Last Saturday was the school’s Christmas Fayre. We are very pleased that we managed to sell all of our advent calendars, bracelets and key-rings. Here are some of our thoughts on the day:

‘It was fun and a lot bigger than last year. I bought sweets, a snow cone and a DVD.’ – Leon

‘It was very busy.’- Robbie

‘The snow cones were good.’- Sasha

This week during story writing we started to write a children’s story book for our P1 buddies. Our stories had to include a character which was described in detail. We used adjectives and adverbs to describe our main character. To up level our writing, we also tried to show how our characters were feeling without stating it. E.g. instead of the boy was happy we said things like the boy had a huge smile on his face. We will redraft our work next week to make our books and include colourful illustrations.

Today we watched the P1 Nativity dress rehearsal. The show was really good and we are proud of our buddies and all of their hard work. Good luck for the real shows next Tuesday and Wednesday!

Pupil of the week- Robbie
Class Dojo winner- Leon
RRS- Article 28- Right to an Education

What we have been learning this week:

• Drama – We have been auditioning for the P7 panto. We will find out out parts next week. Cinders will be performed in January.
• Writing – We have been learning how to write a good ending to a story. We read a story about a young child who lived in London during the war. We had to write an interesting ending to the story. A good ending must link back to the opening, describe the thoughts and feelings of the character and solve all the problems. Also, to make it interesting we had to either end with a cliffhanger, a twist or a sequel.
• Modern Languages – In French this week we have been learning the days of the week and months of the year. We can now tell Miss Elliot the date in French. We have also been learning different the names for different colours. As we have been learning about WW2, we wanted to learn some German. Miss Elliot has taught us how to count to 10 and say our name.
• Reading – We are continuing to read the Boy in Striped Pyjamas. This week we have been focussing on describing the characters in the story based on what we have read so far and discussing how the author creates different atmospheres in the story.
• Maths – This week the pentagons have been continuing to mental multiplication strategies including adjusting numbers. The Hexagons and Octagons have worked hard the last two weeks to subtract three and four digit numbers mentally. The Decahedrons have worked hard on adding 3 digit numbers.

Awards:

Class Dojo: Carter and Jamie

Pupil of the Week: Sophie W

Article 28: Right to an Education

Week beg. 16.11.15
This week we made products for the Christmas fayre. The boys made santa and snowmen beaded keyrings and the girls made Christmas themed charm bracelets. Everyone also designed advent calendars to sell at our stall.

At Buddy time, we helped our buddies design posters to advertise the Christmas Fayre. It was important to include information such as the date, location and eye catching pictures. Reminder- School Christmas Fayre will take place next Saturday the 28th of November.

This week, as part of our context for learning, we started a class novel called The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. We read chapter one together then worked with a partner to write a summary of what we read and find the meaning of tricky words. We also discussed the character in the story so far. We are looking forward to reading chapter two next week.
Pupil of the week- Ross McPhee
Class dojo winner- Josh Cunningham
Article 28- Right to an Education

Week beg. 23.11.15
Last week in P.E we earned our five fireballs for achieving our targets. This week we got a free game of choice. We chose dodgeball and enjoyed this game.

‘I made some good catches to put people out.’ – Leon

On Thursday Mr Welsh came into our class to explain didbook. This is an online educational profile which is used at Bathgate Academy. This is a good way to let the teacher’s know information about us in advance. In class we updated our personal profiles. Over the next few months we will also add to the enrichment diary and skills section. We are very excited about this and have been logging on at home!

This week we learned about rotational symmetry. This is how many times a shape can fit into itself. For example, a square has the order of rotational symmetry of 4. We completed a table to show this information for a range of 2D shapes.

Have a nice weekend. We hope you can come along to our Christmas Fayre tomorrow.

Pupil of the week- Abby
Class dojo winners- Eva & Josh
Article 28- Right to an Education

This week, in writing, we wrote a World War 2 poem. Our learning intention was to write a rhyming poem. For our plan we had to record relevant words that rhyme. E.g : Soldiers dying , bullets flying, trenches filled with mud, soldiers covered in Blood. We learned more about features of a poem such as capital letters at the beginning of each line and commas at the end of each line except the last in the verse etc.

This week we also did some art work. We used chalk to create flames on black card then used another piece of card to make a silhouette of a building, plane or something else to do with the blitz. We also considered perspective and how close the objects are in relation to each other.

