This week we have been finding out about showed what we learned in group presentations in different ways: powerpoint, TV programme/ game show, fact file, model, poster and painting. Through these different things we found out about different Jewish festivals, Shabbat, synagogues, Jewish homes and the Torah which is the Jewish holy book. Sonny said, “I thought it was quite fun doing all the different ways to show what we’ve learned.” Nathan said, “It was easier working in a group because you can get lots more information.” Joshua enjoyed his role in the game show and the rest of the class particularly enjoyed this.

Leon really enjoyed division work with Miss Kennedy. He told us that it’s important to remember that you always start with the biggest digit and that division is just like multiplication backwards. Nathan liked working with protractors in angles work. Thomas said, “It was quite hard to start with because there are two lots of numbers on the inside and the outside and you need to try to make it that you know which ones to use. It got easier after a bit.”

In reading, we have been working on summarising. Jak said, “It was quite good because we were working with different people. At the end we got to design a task on what we read. It was quite fun cos we got to see what other people wanted to do.”

In health, we have been finding out about what we need to help us have a good night’s sleep. This week we learned about the body clock. There are two hormones that we have- melatonin and cortisol. Melatonin makes us feel sleepy and cortisol wakes us up. There is blue light in the sun and that is what makes us up because the light on our eyes tells us that it’s daytime. When the light goes, the receptors in our eyes tell us that it’s time to sleep.  We are keeping a sleep diary. You shouldn’t play on your ipod, phone, tablet, tv or anything with a screen that has blue light because that tells your body that you should be awake so it makes it hard for you to sleep. Did you know that primary school children should get about 10 hours sleep every night???!!!

P7a have been very busy this week.  We have began making our gas masks and will finish these next week.  We have also been working on our personal projects and Mrs Lloyd is looking forward to having a look at the work that has been completed so far. 

Today we have been bag packing at Asda to raise money for the bus for our school camp.  When all the money has been counted we will keep you up to date with how much we collected. 

Also this week, Sleep Scotland came into school and have been teaching us all about the importance of sleep.  We have a sleep diary to fill in and will be using this next lesson. 

Fact of the Week: Did you know that you grow while you are sleeping?

This week, as part of our World War 2 work, we have been making model gas masks. The key learning for this was following instructions. ‘It was really hard,’ said Joshua. Leah found the measuring for the aspirator part hard. Sarah thought that it was fun but challenging. We’ve also been working really hard on making posters to inform people about the dangers of gas. We looked at information on Glow to help us make good posters. We needed to have good colour, find out lots of information, think about headings and white space around our work and use team skills to make it as it was a group task. Jak thought that it was hard to space the work out well to make the poster look good. In our writing, we were doing a newspaper article. Jack said, “It was difficult because we had to write it in the third person and in the past tense and use the right style too!”

Well done to everyone for learning their Burns poems. Our class representatives were Hannah-Beth and Jack who performed very well. Congratulations to Jack who was chosen to represent our school at  the local level of the Burns competition in the spring.

This week we have been staining our WW2 newspapers and will be mounting these ready for display.  Here is a sneak peak!  We have also watched the second part of the ‘Britons at War’ DVD and are really enjoying watch the story unfold.  Everyone has been working on their own evacuee poem to appear on the front of a WW2 postcard, Mrs Lloyd has been very impressed by the quality of work produced.

We also learned about the Holocaust as on January 27th each year it is Holocaust Memorial Day.  We were shocked to find out what the Holocaust was and some of the horrible things that happened to many Jewish people.

In our Great Hall time we worked with P6/7 and completed a dance/fitness programme called ‘In the Gym’.  Everyone worked hard to listen carefully and follow the instructions given.  We also began our WW2 drama and started working on the outbreak of war.  We all had a role within the government at the time, some of us were ministers whilst others were advisors.  The meeting continues next week!

Congratulations to the two star writers this week – well done Chloe Campbell and Alix Wright.

Fact of the Week:

Evacuees weren’t always able to stay with their brothers and sisters when they were given a host family, sometimes they had to separate.

Last week we started our WW2 topic and we learned about the axis and allies and why the war started.

The star writers last week were Katie, Natalie and Daryl.  Well done!

P7a are excited about the new big screen which has been installed in the great hall, Holly thinks it will definitely come in handy! This month we are starting to earn treats for the fun day in June.

Last Friday we visited James Young High School. While we were up there we finished our class novel ‘Cosmic’, we wrote about how we were feeling before and during our visit and what we are looking forward to when we start up at JYHS.

We are working hard to learn our Burns poem . Have a look at the link below to help you: http://195.188.87.10/arts/robertburns/works/the_humble_petition_of_bruar_water/

P7’s enjoyed their paired reading with their buddies this week and are pleased to be back into the routine again.

The football team starts back on Tuesday and the team are looking forward to getting their new strips.

Fact of the Week Did you know that after Germany invaded Poland on 1st September 1939, France and Britain declared war against the Germans on 3rd September 1939?

It was a bit of a shock to the system being back to school this week- setting the alarm, getting up earlier to come to school and getting back into the learning groove. .  Leah enjoys our check ins/ outs in class where we talk about how we are feeling and what we have been doing.

We finished off the science work connected with the ‘Our World’ topic. Leon said that he enjoyed learning about the different types of rocks that we have on Earth and Sonny brought in some of his dad’s rock collection from home. Jack really enjoyed making the rock posters because you learned about the different rocks that you see in everyday life but don’t know about. Did you know that slate is a type of metamorphic rock?

Joshua found the division work in maths really satisfying. He said, “I really liked doing the great big division sum. It was easy when you knew how to do it.” Shannon thought that this work was fun and challenging too.  Caitlin liked our Countdown warm up in writing where we had to use the letters to make a word. ‘It was a good way to warm up and it was fun. The teachers always make our learning fun.’ Hannah- Beth said the she enjoyed writing ‘Into the Future’  because it makes you think about how you feel about going to High School

We are looking forward to starting our WW2 topic next week, especially Jak who is really keen to get going.

P7a have been busy completing some Christmas craft activities this week.  Here are some of our fabulous reindeer and sleighs.  Some of us have added trees onto the background while others have made Santa and some pressies to put into the sleigh.  Well done everyone!

Thanks to our resident photographer Natalia too – good job!  Merry Christmas everyone from Mrs Lloyd and P7a x