Category Archives: Classes

Fairytale Fun in P1 !

Here are some of us dressed up as dragons, pirates, knights and princesses.  We even have a couple of Jacks from ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, and two Big Bad Wolves .  EEK !!!!!  Can you spot the Ice Queen and the Gingerbread Man ?  Little Red Riding Hood and one of the three bears have dropped by too ! We are looking forward to our fairytale showcase this afternoon.


Mrs Baty’s boys and girls.

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Mrs Macdonald’s boys and girls.

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Anime fun

Over the past few weeks primary 7A have been learning about anime and making their  own characters. Our characters are really creative and inventive. After that, we made our own manga comics in groups.

Katriona – I thought that was a lot of fun because we made our own characters.

Rosie-  In my opinion anime is really creative and fun and it was the best art lesson we have had so far.

Carrick-I thought it was fun learning to draw the proper anime features.

Primary 1a’s wishes !

After reading Cinderella, we decided that it would be fun to write about things we wish for.  Here are some of our wishes.  I wonder if any of them will come true ?

Wiktoria – I would like to be able to run fast.

Cole – I would like a jet pack so I could fly.

Thomas – I would wish for a pet cat.

Santiago – I would like to have my own house.

Kyle  – I would like to play for Celtic.

Fynn – I would like to be jump high.

Flynn – I would like a trip to Legoland.

Tavia – I would like to live forever.

Luca – I would wish for 13 diamonds.

Grady – I would like to see the queen.

Raqab –  I would like a trip to Brazil so I could see everything.

Niamh – I would like a pet panda.

Lara – I would wish for a flying car.

Michael –  I would like to have superpowers.

Zofia – I would like to go to America.

Anum – I would wish for money so I could give it to poor people.

Lucas – I would like to turn into a car so I could go fast.

Umaima  – I would wish for a new toy kitchen.

Kacper – I would like to fly.

Haroon –  I would like to get money to buy toy cars.

Maksymilian – I would like a black panther.

Kuba – I would like to be invisible.

More surprises in P1 !

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We came in from lunch today to find yet another surprise left for us in our classrooms.  Two lovely cuddly kangaroos and their babies were waiting for us!  Who left these for us you may ask ?

It was Harry, our lovely Saint Nicholas friend who has returned from a well earned holiday in Australia!

Thank you to Harry for your kindness ! We were so happy with our gift that we decided to learn lots about kangaroos.  We learnt that :

  • Kangaroos are found in Australia.
  • Kangaroos can hop around quickly on two legs or walk around slowly on all four.
  • Kangaroos can’t walk backwards.
  • Kangaroos have very powerful legs and can be dangerous at times.
  • Kangaroos can jump very high, sometimes three times their own height.
  • Kangaroos can swim.
  • Most kangaroos eat grass.
  • Baby kangaroos are known as ‘joeys’.

Primary 1b’s Magical Morning

Primary 1b had a very fun morning, imagining we had a Fairy Godmother, just like Cinderella!

We had some lovely wishes to ask her. We will soon be making magic wands to see if we can help make some of them come true. Photos will come later.

Grace – I would wish to be magic so I can decorate my room

Freyja – I would wish all of the world was made of chocolate 

Gabrielle – I would wish for a fast, flying, spectacular pony with magic

Lucas C – I would wish for a hundred dollars 

Lily – I would wish to have 5 fluffy cats

Hamza – I would wish to live in a castle 

Alicia – I would wish to have a beautiful unicorn 

Brooke – I would wish to be a Fairy Godmother

Lucas T – I would wish to go to Disneyland 

Adriana – I would wish for a bunny

Holly – I would wish I had a magic wand 

Mia – I would wish to live in a ball

Liam – I would wish for Mrs Baty to live with me

Martyna – I would wish for a sparkly cat

Mya – I would wish for a crown with gems

Nicola – I would wish for 5 cats

Gabriel – I would wish for Goofy to come to my house

Leonard – I would wish for 3 dogs

Oliver – I would wish to be stronger

Safaa – I would wish to be a princess with magic

Wojciech – I would wish for blue dogs

Catherine – I would wish to be a really fast runner

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that (some of them) come true!

Primary 1a’s ‘Star Pupil of the Week’ and DOJO Champion.

A very big well done to Umaima for being this week’s ‘Star Pupil’.  Umaima has worked well all week and especially on her writing.  Her letter to our Friendly Dragon was super !  Well done to Leon for being this week’s ‘DOJO Champion’.  Leon has been working well all week remembering and been a helpful and kind boy in class.

Who will it be next week ?

 

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Egg-cellent Air Resistance

In science, primary 7 have been learning about air resistance. This week we carried out an investigation using bin bags, cups, eggs & string. We each in a group of 4/5 made 3 different size parachutes: small, medium & large to test which would have the greatest air resistance. Before the investigation we (the majority of the class) made a hypothesis that the small parachute would have the least air resistance. From the investigation we found that the hypothesis was correct & the larger the parachute, the greater the air resistance.

