Primary 6 had a fantastic day yesterday at the Broxburn Academy Science and Technology event. Pupils had the chance to learn about structural engineering and took on the paper table challenge. We learned that things are strong in threes and triangles are the strongest shape. Primary 6 also worked with some 3rd year pupils to explore some scientific experiments, our favourite experiment was the ooze.
Over the past few weeks primary 7A have been learning about anime and making their own characters. Our characters are really creative and inventive. After that, we made our own manga comics in groups.
Katriona – I thought that was a lot of fun because we made our own characters.
Rosie- In my opinion anime is really creative and fun and it was the best art lesson we have had so far.
Carrick-I thought it was fun learning to draw the proper anime features.
Primary 7 have been working hard learning all about Japan. As part of their homework they took on the challenge of researching and building a Japanese house.
In science, primary 7 have been learning about air resistance. This week we carried out an investigation using bin bags, cups, eggs & string. We each in a group of 4/5 made 3 different size parachutes: small, medium & large to test which would have the greatest air resistance. Before the investigation we (the majority of the class) made a hypothesis that the small parachute would have the least air resistance. From the investigation we found that the hypothesis was correct & the larger the parachute, the greater the air resistance.
Jasiu thought it was quite fun making the parachute & dropping them to see which one would land first.
Ellie thought that the experiment was good and she enjoyed using the eggs to test our theory.
In Health and Wellbeing this term primary 7 have been learning about tobacco. As part of this unit they created posters to highlight some of the negative effects that smoking can have on our bodies. Some of these posters will be on display in our local Library to promote No Smoking day on the 9th of March.
On Thursday P7 had a visit from the Royal Bank Of Scotland. We were learning how to handle money and bills for later life. During the afternoon we were all given jobs and a salary and had to decide how to spend our money. Some of us manage our money well and stayed within our budgets but others went into debt and had to pay the bank back. Some of us had jobs which paid a high salary and others were paid much less.
With our money we had to visit different stations to buy things to live these stations included : the Tax and pensions office,a home, some transport, household bills , unexpected events, a holiday, entertainment and finally we visited the accountants to see if we had any money left.
Sana thought that it was a good experience and that all the visitor were very nice but very persuasive. Sana got talked into buying more than she had planned to.
Taylor thought that it was very educational because it teaches us how to handle money.
Murray enjoyed looking at all the different jobs.
Nicole enjoyed being an astronaut.
Carrick thought it was a really educational experience because it showed us how to handle out money for our future lives. The first time he went round he went into debt but the second time he managed his money better and stayed within his means.
We all enjoyed this experience and learned lots about managing our money and not spending it all on the thing that we don’t need.
A big thank you to Mr Heather and his colleagues for coming to our school.
By Sophie and Rachael
For the last few weeks Primary 7 have had Michelle and Janet from the West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service coming in to talk to about Drug and Alcohol Education. Over the past three weeks we have looked at what is in a cigarette, the harmful side-effects of smoking, what might happen to our bodies if we smoke, the pressures we might face from peers, the effects of second hand smoke.
This week we focused on looking at the dangers of second hand smoking and how it could affect us. First we started with a group discussion about smoking free zones. Then after that we played a game all about where you can find second hand smoking. The two main places you can easily breath in smoke are our homes and cars. When you are outside and somebody walks past smoking you can only see the smoke for about ten to twenty seconds, after that it disappears from sight however it will stay in the air for around five hours. You don’t know if you are breathing in this smoke because you can’t see it, that is why second hand smoke is so dangerous.
After we played the game we had a evaluation to fill in and it was about what we have learned, what we liked and disliked and how we felt about the whole smoking lessons. The government are planing to that by 2034 less that 5% of the Scottish population will smoke. We were given a pledge about Smoke Free Homes & Zones to take home and discuss with our parents. In the leaflet it has information about second hand smoking, what are the dangers to children and how you can protect your family. This pledge will hopefully help stop 95% for the population in Scotland from smoking and will make a lot of our lives better.
Everyone in P7 enjoyed learning about the Chemicals, Smoking Sue and the Dangers Of Second Hand Smoking. We would like to say a big thank you to the West Lothian Drug and Alcohol team for coming in to help us.
Well done to Sophie from Primary 7a who won her swimming competition. Sophie had to swim 6 races and was the overall winner for her age group. She also won the special achievement award for her hard work.
