Perfume Making in Class 1
This week we learned that flowers can be used for lots of different things. Flowers are used as decorations during wedding ceremonies, flowers can be given as a special gift, and they can also be used to make perfume. We made our own perfume using rose petals. We took the perfume home and gave it to a special person.
I made pink perfume. I made my perfume in the sensory room with Miss Waddell. I used red flowers to make the perfume. I gave my perfume to mummy. Mummy said ‘Oh what lovely perfume!’ Daddy said ‘Oh that’s lovely!’ My brother Iain said, ‘wow look at that!’ – Lewis
‘I was working with Miss Waddell. I was tearing the petals, then I put them in the purple water, then I took it home. I gave the perfume to mummy.’ – David
On Tuesday, we went to the local flower shop. We looked at the beautiful plants and flowers and chose some nice things to take back to class 1. We bought two plants and a windmill. The lady in the flower shop showed us a brochure with lots of pictures inside of flower gifts and bouquets. On the way back to school, we passed by the church, there were lots of beautiful flowers for us to look at and smell.
‘We went to the florist. There are plants, flowers and windmills in the flower shop.’ – Lewis
‘We bought two plants and a purple windmill’. – David
Class 1 are looking forward to fitness fortnight. Please look at your fitness fortnight timetable at home to remind yourself of the different activities that you will take part in.
Dawrin Explorers in P5m
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!
P3W’s visit to Leyden Farm
As part of our farming topic, both Primary 3 classes took a trip to Leyden farm to learn more about farming. One class went into the forest and the other P3 class went to the farm with the farmer.
In the forest…
we went to find some pine cones and we found some that had been nibbled on by squirrels – Eva
we all looked at different types of trees and what we can use them for. For example, paper, bedding and nappies – Caitlin
we found some holly leaves that can be used when camping as a mattress because it is springy – Megan
we were looking at a rowan tree and we talked about it keeping witches away – Rowan
we learned how to whistle with a bit of grass – Cole
we found out that in the 2nd world war, moss could be used as a bandage for wounds – Liam
At the farm…
we fed the pig, hens and the cows! – Rhia
we got to see lots of different animals. We got to see Poppy Pig, the hens, the cows, Henry horse, the lamb and Marley the kitten – Eva
we got to see a baby calf with its mother – Alanna
we got to sit on the tractor and the quad bike – Samantha
it was fun when we got to see Henry horse because I didn’t know the horses could lean over the barrier so much – Ty
I enjoyed when we got to sit on the quad bike – Rowan
I enjoyed when the farmer and his daughter were acting like cows – Harvey
I liked it when we went into the cow’s area and we saw a brand new calf – Cole
we learned that we have to wash our hands and our wellies because there could be some diseases on your boots from walking around the farm – Caitlin
Our trip to Leyden Farm
Today we went on our school trip to a real life working farm. The farm was a mixed farm with beef cattle and lambs. We got to see the different animals and learn how Stuart and Lesley and their children look after the animals. We also got to see some of the machinery. After we had looked around the farm we walked down to a wood that is on the edge of the farm. Here Jim told us all about the plants, trees and animals we could find there. Here are some of our thoughts!
- Katya thought it was good fun seeing the animals.
- Cameron R thought the chickens were very loud.
- Colin thought it was fun seeing the different crops.
- Jamie liked learning about how to help cows have their calves and seeing them.
- Paige liked seeing the horse because he was furry.
- Harry liked helping Stuart to feed the animals.
- Lauryn thought it was weird seeing the cows going to the toilet.
- Kamron liked the animals and the tractors. He also thinks Stuart was a very good farmer because he puts in a lot of effort.
- Aidan liked playing in the wood.
- Gary liked going into the woods and learning about all the trees and plants.
- Emma thought there were loads of cows and sheep. This year the farm had the same number of new lambs as there are boys and girls at Balbardie.
- Lewis likes shooting reeds.
- Katie liked seeing all the different animals.
- Amber thought the trip was good as we got to see what we are learning about in class.
- Robyn thought it was really good looking at the animals.
- Tobin liked seeing Poppy the pig.
- Fiona thought it was good to see a Beef farm.
- Luca thought the trip was really fun and education. We learned about machinery and animals.
- Archie really liked being in the wood and learning how to shoot a reed.
- Steven thought the farmer was nice and he liked all of the animals.
- Noah it was because we got to see the animals and clap the lambs.
