This week we have been continuing to learn about World War 2. We have been learning about the role of women during the war. Women had many different roles including farming, working in factories and working as nurses. This changed the image of women. We worked in groups to complete a critical skills challenge. We had to create a t.v advert for either rationing or women’s jobs. We had to use our criteria checklist to ensure we included everything. The t.v adverts were fantastic and we still have some to watch next week.#

In art this week we were exploring the use of hot and colours to create a mood or atmosphere in a picture. We use different shades of cold colours to create concentration camp pictures. We could choose whether to use chalk or paint. Some people chose to create a picture of an angry soldier and we used different shades of hot colours for this.

Some of the girls in our class have been helping Mrs Innes organise and choreograph the P2 school show. We had our performances of the show this week and it was wonderful. Well done to everyone involved and the primary 2 children.

See you next week!

On Friday we presented our last ever assembly on our learning about World War Two.  We all had lots of fun and we hope you did too!  Below you can see some pictures from the day!

In art we looked at propaganda from WW2.  Propaganda is biased information to promote a point of view .  We made our own propagana art. We enjoyed thinking of our own catchy and influential phrases. Here is an example:  if you want them to be free, make them evacuees.

In Heath and Wellbeing we were exploring the term ‘compassion’.  We then made cards for some people who we feel compassionate towards.  For example, someone gave their mum a card stating I will do the dishes for the whole week. We enjoyed doing this task and we hope that if you received a card you liked it!

Class dojo winners : Meadow and David

Table of the week :Team bones

Week beginning 6.3.17

This week in p7B we were focusing on our World War 2 context for learning especially the home guard. We learned what their purpose was to defend their local area.  Originally they didn’t have proper guns they had wooden replicas until America sent guns over, but unfortunately we had the wrong kind of ammo.

On Monday we took part in a drama work shop where we were spilt into groups and were all assigned tasks.  Our drama was performed in front of the p5s as well as parent/carers.  This taught people how to stay safe on the internet.

On Thursday Emma Davidson and Viggo Savage took part in a rotary quiz to represent Balbardie and they placed 4^th. we are all very proud of them .

Have a nice weekend!

Evie and Meadow

Week beginning 13.3.17

This week in P7b we have been putting lots of effort into our assembly practice and we have been working hard to perfect it. Our assembly will be on the 17^th of March at 9:10 am and we are very excited to show you. We hope you will enjoy it and learn loads, you can also join us for a nice tea and coffee, maybe a biscuit have a chat with your child too!!!

In writing we wrote an assessment piece. It was an imaginative story. The teacher gave us a topic- it had to be war related- we all quite enjoy writing (for the first time J.) We hope the teacher thinks they are impressive and at a good standard for going up to S1.

In topic we are learning about WWII and what it was like (It sounds tragic.) We started learning about Evacuation and The Blitz. We found out that Blitz was German for Blitzkreig which means Lightning War. Children had to take their gas mask, some clothes and some memories from their house.  They got a train out to the country and they lived with strangers if they didn’t have any relatives to go and lived with. Children may have enjoyed it because the cities were obvious places that the Germans would bomb.  During the nights of the Blitz everyone got next to no sleep because of the sirens and they had to run to the Anderson Shelter or their Morrison Shelter. London was attacked for 57 consecutive nights. Anyway that’s enough about the war!

Some winnings in our class!!

Class Dojo: Aidan and James

Table Of The Week: Team Bones

Have a nice week!!

David & Ryrie!!

