P3 and P2 Take a Trip to the ZOO!
All posts by Miss King
Second Successful Reply for Sixes!
Today Primary 6 received our second reply from an inspirational Scot!
After our Harry Potter novel and film compassion study, Mandipa wrote to Robbie Coltrane the legendary Scottish actor who played Hagrid in the series of films!
Today the post man brought her reply and she was delighted to find a signed photo in the envelope! Well done Mandipa!
P6 Football Team Lunch!
The Primary 6 football team enjoyed a team lunch yesterday with Miss King and Miss Miller as a treat to celebrate all their hard work this year and their success in their latest tournament! Well done boys, you make us all very proud, you have worked so hard as a team and have constantly developed this year!
Primary 7 team will have their lunch after their final tournament!
Special Surprise for P6 Letter Writers!
Last month Primary 6 sent letters to inspirational Scottish people. Our aim was to get a reply from them and for them to answer our questions and send us their favourite Scottish recipe for our class cookbook. Today we received our first reply!
Michael and Nicole wrote to Hibs and Celtic player (and Saint Nicholas pupil!) Liam Henderson, and lucky for us when he read their wonderful letters he decided to pop in and answer their questions in person! It was very very exciting and a great surprise! Everyone got a chance to ask questions and we learned a lot about what life is like as a football player! A huge ‘Thank You’ to Liam for taking the time to visit our children! Nicole and Michael were over the moon!
St Nicks in the Sunshine
Some photos of the boys and girls enjoying being out in the sunshine today!
The football team enjoying a treat on the way to training tonight!
Homework Club are working hard!
The boys and girls from the upper school ‘Homework Club’ were hard at work after school today! We loved using the schools new netbooks to complete research, do projects and practice skills!
P6 QUIZMASTERS!
Well done to our amazing p6 quiz team who came 2nd in the Rotary Primary Schools Quiz!
They tied for 1st place but missed out on the top spot in the tiebreaker question!
You all make everyone at St Nicholas very proud! Keep working hard!
Scottish Woodland vs South American Rainforest
Today as part of our Rainforest topic primary 6 visited the woodland area beside the canal to begin comparing the Scottish landscape with the tropical rainforests. We are so excited about this topic, we’ve planned lots of wonderful activities. The thing we want to know most about is the tribes!
TALENT SHOW 2016
WOW! We are so lucky to have a school full of amazing, kind, helpful and talented children in our school! Today some of them took to the stage to showcase their talents at the annual Saint Nicholas Has Got Talent event!
The staff and pupils were blown away by wonderful singing, dancing, gymnastics and taekwondo! Everyone was laughing at the wonderful jokes!
To end the show there was a special surprise as some of the teachers took to the stage to perform! We had been practicing all week after school!
Hope you all had a good time! Enjoy the holidays everyone!
Primary 6 visit Scottish Shale Museum
Primary 6 enjoyed a wonderful day today at the Almond Valley Heritage Centre and Scottish Shale Oil Museum! Our topic is Scottish Industries and we loved seeing how life in Broxburn would have been in the days of mining and shale oil.
We played games in the adventure zone, made candles using parrafin wax, explored the history of industry in Broxburn. Then we visited the old Mill, and the farm!
We had lots of fun on the trampolines, gokarts, wartime garden, animal enclosures and parks!
Thank you to Sami, Manpida, Freya and Ali’s mums for coming along and sharing this day with us! Even though it was cold and wet, we all had a fantastic time!
DANCEMARATHON!
Here are some photos from our Dance Marathon yesterday!
We all had a wonderful time and hopefully raised lots of money for our Lenten Appeal!
5, 2 or 1 hour of non stop dancing can be pretty challenging! Well done everyone!
A special THANK YOU to the dance leaders from St Margarets Academy for running a session with us, and the girls from JHM who taught everyone an amazing dance!
Highlights were definitely the class dance off, lip sync battle and best dancer competition!
Remember to bring in your sponsor money by FRIDAY!
Fairtrade Challenge!
Last week we completed the Fairtrade Challenge in Primary 6 and it was great fun!
We were all in groups and represented different countries. Each country had an envelope and resources inside. The aim was to make paper shapes and trade them into the ‘bank’ for money.
But… it wasn’t very FAIR… ‘poorer’ countries didn’t have all the resources to begin with so they had to trade with the richer countries! The bankers and leaders Miss King and Miss Miller weren’t always fair either… the rich countries seemed to be making lots and lots of money!
It was all very heated and frantic as representatives from different countries tried to trade with each other as the clock ticked on.
We learned that trade between countries isn’t always fair, and that richer countries should do their best to help poorer countries to get the best deal. We agreed that we should always try to buy items that have been traded fairly. Now we understand more about how countries work!
Peer Learning P3 and P6!
This week Primary 6 visited Primary 3 nd 3/2 to teach them all about the History of Industries in Broxburn. The Primary 6 children created powerpoints filled with information about the Shale Oil industry and what it was like to live and work in Broxburn in the past! It was super interesting and we all learned lots! We love sharing our learning and working together! Thanks for listening Primary 3 and 3/2!
Scottish Day in Primary 6
Last month, on Burns Day Primary 6 had a special celebration of Scotland and enjoyed a wonderful day of preparing Scottish foods, dancing, eating and singing! We wore our best Scottish outfits!
