At the end of May, Primary 1 enjoyed a fantastic outing to Beecraigs Country Park. The children met “Monica”, the highland cow and observed three little lambs whose mummy couldn’t look after them as she was ill. We took part in a nature scavenger hunt where we found all sorts of interesting creatures and plant life. We visited the wildlife garden where many colourful pants were attracting lots of bees and insects. We were lucky enough to enjoy some very warm weather which helped us to enjoy a picnic lunch outdoors. 
Category Archives: Whole School
Clay creatures, Beans and Beebots!
It’s still very busy in the primary 2 classroom as we approach the end of the last term. Â During maths we have been learning about position and movement. Â During this time we have created our very own Habitat Beebot mats for our Beebots to travel around. Â The children worked very well together in teams and were able to give and follow instructions to send the Beebot to different places. Â Â 
One of our Primary 2 pupils took it upon themselves to make their very own creature using playdough as an addition to their reading homework. Â This idea came from the non fiction reading book ‘Clay Creatures’. Â Some of our primary 1 children were inspired by this clay creature and decided to make some too!
And finally… the lovely bean stalks that we planted last term have produced beans!  We were very impressed with the size of the beans and took them home to eat with our dinner! 
Investigating outdoors.
ASD1 have been exploring a variety of Habitats on weekly outings in the community, some close at hand, and others further away. We starting looking at the plants and wildlife that we could find in our own school grounds – there are micro-habitats there, with lots of mini beasts to find.
We then travelled to Eliburn Park to see what we could find in the reservoir there. We tried dipping our nets into the pond but only found some flukes (small worms) and the larva of a dragonfly. We spotted some ducklings and lots of wild plants too.
Our next outing on the bus was to look at woodland wildlife at Beecraigs Country Park. We heard lots of birds but didn’t spot any although we did encounter a very hairy caterpillar on our way back. We did gather a few treasures to examine further at school.
Easter Inch Moss was a very rich habitat and we have explored plant/ tree life and pond life there – and we even went off track into the wilderness, spotting a buzzard soaring in the sky.
There was even evidence of plant and animal life in Whitehill Industrial Estate.
When we get back to school we use books to look up what we have found and then write this up into our Nature Journals. It is fun being explorers!
Blackburn Gala Week 2017
On Saturday the Gala week races took place and Blackburn Primary had pupils taking part in the relay races. The girl’s team of  Ellie, Jenna, Sophie and Summer ran well and did the school proud. Robbie was part boy’s team along with Adam who were enthusiastic and ready to represent the school.
Blackburn’s Got Talent!
    
At Blackburn’s Got Talent three acts represented Blackburn Primary. Ruby, Zoe and Channelle sang a powerful rendition of Little Mix’s Shout Out To My Ex and showed their star quality.
The PowerGirl’s of Summer, Sophie, Ellie and Morgan worked very hard and presented a well practiced and polished version of Chase the Wind from the film Brave complete with well thought out choreographed moves.
Ellie in P7Â also took part in Blackburn’s Got Talent and performed a lovely and beautifully choreographed dance to Christina Perri’s Jar of Heart’s, which Mrs McCarney described as ‘stunning, beautiful and full of confidence and self-confidence.’
Gala Quiz
On Wednesday night Adam, Jenna, Craig, Robbie and Morgan had their brains in gear for the schools quiz. Miss Cleland and Mr Riding were told how impressed the organisers with their teamwork and communication skills.
Other Achievements!
Ethan has been named Player of the Year by Polbeth United 2008 team. Well done to him!
P2 Trip to Beecraigs
As part of our Animals and their Habitats topic we went on a trip to Beecraigs Country Park. Â We went pond dipping with our very own handmade fishing net and managed to catch a tad pole and pond snails! We made our fishing nets using, a wire coat hanger, bamboo, duct tape and a pair of tights. Â If you would like to make one to use during the summer holidays look at the RSPB website:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/kids-and-schools/kids-and-families/kids-activities/choice-activity/pond-dipping.aspx
During our trip we made letters using natural materials and took part in a nature scavenger hunt where we looked for birds, flowers and insects. Â We were lucky enough to meet a 3 day old Belted Galloway calf called Spot.