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Jasiu thought it was quite fun making the parachute & dropping them to see which one would land first.

Ellie thought that the experiment was good and she enjoyed using the eggs to test our theory.

 

Amazing Adventures in Primary 1b

Hola!

My greatest appologies for the long delay since my last update.

Primary 1b have been so busy since coming back from the Easter holidays.

 

First of all, our most exciting news is that we have had some post. We have had letters from ‘The Friendly Dragon’. He lives in Fairyland, but he needs our help. Fairyland is disappearing, and he has asked us to read lots of fairytales, and rebuild Fairyland in our classroom, so all the fairytale characters have somewhere to go.

So far we have read Jack and Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rumpelstiltskin, and The Three Little Pigs.

We have written some amazing stories of what we would see if we climbed the beanstalk. We also build a huge beanstalk in the classroom.

A couple of days later we came back in the classroom to see a huge mess in the classroom. Porridge was spilled everywhere and chairs were knocked over. It turns out Goldilocks had been in our classroom. She was such a monkey. We decided to make some Wanted posters, so everyone can look out for her, as she needs to come to say sorry. Although, we also read a book written by the baby bear (his name is Sam). Goldilocks is actually his friend, so we think she might be back soon.

Last week we wrote a letter to the dragon to let him know all about our adventures. He visited our classroom during playtime to read our letters. He was very impressed!

He then left us a new story, and some clues.

3 little pigs

So this week we have been investigating The Three Little Pigs, to work out how to make our classroom comfortable for them to come to stay. We have got more straw, sticks and bricks in the class, and we are playing with them to build our own houses.

We have also been on an adventure around the school, to see what other materials things are made out of.

We found lots of metal, wood, bricks, fabric and plastic all over the school. Maybe the first two pigs could use some of these ideas? We also had some materials in the classroom, to investigate how heavy they are. We decided the feathers were the lightest, and the bricks were the heaviest.

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We have been doing lots of other work too.

We are very very proud of our maths work at the moment. We have been adding numbers within 10, remembering the number bonds up to 10. We are getting very quick with these. We often play a game against Mrs Baty, and we ALWAYS win!

We have also been learning to answer take away sums. We are learning that we just need to count backwards.

We have even realised that adding and take away sums are linked! Did you know that?

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Finally, Gabrielle was in a dance competition a couple of weeks ago. Both her, and her sister in nursery, had some amazing costumes and some fantastic routines. Well done girls!

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We will try our best to remind Mrs Baty to update you all again very soon. Until then, adios!

Primary 1a’s ‘Star Pupil of the Week’.

Here is Tavia ! She is our ‘Star Pupil of the Week’ in our class.  Tavia caught my eye this week for a number of reasons.  She has remembered to use her magic manners, she was VERY brave after falling and giving herself a nasty cut AND she has worked hard in her writing to make sure that she is using capital letters and full stops.  Well done Tavia, keep it up !

 

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We have no ‘DOJO Champion’ this week with it being a shorter week.  Points will be carried over next week.

Special Surprise for P6 Letter Writers!

Last month Primary 6 sent letters to inspirational Scottish people. Our aim was to get a reply from them and for them to answer our questions and send us their favourite Scottish recipe for our class cookbook. Today we received our first reply!

Michael and Nicole wrote to Hibs and Celtic player (and Saint Nicholas pupil!) Liam Henderson, and lucky for us when he read their wonderful letters he decided to pop in and answer their questions in person! It was very very exciting and a great surprise! Everyone got a chance to ask questions and we learned a lot about what life is like as a football player! A huge ‘Thank You’ to Liam for taking the time to visit our children! Nicole and Michael were over the moon!

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Fairyland fun in P1.

We have some exciting news ! Our friendly dragon has left us another two letters.  He left us letter number 2 yesterday.  In his second letter he told us that he was so happy to see our classroom beginnning to look like Fairyland.  As a special gift he left us all a ‘Castle Book’ for us to write in. So, we have all drawn a picture of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ on the front covers.

Today though, has just been fantastic! We got a big shock after play time to see that someone had ran through our classroom and had spilt porridge oats all over the carpet.  After a lot of discussion we all agreed that we think this must have been GOLDILOCKS !!! She has been very naughty leaving our classroom in such a mess.

However, our shock turned to delight to see that the dragon had left us letter number 3 and ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ to read. We read this story.  It was great!  We have asked Mr Macdonald to be on the look out for Goldilocks.  She needs to come back to our class to tidy up !

Here are some photographs of us all.

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Primary 1’s special surprise !

The boys and girls from P1a and P1b got a special surprise today ! It would appear that a friendly dragon visited our classrooms whilst we were outside practising our capital letters.

We have been left a letter and a special D-mail box from this dragon.  He is sad because his land, ‘Fairyland’ has been destroyed so he wants us to turn our classrooms into a new Fairylands.

