P2B this week began the new topic of Sergeant Stubby and friends. The class enjoyed learning the true story of a little hero dog who worked with the U.S. Army during WWI. We left the story on a cliffhanger and look forward to picking it back up.

This week’s Big Star was Thomas who chose: Isla, Mikolaj, Oliver, Kai, Lois as his little stars.

We also made witches for Halloween using paper plates, pipe-cleaners, pompoms, googly eyes and wool which was great fun and the children had some interesting names for their witches.

Our best bits:

Mikolaj – New topic.

Jack – New maths topic, I liked that we were colouring in the shapes.

Ethan – I liked colouring the shapes.

Isla – Sergeant Stubby because he has a stubby tail.

Kai – Sergeant Stubby because we got to cut pictures out to make a scrap book.

Oliver- The shapes topic.

Thomas – Painting paper plate witches, mine was called Pumpkin.

Murray – Topic Sergeant Stubby because he was found by the man so it’s exciting.

Hannah – Making witches, mine is called Firework. Also, Sergeant Stubby because I like his tail.

Hollie – Colouring in the shapes and doing Sergeant Stubby because he was so cute.

Daisy – Sergeant Stubby because he gets found and Conroy doesn’t leave him behind.

Sofia – Sergeant Stubby because I like his tail and he’s cute. His tail is stubby and that’s how he got his name.

Anna – Making the witches. Mine was called Love-heart Fire and she had a purple face.

Hope – Playing with everybody.

Ruby – Sergeant Stubby because he’s cute like my friends little puppy.

Lois – Making witches, mine was called Diamond and she had a green face.

Miss Cowan

Keegan, Max, Grace Mac, Dionne, Archie: We enjoyed doing our maths test and assembly this week.

Freya, Marley, Ryan, Lacey, Scott, Keira: We enjoyed dooking for apples at Halloween.

Eden, Liam, Eilidh, Ava, Emily: We have had a great week and we enjoyed everything!

Luis, Brandon, Sophie A, Esther, Joseph, Tiana, Isla: We liked the maths test and writing a persuasive letter where we tried to convince the council to stop the use of single-use milk cartons and plastic straws.

Harris, Grace Mac, Lily:  Our favourite parts of the week were when we went dooking for apples and the maths test.

This was a busy week.

In literacy, we were learning how to use adjectives and adverbs to make interesting sentences. We also wrote about the four seasons, which one was our favourite and why.

In maths, we learned about grid reference and how it shows where to find something on a grid. We now have a floor grid which we can use to play games with. We also have a seating grid reference! We have also begun developing our knowledge on addition.

In topic, we have looked at the seasons, what kind of weather is associated with it and how to dress appropriately for each season.
We also finished off our topic about ‘Our Community’. We talked about town plans and gave constructive criticism to other groups about their town plan. We finally built our town – it looked amazing. We came up with names and then voted for our favourite name. Our town was named ThunderThree Town. TTT for short?!
Here are some pics of our town.

can you spot the different types of buildings in our town?

In Futsal on Monday we were learning about different ways to pass the ball to our team mates.
In writing, we described how Echo arrived on earth and we used similes and adjectives to describe his spaceship. These are some examples we thought of
‘as colourful as Echo’
‘as big as the sun’
‘as beautiful as a butterfly’
‘as colourful as a rainbow’
‘as gassy as smoke’
‘as solid as gold’
‘as bright as the sun’

In Maths, we are learning about the value of digits in larger numbers. So we know that in 5380 the 3 is worth 300!

In Science we made our inventions with magnets from our designs. In the afternoon, four P7s came to judge our designs in the style of Dragons’ Den. We had to present our designs explaining their uses, how they worked and why we invented them. The p7s asked us questions about the inventions and then had a discussion about them and chose a winner which was the extendo-stick.

On Wednesday we enjoyed some Halloween fun for Halloween. We all got to enjoy a tasty, crunchy apple after dookin for it with a fork!

Table of the week – red with 560 points

Learning partners of the week – Archie and Lois.

What a super week it’s been in P6b!