We prepared and tried.. marmalade sandwiches, porridge, shortbread, tablet, oatcakes with Scottish salmon and Orkney cheese. We washed it all down with some delicious Irn Bru!
Isla and Iona preformed some Highland dancing and we all enjoyed singing some traditional Scottish songs. Before the bell rang we all joined in with a wonderful rendition of Auld Lang Syne!
Primary 6 Special Visitor!
Yesterday Primary 6 had a very special surprise when Olivia came back to visit us! Olivia moved to Newcastle at Christmas time and we have really missed her since she left St Nicholas! Olivia was on holiday from school and was telling us all about her new class, teachers and friends. Please come back and visit us again Olivia!
Football Star Visits Saint Nicks Team!
Today the school football team had a very special visitor to their training session when ex Saint Nicholas pupil and current Celtic and Hibs player Liam Henderson came to see us and join in.
The team had the chance to ask the football star some questions, show him their skills and even play football with him in a game. It was a wonderful experience and something we hope they will remember for a long time. At the end of our session the boys all got their photos taken and Liam signed autographs for them.
A huge thank you to Liam Henderson for taking the time to come and visit us and creating an amazing training session for our football team. We wish him all the best for his future in football and we are very proud to say he was part of our school!
Making Music – David Bowie style!
Every Thursday we complete a challenge in Primary 6 where we have to be creative, use our critical thinking skills or solve a problem by working as a team.
Last Thursday we completed a creative challenge, where we learned to write a song through David Bowie’s ‘cut up’ method! We took 3 songs by the Beetles, Stevie Wonder and Queen, and changed them into completely new songs, we made them into raps, added harmonies, changed the lyrics and the backing music. When we listened to the original song we were amazed with how different our versions were, it just goes to show how amazing things can be created when we add all our ideas.
![IMG_0805[1]](https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/public/StNicholasPrimarySchool/uploads/sites/7/2016/01/IMG_08051.jpg)
P6 EGGSPERIMENT!
Primary 6 have been completing our health and well being topic about nutritional values of our food and drinks. We learned about the sugar in our drinks and were amazed to see the amount in some of our favourite drinks! We created a ‘think before you drink’ display to remind us just how unhealthy these drinks are and to make us think twice about buying them regularly!
This week we completed an experiment with eggs to find out what these drinks can do to our teeth! Mrs Thomson boiled us some eggs and we put them into cola, coffee, tea and water. We left them for 5 days… not only did they smell bad, when we removed them they looked disgusting! The tea, coffee and cola all stained the eggs… the coffee was the worst; it stained the inside of the egg when we cut it open! The egg that we left in water was perfect, it was not stained at all. We got some toothbrushes and and tried to see if any of the staining would come off but it didn’t! The egg soaked in cola was slimy and solid to cut! Yuk!
We also looked at calcium in bones and teeth! We soaked some bones from chicken drumsticks in vingear, the acid made the bones very easy to bend, this showed us the importance of drinking calcium based drinks and food!
Happy Campers!
Last month the children of primary 6 had a wonderful time at school camp!
We were put to the test with many challenges and we all learned lots of new skills! Have a look at some of our photos!
My favourite activity was the inflatables, we were battling against each other – Mandipa
I loved the trail bikes because we went on an adventure – Finlay
I loved going up Jacobs ladder, it was really hard! – Francesco
I liked bungee run, it was so funny seeing Miss King and Miss Miller against each other – Nicole
I liked the lowropes, I went down the mineshaft! – Sami
Lendrick Muir has nice food, pizza was great! – Madison
I loved doing the rocket launch challenge – Caitlin
Christmas Lunch!
A great time was had by all today at the annual Christmas Lunch!
All the staff and pupils would like to say a huge thank you to our AMAZING kitchen staff who work so hard to provide tasty meals for us every day!
P6 Christmas Homework Challenge!
*Christmas Alphabet – write an A-Z list of all things Christmas!
*Invention – invent a toy for Christmas that every child in Scotland will want!
*Q and A – the answer is Christmas Day… what is the question? Create 10 questions!
*Prediction – write an imaginative paragraph about your Christmas day… 10 years from now!
*Disadvantages – List 10 disadvantages of being an ELF!
ALL TASKS WORTH 5 DOJO POINTS IF COMPLETED BY FRIDAY 11th DECEMBER!
Primary 6 Appeal for YOUR Support!
As you know, Primary 6 are running a charity appeal as part of our assembly, we are sending a lorry of donations to refugee children in Calais!
Please watch our appeal advert, we hope we can persuade you to help!!!
URGENT APPEAL FROM PRIMARY 6!!!
As you know, Primary 6 are running a charity appeal as part of our assembly, we are sending a lorry of donations to refugee children in Calais!
Please watch our appeal advert, we hope we can persuade you to help!!!
Primary Six are SHAPING up to have a super year!
This week primary 6 have been working on shape in maths! Some of us have been looking at properties of 3D shapes and some have been focussing on how 3D objects can be made up of 2D shapes. We’ve been embracing active maths in the classroom and choosing our own learning tasks to make sure we are all being challenged in the areas we are confident in and supported further in areas we’re not!
