Pupil Learning – Page 73

Primary 4 27.5.16

Good morning all!

We have seen 5 of our caterpillars turn into butterflies and fly away this week. It was very exciting. They were brown and orange and very bright when their wings were open.

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This week we had the dress rehearsal for the show ‘Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies’. The children were fantastic, and have learned so many words and songs, you are in for a very impressive afternoon if you plan on coming to see us. Tickets are on sale for £2.50 at the office and it is first come first served. The show takes place next Wednesday at 1:30 pm and 6:30 pm. Children should be dropped back off at the church for 6:15 to be ready for the evening performance. If for any reason your child cannot attend, please let the school know at your earliest convenience.

We made our mini-beasts from junk this week and boy do they look good. It is amazing what the children have produced by themselves and we have had some fantastic ideas for movable parts. Their research and plans were followed and amended as they worked creating their model, allowing them to see the importance of planning and being flexible in their planning when things do not o to plan.

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This weekend is the Summer Fair. It starts at 11 and finishes at 1 pm. I hope to see as many of you as possible for lots of fun there!

Reminders

Please sign homework diary

Summer Fair Saturday 28th May 11am-1pm

School Show Wednesday 1st June 1:30pm and 6:30pm

Homework

Spelling as normal

Miss Smith’s Maths group – Direction homework (see sheet)

Reading due Friday plus an activity

Red – Chapter 5

Blue – p.88 – 101

Green – p. 78 – 92

P7 drumming 26.05.16

Hi all,

Here are some videos from today’s drumming workshop. The full length video cannot be uploaded down to the file size being HUGE!. We will practice again tomorrow. Well done for all your hard work today!

Miss Farren

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Primary 1 Update 23.5.16

Hi Everyone,

We’ve got another busy week ahead in Primary 1 this week. The children are very excited about our farm visits starting this Tuesday. P1MO and some of P1D will be visiting Craigie Farm this week and P1C and others from P1D next Tuesday. Please can we remind children to wear sensible footwear and a waterproof jacket and bring a packed lunch to school that day. There will be the opporunity to order a school packed lunch on the day, however we will be leaving early so a hot lunch will not be available that day.

Also this week, we have our rescheduled Sports Day on Thursday – hopefully the weather will be kind!

In maths we are continuing to work on subtraction along with improving mental agility and our knowledge of mathematical language.

P1MO are practising hard for their assembly on Monday 30th May. We hope some of you will make it along.

Letters and forms went out this week for the Beach Trip in June – please check your child’s bag and send back as soon as possible. Please don’t hesitate to ask teachers if you have any questions.

Thank you for your continuing support,

Primary 1 Teachers

Primary 6

Morning! Hope you all had a lovely long weekend and looking forward to the final few weeks of the school year!

Last week P6 were given the opportunity to experience what High School life would be like. Both classes set off excitedly to Deans Community High School and got to experience a range of lessons in English, Maths, PE, Music, Science and Social Subjects. The high school teachers prepared a range of activities that were very motivating, we had never seen the children so quiet! Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and are now looking forward to the continued transition experiences in P7.

P6 have also been busy designing their own animations using the I Pads. This has been a very exciting learning opportunity for the children and we hope to share some of these later on in June on our Open Day. Below are some pictures of the children preparing their characters and backdrops before filming their scenes.

This Friday we will be taking P6 to a Rugby Festival at the Rugby Club in Livingston. The children will be leaving school at 9am and returning by 12pm. They will need warm clothing, waterproofs and sensible footwear as well as a water bottle and snack. We are looking for four parent helpers so if you would be interesting in giving us a hand then please contact the school office. The children will be coming home with letters today so please complete the EE2 forms required.

Next week the children will continue their rugby taster sessions so please can you make sure your child brings their outdoor PE kit to school on Monday and Wednesdays.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our student, Miss Blackwall, who passed her PGDE course and placements and will start her teaching career in the next academic session in the Glasgow area! This is our last week with her and she has been a fabulous addition to the P6 team.

Have a good week!

Mrs Smith, Mrs Muir & Mrs Kelly

24.05.16 Primary 7

Back to normality in Primary 7 after our adventures in France!

This week in P.E we have enjoyed Judo taster sessions and learned a few new skills. We also continued to work cooperatively in Hockey and are playing 5 v 5 games. In Science we have enjoyed a very active lesson where we had to dissect a flower then create a labelled poster to demonstrate our knowledge.

For those children participating in the drumming for excellence workshop, can you please familiarise yourself with your pattern of music and bring you music to school every day next week. We have rehearsals and our final workshop coming up.