Today after lunch, P7a had a visit from the West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service. They let us know about the dangers of smoking, and how it affects our bodies, as well as the drugs in the actual cigarettes like nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide. We found out there are between 4000-5000 chemicals in each cigarette.
Today we done an experiment with Smoky Sue! Smoky Sue is a plastic doll with no arms and no legs and really showed us how cigarettes effect our lungs.During the experiment we lit a cigarette outside and pumped the doll so she could breath in the smoke. After the experiment we examined the liquid that would be in her lungs from clear tap water to yellow tar water. This showed us what is going into our lungs if we smoke.
After we played a game to talk about how we might react in situations where we might feel pressure to smoke. This helped us to see what we could do if these situations arise in the future.
So far we have really enjoyed learning about the effects of smoking and are working on some ‘Stop Smoking’ posters. These posters might even be featured in the local health center to encourage people to stop smoking,
Taylor and Ellie
Taylor in primary 7a has recently appeared in the west Lothian courier for his gymnastics and has been interviewed by the west lothian courier and his own words are in the paper! He also has recently won an award for gymnastics for being one of the people who went to the Celtic cup in march this year in Ireland.The Celtic cup included Scotland,Wales,Ireland and Northern Ireland. Scotland won and thats why Taylor won his trophy!we are very proud of his achievements and we all hope he keeps up the good work! well done Taylor!!!!
On Thursday the 10th of December primary 7 visited Dynamic Earth as part of the Big Data Event. Data is information stored in an electronic device or computers.
When we arrived we split into three groups, one of which went off to do an interview with Jude Spence and the other two had a tour of Dynamic Earth. First on the tour we found out about the Big Band. We went into a time machine to travel back 6.2 billion years, surprisingly it didn’t take us that long! We all thought the time machine was very interesting as we got lots of facts about how our Solar System began.
Next we moved onto find out about the formation of Planet Earth and how ice formed the mountains, rivers and valleys. We even got to see and touch a huge iceberg!
Afterwards we went a flight to find out about the Rainforest. This was most people’s favourite part of the day as the it was quite scary and we loved wearing our 3d glasses.
Ten people were chosen by the teachers to go to and answer questions and got a once in a life time experience in the data dome. The Data Dome is a large black sphere and projectors shined on the sphere which created circles to go round showing the trending data on Social media such as Twitter. They also showed how some of the data is used. Rachael learnt that data came from many different places and Sophie learnt that data is formed by many different ways.
To finish the day we also got a chance to use some Google Cardboard, this is like Google glasses. It was so much fun and everyone was laughing at each others reactions.
Finally we would like to say a big thank you to Jude Spence for organising the day for us, we all really enjoyed ourselves and would love to go back.
This morning, Mrs Casey (from St. Margarets) came to visit P7A. Firstly, we played a game, identifying different types of numbers – we had to identify if the number was: odd, even, multiple of ten or a multiple of five. Faith thought the game was really enjoyable because it really got your brain thinking because some numbers went in more than one category. Rachael thought it was quite challenging because we had to come up with definitions for odd and even which is quite hard to put into words.
Next, we looked at the Mobius Strip, which was invented by the famous mathematician August Ferdinand Mobius. To complete our investigation, we were given 3 strips of paper, and 3 stickers. First of all, we created a loop with 1 strip and put 1 twist into the loop. We predicted what we thought would happen when we cut the strip in half. Ellie thought that it would make 2 separate loops. The outcome was 1 loop in the form of the infinity sign. We then tried this with 2 twists, and predicted what would happen. Sana thought it would be double the infinity sign. Ellie thought there would be 4 loops on each side. The outcome was double infinity sign. With the 3rd piece of paper we made one
with our own amount of twists to investigate what would happen. We also discussed how the Mobius strip is used in the world, it was used in: art and fan-belt in cars.
This week p7 have started their topic on Space. Already we have learned lots of new information about the Solar System. Calum learned that Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System and it has a greater mass than all the other planets put together. Nikola learned the order of the Planets; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. We also created a rhyme to help us remember the order My Very Eager Mother Just Severed Up Natchos. Sophie learned that there are two different types of planets; Rocky planets and Gas planets. Rachael learned that Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have rings. Lewis learned that the Sun is a star.