Well, as you can imagine this has caused great excitement and we are definitely up for this challenge.  We will keep you all posted over the next few weeks as to what we are going to do to rebuild Fairyland.

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P7 Broxburn Transition Camp


Hi everyone!

St Nicholas boys and girls have been having a great time at camp.  We’ve been busy non-stop with abseiling, playing laser quest, problem solving, the 3G swing, building shelters, and sitting round the camp fire with hot chocolate at night.  Our rooms are warm and cosy and we’re getting to know lots of children who’ll be with us in Broxburn Academy next year.  Our last night is tonight and we’re having a disco and movie night tonight.  Mrs McGuire is really proud of all of us: we’ve worked hard; taken part in all activities; and been an absolute credit to our parents and St Nicholas.

Photos will be uploaded when we get out of the wilds and back to civilisation.

See you all soon.

P7 Broxburn Academy Campers

‘Boney’ the skeleton

Look at all the amazing facts we have learned about the skeleton today! #successfullearners

The longest bone in your body is the femur. Maisie

Adults have 206 bones! Laura

Your skull is smooth. Ethan

Your rib cage protects your lungs and heart. Ellie

The stirrup is in your ear and it is the smallest bone in your body. Milo D

When you are a baby you have 300 bones. When you get older some of them join together. Marwa

Your skull protects your brain. Niamh

If you didn’t have bones your skin would fall down. Summer

The pelvis is the biggest bone in your body. Megan

Your spine connects to the back of your brain. Ethan

33 little bones make up your spine. Stephen

Fish and milk help you to have strong bones. Casper

Milk gives us Calcium and fish gives us Vitamin D. Megan

Sunlight gives us strong bones. Milo M

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Medals everywhere!

Primary 3A have been busy during the holidays.

– Well done to Rebecca for receiving this medal and certificate for Highland dancing before the Easter holidays.

– Well done to Maisie for receiving this medal for coming first in a skiing race in Italy during the Easter holidays.

– Well done to Harris for receiving this medal for competing in a duathlon during the Easter holidays.

– Well done to Monde-Jnr for receiving this trophy for coming first in a go-karting time trial.

We are all very proud of our class mates.

TALENT SHOW 2016

WOW! We are so lucky to have a school full of amazing, kind, helpful and talented children in our school! Today some of them took to the stage to showcase their talents at the annual Saint Nicholas Has Got Talent event!

The staff and pupils were blown away by wonderful singing, dancing, gymnastics and taekwondo! Everyone was laughing at the wonderful jokes!

To end the show there was a special surprise as some of the teachers took to the stage to perform! We had been practicing all week after school!

Hope you all had a good time! Enjoy the holidays everyone!

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Primary 1a’s Weekly Evaluation

What have we learnt ?

What have we enjoyed?

Santiago – I have learnt a new sound. It was tr.

I have enjoyed Golden Time.

Lara – I have learnt the new sound st.

I have enjoyed buying toys at our bring and buy sale.

Kyle – I have learnt a new sound – st.

I have enjoyed learning my new sound.

Tavia  – I have learnt about symmetrical things.

I have enjoyed going to music.  We were singing and Mrs Steel played the guitar.

Primary 6 visit Scottish Shale Museum

Primary 6 enjoyed a wonderful day today at the Almond Valley Heritage Centre and Scottish Shale Oil Museum! Our topic is Scottish Industries and we loved seeing how life in Broxburn would have been in the days of mining and shale oil.

We played games in the adventure zone, made candles using parrafin wax, explored the history of industry in Broxburn. Then we visited the old Mill, and the farm!

We had lots of fun on the trampolines, gokarts, wartime garden, animal enclosures and parks!

Thank you to Sami, Manpida, Freya and Ali’s mums for coming along and sharing this day with us! Even though it was cold and wet, we all had a fantastic time!

DANCEMARATHON!

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Here are some photos from our Dance Marathon yesterday!

We all had a wonderful time and hopefully raised lots of money for our Lenten Appeal!

5, 2 or 1 hour of non stop dancing can be pretty challenging! Well done everyone!

A special THANK YOU to the dance leaders from St Margarets Academy for running a session with us, and the girls from JHM who taught everyone an amazing dance!

Highlights were definitely the class dance off, lip sync battle and best dancer competition!

Remember to bring in your sponsor money by FRIDAY!

Canal walk

Today Primary 3 and 3/2 went for a walk along the Union Canal. We looked for lots of different things. Here are some facts we found out about the canal.

We saw the canal getting wider for the boats to turn. Isla M

We saw swans along the canal swimming and gliding. Grace

I saw the swans making a love heart with their necks and heads. Hubert

The number of the bridge was 27. Maisie

We saw the shale bings. Ben

In the canal there was rubbish including a football, bottles, bicycle wheel, and other food wrappers and a bike. Callum

We saw a weather vane on top of Broxburn Primary. Rebecca

Lots of branches had fallen in the canal. Zac

We saw a ginger cat laying at the side of the canal. Ruby

The water in the canal was rippling. Ciaran

There was mooring point to tie boats up along the side of the canal.