Our Prom Committee have now begun working with Mrs. Gilmour to organise the theme for our celebration evening. It is all getting exciting in Primary 7.

Next week we have a visit from DCHS to look forward to. They will be teaching us Science and showing us some new ICT sites. We are all looking forward to this.

A big thank you and good bye to Miss Walker who has been teaching P7F recently. She is now off to complete her studies and we wish her lots of luck for her future in teaching!

Happy long weekend! See you all Tuesday!

Miss Farren and Miss Clark

Primary 4, 20.5.16

This week began with a fantastic trip to Dynamic Earth. We found out how the world was created according to the theory of the Big bang. We also learned about the phases the world has gone through in order for us to have the chemicals and products within the world. This fed into ‘Our Community’ topic as it taught is how coal and gases were formed.

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This led nicely to Tuesday where we had a visit from a lady from Library Services. She brought with her lots of artifacts from museums from the shale mining times in West Lothian. We learned about the lights they used down the mine and what it was like to live without electricity. The battery which powered their light in their helmets weighed a lot and we discussed the difference between batteries then and now. We also got to explore fossils in rocks and learned how these were made.

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On top if this, our last visitor came into school from the community. His name is PC McMahon and is one of the community officers from this area. He came to tell us how he helped the community and was able to answer questions about what he did. The children asked very good questions as a result of knowing lots of information from Mrs Vance’s visit! We definitely made him think!

We have one last visit as a result of our letters and it is Monday the 30th of May. We will be visiting Morrisons to find out what part they play in the community and to have a little tour.

There is no further progress with the butterflies / caterpillars and they are all still in their chrysalises with no change. Our worms are doing well and are creating lots of patterns for us to follow in their soil. We will probably set them free soon.

STOP PRESS Four of the butterflies have hatched and have been released today (Friday)

Well done to the Deer Park team in sports day today, however we need to find out the results from the infant sports day to see whether they are overall winners or not. Thank you to all the parents who came along to participate, and for the tug of war at the end!

Reminders:

Monday 23rd – Holiday

Tuesday – Outdoor PE Kit

Wednesday – Dress Rehearsal for the show (performing to the school)

Saturday 28th – SCHOOL FAIR

Homework:

Due Friday 27th : Spelling as normal

Reading pages plus activity:

Red – Ch 3 and 4 of The Karate Princess in Monsta Trouble

Blue – P.74 – 87

Green – P.65 – 77

Primary 3/4W Update

This week we worked very hard in class taking part in our rainforest challenge. In groups we all created models showing the different layers of the rainforest and some of the animals that live there. Don’t they look brilliant?

We also took part in sports day yesterday and had a great time competing in the different events. Thankfully, even though it was cold, the rain stayed off for us.

Remember we are off on Monday and Mrs Harris and Mrs Gilmour will be taking over the class as of Tuesday.
Today is my last day with the class and I am going to miss everybody very much. I am hoping they will continue to work hard for Mrs Gilmour and Mrs Harris as they have been doing so far this year.

Have a great long weekend,
Mrs Wallace.

Primary 6

Just a reminder about some of the events taking place in P6 this week:

Tuesday 17th May: We will be heading to Deans High School for our Transition Morning. This will take place between 9:30 and 12 so the children will be back in time for lunch but they will need to take a snack with them for break. Also could all children bring in their PE kit as some children will be getting a taste of High School PE.

Thursday 19th May: Weather permitting this will be our Sports Day, please ensure all children come in their house colours and the appropriate kit and footwear. This will be starting at 9:30am.

House colours are:

Raeburn: Green

Sutherland: Yellow

Waverley: Red

Deer Park: Blue

PE Kit is still required on a Monday and a Wednesday for both classes.

Please ensure your child completes all spelling activities including the additional task, this will develop their skills in writing further.

P6KS have been doing an animation project using iPads with Miss Blackwall, our PGDE student, so children are able to bring in any figures to assist them in their project, such as Lego men, small superhero figures etc.

Don’t forget about the new lunch system using Ipay Impact, a much easier way of paying for school lunches online. Letters have been given to advise you how you can do this but any problems just get in touch with us.

Have a good week!

Mrs Smith, Mrs Muir, Mrs Kelly & Miss Blackwall

13.5.16 Primary 7

Hello

Well as you know, primary 7 went a little animal daft this week and were involved in various animal activities throughout the week. We concluded the week with an animal movie of their choice and some animal origami before Free Time Friday. The children requested “The Jungle Book” so we spent the morning singing and dancing to the music. Children have now completed their animal fact files which look fantastic – well done for all your hard work everyone!!

Overall, we have had a very fun and busy week. We are looking forward to Monday and hearing all about France when everyone comes back together.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Miss Walker and Primary 7.