Have a look at some of the great things we’ve been getting up to…
Gold, Silver and Bronze for Saint Nicholas in Broxburn Cross Country
On Wednesday the children of primary six took part in a cross country race against Holy Family PS, Uphall PS, Broxburn PS and Kirkhill PS.
We raced around the back of Kirkhill, the track was about 1 kilometre long. First all the girls raced and we were so pleased to see them all trying their hardest and keeping on going! The first girl from our school to cross the finish line was Madison Clarkson, she just missed out on a medal position but finished in the top 10 of around 100 girls in total! Well done Madison and all the girls who did us proud!
In the boys race Saint Nicholas had a ‘clean sweep’ of the medals winning Gold, Silver and Bronze!!! First to cross the line out of all 100 boys AND taking the gold medal was our very own Logan Beagley, he was closely followed by his brother Michael Beagley in 2nd place and Eoin Sword in 3rd!
We are extremely proud of all the children who took part and represented our school in our local community!
Perfect Popping in Primary 6!
Last week we were practicing using ‘an’ and ‘a’ in sentences based on words with vowel sounds. Some of it was quite tricky because we thought it only mattered if the next word began with a,e,i,o or u, but ACTUALLY be discovered that words with any vowel sound would have ‘an’ for example….
‘An honest man’ would have an instead of a because the h is silent and the word starts with a ‘o’ sound!
Once we finally got to the bottom of it we worked in teams to complete a quick assessment of what we had learned. We worked in 2 teams in a race against time! We had to read a sentence with ‘a’ or ‘an’ missing then put it into the correct category… sounds easy? Well the trick was the sentences were inside balloons! We had to pop the balloon first! As soon as Miss Miller and Miss King said ‘Go!’ the classroom turned into a frenzy of cheering and excitement! At the end we made sure everyone had placed their sentence in the correct category and it showed us that most people had really grasped using a and an properly! We are looking forward to using this game to assess our learning in other areas soon!
Hip Hip Hooray for the Gala Day! St Nicholas take 1st Prize!!!
After months of hard work and planning we are delighted to let you know that Saint Nicholas Primary School won FIRST PRIZE at Broxburn Gala Day for our wonderful float and costumes!
It was amazing to see so many children and parents turn up in wonderful costumes to support our school and join in with our parade! Everyone looked FANTASTIC! It was a wonderful day!
The school was supported by many local businesses and community members to pull it all together and we would like to thank everyone that helped us along the way!
The theme for our float was chosen by children across the school, designs were submitted and children from the after school gala day club prepared costumes and props!
Make sure you take a look in our trophy cabinet next time you visit Saint Nicholas and have a look at our certificate and huge trophy! We hope you enjoy looking through our photographs!
Football Fun!
Primary 3 recently completed a course of football sessions with SFA coaches. After our training had finished we were asked to join in at a football fesitval against other schools in our local community. We all headed up to the Albyn and enjoyed different drills and games! It was great fun! Check out our photos below.
FANTASTIC FRACTIONS!
Primary 3 completed lots of work recently on fractions. To show our understanding of all that we learned we completed Miss King’s ‘PIZZA CHALLENGE’ we had to work n pairs to create our very own pizza but it had to meet a very specific criteria! Each quarter had to be different and we could only use a certain number of toppings! It was great fun! Then on Thursday we made our pizzas then waited a whole 24 hours… On Friday morning Mrs Thomson form the kitchen put our pizzas in the oven and by playtime our pizzeria was in full swing! We all ate our creations and listened to Italian music.
The Big Finale… Primary 3 at the Circus!
Before the Easter holidays the boys and girls of primary 3 finished a wonderful topic all about the circus!
To end it all we were lucky enough to visit a real travelling circus when it visited West Lothian. We were all amazed with the breath taking performances of the dancers, jugglers, fire eaters…. It was incredible!
Have a look at some of the photos of what we got up to during our topic below!
Football Team Tournament
On Friday the Primary 6 and 7 football teams were involved in a tournament against other schools in the Broxburn cluster at the Albyn.
Well done to all boys involved and a huge thank you to our fantastic helpers/coaches/managers Mr Devlin and Mr Gorman for your continued help and support.
Miss King
Presentations in P3a!
WOW! I am AMAZED with the hard work and effort of the boys and girls in Primary 3! Two weeks ago they were set a homework challenge… to do a presentation in front of the class about any subject of their choice.
The results were FANTASTIC! We had outfits, trophies, medals, photos, posters, dvds, songs, powerpoints… even a cake! We all learned so much from listening to each other… we learned about countries, hobbies, pets, games, history, animals, football teams and very special people!
At the end of the presentations the ‘judging panel’ gave feedback to the presenter about their delivery, content and style.
Overall the presentations were excellent, it was lovely to see and hear the children talking about something they are passionate about.
A HUGE WELL DONE TO EVERYONE! I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU AND ALL YOUR HARD WORK!
From Miss King 🙂
(CANCELLED!) FOOTBALL ON FRIDAY!
SORRY DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND THE SCHOOLS CONTROL THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED!
THE ALBYN WILL INFORM US OF A NEW DATE AND WE WILL ISSUE THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Ready to be… Recycled!
One of the special jobs we are responsible for in Primary 3 is to empty and clean the recycling bins in the dinner hall.
