Our baton bearers.
Category Archives: Classes
Netball Frenzy!
Over the last couple of weeks, Primary 6 have been learning the skills of Netball. Each member of the class has been divided up into 10 teams and each week they have to play a netball match against all the other teams. In these teams, everyone has been working together to make T-shirt designs, writing newspaper reports, writing up scoreboards for the netball games and doing a lot of research for their regions of Malaysian, so we all been extremely busy!
Mr. Gorman has been working with the primary 5, 6 and 7’s to show us the process of creating our team tops. A few people from every class got a chance to see Mr. Gorman make the designs with a big printer. First, he got special material and placed it into the printer. Then he collected our designs and set them to the right size on his computer. Lastly he sent the design to the printer and it printed out five copies in 6 minutes. To get the designs onto the T- shirts, Mr. Gorman placed the design onto a T- shirt, then he put a piece of special paper to stop the design from burning. Finally, he placed the T- shirt into a heat press. After 15 seconds the T- shirt was done. Everyone enjoyed watching this process, as we got to see how Mr. Gorman spends most of his days.
Stay tuned for pictures of our teams in their new fabulou
s uniforms!
Fantastic Gymnastics!
Primaries 3 and 3/2 enjoyed a taster session of gymnastics on Friday morning. There were lots of fun activities set up in the hall for us to try out. We enjoyed doing forward and backward rolls, pencil rolls, running and jumping on the spring board, balancing and bunny hops.
Ollie liked jumping from side to side on the bench and found it quite easy.
Imogen enjoyed running and jumping high off the spring board. She said it was great fun.
Hana liked doing forward rolls and said that she is good at it.
Ben thought he was good at balancing on the wooden beam and used his hands to help him balance.
Here are some photos of us in action:
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!
P2/1 Welcome an Olympic Medalist to St Nicholas
Article 15
You have the right to be with friends and join or set up clubs, unless this breaks the rights of others
Eve invited her Uncle Gary – gold medalist from the Bath Special Olympics 2013 – to St Nicholas to speak to her friends and classmates.
Eve’s dad and her Uncle Gary gave the girls and boys of P2/1 and P2 the opportunity to experience boccia – more photographs to follow.
First Holy Communion
Article 14
You have the right to be whatever religion you want to be with your parents guidance.
Well done to all children who made their First Holy Communion on Sunday. It was a lovely Mass and you all looked beautiful.
We enjoyed a Communion cake in school on Monday and had a little celebration.
G’day Mate!
Article 30
You have the right to enjoy your own culture, practice your own religion and use your own language
Miss Crease and Miss Woods have been overwhelmed by the outstanding quality of our amazing Australian research. We were given a homework challenge to find out more about the country. Some of us created posters, leaflets, information books and powerpoints. We enjoyed working with our families to create them and even our mum’s and dad’s learned new things too!
We looked at Australian wildlife, artefacts, the six states, people and landmarks.
Here are some examples below:
Dancing star!
Congratulations to Ollie Nicoll in Primary 3 who was successful in winning the Scottish Championships for Street Dancing. His team ‘Pulsation’ were awarded first place and they are now looking forward to the World Championships in Glasgow this August. Good luck Ollie!
Our Active Parents
Article 24
You have the right to the best health possible and to medical care and information
P2 and P2/1 have invited in some of their super fit parents.
Mrs Roxburgh – the lady with the magic sponge to keep them going – the physiotherapist.
Mrs McCafferty – triathlon
Mrs Hendry – hockey
Mr Cameron – running
Mr Weir – cycling
Flagtastic!!
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.
Stirling Triathlon
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.
Primary 1 Commonwealth Games Assembly
Article 31
There are lots of sports played during the Commonwealth Games.
Primary 1a and 1b put together an amazing assembly on Friday! They worked so hard to learn the songs and all their words and Mrs MacDonald and Mrs Renshaw were very proud! It’s hard to believe they started school less than a year ago! Here they are having a go at some of the sports which will be at the Commonwealth Games…
See video in link below (hopefully this works!):
https://vimeo.com/97715719
Gold in Gymnastics for Ava!
