Hello Everyone

Brilliant week in P4l, Mrs Leamy is a very proud teacher as everyone has been working very hard and lots of learning going on.

In maths we have been continuing with subtraction and are getting more confident using a range of methods to solve problems.  We have started to learn the 4 times table and it is beginning to stick in our brains.

We used our knowledge of Robert Burns and skills learned in our Tools for Writing lesson to write letters to Burns asking questions about his life.

In reading we have been using ‘Reading Keys’ to develop our skills for reading and thinking.  We have been working in small groups and are trying out a range of roles developing our collaborative working skills.  This week we were dicussing our books and creating mind maps to show what had happened.

On Thursday we took part in the Early Years Story Room and well done everyone on screen and also everyone else for the amazing illustrations and support for their classmates.

Bye for now P4l

There was lots of excitement in P2pg this week, as Matthew Fitt visited our class.  He read The three wee pigs from his Book of Fairy Tales in Scots.  We learned lots of new words for animals including puggie, dug, craw, doo and tod!  We love his stories and found him really funny.  Then we used our writing session to write thank you letters to Matthew for his visit.  We hope he can come back one day as it was fun.

We were also excited about the science experiements we did in our Senses topic.  We were focusing on the sense of taste and tasking different solutions.  Some were nice but others were really horrible – especially when we held our noses to stop us smelling the things we were tasking.   The children are really enjoying this topic and we have set up some different areas in the classroom, including an opticians and a touch centre. 

Well done P2pg for another great week.

This week we started learning more about 3D shape with Mrs Sutherland.  We found out that a vertex is another word for a corner of a 3D shape.  We’re looking forward to learning more about this next week. 

 We are enjoying our Victorian Project and we have all been given parts to play in our School Assembly in March.  We also learned about Dr Barnardo this week and the work he did for Victorian children.  We made signs for one of his children’s homes. 

This week we wrote a biography about one of our friends.  We had to interview other people in our class in order to find out all the important information that we needed.  We really enjoyed writing our biographies.

Who’s raving about reading this week?

Harry, Jay and Paul worked really well together when reading a play called “The Kidnappers” during our Reading Rave.  I wonder if more people will join them next week? Well done boys.

From The Blog Post Box

Something I accomplished this week was…

“…getting a gold medal in Judo.”                 Isla

“…reaching Step 5 and getting better at joining my letters in handwriting.”         Harry

“…getting a faster time during our ‘Beat the Clock’ test.”    Kendal

“…using  the rollercoaster technique to help me with my handwriting.” Paul

It’s been an exciting week in p7b and we’d like to share with you two of the things we’ve been up to:

SEAFOOD WORKSHOPS

We attended a Seafood workshop up at Bathgate Academy. Here we learned about how seafood makes its way from the sea to our plates, how fish can provide Omega 3 to make our bodies healthy and how fresh fish is prepared and filleted. We even got to sample some types of fish which for some of us was a bit of a challenge!

Abbie Meg.: “I enjoyed trying the smoked salmon. I’d never had it before and didn’t think I would like it but it was nice!”

Ali: “My dad is a fisherman so I had tried a lot of it before but it was good seeing my classmates getting to try it all.”

Adam: “It was delicious  to try the fish and I learned lots of new stuff about seafood. I learned how mussells are farmed in underwater ropes, interesting!”

Kyle: “The journey of fish from the sea to your plate was really interesting.”

CHOPSTICK CHALLENGE

On Thursday we held a chopstick challenge in class. We have been learning about Chinese culture with Mr Chen and one of the things he has taught us about is chopsticks. We did a mini challenge last week with Mr Chen and wanted to have another chance so we did our own class challenge. We had to pick up pasta, peas and beans which were all different sizes and shapes and we had to strategise which to go for as they were worth different point values.

Sophie: “It was really tough but it was good fun!”

Jack: “It was great fun and the butter beans were really hard to pick up!”

Rhona: “It was a really fun way of learning how to use chopsticks.”

Ross: “The peas were hard to pick up but we made sure we got the most because they were worth the most points.”

Both Primary 7 classes went to Bathgate Academy to learn about and try some seafood. At the academy there were three stations. There was one where you taste seafood, another one where you learn where seafood comes from and how it gets from the sea to your plate and the last one was where you learned how to make different fish recipes.  At the first one a lady called Cat explained that it was like Come Dine With Me because she was a complete stranger that was cooking us things to eat.  At the second station we saw a couple of fish such as cod, haddock and even a live lobster and crab. Some were still alive!! I thought it was really fun and I tried some fish that I probably would have just said I don’t like without even trying it.

By Lucas Bryce P7m

Out of school hours, I (Lewis Gemmell) have been writing a story about a boy, who woke up shrunk. I would like to be an author when I am older. I am hoping to publish this story later and Miss Anderson and I have been editing it together. I am very thankful for Miss Anderson’s help. I have 19 pages and Miss Anderson reckons about 7000 words. It took me about a month to do and I think I am nearing an end.

Here is a little bit of the story from chapter 1. I hope that you enjoy it.