Today we emptied lots of plastic bottles and cups from the bins and sent them to be recycled! Remember if you think the bins are getting a bit full speak to our Eco Monitors, Aimee or Esme who will arrange for them to be emptied.
Primary 3 Round Up!
Primary 3 are delighted to finally be able to begin sharing our learning with you!
Please look out for regular updates about all the fun we have been having and all the things we have been learning!
Here are some pictures of some of the things we have been getting up to…
Broxburn Football Tournament!
Well done to all the boys playing in the Broxburn Schools Football Tournament at the Albyn last Friday.
The Yellow, White and Green teams all had a great time and came back with some fantastic results!
A huge thank you to Mr Gorman and Mr Devlin for their continued support with the football teams!
Look out for pictures of our brand new strips- coming soon!
Welcome to school P1b !
Ta dah ! Here are the lovely boys and girls from Mrs Macdonald’s class, Primary 1b. Look at how smart we look ! We have had an excellent first week making new friends and getting to know each other. We also met our fantastic P7 buddies. They have been helping us in the cloakroom and in the playground. Thank you P7 ! See you next week, love from Mrs Macdonald and P1B.
Visit from a CHAMPION!
Article 29
Talents and skills should be developed and shared.
Tuesday was a very exciting day at St Nicholas Primary School as we had a very special visitor!
When we told the people at the Commonwealth Games ‘Game On Challenge’ about all that the boys and girls had been doing to get into the spirit of the games and learn about different sports and countries, they decided we deserved an Athletes Visit!
Stephen Payton is an amazing former paralympic runner who during his career won 3 gold medals, 2 silver and 4 bronze… and he broke 2 world records! Stephen was born in Uphall and grew up in Livingston, it was really interesting to hear about how Stephen began running in his local athletics club and how he became a world champion. Stephen ran training sessions for primary 5 and 6, showing them techniques, answering questions and showing us his amazing medals. He also spoke in a special assembly for primary 2, 3 and 4.
Thank you Stephen for coming in to tell us about becoming an athlete, working hard and achieving your dreams!
Annual BBQ Lunch 2014!
Here are some photos from Tuesday when all of the children deserted the dinner hall and enjoyed a lovely barbecue lunch out in the summertime sunshine!
Fantastic Football: Final Farewell!
Well done to all the primary 6’s and 7’s who played in the final Broxburn Schools Football Tournament on Friday after competing in many games, tournaments and festivals this year, they, as always, made us extremely proud and did very well. For the last set of fixtures we played in a mixed team from both p6 and 7, everyone recieved plaques for participating in the tournaments.
A huge well done and thank you to the wonderful Primary 7 pupils who played their last game for us and will move on to high school after the summer. They always represented the St Nicholas Primary School wonderfully, showing excellent sportsmanship and teamwork, talent and skill.
Primary 7 Team 2013/2014
Dominik, Luke, Jack, Chris, Gary, Mark, Byran, Liam, Aiza, Sean
Rugby… Rain or Shine!
For the last few weeks the primary 5 rugby teams have been learning key skills and rules of the game, creating warm ups and have now began to play competitive games in our rugby league… all in preparation for our Commonwealth Games Day on Thursday! It has been great fun and we have made the most of it whatever the weather! Have a look at our photos in the rain on Tuesday and the lovely sunshine on Wednesday! We hope you can make it to see us play!
Sounds from South Africa!
Article 30
You have the right to enjoy your own culture.
This term in music primary 5 have been learning to play the African drums! Miss King and Mrs Buchanan Coutts were amazed listening to us all play beautiful rhythms using so many unusual and wonderful instruments! We are enjoying listening to lots of African Music in class while we work as well!
Welsh Wednesday
Article 7
You have the right to have a name and a nationality
In primary 5b we love learning all about different countries and cultures of the world.
Last Wednesday Seren prepared a presentation to tell us all about her favorite country Wales. Lots of Seren’s family come from Wales so luckily she knew a lot about it! She told us lots of facts, showed us photographs and brought different artifacts for us all to look at. Seren was able to teach us some Welsh as well using a nursery rhyme. The best bit was the Welsh cakes Seren had made for the class, we all really enjoyed them- Mrs Buchanan Coutts, Miss King and Mrs Deas thought they were delicious!
Well done Seren for sharing your knowledge and experiences with the class!
Judo Star!
Well done to Erin from Primary 5b who has won her first Judo trophy after joining Destination Judo just a couple of weeks ago after our taster sessions in school! What a star! Keep it up Erin, we might see you at the commonwealth games one day when you’re older!
Football Festival!
Article 29
We have the right to education which develops your personality, respect for other’s rights and the environment.
Today the primary 7 football team were invited to take part in a football festival at Howden St Andrew’s Primary School! We played 4 games against teams from St Pauls, St Andrews, Holy Family and Livingston Village. We are very pleased to announce that we won every game!
This was a great opportunity to meet with other primary 7s from different schools, thank you to Howden St Andrew’s Primary School for organising the event!
A huge thank you to Mrs Bell and Mrs Thompson for driving us there and cheering us on from Miss King and the team!
St Nicholas Swimming Champions!
Article 15
We can join clubs and choose our friends as long as it doesn’t harm others.