In our writing and topic work we’ve been continuing with our exploration of space. We are in the process of finishing off our draft information texts on the Solar System and responding to our marking so that, next week, we can write our work out good for display. They are looking absolutely fantastic so far; we are focussing on our handwriting and using commas accurately as part of our punctuation focus.

We’ve also been continuing with our reading sessions whereby we’re reading in our groups and sharing our thoughts on the books we’re presently reading. Additionally, we are nearing the hilarious conclusion to our class novel: ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Dog Days’. We will be voting on our next class novel in due course.

In our maths learning we’ve finished our work on angles. The children have worked extremely hard on this and are really proficient at using a protractor accurately and efficiently. We have now begun working on perimeter which has also focussed on embedding our advanced 2d shape knowledge by naming the shapes we have been measuring for perimeter. Interestingly, we uncovered that, finding the perimeter of a shape with lengths involving a decimal point are best calculated by using the column addition method.

Lastly, we submitted our designs for the float, based on the Disney epic ‘Coco’. We watched a clip from the movie before thinking of ideas which best reflected the movie after which we intricately designed, drew and coloured in our creations.

Next week we will be finishing off responding to marking for our information texts on the Solar System before writing for display. In maths we will be continuing our perimeter learning which will move into measurement more specifically, using a ruler to accurately measure and draw lengths.

Welcome back, everyone! We have had a great, short week back!

In Maths we looked at the language of movement. We became programmers and programmed our ‘Robots’ to go to different places. The weather was good so we were able to go outside and do this.

We designed and made buildings for our town, thinking about the features of buildings, their purpose and where they would be found in a town.

In Health and WellBeing, we were learning about the importance of personal hygiene. We learned how to wash our hands properly and when to wash them.

Have a great weekend!

Eva – I liked learning about Mary Queen of Scots because she is really interesting.
Artjom – I liked having learning partners.
Lilyrose – My favourite thing this term is maths.
Hollie – I like futsal because I like sport.
Rowan – I liked using magnets and I liked futsal.
Ehan – I have enjoyed telling the time because it develops your skills.
Charlotte – I loved maths and science because they’re so much fun
Archie – I have loved having learning partners cause I get to work with so many people.
Lexi – I loved science.
Emily – I loved futsal.
Kyle – I enjoyed Maths because I love it.
Sara – I have enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots because it’s interesting.
Lois – I enjoyed futsal because it’s fun and you get tired!
Orality – I have enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots because I liked earning about her life. I also enjoyed hockey.
Jack – I enjoyed futsal this term.
Grace – I have enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots because it was interesting.
Maddison – My highlight of the term is Mary, Queen of Scots.
Luke – I have enjoyed maths challenges, writing letters and stories, reading books, PE and running about.
Akasha – I enjoyed Movie ‘Night’.
Alex – I enjoyed maths because I love it!
Elena – I enjoyed Mary, Queen of Scots because it is really fun (but not at the end for Mary!)
Lucas – I’ve enjoyed maths.
Rosie – My favourite things in P4a is learning partners.
Daniel – I enjoyed maths because I love it.
It’s been a really busy and fun term in P4a and we are all looking forward to a good break.
The table of the week this week is

With 540 points!

What a brilliant term it has been in P6b!

This week we finished our blog reports and they are absolutely fantastic! The children have worked extremely hard on these in a group setting and have had great fun expanding and sharing their tribal peoples knowledge.

In maths we have finished our work on percentages. The children have really done me proud with the effort and commitment they have been putting into their mathematics learning. Ask your children to convert a percentage into a fraction or decimal and be amazed!

Our reading books for next term have been collected and I have read the blurbs to the children, a taster for what to expect in the next term.

Specifically, this week, we have been delivering our presentations on rainforest animals to an audience, it’s great to see the commitment so many have put into these great works. Anyone delivering a presentation has also been asked to take and answer questions, everyone has completed this to a great degree.

In our expressive arts, P6b were the lucky recipients of a Firefly Arts session, a collection of really fun drama lesson which even the class teacher took part in and enjoyed.