Pupil of the week- Abby
Class dojo winner- Josh
Article 28- Right to an Education

This week we have been learning more about World War 2. We have been learning about the main events during World War 2 and have been organising these in chronological order to create a timeline of the war. We are going to learn about some of these events in more detail by researching them in a small group. We are working with children from P7b to research a main event and we are going to create a powerpoint to present to the rest of the class. We need to share our knowledge with them and create an activity for them to do.

In writing we used our knowledge of the main events leading up to the outbreak of War to write a newspaper article. We had to include the main features of a newspaper report including headline, caption, orientation and reorientation (beginning and ending). In reading this week we were discussing the difference between fact and opinion and how they can be used to persuade the reader. We had to use opinions in our writing to persuade our audience to support their country and the decisions the Government made.

We had a memorial service on Wednesday led by the choir who did a fantastic job. We re-drafted our Remembrance poems to put on display to remind people to think about those who have died at war. Also, we have created battlefield pictures. We were learning how to use line and shade to create texture.

In buddy this time week we helped our buddies to decorate their tea light holders to sell at the Christmas Fayre.

Class Awards:

Pupil of the Week: Taylor

Class Dojo: Scott

Right to an Education: Article 28

On Tuesday we went a trip to Bathgate Academy to start our transition process. We went to start to get to know the school a bit better and begin to learn our way around. When we arrived we asked questions to find out information. As a result, we were told what we can do if we get bullied, what sports activities are available, why the corridors operate a one way system and how many periods are in a day. Afterwards we got a run around the playground and chatted to some 1st year students! Next we split into groups to complete a treasure hunt activity. We were given areas of the school to go to and questions to answer. For example, we had to go to the school hall to find out the school motto. We had a 6th year guide to show us where to go. The first group back that answered the most amount of questions won a pen as a prize.

Today we took part in a Big Balbardie Blether to discuss our thoughts on Golden Time and the Golden Club. For Golden Time, we discussed the possibility of signing up to selected activities in different classes. For instance, there could be board games in one class and arts and crafts in another. Some of us like the idea of mixing with other children and having more options while others would prefer to stay in our own class. The results will be collated and feedback to us soon.

Have a good weekend,
P7b

Class dojo winner- Ray

Article 28- Right to an Education

On Monday our parents and carers were invited along to our school for our Rainforest open afternoon. During this we had a fruit tasting stall where we got to try different fruit from the Amazon. We tried mango, papaya, pineapple, coconut and guava juice. We also got to taste dark chocolate and a hot chocolate drink made from this. Most of us did not enjoy the dark chocol
ate!!

In addition, we had the opportunity to show off our fabulous work and play the rainforest games we created in our vertical learning groups. Our parents/carers gave us very positive feedback and enjoyed seeing all of our hard work.

This week to conclude our context for learning, we exolored the Awa tribe from the Amazon. We learned about their diet, how their homes are made and their threats etc. We watched videos and used the netbooks to complete a factfile on the Awa. After that, we completed a venn diagram to compare and contrast their lives to ours.

We have had a good first term and are looking forward to the October break!

Miss Bollen and P7b

Article 28- Right to an Education

In our Vertical Learning Groups we were making lots of different board games about the rainforest for our open afternoon. The games we made include; snakes & ladders, Pictureka, guess the animal and pin the tail on the jaguar. We have had lots of fun during our vertical learning and have been planning our open afternoon. We hope our families are looking forward to it as much as we are.

In writing for the past few weeks we have been writing the beginning, middle and end of our rainforest adventure stories. We have learned about the different qualities of a good piece of writing. In the beginning of our stories we included our senses to try and hook the readers. In the middle we included a problem and in the end we gave a solution to the problem and some of us also included a cliff hanger or a twist.

We have had another great week in primary 7 and hope you’ve had a great week too!

Article 28- Right to an Education

Blog written by Cat.A and Emma.B

On Monday some P6’s & P7’s stayed behind after school to trial for the school football team, which is run by Mr Cunningham. There were only 21 spaces and 42 went along for the trial! At first we discussed the position on the field we would want and then we went outside to play. There were two teams playing at the same time. Before going home, Mr Cunningham revealed the names of the people who had made the team. We are really proud of our efforts and are looking forward to our first game on the 12th of October against St Mary’s.

This week we looked at 3D shape once more. We had different stations related to 3D shapes set up in the class which we rotated around in our groups. We were revising the number of faces, edges and vertices on different 3D shapes. At one of the stations we discussed why we think certain products are made in a particular shape. E.g. dice are a cube shape so that it lands on one side to read the number. At another station we played 3D games online on the netbooks to reinfore our learning intention. We also had an activity where we had to match the shape to its net. Next week we will explore 2D shapes.