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
Bobotie Recipe
It’s no wonder bobotie is considered one of the national dishes of South Africa. Spiced minced meat topped with a creamy layer of egg custard ticks all the boxes.
Ingredients
- 1 kilogram minced lamb (or beef)
- ½ onion (diced)
- 25 ml cooking oil
- 10 ml butter
- 25 ml curry powder
- 10 ml salt
- 25 ml peach chutney (or apricot)
- 15 ml apricot jam (smooth)
- 15 ml worcestershire sauce
- 5 ml turmeric
- 25 ml malt vinegar
- 1 handful raisins
- 3 eggs
- 375 ml milk
- 1 slice bread (crestless)
- 1 pinch of salt
- bay leaves
Method
- Put bread into bowl with milk and leave to soak. Heat oil and butter in large pan and fry onions. When onions are soft add curry powder, slat, chutney, Worcester sauce, jam, turmeric and vinegar. Mix well.
- Drain bread, saving milk. Add bread, raisins and meat to pan. Cook over low heat until meat looses its pinkness. Remove from heat and add 1 well beaten egg. Mix well then spoon into greased ovenable dish and level the top
- Beat remaining 2 eggs into the reserve milk, add turmeric and salt, mix well. Pour over meat mixture and place bay leaf on the top. Bake uncovered in 180C for approximately 1 hour or until set (nicely browned). Serve with yellow rice, banana, coconut & chutney.
Traditional Koeksisters Recipe
How to make South African-style doughnuts
These much-loved South African doughnuts have occupied an honorary place at many a tea-time table, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a dessert more distinct to the nation’s Western Cape. Derived from the Dutch word for ‘cookie’(koekje), a good koeksister is crunchy and sticky on the outside, and moist and syrupy in the inside.
Although this koeksister recipe may not be the easiest to master, practise makes perfect…and you can be guaranteed a very delicious series of practise sessions in the least.
Ingredients for koeksisters
For the syrup:
- 530ml water
- 800g sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2,5tsp cream of tartar
- 1tsp ginger
- 1 tblsp lemon juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
For the dough:
- 300g self-raising flour
- 200g corn flour
- pinch of salt
- 50g unsalted butter
- 25g baking powder
- 1\4 cup sugar
- 200ml milk
- 50ml cream
- 2 eggs
Method:
For the Syrup (prepare the syrup the day before for best results)
In a pan, heat up the water. Add the sugar, salt, cream of tartar, ginger, lemon juice and cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally. Simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool. Transfer to the fridge.
For the Dough:
Add the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix them together. Add the milk, butter, eggs and cream, mixing it all together. Knead with your hand for a couple of minutes. Wrap in cling film, and store in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out to a 1 cm thickness. Cut into strips thin strips and then short strips. To plait, tuck three strands together at the top. Fold the outer strips over into the middle, repeating until you reach the end and tuck them together.
To Fry:
Heat up half a pot of oil on a low flame. Place the bowl of syrup in a larger bowl of ice to keep it well chilled. Deep fry the koeksisters, don’t put too many in at once. When golden, transfer to the syrup using a slotted spoon, draining off as much oil as you can. Leave to soak in the syrup for a while. Transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely before eating.
Healthy & Happy Hearts
Primary 3 have been really lucky to be part of the Healthy Hearts programme led by James Pegg and George Scott. Over the last 5 weeks we have learned about happy minds, importance of water, food groups, physical activity and dental hygiene. Each week George showed us a presentation on the Smartboard, then at The Strathbrock Partnership Centre, James linked physical activities to our learning. We always worked in teams and the important message was to encourage each other.
Sadly, this was our final week and we were all awarded with a medal and a brand new toothbrush for us to use at home.
Bags of Life
Article 30
You have the right to enjoy your own culture, practice your own religion and use your own language.
We have been learning about the beautiful country of South Africa and comparing it with life here in Scotland. We thought it would be a really good idea to share our huge diverse culture, traditions, history and lifestyles with some children in South Africa. So, we decided to create ‘our life in a bag’ – a paper suitcase filled with pictures, photographs, coins, information etc. – explaining the rich environment we live in and send them to two primary schools in the Port Elizabeth area; Lorraine Primary and Herbert Hurd Primary.