The port was called Port Buchan. Luke There are also lots of reeds in the water.

P1a’s weekly evaluation.

What have we learnt ? 

What have we enjoyed ?

Raqab – I have learnt about Jesus.  He turned water into wine.

I have enjoyed playing with friends.

Flynn – I have learnt that you should never put electricity near water.

I have enjoyed going to gym.

Cole – I have learnt a new sound – ai.

I have enjoyed going to gym.

Lucas – I have learnt that you can do half past on an analogue clock.  The big hand points to six.

I have enjoyed colouring in a picture of Jesus,

P1’s Bring and Buy Sale – Thursday, 17th of March.

Bring and Buy Sale – Thursday, 17th of March.

The boys and girls are really looking forward their ‘Bring and Buy Sale’.  Please hand in donations of good quality toys, games and books for us to sell.  All money raised will go towards our ‘Lenten Charity Appeal’. Donations can be handed in to the office or Mrs Macdonald. Thank you for your support.

Primary 1a’s Weekly Evaluation.

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What have we learnt ?

What have we enjoyed ?

Flynn – I have learnt a new sound – ou.

I have enjoyed making an Elmer.

Lara – I have learnt all about the sound ou.

I have enjoyed dressing up as Heidi.

Haroon – I have learnt all about clocks.  I have learnt all about half past.

I have enjoyed going to Broxburn Library.

Lucas – I have learnt all about digital clocks.

I have enjoyed going to the library and meeting an author.

Santiago – I have learnt that when we add we shouls start counting from the biggest number.

I have enjoyed the P5s coming to read to us.

Book Week Update.

Today was a super day with lots of great things happening.  What did we do ?

Lots of classes completed their book themed  wall/classroom door.

We brought in books to swap with a friend in our class.  We all went home with a new book.

A different teacher read a story to us.

P5 played ‘Book Cluedo’.  We now have an idea who took Mrs Brown’s books ! All will be revealed tomorrow.

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Book Week Update

 

We have been having a fantastic week this week, celebrating book week.

We have been engaging in lots of activities all week, and still have plenty to go.

This week we have been enjoying lots of paired reading (reading to others in the school). Primary 1 particularly enjoyed the primary 7 boys and girls reading to them.

Primary 4-7 have been going on a ‘Cluedo Quest’. Someone stole all the books from Mrs Brown’s office! They have been answering clues, leading them all around the school, to help them work out who did it!

We have been receiving some amazingly creative photos for our Extreme Reading competition. They are all on display in the gym hall. We have had children reading whilst hula hooping; upside down; in the dogs bed; on the moon; standing on top of a giant peach; on a horse; in a tree and many more!

Our teachers have been challenging us this week as well. There is a display in the gym hall, with lots of teachers hiding behind their favourite books. It is really tricky to work out who is who!

We have all been working as a class to create an imaginative display based on a favourite book, or a number of favourite books.  We can’t wait to see which class wins this competition on Friday.

 

We still have many more activities to do as well!

Tomorrow (Thursday) we are participating in a book swap in the classes. Every child has been asked to bring in a book they no longer want, or read, and it will be swapped with someone else, meaning we all go home with a new book to enjoy.

Also tomorrow our teachers are all swapping classes to read a story to another class.

But the thing we are most looking forward to is the chance to dress up as our favourite book character on Friday (Nursery is on Thursday)! We have been discussing costumes all week. There is a prize for the most imaginative costume from each year group.

Keep checking back for more updates!

 

 

Primary 1 & 2’s Library Visit

Today, primary 1 and 2 had a fantastic afternoon. We visited the local library. We met the author and the lead character of the children’s books Badger The Mystical Mutt.

Badger is a large black and white dog, who loves toast, and is awfully cheeky! He is also very good at magic. We watched him perform a number of magic tricks, in between annoying Laura, the author.

We also listened to a short extract from the first book.

It really was a brilliant afternoon. Thank you so much to the library and to Laura and Badger.

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Primary 1 Book Week

Primary 1 have been having a fantastic week this week. We have been celebrating books in all sorts of ways!

We have had our primary 7 buddies come to read to us twice this week! We loved listening to their stories, and even read them some stories too.

We have each designed / coloured a bookmark, which Mrs Baty says she’s going to laminate for us to keep.

We have read lots of new books and our favourite books every day this week.

We chose our favourite class book (The Selfish Crocodile) and have been designing a display on our door. It is looking so good. Fingers crossed we win the competition on Friday.