Primary 4, 13.5.16

Thank you to everyone bringing in their junk…we now have a collection gathering in the corner of our classroom and it will be put to good use next week and the week after. I can’t wait to see the mini-beasts created from it as the plans are very thorough and have some excellent ideas for movable parts.

We have some very exciting news! Our caterpillars have turned into chrysalises and we watched them turn before our very eyes! One caterpillar was still choosing his position on Monday morning but the rest had gone to sleep, attached to the lid by their tails. By Tuesday we watched them turn one by one, going from this:

to this:

We will keep you updated of any butterfly appearances 🙂

Also this week we had our visitors from West Lothian Youth Foundation as well as a player from Livingston F.C Youth Team. The children were very intrigued by what they had to say and ad lots of questions for them.

Another visitor we had this week was a lady called Christine from Child Smile who came to speak about the work they do for the community. It also fitted in with our health topic this term which is healthy eating, healthy teeth and health and hygiene. She was very impressed with the children’s knowledge and hoped they were putting what they know into practice at home. She brought with her a present for each of the children. Here is a picture of us all with our gifts of toothpaste and a toothbrush:

We were out enjoying the weather this week doing a little mini bug hunt. We successfully found all kinds of mini-beasts for inspection and learned a little more about their habitats and where they like to hide. There weren’t many places to look as our allotments are no longer there. We are looking forward to our proper mini-beast hunt at Hopeton House where we will be doing a pond dip as well as a mini-beast safari. This is happening at the end of term and more information about this trip will follow.

Here we are enjoying the outdoors with some of the bugs we collected:

Remember we have our trip to Dynamic Earth on Monday. Please bring a packed lunch, those who have lunches provided will receive theirs from the school.

Sports day will be Thursday, please wear house colours (see below). It will start at 9.30am.

Reminders:

Monday 16th – Dynamic Earth, packed lunch required.

Tuesday 17th – Outdoor PE Kit

Thursday 19th – Weather permitting – Sports day 9:30am. Please wear house colours:

Raeburn – Green

Waverley – Red

Sutherland – Yellow

Deer Park – Blue

Please bring in costumes if you have not done so already.

Homework

Due Friday 20th – Spelling as normal

Reading –

Red: The Karate Princess in Monsta Trouble ch.1 and 2

Blue: p.60 – 73

Green: p.53 – 64

P4/3 Update 13.5.16

Well done to all the boys and girls who completed their big homework task. We have displayed all our posters in the classroom and they look fantastic!

Remember that sports day is scheduled for next Thursday. P4-7 will be in the morning (this includes the P3s in our class) and we are due to start around 9.30. If possible, please send your child wearing something with their house colour along with appropriate outdoor PE kit.
Deer Park: blue
Raeburn: green
Sutherland: yellow
Waverley: red
Keep your fingers crossed for good weather (or at least no rain).

We have all been working very hard on the P4/5 show and are looking forward to performing it.

Next week homework will be spelling and reading pages. Please remember indoor PE kit on Monday.

Next week is my last week in school before I go off on maternity leave and as of Tuesday 24th Mrs Gilmour and Mrs Harris will be taking over the class for the remainder of the term.

Have a great weekend
Mrs Wallace

See you soon!

This post was written last night at around 5pm (12.5.16). However due to terrible wifi we were unable to post. We have just docked at Hull and will see you all this afternoon 🙂

Bonjour! Thank you once again for all of your lovely comments. The children enjoy hearing them all at breakfast.

Today we left the hotel for the final time. Craig really enjoyed the food at the hotel while Erin thought that her bed was very comfortable.

Our first stop was Nausicaa, the sea life centre. Nathan enjoyed looking at lots of seahorses and sharks while Jay liked watching the Penguins swimming underneath the water. We watched a film in 4D where our faces were splashed and our hair was blown around furiously! The gift shop in Nausicaa was fantastic! Many presents were purchased. Jay has now acquired a soft toy great white shark called Stephen who will be a great addition to the family I am sure!

Next we drove out of France and into Belgium where we stopped in town of Ypres. We visited a glorious chocolate shop where everyone purchased some delicious treats! The chocolate shop owner was even able to give us some special money off deals!

We then went to see the Menin Gate. It is a memorial to soldiers who died in the First World War who have no known graves. We each got a poppy to stick next to one of the names on the Menin Gate. This was a touching moment for us all.

We are now sitting in the ferry terminal as we write this waiting to go into our rooms for our final night before home. We are looking forward to dinner and disco before bed.

The children have had an amazing week but are very excited to see you all again!