In class we have been reading The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne for the past couple of weeks. The main character in the story is Bruno. He lived in Berlin until he moved to Out-With because of his father’s job. He isn’t sure what his job is but he understands that his father is quite important. Bruno absolutely hates it at Out-With because it is so boring and plain compared to his old one. Bruno was having a hard time with his older sister Gretel after they looked out the window. They saw long barbed wires stretching over a vast area containing scared looking men ans small boys. Bruno found it quite unusual that the men and small boys were all wearing the same blue and white striped clothes. There were tiny wooden huts in rows and the ground was a grey and sandy looking. Soldiers were shouting at some children to get in line and they looked petrified. Scared, they tried to forget it and return to their usual ways. Several weeks later Bruno was still bored with their new house and was finding it hard to remain calm with all the strange men coming in to the house to have meetings with his dad. Bruno was on a mission to find a tyre to make a swing because he had recently spotted a great tree for a swing and while he was searching for one he bumped into Gretel and a slightly older looking chap. He asked if they had seen any spare tyres about but the man, Lieutenant Kotler, was joking around to much to answer properly. Instead Bruno found his own tyre, made a very loose knot and tied it to the tree. The knot was too loose though so he fell of and then it banged him on the head. Pavel, the waitor, quickly ran outside and tended to his wounds. Once mother came back she was shocked to see that Pavel had helped Bruno. He didn’t know why, but his mother seemed annoyed…

By Olivia and Lucy

We have had a very busy week preparing for our pantomime. We had the dress rehearsal for Jack and the Beanstalk on Thursday and it went really well. We are looking forward to our family and friends coming to watch us perform next Thursday.

We had a PATPAL session on Wednesday. We enjoyed sharing our learning with parents and carers. We were sharing the different strategies we use to help us solve multiplication, division, addition and subtraction problems.

In numeracy the Decahedrons have been looking at fractions and how we can find equivalent fractions and simplify fractions to their simplest form. The hexagons and pentagons have been learning different multiplication strategies including factoring and adjusting.

Next week we are looking forward to our Burns’ supper and performing our Scottish country dancing!

We hope everyone had a great  Christmas holiday and a good new year.  We are looking forward to our last two terms at Balbardie!

This week we looked at four different religions practiced in China.  They include: Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and the Four noble truths.

Here are some facts we learned:

‘Yin and yang comes from Taoism.  This religion is about balance and harmony.’- Meadow

‘Buddhism started in India.  The story about the first Buddha is similar to the Christmas story.’- David

‘ The first Buddha was a prince.  He was ‘enlightened’ and wanted to end all suffering.’- Viggo

We learned that mandalas are significant pieces of art in Buddhism.  We followed a step-by-step process to create our own. A mandala is a piece of art where people can look into their soul and express themselves.  Each mandala is unique.  Common features of mandalas are floral and geometric designs with lots of colour.  We will complete our mandalas next week and upload a picture for you all to see our fantastic art work.

Have a good weekend,

P7b

Article 28- Right to an Education

We have had a busy second term in P7.  Here are some of our highlights during this time:

‘I liked doing the manga art.  I really liked drawing the big eyes on our characters.’- Meadow

‘I enjoyed going to the poppy factory.  I enjoyed learning about WW2 and making the poppies.’- David

‘I enjoyed going to the Academy.  I liked the treasure hunt because it was fun finding out facts about what we are going to learn.’ – Emma’

‘I enjoyed making a diorama which was a setting to one of our stories.’- Iona

‘I liked building one tenth of the great wall of China (to scale) with Lego.’- Callum D

‘I liked doing our comic strip writing.’- Aiden

‘I enjoyed writing our Halloween stories.  We had to describe the setting.’- Polina & Zoe

‘I liked rehearsing for Jack and the Beanstalk.’- Meadow

‘I enjoyed writing the imaginative Christmas story where we had to include 1o words chosen by us.’ – Millie

‘I enjoyed the Christmas party.’- Evie & Ryan

‘I enjoyed making products for the Christmas fayre.’- Lucy

‘I enjoyed doing a survey to see what to make for the Christmas fayre.’- David

Good luck to Aiden (aka Pokemon Go Kid) in his new school.  We will miss you!

Have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🙂

P7b

9 sleeps until Christmas!

We have been very busy the last two weeks. Last Wednesday we had our first visit to Bathgate Academy. We explored the school and the different departments during a treasure hunt activity. We worked in teams with some sixth year pupils to find the answers to questions about the academy. We all really enjoyed the visit and are now more excited about going to high school.