Have a nice weekend,

P7b

Article 15- Right to make friends and join groups
Article 28 -Right to an Education

This week we continued our vertical learning groups. We worked in different classes to complete various rainforest related tasks.

In Mrs Stutt’s class we learned about deforestation. This is when people cut down trees and make the rainforest smaller. This ruins the rainforest animal’s habitat which can lead to extinction. We had a debate about the pros and cons of cutting trees. An example pro is that we can make paper, pencils and furniture etc. Example cons are animal extinction and there’s less oxygen in the world. We learned that 4, 000 trees are cut down in the rainforest every hour! We can plant new plants/trees, recylce and turn off lights etc when not in use to help the environment and save animals and their habitats.

In Miss Elliot’s class we chalked animals from the rainforest. We used a black crayon to draw the outline the coloured them using vibrant colours- they look really impressive.

In Miss Haddifon’s class we made terraniums. This is a plant in a bottle. We were reminded that a plant needs heat and light to survive. Moisture is created at the side of the bottle from the heat and light which waters the plant. This helps to demonstrate the water cycle.

In Miss Bollen’s class we made an aboriginal art piece using the pointallism technique. Our art piece had to include a rainforest animal and aboriginal symbols to tell a story. We had great fun.

Have a great weekend,

P7b

Article 28- Right to an Education

3D shapea

This week we have been busy learning about different animals that live in the Rainforest. On Tuesday we had a visit from Calum at Cool Creatures. He brought along some animals for us to meet. He brought along a tortoise, a rat and a millipede. He also had a huge snake and a tarantula for us to hold. Most of us were very brave and managed to hold or touch all of the animals. Here are some pictures of us with the animals:

We had our second vertical learning challenge this week. We had to work in groups to create some animals of the Rainforest. We had to work with others to create animals that were different sizes and types. We are adding these to our display and they look great.

In literacy we have been learning about similes and used similes in our writing this week. We wrote poems about an animal in the Rainforest. We researched the animal using the i pads and used this information to help us write a descriptive poem.

We hope you all had a good week and have a lovely weekend!

Awards:

Class Dojo: Cameron

Pupil of the Week: Eve

Rights: Right to an Education (Article 28)

On Tuesday Callum from Cool Creatures came to our class to tell us information about the Amazon rainforest and let us see some of the animals that live there. He brought five animals including; a tarantula, tortoise, snake, millipede and a rat. We also got to hold them. It was quite tickly when the tarantula and millipede were on us. The rat was only seven weeks old and had an accident on the floor! The snake was very scaly and heavy and hissed at some of us!

By Josh and Dave

Pupil of the week- Josh Cunningham
Table of the Week- Frizzy Frogs
Class dojo winner- Emma Bradley and Robbie Leigh-Sinnott

Article 28- Right to an Education

This week has been very busy. We have mainly been rehearsing for our assembly. Thanks to everyone who came along to our assembly today! We had a fantastic time and we hope you all enjoyed it! We worked hard all week to learn the songs and learn our lines. We wrote ‘The School’s Greatest’ ourselves and we hope you enjoyed it.

We have started learning about the Amazon Rainforest. We know that rainforests are found near the equator and the have a hot and wet climate most of the year. We found out that the Rainforest has different layers and different plants and animals live in the different layers. We had out first vertical group challenge on Monday and we had to work with others to create different leaves from the Rainforest. We had to design the leaves to be 30cm longs and we had to have at least 6 leaves finished in the time. They also had to be different types. We are looking forward to our next challenge.

Have a nice weekend 🙂

Awards:

Class Dojo: Scott (2nd time!)

Tables of the Week: Banter Bunch

ART
In art we have been learning about pop art. This is modern art work which is often very bright, colourful and bold. We looked at pop art by Andy Warhol and examples from comic strips before creating our own.
We included inspirational quotes in the middle of our pop art. We looked at a colour wheel to use bright, contrasting colours .Here are examples of some of the quotes we used:
-‘Be yourself because an original is better than a fake.’
-‘don’t let the past affect your future.’

MATHS
In maths we have been learning financial education which is about money and about how you can keep it safe. We also talked about advantages and disadvantages of having a bank card.
Advantages of having a bank card
-You don’t have to carry lots of money with you
-it can encourage you to save
Disadvantages of having a bank card
-people could steal it
-you can go into overdraft

WRITING
In writing this week we did biography about people who inspire us. Some people chose authors , singers, swimmers and more.
Hope you had a great week I know we will!