We got together to write the first page of a whole school story. We began it by introducing Mr Zebra, who was getting ready for his own birthday party with Mr Tiger and Mrs Hippo. He wore a blue and red sparkly party hat, and his party t’shirt. But on his way to the party … he fell into a puddle! We can’t wait to hear how it ends.

Today we went with the primary 2’s, to the library. We saw a short performance about Badger The Mystical Mutt. He was a very cheeky dog!

We have also been looking at some of the amazing ‘Extreme Reading’ photos. We are so creative.

We are really looking forward to the rest of the week. Tomorrow we are going to have a story from a different teacher; we have our book swap; and we can’t wait for our Dress Up Day on Friday.

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Primary 1b’s Edinburgh Castle Trip

Primary 1b had a fantastic time at Edinburgh Castle (please forgive the delay of this post!!!)

We arrived at the Royal Mile, and were so excited walking up the hill, to catch our first glimpse of the castle.

It was so much bigger than we expected! And luckily the weather stayed clear for us.

We visited The Crown Jewels (very pretty); The Great Hall (have you seen the size of some of those swords??? And we found the key to the entire castle); we had lunch in the dungeons; we saw Mon’s Meg (the biggest ever canon … it was huge!!) and we heard (and viewed) the one o’clock gun (it was awfully loud … it gave us such a scare).

We had a brilliant day …. and most of us fell asleep on the bus home.

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St Nicholas Book Week

Our ‘Book Week’ got off to a super start today with the boys and girls engaging in lots of great actvitiies including :

Whole school story – P1 started off our whole school story.  After a super discussion and a vote we agreed that the main characters in our story should be animals.  We used our imaginations to start off the story before we passed it over to the boys and girls in P2 who then wrote their part.  The story will visit all of the classes throughout the week with each stage adding their part.  We cannot wait to hear what happens next.

Paired reading – Primary 7 visited the boys and girls in P1 and read stories to them.  The P1’s loved being read to from their special visitors.

P7 went investigating around the school reading clues and looking for pictures of very famous book characters when they played ‘Cluedo’.  They had super fun looking for the culprit who stole Mrs Brown’s books.  I wonder who it was ? All will be revealed soon.P4, P5 and P6 will play this game too throughout the week.

Log in tomorrow for some more news about ‘Book Week’.

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Skills 4 Bills

On Thursday  P7 had a visit from the Royal Bank Of Scotland. We were learning how to handle money and bills for later life. During the afternoon we were all given jobs and a salary and had to decide how to spend our money.  Some of us manage our money well and stayed within our budgets but others  went into debt and had to pay the bank back. Some of us had jobs which paid a high salary and  others were paid much less.

With our money we had to visit  different stations to buy things to live these stations included : the Tax and pensions office,a home, some transport, household  bills , unexpected events, a holiday, entertainment and finally we visited the accountants to see if we had any money left.

Sana thought that it was a good experience and that all the visitor were very nice but very persuasive. Sana got talked into buying more than she had planned to.

Taylor thought that it was very educational  because it teaches us how to handle money.

Murray enjoyed looking at all the different jobs.

Nicole enjoyed being an astronaut.

Carrick thought it was a really educational experience because it showed us how to handle out money for our future lives. The first time he went round he went into debt but the second time he managed his money better and stayed within his means.

We all enjoyed this experience and learned lots about managing our money and not spending it all on the thing that we don’t need.

A big thank you to Mr Heather and his colleagues for coming to our school.

By Sophie and Rachael

 

 

Primary 1a’s ‘Weekly Evaluation’.

What have we learnt ?

What have we enjoyed ?

Anum – I have learnt a new sound – oa.

I have enjoyed going to gym.

Lara – I have learnt a new sound –  all.

I have enjoyed gym as well.

Anya – I have learnt a new sound – all.

I have enjoyed going out to play.

Luca – I have learnt all about clocks.  The big hand points at 12 that means o’clock.

I have enjoyed playing with the clocks.

Energy in P1

Primary 1 started their new topic this week, ‘Energy’.  We will be spending the next few weeks finding out how different things work. We will also be looking at things that use electricity and learn about how we keep safe around electrical items.

This week we focussed on toys.  We learnt that some toys need to be pushed, others need to be pulled whilst others need batteries and electricity to make them move. We played games and looked at a super game on the smartboard.  It has been fun !

Primary 1a’s Weekly Evaluation.

What have we learnt this week? 

What have we enjoyed ?

Zofia – I have learnt that Margaret used to pray in her Church.

I have enjoyed going on the bus to the castle.

Michael  – I have learnt that the one o’clock gun lets people know that it is one o’clock.

I have enjoyed going on the trip.

Lara – I have learnt that there are 14 Stations of the Cross.

I have enjoyed hearing the gun at the castle.

Grady – I have learnt the Great Hall is in the castle and a long,long time ago there used to be banquets.

I have enjoyed learning about coins.

Santiago – I have learnt all about coins.

I have enjoyed going on the bus to Edinburgh Castle.