The bags are now on their way and we have had a look at the websites of both schools online. We have already had a response from one of the schools, who have emailed to say they are really excited about our projects and have started creating a collage to send back. We can’t wait!!
A Taste of South Africa
Article 30
You have the right to enjoy your own culture, practice your own religion and use your own language
Primary 5 had a fantastic afternoon on Thursday after they received a visit from Lizette Dredge as part of our South Africa topic.
She began by telling us some stories about her life growing up, including how strict her school was. Lizette explained that some of the rules still exist today such as; if your hair touches your shoulder or longer, it must be tied up at all times; skirts must be no shorter than knee length, but that, thankfully, smacking on the hand with a ruler has now been banned. One of the most impressive stories that Lizette told us was that at her friends wedding in the Union Buildings in Johannesburg, she had met, shaken hands and spoken to Nelson Mandela!!!
We learned about the gold and diamond miners in South Africa and their unique language – Fanagalo. It was used because the South African mining industry employed workers from across southern and central Africa: including Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique. With workers originating from a range of countries and having a vast range of different mother tongues, Fanagalo provided a simple way to communicate and is still used.
Then came the best bit – the food tasting. Thanks to Lizette and her husband we enjoyed a big selection of foods traditional to South Africa such as biltong, droewors (beef and ostrich), rusks, bobotie, mieliepap with a tomato dipping sauce and Koeksisters.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Lizette for giving up her afternoon to spend it and share her experiences with us.
P4 Running Stars!
Well done to Jamie and Kirsten for running at the Livingston Open Meeting last night. Kirsten was first across the line and Jamie was second in the under 9s 150m race. Keep up the good work!
Persuasive or what?
Article 12
We have the right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously
Recently, in Primary 5 we have been practising our skills in persuasive writing, when we wrote to Edinburgh Trams. A little birdie told us (Mrs B-C) the date that the trams were going to go live around the 30th or 31st of May and that one their first drivers/driving instructors was really young (her son, Dale). He was also Miss King’s classmate at St Margaret’s Academy andNot only that, but we also found out that because he wore aviator sunglasses all the time, he has been given a really cool nickname – Tram Cruise. We thought it would be great idea if we wrote to the General Manager/Director to ask him if Dale could be the driver and if we could be amongst the first passengers, with him mum and his classmate, when they go live.
Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful on being the first passengers, but because of our letters, Edinburgh Council found out about Dale and so did the Edinburgh Evening News!
We may not be the first passengers, but Tom Norris, Director and General Manager wrote back to us to invite into the depot for a tour and a ride of the trams before the end of term and Mrs Buchanan-Coutts and Miss King are trying their best to get this organised. In the meantime, to say thank you, Tram Cruise himself paid us a visit! Although Dale hasn’t been chosen to be the inaugural driver on the 31st May (that goes to 19 year old Craig Scotland), he will be on it as Craig’s instructor and that is all thanks to us. We can be quite persuasive when we want to be!
Well done and good luck, Dale.
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!
It all started with the Big Bang!
Yesterday primaries 3 and 3/2 visited Dynamic Earth and had a wonderful time. Firstly we went on a tour and explored different rocks and then we embarked on a journey through time inside a time machine. We watched a video of a volcano erupting and the ground that we were standing on began to shake. Some of us got a fright! We also saw an iceberg and watched video clips of frightening avalanches. We went into a room that looked like a cinema and had to wear 3D glasses. We watched a film of a helicopter ride taking us through different biomes and wearing the glasses made us feel like we were actually on the ride! It looked like we could touch some of the animals.
We then had a dinosaur detective workshop where we were allowed to look at and touch different fossils and discuss which dinosaur they belonged too. Some of us had the chance to become paleontologists where we used brushes to discover a dinosaur fossil buried in the sand. The whole experience was enjoyed by all of the pupils and adults.
A special thank you to all of our adult helpers who kept us safe on our trip.
My favourite part of the trip was when we travelled on the 3D helicopter. I got a huge fright when the scorpion attacked! Jack J
I enjoyed looking at and touching the iceberg. I put my fingers in the holes on the ice and it was freezing cold. Daniel
My favourite part was at the start of the tour and we got to look at ancient rocks. I touched the oldest rock in Scotland. Karolina
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!