Primary 7 have also been gaining an awareness of the scale and distance between the planets. To do this we created a scale drawing of the Solar System. During this task we had to use a scale and measure very carefully to ensure our drawing were actuate.
On Monday 16th November P7a and P7b went to Broxburn Academy to participate in a local basketball festival. Schools from the Broxburn cluster attended and played against each other . We all thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to do it again in the future. In fact we enjoyed it that much that some of us have signed up to attend an after school basketball club.
This week Primary 7 have been exploring Bullying. We have identified what bullying is, what types of bullying there are and what we can do to stop it. As a class we made different posters on how bullying can take on many forms, such as cyber-bullying, mental, emotional, and physical bullying. We looked at different types of posters, discussed what a good poster looks like and all the different ways we could layout our information.
Here are some of the posters we created.
These are our top tips for dealing with bullying:
Remember;
Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.
Today p7a and p7b started their high school transitions at St Margarets Academy. Once we arrived we were introduced to Mrs Melville (Deputy Head Teacher), who took us to our classrooms in the Social Studies department. Primary 7a were working with Miss Stone.
Taylor – We learned about how WWII affected children in Germany and how Hitler created “Hitler youth”. The Youth clubs were used by Hitler to prepare young boys to be soldiers and young girls were prepared for motherhood. In Hitler youth,there were 3 stages for boys and 2 stages for girls. Boys started in these clubs at the age of 6 and continued until the age of 18.
After break time we focused on what life was like for Jewish people in Germany. We learned about some laws that Hitler pasted to make life very difficult for Jewish people.
Racheal- I learned that in 1938 Hitler created a Law to stop any Jewish people attending University and in 1942 another Law was created to stop Jewish children attending school.
We are all looking forward to going back next week to find out more about how Jewish children were affected by Hitler during WWII.
For the past two weeks primary 7 a have been busy at home building their Anderson Bomb shelters.
We learned that the Anderson Bomb Shelter was designed in 1938 by William Paterson and Oscar Carl Kerrison. The shelter was named after Sir John Anderson, the man responsible for preparing Britain to withstand German air raids.
Have a look below to see our models of an Anderson Bomb Shelter.
Today Primary 7 took a trip to the local library to learn about the history of WW2. During our visit Diane gave us a detailed talk about WW2. We learned lots of interesting information and even got to see and hold a helmet that the soldiers might have worn.
Lewis learned that American solider worn camouflage helmets and the British soldiers had plain green helmets.
Sophie learned lots about children during WW2. Children had to be evacuated to the countryside; Devon and Cornwall were the most common places to be evacuated to. Often it was the children’s teachers who took them to the countryside.
Ryan learned that children who were evacuated only got to take one suitcase, had to wear a placard and carry a gas mask at all times.
Rosie learned that all people in Britain had to carry an identity card so that they could be identified if a bomb dropped.
Lewis B learned that some people had Morrison Shelters in their homes. These looked like a cage and would be used if the family could not get to the Air Raid shelter.
Ellie learned that in London people used Tube Stations as an Air Raid shelter.
Matthew learned that during the Blitz there were wardens that went round the houses to check everyone had their lights outs.
Hannah learned that the British flew large silver balloons shaped like airplanes to distract the German bombers.
Well done to all the children who receive the gift of the Holy Spirit last night during Confirmation. All the staff at St Nicholas were so proud of how well you behaved and how beautifully you sang.
Mrs Canning and Mrs Quin would like to say a big thank you to all the children and adults who came along to support Primary 4 in receiving this special Sacrament.
God Bless you all.
Today Primary 5/4 visited the Sky Skills Academy in Livingston to film their very own news report!
We split into four groups to plan, script, film, direct and edit our section of the news report all about Healthy Living. Have a look at the pictures below to see how we got on.
Molly- I was a camera operator. I had to film the report using a £60,000 camera. As the camera operator I had to find the perfect shot by lining up the screens so as not to show the black lines at the side. I also had to zoom in and out depending on the actors movements.
Finlay – I was the editor. It was fun because I got to pick the backgrounds and add headings to the news.
Caitlin- I was an expert. I had to answer questions on our topic. I enjoyed being on camera and using the Auto-queue to read my lines.
Grace – I was a reporter. I thought it was really fun because we got to dress up and read the news. I was doing the introduction so I was in the studio giving the headlines.
