Primaries 2 and 6 enjoyed their paired literacy work today. We have missed our buddies after the long holiday!
P6 are looking forward to preparing more challenging work for their buddies this term and P2 are looking forward to completing their tasks and reading confidently!
Hi,
The Open Evening and Information Meeting for parents of P7 children hoping to go to St Margaret’s Academy is tomorrow night at 6.30pm. A copy of the letter below has been emailed to P7 parents.
Primary 2 were given the challenge to work as a team to build a tower that was taller than the table and held one pencil on the top without falling over! At first we thought it was an impossible task. However, we worked together in our teams using our logical thinking skills to solve the problem. We evaluated our learning at the end and we even had a winning group who worked very well as a team creating a strong and secure tower.
Check out some of our towers!
News in the local press about our 40th Jubilee Concert:
P3 had a games afternoon where they played a variety of board games. This helped to develop their social skills through turn taking, communicating and most of all having fun with their friends!
Some pictures of Primary 3 exhausted and enjoying a snack together after their christmas party. Lots of happy faces!
Primary 2 and 3 had a fantastic afternoon at our Christmas Party. We did lots of dancing, played games, won prizes, ate sweets and even attempted the mannequin challenge! We had great time! Check out some of our pictures 😊🎅🏼🎁
¡Hola!
Only 6 sleeps left until Christmas 🙂
Our Spanish phrase of the week is
¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero año Nuevo!
This means Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Primary 1 had such a great time at their Christmas Party yesterday!
We all looked amazing in our lovely (and very sparkly) party clothes (so thank you to all the mummies / daddies / grandparents).
We played lots of games, including corners, musical bumps and pass the parcel. We then had a dancing competition too (all the boys and girls were really enjoying it and showing off lots of amazing moves!). We had a rest and a chance to refuel with some party food (with crackers too – the children really enjoyed all the jokes). Then, we had a special visit from Santa! Overall, it was a really fantastic day (and I expect we were all exhausted last night).
Here are all our prize winners! Well done to everyone, you were all amazing!
This week in Maths we have continued with our fractions topic (expanding and simplifying) and in Language we have done work on antonyms and synonyms.
We have been doing lots of “Christmassy” activities too. For example, we have done some Christmas Art, practised for our school Christmas concert and learned about Christmas and New Year in Spain.
On Friday we had an Assembly to celebrate the achievements of the children attending after school clubs (Zumba and Football). WELL DONE! Also well done to our Junior Road Safety Officers for giving the children of St Nicks lots of tips on how to stay safe.
We finished our Friday by celebrating New year like people do in Spain. We had grapes with the 12 chimes and wished everyone a happy new year by saying “¡Feliz año nuevo!”
A very big well done to all of the children from Primaries 1 and 2 for being such superstars in their Nativity. The teachers are very proud of you all !
We have just been notified that the open evening for parents of P7 children wishing to attend St Margaret’s Academy is on Thursday the 12th of January. It starts at 6.30pm with a welcome presentation, followed by a tour round the school where parents will have a chance to sample some St Margaret’s learning experiences. A poster will follow with more information, but in the meantime, please put this date in your diaries.
Many thanks.
St Nicholas made a few splashes in the news last week, because of our Jubilee celebrations and the opening of our new extension –
Scottish Catholic Observer:
Daily Record:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/st-nicholas-primary-school-broxburn-9441935
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OMx7xhxu70
Today Primary 5 made some scientific investigations using candy canes. First of all we placed one candy cane in a cup of cold water. We made a hypothesis regarding what would happen within 5 minutes and recorded our observations during that time frame. We repeated the experiment using warm water and then again using oil. We were interested to find out if our predictions would be correct. Then we watched a short clip showing the manufacture of a candy cane. Finally we were then able to draw our conclusions based on the information about the ingredients as to why the candy cane dissolved in water.
Several children were keen to repeat this experiment at home using different solutions such as milk, fizzy juice, vinegar and fruit juice. I wonder what will happen ?
Mrs Brown was shocked to discover that she had two very sneaky visitors in her office last night! The two Rudey’s,the P3 elves, took photos sitting at her desk, swinging from her lights and hanging from her door knob! They then put the photos on Mrs Dymock and Miss McKeown’s desktop! They need to learn good behaviour from us as Santa won’t be impressed!
Primary 3 have been working really hard to earn Dojo points. Not only do they work hard individually, their points go towards class awards and for reaching 3000 class points they have earned a movie and ice cream afternoon! What a sweet treat!
Primary 6 had an EGGciting end to their engineering topic today when they completed a egg drop challenge. They gathered in groups and designed an egg carrier which would absorb or deflect the forces on the egg when the egg was dropped from a height. When they tested the carriers only 3 eggs out of 11 tested broke! Some budding physicists in P6!
Here we are in Primary 1 looking all Christmassy ! We loved ‘Christmas Jumper Day’. A big thanks to our mummies, daddies and carers for helping us to raise money for ‘Save the Children’. We managed to raise almost £300! Thank you so much!
Primary 5 have been studying the traditions of Christmas in various countries around the world.