See you soon everyone!

Written by: Miss Clark, Erin, Nathan, Craig and Jay (and Stephen the shark!)

Aujourd’hui mai 11!

Bonjour!

Thank you all for commenting on our past posts. They are all lovely and we enjoyed reading yesterday’s comments at breakfast this morning.

We spent the day at Bagatelle Theme Park. It was easy to get around and we didn’t have to queue for that long for any of the rides. It was rather cloudy in the morning but later on in the afternoon it was extremely hot and sunny (around 24 degrees!)

Here are some of our favourite moments from the Theme Park:

Becky: “I enjoyed taking Miss Clark on the Famous Jack ride and the flume. It was funny because she screamed the whole way round!”

Lewis T: “I enjoyed the Triops ride the most. Your legs were able to swing in the air and you went upside down loads of times!”

Leanna: “My favourite ride was the log flume. I got soaked!! But I still went on it 7 times!”

Claire: “I really enjoyed the Famous Jack ride too. It spun you around lots of times and Miss Clark’s screaming could be heard for miles!”

Some other funny moments include… Megan accidentally dunking her foot into the river on the water ride, Mrs Gilmour and Mrs Wotherspoon getting stuck on a broken ride and having to be rescued, the clown that played games with us and Miss Farren screaming constantly!

We also managed to buy some presents for our relatives at home at the theme park and are excited to give them to you!

We are looking forward to our final day in France and Belgium tomorrow, visiting Nausicaa, the Menin gate in Ypres and some chocolate shops (yum, yum!)

Au revoir mes amies!

Written by: Miss Clark, Becky, Lewis T, Leanna & Claire.

Guess the teacher!

Fun selfie on the Twist Air (chairaplanes!)

Mrs Gilmour being rescued from a broken water ride!!

At the end of a fun-filled, action packed day!

11.5.16 Primary 7

Good Afternoon

We had a very busy morning today and the children undertook a variety of activities relating to animal food chains. First of all, children designed their own “super animals” which had to be adapted to suit their environment. We had glow in the dark honey foot lemurs with bat wings and sharks with scorpion tails to name a few – very creative! We learned about how energy flows throughout food chains and the importance of having a top predator. The children engaged in food chain drama to showcase their understanding of food chains and the consequence of removing one species from the chain (lots of lions and gazelles in the classroom)! We also had a lot of discussion regarding the impact of humans on our wildlife. The children were then given time to continue with their research projects (animal fact files) which are looking fantastic – excellent work everyone!

This afternoon, primary 7 had lots of fun in P.E where they played basketball and spent the last hour out in the sun playing games and organising events for sports day.

It sounds like those in France are having a fabulous, busy time! We would like to ask you about your time at the theme park and what your favourite rides were?

All of primary 7 say HELLO and we hope you have a fantastic day at the theme park!!

Miss Walker and Primary 7

Bonjour tout le monde!

Thank you for reading our last update. We all loved reading the many comments you left us yesterday and today. Please keep commenting on our daily updates!

Thank you for your questions Primary 7! After dinner we have been enjoying doing different things. On Sunday night we went to the disco on the ferry. Yesterday, we went to the local park. Today, we are relaxing in our rooms after a very busy day. We are normally in our bedrooms for 9:30pm and lights out are at 9:45pm. This morning we woke up at 7:30 but tomorrow we have a long lie until 8am!! We are glad you are having a good week. We can’t wait to see you all next Monday and hear all your stories!

Today we have had a very busy, but interesting day. We started off by visiting L’Etaple cemetery. We were surprised as to how vast it was. Keston found the visit very educational as we were able to find out lots from the gravestones about the soldiers and civilians who had died. We found it interesting that the graves of the German soldiers weren’t so well kept.

We then travelled for about 2 hours on the bus to reach the Somme area. Our first stop was La Grande Mine. The crater was huge. It was caused by 27 tons of explosives set off by British soldiers who wanted to defeat Germans. The children all thought that the names on the walkway around the crater were very interesting as they told more information about soldiers who fought at that time.

Next we visited the nearby village of Contalmaison where we visited the McCrae Battalion Memorial (commonly known as the Hearts Memorial). Sam Tischler and Molly felt very honoured to be given the opportunity to place the school wreath on the memorial. Both Sam and Molly describe the experience as very memorable and touching.

Then we had our lunch at Thiepval. Sandy thought the memorial, for those who were never found during the Battle of the Somme, very beautiful as poppies regularly rained down from the top of the memorial. Sandy & Keston were convinced that they had found some long lost relatives on the memorial.