We were back up at the Academy on Wednesday to practise for the concert. We enjoyed our day even though we had to spend some time outside as the fire alarm went off! Some of us went back at night to perform the Christmas songs to family and friends. They all had a great time and they gave a great performance.

In maths the Pentagons and Hexagons have been learning about different multiplication strategies including partitioning and doubling and halving. The Decahedrons have been learning how to solve multi-step problems including all four operations.

In writing this week we had a challenge to write a Christmas story using 16 specific words. We came up with a list of words as a class. Most were Christmas themed but we also had to try and include platypus and caterpillar!

Last night we had out Christmas party. We enjoyed having the DJ there and spent the night dancing. The buffet was great and we stuffed our face with pizza and sausage rolls! Thanks to everyone for helping to organise the party.

We are all excited for Christmas and are looking forward to the Pantomime next week!

Class Dojo: Lexis

Pupil of the Week: Ellie

Today we went to Bathgate Academy for our first transition day.  When we arrived, Mr Connelly (head of Newlands House) gave us a summary of what to expect at high school.  For example, if you have a sibling you will probably be in the same house as them, there are approximately 90 members of teaching staff, periods are 50 minutes long and you can get up to 17 teacher a week!

Afterwards, we split into groups and participated in a treasure hunt around the school.  This showed us about the school and some of the things we might do in S1.  An example treasure hunt question was: what is the school motto?  We then had to go to the office to find this information.  We counted up the scores at the end of the hunt and Jack, Reiss, James and Rebecca answered the most questions correctly.

Lastly we went out for break in the quad.  We saw some familiar faces- siblings and former Balbardie pupils!  The playground is quite big!

We are now more excited to attend high school, meet new people and annoy our siblings!

P7b

In maths we have been learning about financial education.  Last week we explored the benefits and risks of using bank cards.  For example, using a bank card is a quicker way to buy a product, however, contactless on a bank card can be risky if you loose it.   This week we looked at the differences between bank cards and credit cards.  A bank card is your own money from your account, whereas a credit card is like a loan and borrowed money.  This means that you have to pay back interest.  We designed our own bank and credit cards and on the back we recorded our learning so far.

In class we have been learning about the one child policy in China, which was introduced in 1979 by Den Xiapping.  We learned about the advantages and disadvantages of this.  This was introduced because of the rising population in China.  Something had to be done, due to the lack of food, housing and resources.  Here are some pros and cons:

Pros- ‘It is now the two child policy.’- Aaron

‘China makes up 20% of the population but only 7% of farmland.  The one child policy helps to ensure there is enough food.’- Viggo

‘You get better benefits/awards if you stick to the one child policy. For example, if you get a loan, you don’t pay any interest’- Reiss

Cons- There is now a gender imbalance, with between 32-36 million more boys than girls. – Aaron

‘If you have one child, you can get really spoiled.’- Callum D

‘Some kids are getting abandoned- especially girls.’- Lucy

Last Saturday the pupils at Balbardie Primary School held their annual Christmas Fayre.  P7b chose to sell snow globes and confectionery.  We worked hard to decorate our products and made a profit, which will go towards our school funds.

To make our snow globes, we decorated Christmas pictures to place inside the clear dome.  We then filled it up with water to create our snow globes.  They looked fantastic when finished and we were proud of our products.

Thank you to the manager at Mrs Tilly’s for your generous donation of fudge, tablet and macaroon.  We decorated the products by wrapping them in cellophane and tying them with a Christmas ribbon.  We then glued on googly eyes and a red nose.  We sold all 94 bars and we hope everyone enjoyed their delicious treats!

Pupil of the week- Christopher

Class Dojo Winner- Iona

RRS- Article 28- Right to an education

This week we began our new context for learning ‘Exploring China.’  We started by sharing our previous knowledge and discussing what we would like to learn throughout the topic.  We started by finding out general facts about China including; the population is 1.35 billion, Mount Everest is in China and Nepal, there is no alphabet-they have characters instead and the capital city is Bejing.  We then worked in groups to complete a map activity where we filled in major cities and surrounding countries.