P1a at Edinburgh Castle.

Today we visited Edinburgh Castle as we have learnt lots about it and wanted to see what it was like for ourselves.

What did we see  ?

What did we learn ?

Flynn – The prison

Tavia – The prisoners had hammocks to sleep in .

(Great word Tavia!).

Fynn – The Crown Jewels

Santiago – They were shiny and you weren’t allowed to touch them.

Haroon – They were in a glass box.

Kyle – The Great Hall

Lara – Kings and Queens used to have parties here.

Cole – Saint Margaret’s Chapel

Michael  – Queen Margaret used to pray here.

Zofia – It was very little.

Thomas – Cannons 

Niamh – The cannons were big.

Grady – The One O’clock Gun

Lucas – It made a big bang and there was smoke.

Today has been:

Leon – Super !

Cole – Brilliant !

Wiktoria – Good !

Niamh  – Great !

Anya – Fun !

Thomas – Exciting !

We had the best day ! A big thank you to Luca’s mummy and Thomas’ mummy for coming along today to help us.

Here are some photos of our day:

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Dangers Of Second Hand Smoking

For the last few weeks Primary 7 have had Michelle and Janet from the West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service coming in to talk to about Drug and Alcohol Education. Over the past three weeks we have looked at what is in a cigarette, the harmful side-effects of smoking, what might happen to our bodies if we smoke, the pressures we might face from peers, the effects of second hand smoke.

This week we focused on  looking at the dangers of  second  hand smoking and how it could affect us. First we started with a group discussion about smoking free zones. Then after that we played a game all about where you can find second hand smoking. The two main places you can easily breath in smoke are our homes and cars. When you are outside and somebody walks past smoking you can only see the smoke for about ten to twenty seconds, after that it disappears from sight however it will stay in the air for around five hours. You don’t know if you are breathing in this smoke because you can’t see it, that is why second hand smoke is so dangerous.

After we played the game we had a evaluation to fill in and it was about what we have learned, what we liked and disliked and how we felt about the whole smoking lessons.  The government are planing to that by 2034 less that 5% of the Scottish population will smoke.  We were given a pledge  about Smoke Free Homes & Zones to take home and discuss with our parents. In the leaflet it has information about second hand smoking, what are the dangers to children and how you can protect your family. This pledge will hopefully help stop 95% for the population in Scotland from smoking and will make a lot of our  lives better.

Everyone in P7 enjoyed learning about the Chemicals, Smoking Sue and the Dangers Of Second Hand Smoking. We would like to say a big thank you to the West Lothian Drug and Alcohol team for coming in to help us.


Primary 1’s Spectacular Scottish Showcase

Primary 1 had a super afternoon, showcasing their learning to their parents.

We began with a short presentation, telling the mummies and daddies lots of things that we have learnt about Scotland.

‘Glasgow is famous because they build big ships [on the river Clyde]’ – Gabrielle

‘Tartan is a pattern’ – Shay

‘Heid means head’ – Tavia

‘Edinburgh Castle was build on top of an old volcano’ – Grady 

‘The Falkirk Wheel is like a big lift for boats’ – Liam

 

We then put our parents to work!!!

Some of the things they had to do, included making thistles; designing a tartan pattern; translating Scottish words; marking Edinburgh on a map and drawing a picture of Edinburgh Castle.

 

We had such a lovely time. It really was great seeing so many parents in our classroom. Thank you all so much for coming!!

mrs macdonalds collage scottish showcase collage

4 times table!

This week Primary 3 have been learning about the 4 times table. We have played lots of games and completed lots of active tasks to build our knowledge of this times table. Look at us in action!

Grace – In the 4 time table all the answers are even.
Luke – The 4 times table is double the 2 times table.
Monde-Jnr – If the times number is odd, the answer is still even.
Beth – Each time you add on 4.
Freya – We can draw arrays, show groupings and repeated addition sums for each sum.
Isla G – I learned that if you double the answers in the 2 times table you get the answer in the 4 times table.

Chinese New Year Celebrations in P1.

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‘Gong Hey Fat Choy’ to all of our Chinese friends and family !

Today,  the boys and girls in Primary 1 learnt all about the Chinese New Year. Why ? Well, today is the Chinese New Year.

What did we learn ?

We found out that the Chinese New Year is a very special time but it wasn’t always like that.We learnt about the legend of the Chinese New Year.  We learnt that long ago a monster called Nian appeared in a village in China and scared all of the villagers. A wise old man came up with a plan to scare away the monster.  He said that the villagers should wear clothes with red, gold and orange.  He also said that the monster was scared of loud noises and fire, so the villagers banged their drums loudly and lit fire crackers.  When the villagers did this, the monster ran away.

Chinese New Year is a time when families get together to celebrate. In the days coming up to New Year every family buys presents, decorations, food, new clothes and people have their hair cut. Houses are cleaned from top to bottom. The aim is to sweep out any bad luck from the old year and clear the way for good luck. However, it is bad luck to clean on New Years Day itself.