- Stacey thinks it was really cool learning about all the things that happen on a farm.
- Michelle liked learning about the countryside around farms.
Watch this space for some photo!
We would also like to share two joke….
Why do cows wear bells?
Because their horns don’t work!
(Calves have medicine put on their horns when they are very young to stop them growing so they do not hurt each other)
Where do tups (young male sheep) go to get their hair cut?
Baa-bars
We’re buzzing in Class 3!
This week as part of our energy topic we built some electrical circuits. We used batteries, wires, bulbs, buzzers and motors. We investigated the effects of adding switches, more batteries and more bulbs to the circuit.
Josh – I thought circuits were good. I made some of my own, like a light bulb and a buzzer. I had to use two batteries to make it work.
Nathan – When my circuit had two batteries the bulbs were brighter because there was more power. The motor went faster with two batteries and the buzzer was really loud and sounded higher up.
Cary – The switch caused the electricity to stop and go, when you let go of the switch it would turn off. It broke the circuit. I am very happy that I finally got to know how switches work. It was great to experiment with different circuits.
We thought about what sort of energy the electrical energy was changed into. Sometimes it was more than one sort!
Callum – When the light bulb lit up there was light energy and a little bit of heat and when the buzzer sounded there was sound and a bit of movement energy.
We swapped the wires for different materials to see which would let electricity flow through.
Cary –We found that things like the tin foil and paper clip were conductors. These were the metal things.
Callum –The string and the plastic spoon were insulators.
Callum – I was hoping this was a bad plan to use one wrapped tin foil, two batteries, a switch and two light bulbs. But when I tested it it actually worked. I was very happy.
Callum – In the sensory room we made a ‘Don’t touch the wire’ game. When we touched the wire it went BBBBUZZZZZZZZ. The two wires touching created an electrical circuit.
Geordie – I like the operation game, the nose lights up and the buzzer goes. You can get Operation Shrek and Operation Mater.
On Thursday morning we had our Celebrating Success assembly. Josh, Cary and Liam all received certificates. Here is Liam having his certificate presented by Mr Welsh.
Liam – Mr Welsh gave me a card. It was a Head Teacher’s Award. He said “Well done!” I felt happy.
A big congratulations to all the certificate winners :).
Class 2 – Our week
This week class 2 have been really busy as usual.
On Monday we went out and about down to the library. We had to look for books about weather. Weather is our new topic we are learning about.
On Tuesday some of our class practised skipping, jumping and pushing skills at PE. Caitlin and Aiden went on the trip to the viking museum with P4LG. Caitlin said she liked that her mum came along and that her favourite part was the playroom.
In sensory room we experimented with water and made bubbles. We blew big and small bubbles, we also changed the colour of the water. Liam enjoyed this activity, he said it was fun.
On Wednesday we had special visitors in our classrooms.Caitlin said she enjoyed the activity she did with the visitors – mixing black and white paint to make a grey colour, then they painted rain clouds creating different tones with the mixed paint.
Caitlin, Aiden and Cody enjoyed celebrating success on Thursday – we all enjoyed singing the build up song.
Big Big Balbardie Blether
Thank you to everyone who came along to our Big Big Balbardie Blether last night. We were very grateful to everyone who came along on such a beautiful night. The discussions about good learning and what it looks like were great and we enjoyed having the opportunity to discuss learning and teaching with everyone. A copy of the Powerpoint used last night is attached for your information.
Celebrating Success in P3W
Congratulations to all the boys and girls in the school for their achievements this year! We were all so impressed with how well everyone has been doing.
Well done to the following boys and girls in P3W:
Ty Shek for enthusiasm and excellence in P.E.
Harvey Forrest for always working hard in all his subjects and trying his best.
Samantha McMillan for always making a huge effort in presentation of all work.
Lennox Clarke for always being respectful of others.
Sophie Lindner for always trying her hardest and working well with others.
Miss Wilson is very proud of all the boys and girls for their hard work!
Here is a picture of our performance of “You’ve got a friend in me”
Planting and Growing
In The Garden
This week we have been learning what plants need to help them grow. We learned that they need water, sunlight and soil. We have enjoyed taking care of our plants in class 1, we have been taking such good care of them, look how much they have grown!