Written by Anais Peel and Eva Mackechnie

Class dojo winner- Travis McNab

Article 28- Right to an Education

First week in P7

We have enjoyed our first week back to school and our new P7 responsibilities.

Care class

On the first day of Primary 7 we were told our care classes and went to introduce our self to the class. So far we have had lots of fun helping out the teachers and playing with the younger kids.

Buddies

Before we went into Primary 7, we were introduced to our new Primary 1 buddies. We took them out to the playground for break to get to know each other. This week we have been going down to buddies to take them out for break and lunch. We all had fun with our buddies.

Written by Emma B and Emma T

Article 28- Right to an Education

Class Dojo winner- Robbie

Health

In health this week we have been learning about drugs:

Paul: “I’ve learned that drugs are classed depending on how dangerous they are. They are class A, B or C. For example heroin is class A which is the most dangerous.”

Isla: “There are three main groups of drugs which are hallucinogenic, depressant and stimulants which all have different effects.”

Emily: “I learned that most illegal drugs can kill you the first time you use them.”

Lauren U: “I learned that depressant drugs make your heartbeat go slower and they slow down the speed of messages between your brain and body.”

Nathan: “I learned that cannabis is illegal in the UK but is not in Holland and they sell it in cafes.”

Jay: “Dealing illegal drugs can get you a prison sentence of between 14 years and life. Being caught with illegal drugs can give you four years in jail.”

Flyn: “Not all drugs are illegal, for example paracetemol. However you have to be careful with them and follow the instructions or they can be harmful. Some illegal drugs might be prescribed by a doctor too.” 

Reading Routes

This week we have been learning about figures of speech:

Declan: “I’ve learned what a metaphor is. It’s when we say one thing is another thing. An example would be ‘give me a hand’ which isn’t actually asking the person to cut their hand off and give it to you.”

Chloe: “I’ve learned what repetition is. That is when an author repeats a word over and over to highlight that word.”

Harry: “I learned about personification. That is when we make something that isn’t alive sound alive. An example would be ‘the wind was howling.’ “

Lauren K: “I learned that a simile is when we say that something is like something else and we have to use ‘as’ or ‘like’. An example would be ‘the bird was as colourful as a rainbow.’ “

Adam: “We also learned about alliteration which is when you repeat a sound or letter at the start of words. An example would be ‘Peter pepper picked perfect pickles.’ “

Maths

We’ve been learning all about decimals:

Lauren C: “The link between fractions, decimals and percentages is that they are all ways of describing part of something.”

Antonia: “After a decimal point the further to the right you go the smaller the amount means. The place value columns for decimals are tenths, hundredths and thousandths.”

William: “For numbers after a decimal point you have to remember t say them individually and not as one number.”

Kendal: “To change from a fraction to a decimal you can use a calculator and divide the numerator by the denominator.”

Who has impressed?

Paul: “Adam has impressed with his art this week. He has taken his time and made it really neat.”

Lauren C: “The netball team impressed me because we were unbeaten for most of the games.”

Jay: “I’m impressed with everyone and the level of effort they have put into their Aztec god work in art.”

Mr Berginis: “I was really impressed with the p1w assembly this morning. I loved the songs and the crayon sketch was a great way of showing how to be friends.”

Over the past three weeks we have been working with visitors from the Tobacco Education department at West Lothian Council. We have learned lots of information to help us make informed decisions about smoking. Here’s what we’ve learned:

Chloe: “You can go deaf and blind if you smoke because of the chemicals in the tobacco.”

Kai: “Your tongue can go yellow and so can your hair because of tar in the tobacco.”

Jay: “Your veins can also turn black because of the tar working its way through your body.”

Lauren U: “There are over 4,800 different chemicals in one cigarette!”

Paul: “If you smoke it can take ten years off your life!”

Jack: “The bit at the end of the cigarette is called the butt. The proper name for it is the filter and it is supposed to clean the tobacco before it goes into your mouth. Our experiment proved it doesn’t though!”

Nathan: “The nicotine is the part of the cigarette which makes it addictive.”

Finlay: “Out of the 4,800 chemicals, there are 69 main ones which can kill you.”

Harry: “The tar in a cigarette is exactly the same type of tar as the tar on the road. Your body is moist and warm so the tar is runny while the tar on the road is hard because it is exposed to the air.”

Flyn: “I learned that smoking can give you all different types of cancers such as lung cancer, brain cancer and breast cancer.”

