Everyone enjoyed visiting the C.D.T. department at James Young High School on Thursday 26^th February. We learned about the different types of saw- circular saw, jigsaw, band saw. We also learned about how a pillar drill and a belt sander worked. There are lots of different types of wood that you can work with- lime, oak, spruce, birch and pine. You can also work with M.D.F. which stands for medium density fibreboard. This isn’t wood but it is made from sawdust and other things and is mixed and glued together- a bit like mixing tablet. Thanks to Mr MacMillan and Mr Leishman for letting us have a look around the department. We were very lucky to get a souvenir from our visit. We actually watched the laser cutter cut out dinosaurs from a sheet of plastic and were lucky enough to get one each. Thank you very much. We are now looking forward to designing and making our model Viking boats.

Primary 1/2 have had a busy week.  We have been continuing with our castles topic and had a go at working in groups to build a castle using the different construction materials we had (Lego, cubes, wooden blocks etc.).  Once we had finished them we had to test how strong they were.  We decided we would throw a ball at them to see how strong they were, Mrs Thomson managed to knock down quite a few!!!  Our next step is to decide which materials were strongest and see if we can build some that will stand up to Mrs Thomson’s attack!

This week, P1 have begun their technology project based around the ‘Three Little Pigs’ fairytale.  The children have been split into groups and have already had discussions in their groups about what they could make their house out of to protect the pigs from the big bad wolf.  The children recorded their ideas on their planning sheet and will soon begin constructing their houses.  They have come up with the brilliant idea of using a fan to act like the big bad wolf and the challenge is to make a house which will not be blown down!  Thank you to all parents who have sent in some junk for us to use.  Good luck everyone – the big bad wolf will be huffing and puffing very soon!