Category Archives: Whole School
Walk like an Egyptian… The Museum
Along with ASD 2’s pyramid cafe (below), Primary 2/3/4 created a display of our learning in our classroom as part of the museum experience. We collected our best work from the term and displayed it on the wall to accompany the art gallery in the corridor. Visitors were also treated to a presentation by Primary 2/3/4 where we summarised all of our learning during the topic, using the school laptops to create a Powerpoint to go with our speech.
Thank you again to those who attended last Wednesday to allow us to share our learning.
Eat like an Egyptian…… The Pyramid Cafe
On Thursday 21st April P2/3/4 and ASD2 held their Sharing the Learning event in school. Pupils from P2/3/4 presented about the learning that had taken place and one of the pupils from ASD2 invited everyone to come to the Pyramid Cafe.
In room 7 ASD2 pupils had set up a cafe, taking on various roles, from sous chef (who helped to plate up all the goodies), to cashier, to waiters and kitchen porters. Pupils and staff had worked hard to research and make the kind of foods that were served in Egypt. We made 3 different types of falafel (a vegetarian snack), served hummus with pitta bread and made Tiger Nut Sweets using dates, nuts and honey.
The recipe for Tiger Nut Sweets is the oldest one that is known and made today. It was found, written on hieroglyphs on a piece of clay many years ago.
Pupils, staff and parents certainly looked as if they enjoyed the experience.
Frizzy Freaky Friday – Fun Fives Day 5
It was the last day of what has been a fun week.
Today was Frizzy Freaky Friday – a day when anything could happen. The first fun activity that broke up laps of the playground was to crawl under the big parachute – some pupils found it hard to get that low! The second activity was to get an item from one of the dressing up bags and wear it for the next few laps. It was safe to say that not everyone was thrilled with their costume choice.
Everyone did really well keeping their egg on their spoon round the cones at the next activity and then there was a lap using hula hoops to jump through – and Miss Carson proved that even she could get through a small hoop!
On their last lap pupils entered the danger zone – where members of staff were waiting with water pistols and wet sponges. In spite of comments to say they didn’t want to get wet lots of pupils managed to come through the danger zone more than once!
Well done to all the pupils who have walked or jogged up to 25 laps in our playground – and well done to members of the Health Committee who came up with the Fun Five ideas.
REMEMBER SPONSOR SHEETS AND MONEY TO SCHOOL BY WEDNESDAY 23RD. THANKS
Fun Fives day 4 – Throwing Thursday
The week is nearly at an end and some boys and girls (and staff) are up to 20 laps of the playground area, with their fun five activity every 4th lap.
Today was the emphasis was on throwing skills – starting by throwing beanbags at the target of a hoop on the ground. Some pupils set themselves the challenge of throwing to the furthest away hoop. When they came to their second activity they had to choose which size of box they were going to throw their ball into – not many people tried the smallest box – it was very tricky!
Back to beanbags for activity three, and how far could you throw a beanbag? Activity four was throwing the javelin and we were all glad that the wind had died down today.
The final throwing activity was by far the most popular – SOAK THE TEACHER!
Miss McLuckie, Mr Reid and Miss Carson took turns on the wet seats and had pupils aiming to throw a wet sponge at them. To say they all got pretty wet by the end was no exaggeration – especially as there was the chance to soak each other with water pistols! The most successful at hitting the teachers seemed to be the younger pupils who didn’t throw the sponge with all their strength – this helped their aim.
Then pupils helped to tidy everything up – in their own way!See our photos.
John Muir Outdoor learning day 3
Today we went to Beecraigs country park and tested out our orienteering skills. We split into groups and each one took a turn at navigating using our maps. Along the way we stopped and explored various parts of the forest. We found a tree that we all thought fairies must live in because it was so old and the sun was shining on it in an interesting way. We all split up at this point and found our own tree to sit beside and stayed quiet for five minutes so that we could hear the forest around us. After lunch we came back to the school to make bat boxes. Some of use learned the importance of not hitting our thumbs with the hammer. The bat boxes will eventually be put up onto the school and we hope that this will attract loads of bats to help keep the midgie population down.
Up, over, under and through! Fun Fives Day 3
Everyone is beginning to look forward to these fun activities in the playground – some had even started running their laps before we officially started off our Wednesday fun. The theme today was up, over, under and through and those pupils who could, were doing 15 laps of the concrete area as well as their jumping, crawling tasks.
The first task (after 3 laps) was to jump over the hurdles, next time around it was to try to get under the canes without knocking them down – but nobody wanted to get too dirty by crawling! The third task was to go through the tunnel – our photo shows the longest pupil in Blackburn!
Task 4 was to either walk along the snake or try to jump from side to side along it – this was a new activity for a lot of pupils.
Everyone had great fun finishing the course (on the 15th lap) by going over all the obstacles on out trim trail.
Look at all our photos!
John Muir Outdoor learning week day 1
Today we started off at Polkemmet country park. To start off with we gathered together and Kenny (our guide) gave everyone maps. We were asked to locate ourselves and then we set off on our way. At regular points Kenny stopped us so we could have the opportunity to use our maps. During the walk Kenny stopped us to discuss various things that we could use to start a fire. We learned that bark from a silver birch tree was excellent kindling. If we collected sap from an evergreen then this would help the bark burn longer. Once into the forest we were given fact file sheets relating to various trees and we split into groups to try and identify them. At this point it was time for snack so we settled down onto the moss and grass and had a well deserved break. Our next activity was a group challenge where Kenny asked us to make rafts out of twigs and whatever else we could find. We sailed them down the river Almond. Just after lunch Kenny showed us how to light fires using flint and steel and we all had a shot at making our own. We then went for a walk further into the woods and had a challenge at making a den. After evaluating our dens with green for growth and being tickled pink we all agreed that working together was the best way to make a den. Straight after this we had a toasted marshmallow from a fire that Kenny had made. He told us about fire safety in the woods and how to help put a fire out. After this it was time to head home to fill in our diaries and have a good rest for tomorrows fun activities.
Fun Fives – Day 2. Ball Skills Tuesday
It was a cold morning when we started our second Fun Fives Event.
In response to comments from the pupils, we made the laps shorter, but everyone had to do 10 laps today.
Our focus today was ball skills and every second lap pupils tried to develop a ball skill.
After lap 2 pupils had to dribble a football between some cones. At lap 4, it was bounce along the lane with a ball between your knees. After lap 6 everyone did very well keeping their tennis ball balanced on their tennis racquet. The last two special laps involved scoring a basket or shooting at goal.
All the pupils, from P1 – P4 (including our ASD classes) had great fun!
Check out some photos!
Fun Fives – Day 1. Movement Monday
It was a misty Monday morning when pupils from P1 – P4 started their fundraising efforts for Sport Relief with our first Fun Five event.
Today was Movement Monday and every time they came to the movement lane on their laps around the playground, pupils had to do a different movement.
On lap 1 it was all about moving fast, lap 2 was a go slow lane. On lap 3 pupils hopped on one foot, by lap 4 it was hop or jump with two feet. Our last lap was all about travelling as low as possible – for most this meant bunny hops as it was a bit wet underfoot.
It was tiring but lots of fun – REMEMBER sponsor money back to school as soon as possible.