Tomorrow, we will be celebrating our achievements for this term. We have ALL worked so hard and made each other proud, both personally and academically.

Well done on a great term, P6b, have a well-earned and deserved week off!

Beneath are our blog reports on the rainforest’s tribal people…tribal blog #3 tribal blog 1 tribal blog 5 trible blog 4 trible blog two

This has been a quick and exciting week!

In literacy, we have looked at other ways in which sentences can end. We can identify which sentences just use a full stop, which ones are a question and which ones need an exclamation mark. We have also been learning to write letters. This was quite tricky as we had lots of things to think about. We had to think about why we were writing, what we wanted to know and say, the layout of the letter and how to write in paragraphs.

In maths, we have been extending our knowledge of place value by ordering numbers and counting in tens and hundreds. We also looked at lines of symmetry. We used what we learned about this to create symmetrical butterflies in art.

In topic, we learned about the different types of houses that people live in and where we would find them in our Town. We have begun planning our own towns.

This week we also had a chance to participate in Drama which was provided by Firefly Arts. We had lots of fun playing a game called ‘Pressure’, making shapes with letter sounds and singing.

On Monday, we are looking forward to our trip around Bathgate. Please remember to wear something warm, waterproof and comfy shoes which are good for walking in.

(Parents who said they could accompany us on our trip on Monday, can you please come to reception for 1:20pm? Thank you!)

Have a great weekend!

P3b can also be found on the Balbardie Twitter account – lots of pictures there!

This week has been very changeable with lots of different weather. In French we were discussing the seasons and we have talked about the different weather we are experiencing!

We listened to a song about the seasons and we decorated trees to show the seasons.

In Maths, we started learning how to tell the time in analogue using minutes past and minutes to. It would be great if you could ask your children the time from an analogue clock using 5 minute intervals.

In science we found out how magnets could work through certain materials. We even discovered that they worked through our hands!
On Monday, we started a block of Futsal. Futsal is an indoor football game, using a smaller weighted ball so that we have more control. A throw-in in futsal is actually a kick in. We learnt to dribble.
On Tuesday we had Firefly arts in to work with us on drama. We did a song called Peel, peel, peel the bananas and we played some games with them. It taught us about teamwork and cooperation.

The learning partners of the week were Sarah and Sara.
Table of the week –
with 500 points!

We are pleased to announce our Balbardie champions for this term are:
Alfie, Alysheeya, Artjom, Daniel, Ehan, Elena, Emma, Hollie, Jude, Luke, Orlaith, Sam, Sara, Teigan.
We hope all the children enjoy celebrating our champions with them before we break up for the holiday!

We have had another fun-filled week in P4b.  In maths we have been continuing our work on shape with Mrs Rodger.

In numeracy we have been thinking of different strategies for subtraction and sharing our ideas with one another.

We wrote some coded letters this week like the ones Mary Queen of Scots might have written when she was a prisoner.  Some of us used some really clever codes!

We enjoyed our first futsal lesson on Monday and are really looking forward to having these lessons every week.

Have a lovely weekend.

Another busy week of learning in P2B.

This week’s Big Star was Anna, well done Anna, keep up the good work.

Here are our best bits of this week:

Sophie – A Bug’s Life

Mikolaj – Talking about sharing

Jack – The Little Red Hen

Ethan – 101 Dalmations when they tried saving the puppies

Kai – Maths

Oliver – The Little Red Hen

Thomas –  101 Dalmations when the puppies got saved and drove away in the van

Murray – A Bug’s Life, guess what would happened

Hannah – Doing the races in gym

Hollie – The Little Red Hen stick them in the right order

Daisy – A Bug’s Life finding out what was going to happen next

Sofia –  A bug’s life we were guessing what happened next. I liked when the bugs won.

Anna – 101 Dalmations, my favourite part was when all the puppies got saved.

Hope – Writing about our superheros

Ruby – 101 Dalmations when they got saved

Lois – 101 Dalmations

Ben – Getting marshmallows as a reward and 101 Dalmations.

From Miss Cowan