We also learned about manga art.  This is a popular type of artwork popular in Asia- particularly China and Japan.  We have seen manga art before in Pokemon, Dragon ball and Anime. Key features of manga art include; large eyes, big heads, tiny noses and mouths, small bodies and spiky hair.  We used manga to create our own characters.

This morning, we used our manga characters to create a comic strip.  Our comic strips had to include; caption boxes, thought and speech bubbles, onomatopoeia, and a plot with our created character.  We learned that there are different types of speech bubbles. For example, a jaggy speech bubble shows someone is shouting whereas a dotted speech bubble means that the character is whispering.  We thoroughly enjoyed this activity! 🙂

Last week’s pupil of the week- James

Table of the week- Mysterious 6

Class Dojo winner- Meadow

Last Wednesday we visited The Lady Haig Poppy Factory in Edinburgh.  When we got to the factory we had a talk from ex- servicemen and learned about significant events in WW1 and WW2.  We learned about what the men, women and children lived through and the impact it had on their lives.  We got to see gas masks, guns, helmets and uniforms etc from the war.

We went downstairs and had a tour of the factory. We saw lots of men working hard to make lots of different types of poppies.  One man had designed his own.

We also got to go into the board room and see all the medals issued to soldiers in various wars.

We learned that different countries have different poppy designs.  Lady Haig designed the Scottish poppy that we wear today.

Lastly, we were lucky enough to have time to make some of our own poppies by hand.  We had a brilliant day and learned lots of interesting information.

P7b

So this week we went to the poppy factory in Edinburgh. We learned lots about the First and Second world war. When we were learning about the Second world war we learned about gas masks, Anderson shelters and rationing. They also told us about the types of guns and uniforms soldiers wore. Gemma needed to wear what men wore to war and Geo had to wear the commando’s outfit they wore. Geo had to scream as loud as he could at the teacher. we also learn the drills if gas was coming and they were both very loud. We then got split into 3 groups to go round the factory and most of the machines where over 140 years old. They showed us each station and what they did. Just before we left they gave us a task to see who could make the most poppies. In one of the groups Jessie made 30 and Gemma B made 29 in the race. We all got to take at least 3 poppies home that we made. We had a great time at the poppy factory. Thank you for letting us come! Remember you can buy a poppy in school to show your support for the charity and to show that you are remembering those who have fallen during conflicts around the world.

by Gemma B and Ella

We have had a busy first week back after the October holidays.  On Wednesday morning, we were lucky to participate in a judo taster session by Destination Judo.  We learned how to do the Ogoshi hip throw.  This is when you put one hand on the sleeve of your opponent and the other round their back.  You then turn your hip into them and throw them over your back.  We also learned the newaza. This is a move on your knees where you aim to get your opponent on their back.

For writing this week we wrote a story where we attempted to describe the setting and character as best as we could.  To do this, we used figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia & alliteration), adjectives, adverbs and the five senses.

‘I enjoyed writing the story because I would say writing is one of my strong points.’- David

‘I liked writing a Halloween themed story.’- Aaron

‘I’m excited to put my story on didbook so Mrs Dunbar and parents can see it.’- Meadow

‘I liked listening to other peoples’ stories.’ -Valerija

For art we made a diorama.  This showed the setting for our writing stories.  We used our descriptions to bring our settings to life!  They look fab in our classroom. 🙂

This week there was an open evening at Bathgate Academy. Some people went to the academy to find out more about the school.

Gemma M – On Wednesday I went to the academy. We went to the maths department and I went on the computer to play some maths games.

Ben- At the academy I went to the CDT department and looked at all the tools. It was fun. I think I will like CDT when I go to high school.

Annie and Olivia  – We went to the P.E hall and met the gymnastics team and the P.E teacher. you can go a trip to Italy to watch a football game and play football.

Sarah-I went to the art department and watched some people do press printing.

Ramsay- I went to the science lab and put powder into the  burner to see how it would react. I’m looking forward to science when I go to high school.

We will be visiting the Academy throughout the year and we are all excited about our transitioning to secondary school.

by Zoe and Ellie