A huge well done to our amazing talented swimmers here at St Nicholas Primary School! Many of them competed in the Broxburn Swimming Club Gala last week.
We are delighted to tell you that the pupils from St. Nicholas not only had a great time and tried their very best, but three of them came away with medals winning bronze, silver and GOLD!
Louis Mattheson came in 3rd, with Rachel Kendall just in front taking 2nd place and Hannah Spence the fastest of the lot winning 1st prize- A HUGE TROPHY! What a wonderful achievement!
Congratulations and a huge well done to all the boys and girls who took part in this event! We are so lucky to have such hard working and talented pupils in our school, and everyone at St Nicholas is extremely proud! Keep up the hard work!
Sporting Stars!
Article 15
You have the right to be with friends and join or set up clubs, unless this breaks the rights of others
Well done to Marco and Joseph from Primary 5B for their recent sporting achievements!
Marco won a wonderful football trophy when he played at a tournament in Ayr last week with his team Edinburgh Spartans. Congratulations Marco!
Joseph’s rugby team ‘Livi Hawks’ came second in a tournament at the weekend at Livingston Rugby Club against lots of other teams! Well done Joseph! Luckily Joseph will have the opportunity to showcase his rugby skills as Primary 5 continue their South Africa topic!
Congratulations boys, keep up the hard work! We are all very proud of you!
Primary Five Experience… APARTHEID
Article 41
You have the right to any rights in laws in your country or internationally that give you better rights than these
On Sunday the 27th April, South Africa celebrated 20 years since the end of apartheid when Nelson Mandela became the first black president following his 27 years spent in prison for fighting against this segregation. Apartheid happened for many years in South Africa and was when people with different colours of skin were not allowed to be together. The country had separate schools, banks, buses and even laws for white people and non white people. People who were not white were treated very unfairly.
To gain a better understanding of apartheid and how unfair and unjust it was, last week primary 5 actually experienced it first hand!
We had a long discussion about equal rights and how unfair it is when people are discriminated against, we agreed that everyone no matter who you are should be treated equally and everyone is entitled to their rights. To gain a better understanding of what it would have been like to live in South Africa during apartheid we were separated into 2 groups. People that were born in January to June were in group one and people born in July to December were in group two. We talked about how we didn’t get to choose what month we were born in, just like babies do not get to choose the colour of their skin, eyes or hair, or the country they are born in, who their parents are or if they have a disability.
Then we were told the ‘Apartheid Laws’ for the day. People that were born in the first half of the year were treated fairly but the laws for the people born in the second half of the year were very different…
A person born between July to December…
- could not sit with or play with people born between January and June
- could only play in one small area of the playground
- had to work until the bell
- could not take part in class discussions
- went last for break and lunch
- had to ask permission to use classroom resources
- could not receive stickers, rewards and points
- had to wear an identity badge at all times
Children who were born in the first half of the year wore bibs so both groups could be easily identified.
Children born in the second half of the year were not treated fairly at all, during P.E. even though they won the curling game 7-2, the teachers insisted that the other team won. It made the people in group 2 very frustrated! The unfairness also had an effect on children in group 1 who felt guilty and were angry that people were being treated so differently. We stopped throughout the day and we shared how we were feeling, it gave us a real insight into what life would have been like during apartheid.
On day two the groups swapped over so everyone had a chance to experience both sides of apartheid.
At half past two on Thursday we stopped our segregated P.E lesson and celebrated the end of apartheid and a very challenging couple of days. We scrunched up our idneitity badges and threw our bibs in the air and danced around the hall with our friends who we had been separated from for two days. This was a very valuable lesson, we vowed to always treat each other equally, never to discriminate and to stand up to injustice and unfairness.
Our Amazing Adventure in Amazonia!
Article 29
You have the right to education which develops your personality, respect for other’s rights and the environment
To end our wonderful rainforest topic primary 5 embarked on a wonderful adventure to Amazonia before the Easter holidays. Amazonia is Scotland’s largest indoor tropical rainforest and home to many amazing and rare animals. We could feel the humidity and heat the minute we entered the building! We viewed and handled many different creatures and had an amazing experience! Here are some of our thoughts on the day…
‘We saw monkeys, spiders, snakes, birds and butterflies. It smelled really funny! We went into a room to hold animals, I held a fat tailed gecko, I shook hands with a tarantula and had a snake around my neck! We played a game where you stand in front of a special green screen and it looks like you are in the actual rainforest! It was a brilliant day!’ Erin L
“I loved holding the animals, but was a bit scared that they were going to jump up on me!” Murray
‘I really enjoyed Amazonia. The best bit was seeing all the nocturnal animals. I had the snake around my neck but it was scary holding the spider because I am scared of them but I still did it!’ Lewis B
“When the Kinkajou ran over our heads in the dark room, I got a really big fright, because we couldn’t see it!” Jasmine
A big thank you to our helpers Mrs Buchanan and Mrs King for coming on our trip!
Terrific Ten Pin Bowling!
Primary 5 had a great time ten pin bowling at M and D’s theme park after their visit to Amazonia before the Easter holidays! We ate our lunch in the arcade then got our shoes changed and into our bowling teams. It was great fun and there were lots of cheers and excitement as people managed to get strikes and spares during the games!