On our way to Ulster Tower we stopped off at Beaumont Hamel where we saw a memorial to Canadian and Scottish fallen soldiers among many others. We were surprised to find a Caribou atop of the Canadian Memorial!

Our last stop of the day was Ulster Tower. We were given a tour around the Thiepval Wood Trenches by a very knowledgable tour guide called Teddy. He showed us various trenches that were built by Scottish soldiers. We loved that the trenches were named after famous Scottish streets and cities (e.g. Inverness Avenue, George Street and Union Street). It was a truly emotional and humbling experience.

We are now back at our hotel after enjoying a lovely 3 course dinner. Please keep leaving comments, we love reading them.

Bon nuit!

Written by: Miss Clark, Mrs Harding, Sandy, Molly, Sam Tischler & Keston

10.5.16 Primary 7

Hello

So lovely to hear from those in France. Today in school we learned about animal adaptations and began a new mini challenge where we are creating animal fact files. We hope to continue this and complete these throughout the week. We then spent our afternoon out in the sun assisting primary 1 with sports day preparation and then playing rounders with primary 3. We all had great fun!!

Primary 7 would like to say hi to those in France. We have worked out that “Il fait chaud” means “it is hot” but we have no need to be jealous as the sun is shining here too 🙂

We have some questions from the class:

What activities are you getting up to after dinner time?

What time are you going to bed?

What time are you having to get up in the morning?

We hope you are having a blast and miss you all loads! Looking forward to hearing all your stories when you get back.
Miss Walker

Bon soir en France!

Continue reading “Bon soir en France!”

Primary 7 9.5.16

Hello everyone!

Just a wee update to let you all know what the primary 7s are up to in school this week.

Today we began our new mini topic – Animal biodiversity and adaptations. The children learned about the 6 main animal groups; mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians and insects. We learned about their key characteristics and how we can identify them. The platypus proved to be difficult! We also used classification keys to identify a series of invertebrates and also made our own keys to identify a group of insects.

This afternoon, we created signage for the school leavers’ assembly. This involved making signs as well as stars to decorate the stage. Tomorrow we will continue with our new mini topic and learn about animal adaptation.

The children have some questions they would like to ask those who are in France:

How is the weather?

What is the food like?

Finally, the children would like to say “we hope no one was sick on the ferry and that you all have an amazing time!”

Miss Walker

Primary 3 w.b. 9.5.16

Good Morning!
Primary 3 have been working hard the past few weeks on their Outstanding Outdoors Topic. The children who didn’t go to Lowport created a super wall display while the rest of the class were away. So far mosst of the learning has focused around plants. Our table sunflowers are beginning to grow. The children are taking responsibility for watering them every few days are are enjoying watching the progress. This week we are moving on to learn about the local area we live in. We are looking forward to learning more about Livingston and landuse in the area.
In maths, primary 3 are finishing off their work on numbers to 1000. We have been very impressed by their knowledge of numbers so far!
This week we will begin CEM testing. The children will complete tests on computers over the next 2 weeks to measure their progress in maths, literacy and general learning.
A reminder that Homework begins again this week. The children will be given reading, spelling and maths homework to complete by Friday.
PE this week is on Monday and Tuesday for P3R and Tuesday and Wednesday for P3C.
Thank you for your support
Miss Christy and Miss Rafferty

Primary 7 6.5.16

Hello everyone!

We have had a short but very busy week since the children returned to school.

The children are continuing to work on their High School Profiles in class. Children write about how they feel they have developed throughout Primary School in these areas: leadership, team skills, research and planning, problem solving and communication. These profiles will be passed on to each child’s high school before the end of the session. We are pleased with how they look so far. Keep up the good work P7!

We have been continuing with our new topic of Economically Less Developed Countries (ELDC) this week. We have been exploring the importance of access to clean drinking water and how this one factor can have a profound effect on whole countries. We explored the rights that we have in Scotland and compared our lives to those who live in ELDC. The children made impressive rights posters to show their knowledge.

Soon, as part of the ERASMUS+ Project, Primary 7 will be exploring the country of Bulgaria in more detail. Miss Clark will be sharing her experiences of the country and the children will be researching the country’s culture and traditions as part of a mini project. We will keep you posted on our progress!

This weekend some of the children will depart on our France Residential. The children are very excited and I am sure the trip will be a success. Miss Walker has an exciting week planned for all of the children staying at Carmondean, including lots of PE, trips down to P1 and an exciting mini topic. Miss Farren & I can’t wait to hear what they have been doing whilst we are away!

We will keep you posted of our movements in France by writing on the blog on some nights during the week. Feel free to leave comments as we know the children will love reading them 🙂

Au revoir!

Miss Clark & Miss Farren