Emily: “One of the chemicals in a cigarette is carbon monoxide which is different from carbon dioxide.”

Ellie: “Second hand smoke can also affect the animals and pets who live in your house.”

Olivia: “Smoking can make you unfit and unhealthy because it is harder for the blood to move around your body and your lungs don’t work as well as they should.”

Antonia: “If you smoke while you are pregnant it can cause deformations for the baby. Also, the addiction to nicotine can pass to the baby.”

Taylor: “If you smoke it can affect your teeth by making them orange. It also makes them rot and fall out.”

Lauren K: “There are trace amounts of the same chemicals which are in bleach and nail polish remover. If you smoke then these are going into your body.”

Lauren C: “People who smoke 20 cigarettes a day spend around £2500 a year on it!”

Callum: “It can destroy the cilia which is the small hairs in your throat, nose and ears.”

William: “The smell from cigarettes can go everywhere and make your clothing, car and house stink.”

Isla: “When you smoke in the car with the window open, this doesn’t mean the smoke is leaving the car, most of it stays in.”

Kendal: “If you smoke a cigarette and it looks like the smoke has disappeared…it is actually still there, you just can’t see it anymore.”

Who has impressed?

Jay: “I was impressed with everyone in the Potted Sports team. We won for only the second time in 30 years!”

Lauren U: “Kendal has impressed me by winning the JRSO poem competition.”

Lauren C: “The netball team impressed me by getting second in three tournaments.”

Paul: “Harry has impressed me because in P.E. he scored the most goals.”

Antonia: “I’m proud of Taylor because she has picked up percentages really quickly and gave 100% effort!”

Mr Berginis: “I was really impressed with the standard of writing the class did in their profiles this week and I also thought they were great at helping their p1 buddies with their mini beast projects.”

On Monday we had a visitor from the Health department of West Lothian Council who taught us about what’s in the drinks we drink:

Lauren C: “We learned that caffeine is a drug which takes calcium out of your bones and people think it makes you energetic but it just makes you hyper.”

Finlay: “Caffeine can be found in coffee and almost all types of sugary drinks. Out of Irn Bru, Coke and Pepsi, Irn Bru has the most caffeine. We learned that caffeine dehydrates your body as you need to go to the toilet more often.”

Jack: “I learned that energy drinks have lots of caffeine and some of them I didn’t know had that in them.”

William: “We learned there is lots of sugar in energy drinks and other fizzy juices.”

Paul: “There are 9 teaspoons of sugar in a 330ml can of Coke or Pepsi! It also costs a lot of money. A cheaper alternative is to drink water!”

Flyn: “Energy drinks like Relentless and Rockstar can have up to as much as sixteen teaspoons of sugar in them!”

Callum: “That much sugar is bad for you because it will rot your teeth and it isn’t the best type of energy because our body uses it too quickly. We get better energy from carbohydrates like potatoes and pasta which release sugar slowly.”

 On Wednesday we had the second visit from the Tobacco Education department. Here’s what we learned:

Chloe: “We learned that smoking can damage your lungs. We saw that it can turn your lungs black.”

Jay: “We did an experiment using a bottle with a little water in it to represent someone’s lungs. We attached a cigarette at the top of the bottle which symbolised the mouth…”

William: “We squeezed the bottle to symbolise the lungs smoking the cigarette. Afterwards we saw that the filter doesn’t filter very much…”

Olivia: “Because the water went all yellow because of the tar. The cotton bud went yellow as well and this symbolises the damage done to the cilia (little hairs on your tongue and nose) by the cigarette.”

Paul: “We looked at the chemicals inside a cigarette. There is trace amounts of poo, bleach, nail polish remover, fertiliser, formaldehyde, ammonia and over four thousand others!”

Who has impressed?

Finlay: “P2m impressed me by doing very well with their assembly this morning.”

Flyn: “I’m impressed with myself, Kendal and Harry for getting onto step 5 this week.”

Jay: “I’m impressed with my care class (p4m) because they are remembering to sign up for their lunches in the morning.”

Flyn: “I’m impressed with the football for being unbeaten at the football festival and having two wins and two draws.”

Antonia: “I’m impressed with Lauren K for getting 80 out of 80 in Big Maths Beat That.”

Harry: “Taylor impressed me by being one of the winners of the Frozen art competition. She drew a fabulous picture of Olaf.”

Mr Berginis: “I’m impressed with the high standard of debate the class had about a potential smoking ban when they were working with Mrs Waddell on Thursday. They wrote very detailed discursive essays which I enjoyed reading.”