just a test
A very special café visit.
On Tuesday Class 3 had a very special trip to Lanna’s café. We were saying goodbye to Jason and wishing him good luck at his new school. Before we went we each made him a good luck card.
Josh – I made my card to look like a Creeper because I know Jason likes Minecraft.
Geordie – I made a Cineworld card, Jason really likes cinemas.
Aidan – My card was designed to look like Steve from Minecraft with a diamond axe mining a tree. It had an emerald on the inside.
At the café we were all very pleased to see Jason. We each ordered a snack and a drink.
We all sat round the table together and chatted.
Aidan – It was really touching to see Jason and I would like to do it again sometime.
We talked about what we’d been doing since he left.
Geordie – I am really sad that Jason left to go to another school. It was good to see him on Tuesday.
Josh – It was nice that we were together with Jason again.
After we had eaten we each went to the counter to pay Lanna.
Miss Waddell and Mrs Stewart were very proud of us for being such good friends and giving Jason a great send off.
P1g Fun at the Park!
We visited Babardie Park of Peace this week to draw the beautiful scenary. We had to draw a landscape picture of our environment taking scale and postion into account. We also had fun playing in the park afterwards!
By P1g
P1b assembly
Today we had great fun performing during our class assembly. We did really well to remember our lines and sing the minibeast songs. Miss Bollen is really proud of us. Thank you to everyone who managed to come along-we hope you enjoyed it!
P1b
Our Week in P4l
Time really is whizzing by, it is hard to believe there are only 3 weeks left in P4. This week we have been reading our class novel Four Children and It. We are enjoying the book as lots of things keep happening. The story is all about 4 children who have wishes granted my a strange creature called a Psammead. The Psammead is a sand creature which is in a sand pit in a park. We are planning to go for a picnic over at the park in the last week of term and see if there are any Psammeads in Balbardie Park. In writing this week we went all spooky carrying on a story starter called ‘The Ghosts’. We had to carry the story on in the style of the author, it was a tricky job but we did our best and had great results. Maths was all about division and we took it to the next level looking at dividing numbers with remainders. Because we have worked so hard on our times table it was no problem for us. We finished with Golden Time in the sun and here we are enjoying ourselves.
P4a
This week has been short yet packed with different things to do. We learnt how to make sentences more interesting and exciting in writing.
We saw the difference between a healthy lung and a cancerous lung. It did not look godd. We definitely want to have healthy lungs and heart and found out how to do that.
We worked in groups for our topic. working as a group meant we had to listen to each other, everyone had to have a fair turn and we also had to cooperate with each other. We used these skills in our topic work where we finally finished measuring our lung capacities and also whilst working in Health & wellbeing with our ‘Cool in School’ topic. We’ve found that we work well when we listen to each other.
We went bowling this week and found that we had all improved with our skills. Whoever got the closest to the jack with their bowl, went first and also got to roll the ‘Jack’.
Enjoy the weekend!
This week in P2pg
This week we enjoyed writing about the little cottage and the wizard that appeared at the bottom of our gardens! We were able to think of lots of describing words to use in our story and it was fun when we were able to use characters and things from stories we already knew. Some of us used our reading books (The Shiny Key) some of us used traditional tales like Alice in Wonderland or Sleeping Beauty. We used all these to make the middle and end of our stories. Ms Gavin thought they were fantastic.
We also enjoyed making ‘For Sale’ posters for our Eco Houses and it was great to see more of the Eco Houses from the Web. We are going to build our Eco Houses next week so we need to bring in boxes (shoe box size)!
We are all doing well in our reading and we enjoy the traditional tales and stories from Ms Gavin.
Well done P2pg for another good week.
Floating Garden Challenge
We have been learning about Climate Change. In Bangladesh climate change is having a major impact on those communities living in riverside areas. Heavier, longer rainy seasons mean that land where farmers used to be able to grow crops to feed their family is being flooded before crops can be harvested. As a result families go hungry.
We were challenged in a small group to design and make a structure that would enables farmers to continue to grow their crops even when the land floods.