Dynamic Earth – 26th May
Dear Parent
DYNAMIC EARTH – Monday 26th May 2014
Please ensure that your child:
- wears their school polo shirt and jumper and some casual trousers.
- is prepared for all weathers – put sun cream on your child in the morning before the trip if sun is forecast and obviously warm clothes if not.
- brings a packed lunch (no food/drink for bus journey)
- no money will be required
Many thanks for your co-operation
P3 & 3/2 Class Teachers
Fantastic Friendship Assembly
Article 31
We have a right to relax and play with our friends.
On Friday Primaries 3 and 3/2, after many rehearsals and lots of hard work, showcased their assembly on the theme of Friendship. Every child in each class had an important part to play and we all worked collaboratively to produce a fantastic show!
We were nervous before the assembly but in the end we all really enjoyed it. – Leo
The assembly was fantastic and my favourite part was when Anna jumped out of the cauldron. – Ethan
I was proud of myself for saying the rap all on my own! – Elise D
The message in our assembly was to be kind, caring and loving towards your friends and to make sure that everyone always feels included. – Shaelyn
Our teachers were very proud of us and said that we were all very confident individuals on the stage.
The video of our assembly will follow shortly….
Run, run
Article 31
You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sport, music and drama
Well done to Kirsten for taking part in the Helix Juniors Park run at the weekend. She ran the 2km course in 9 minutes 52 seconds, taking 70 seconds off her personal best for a 2km run. Well done Kirsten.
Dancing Star!
Article 31
You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sport, music and drama.
Well done to Hannah, Primary 4, for receiving this trophy and certificate for passing her Intro 4 to Highland Dancing Exam.
We are all very proud of you Hannah.
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!
P7 visit Uphall Bowling Club.
Over the last few months John has kindly given up his free time to teach P7 to bowl. It is a disciplined sport and certainly not as easy as we thought it might be. This week we all enjoyed visiting Uphall Bowling Club and we would like to say a huge thanks to John and also to Ronnie, Ronnie, Tommy and Bill who also came along to help.
P7 have application forms if anyone would like to join. It is only £7.50 for a junior membership and that is for the WHOLE year!
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!
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Article 8
Your right to a nationality and identity.
Some of the Primary 5 children have asked about the concert in Edinburgh by South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Details are below:
Saturday 9 August
-
Running time:2 hours approximately
Tickets
| Grand circle: | £30 £25 £20 £15 |
| Stalls: | £30 £25 £20 £15 £12 £10 |
Described by Nelson Mandela as ‘South Africa’s cultural ambassadors’, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been delivering exuberantly energetic performances around the globe for decades.
To complement its collaboration on Inala, it gives a special one-off concert that offers the chance to experience one of the world’s finest vocal groups.
Combining traditional Zulu musical styles with gospel music, it contrasts powerful, passionate choruses with soft, soulful sweetness in quieter music, bringing a symphonic richness to its a cappella performances, all delivered with an infectious sense of rhythm and flamboyant dance moves.
Undulating rhythmic phrases that push and pull…harmonising that is both ethereal and earthy”
P7B’s Karate Kid
Well done Chloe for achieving 3rd place in a Karate competition at Meadowbank.
Mental Maths Primary 6
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.
Swimming Champ!
Article 15
We can join club and choose our friends as long as it doesn’t harm others.
Congratulations to Rosie Smith of P4/3 for coming fourth in a swimming competition last night. She is now through to the finals of the Swimming Gala! Great stuff, Rosie!
Well done Madison!
Article 24
We have a right to the best medical care possible.
Madison won this medal for running a 10K last Sunday to raise money for cancer research. Well done Madison!
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.
Terrific Tuesday!
Article 15
You have the right to be with friends and join or set up clubs, unless this breaks the rights of others
Well we certainly have had a very busy day! P3 and P3/2 thoroughly enjoyed taking part in a Judo taster session in the school hall. We did different Judo moves and took part in fun games with a partner. We even got to wear special Judo jackets.