Last week we were learning about Sinterklass and Zwarte Piet and the traditions linked to his arrival in the Netherlands.
Like the Dutch children P5 made little paper shoes and left them out overnight on the 5th December hoping for a little treat from Sinterklass. He didn’t disappoint us and the following morning our shoes had been filled with a few sweet treats. We also realised that Messy Piet had paid us a visit and piled up all our gym shoes and made them into a Christmas tree complete with tinsel and lights !
Today a parcel arrived with lots of Sinterklass goodies from Mrs Verhoef in Rotterdam. The children were delighted to open up the parcels which had been wrapped in special Sinterklass paper. We were able to experience a Dutch celebration in our classroom.
Sinterklass is St Nicholas, who is the patron saint of our school.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmsZgnK7oxk
St Nicholas Primary have been given a wonderful opportunity to host FAST sessions at our school. The programme was developed by Middlesex University and is funded by Save the Children.
The FAST programme runs after school for 8 weeks. The weekly sessions are 2.5 hours long where a series of structured family activities take place including; communication, listening, turn taking, community building, meal sharing and relationship building. These are key techniques to help build stronger families.
Our programme will run every Tuesday from 3.30pm until 6pm, starting on Tuesday 17th January 2017 and our final session will be on Tuesday 14th March.
On this occasion we are offering the programme to children who are in their pre-school year at Nursery or in Primary 1. We have places for 20 families to participate.
The video link above will give you a flavour of how the programme works. Our FAST team members are also delivering a short presentation at the Nativity performances this week.
An information leaflet and invitation will be sent home soon to the pre-schoolers and Primary 1 pupils. We hope you can join us in the New Year.
Primary 6 have been using their maths skills to work out which elf stole the Christmas Pudding… we had 5 clues and had to use a process of elimination to find the naughty elf!
Here are some of P6 with mathematical patterns we created using a specified percentage of each colour. We also calculated the fraction and decimal value for each colour we chose. Working hard on maths Primary 6!
Some of our children sang beautifully at the turn on of the Broxburn Christmas lights on Saturday. Well done everyone!
Yesterday, Primary 1 had a great time at their Christmas Craft afternoon.
The parents were all invited in to make some Christmas crafts, listen to some Christmas music, have a little drink and biscuit, and get into the Christmas spirit!
The children made lots of fantastic things, including Rudolph baubles, reindeer handprints, glittery stockings, paper chain Christmas trees and Christmas Wreaths.
Thank you to all the parents who managed to come along!
At this time of year there is a lot of chat about reindeers. Primary 5 used oil pastels to create beautiful portraits of some native fawns in Scottish woodland.
We paid close attention to the detail of the facial features and markings. We are delighted with the results. Don’t you think they look gorgeous ?
Did you know that baking is a science experiment ? Primary 5 looked at the various aspects of science that are involved in baking.
We discussed the change from a liquid to a solid and the role of the gas produced by the baking powder to make the cake rise.
We also discussed the change that occurs by adding heat at a certain temperature. What would happen if we removed the cakes too quickly ? What would happen if we left the cakes in the machine for too long ?
We also had to consider the consistency of the solutions that we were creating. We had to measure and add the correct amount of each ingredient otherwise the solution would be either too thick or too runny.
Our conclusion ….delicious !
The whole school is buzzing in the lead up to Christmas. The trees are up, classrooms are decorated, and there’s lots of elves keeping an eye on the classrooms!
We have a few more exciting things planned before the holidays though!
Friday 9th December – Dress Down Day
The children are invited to come to school dressed in their home clothes (or Christmas clothes if they like). Please can each child bring £1 if they are dressing down?
Wednesday 14th December – Christmas Jumper Day
This year the school is joining in with the national event, raising money for Save The Children. The children (and staff) are invited to wear a Christmas jumper on this day. If you don’t have one, don’t worry! You can just jazz up a normal jumper with tinsel, or safety pin baubles on. There are lots of ideas online. Please can each child donate £1 on this day if they are dressing up. It is for such a great cause. If you would like to read more about it, please go to www.christmasjumperday.org.
Thank you for your support!
On Friday the community took part in our 40th Jubilee Mass and following that, there was a reception with a chance to view old St Nicholas memorabilia. St Nicholas staff and friends of the school from the past mingled with the new, and a great time was had by all.
Many thanks to the parish of SS John Cantius and Nicholas for gifting the school with a beautiful new chalice to celebrate this important occasion.
Congratulations to the P6 pupils who were enrolled in the Pope Francis Faith Award at mass on Sunday. The pupils taking part in this award will work in partnership with the school, the parish and their homes. We wish them all the best in this fantastic endeavour.
Primary three have been learning all about advent and the preparations that take place during this time. We learned about the christmas wreath and made our own to decorate our classrooms. We also received a visit from some very cheeky elves who came to leave exciting tasks from the North Pole!
We would like to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to all the pupils of St.Nicholas! I am sure you will agree they were absolutely fantastic and put on an amazing concert.
Saoirse- “We were effective contributors because everyone joined in, sang out loud and were so happy to be performing for our community”.
Rosie- “We were successful learners because we worked so hard and we didn’t give up! We also learned so much about the 4 decades of our school!”
