Another week bites the dust!

We have faced some tough challenges in maths this week however we do know that if our brain feels like it is hurting it’s because we are using it! We are all getting much better identifying inverses and we do all agree that identifying the link between multiplication and division is particularly hard.

Dave – When we were doing the harder co-ordinates I thought it was going to be too hard but I did it because I listened hard to the instructions.

Sam – We used triangles to help us learn that we can use times tables to work out division sums. I get it now.

Our Tools for Writing workshop this week was all about overused adjectives. We used a thesaurus to help us find alternative words.

Shaun B – the thesaurus helped me to understand that there are lots of different words I could use instead of ‘nice’ or ‘great’ in my sentences.

This morning we played a variety of games in class. We have been learning to take turns, share, wait and have patience. Some of us are finding it a little tricky to wait our turn. However we are getting better and will continue to work on this until the end of term.

Lewis and Carter worked together to build a vertical jigsaw. The needed lots of patience!

We  played frustration. We had to take turns and be patient.

We played connect four. This is a game of strategy and concentration.

We had a special moment this week in class. We all know that Jay is good at drawing but we were really surprised with his 3D drawing of a living room. It was amazing. He really understands the complexities of 3D drawing. Others in the class have tried to add a 3D perspective to their pictures and Jay has taken an advisory role which he thoroughly enjoys. Jay would like us to wait until his drawing is complete before posting a picture here on the blog. It’s nice to have an expert in class!

Have a great weekend!

This week in topic the Darwin explorers have been looking at plant adaptations and the special features plants have to survive in their habitats. We are now going to create our own species to live in a habitat we have previously created!

• Pondweed has long stems to hold it to the river bed.
• Daisys are brightly coloured to attract insects.
• Venus Flytrap can trap insects.
• Climbing plants grow up other things to get sunlight eg Ivy and Honeysuckle.
• Holly had red berries in winter which are easily seen by birds.
• Thick leathery leaves mean plant can retain water in different temperatures eg Ivy and Holly in cold temperatures and the Cactus in extremely hot temperatures.
• Some plants have prickles and thorns to stop them being eaten by wild animals – eg Holly, Cactus and Hawthorns.
• Bluebells store food in their bulbs.

This week I enjoyed learning about the Cactus – Ross

This week I really enjoyed learning about the Ivy and the Cactus plants – Abigale

This week I enjoyed looking at the Venus Flytrap because it was really cool! Sophie and Nadia

I enjoyed learning about the Ivy plant. Lily

I learned that birds see red really well and it is their favourite colour! Craig.

Josh learned that the leaves at the bottom of the Holly trees are more prickly than the ones at the top so that animals don’t eat them.

Abby learned that the Cactus stores water under its thick leathery skin.

In writing we have been learning about contractions – using an apostrophe to join two words to make one shorter word.

I learned this week that you can use an apostrophe to join 2 words together to make 1 shorter word! Taylor and Erin M.

Travis has enjoyed learning how to use an apostrophe.

Some other things we have learned…….

Leon learned that earth once was a ball of lava! Leon – wow!

Through my mini project I learned that the Volcano Maunaloa is the biggest in the world. It is 5,486 metres high! Ava – wow!

I learned about Cobra snakes, that when they are born the baby snakes sometimes kill or eat their sibling’s heads. Adam – wow!

As you can see, P5m have been very eager Darwinian explorers this week!

We are all looking forward to Fitness Fortnight!

Another great week in P5D!

In our tools for writing workshop this week we were learning to use the apostrophe to show when something belongs to someone. Some of us found it very tricky but with a bit of hard work and determination we got there in the end. Lily’s work was particularly good. Did you spot the possessive?

In maths everyone is working extremely hard to beat our best time with the loop cards so we’ve all been practising hard at home to sharpen our recall of the times tables. Hopefully we will be posting a new ‘best time’ soon! We have also been revisiting what we learned about the relationship between division and multiplication. Mrs Drummond says it’s amazing how much some people can forget in a short space of time and because of this we will now be getting a random check-up on this at least once a week for the foreseeable future.

In P.E. we have been learning about developing our ball handling skills. We have really enjoyed having Mr Gibson and Mr Collins teach us for the past few weeks.

We were really lucky this week to visit Bathgate Bowling Club. Here are some pictures from our time there-

Socialising at the bowling!

We were happy to learn that we will have a one hour session each Wednesday for the next three weeks.

Fun problem solving –

Ray has been trying for weeks to solve this puzzle. He had to match all four sides of each square to complete the puzzle. After several tries he was finally successful!

This was good fun but frustrating as well. Especially when I got to the last two pieces and realised they didn’t fit and I had to start again. I felt really proud of myself when I did it though. Ray.