Families put lights up outside their homes, rather like Christmas lights. Doors and windows are often newly painted in red. On New Years Eve both narrow strips of red paper, called Chunlian or Spring Couplets, and bunches of firecracker decorations are hung on doors to bring good luck.

Chinese New Year celebrations last for 15 days.  In the first three days of Chinese New Year celebrations, people living outside cities can light firecrackers which are similar to rows of fireworks, but which make a series of loud bangs. The idea is that the bangs scare away bad luck. People hang bunches of decorative firecrackers both inside and outside their homes for the same reason.

The colour red is used to decorate for two reasons. The first is because red is a lucky colour and the second because it is supposed to frighten off the monster Nian who is thought to come on New Years Eve. Families also decorate their homes with lanterns and put stickers on things in their homes.

We had lots of fun in the afternoon to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

What did we do ?

We learnt how to count to 10 in Chinese.

We made a part of a dragon.  (Once these are dry we will join them together to make a huge dragon).

We tasted lots of Chinese foods and drinks including : Sweet and sour vegetable wantons, prawn crackers, spring rolls, tangerines and lychee juice.

We made Chinese lanterns.

We looked at Chinese images and coloured them in.

We looked at Chinese numbers and copied these.

It was a fantastic afternoon, full of super learning and fun.  Well done everyone !

chinese new year collage

Smokey Sue Visits Primary 7

Today after lunch, P7a had a visit from the West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service. They let us know about the dangers of smoking, and how it affects our bodies, as well as the drugs in the actual cigarettes like nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide. We found out there are between 4000-5000 chemicals in each cigarette.

Smoking 055 Smoking 050 Smoking 052Today we done an experiment with Smoky Sue! Smoky Sue  is a plastic doll with no arms and no legs and really showed us how cigarettes effect our lungs.During the experiment we lit a cigarette outside and pumped the doll so she could breath in the smoke. After the experiment we examined the liquid that would be in her lungs from clear tap water to yellow tar water. This showed us what is going into our lungs if we smoke.

After we played a game to talk about how we might react in situations where we might feel pressure to smoke. This helped us to see what we could do if these situations arise in the future.

So far we have really enjoyed learning about the effects of smoking and are working on some ‘Stop Smoking’ posters. These posters might even be featured in the local health center to encourage people to stop smoking,

Taylor and Ellie

Magnificent Maths in Primary 1b

 

 

 

Primary 1b have been having great fun with their numbers over the last couple of weeks. We particularly enjoyed working in teams to create numbers using our bodies. We had a team leader, who had to organise the rest of the team, and the team had to listen to them (we found it a bit tricky not to try to take over sometimes). We were proud of our hard work though.

 

active numbers

We have been working very hard with our addition. We have been using lots of objects to help us, and have been learning number bonds up to 5 as well. We are so clever!!

addition collage 1 addition collage 2

This week we have also been learning about money. We have been learning to recognise coins, and to use coins to make amounts to help us buy objects in the class shop.

We loved looking at the old coins Lucas brought in. There were coins which were over 100 years old!!! There used to be a 3p coin! We think that would be helpful now! Thank you for showing them to us Lucas.

Lucas old coins

 

 

Super Scotland in Primary 1

Primary 1 have been so busy these last few weeks! We have been really enjoying our Scotland topic.

Last Monday we celebrated Burns Night in the class. Primary 1 a and b got together to learn who Robert Burns was, why he is famous, and how we celebrate him. We had our own Burns Supper in the class. We tried oatcakes, shortbread and irn bru. I think you can tell by our faces that we particularly liked the irn bru. Who knew drinks could be such a bright colour?!

burns day collage

We have been enjoying our Edinburgh Castle themed classroom. We really enjoy pretending to be princesses and knights living in the castle. We have also been building our own castles in the construction area.

classroom play collage

Hamish McHaggis is our new class friend. He lives in Corrie Doon, which is in the Highlands of Scotland. He is a haggis, who enjoys travelling around Scotland. He even has his own stories about his adventures! He is in our class to teach us all about Scotland. So far we have learned about Edinburgh, Inverness, Loch Ness and Glasgow.

We have been taking him home for sleepovers. He really enjoys learning what Scottish children enjoy doing, and has had fun going on walks in the Scottish countryside, watching TV, and helping to read bedtime stories.

hamish collage

We had a particularly fun time learning Scottish words. We now know how to sing head, shoulders, knees and toes in Scottish (or rather heid, shooders, shanks and taes).

scottish body parts collage

As well as all this, we have also been learning where Scotland is on a map, what the Scottish national flower looks like, what the flag looks like (and what it’s called) and we even made our own tartan!!

scottish learning collage

 

Mrs Baty is so proud of all our hard work.

We can’t wait to share all our learning with you at our Scottish Showcase on Thursday (2pm in the P1 classrooms). See you there!