This is what we thought:
The floating gardens are very cool, it held 560g
It was fun but challening, mine worked ok (NR)
I enjoyed making the floating gardens ao that it could hold seeds and learning how the floating gardens are really made (JR)
Our floating garden was alright, ours held 540g
Our garden held 560g. I liked my floating garden because we used each others ideas and worked as a team (MP)
I think the floating garden was fun to make and we did well. Our floating garden managed ti hold 560g.
The best thing is that it floated and was challenging (LL)
It did sinnk but it was still fun to make (NM)
I think the garden challenge was fun. I think the ‘raft’ could have supported more if we had provided more support and therefore it would have been stable.
New Challenge for 5ms
The next Home Team Challenge has begun! Our task is to design a conservation park for endangered animals.
Our 4 parks are called:
The Jolly Jaguars’ Conservation Park
Five Mountain Zoo
The Six Siblings’ Park
4 by 4
So far we have designed enclosures and created fact files. We look forward to seeing how the parks develop.
It was very useful to use our own devices as well as the class iPads to help us research the animals’ habitats, lifestyles and diets. We had to make sure we were meeting the needs of all our animals.
Who’s raving about reading this week?
Antonia and Lauren K enjoyed sharing Roald Dahl’s autobiography during the Reading Rave. Whenever they came to a descriptive passage Lauren would read it out while Antonia drew the character or scene being described. We all thought it sounded fun so we tried it out too.
We’re going to keep an eye out for interesting descriptive passages in our homework novels this week.
Thanks girls, for finding another interesting way for us to develop our reading skills.
From the Blog Post Box
This week, I was proud of myself when…
…I helped my dad build a glass table. Declan
…I made a new friend called Nicole. Lauren U
…I was a Homework Hero. Nathan
…I was able to say the stations of the 3 x table backwards. Kendal
Ready, Steady, Go!
We always look forward to P.E. on Tuesday. We are very good at changing for P.E. all by ourselves.
‘I have been trying hard to get my buttons off.’ Cameron
Mr Jeffries, makes a special P.E. map for us. It shows us the different activities that we will be doing. At the end of P.E. Mr Jeffries chooses someone who has tried really hard and they get to take home the P.E. map! We enjoy taking the map home as it helps us to talk about our day at school and what we have been learning to do at P.E.
We listen to the song ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ during warm up. ‘We jump, run, tip toe, march, bend down small and skip!’ Lewis and Joe
‘I was doing the obstacle course. I was putting my knees through the hoop’. Joe
‘I like the pencil and rolling one. You have to make your body straight like a pencil then you just roll over. That was fun!’ Cameron
‘I like P.E at Balbardie and jumping onto the blue mat.’ Liam
We have been working really hard on our balance and coordination. We are also learning how to work as a team.
‘I’m rolling the ball and playing bowling’. Joe
‘My favourite is the bowling, I would like a bowling set for my house. You need to roll the ball and knock down as many pins as you can’. Cody
Primary 2/1 had fun in the sun!
Wow! What an amazing day we all had at Beecraigs…
First of all the ranger took us into the woods to look for Scottish Wildlife. We were animal detectives and found rabbits, hedgehogs, moles, badgers and bats (all cuddly animals that were hidden in their homes). We learned that a squirrel lives in a drey, a rabbit lives in a warren and a badger lives in a sett. The ranger was very impressed when we told her that animals that come out at night are called nocturnal.
Then we had nets and we went pond dipping. We used a chart to help us identify the pond animals that we found. Our favourite was the tadpoles but we weren’t so keen on the leeches.
The sun shone on us as we ate our picnics and watched the mummy duck with her eleven ducklings swim past on the pond.
In the afternoon we all had lots of fun playing in the play park. Some of us were very brave and tried the flying fox and some of us even climbed the giant web!
All of the boys and girls would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Stewart, Mrs Jamieson and Mrs Little for coming with us. We hope you had a fun day too!
P2 are looking at patterns
This week we have been looking at patterns in different areas of the cuirriculum. In numeracy we have looked at shape and number patterns and have been making some patterns of our own. In literacy we learned about alphabetical order and learned how to put letters and words in alphabetical order. We have also been looking at patterns on lighthouses. All lighthouses are different, some have a few stripe, some only have one and some have none. We made lighthouses of our own this week too.