Fraser- “We were confident individuals because we were showing our talents and if we made a mistake, we continued to perform really well!”
Grace- “We were responsible citizens because we had the responsibility to learn different pieces of music really well, we had to help others, remember our parts and get ourselves organised!”
We would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to every single person who helped to make our concert so successful.
Our highlights:
Primary 5 looked like they had just walked out of a time machine from the 1980’s today. They had a fabulous time recreating the hit song by Madness called ‘Our House’ for the 40th Jubilee Concert. Well done, everybody !
Yesterday marked the official opening of our school extension by Councillor McGinty who visited with a host of officials from West Lothian Council, along with architects and construction firms. Our boys and girls performed beautifully for our guests who were piped into the hall by Finlay Peden. All children were, as usual, a credit to the school and to their parents. The picture here shows our House Captains with the unveiled plaque. Look out for details of this event in the local press. Well done everyone!
Congratulations to Milo McCallum in P3a for achieveing all of these medals in swimming! Lots of hard work and effort! Well done!
St Nicholas are very excited for their super busy week next week for the opening of the new hall and our Jubilee concert.
Today we had some rehearsals, and everyone sounds amazing!
If possible, please could everyone have a last practice of their song (they know what they are doing) and the Welcome Song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Waxw4GB5K38) , over the weekend.
Also, just a reminder that we would please like all children to come to school wearing a white shirt and their school tie on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of next week.
Thank you in advance, and hope you have a lovely weekend.
Primary 6 were looking at using similes in our writing this week and then using our knowledge to create interesting IMAGERY in our poetry. We worked as a class to think of as many nouns and adjectives relating to Winter and then created our own simile poems about Winter. The cold weather this week really helped us to think about what it felt like!
We liked this poem by N.M. Bodecker
When Skies are Low and Days Are Dark
When skies are low
and days are dark,
and frost bites
like a hungry shark,
when mufflers muffle
ears and nose,
and puffy sparrows
huddle close –
how nice to know
that February
is something purely
temporary.
N.M. Bodecker
In maths we have challenged ourselves to calculate the area of compound shapes (those made up of more than one other shape) and investigated shape patterns and tilings, here is one of our tilings, which was created using a variety of 2D shapes.
We also had the opportunity to visit the travelling art gallery which complemented the STEM work that we have been doing on bridges and engineering. The virtual reality tower block was the most popular!
Hello, We are the Junior Road Safety Officers !!! (JRSO).
We protect St. Nicholas children from not getting hurt from any kind of vehicles. We also hold completions.
We went to a meeting at Broxburn Primary school.
We got taught how to plan for assemblies. After that we learned how to not have nerves on the day of the assembly and also got sneaky tips.
We got a JRSO Safety book, Badge and a goodie bag to go with the job. The goodie bag contains a torch, Bookmark, Pencil, Pen and reflectors for crossing the road So vehicles can see you.
We have a Notice board at the school main entrance. It will also contain Posters, completions and news. The winner of the completions will be displayed on the board.
(By Ben)
Hello we are here to say that we enjoyed ourselves at the JRSO(junior road safety officers) magic show and presentation.
We learnt the four special magic words which are STOP LOOK LISTEN and most special before you do anything THINK!
There was policemen all around some from Aberdeen,Broxburn and Linlithgow it was awesome!
Then the magic started a girl called Lois went up on the stage and there was a gray copy of stop look listen think and then she had to say the magic words then they turned colourful!
We will let you into a secret you only have to glue to big envelopes together and put a grey one in one and a colourful one in the other and secretly change the side.
Then Grace had to be a mind reader and choose one number out of 6 people and she got it right at the end all of them took there paper out of there envelope and the other 5 people had things that you should not do
and the one that I chose had the magic words on it!
At the end we got a goodie bag with all sorts of things in it and we also got a notebook as well .
(By Grace)
From , Ollie, Ben , Grace and Hana
Primary 4 enjoyed visiting the travelling gallery yesterday too! We were able to discuss the artworks and interact with each one. The travelling gallery is currently displaying artwork by contemporary artists inspired by digital technology and takes it to people across Scotland. We loved it!
We had a fantastic time today at the Scottish Owl Centre at Polkemmet Park. We went there as part of our topic on ‘Nocturnal Animals’ There were so many different owls to see we could not believe it ! What did we do ?
First of all, we met two special owls, Alba and Lily. Alba was a Barn Owl and Lily was a Little Owl. We played a game called ‘Hoot’s for Dinner ?’ We had to choose food items from a bucket including worms, baby birds and mice and then had to decide which owl which eat which food. We really enjoyed this game and did very well using our prior knowledge remembering that Barn Owls eat mice and little birds and Little Owls eat insects.
After this game we then explored the centre seeing lots of different species of owls including : Great Horned Owls, Tawny Owls, Eagle Owls, more Barn Owls, Little Owls and Snowy Owls and lots, lots more. Some were sleeping when we were there so we had to be careful not to wake them.