Finally, yesterday in school we were celebrating success. Here is a list of words that we used this morning to describe the afternoon –

Anais- exciting                                                                                                               Shaun B- brilliant                                                                                                         Joe- phenomenal                                                                                                             Rebacca- proud                                                                                                               Catherine- awesome                                                                                               Sasha- successful                                                                                                         Ava- fun

We would all like to say huge congratulations to the following pupils in P5D who received awards –

Head Teacher’s Award – Anais Peel

Effort and Improvement – Lewis McCallum

High Standard of Work – Ray Jamieson

School Values – Lily McKenna

P.E. Champion – Ray Jamieson

Have a great weekend!

It’s been a short week but we have still been busy!

We are really enjoying our Scottish topic and building on what we were learning about last week we have all produced an A5 mini poster showing a Scottish landmark or something traditionally Scottish. Here are some of our efforts –

A  Scottish Thistle by Rachel.

Scottish things by Rebecca

The Scottish Flag and some Scottish words by Ray

The Loch Ness monster by Sophie

When we finished our mini posters we swapped them with a partner and had to give feedback about something we liked and something that could improve the poster.

In maths this week we have been learning about co-ordinates. Some of us are learning about quarter, half and whole turns while others are learning about identifying the position of an object on a co-ordinate grid. There’s also a group working on co-ordinates using the ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis.

Ava – Doing the co-ordinates was really fun and I think I am much better now.

Eve – At first I thought it might be hard but I had to refresh my memory of what I had learned before about co-ordinates and that helped me.

In music this week we have had lots of fun practising our song for the celebrating success event in school. We are focussing on dynamics and trying to use our voices to convey the emotive and rousing elements of the song.

Rebecca – I am finding it tricky to control my voice and not shout when I am singing the rousing bits.

Have a great weekend!

Another short week in P5m but still lots of learning to be done and interesting news……

Eva, Emma B and Katie are looking forward to singing our song at Celebrating Success.

Adam is looking forward to performing with his dance group, Pulsation Z at Deans High School! Well done Adam!

Nadia really enjoyed watching Rockford’s Rock Opera and learning all about extinction!

This week Sophie learned that all living things need MRSGREN!!! Can anyone remember what they stand for?

Ross is really enjoying singing ‘Let it Go’! (And is doing really well at it – Mrs M)

Aaron, Cameron and Josh are looking forward to our Darwin walk! (If it stops raining!)

Lily enjoyed showing the class her dad drumming in his bands called Eden’s Curse and Code of Silence! We all thought it was really cool!

Keep pracitising our song for CS!

This week we have been busy learning about our place in the world. We played an interactive game with a globe that helped us pinpoint where we live.

Rebecca – I learned that the globe is the 3D version of a 2D map.

Ray – I know that Scotland is in the United Kingdom along with Northern Ireland, England and Wales.

We have also been learning about things that are traditionally Scottish. Working in our table groups we had to record as many things as we could that we thought were traditionally Scottish. Here are some of the things we came up with –

Josh – Shortbread and tartan.

Eve – Bagpipes and the Scots language.

Anais – Irn-bru and whisky.

Dave – Scotch pies

Sam – Porridge and the Thistle.

Rachel – Highland cows and Shetland ponies.

Maths –

We have been learning about the decimal point and how to convert from pounds to pence and vice versa. In our mental maths we were quite disappointed when tried the loop cards for the first time this term …..our time wasn’t as good as we expected ! We are all keen to work hard to improve and get back to our best!

Language –

We are all enjoying our Tools for Writing rapid fire game. Mrs Drummond throws a football at someone (it’s a sponge one !) and we have to be able to say what type of word she said. Was it a preposition/adjective/noun/proper noun/connective/verb/adverb ? It keeps us on our toes and helps us with our writing.

Well it’s the holiday weekend so that’s it for now. Have a good one everybody and remember to stay safe no matter what you are doing!

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!

P5m are really glad to be back in school after the holidays!!!

There are lots of exciting things happening this term.

We have the Sky Sports Festival on Wednesday 7 May.

Our topic is What a Wonderful World – a biology focus (Ava) , we will be looking at plants and animals (Emma B).

Here are some of the things we are looking forward to…

Mirren is looking forward to Celebrating Success.

Leon is looking forward to the Golden Club event already!

Nadia is looking forward to learning about Darwin.

Ava is looking forward to doing the topic it sounds fun already and we’ve barely started.

Eva and Lily are looking forward to learning about animals and plants.

Travis is looking forward to Fitness Fortnight.

Erin H is looking forward to the home learning task – where you have to give a talk on any subject!

Taylor is looking forward to learning about how plants live.

The term sounds really exciting! 

Mrs McClafferty is really looking forward to getting outside and investigating all the different species of plants in different habitats!

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!

We researched Florence Nightingale and I learned about her childhood.  Sophie

I learned that the first car ever made only had 3 wheels! Craig

I learned that the sewer system was invented during the Victorian era and because the poor people had to drink dirty water they contracted cholera. Emma C

I enjoyed learning about flexibility in PE. Charlie

Taylor learned that yoga can calm you down a lot!