‘I have been learning how plants grow up and how babies grow up. Plants need compost and water and sunrise. Not too much water or it wouldn’t grow. Babies need water, milk and healthy fruit and veg.’ – Cameron
My plant is growing up!’ – Yolie
They’re still growing. Grow, grow growing like a beanstalk!’ – Jayden
Lewis created a poster to show what plants need to help them grow and what boys and girls need to help them grow.
Class 1 love spending time in the investigation area.
‘We are learning about in the garden. We have been learning about plants and flowers.’ – Jayden
‘I am holding a magnifying glass. I am looking at the bee. It is black and yellow stripes.’ – Jayden
‘I am doing the jigsaw’. -Yolie
Yolie’s favourite thing about this week, was singing ‘Build Up’. Yolie sings the song beautifully and remembers all of the actions.
‘In school this week, we have build up. I like build up. Build up one another!’ – Yolie
Balbardie Premier League – Final Table
Our fantasy football season has now finished with the following winners:
Top pupil – Tom White
Top teacher – Mr Berginis
Top family member – Paul White (Tom’s brother)
Overall winner – Mr Berginis
Well done to everyone who took part and if you are outside of the top ten and want to see where you finished then check out the wall display next to the p5,6,7 exit door.
Our week in p7b
What have we been learning about?
Rebecca – I enjoyed drama this week because we got given our parts and I got the one I wanted which was Marian Doll.
Callum – I enjoyed drama this week because I got given the main part of Tam in Tam O’Shanter’s Big Night Oot and I feel awesome about it!
Taylor – I also enjoyed drama this week. I’m doing Rab C Hood and I won the part of Brittany Broon. I feel excited about getting the part I wanted.
Alexander – I really enjoyed doing French this week because I learned what the French word for spider was. It is une araignee!
Sophie L – I enjoyed sports elective this week. In athletics we got to use the real javelins and I felt a bit scared when it passed my face when I was throwing it!
Zenaib – I enjoyed French this week because we learned new words and we leared what animals were in French and also colours. For example, horse is un cheval.
Emma – I enjoyed doing swimming this week at sports elective because I got moved up a level and I managed five lengths.
Fraser – I enjoyed French this week and I found out how to say cat in French which is un chat.
Christopher S – I enjoyed our football game against Boghall because we showed lots of teamwork and won 8-0. I was unlucky because my shot hit the post.
Sam – I enjoyed doing health this week. We finished off our board games which was called One Way Trip To Uranus and it was all about the digestive system.
Rabeea – I enjoyed the maths Glow meet with Bathgate Academy as it was about fractions which we had already covered which made us the fraction masters!
Dean – I enjoyed sports elective this week, we were learning how to dive properly and as a result I feel supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Louise – I enjoyed doing SRA this week, I moved up to Rose and I’m getting better at finding out the meaning of different words.
Tom – In Internet Safety this week we were learning about the dangers of Phishing which is people trying to trick you and get your money or details using websites, phone calls, letters, text messages or emails.
Freya – In maths we’ve been learning about percentages. We’ve been learning that fractions and percentages can be equal and we’ve been learning how to work out a percentage of a number with and without a calculator.
Who has impressed?
Tom – Christopher S impressed me by playing really well in the football match and was unlucky not to score.
Rabeea – Christopher S impressed by getting into the Golden Club!
Christopher A – My table (les heros) impressed me because for the first time in a while we won table of the week. We managed to win by showing teamwork and using our friendship to help each concentrate.
Fraser – I’m impressed with Tom for making great saves at the football match and keeping a clean sheet.
Louise – I’m impressed with those who auditioned for and successfully got their parts in drama.
Eve – I’m impressed by Taylor because when we were doing the auditions she done them in front of the class and she had a great Scottish accent.
Callum – I’m impressed with Taylor for doing her chair dance in Musical Theatre and it was really funny.
Mr Berginis –I’m 100% impressed with how hard everybody worked to understand percentages this week!
Viking Week
This week we moved on to our new topic the Vikings. We designed Viking shields most of them were checked.
We also designed our self as a Viking we named ourselves. Some of them are Gemma the Jewel thief, Ella the head chopper, Clara the cutter and last one Olivia the human chopper.
This week we learned new 3D shapes like octagonal prism and hexagonal prism.
On Tuesday we went to the museum where one of the most popular bits were ancient fashion they all looked quite weird but also really colourful and bright. At the animal bit we got to see animals that were stuffed after that there was a thing that you go on and it tells you what animal you weigh the same as.
Also this week we learned about alliteration. Here are some examples Ally ant ate an apple. Billy bee bit banana. Clara crab caught cauliflower.