‘We went on our school trip to bowling at M and D’s. We ate our lunch and got into groups and went to our lanes. Miss King, Mrs King, Mrs Coutts and Mrs Buchanan Coutts all had a shot and every time they got strikes! When we finished my team had 83 points. We were having so much fun that we had to run for the bus because we were almost late! Luckily the driver was waiting for us.’ Hannah S
‘Bowling was amazing fun! I was in a group with Callum, Colin, Oliver, Matthew and Lewis. We were all cheering when we got spares!’ Kieran
‘Jack won in our group but I was amazed because I managed to get TWO strikes!’ Louay
‘We were all celebrating when Declan got a strike! Well done.’ Andrew
Primary 5 Playground Clean Up!
Article 24
We have a right to live in a clean and safe environment.
This week p5 have been out in the playground clearing up all the litter as part of our task from the Eco Club! We had a challenge to see which group could find the most rubbish as there was quite a lot! Please remember to always put your litter in the bin, help keep our school clean and tidy!
We’re going on an… EASTER EGG HUNT!
P5 had a wonderful time raising money for the Lenten Appeal on Wednesday with an Easter Egg Hunt in the playground! We counted down from 10 then burst out the doors in search of hidden goodies! It was great fun. Saif was the overall winner as he managed to find 9 items! In the end we collected all the chocolates and sweeties into a big tub and shared them out equally.
Chickens in the Eco Garden!
By Seren
Today I have brought two of my chickens to school to visit the Eco Garden! Everyone tried to save some of their fruit from lunch and we fed them this afternoon! The chickens are called Griffyn and Mars and they really enjoyed meeting everyone in my class, they got some treats and a clap on the head from everyone brave enough! Everyone got a fright when they started flapping! When we came back into the classroom I answered lots of interesting questions about the chickens, everyone hopes they can come back to visit us again soon!
Famous Fudge… Recipe Revealed!
As a special treat for our Mums, on Thursday and Friday last week, Primary 5 made Milkybar and Oreo Fudge! After a lengthy debate we have finally came to the decision that we should share our ‘secret’ recipe with the rest of the school. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do! If you decide to make it leave us a comment and tell us how you got on!
Ingredients:
400g of white chocolate
1 pack Oreo biscuits
1 tin condensed milk (about 400g)
You will need:
Microwave
Mixing bowls and spoons
Sharp knife (make sure an adult helps you)
Baking Tray
Method:
1. Chop up all the Oreos into small pieces (lots of crumbs will make the fudge look grey!)
2. Break up all the white chocolate and put it in the mircowave (keep checking it incase it burns!)
3. Add the condensed milk to the white chocolate and put in all the chopped Oreos.
4. Mix everything together.
5. Spread the mixture into a medium sizes baking tray, make sure you use grease proof paper or it will stick to the tray!
6. Leave in the fridge over night.
7. Chop into squares and enjoy!
Presents that Protect the Planet!
Last week LUSH from Livingston Centre visited the St Nicholas to talk to primary 5 about how they source ingredients for their products fairly and in a way that protects the environment. It was very interesting and we all learned a lot about fair trade and about rare ingredients from all over the world!
We were particularly concerned about the use of palm oil in products after our presentation from Joss, Hannah S and Georgia. Luckily LUSH never use palm oil in any of their products.
After their presentation LUSH set up a stall for everyone to buy gifts for their Mum’s for Mother’s Day on Sunday! There were hand creams, bath bombs, bath jellies and soap bars on offer, the upper area smelled wonderful all day.
There was lots of discussion and mental maths in action as boys and girls from across the school helped each other work out how much they could buy with the money they had and how much change they would receive.
Lush Mother’s Day Stall!
Tomorrow (Tuesday 25th March) LUSH from Livingston Centre will be visiting primary 5 to discuss sustaining the environment, particularly the rainforest! Afterwards they will be setting up a stall in the upper area selling some products as gifts for mother’s day! Everyone will have the opportunity to buy something if they wish during lunch time! All items will cost roughly £2-£3.
Ryder Cup Coming Up!
2014 will be a fantastic year for sport in Scotland with the Commonwealth Games coming to Glasgow and the Ryder Cup coming to Gleneagles!
Throughout the year we are looking forward to many opportunities to try out different sports and activities at school.
This week golf coach Macrina Crawford visited the school and ran fantastic taster sessions with Primary 5a, Primary 5b and Primary 6b. We were learning all about different types of clubs (putter, driver etc) and when is best to use them. We were playing group games that involved different golf shots and Macrina was very impressed with the promising talent from St Nicholas! Next week Macrina will be visiting primary 6a, 7a and 7b, look out for the photographs!
If you are interested in learning more skills Macrina will be running a 7 week Clubgolf programme for children aged 6-12 at Binny Golf Club, for more information parents can contact macrinacrawfordgtf@hotmail.com
Meet St Nicholas Football Team!
Meet the Primary 7’s from the St. Nicholas Football Team!
So far the team, along with Lewis and James from primary 6, have competed in 2 tournaments at the Albyn Park organised by the Broxburn United Sports Club. We have been playing against Broxburn Primary, Uphall Primary, Kirkhill Primary and Pumperston and Uphall Station Primary.
Our first tournament was on 29th November and we won every game.
Our second tournament was on 21st February and we won 5 of the games we played and lost 1.