Later in the morning, all of the P3 children began their series of ‘Healthy Hearts’ activities with James Pegg and George Scott. George told us all about how to keep healthy and how important our physical and emotional wellbeing is. We then went over to the hall in The Strathbrock Partnership Centre where we did lots of active games. The main message that we learned from today is that we should all ENCOURAGE each other.
Sporting Achievements
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!
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!
Adventurous Authors
Article 28
You have the right to education
While we were learning about the rainforest, we discovered that some of the non-fiction books we were using for research did not have all the information in them that we needed, so Primary 5 were set a challenge to create our very own non-fiction books. The books had to have an eye-catching title and front cover, had to contain a contents page, a fun page, a glossary and at least four chapters.
Over the holidays, Mrs Buchanan-Coutts and Miss King looked over them, giving us a grade and a certificate that depended on how well we met the success criteria. Our teachers thought that some of us put in a tremendous amount of effort and really pushed ourselves to go above and beyond our targets and those people received an additional special prize, so well done to Sara, Murray, Jonathan, Hannah, Neive and Marco.
If the authors agree, any gold certificated books will be put into the topic box library for future use by other children in our school.
Thrown Right In
Article 15
You have the right to be with friends and join or set up clubs, unless this breaks the rights of others
After our lovely relaxing Easter break, Primary 5 were thrown right back in – literally! Destination Judo came along last Tuesday to give us a taster of this modern martial art and it wasn’t long before we were throwing each other to the floor and pinning each other down. As you can see from the photos, we had a great time and some of us are eager to join the club and try it out some more. The club is in Broxburn and if we take the flyer along to the first lesson and join, we will be given a free judo suit, so we can look the part straight away.
Primary 6 Visit Edinburgh Zoo!
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
Judo Taster!
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.
P4 Swimming Tomorrow
All P4s are going to Broxburn Swimming Pool for their swimming assessment tomorrow morning. Remember to bring a swimming costume (no bikinis please), towel and £1 coin for the locker. We will be leaving sharp tomorrow so please be on time for school!
Mathematical Art – Cubism
Article 29
You have the right to education which develops your personality, respect for other’s rights and the environment
We have been busy working on our mathematical artwork, which has been inspired by Cubist painters like Georges Braques, Pablo Picasso and Carlo Rossi. We learnt that Cubist painters used lots of shapes in their paintings. Sometimes they didn’t even look much like the object they painted.
We took this opportunity to revise our knowledge of the properties of 2D (number of sides and right angles, whether the shape was regular/irregular) and 3D shapes (faces, vertices and edges).
We also used our ICT skills by using Microsoft Office Word to type up what had inspired our own paintings.
Look at some of our masterpieces, or pop in and see them in the classroom!
Swimming Success
Well done to Emma for receiving a certificate for completing level 4 at her swimming. Keep swimming well Emma!
Friendship Fun!
As part of our assembly preparation we made friendship necklaces in class. We used food colouring to dye pasta tubes to make it nice and colourful and left it to dry overnight. Then the next day, we put the pasta tubes through the string to make vibrant necklaces for a friend in our class. We have been talking about the importance of friendship and have discussed the qualities a true friend should have.
Our ‘Friendship’ assembly is on Friday 16th May and we look forward to showcasing all of our work!
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
Plays are fun!
This week in Literacy Primary 4 and Primary 4/3 have been reading a play and acting it out. They have looked at the importance of scene descriptions and instructions in a play.
From the play the children were able to identify the key moments: who is doing what; what phrases, actions and instructions are important to understand the play.
The children then worked together to put the key events of the play in order and then concentrated on retelling the story in their own words.
It was great fun!
Easter Run
Well done Kirsten for being the fourth girl to cross the finish line at a 2km Easter fun run at Beecraigs.
Kirsten had a busy Easter break as she also received a certificate for staying at the Brownies camp for the weekend. Well done Kirsten!
Staff Flashmob
It seems that not only the children of St Nicholas have talent. Mrs Buchanan-Coutts, Miss King, Mrs McGuire and Mrs Thompson got all the kids cheering and clapping by showing off their dancing skills to Pharrell Williams’ Happy. Have a look at the link below to see some of the staff strutt their stuff and watch their efforts.