We then went into the big barn where we met two more owls, a Tawny Owl and an Eagle Owl. We learnt that Tawny owls are the only owls that make the twit -twoo sound. It was great to see it fly around the barn and swooping silently. The second owl , the Eagle Owl was much larger than the Tawny Owl. We were told that it was 22 years old and very friendly. It was lovely too ! We did really well all day listening and learning new things. Thank you to our lovely helpers for coming along today to help us.
What have we have learnt today ?
If an owl has orange eyes that means that it awake during the day – James H.
There are 279 different owls in the world – Alfie.
There are over 100 owls in the owl centre – Joshua.
The Tawny Owl is the owl that says Twit -Twoo – Chloe.
The boy Snowy Owl was white and the girl one was Black and White – Matthew P.
When an owl has black eyes it means it is nocturnal – Isabella P.
Did you notice a strange bus parked at the school gates this morning ? St Nicholas pupils were very lucky to experience a visit from the Travelling Gallery with the exhibition called Alt-w Blush Response . Inside the bus we were able to experience several pieces of contemporary art and discuss the meaning and construction of each piece.
Torsten Lauschmann created a painting on a solar panel and we thought that the image may represent people taking photographs with their smartphones at a concert. We were impressed with the fine detail in the wooden model constructed by Charles Young who had studied architecture. We then enjoyed the interactive installation representing the Crinan Canal on the west coast of Scotland and discussed the process of laser etching.
Finally we discovered virtual reality looking through glasses at the apartment design by Dennis and Debbie Club for a tower block in Glasgow.
Thank you to the Travelling Gallery for visiting our school. If you are interested in visiting the bus on their tour please use the link below:
Primary 5 have been developing their skills in problem solving and team work whilst completing tasks in 60 seconds.
This week our tasks were:
Nose Dive – Moving cotton buds from one location to another using only your nose.
Penny Hose – Retrieving coins from the toes of a pair of tights without getting in a tangle.
Balance Beam – Balancing 5 cubes on the end of a lolly stick without them falling off.
Cracker Face – Moving a cracker from your forehead to your mouth using facial movements.
We have been thinking about the best way to accomplish these tasks in the time frame and have realised the importance of listening, communicating clearly, supporting each other and showing respect. Each week a different person in the group has the role of group leader and they decide how to organise the groups for the tasks.
Looking forward to our next session.
We had a motivational visit from Hibernian Football Club today to speak about how perseverance helped them to win the Scottish Cup. We know that the word ‘Persevere’ is a verb which means “to continue… even in the face of difficulty.” Learning can be tricky at times, but with all the work we have done around growth mindsets, we know that mistakes show us where we need to improve and can lead to deeper learning.
We also saw the Scottish Cup and, those children who wanted to, got our pictures taken with it.
Many thanks to Hibernian Football Club staff for coming to see us today!
We have been working really hard these last few weeks learning to write, recognise and blend our sounds together. Our hard work is paying off ! We love writing, especially on a Wednesday when we use our imaginations to write a story. On Wednesday we wrote a story about a naughty dog. We used Floppy the dog as inspiration for this as he has been naughty in some of the story books that we have read recently. Here are a some examples of our work.
Primary 5 have been using different media to create winter scenes. Aren’t they amazing?
This week Primary 5 have been learning about Morse Code. We then took on the challenge of decoding secret messages and writing secret messages to our classmates.
Here are our ‘Star Pupils’ for this week. They look so proud and so they should!
Well done to our three ‘Dojo Champions’ for this week. Lots of points were awarded this week for good manners, super listening, team work and tidying up. Keep it up everyone !
This week Primary 6 have practised distinguishing fact from opinion so we can critically discuss what we read or watch. We have explored 3D shapes and their properties in maths and continued to research the work of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund in RERC.
We have also been very busy rehearsing the song we will be performing in the school’s Jubilee show and we have discussed different types of art. Finally, we had an awesome Hibernian assembly on Friday and we were lucky enough to take a picture with the real cup!
¡Buen fin de semana!
Primary 3 have been working really hard this week learning all about day and night. We have found out lots of interesting facts about the sun and have made these lovely pictures to display our facts in the classroom.
We have been very busy in P3 this week!
Things that we enjoyed doing this week:
Neve- I enjoyed finding out about the sun and the moon and making a day and night picture.
Emily – I really enjoyed learning the next joined up letters in handwriting, they were n and m.
Aaron- I really liked performing the assembly with all of my friends.
Things we found tricky this week:
Justin- I found the division sums quite difficult this week.
Paula- I found it tricky trying to remember what animals come out at night and what ones come out during the day.
Bella-Rose- I found it tricky working on my fluency in reading because there were some words I had to sound out.
Things we would like to learn about next week:
Sam: Next week I would like to learn about where the sun and moon came from.
Mirin- I would like to find out how much big things like boxes weigh.
Ronan-I would like to find out how the sun and the moon give light to earth.
We have been practising really hard in class for our 80’s dance in the jubilee concert, can we please remind you to bring in costumes by Friday the 25th to allow us to have a dress rehearsal.
And to celebrate we’d like to invite all parents and friends of St Nicholas to come to our Jubilee Celebration on Wednesday the 30th of November at 1.30pm. The children will sing a variety of songs from the decades that show St Nicholas’ journey from 1976 to the present day. To see your invitation click below:
¡Hola!
