Last week we began our new topic ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’.  We discussed dinosaur objects and recorded what we knew/wanted to learn.  We were very interested in dinosaur footprints.  As a result, we learned what fossils are and that palaeontologists study fossils.  We made our own dinosaur fossils using dough and went digging for pretend bones in the sand pit. 

We also looked at the different sizes of dinosaurs.  Did you know that a brachiosaurus was as tall as eight men standing on each other’s heads, a stegosaurus was as big as a bus and a T-Rex’s tooth could have been as long as 20cm! 

We labelled different parts of a dinosaur’s body.  During this we learned that a stegosaurus had plates on its back to defend itself from attack.

Thank you to Lauren as she went a trip to the museum last weekend and brought in a fossil and dinosaur egg for us to see.  We put the dinosaur egg in water and it’s beginning to crack.  We are very excited to see the dinosaur inside!

There was great excitment today at our Open Morning with lots of mums, dads and grandparents coming to visit our classroom and taking part in a range of activities.  Thank you to everyone who came and we hope you enjoyed it.

This week we have started our new topic ‘Superheroes’.  The topic came from the children’s  own  interests and is proving to be a great success.  On Tuesday we created our own superhero character and we will develop these further next week.

Mrs Leamy returned on Thursday to find that Superhero Mission Control had landed in our classroom.  We are going to add things over the coming weeks to make it a superhero base.

During outdoor P.E on Thursday we enjoyed some superhero time showing lots of our superhero skills.  We will keep you posted of our superhero developments and if you are in an emergency and need some superhero help you know where to call:)

This term, with Mrs Innes, we have completed a range of musical activities.  We would like to share some of our learning with you! 

 Lauren- ‘we learn songs.  One of them is called the Monkey Puzzle Tree.’

 Mia- ‘We sing a song called the ‘Hairy Scary Castle!’

Isabella- ‘We play musical instruments to learn to keep the beat.  We play xylophones, African drums, claves and glockinspeils.’

 Amy- ‘I like the song Hairy Joe.’

 Emma- ‘We learned a ghost dance.’

 Ailah- ‘We use ribbons to dance.’

Mia- ‘We also play tambourines and wood blocks.’

James- We play instruments when singing the songs.’

Thank you to everyone who commented on last weeks blog, it was great to read everyone’s comments.

This week has been a mix of Katie Morag, Internet Safety and Building Safety.  The week started with a safety talk about the building works which began this week.  Steven from the building company came and told us all about the possible dangers and what we have to watch out for during the building works.  Mr Welsh does not need to worry because straight after the talk lots of people came back to class and had the new gym hall built before we knew it and followed all the safety advice along the way.

Tuesday was Safer Internet Day and we learned 4 top tips to keep us safe when we are using things connected to the internet.  We watched a film which helped us remember the tips and made puppets to help reinforce the message of not giving away any personal information.

This afternoon we had great fun ending our Katie Morag topic with a Grannie Island Ceilidh with singing, dancing and a story.

Hello Everyone

Hooray! Today was our assembly and we were brilliant.  Everyone was amazing at remembering their lines, actions, songs, music and movements, it was great.  We would like to share with you what we liked best and some pictures from this morning.

Alfie – I really liked being a dove and singing the Rainbow Song.

Emily and Liam – We were good at making the rain noise.

Jay – My favourite songs were Who Built the Ark and the Rainbow Song.

Callum – Being Noah was good and l liked everything.

Maisey – It was good to see my mum.

Megan – When we first did it l felt nervous but when l saw Mum l was happy.

Enci – I loved all of it, especially holding the rainbow and when Jacob walked with the rain.

Suvi – I liked being a narrator because l had lots of things to say.

Lucas – My favourite songs were Rain, Rain Go Away and the Rainbow Song.

Alex – It was great to get my certificate and Mummy see me.

Well done to everyone, you were brilliant and  Mrs Spence, Miss Fisher and l are very proud of you.

Today we took part in Day for Change by dressing down and donating £1 to UNICEF.  This year’s Day for Change focussed on Article 28- The right to an education.  We learned that some boys and girls do not get to go to school because they do not have enough money or because their school has been destroyed.  We read a story about a girl called Angita from Madagascar whose school was destroyed by a bad storm.  We learned that UNICEF can help build schools for children like Angita and that our money will help with this.  We drew pictures of Angita’s school before and after UNICEF’s help and thought about how lucky we are to have our school!  We were delighted with our Day for Change stickers at the end of the day.