Primary 1a’s ‘Star Pupil of the Week’ and ‘Dojo Champion’.

 

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Well done to Santiago for being this week’s ‘Star Pupil of the Week’.  Santiago has worked hard all week and has had a super attitude to his work.

This week’s ‘Dojo Champion’ is Kacper ! Kacper had the most points, but it was very cloase between him and lots of other children. There was only one point of a difference !  Keep it up everyone. You are all stars.

Primary 1a’s Weekly Evaluation.

What have we learnt ?

What have we enjoyed ? 

Anya – I have learnt a Scottish song.

I have enjoyed reading.

Thomas – I have learnt money has a name.

I have enjoyed ‘Golden Time’.

Luca – I have learnt a new sound, ong.

I have enjoyed painting my thistle.

Haroon  – I have learnt about money.

I have enjoyed doing number time.

Leon  – I have learnt new things in maths.

I have enjoyed playing with the Lego.

Money fun in Primary 1.

We have been learning all about money in Primary 1a.  We have learnt that :

Coins have a name – Santiago.

You can add coins together – Kyle.

The gold pennies are a £1 – Michael.

Coins that are old look a bit dirty – Thomas.

We need coins to pay for things  – Niamh.

 

Here are some of us working with real coins in our class.

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Primary 1a’s Weekly Evaluation.

What have we learnt ? 

What have we enjoyed ?

Thomas – I have learnt how to do gymnastics.

I have enjoyed going to gym.

Grady – I have learnt that there is a museum in Glasgow called the Riverside Museum. You will see lots of old stuff.

I have enjoyed doing number time.

Santiago – I have learnt how to say some animals in Spanish.

I have enjoyed watching Numberjacks at wet play.

Kacper – I have learnt a new sound igh.

I have enjoyed writing on the board.

Leon –  I have learnt new sounds 

I have enjoyed doing gymnastics.

Robert Burns

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Primary 5 have been investigating the life and work of Robert Burns this week. We were very impressed on Monday at our ‘Poetry Recital’ when Finlay was not only able to recite ‘Address to a Haggis’, he was also happy to give us an extract from ‘To a Mouse’. Fabulous work, Finlay!

The children then used luggage tags to create a micro portrait of the bard. We quickly realised that it is quite tricky to add intricate detail to a portrait on a smaller scale. However we applied our growth mindset and were delighted with our finished artworks.

Terrific Tartans.

We have enjoyed learning about tartan in our class.  We have learnt that tartan is a Scottish checked pattern.  Some of the lines go across the way and some go down the way.  We learnt that there are lots and lots and lots of different kinds of tartans and each one usually has a Scottish family’s name.  Michael and Niamh very kindly brought in their tartan kilts to show us.  They were both very different !  We also learnt that long ago you could tell which family a person belonged to just by looking at the tartan that they wore.

Look at the tartans that we designed !

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What have we learnt so far ?

Primary 1 are fair enjoying their  topic.  It is fandaaaabie dozeeeeee !

Whit dae we ken so far ?

(What do we know so far ?)

Michael – Nessie lives in Loch Ness.

Catherine – A ‘Heilan Coo’ is a highland cow.

Lucas C (P1b) – Inverness is near the top of Scotland in the Highlands.

Lucas C (P1a) – The Scotland flag is called the St Andrew’s cross.

Raqab- ‘Bahookie’ is the Scottish word for bottom.

Lucas T – Robert Burns was a writer.

Luca – Loch Ness is near Inverness.

Anya – Edinburgh Castle is on an old volcano.

Lots of super listening and finding out bairns !

Guid joab a’body !

(Good job everyone !)

Mrs Macdonald and Mrs Baty. 

Primary 1a’s Weekly Evaluation.

What have we learnt this week?

What have we enjoyed ?

Cole – I have learnt about tartan.  It is a pattern.

I enjoyed painting my tartan.

Fynn  – I have learnt about Nessie.

I liked making my tartan.

Anya  – I have learnt that jewels are in Edinburgh Castle.

I liked playing outside.

Umaima – I have been learning to talk in Spanish.

I liked it when we said Scottish words.

Super fun and learning in P1.

 

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We have been very busy this week learning lots of new things about our topic. Hamish McHaggis took us on a tour of Edinburgh. We were amazed to find out that the castle was built on an old volcano and that long, long ago it was surrounded by water.   We also located Edinburgh on a map and found out that it is close to Broxburn!

We also took a ‘trip’ to Inverness. We learnt that it is the largest city in the Highlands. We explored Loch Ness and watched a clip of the loch . Some of us thought that we spotted something?! What could it be? Ah, Nessie ?  We learnt lots about her and had a vote. Nearly everyone believes in her ! Wonder where she is hiding?

We also used our super knowledge of our sounds to help us to write an imaginative story about her . We did a good job. Well done everyone !