On Friday 4th April we will be playing again at Albyn Park at 1.3opm. All are welcome to come and watch! We would love to see some supporters cheering on the school team!
HUGE THANK YOU!
A huge thank you from everyone at St Nicholas to Neil Gorman at Piggy Print for providing us with the fantastic football strips for the team and being our sponsor!
PRIMARY 6 TEAM
We are hoping to recruit a second team to play in tournaments from children in Primary 6! If you are interested in joining the Primary 6 football team please see Miss King or Mr Valentine as soon as possible!
HELP US SAVE THE RAINFOREST! Reduce the amount of Palm Oil you eat!
By Hannah S, Georgia and Joss
We have been speaking to the P5 classes about what palm oil is and how using it is damaging to the rainforest because people are tearing down all the trees to get it.
Palm oil comes from trees that have been cut down to be used for different products of food and for petrols.
It is important that people know about palm oil because using it is leading to deforestation of the rainforest. We learned that if we don’t stop cutting down trees the rainforests could all be gone by 2030 when we are 25 years old! It would be sad if our grandchildren would not be able to learn about the rainforest when they are at school and see how the tribes of the rainforest live, or the great plants and animals.
You should try and reduce the amount of palm oil that you eat but we are not saying not to eat anything with palm oil in it just try not to eat lots of it. We are trying to tell everyone so that we can help to save the rainforest!
At the weekend we went to the shop Lush in Livingston Centre and we told the shop assistant about our rainforest topic, she told us all about the products they make that have no palm oil. One product that has palm oil in it is toothpaste but Lush sells something called Toothy Tabs which are like minty sweets you crush and then you brush your teeth (like a mini bathbomb in your mouth!) Toothy Tabs have no palm oil. We told the class we had a surprise for them and they had to bring in their tooth brushes, at the end of our talk we gave everyone a Toothy Tab to try!
Cool Characters on World Book Day 2014
Today has been a very busy and exciting day at St Nicholas Primary School as we all dressed up as our favourite book characters for World Book Day 2014! The boys and girls made a great effort with their fantastic costumes and we had great fun working out who everyone had come dressed as.
There were lots of beautiful princesses, cool superheroes, wise wizards and lovely fairies around the school, it was a magical place to be. We had Horrid Henry, Harry Potter, Matilda, Billionaire Boy, Gangsta Granny, Fantastic Mr Fox, Cat in the Hat, Oliver Twist… Even Sir Alex Ferguson paid a visit to St Nick’s today!
There were lots of fun activities going on throughout the school; we were sharing our books with friends through paired reading, giving reviews of our books and looking at the ways that famous authors help us to imagine characters in books that have no pictures.
In the upper school we decided to give our area a make over by creating a reading zone! We removed all the books from the shelves and put them into order, moved our book shelves around and started a new display. We can’t wait for the area to be completed so we can make great use of all the fantastic novels in the school and continue to enhance our reading skills. Check back soon to see photos of the finished product when we complete the transformation of our reading zone!
FIZZ, BANG… BOOM!
Remember our blog post all about our science topic of ‘Solids, Liquids and Gases’?
We told you all about our cool experiements and our very sucessful bathbomb business. When Miss King and Mrs Buchanan-Coutts asked us what we would like to spend our profits on we decided we’d like to book a mad scientist to take over our classrooms and turn them into laboratories! Well on Wednesday we got exactly that…
Robin and Lucy from the Edinburgh International Science Festival arrived bright and early and unpacked their van of exciting experiments! We were amazed when we entered our classroom all set up for some super science and eagerly put on our goggles, gloves and aprons before our safety briefing!
We worked in groups to complete experiments on different chemical reactions and test whether different liquid and powders were acids or alkali! We discussed the chemical reaction that happens when a party popper goes off and then Robin and Lucy showed us their gigantic version of a party popper that created a burst of heat, light and sound in our classroom! We were very impressed!
This was a great way to revisit our learning and experience working in a real laboratory! We had a fantastic day!
If you are interested in learning more about science or seeing some really cool experiments the Edinburgh Science Festival 2014 runs during the Easter holidays from the 5th until the 20th of April, you can find out more about the events they will have on at http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/
I’m a Primary Five… Get Me Out of Here!!!
This week primary five have had great fun learning about different foods that have come from the rainforest… BLINDFOLDED!
We were amazed that Miss King and Mrs Buchanan-Coutts didn’t have to travel to South America at the weekend and they managed to find all these exotic foods in Asda! We were able to tell from the pacakaging exactly where each item had come from… Peru, Columbia, Brazil! Some of the fruits included mango, banana, pineapple, grapefruit, sharon fruit, coconut, physilis.
Everyone had a shot at being blindfolded and had to say what the food smelled like, felt like and most importantly tasted like! Then we all tried some. It was great fun especially when we were pretending they were spiders or bugs and we were on a rainforest gameshow! We tried to capture some reactions with the camera!
Well done to all the boys and girls, they all had a go and tried most of the foods! Some people even tried foods they thought they didn’t like and changed their minds!
We are going to choose our favourite of all the foods we tried and present our findings in charts, graphs and tables during our maths next week. Which of the foods do you think will be the most popular?
Cheerleading Championships!