Hope that you enjoyed reading it.

Lewis.

We are still enjoying being nursery carers; today group 1 helped the children and played games with them.

On Friday we had another spiffy Alice rehearsal.  We have learnt an epic dance routine in Alice, we all had lots of fun and are getting better at remembering the steps (DM).  Watch out for the special guests!  Megan P enjoyed learning the new songs and can’t wait for the show. She also thinks we are getting louder!  Everyone agrees that it is fun and exciting.   In class we are also reading the book Alice in Wonderland, as one of our reading activities we made Caucus Race games.  Natalie thought it was lots of fun, both making them and playing them!

In maths we are working on percentages, we are getting more confident in linking our fraction knowledge and percentages.   The groups are now working on the percentage of a set.

In writing we are continuing stories, it is fun to continue in a style.

Ashley likes sharing what we do with everyone via the blog and looking at everyone else’s news.

Balbardie Burns Supper 2013

The Burns Supper wis held on the 24^th of January 2013. We hud special guests who included Mr Mackie, PC Arnott and Miss Henderson. Oor host fur the day was Ben Sharkey and we were welcomed by Adrian Lee an then were treated tae a braw performance by our school choir who were singing Dignity by Deacon Blue and Caledonia by Dougie Mclean. It was brilliant.

We then were treated to a guid performance fae the strings assemble an a bonnie solo on the violin by Emilio Leith.

Afterwards was the piping ae the haggis by Ramie Graham. He marched it around the room with the haggis on a tray and laid it on the top table full of the guests. Miss Henderson cut the haggis.

Before we ate we listened to the Address to the Haggis by Andrew Harkins and Robyn Finlayson and Selkirk Grace by Sian Moffat. Mrs White and Mrs Murray prepared a gusty meal of haggis, tatties and neaps and they were braw. We also had Irn Bru with oor haggis.

Lucas Bryce performed Toast tae the Lassies and Kristie McIntosh performed  Reply tae the Laddies. Jessica Smilie then sung a stoatin version of Ae Fond Kiss and we finished aff oor Burns Supper with a Strip the Willow and Auld Langs Syne.

 By Kyle Morrison p7b

This week we have been learning lots more about Alice in Wonderland.  We now know lots of the songs that we are going to sing.

We enjoyed giving Mr Welsh and Miss Henderson a little preview of our Caucus Race 🙂  They were impressed.

We have been learning more about Sex Education.  This week we have learned about how babies are made.

In maths with Miss McAllister, we have been working hard to practise our times-tables.  We are going to continue practising these at home.  In maths with Mrs McLafferty, we have been learning about fractions.  We have learned how to change a mixed number into an improper fraction.

In writing, we have been focussing on writer’s craft, and have been continuing stories started by another author.   Miss McAllister was pleased with the effort that we are making in our writing skills and story-writing lessons.  A visitor came in to have a look at what we are working on in story-writing.

This week we have been studying Scotland. We can now recognise the Scottish flag and some famous tartans. We even practised weaving to make a kilt of our own. Thank you Mrs Jamieson who kindly prepared some Scottish foods for us. We tasted haggis, neeps and tatties, scotch broth soup, cheese and oatcakes, jam and plain bread, tablet and dumpling. Everyone enjoyed the feast and the tablet was the most popular! We were keen to try square sausage but Miss Goff didn’t think it would tie in with our health promoting school aims! Yesterday we layered different art materials to make a collage of Scotland’s national flower – a thistle. Grace kindly brought in a book called ‘Katie visits Scotland’ for milk and story where the Loch Ness monster went on an adventure through Glasgow and Edinburgh. It was fun! We had a vote on how many of us believed in the Loch Ness monster and most of us do! Lastly, well done to Ava Campbell who won the Scottish competition from our class, singing an excellent performance of ‘Ye Cannie Shove Yer Grannie aff the Bus’.

P1g

This term P5a will be learning about living things and extinction through Rockford’s Rock Opera. Rockford is a dog who gets lost in Battersea Park before meeting a strange creature called a Cocklbur Ick. They mysteriously end up on a leaf boat, with no idea where they are sailing to. We watched the first chapter on one of our class iPads, but you can find the read along audio book here.

We have a new teacher joining us this week. Miss Walker will be teaching, alongside Miss Anderson, for the rest of January and the whole of February. We think she will have a fantastic time teaching us 🙂

Have a good weekend 🙂

Miss Anderson, Miss Walker and P5a

Happy Burns Day!!

After looking at the life of Robert Burns this week P4l celebrated in style with a Burns Supper. Rachel and Mhairi  piped us into the classroom with their  magic bagpipes, Mrs Leamy welcomed everyone then Shaun B said the Selkirk Grace.  After that Mrs Jamieson bought in the haggis and it was time to eat.  The food was delicious with haggis, neeps and tatties and oatcakes, shortbread and dumpling too. Our after dinner entertainment was provided by Lucy telling us about Burn’s life and Catherine and Sophie reading poetry.  Our final act was Eve who showed us some highland dancing.  We finished off the celebration with Auld Lang Syne.