Rainforest Reading Reaps Rewards
Article 28
You have the right to education
Over the past few weeks, Primary 5 have become authors of both fiction and non-fictions books all about the Rainforest.
After watching ‘The Road to Eldorado’, we began writing our own fictional adventure story for young children. We had to include lots of imagery so that our audience would really know what it was like in the rainforest. Our next challenge was to turn our stories into a colourful and well presented picture book with a catchy title.
This afternoon, in groups of three, we read our books to the Primary 1 children. They all sat really well and listened with bright eyes and welcoming smiles to the adventures. They all answered questions about the book and some of the P1 children even gave some great feedback! Our thanks go to them all and we hope you all learned lots of new interesting vocabulary and information about the Rainforest.
Reading in groups of three, gave us all a little more confidence to speak loudly and clearly and by listening to each other, we gained and developed skills in using expression and body language to capture and hold our audience.
Our non-fiction books have been created as a homework challenge and have to be handed in before the Easter holidays. More details about them at a later date.
Primary 6 Space Assembly
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.
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.
St Margaret’s Academy Cluster Transition Programme
Article 29
Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities.
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.
Our Benchball Festival
Phew! We’re just back from a brilliant benchball festival up at Broxburn Academy. We played in teams against Kirkhill, Uphall, Broxburn, Pumpherston and Holy Family Primary Schools. We won lots of games and we all had a go. A wonderful time was had by all. Thanks a million to our adult helpers – Mrs Thomson, Mrs McPherson, Mrs Beagley, Mrs Devine and Mrs Langton.
Have a look at the fun we had.
Equal Rights for All
On Wednesday 26th of March, West Lothian Council hosted an event to showcase the excellent work in the areas of Children’s Rights & Equalities across the region at Inveralmond Community High School.
Along with Mrs Buchanan-Coutts, Mandipa, Kerys, Carrick, Daniel, Mark and Chloe represented St Nicholas.
We set up our stand, sharing just a snippet of the rights education carried out at our school, including the recent P2 and P2/1 diversity assembly, Send My Friend to School resources, world trade day and Famous Fridays, then prepared ourselves for questions from the vast amount of people who had turned up, including Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie.
There was a little bit of time for us to have a look at the excellent work that some of the other schools are doing before Daniel and Carrick, very confidently, stood up in front of the auditorium and introduced the Primary 5 assembly and showed a clip from the DVD of the children singing the Every Child has Rights song.
Chloe and Mark then shared with everyone, their experiences of the digital rights programme they took part in as part of their transition to St Margaret’s academy.
It was a great morning and we definitely showed how, through our work, we contribute to Getting it Right for Every Child.
Ballet and Tap dancing Superstar!
Well done to Darcy in P7b who recently passed her Ballet and Tap dancing exam with the British Ballet Association. The examiner said that Darcy gave a very smiley presentation!
We are all very proud of your Darcy and have high hopes for your future… Maybe you’ll appear on Strictly Come Dancing one day!
Basketball League Table
This is the latest West Lothian schools Basketball league table. As you can see its tight at the top with all still to play for.
Personal Account of Glasgow Science Centre
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
P3 and P3/2 go wild!
We began our literacy work by discussing the difference between fact and opinion and sorted statements into these categories.
Our teachers put us into working groups to research a Scottish wildlife animal. Our task was to find out about their habitat, diet, social grouping, babies and talents. Primaries 5 and 7 were very kind to allow us to use their netbooks to carry out this research.
We used a notebook to record all the facts that we were learning and used these notes to create colourful and informative posters displayed that we have learned. Today we are going to present our findings to our classmates.
Elise D learned that adders have big sharp teeth.
Sophie K learned that foxes like to eat small animals and sometimes even eggs.
Cole enjoyed recording notes using the netbooks.
Sterling enjoyed making a colourful poster.
P6 Rocket Designs
Primary 6 worked hard on their homework assignment to design and build a rocket. Here are some pictures of our rocket designs.