Thanks for taking part,

P1b

On Monday we worked with Primary 4 to complete some Scottish activities. We worked with a partner to learn the Scottish Dance The Gay Gordons. In class the P4’s also helped us to learn the Scottish names for different pieces of clothing.  We learned that glecks are glasses, goonie is a dressing gown, breeks are trousers, gutties are gym rubbers and lastly a peenie is an apron. To learn these words we played pin the clothes on the girl, port and starboard (with a Scottish twist), pairs and a colour match task. 

 On Tuesday Mr MacDonald visited us to tell us all about Island life.  We found out that Mr MacDonald grew up on the Isle of Lewis.  We learned different ways of getting to the island and were fascinated that a ferry can carry cars on board.  He also showed up pictures of the, the local light house, beach, the pier and his house he lived in.  We learned lots of interesting facts and loved asking questions at the end.  Thank you to Mr MacDonald for speaking to us-we really enjoyed it.

Miss Bollen and P1b

Hello Everyone

Friday again, the weeks seem to go so quickly.  This week we enjoyed lots of different activities.  On Monday we listened to the story of Katie Morag and the Tiresome Ted and talked about the different emotions Katie felt.  We had a circle time and shared our own experiences before drawing faces of Katie Morag as she goes through the story.  On Tuesday morning we all had the chance to bake porridgies with Mrs Jamieson and in the afternoon we ate them, they were delicious.  We had a great time on Tuesday afternoon when Mr MacDonald came to talk to us about his life growing up on a Scottish island.  He had some super pictures and we asked him lots of great questions.  It turns out Mr MacDonald has seen a lot of sharks and dolphins. With Mrs Spence we followed on from our work on Katie Morag and wrote about a time we had felt angry, it turns out a lot of us can get quite angry with our brothers and sisters! Thursday morning was buddy time and this week we read our new books with our buddies, they were all very impressed with how well we are doing.

Bye for now.

P1l

This week we have been looking at the Isle of Struay and we have created part of it in our classroom.

Our first task was to work with a partner to create one of the houses from the island.  We tried to include lots of detail from the pictures we had.  When we started our topic Alfie asked what kind of animals might live on the Isle of Struay. On Tuesday Mrs Leamy asked us what kind of animals might we see round Bathgate and as well as lions and chinchillas we thought maybe squirrels, foxes and rabbits.  We then had a look at the animals that Katie Morag might see and we found out she could see puffins, otters, seals and even basking sharks.  We drew them and added them to our display and we are sure you will agree it looks great.

We also thought about the weather on Struay and how it would effect people getting there.  We used the internet to look at the weather in Bathgate and on the Isle of Coll.  We found out that often it was warmer on Coll but also windier.

Bye for now P1l

P1m are missing Mrs Mooney and wish her a speedy recovery.

This afternoon, we looked at examples of Get Well Soon cards, and then we created our own cards for Mrs Mooney.

Firstly we designed our cards, and then we added messages to Mrs Mooney inside the cards.  Our emergent writing skills are developing very well, and the children were able to use lots of the sounds and words that we have been leaning in their writing.  We are hoping that postman Welsh will deliver them for us tomorrow.  🙂

Thank you to all of the parents who have handed cards in for Mrs Mooney.  She is touched to have so many people thinking about her.

  Happy New Year from P1l

 It is great to be back at school and hear about what everyone has been doing in the holidays and it seems that Santa Claus visited everyone’s house 🙂

 We started the year with a new topic looking at the Katie Morag stories.  We began with a task called I see, l think, l wonder where we looked at some pictures of a Scottish Island and shared our thoughts.  Some people wondered things about the island like what kind of animals live there, which we will try and answer during the topic.

 We also drew pictures of Katie Morag and we had to work on including lots of detail.  We took our time to look at a picture from a book and then tried to put all the things we could see in our own drawings.  Our pictures were amazing, Mrs Leamy couldn’t believe how much our drawing skills have developed already.

 With Miss Henderson in R.M.E we looked at the story of Noah’s Ark and we are going to be working on the story for a few weeks, ending with our assembly on the 7th February.  Please put this date in your diary as it would be great to see lots of mums, dads and family there.

 In maths we are continuing with addition and this week we look at the number facts for 6.  We found out there are 7 different ways you can make 2 numbers add up to 6.

 We had lots of fun outside on Thursday for our P.E slot, it was a lovely afternoon and some of us even took our jumpers off! We were practising travelling around obstacles, following people and stopping really quickly. Let’s hope the weather stays as good for next week.

 Bye for now p1l

We have had a busy first week back at school! On Monday we started our new Katie Morag topic. In Katie Morag and the New Pier there is a storm.  We discussed storms and wrote our own story to describe one.  We also watched half of the story Katie Morag Delivers the Mail then drew pictures to predict what would happen next.  Most of us guessed correctly that Katie Morag would deliver the parcels to the wrong people. 