Sami – I was the director. I started by checking with the producer if they were happy with the news that was to be reported on. I also had to direct the scenes and called actions and cut.
Blake – I was a producer. I was the group leader and had the final say on the script and outfits.
Haidyn – I was also the producer so I had to over see the filming and make sure everyone was doing their jobs.
Nicole – I enjoyed putting all the clips together and making the headlines. I also really enjoyed seeing the final news report on the big screens.
Today primary 5/4 tried out their models of the Titanic in the waters of St Nicholas. Lots of the models were successful and stayed afloat however we did have a few disasters!
Molly – I first tried to fill my model with a swimming armband to help it float but it didn’t work. Next I filled a milk carton with lentils and this helped balance the weight of the model so it could float.
Finlay – I used reindeer dust to help my boat float but when I tried it out it tipped over. I tried it again with a rock at the side that needed extra weight and it worked.
This week Primary 5/4 have been carrying out some research into different time zones around the world. We found out that there are 24 different time zones.
To show off what we had learned we decided to make some clocks to display the times in different countries.
Abbie : I learned that some countries have the same time as us and some are in-front or behind us.
Haidyn: I learned that Hong Kong is 8 hours ahead of us. If it was 9.00 here it would be 5.00 in Hong Kong.
Grace: I learned that there are 24 time zones in the world.
Molly: I learned that we orbit the sun so different places in the world have sunlight at different times of the day. It can be day time here but night time in an other country.
Primary 5/4 are learning about telling the time using analogue and digital clocks. As part of a homework challenge, Mrs Quin asked us to design and construct either an analogue or digital clock or a watch. Have a look at the pictures below to see what we made.
Happy World Book Day from primary 5/4!
Well done to all the children in primary 5/4 for their excellent model ships and cabins. Each of you put an outstanding amount of effort into this homework challenge and the results are amazing! Well done!
This week in primary 5/4 and primary 5 we have been learning all about equivalent fractions. If you are finding it tricky or want more practise why not try the game below to help.
Today in literacy primary 5/4 were exploring their performance skills. They heard some advise from a professional actress who advised them to take their time, practice their breathing, stand up tall and imagine the image of the character in their heads.
Click the link below to see a clip of the story they were performing.
Over the last few days Primary 5/4 and Primary 5 have been hard at work getting the amazing ship, Titanic, ready for her maiden voyage.
Yesterday Primary 5 and Primary 5/4 visited the library to find out more information about our new topic ‘The Unsinkable ship’. To our surprise when we arrived Diane had dressed up as a first class passenger! During our visit we learned lots of new information.
Caitlin learned that even third class passengers ate well on the ship, they ate porridge, toast and potatoes.
Grace learned that aboard the ship was 13 honeymooning couples.
Aaron learned that band members continued to play their instruments as the ship went down.
Kyle learned that there should have been 64 lifeboats but there were only 20 lifeboats on the ship.
Finlay found out that 55 people cancelled their ticket before the ship set sail.
Ali found out that there was a fireman who got off the ship when it arrived in France.
Aiden learned that the ship stopped at Ireland before making its journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
We really enjoyed our library visit and we are all looking forward to finding out much more information about “The Unsinkable Ship”.
Here are some ideas of what you can do if the school is closed in the event of bad weather.
Maths
Literacy
Hope you have some fun in the snow and remember to keep wrapped up warm and stay safe!
Mrs Canning, Miss Crease and Mrs Quin
Primary 5 and Primary 5/4 have been learning all about SOLIDS, LIQUIDS and GASES and their properties. We looked at the main characteristics of each state of matter.
Emma – I learned that some solids are hard and can’t be molded into a shape without force. The molecules in a solid are packed close together and they don’t have much movement.
Molly- I learned that liquids are made out of particles that are more spread out compared to solids and have some movement. Liquids do not have a fixed shape but take the shape of their container.
Sami – I learned that the particles in Gases are spaced out and can move around freely. Gases do not have a fixed shape and can change volume.
We watched videos to learn about different experiments we could carry out. We then had a go at some of these in class, this got a bit messy!
We used a Kettle, cling film and ice to learn about condensation and evaporation.
We also experimented with different material to see what dissolves. We learned sugar, gravy granules and coffee granules are soluble and sand, chalk, flour and rice are insoluble.