Question of the week is you have to finish the rest of the alliteration alphabet .
P5D
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!
Fight for survival in P5m!
It has been a really interesting week in P5m. From learning how to bowl to how the world began.
We have been investigating how flower fruits disperse their seeds and the fight for survival!
Sophie learned that if 100 seeds are dispersed only about 9 will actually survive!
Josh and Cameron learned that seeds have to fight for survival!
Abigale learned about what seeds need to grow and survive!
Erin H learned about the different places seeds can grow when they land!
Taylor learned this week that seeds can scatter everywhere.
Erin M learned that seeds need water, soil, sun and the right temperature to grow.
Charlie and Emma B learned about how the world began.
Scott and Mairi learned about The Big Bang Theory!
Lily learned that the earth used to be a lava ball.
Adam enjoyed learning about 3 and 5 times tables.
Craig won the Boys Brigade trophy for being the best boy! Well done Craig!
Leon, Megan and Ross really enjoyed learning how to bowl.
As you can see it has been a very diverse week in P5m! We are really looking forward to
performing Let it Go at Celebrating Success and working hard to learn it!
We had a visitor!
Eva – We had a visitor who came from a farm. His name was Jamie and he was a farmer! He came and showed us some wool that came from a sheep.
Megan – He took us outside and showed us his tractor and we all got a picture beside it.
Sophie – He showed us some crops that came from the farm and they were really small! They looked like nuts.
Liam – The most important crop is grass and we all see it every day. Really dried out grass is called hay. It has no moisture in it and it’s cleaned out.
Jennie – If the soil is really good and moist then there will be lots of worms in it.
Alanna – It’s good when there are lots of worms in the soil and birds are trying to eat them!
Ty – It was really fun when Jamie started his tractor up and it was also really fun when he showed us a picture of the brussell sprouts he farms.
Caitlin – When we went outside we looked around the tractor and it was fun. When I stood next to the wheel it was bigger than me!
Cole – When we looked around the tractor it said JCB on the side of it.
Juggling Instructions
P3/2 have been using “The Circus” as our context for learning. This week our writing focus was writing instructions on how to juggle. We had lots of fun talking through our instructions and asking members of our class to literally carry out each instruction. This really helped us realise what instructions were missing and which ones we needed to explain in more detail. We also realised that Scott can Juggle! Well done Scott. The completed instructions were great and detailed and followed a logical method. We were so pleased and proud. Well done everyone!
P1M Garden Topic
Primary 1M
We had a very interesting Czech Language lesson this week
from Sophia’s Mum. She visited us on Monday afternoon to tell us some lovely
Czech words for greetings, colours and numbers. Then she read us a children’s
story in Czech. It was about a tree with sad feelings because part of its trunk
had been worn away. A cage was put round the tree to protect it. The tree felt
much happier after that!
We have started our new “Garden” topic for this term. We are
finding out about different types of trees. We learned that the “Elder Tree” is
very common in Britain. Its creamy-white flowers open out in July (Jack’s
birthday month) and its black berries come out in September (Ranna’s birthday
month). We also found out that insects don’t like the smell of Elder leaves. (We
have a lot of pretend minibeasts in the class garden!).
On Thursday, parent visitors helped us to make flowers for
our garden display. We arranged petals around our photograph and wrote a word
in each petal to describe what we are like. We added a stem and leaves to
complete our flowers.
We’re having difficulty posting our pictures on the blog so watch this space for some to come once we get the problem fixed.
Sunflower home learning challenge.
We have all planted a sunflower seed. We each planted one of four different varieties (types). They are Sunflower Giant, Sunflower Evening Sun, Sunflower Teddy Bear and Miniature Sunflowers Mixed.
We need to keep the compost moist but not too wet.
Keep them warm but not in direct sunlight.
TOP TIP ….. cover the pots with a clear plastic bag until you see the seed has germinated.
When they are strong enough they can be planted into a bigger pot outside.
Keep blogging to let us know how you are getting on!
Emma’s seedling…
All about plants
We have had a busy afternoon learning all about plants….we can name the different parts of a plant and tell you the life cycle. Some of the words we learned are:
stigma, anther, sepal, filament, style & petal.
seed dispersal, germination, pollination & fertilisation.
We have also set up an experiment to find out what seeds need to germinated. We are looking at warmth, water, soil and light. Watch this space to see how we get on!