Next week we are looking forward to the Golden Club event. 28 of us are in the Golden Club now, Mrs Gallagher thinks that’s great 🙂
Primary 5a – Video Blogging (again)
This week the pupils in Primary 5a have been very busy. As promised here is our second video blog. This week we have included verbal reflections on our learning in language, drama and maths. We have also included a few photographs. We hope you enjoy watching.
As always we love to get comments so if you like our video blog please let us know!
Miss Anderson and P5a
Farm Fun
P3lm have been enjoying the farm topic. Following our visit to the farm, we have been thinking about milk production and what happens on a dairy farm. We have been looking at milking times and milk production and linking our learning to maths as well as thinking about what we use milk for as its not just to drink! Did you know that cows each drink about 55 litres of water a day? Have you got any other farm related facts?
Sports Electivies…..
We have come to the end of our sports electives. We have enjoyed the experience and learned lots of new techniques and skills. On Thursday we were entertained by the Musical Theatre and Dance groups who had worked really hard to put together a showcase performance.
These are some of our thoughts:
• I enjoyed my sponsored swim! (EM)
• The best bit was the last week because we played lots of games (football MH)
• I learnt how to use arm drive and different running ‘gears’. My long jump was really fun! (Athletics MP)
• In musical theatre I enjoyed performing to the audience the most!(AS)
• I really enjoyed my football elective. It was great fun – all the shooting and passing games. I will pick it again next year. (DM)
• I enjoyed doing golf elective. I learned a lot more about golf and skills I need. I enjoyed going on the range. (GF)
• My sports elective was golf and I learned how to hit the golf balls by putting, chipping and full swing (JR)
• I enjoyed my sports elective because I learned lots of new dances and it helped me to be more confident on stage (BP)
• I really enjoyed basketball because I got to refresh my memory after going to a club for 2 years (KP)
• I learned how to cook a lot of different food; it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed making shortbread and banoffee pie. (MH)
• I learned how to hit the shuttle up and down, it was very fun (EM)
• I really enjoyed that we got the chance to go on the course with a coach (Golf TD)
• I really enjoyed athletics it was very fun for all us. We learned lots of new skills and got better at them each week! (EB)
• I love learning new things and my confidence improved! (MB)
• I learned new dives and I enjoyed the fun day (swimming)
Procession Day Fun
We had a fantastic day participating in Bathgate’s Procession. Thank you to everyone who helped create the school’s float – it was absolutely outstanding!
Thank you also to all the children and parents who came along and took part with the school.
Class 3 prepare for the procession!
Class 3 boys have been very busy this week with their paint brushes. Today is the last day of May which means that tomorrow is a very special day for Bathgate! Procession Day is almost here! Balbardie’s theme this year is Madagascar 3.
We have been making pictures to decorate the windows of the school for when the procession comes past.
Liam – I was painting Alex the lion. I painted his whiskers black and his nose brown.
Aidan – I had loads of fun painting because it was like putting life into the characters.
Geordie – Awesome, it was wicked fun! The pictures look cool.
Josh – I did a great job of painting Alex the lion’s ears. We worked together to make the pictures.
Mrs Stewart had a sneak preview of our float on Wednesday night. She was helping to paint it and says that it looks phenomenal!
We hope that everyone who comes along to the Bathgate Procession and John Newland Festival tomorrow has a great time :).
How Does a Fish Get to School?
Literacy
Lewis told us all about his weekend adventures with Mr Bear! We listened carefully to Lewis as he explained his news. Lewis and his mum created a wonderful DVD for us to watch in class. It was so much fun to watch and the boys enjoyed joining in with the backing track ‘Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear’. It is now Jayden’s turn to take Mr Bear home. We can’t wait to hear all about Mr Bear’s holiday at Jayden’s house.
This week we have been learning about animals that live in water. We each chose an animal and wrote some interesting facts about it. We included facts in our explanation and drew beautiful, detailed pictures to support our writing. Cody carried out some research of his own. He found out that if a starfish loses a limb, it can grow back again! We also learned that starfish have sea water in their bodies instead of blood.
Cody told the boys in class 1 a great joke! ‘How Does a Fish Get to School?’ Have a guess at Cody’s joke and he will write the answer on the blog next week!