Today we went to school kitchen to find out what changes in state are reversible or non-reversible. We carried out this experiment by heating different foods to melt them then we placed each item in the fridge to cool it back down. Tomorrow we will check which change in state are reversible.
WE LOVE SCIENCE!!!
Recently primary 5 visit Lendrick Muir for their school camp. Have a look the pictures below to see what we got up to.
What a fantastic day at the St Nicholas 2014 Commonwealth games! Primary 5,6 and 7 came together in an opening ceremony to celebrate their chosen Commonwealth country and preformed some wonderful cultural displays of song and dance from South Africa, Malaysia and Canada.
After a short break, for a BBQ lunch, pupils then took to the courts to display the skills that they had learned in their chosen sports of rugby, netball and hockey. Each country played their final games in a play off format and the winning teams were presented with their medals in the closing ceremony.
Primary 5,6 and 7 would like to say a massive thank you to all the parents, grandparents and friends who turned out to cheer us on and share in our learning today. We would also like to say a huge thank you to James Pegg and everyone at the Albyn Park who helped make today such a success.
Stay tuned for pictures of our teams in their new fabulou
s uniforms!
On Sunday the 15th of June a really exciting event is happening in Broxburn, the Queen’s Baton Relay will be passing through. In order to make the town look really festive Primary 6 have been busy making a staggering 125 Commonwealth flags to be displayed throughout the local community. Some of the flags were really hard to draw and it took loads of time to get them just right, however we all enjoyed the challenge and are looking forward to seeing to finding them in the local community.
After we had finished all our hard work we took some pictures to show off just how many flags we had made. Below are some pictures of our work.
Article 31
You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sport, music and drama
On the 1st of June Louis Matheson and Caitlin McCafferty finished the Stirling Triathlon. They both trained very hard for the event alongside the West Lothian Triathlon club with some other competitors.
The event included a 150meter swim, a 2.3km cycle and a 1.2km run.
Both Louis and Caitlin enjoyed the event very much and are looking forward to giving it another go next year.
Article 31
You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sport, music and drama
On Saturday 7th June, I did a club championship gymnastics competition. I won two gold medals, one for participating in the competition and the other one for coming 1st in my age group. For the competition I had to do a floor routine and a vault routine. I got a score of 24.5 for both floor and vault. I was quite nervous at first but then I got a bit excited. We had a warm up then a practice on the floor, then on vault. I was against one of my friends called Darcy who came 2nd. I was chosen to do a level 3 routine which is one of the highest levels. It was a bit hard but because I had been practising I found it easier than I would have. I enjoyed it because I love gymnastics. It is one of my favourite sports. I am hoping I do more competitions soon.
Ava McFaulds
Article 29
Our education should help us use and develop our talents and abilities.
Primary 6 have been working on their mental maths skills through lots of different activities. Click the link below to see if you can complete the mental maths mission successfully.
Article 15
You have the right to be with friends and join or set up clubs, unless this breaks the rights of others
Primary 6 would like to say a massive well done to Fraser Morris who competed in the Scottish Schools Primary School Cross Country on Saturday 19th of March. He did extremely well and finished 5th out of 113 P6 boys who were entered for the race. Also Fraser competed 2Km Easter fun run at Beecraigs and won that race! All of Primary 6 are very proud and look forward to hearing about future races.
Primary 6 would also like to say well done to Rachael Brown who passed her Musical theatre dance exam!
Article 17
Adults should make sure that the information we are getting is not harmful and help us to find and understand the information we need.
On Thursday P6A and P6B went to Edinburgh Zoo to learn about different life cycles of animals. We saw loads of different animals, from monkeys and apes to the giant pandas. We visited the education centre where we meet Kirsty who talked to use about the differences between mammals and fish and how they bring up their young. We also talked about the different stages in each animals life cycle.
In the afternoon we got a really treat as we visited giant pandas and to our surprise they were awake and moving about. One of the keepers told us that over 2000 people came to see them every day. We also got to visit the new meerkat enclosure and hiked up the big hills to see the Lions and Zebra.
My highlight of the day was seeing the monkeys and the pandas. In the pandas enclosure there was a TV showing the pandas doing different things, at one point it even showed one of the pandas doing a forward roll. The trip to the zoo was very fun and it was interesting learning about all of the different animals and how they live.