Animals and their Habitats points homework
The children in primary 2 have been extremely busy over the past 3 weeks producing fantastic homework related to their topic. Â This term we decided to try something a little different with the homework and the results have been outstanding. Â The children were given a variety of tasks to choose from and each task was worth a set amount of points. Â The aim was to collect a minimum of 30 points, however, a lot of children enjoyed the tasks so much it was difficult to keep track of how many points they had!
Last week the children brought in all of their hard work and we invited each of the classes to come and view our presentations. Everyone was so impressed with all of our work but what was even more impressive was how much the primary 2 children could talk to others about their work. Â The children were even able to teach the teachers a thing or two! Â There was a variety of work on show including shoe box habitats, bird houses and feeders, puppets, handmade books, animal cakes and much much more. Â Here are some of the photographs of their amazing work. Â Another big well done primary 2, you should be very proud!
To celebrate all of our hard work we had a party with nibbles and games which we were lucky enough to have outside due to the (unusual) but fantastic weather!
Lovely Ladybirds
This term the children in primary 2 have been learning all about animals and their habitats. Â Over the past 30 days we have been closely monitoring our very own ladybirds. Â We made observations as they changed from larvae to pupae and from pupae to adult ladybirds.
Once the adult ladybirds had hatched we released them into our beautiful ladybird garden. Â We made sure that we filled the ladybird garden with some of their favourite plants which were sure to attract their favourite meal; green fly! Â We also provided them with shelter and painted some ladybird pebbles so that they had some friendly faces to make them feel welcome! Â Did you know that roses, geraniums and nasturtiums will attract ladybirds to your garden?
However, we had a huge surprise today when one of ladybirds popped back into our classroom! Â Luckily one of our children spotted it and we were able to rescue the ladybird by putting it safely back in the ladybird garden!
Butterfly release
As part of our class minibeast topic and after keeping a watchful eye on our class butterfly garden over the last few weeks, the children in Primary 1 reluctantly released five of our butterflies into our sensory garden.
Learning Outdoors
ASD1 are looking at a variety of Scottish Habitats this term and this will mean lots of Outdoor Learning.
We started by exploring our school grounds to find out what wild plant life and animal life we could spot there and what evidence we could gather.
We spotted things we expected to see, like the jackdaws that we regularly feed, but we also spotted an oystercatcher in the playground.
We also looked for mini-beasts in our sensory garden, lifting logs and plant pots to see what we could find and photographing them. Do you know what these are?
We brought these things back into our classroom to look at in more detail and to start an entry in our Nature Journals.
On Wednesday 3rd May we focused on the different types of mini-beasts that we could find. We searched on plants, in the soil, under bark, logs and leaves and various plant pots, as well as the container and eaves of the outdoor classroom. This time we collected various mini-beasts in bug spotters and recorded them on our spotting sheet.
We then carried our discoveries into the outdoor classroom where we finished recording our data, before we looked at each mini-beast up close using the bug spotters. The two creepiest were definitely the leatherjacket and the big spider! However we all liked the little ladybird.
It was such a lovely day it was nice just to relax in the outdoor classroom after we had let all our creatures back into their habitat.
Sampling Victorian School Subjects
Pupils from ASD1 have been trying their hand at sewing. One of the subjects taught in Victorian Schools was sewing and often children made samplers to show off their skill.
We planned our samplers using dotty paper to make sure our lines were straight and all decided to use our full name (or nickname) plus the year as our sampler. We also chose the colours we wanted to use and chose thread that was a close match. This activity went really well as you can see.
Then came the practical part. It took us two sessions to transfer the design onto hessian (in a frame) and then sew over our design with blunt, large-eyed needles. Some pupils needed a little help with their work but others were able to follow the lines and sew independently – see for yourself! Our finished samplers will be stretched and framed.