A huge well done to the girls from JHM Youth Team who competed at the ICC Cheerleading Championships on Saturday at Meadowbank in Edinburgh! They recieved a huge trophy for coming second in the competiton!
We are all very proud of Paige (P5 b) Lauryn and Olivia (P7b)! Keep up the hard work girls! We look forward to hearing all about your next competition in June!
Creative Creature Categorising!
Primary 5b have been learning all about the different types of animals that can be found in the rainforest! We learned about vertebrates and invertebrates, then we started to classify different animals into categories; mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians!
Last week we were set the homework challenge to ‘show animals that are mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians in ANY WAY!’ Miss King wanted us to be as creative as possible! The results were amazing…
Some people created interactive powerpoint presentations full of facts and examples of animals, some people made books, fact files and posters, some people wrote lists or drew tables and some people drew pictures of different animals! Hannah B made some amazing creatures out of modelling clay; we all thought they were so cute! Hannah S made a beautiful mobile using coat hangers, tissue paper and ribbons with the animals pictures attached! Fraser baked 5 cupcakes and decorated them with an animal from each of the five categories! Paige created a rainforest song to the music of ‘We Are the Champions’ by Queen; we all sang along it was fantastic! Terri created her own jigsaw with pictures of animals from each category and we helped her to put it together, what a fantastic idea! Krzysztof used lego to create models and Marco even used his favourite game minecraft to ‘build’ his animals and took pictures of them!
It was amazing to see all the fantastic ideas and creations! Miss King was so proud of us that she invited Mrs Brown and Mrs Deas to visit us and see all our fabulous work… they were VERY impressed!
In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle…
Primary 5b have been learning all about animals of the rainforest!
We worked in pairs of research teams and were given an animal to create a fact file for, all the fact files were to be published in our very own ‘Rainforest Encyclopedia’!
Some of us had animals we had never even heard of like an okapi (which is actually a horse like creature with zebra legs!) or a gaboon viper (which is a deadly snake!), before we started our research another research team set us some questions to find out about our animal, such as; How long does it live for? Is it poisonous? What does it eat?
We went off in our research teams and used the internet and books to find our information. Then we used Mircosoft Word to create eye catching fact files with images and different fonts!
Once our fact files were complete and in the encyclopedia we presented them to our class, some of the facts were amazing… Did you know a blue morpho butterfly has a lifespan of only 115 days? The harpy eagle has a wingspan of over 7 foot!
We then provided each other with quality feedback on the presentations, we looked at each others fact files and tried to decide if they had provided enough information or answered all the questions they were asked, then we left comments for the researchers to read! We are hoping our wonderful encyclopedia will be filled with amazing information all about the rainforest as we continue our topic!
We then started to draw our animals for our rainforest display! We had to use maths skills to create a grid to help us draw our animals in proportion! First we drew the outline in a light coloured pencil, then we began to shade and mix colours to make our drawings really realistic! What do you think?! Come and see them for yourself in our classroom display!
Next we are moving on to classifying animals as vertebrates or invertebrates, then mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles!
Fantastic Fractions in Primary 5!
This week primary 5 have started to look at fractions as our maths topic!
To help us really understand what a fraction is we began our topic by cutting up a huge chocolate cake into halves, then quarters, then eighths, then sixteenths!
Some of us have been creating our own ‘Fraction Paths’ by cutting up 1 whole piece of paper into fractions, we were then comparing and coming up with statements about what the paths show us! Have a look at the fantastic effort by Kieran and Hannah in the photo gallery.
Some of us have started looking at comparing equlivent fractions as well! This is when 2 fractions mean the same amount, like 1/2 is the same as 2/4!
Welcome to Inverness Tourist Information Centre!
- Primary 5 transformed their classes into tourist information centres for the city of Inverness!
We sent letters to Miss Sweeney at the real tourist information centre in the city and she replied sending lots of fantastic information, from how to welcome people, questions to ask tourists, leaflets about attractions in the highlands and the layout of her building!
We displayed lots of information on the walls, created characters to work in our centres and even created a gift shop with lots of wonderful nessie figures and post cards for sale! At the Scottish Showcase we invited our parents to visit our centres to find out lots about the city! We also had a Highland Cafe serving haggis, oatcakes and of course Irn Bru! The event was opened by Paige and Rachael dancing the Highland Fling! Some people spoke to parents about the Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, showing them highlights from the last game and giving lots of information about the club!
Some people were telling our visitors about the Scottish Whiskey industry and the very important job of a coppersmith! Some people where showing parents our own mini version of Urquart Castle and telling them some key facts about Inverness! Another group were showcasing our historic portraits of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Red Coat Army and were looking at the battle of Culloden! Lastly we asked parents to participate in the St Nicholas Highland games! The activities were: chuck the welly, toss the caber, strength test and toss the hay! We even had a trophy for the Champion! To round up the event Oliver played the bagpipes to a cheering crowd!
We hope you were able to come and enjoy this great showcase, but if you weren’t able to have a look at these great pictures!
Welcome to our Blog!
Welcome to the blog of Primary 5b!
Here you will be able to find out all about the things we have been doing in our class!We already have a lot to tell you about; Children in Need, our assembly, our Inverness showcase, school camp…
We hope you will check here regularly and you enjoy sharing our learning!
Primary 5b and Miss King