By Mirren
On Tuesday 22 of April p6 had a taste of the commonwealth sport Judo. The Judo teacher was very funny and the activities were really fun. We learned that speed and strength are very important in Judo and we even got to throw our partners.
Ellie thought it was very fun and different.
Gregor thought the judo was epic and awesome.
Rachael Brown thought it was fabulous.
Some of us are even thinking of joining.
Primary 6 would like to say a massive thank you to all the parents and friends who came along on Friday to see our assembly. For anyone who didn’t mange to get along on the day click the link below to see how we got on.
As promised primary 6 have written some personal accounts of our visit to the Glasgow Science Centre. Below you can read what Caitlin and Ciara got up to when they visited the Science Centre.
Last Thursday me and my class went to the Glasgow Science Centre. The main purpose of the trip was to visit the planetarium as our topic is about Space.
As we arrived, we were told to put our coats and jackets away in the cloakroom. After that we were brought up to the first floor. When I first stepped in I gasped! The whole room was full of different experiments. 
I tried the young to old computer. First you had to take a picture of yourself, and then it turned you old. I got a fright because I looked a lot like my Gran!
Next we went to floor 2.My faverioute thing in floor 2 was the singing bowl. What you had to do was you wet your hands in the water they had put in the brass bowl. Then you rubbed your hands up and down the handle and the bowl played a tune!
Floor 3 was all about the human body and physical health. The best thing for me was the hamster wheel. It was so cool. First you stepped into the wheel. Then you started to run and the wheel would start to move!
Last of all was the planetarium. That was awesome because we stepped into the room and sat down in our seats. I got a fright because the seats were nearly as far back as a bed. That was because the screen was all over the roof. Suddenly the lights dimed and the woman hosting the show started talking about all the different constellations and how there are 88 recognised constellations. Then we went over the order of the planets. The most interesting facts she told us was that no woman has ever been to the moon. The last one was that in the streets with all the bright lights you can only see 300 stars. In the pitch dark countryside you can see over 3,000 stars! Then the lights went on and we all went back to school.
By Ciara.
As we walked through the colossal doorway I started to get extremely excited about our planetarium visit in the afternoon. Slowly we trudged through into the science centre and made our way up to floor 1.
Once we were all upstairs we were allowed to explore. First I looked at big glass box and there were little particles. The particles were made of alcohol. 
It was amazing I didn’t know how they formed! Next I looked at a blurry picture of a calm woman but when you looked at the picture in the mirror the picture looked like an angry man!
Then we moved on to floor 2. First I went and looked in a glass box then turned the knob. The ink moved! Next was my faveroiute activity the plasma ball so if you put your hand on the top then gently touched someone else’s finger you could see a spark! Using two keys it was possible to make thunder and lightning!
Then we went onto floor 3 it was all about the human body. We learnt all about arthritis and different disabilities
Finally what we had all been waiting for, the planetarium. It was amazing because right in the centre was a big metal ball it looked just like a giant disco ball! Once we were all seated the lights dimmed and the woman hosting the talk walked on to the small stage, as we all gazed up the woman explained the different constellations. Then she went on to give us lots of different amazing facts, like no woman has ever to the moon. The time flew by and soon we were on our way back towards school.
By Caitlin Mccafferty
Primary 6 have been completing a homework challenge to design and make a rocket.
Here are some of the pictures of our designs.
On Thursday primary 6 visited the Glasgow Science centre as part of our topic on Space. Have a look at the pictures below to see what wonders we discovered and stay tuned for some personal accounts of what we got up to.
Yesterday Primary 6 were invited along to Broxburn Academy for their annual Science and Technology day. We were all very excited as the hall was packed with loads of children from other local schools and some strange looking experiments and stations.
The first station we visited was called Hovercraft CD. To make these we had to blow up a balloon and attached then to CDs with a closed bottle cap on it. Next we put them on the floor and opened the bottle cap. Since we had opened the bottle cap, the air from the balloon escaped which made the CD slide along the floor.
Next was Outrageous Ooze. First we were asked whether we thought the ooze was a solid or a liquid, we all thought it look like a solid. The third year pupils asked us to make a snowball out of the ooze but as soon as we scooped some up it melted away. Next we were asked to hit the ooze and amazingly it didn’t splash but if we gently put our hands into the ooze they sunk. After trying out different experiments with the ooze we found out that it was a solid and a liquid! This is called a colloid.
