learnt where Egypt was and who the Egyptians were. They had a system of hierarchy which can be shown as a pyramid! We found out the roles of various types of people. Here are some facts:

The Ancient Egyptians toilets were a table with a hole under it.
Ancient Egypt had beautiful pyramids.
The kings and queens were actually called Pharaohs.
The pharaoh was the most powerful in the Land of Egypt.
The second pyramid to be built in Egypt was called the ‘Red Pyramid’. The first was called the ‘Bent Pyramid’ as it was built on un-steady ground and started cracking and giving way!

In maths we have been working hard with measuring and taking away. We are making sure we use the strategies we learnt are used at the correct time!

We are learning about Moses and how his role linked to Ancient Egypt.

Today P4b showcased their learning on Vikings to the school, parents and carers. The children had great fun preparing and learning the songs and scripts and were really proud of their efforts. We really hope you enjoyed it as much as they did!

Callum –The assembly was excellent but my favourite song was Valhalla tango and my favourite part was the gods
Jacob – I liked saying my lines because I think I’d like to be a blacksmith.
Elliot – I liked being a Viking Earl and I think we put so much effort in!
Skye- I had so much fun at the assembly and I was valkyrie.
Rose – I enjoyed the Valhalla tango and being a Valkyrie.
Guy – I liked the songs and the music in them.
Hope – I liked doing the Valhalla Tango dance.
Rayen – I liked everything musically.
Maisey – I enjoyed the singing.
Ben – I liked saying my lines as Odin because it was fun.
Jason – I liked our singing.
Charlotte – I liked being Brunhilda and doing the dance to Valhalla tango.
Katie – I liked saying my lines and my extra line!
Isaac – I liked saying my lines as Thor because it was fun.
Hayley – I enjoyed saying my words.
Nathan – I liked the song Valhalla Tango because it was great.
Luke – I liked being an archaeologist.
Emily – I enjoyed singing.
Louie – I liked my line because it was catchy and about a spoon!
Jamie – Lee – I liked being an archaeologist and finding a sword probably made by a blacksmith.
Ela – I liked learning my lines.
Emma – I liked playing my part because it was really fun.
Lucy – I liked doing the music.
Dani – I liked the biscuits and juice at the end!
Aryan – I liked the music. I liked singing chain mail.

Special thanks to Mrs Mackenzie and Mrs Innes for all the preparation of the songs, script and the amazing props!

We also enjoyed learning about the Viking raid on Lindisfarne and even launched our own attack on the island.
See how good a viking raider you would make using this link…..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/launch_gms_viking_quest.shtml

Primary 4 MVP for the month of January – Lucy. Well done, Lucy!

Pupil of the week – Hope for her excellent approach to Home Learning.
Table of the week – with 590 points

Our topic this term is the Scottish Parliament. We are enjoying learning about the way our country makes major decisions which affect us all.

We had begun by finding out about the political parties of Scotland and how our elections work. 

Noah – I have enjoyed making a Powerpoint to organise our ideas and share our party manifesto. We chose the Liberal Democrats.

This week we have mainly focused on debates, a common occurrence in any political situation. 

Murray – We are learning to debate many different issues like should animals be held in captivity or if homework should be banned.

Dasha – I am against animals being held in captivity. I believe they should be happy and free in the wild.

Michelle – Our group found out about and discussed some key points about homework. We decided that it should not be banned.

It has been a very interesting week in politics across the word, especially in America. We have enjoyed exploring some of the issues there too by forming and sharing our own opinions and listening to those of others. 

Mrs Murdoch believes that we are a very democratic bunch!

Pies, Peas & Bingo Night

British Legion, Bathgate

Bathgate West Nursery School is holding a Bingo Evening

on

  Thursday, 30 March 2017

Tickets are on sale in the

Nursery at £2.50 each

(This includes a pie at the break)

Last week was a busy week in P7a. We attended our annual Burns’ Supper where we were joined by our peers in P7b and important members of the community.During the Burns’ Supper we recited poems, sang Auld Lang Syne and danced the Dashing White Sargent.

The next day we performed our pantomime of ‘Jack and The Beanstalk’ after months of rehearsals.It all went well and Mrs Innes was really impressed at how we took it upon ourselves to learn dance routines, lines and songs. I had to learn how to work the lights and sound for the panto alongside Madeleine. Connor and Andrew were supposed to control the power point but Andrew was off so Lucy from P7b had to step in. Thank you Lucy, Callum and Aaron for stepping in for our absent classmates!

Last week in class we wrote a Scottish play script for Jack and the beanstalk.We were aloud to add our own twist to it

Written by Scott and Sarah

Class dojo winners: Lucy and Kiera H

See you next week!

In maths we are learning different strategies for taking away. We also learned about weighing. We learned how to estimate, how to weigh accurately and played different games about weighing things. Here are some links for you to try at home.
http://www.iboard.co.uk/activity/Comparing-Animal-Weights-679
http://www.iboard.co.uk/activity/Measuring-Boxes-Make-1kg-260
http://www.iboard.co.uk/activity/Estimating-Animal-Weight-687

In writing, we wrote instructions on how to make shortbread and this was tricky because we had to tell about every step and not miss any out.

This week we have also started learning about our new topic – The Ancient Egyptians. We talked about what we knew and what we wanted to find out. W located Egypt on a world map and then also found the U.K.

Have a great weekend.