This week our Spanish phrase is
¡Hasta luego! which means See you later.
Did you notice the exclamation marks facing down? This is because in Spanish, whenever you want to use an exclamation mark or a question mark, you need to place that symbol in front of the sentence as well as at the end of it.
¡Hasta luego amigos!
Today we welcomed Chelsea from ‘Party Animal Encounters’ who came along to Primary 1 with some very cool creatures indeed !
What did we see ?
a tarantula – Matthew and Max
a racoon – Max
a bunny – Karol
a lizard – Isla and Oona
a snake – Mikolaj
a tortoise – Matthew P
a mouse – Olivia
a chinchilla – Ava
What did we learn ?
We learnt that some animals are nocturnal whilst others are diurnal. We also learnt what the animals like to eat. We had a fantastic time looking at each of the animals. We even got to touch and hold some of these. We were very brave. Some of us had a rat on our shoulders ]! We got to each animal one at a time. Some of the nocturnal ones were quite sleepy, the racoon started to snore but the diurnal animals were happy to be held and have a look around the class. This afternoon has been so good ! A huge thank you to ‘Party Animals Encounters’ for coming along to our school.
P4b had their turn of creating their own Andy Goldsworthy style artworks using the brightly coloured leaves on the field! They came up with some really creative ideas and worked together well in their groups.
A time of reflection yesterday as St Nicholas Primary School took part in Broxburn’s Remembrance Sunday Service.
Click on the link to watch the video we made for our assembly. Unfortunately we had some technical issues with the recording of the whole assembly but we hope that you enjoy this. We worked really hard learning our words, songs, poems and prayer and our teachers were really proud of us!
In 1976 not only was St Nicholas Primary built in Broxburn but ‘The Muppet Show’ appeared on our TV screens for the very first time.
Primary 5 have been developing their drawing skills by creating life-like portraits of both Kermit and Miss Piggy.
If you would like to give it a go then click on the link below :
http://www.drawinghowtodraw.com/stepbystepdrawinglessons/category/drawing-cartoons/the-muppets/
This week we were working with our partner to design a marble maze. Using limited supplies we had to create a challenging course for our marble to follow without falling off the edge of the plate. Pipe cleaners and lolly sticks were used to create barriers,bridges and launchers.
We managed to use our creativity to design some fun mazes. We love STEM !
Primary 1 have had such a busy week, and have worked so hard! We have been learning to add numbers (we know the number gets bigger); we have been learning lots more sounds; we have been reading new books (and blending sounds to read words); we have been learning about owls (we had a visit from the Owl Man!!); we have been learning about where light comes from; we have had a special P1 Mass; we watched the P3 assembly; and lots more!
This week, as usual, it was very hard to choose our stars of the week! However, we had 3 children who have been working so hard all year and have been so kind to others! So we’d like to say a huge congratulations to Alfie, Julia and Emma.
This week’s Dojo champions are Tyler, Dorota and Andrew.
Well done everyone and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
We liked…
The leap of faith and the trail bikes (Ollie)
The inflatables because it was good for practising your balance (Kornelia)
Doing the camp fire and the mystery because it was interesting to see the teachers acting out. It was great to make fire with few things (Saoirse)
Everything. It was an amazing experience (Molly)
The food was the tasty. I loved the leek and potato soup! (Rosie)
What we would change/do differently…
I would have liked to make a better rocket for the launch (Sophie R)
I would have liked to stay longer so we could try other activities too, like the bungee trampoline (Adrian)
I would have loved to try archery (Brandon)
In the leap of faith I would have liked to have jumped to the trapeze! (Abbie)
We learnt…
To light a fire (Reyan)
How to make my bed quickly (Oscar)
To face my fears with the leap of faith (Charlee-Marie)
Lots of cycling skills on the bike (Grace)
We felt…
Excited and nervous (Aayan)
Scared and happy that I was there (Abbie)
Nervous to do the leap of faith (Megan)
Excited and scared at the same time (Natasha)
Good (Artur)
The challenge was challenging and very fun (Jazib)
Relieved after the leap of faith (Cole)
Excited, happy and really tired (Molly)
It changed me because
I am prouder of myself for all the things I did (Alex)
I am more confident (Wiktoria)
Yes because I have a phobia of heights and I did the leap of faith (Callum)
Would we like to go to camp again?
I would definitely go again (Alex)
It was a really really good experience (Ieuan)
Yes, you were never bored (Piotr)
Yes, the instructors were really nice (Fraser)
Today, Primary 1 had such an exciting afternoon with some very special visitors. As part of our light and dark topic, we have been learning about nocturnal animals. So today, we were visited by 6 owls!
They were so cute! We had:
Chili – Chili is a spectacled owl from the South American jungle. She is 6 years old, and prefers warm weather. Today, she was making lots of ‘hissing’ noises, that reminded Mrs Baty of her cats when they fight. She also kept turning around to face away from us. I think she maybe didn’t like being woken up during the day.