Music
We enjoyed watching clips from the Blue Planet DVD. We spotted lots of different animals that live under water such as sharks, whales, dolphins and tuna fish. We are going to taste tuna fish at snack time next week. The boys in class 1 experimented with a range of percussion instruments to recreate sounds of the ocean, like the crashing waves. Joe and Cameron used the castanets to represent the crabs. We learned that crabs walk sideways, and we even did a funny dance and pretended to be crabs! We used the tambourine to create some scary sound effects. We tapped on the tambourine head very slowly, gradually getting faster, and faster and faster! We thought this sounded like a shark coming! Cody thought it sounded like a giant puffer fish. Cody loved shaking the maracas, “That would be like when the octopus is coming!”
Mr Marsden taught us a new song this week, ‘I’m a Little Penguin’ (tune of I’m a Little Teapot). It goes like this:
I’m a little penguin
Black and white,
I waddle to the left and I waddle to the right.
I cannot fly but I can swim,
So I waddle to the water and JUMP RIGHT IN!
Finally, a big congratulations to Cameron! We were so happy to find out that Cameron has been selected as a winner for the Young Writer of the Year competition. We have been learning about holidays and had great fun creating our own Balbardie Camp Site in class 1. Cameron enjoyed visitng the sensory room when it was transformed into a campsite and wrote a wonderful senses poem based on his experiences. We then typed the poem and Cameron selected his own font, colours and graphics. We are so pleased that Cameron’s hard work has paid off! Cody was such a great friend and said ‘Congratulations Cameron!’ when he found out the good news.
News from P2pg
This week we continued our focus on re-writing our traditional tales by re-writing Little Red Riding Hood. We also thought of good describing words and coloured in pictures of the story which we enjoyed doing at our Shared Start on Wednesday.
We listened to the story of The Rainbow Fish and decorated our own rainbow fish. The story helped us think of different things that help us make and be good friends with others. Then we wrote all these things on our rainbow fish pictures.
In RE we continued our looking at different faiths by learning about Buddhism. We listened to the story of the first Buddha and learned about some of his teachings. We thought that some of these things were things we were learning about in Cool in School and Friendships in our Health and Wellbeing work. For instance being kind to others, not hurting others with what we do or what we say, working hard and looking after others. Then we tried out some meditation!
In PE we are learning about Handball and this week Mr Jeffries got us to ‘dribble’ the ball and move around the hall to get used to this before we move on to passing and playing the game. It was good fun!
Well done P2pg for another good week.
Fly Free!
This week P5ms released their butterflies. We named each one of them as we let them fly off.
Painted Lady butterflies live for two to five weeks – we hope they enjoy every minute of it. Good luck Amy, Benjamin, Simba, Big Mac and Jake!
This week we have been learning about endangered species. Our class app, Rockford’s Rock Opera, has been teaching us that humans are responsible for many animals being endangered. Here are some of the things we have learned:
The rhino is endangered because people hunt it for its horn. They believe it can cure diseases. Callum
The tiger is endangered because its habitat is being destroyed. Harry
The Chinese River Dolphin is endangered because of pollution. Jack
African Wild Dogs are being hunted for their fur and because people are scared of them. Isla
The Coral reefs are suffering from global warming. Kendal
Amsterdam Albatrosses are endangered because cattle and cats were brought to their island and destroyed their nesting ground. Lauren C
Who’s raving about reading this week?
This week, during our Reading Rave, Antonia and Ellie were reading about women’s football. They shared with us information about a player called Mia Hamm. She is from the USA and has scored more international goals than any other player, male or female. They also discovered an interesting fact that women were banned from playing football in Brazil until 1975.
Thanks girls for sharing this information with us – it certainly led to a lot of interesting discussion!
From the Blog Post Box:
I am going to help protect our planet and the creatures that live on it by…..
…recycling paper to save the animals’ habitats. Ellie
…switching off lights when I’m not using them. Jack
…picking up litter. Kyra
Lastly, it was lovely to hear from Amy. Thank you for posting on our blog. We are delighted that you are settling in so well in your new school. Did you notice that we named one of our butterflies after you?