 We have learned that Katie Morag lives on an island in Scotland.  During our shared start this week, we completed different Scottish activities.  We painted a Scottish flag, made a thistle collage and designed a tartan piece of clothing for a teddy bear.

 This week we explored syllables.  Isaac explained that a syllable is ‘when a word is broken into chunks.’  We completed lots of fun tasks to count syllables in words.  For example, we played a game on Education city, clapped the number of syllables in our name, completed a cut and stick and went fishing for pictures then counted the number of syllables.  We will complete more syllable activities next week.

Bye for now,

P1b

We have enjoyed being back at school and everybody has been excited to share all of their holiday news.

We are working hard to learn new sounds and tell the time on digital and analogue clocks.

We have started a new topic all about Mairi Hedderwick’s Katie Morag, which will help us to learn more about the country that we live in. 

Today we enjoyed reading about island life in Katie Morag and the New Pier.  We are very glad that Bathgate isn’t quite as stormy as the island of Struay!

We are looking forward to welcoming our parents into the classroom for Shared Start tomorrow.

Last week we had our Nativity performances.  We worked extremely hard to learn our lines, sing our songs and remember our actions etc.  We looked super in our costumes and loved performing for our family and friends.

 Last Thursday, we went to the theatre to watch the panto Alladin.  We thought it was really good and gave it a big thumbs up.  Isabella liked it when the dragon was hiding from Wishy Washy.  Isaac thought it was funny when the Super heros came out and Ailah said it was scary when the baddie appeared!

 This week, in class, we made penguin figures to eat.   We made them with olives, cheese and carrots and used cocktail sticks to hold the peguin in place.  Most of us enjoyed tasting the treats! We also tasted some of the gingerbread house that Jaime-Lee made-it was yummy.

 Yesterday we had our Christmas party.  We played games including; pass the parcel, musical bumps, corners and had a dancing competition.  We enjoyed party food and even had a visit from Santa! 

Have a lovely Christmas,

P1b

Our busy week has come to an end and everyone has done so well. 

The Nativity was brilliant, everyone in the whole school saw it and the hall was jam packed on Tuesday and Wednesday when family and friends came.  On Thursday it was our turn to be the audience when we went down to the Regal to see Aladdin.  Here are some of our favourite bits:

Calum – I liked it when the baddie came on.

Kay – I enjoyed seeing Aladdin and Jasmine getting married.

Alfie – It was funny when the guards were running around chasing Aladdin.

Kaite – I enjoyed all of the panto.

Lots of people agreed with Calum and liked the baddie best.

In the afternoon we got a sneak preview of the Nursery Nativity when we went up with Mrs Hay, we all thought it was looking very good. After that it was buddy time and we made Christmas cards with our buddies.

In maths we are all doing really well remembering our number facts to 5 and we also looked at doubles this week.

Next week we are looking forward to our Christmas party on Thursday and the Church Service on Friday.

Bye for now, P1l

On Wednesday Primary One went a trip to our local library.  When we got there, the librarian read us three stories; ‘Jumblebum’, ‘Paperdolls’ and ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf’.  We then voted on our favourite and shared our thoughts on these stories.  Our teachers we very impressed with our good listening skills.

 Also on Wednesday we had another great shared start.  We had fun making lots of Christmas crafts.  The Santa hats were very popular.

 We have been practising very hard for our Nativity performances next week.  We hope to see you next Tuesday at 9:30am or 2:30pm on Wednesday. 

Have a great weekend,

P1b

Today all of Primary 1 visited Bathgate Library.  When we got there we listened to the 3 stories which are shortlisted for the Scottish Book Trust book awards. There was Jumblebum, Paper Dolls and What’s the Time Mr Wolf.  Everyone did really well walking there and back and our listening skills were superb. 

After hearing the stories we voted for which was our favourite.  Jumblebum came out on top and Jason said he liked the story because it reminded him of his room which can also be a mess.  Thank you to the library for asking us to visit and to everyone that helped us today.

We have been busy making items to sell at the Christmas fayre.  We decorated tea light holders by painting them, making patterns with glitter glue and sticking on gems.  We also made star Christmas tree decorations with coloured lolly pop sticks.  We decorated them with gems and sparkly glitter. They all look beautiful!  Hope you can come along tomorrow!

 This week some of us have been exploring somersault sums.  Euan explained that 2+3 is the same as 3 + 2.  We really enjoyed going on a treasure hunt to find the matching somersault sum and making up our own somersault sums.

 We would like to remind parents/carers that you are invited to come along to our shared start on Wednesday morning between 8:55-9:30am.  We will be completing some nice Chritmas crafts!

 Have a nice weekend,

P1b