The third station was called Fizz Pop Rockets, for this one we were given safety goggles. We had to fill a little tub with water and stick a fizzy tablet with onto the lid. We then placed the tub upside in a tray and started our timers. After a few seconds the tub flew up in the air with a pop! This happened because the tablet dissolved in the water releasing a gas called Carbon Dioxide.
The fourth station was microscopes. First we had to pick out some pond weed and put it on a glass slide. Then we looked through the microscope to see the plant cells. After that we were given another strip with brain cells to have a look at.
The second part of our day was all about CDT (craft, design and technology). We had to design and build a skyscraper. First we all planned out a design and then used the straws and tape to build our structure. It was a competition to see who could build the highest structure. The highest tower was over two metres!
After lunch we had a big quiz. Most of the questions were to do with what we had learned throughout the day. The other questions were to do with science and technology. Sadly, St. Nicholas didn`t win but we had a great day!
By Ciara and Kirsty.
Primary 6 have been busy transforming themselves into space experts.
We have been using our Space topic to cover lots of areas of the curriculum including; mathematics, science, art and design, technology and language skills.
Over the past few weeks Primary 6 have been busy researching our Solar System using computers and information books. We used the information we had gathered to create different posters, make 3d models and design our classroom doors.
To make our 3d models of the Solar System we had to use lots of problem solving skills, maths skills and our knowledge of the planets to ensure our model was accurate. Before we could begin making the planets we had to work out the size of each planet. To do this we learned about the diameter and radius of a circle. We then set a compass to different measurements to draw the circles so that the planets were different sizes, like they are in real life. The next step in making our models of the Solar System was to scrunch up lots of newspaper and stick it onto the circles of cardboard to make it 3d. Then we had to layer our models with mod rock so that they were smooth, but the rocky planets were a bit bumpier than the gas giants. Finally when the mod rock was dry we painted our 3d models which the Janitor helped us to put up on the wall. Once the planets were up we started to make posters to go along with our planets.
When designing our classroom doors we used our math skills to measure the length and the width of our door and then used these measurements to cut our paper. To make our door design we had to draw out our design on a4 paper at home and then we put a bit of different peoples’ ideas together to make our final design. In the end we decided on having an astronaut on the smaller door and on the bigger door we split it into 3 sections. On one section we put the earth and all the phases of the moon around it, on another section we put a comet saying welcome to p6 on it, on the last section of the door we painted the moon then drew famous spacecrafts.
By Mirren and Caitlin
In P.E primary 6b have been learning about Gymnastics. Mrs Smith has been teaching us about different jumps, balances and floor work.
In teams Mrs Smith challenged us to make a routines to show off our learning. These routines had to be original, show creativity and good transition. Over the course of two weeks we used all our knowledge about jumps, balances and transitions to put together our ideas and create our routines.
Now you can view the finished product for yourself!
By Amy and Gregor
Primary 6b have been very busy this week working on their mental maths skills.
Lots of us find mental maths tricky so we wanted to find a fun way to develop our mental strategies. To help with this we worked in groups to practice our fraction, multiplication and division skills. To make this more fun, we worked in small groups to try out some new mental maths puzzles. These included loop cards, tarsia puzzles and jigsaws. We found this fun because we are working together and discussing different ways of solving problems.
Over the next few weeks we will continue practicing these skills and have some fun along the way!
Primary 6 have been working together to learn about our solar system and have become rap stars in the process.
We have been working in groups to research each of the planets and decided that we wanted to show our knowledge of the planets through music. Each of our groups took on the challenge of writing our own rap song about each planet and becoming rap stars.
Please click below to have a sneak peek into what we have come up with.
Stay tuned for the full version coming to a stage near you soon!
Mrs Heather and Miss Watson have set us a challenge to record the phases of the moon.
Each night for the next two weeks, we have to draw or take a photograph of the changing shape of the moon. Remember each night to date your picture and note the time the picture was recorded.
We are looking forward to seeing what phases of the moon we were able to record over the two weeks. Once we have the results we can begin to investigate the patterns arising from the phases of the moon.
Click the link below if you need some help.
Have fun recording!