Zumba-mania
Primaries 3 and 3/2 put on their fitness gear and took part in the Zumbathon for our Lenten appeal. Hollie C particularly enjoyed the Battlestar game and Cole enjoyed displaying his moves in the Zumba circle. Ollie liked the warm up activities as it was helping to get his body ready for the fun exercises.
Nina was a great instructor and made Zumba look effortless and fun! Here are some photos of us in action.
The Great St Nicholas Bake Off!
P4, P4/3, P3 and P3/2 had their bake sale today. Thanks to everyone who came along to buy the delicious goodies we had to sell. Special thanks also to everyone who donated cakes, biscuits and other treats.
All money raised will go towards our Lenten appeal.
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
Basketball Team
St Nicholas Basketball team had another successful day at the monthly schools basketball meet in Deans Community High school. We are currently in 3rd place in the Elite league but are only 1 point behind Williamston primary who are league leaders. Coach Hazel was happy with the effort of her players but said she will have to work on shooting accuracy which cost the team dear against Williamston in a very tight game.
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!
Lenten appeal
Congratulations to Aimee on winning the first P2 Easter Egg raffle.Watch out for tomorrow’s lucky winner. All donations go the School Lenten appeal.
al.
Maths challenge completed
Article 29
Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities.
Well done to all the children for their efforts in our recent Maths challenge. Each clock was fantastic and unique! These are the final photos.
Sacrament of Reconciliation
Just a little reminder that this is tomorrow night (Thursday 20th March) at 7pm in the Church. Please make sure that all children are wearing their full school uniform and are at the Church by 6.45pm.
The first 3 rows will be reserved for children and staff.
Please keep the children in your thoughts.
Zumba-thon!
Primary 4/3 and Primary 4 really enjoyed Zumba. Here are some pictures of us dancing. It was fantastic.
Isla – “It was lovely to see Nina again and it was great fun!”
Erin- “We learned some dance routines.”
Lennon – “It was an exciting and fun.”
Emma- “We had a dance off which was cool!”
Jack – “When we were dancing it was so hot but good.”
Michael – “It was very energising.”
Iona – “It would be fun for all the family.”
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!
Baking wanted please!
Primary 4 and P4/3, P3 and P3/2 are having a Bake Sale on Friday 21st of March to raise money for our Lenten appeal. All donations of baking (home made or shop bought!) will be gratefully received.
Many thanks!
Dancing Star
Well done to Niamh on achieving a certificate of Merit and a trophy in her recent dance exams. You are a dancing star!
3…2…1..Blast Off!
Primary 6 have been completing a homework challenge to design and make a rocket.
Here are some of the pictures of our designs.
Zumba-thon!
Article 15
We can join club and choose our friends as long as it doesn’t harm others.
Zumba was great fun. We had to do dancing. Thank you for coming to help us learn some Zumba.
Megan, Nia and Freya.
Countdown on. Challlenge ends tomorrow!
Primary 2 have brought in many different clock designs and every one has been amazing.
Authors Live Illustration Slam!
P7 had pens, pencils and paper at the ready this morning when they joined in a live event with top author/illustrators Debi Gliori, Chris Riddell and Piet Grobler.
The illustrators were battling it out to see who was the quickest on the draw and who could conjure up the best and most unique drawings to inspire us to write stories.
Authors Live is a joint production between Scottish Book Trust BBC Scotland Learning and is funded by Creative Scotland as part of the 2014 Cultural Programme.
What’s in a graph??
Primary 5 have been learing all about data handling. We carried out surveys around the school, recorded the data and created either a pictograph or bar graph to show our information. The graph had to be labelled correctly and include three questions about the information. We then moved around each graph, interpreting the graphs and answering the questions. Some were definititely harder than others!!