I enjoyed running 10 laps of the hall for Sports Relief. Josh, Erin M and Ross

Drew enjoyed giving his class talk on the invention of the train.   It was invented by George Stevenson.

I enjoyed watching the Wizard of Oz.  Leon and all of P5m!

This week the following people did their class talks on Victorian Inventions:

Nadia did her talk on the sewer system.

Katie did her talk on the electric light bulb.

Emma B did her talk on the telephone.

Megan did her talk on toys during the Victorian era.

Robbie did his talk on the telephone.

Mirren did her talk on oil refining.

Drew did his class talk on the train.

Cameron did his class talk on the camera.

Craig did his class talk on the car.

Well done to all those people that gave a class talk.

Finally, a huge well done to both P6 classes and all the staff involved for putting on a wonderful production of the Wizard of Oz!

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!

Here are some things we have enjoyed so far this week…..

Aaron, Craig and Travis enjoyed having an extra PE lesson on Wednesday!

In PE this week Sophie enjoyed learning about strength and play Bulldogs and Beetles. 

Taylor, Josh, Robbie  and  Lily enjoyed making Easter eggs with Miss Henderson.

Cameron enjoyed the Big Start weighing challenge!

P5m have been presenting their class talks on Victorian inventions.

Erin Hardwick, Ava and Adam class talk was  on the telephone! How did people ever survive without telephones!!

Eva’s class talk was on the X-Ray!

Charlie’s class talk was on Coca Cola! Nadia learned from Charlie’s talk that Coca Cola was used to make cough medicine taste nicer!

Lisa’s class talk was on the type writer! 

Erin Madden’s class talk was on the camera! Say cheese!

Ross and Mirren really enjoyed listening to all the class talks!

Scott’s class talk was on the car!

Aaron’s class talk was on the train!

Well done to all those who gave their class talks and good luck to those who still have to present.

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!

P5m are really excited about making scones and delicate cucumber sandwiches for our open morning on Friday – we hope you can join us!

This week we have been learning ……

A Victorian work song – Ava & Leon

We learned about how rich Victorian children lived – Erin H

Emma C  & Ava  learned that the youngest age for a chimney child was 4!

Craig learned that a lot of Victorian families had up to 10 children! Crikey!

Eva learned that rich Victorian families liked to holiday by the seaside. ‘Oh we do like to be beside the seaside, oh we do like to be beside the sea’……………

Adam learned that rich children were scared of their parents and that they were raised by a nanny and a governess.  Adam also learned that rich girls would be married off as soon as possible and boys would have to go to work.  Well done Adam, you have shown that you have learned alot this week!!

Ross learned that rich Victorian children were only allowed downstairs to see their parents for 1 hour a day.  There wasn’t very much love between parents and children.

Nadia learned that Victorian children had no rights, but children today do have rights that protect them,

Ali learned that children that worked in the factories often feel into the machinery and got killed.

Josh learned that later in the Victorian period children at the age 10 were banned from being chimney sweeps.  Ross learned that chimney sweeps  often lied about the age of the chimney children. 

Robbie enjoyed painting the chimeny for our chimney child wall! And what a great job Robbie, Lily, Emma B, Mirren and Mrs Oag did! Thank you!

Brilliant blogging P5m!

I’m looking forward to seeing who can remember the Afternoon Tea Party Etiquette tomorrow! Remember, get that pinky in the air!!

Mrs McClafferty & P5m!

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!

The Post Blog this week was to write  about, ‘Something that I know now that I didn’t know on Monday.’  Here are some of our responses.

Writing skillls – we were learning how to use speech marks in our writing and used a sandwich as an analogy!

I now know where to put speech marks.  Cameron

I now know that speech marks are like the bread in a sandwich! Emma C

I now know that closing speech marks come after the punctuation. , ? ! Charlie, Scott and Ali

I  now know an easy way to use speech marks. Ava

Handwriting

I now know how to join ‘d and e’.  Ross and Lily.

Maths

I now know an easy way to do missing number sums. Mirren

I now know how to do missing number sums.  Katie

Drama

I now know that in drama, you need Confidence, Cooperation, Communication, Concentration and Coordination. Eva

LAC

I now know that teachers would cane you if you were late! Erin H

I now know that Victorian toys were fun.  Megan

I now know that Queen Victoria was the Empress of India.  Drew and Taylor

I now know that chimney children go to clean the chimneys with a chimney sweep but the chimney child will do all the hard work.  Emma B

I now know that the chimney children could die from all the soot and smoke.  Craig

I now know that if you didn’t clean the chimneys in the Victorian days all the soot would go into the rooms.  Abby

Finally……and perhaps most importantly…….

I now know that Monday and Tuesday are holidays! Sophie

Hope you all enjoy the long weekend!

I’m looking forward to our Victorian tea party!

Mrs McClafferty

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?