Cuddles – Cuddles is a barn owl, and is also 6 years old. She is mainly white, with light brown feathers too. She was very calm and friendly, although also kept trying to fly away (it’s okay – she had her lead on, so she couldn’t go far!).
Otis – Otis is a grey, long eared own. Although we did learn yesterday that owls ears are hidden. We asked about this – Otis is called a long eared owl, but actually it’s not his ears that are sticking up, just feathers. The ears are actually hidden underneath, just as we thought.
Poppy – Poppy is a small, brown, tropical screech owl. She made some little squeaks whilst we were holding her, but not loud at all. She is also from South America, and is 4 years old. We was very good when we were holding her, and loved strokes on her head. She looked like she was going to sleep! Mrs Baty thought she looked a little bit like a pom pom.
Bell – Bell is a tengmals owl. She is also very small. She didn’t really want her photo taken, she kept looking away. She was showing off, by showing us how far around she could turn her head. She is originally from Scandinavia, so doesn’t mind the cold weather.
Daisy – Daisy is a white faced owl. She also has feathers that look like ears. She is originally from South Africa, and is about 6 years old. She was showing off for us by doing a little dance whilst we were having a chat. We were able to hold her too, although she kept fidgeting and flapping her wings.
We also found out lots more facts about owls. We have been learning that owls are nocturnal animals (meaning they come out at night) but actually we found this is isn’t quite right.
If an owl has dark coloured eyes, they come out at night.
If it has yellow eyes, it comes out during the day.
If it has orange eyes, it comes out at sunrise or sunset.
We also learned that they sleep up to 20 hours a day!
We then asked some fantastic questions:
Lennox – How long are their wings?
A – all owls have very big wings for their size
Matthew – do they fly fast or slow?
A – they actually fly quite slowly for birds. They only get to about 30mph.
Dermott – why are they tied onto logs?
A – they have to be tied up, the same way a dog has a lead when it goes out – so that it doesn’t fly off and hurt itself. The log is so it’s got something comfortable to sit on.
Lucas – can they fly really high in the sky?
A – they actually stay very low so they can find food. They don’t go higher than the trees.
Overall, we had a fantastic afternoon!!!
Our Pupil Council met with our House and Vice Captains today, to start the design of their house shields. Clyde, Forth, Spey, Tay, Almond and Esk house teams will soon have these displayed prominently in the school. These unique shields will capture what is special about St Nicholas. They will be displayed along with a tally of their house’s points. The Pupil Council and House Captains/Vice Captains will keep you updated on our progress…
Here are some of our thoughts…
We had been looking forward to the leap of faith and we did really well! – Maria-Victoria
I enjoyed the team challenge – Jazib
The murder mystery was very funny – Oscar
I liked climbing the leap of faith – Artur
I was excited and surprised when they brought me the birthday cake – Blake
I hate heights and faced my fears with the leap of faith – Cole
I did my very best at everything – Olivia
Primary 4a had fun in the field on Tuesday creating their own artwork inspired by artist Andy Goldsworthy. They used different coloured leaves to stand out against a dull background. The result was very effective! 
Quick update to parents: St Nicholas P6 boys and girls are having a great time at camp. 
Yesterday, primary 6 started a new measure, perimeter and shape topic in maths. We were set a challenge to use accurate measuring to find the answers to some clues in the playground. We then had to decipher the clues to find a secret message … great measuring P6!
Primary 6 were learning about the forces on bridges and performed a few experiments to see how weight distribution affected stability. Here we are making human cantilever bridges!
In Maths this week we have been working on solving word problems, understanding place value including decimals and multiplying decimals.
We have also practised our spelling words in Language & Literacy and learnt about personification.
As part of our Health&Wellbeing, we shared challenging situations we have been through and we talked about good and bad solutions to cope with them.
We spoke about the call of Jesus in RERC: What would he say? What would you tell him? Is it hard to follow Him? How do you do this?
In Spanish we learnt about El Dia de Todos los Santos (The Day of all Saints) and celebrated this special day by making flowers containing a prayer in Spanish for our loved ones that have passed away. Check them out!
We also made paper helicopters in technologies and finished the week by helping our P2 buddies with their reading.
All of the above covered by P4 this week, what a busy time.
Primary 4 have been busy getting to grips with “benchball” all in preparation for the benchball tournament later this month. Lots of team work going on. Excellent.
This weeks “Star Writers”. The whole class created some fantastic acrostic poems about Fireworks. Our star writers this week are Luke, Isla, Maya, Grace and Ciaran.
Skye proudly showing us her trophy for dancing. She passed her exam for modern dance earlier this week. Well done Skye.
Here are our three ‘Star Pupils of the Week’ across the three Primary 1 classes. Well done to you all !
Look at those lovely smiles from our ‘Dojo Champions’ ! These children received the most Dojo points from their teachers. Who will it be next week ?
We would like to invite you along to our Primary 3 Assembly all about Friendship. It is on Friday 11th November at 11.30 am.
We hope to see you there!
Today Primary 5 were learning about STEM and the importance it may have in our future career choices. We were working in small groups to create two different types of catapults. After testing our creations we made improvements to them to try and increase the distance and height of the shot. It was great fun !