Rainforest Challenge
Primary 5 have been set a new homework challenge:
| Learning Outcome:
I can write to transfer information. |
Rainforest Topic Book Challenge |
Skill/Disposition Targeted:
Research and Investigation Creative thinking |
| Essential Knowledge/Questions (s)
The world around us – use a variety of skills to demonstrate an understanding of knowledge and ideas. |
||
| Challenge:
You are now very knowledgeable about the rainforest, but during our lessons and investigations you may have discovered that the topic books available have not fully met our requirements. You are therefore going to design and create your own topic book to be displayed and available for others to use in our school library. Your challenge is to present your information in a well presented non-fiction book. Within your book you should clearly describe how life in the rainforest differs from ours. Your readers will be particularly interested in topics listed below and if you are looking for your book to be displayed in the library, you should include at least 4 full pages of information, each on a different topic, in a mixture of written and art work.
|
||
| Product Criteria:
Rule:
Form:
|
||
| Process Criteria:
Key Attributes/Performance Criteria: Creative thinking
|
||
To help you succeed, we have already created a detailed success criteria:
Rainforest Topic Book Challenge
Handed in on time 1 point
Front cover 1 point
Contents/Glossary pages 2 points
4 subject areas 4 points
Fun page 1 point
Neat handwriting 2 point
Clearly written in own words 3 points
Appropriate punctuation
(capital letters, full stops, commas, question
marks and exclamation marks) 2 points
Correctly spelled common words and topic
Words 2 points
Detailed art work 2 points
There will be an additional 5 floating points awarded by the teacher for exceptional effort above and beyond usual capabilities.
Total 25 points
Gold certificate 18 points or above
Silver certificate 14 – 17 points
Bronze certificate 11 – 13 points
Fail 10 points or below
Miss King and I are really looking forward to seeing what you can produce to show your new knowledge and understanding of the rainforest!!! Good Luck
World book day
It’s a bit late but here are the children dressed up as characters from their favourite book.
Zumba with Nina!
Boys and girls say they had the ‘best day’ and would love to Zumba every day!
More clever clocks!
Only two days to go on our challenge!
Recycle it!
As part of our Eco tasks, primaries 3 and 3/2 are responsible for emptying and recycling the plastic bottles and cans from the recycle bank in the dinner hall. We counted a whopping 287 bottles and 6 cans. Unfortunately, some people have been using the recycle bank as a rubbish bin and we found old sandwiches, pieces of fruit and even a pencil. This made this a yukky job as the bin was really smelly! Thankfully Jordan, our janitor, has kindly offered to clean the bins for us. So we would like to ask that you only put empty plastic bottles and cans into the recycle bin.
Thank you!
Our clock designs.
Some children have completed their Maths Challenge. Remember, the challenge ends on Friday!
St Margaret’s Transition
Article 29
Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities.
Glasgow Science Centre
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.
Science with Mr Chatterjee
As part of our ‘Human Body’ science topic, we have been looking at various aspects of our body. We have looked at the skeleton in detail and we are now moving on to look at the digestive system. Mr Chatterjee, Olivia’s dad and a plastic surgeon, came in to talk to us about our digestive system, our respiratory system, our circulatory system and our nervous system. He told us all about the work he does, and how he helps people who have had burns or other injuries to their hands. Mr Chatterjee reminded us all of the importance of being safe around fires, especially at bonfire night. We learned a lot and we had lots of questions for him.
Thanks for visiting us Mr Chatterjee and please come again soon!
Well Done Beth!!
Some of us went along to support Beth on Friday at the Dollan Aqua Centre for the Scottish Schools Championships. Beth swam really well and did a personal best of 36.54 for 50m Backstroke!
We are SO proud!
Indoor Bowling
Over the last few weeks John has been teaching us how to play indoor bowls.. We have learned that you really need to focus and also you need to have patience to get good results. Last week we learned how to mark a card and this week we will be having competitions.
Primary 1 Measure!
Article 29
Our education should help us use and develop our talents and abilities.
We have been learning about ‘tall’ and ‘short’ in measure. Everyone in the class arranged themselves in height order. We found objects in the classroom which were taller or shorter than 10 cubes and sorted them. We made tall and short trees and flowers from playdough for Fairyland. We even got to measure Jack and the Giant with pencils to see who was taller!
Lots of characters in P3 & P3/2! World Book Day
To celebrate World Book Day, we have all been given the opportunity to come to school dressed as our favourite character from a book that we have enjoyed reading. Some of us decided to dress up as character’s from the Roald Dahl novels that our teachers have been reading to us in class. We are going to be involved in some exciting literacy activities to celebrate this special day.
Primary 6 Science and Technology Day
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.
