Bankton Primary School was delighted to be showcasing the work we have been doing to encourage reading through our breakfast book club at the First Minister’s Reading Challenge Celebration today.
We were so proud of our book club representatives who came to share our work with other schools from across Scotland as well as with some very important people that you may recognise!!!
  
Last week Primary One enjoyed taking part in health week and we learnt lots about how to keep ourselves healthy.
We had a visit from Dexter the Dragon and he taught us how to brush our teeth correctly. We also enjoyed taking part in different activities such as wake and shake, multi sports and yoga.
Primary One also had a special visit from the Ambulance Service who taught us how to save a life and do basic CPR. We also know how to call in an emergency  -999!
We also loved going on the big daily mile walk around the local community with our mums and dads!
The nursery children were lucky today to join in with the school children in their Shake and Wake session with Miss Dyet. The children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this activity and some children even managed to get up to the front of the stage.
The nursery children were then all active during their outdoor classroom visit around the local pond. We were lucky enough to have an extra healthy snack donated from Morrisons.
This week the nursery children have been focusing on personal safety through the story of Hanzel & Gretel. This story was introduced to the children by following a trail of pebbles to the story which they enjoyed listening to. The children enjoyed listening to the story through different version on the iPad. On our outdoor classroom we left a trail of breadcrumbs for our friends to find their way back to the nursery.
Although some ducks started eating them as we dropped them.
On Monday we had a great start to health week. Â We started the day taking part in some multisports activities and had fun practising our steps up, dribbling, throwing and rolling. Â It was really fun!
We also enjoyed a visit from Lisa from Childsmile. Â She brought along Dexter the Dragon to help teach us about how to brush our teeth properly. Â We all got to have a turn of brushing Dexter’s teeth and know how important it is to brush our teeth twice a day.
In the afternoon, we discussed healthy and unhealthy foods and completed the healthy lunchbox competition and today we found out Caleb was the P1/2 winner!  Well done!
On Tuesday, we learned about how to save a life and what to do in an emergency. Â It was really good fun and we also learned that we should all be able to say our addresses incase we ever need to tell someone. Â Can you tell someone your address?
We also learned about the importance of sleep and good bedtime routines. Â We learned about how much sleep lots of different animals and people need and about what we can do to make sure we have a good sleep.
Mrs Sinclair took us to learn about yoga. Â We all took part in some hungry caterpillar yoga and loved it!
On Tuesday and Friday morning Miss Dyet led our ‘Shake and Wake’ which was really good fun. Â Even mums, dads, brothers, sisters and grandparents were allowed to take part! Â It woke us all up in the morning!
Finally, today we went for a lovely ‘Daily Mile’ walk around Dedridge pond and some of our parents even joined us too! Â It was a great health week!
We have done so much at the beginning of health week that we wanted to let everyone know about the special activities we have been doing so far…
We started health week yesterday by inviting Mrs Stewart to join us for our daily mile. Â We had a talk from the ladies from Childsmile who reminded us how to brush our teeth correctly and gave us a chance to brush Dexter and Yoshi’s teeth.
After break we did some multi-sports in the hall as well as having P.E. with Mr Muldoon in the afternoon!!
Oskar liked doing the daily mile and Izaak enjoyed having a chance to brush Dexter and Yoshi’s teeth.  Abi has liked all the activities especially trying to throw the small hoops into the big hoop.
Today our morning started with ‘shake and wake’ in the hall as it was too wet to be outside.
We then did more P.E. with Miss Campbell. Â Chloe and Niamh both said they enjoyed the races (I think the egg and spoon was a favourite!) and Charlie liked doing hockey.
Next we took our teddies to learn how to save a life. Â We were shown how to do CPR by pushing down on our teddies chests and talked about how to call an ambulance.
We did our daily mile by walking round the school so we can keep up with our Bankton marathon challenge and finished this with a visit to the fire engine that came to the school. Â We all had a turn sitting inside even though it was very wet outside!!
Health week has been very popular so far. Â Here are some of the children’s thoughts about it…
“It’s been super fun and by the end of the week I will be exhausted because of all the fun!” Â Cameron Ch.
“Health week is the best week ever!” Â Casey
“I like to play sports so I don’t want health week to end!” Â Jamie
Last week in maths we were busy practising counting in 2s.  We used magnetic numbers, cubes, lego and much more to help us to do this.  Mrs Lloyd is impressed with how we are doing!
We also practised using positional language to give directions. Â We went outside to the playground and Mrs Lloyd pretended we were robots and programmed us to move and follow her directions!
On Tuesday, we welcomed parents in to see the super work that we have been doing in maths during our last PATPAL event of the session. Â We were the teachers and were teaching all the parents and grandparents! Â Thanks to everyone who was able to come along and join us. Â It was so much fun!
In our topic work, we were learning about the different parts of a pirate ship. We used our cutting and sticking skills to label a picture.  We are getting really good at remembering the different parts.
Finally, we were developing our ICT skills and used a computer programme called Clicker 6 to turn ourselves into pirates! Only a few of us have had a go so far but everyone will get a turn!
As part of Health Week primary 6 and 6/7 set up a potted sport event for the nursery children to take part in. There were different stations to develop the children’s rolling, throwing and balancing skill. The school children showed the nursery children what they had to do at each station.
REMINDER that the government’s free school meals initiative for P.1 – P.3 pupils does not continue into P.4.This means that all parents who are not eligible for free school meals should order and pay through our iPay Impact system at a cost of £1.97 per day from August.
I would seriously urge any parent who thinks they may be eligible for free school meals to apply now for the new session.
The government calculates our Pupil Equity Funding based on the numbers of pupils registered for free meals – so please register if you think you are eligible as this will increase our funding.
Information about eligibility can be found on the West Lothian Council Website at the link below:
https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/3787/Free-School-Meals
If you have any further questions regarding this, please contact the school office.
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This week in maths we have been busy learning how to count in 2s. We used lots of different things to help us to do this e.g. magnetic letters, cubes etc. Â On Tuesday, we also welcomed parents in to see the super work that we have been doing in maths.
We have also been busy learning all about the different parts of a Pirate Ships! Miss Rodford was very impressed with our remembering skills!
We have also started to turn ourselves into a Pirate using a computer program called Clicker 6! We got to add a hat, sword and even a parrot to our pictures! They look very funny!