Primary 1 and Primary 6 got together for language learning on Wednesday by creating a Spanish cafe in class. We learned how to ask what a customer would like and how to reply with our food choices – all in Spanish! Mrs Baty and I were delighted with our children’s confidence and their ability to have a short conversation in Spanish – we were also delighted that we all got to eat fruit, cake, cheese and chocolate!
This week Primary 6 have been learning about decimals, place value and negative numbers. We looked specifically at these outcomes in the Curriculum:-
Today we learnt all about owls.
We learnt that :
Matthew R – ‘We have learnt that a great horned owl has funny ears’.
Daniel – ‘An owl eats mice’.
Chloe- ‘Some owls eat insects’.
Ava – ‘A barn owl has a love heart shaped face that is white’.
Roman – ‘ They are birds of prey’
Well done everyone for super listening !
After a few weeks of becoming familiar with the various roles required to run our literature circles, on Tuesday we had the launch of our first ever Literature Circle gathering. Each child in the group had a different role to complete and each group leader made sure that everyone was on task and had the resources that they required. At the end of the session the group leader would peer assess the work and then feedback to the rest of the class.
Here are our thoughts after our first session:
This is a good way to get along with your friends. It was fun to work with the group leader. – Lewis
I think you concentrate more as you have a job to do for your group. – Ava
I really liked it because everyone had a different job to do. I liked being the group leader because it was like I was the teacher. – Rayyan
We can be individuals. – Sophie
It allows us to work together as a group. – Natalia A
It helps your concentration as you have to complete your task. – Aimee
The group leader has to check the content of your work before they give you a traffic light colour. – Thomas
Working as a group can improve our writing. – Patryk
I like how we will get a different job to do every week. – Cameron H
I liked being peer assessed and it helped me to understand the book better. – Esme
Well, after all those positive reviews we are looking forward to our next session on Tuesday.
Remember to complete your reading homework in preparation for the tasks.
**We have been having ICT problems but we seem to have resolved these issues!***
Last week our number talks strategy was place value and negative numbers. This strategy involved us breaking the numbers down, to subtract them. We didn’t find this strategy the most efficient because it involved many steps. We preferred using the number line strategy and the friendly number strategy to help us with subtraction problems!
We also made adverts for the tuck shop! We are now going to be responsible for the profit and loss made in the tuck shop this year. We looked at persuasive language and we realised how effective this could be in encouraging our pupils to buy the less popular items such as yogurt and kiwi!!
Can you guess our new topic?
Hint 1: Suspension, cable-stayed, cantilever…
Hint 2: There are three of these over the Forth, one built in the 19th century, one built in the 20th century and one built in the 21st century….
Hint 3: They use compression and tension to stay upright…
Hint 4: It is a science and technology topic…
Primary 7 undertook a spooky challenge today. Our challenge was to make a representation of a human skeleton – in groups – that was made purely from natural materials. We used only what had fallen from the trees (leaves, twigs) or what was lying around the playground (stones, rocks). We had a time limit of 20 minutes to complete this task. During this task we helped developed skills of: teamwork; determination; sharing (resources); being kind; construction skills; listening skills; communication and negotiation skills.
The teams that won were Team 4 from Mrs Heather’s class and Team C from Mrs Bell’s class. Mrs McGuire will provide a prize for these groups, later in the week.
Well done on completing the challenge everyone.
Our first word of the week is ‘bienvenido’ or ‘bienvenidos’ if we’re saying welcome to more than one person.
This means WELCOME! You can click on this link to check the pronunciation http://es.forvo.com/word/bienvenido/
Try practising with your child at home!
In RERC Primary 6 has been learning about the parable of the Rich Young Man: who or why do we make sacrifices?
In Language, we have explored figures of speech by looking at the similes and metaphors in pop songs and practised making our own ones too.
We have made posters to advertise our Tuck Shop products in order to maximise profits and promote a healthy lifestyle. We have used persuasive language and included some nutritional facts of the fruits we sell in our shop.
In Spanish we learnt about El Dia de los Muertos, a hispanic celebration to honour our loved ones that have passed away. We learnt some useful vocabulary like papel, tijeras, corta and dobla by making Papel Picado.
The end of the week was really fun! Some of us dressed up for Halloween and we had a small celebration in which we made decorations and ghost-treats like these.
Finally, congratulations to Grace, Ollie, Hana and Ben for their new road safety jobs in the school. Well done!
P4b have been researching the Vikings on the internet. They have combined this research with all of the facts that they have learned in class and they have created leaflets to display their information. They also enjoyed making Autumn window pictures. Here they are all dressed up for Halloween – what fantastic costumes!!
Primary 4a proved they could work as a team and researched Viking Housing, Food and Clothes. They then created posters to display their work and present their findings to the class. Great effort by all.
Scary day for P4a. Brilliant costumes everyone.
Big congratulations to Monde Jnr. Coming Second in the British Karting Championships. Well done.
Here are this week’s ‘Star Pupils of the Week’. Well done to you all for working hard and listening well.
