We have been looking at ways in which we can care for the environment.  We looked at recycling our rubbish and how littering can affect the habitat of animals.

We visited our local woodland to assess the littering and we considered the affect it would have on the wild animals, our pets who go walking down there and the environment.  We were not happy with what we found!

As we walked past the park we found lots of litter and broken bottles.   The children wondered why people didn’t use the bottle bank across from the park to recycle their bottles and help the environment. Broken bottles in the park can cause injury to children and animals.  The children were not happy about this!

When we got to the woods we found lots of surprising rubbish.  Things that we didn’t think we would find e. g. front doors, shopping baskets, roof insulation and much more.  Have a look.

As you can imagine we were all angry and upset that our habitat has been spoiled by people who will not recycle their waste properly.  All of these items are non-degradable, this means they do not decay over time.  Animals and children playing down at the woods could get hurt or worse!

We collected a lot of litter as well some bio-degradable (decays over time) and some non-degradable.  We brought it back to class and we organised it into piles according to which recycling bucket it would go into.

We then made a data handling chart to show the different materials the litter comprised off.

Jade had an idea for an experiment!

She thought it would be a good idea to bury bio-degradable litter and non-degradable litter to see what would happen.  We all thought this would be a great idea.  So we buried some litter and will check at the end of the term to see what has happened to it.

aybe you could try your own experiment to see what happens and could you please look after your environment by recycling your litter.

Reece said:  always remember to reduce, reuse and recycle your rubbish!

P3/4 had a taste of STEM learning today. Last term the class were learning about houses and homes. They were set a challenge to design and build a house that the specified toy person could fit into. The criteria were that it had to be only made from the provided pasta and playdoh and that it had to stand unsupported. This gave the pupils creative freedom to try lots of different techniques and methods to design and build their houses. In their small groups they set about the task. Many quickly found that it wasn’t easy to do and had to try different ways to get the pasta to group together to make walls and other parts of the houses. Some had good ideas but the buildings then collapsed so they had to start again using things that had worked well and changing the things that didn’t. When the time was up we went around all the groups to inspect their work and assess how it did to meet the design problem and follow the criteria. They found only one house that was fully successful but all the other houses had areas of improvement that they could give ideas for. They learnt that the process was where they learnt the most by working together, trying things out, discussing their ideas and working to improve their work.

On Tuesday pupils in P3 and P4 spent the day at Polkemmet Country Park. We walked there and met the boys and girls from Stoneyburn there as they had to get the bus. The P3 pupils started the morning with the Park Ranger. They learnt about the different trees in the park. The P4s started with den building and creating nature cocktails. For the dens they could use any materials they could find. They had a play at the park over lunch and then the groups swapped over.

We had a fantastic day at Polkemmet Park on Tuesday.  We made dens in the woods and ate our lunch in them; we played in the park and experienced Polkemmet Park and its grounds with the help of the ranger. It was great and we want to go back!

The children can’t wait to go back!

Happy Easter to all.  Maybe you could go to Polkemmet Park and do some den building of your own!

P5/4 has been learning about electricity this term.

We have learned that electricity is made of atoms and that atoms are made up of protons (+ charge), electrons (- charge) and neutrons which have a neutral charge.  We made our own atoms from marshmallows.  Have a look.

We have also been learning about static electricity and participated in experiments to investigate what can cause it.

We have also learned about the many inventors and scientists who helped to invent electricity and the electrical gadgets we have today.  We have learned how they persevered and never gave up and we are building resilience in this area as well.  This was a great project to help pupils learn that you have to make a lot of mistakes in order to learn!

Happy Easter from P5/4!

We spent a brilliant day yesterday at Polkemmet Country Park learning about trees and building dens.

We walked from school to the park and split in to 2 groups- Primary 3 and Primary 4.  We spent one half of the day with a ranger who taught us about different kinds of trees, how they spread their seeds and the names of different types of trees we can find in Polkemmet Park.  We also looked at different types of animals that would live in the woods, where they  might live and the types of things they would eat.

We spent some time at the park during lunchtime- we were all starving after spending a busy morning out in the fresh air and we had lots of fun playing with our friends from Stoneyburn at the play park.

In the afternoon, we swapped over and we went den building with Mrs Gibson.  First we made forest cocktails using lots of different leaves, sticks and things we found on the forest floor.  After this, we spent time in teams building some amazing dens!  We had a really great time and were sorry to have to stop building our dens as we were having such a great time.  We hope that we can come back at another time to build dens again next term.