Here we have our ‘Dojo Champions’ for this week. Well done to you all too for having the most points.
We had great fun dressing up today as part of our Hallowe’en fun. Don’t we look great ? We also made pumpkins, played with witches potions, made lanterns and played with wiggly worms (cooked spaghetti). After break our lovely Primary 7 buddies joined us for some spooky stories. It was great !
Here we are having fun !
The whole school had an assembly today where we discussed our school improvement plan, new Junior Road Safety Officers and keeping ourselves safe if we go out ‘guising’ at the weekend.
Our St Nicholas Junior Road Safety Officers were announced at the assembly. They are:
Well done to all of these children, who we know will do an excellent job in these important roles.
We had an unexpected visit from Ross Logan, our Active Schools Co-ordinator, who came to say that some of our P7 children, Michael, Logan, Eoin and Aiden, had won gold medals in the West Lothian Schools’ cross country heats. This is an amazing achievement and we are very proud of you – well done.
As our Victorians topic drew to a close we were learning about the Victorian artist and designer William Morris. His work included wallpaper design and printing, furniture design, textiles, stained glass windows, tiles and tapestries. The influence of his designs can still be seen in textiles and wallpaper prints to this day. We followed a tutorial on how to create a William Morris inspired flower and used inks to colour them. We were really pleased with the results!
Our Primary 6 topic for the next few weeks is the Forth Bridges and the engineering work that goes into designing and making a bridge. Our classes have had a look at the curriculum outcomes that we need to cover and will be thinking of experiments and activities to help us achieve them. This project is a part of our STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) work. For information on STEM, you can look at this site:- https://www.stem.org.uk/
To get us looking at different types of bridges we started our project by creating oil pastel line drawings of a suspension bridge…
Today we learnt all about pumpkins.
What did we learn ?
Joshua – You can eat them .
Isla – Pumpkins are a fruit.
James H- They are orange.
Jamie – Leigh – They can be green.
Rian – They can be white.
Louvisa – You can use seeds to grow a pumpkin.
We have been very busy in primary 3 this week and have started to prepare for our class assembly on Friday 11th of November. Our assembly will be about friendship and forgiveness.
Things we have learned this week :
“I have been learning more about my times tables” – Paula
” I have been learning about miming in drama and went on a walk through the rainforest” – Kamaren
“I have learned how to type capital letters in ICT” – Tatenda
Things we have found tricky this week:
” I found the 3 and 4 times tables a bit tricky this week” – Emily
” I found logging on and finding the website on the computer a bit difficult this week” – Finn
“I found the joined up letter f really hard to do in handwriting this week” – Max
Things we would like to find out about next week:
” I would like to move on to the next letter in handwriting” – Marcel
“I would like to learn how to search for website” – Cameron
” I would like to learn about different saints in RE” – Neve
We are all looking forward to dressing up in our costumes tomorrow for halloween!
This week primary 6 started their Reciprocal Reading Project. Everyone had a specific role in their reading group with a task to complete related to their comprehension of the given text. Some of the tasks, such as the “predictor”and the “clarifier” were difficult, but everyone worked really hard to contribute to their group by concentrating on the important aspects of their role. The leaders discovered that it was difficult to be both encouraging and firm whilst ensuring that everyone was on task. However, Lord Sugar would have been proud of their efforts!
This week Primary 3 are exploring number. We have been making different multiplication stories using arrays and building towers. We have also been using ICT to develop our mental agility and have been counting and sequencing numbers. Here are some of the activities in action:
St Nicholas is celebrating Halloween…
on Friday the 28th of October. St Nicholas pupils can, if they wish, take part in the traditional Scottish activity of ‘guising’ for Halloween on Friday of this week. Mums and dads, please be sensible and make sure that costumes aren’t too frightening – we don’t want our younger children to be scared. Thank you.
Primary 3b have been keeping active in class by doing go noodle exercise videos. Having fun and keeping fit at the same time!
This term our topic is going to be Light and Dark. We are going to learn all about owls too and have got lots of lovely things planned for this topic. This is what we know already and what we would like to learn about.
What do we know already?
Lovisa – My brother held an owl on his arm on our holiday.
Max C – I saw an owl in Livingston.
Dermott – Owls come out at night time.
Joshua – Owls can fly.
Preston – They fly at night time when it is dark.
Sophia – Owls are nocturnal because they sleep in the day and are awake at night.
Jie-Rui – Owls stay in the jungle.
Toby – When it is night time we switch the lights off.
Max A – Owls sleep in the woods.
James H – When it is dark, it is night time and we have to go to sleep.
Thomas – Sometimes they stay in a nest.
Isla – When it is summer time the sun comes up.
What would we like to learn?
Toby – We could go to look at owls.
Thomas – I would like to make an owl nest.
Olivia – We could hold an owl.
Jie-Rui – I would like to make an owl using paper.
Chloe – I would like to draw or paint an owl.
Lennox – We could paint a picture and put them on the wall for the Mummy’s and Daddy’s.
Bhavya – We can learn songs.
Well done to Primary 4 in creating such fantastic swords, shields and longboats as part of their Viking project. Lots of great ideas and hard work.
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