Category Archives: Primary 5

P5 STEM – Germination

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Today Primary 5 were learning all about seed germination. We discussed the necessary conditions that a seed requires to grow and what would happen if any of these key elements were missing.

We then prepared the pots with soil ready to make a cosy wee bed for our tomato seed to grow in. We learned some new vocabulary too:

  • seed coat
  • germination
  • nutrients
  • photosynthesis

We are quite excited about the prospect of growing our own tomatoes and enjoying them on a sandwich. Some pupils who don’t even like tomatoes said they would give them a taste if we are successful in growing a crop. We will keep you updated with the process.

Primary 5 STEM – Testing Titanic

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Primary 5 used lots of different materials and their imagination to build fabulous Titanic models as part of their STEM homework.

On Friday morning the ships docked in our classrooms ready for the sink or swim challenge. We tested the ships to find out how buoyant they were with much success.

Well done Primary 5 ! Your ship building skills are awesome !  Continue reading Primary 5 STEM – Testing Titanic

P5 STEM – Candy Cane Science

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OMx7xhxu70

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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 ?

Sinterklass Parcel

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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.

Oh Deer !

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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 ?

P5 STEM – Christmas Cupcakes

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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 !

It’s Almost Christmas!

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?

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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!

40th Jubilee Mass and Walk Down Memory Lane

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.

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Happy 40th Jubilee St.Nicholas Primary!

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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:

  • The face paints and the songs! And the whole thing because I really liked other classes’ songs and costumes.   – Blake
  • I liked the P7’s Bring it all back to you because it was really loud and I liked the slideshow. Also, the P7 narrators were excellent and P7 really organised the whole thing!        -Alex
  • Being able to dress up as people from different decades and I thought it was really nice that some of the girls did highland dancing.  – Abbie
  • Everyone got to participate even though they might have been a wee bit shy, they still did really well!              -Natasha
  • I liked it when the parents started clapping, I think they really enjoyed it!                                                                -Karolina
  • The primary 1 and 2 children did so well especially since they are so little! The signing was really amazing.   -Shaelyn
  • I actually really liked the primary 3 children. Their dance was great!                                                                          -John
  • I liked the primary 5 children because I loved the guitars, saxophones, keyboard and the rap!                    -Ehlana
  • I really liked the way Primary 4 organised their song because there were so many of them and their song was amazing and cheerful! -Piotr

 

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Busy Week!!

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.

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Travelling Gallery

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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:

Travelling Gallery

 

Minute to Win It in P5

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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.

Hibernian Persevere Tour

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!


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It’s our 40th birthday!

40th-birthdayAnd 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:

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P5 – The Muppets

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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/

STEM – The Marble Maze

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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 !

P5 Literature Circles

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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.

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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.

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Money Talks

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Primary 5 participated in collaborative group work at the end of Money Week to further develop their skills. In our small teams we created menus within a budget, calculated food bills and gave change, worked out word problems involving money and used coins in different ways to pay for items.

Every few minutes we tried a different activity on our money carousel and we had the choice of mild, hot or spicy questions. An enjoyable session for all involved and lovely to see good team work.

A surprise guest !

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Today Primary 5 were startled to hear a Royal fanfare in their classroom. Mary, Queen of Scots arrived in the doorway with a royal wave and granted the class permission to ask her questions relating to her life in Old Edinburgh. Mary shared interesting facts regarding her favourite colour, fashion sense and need for a pomander to cover the foul smells during the 16th century. Primary 5 were not shy when enquiring about her various marriages and just what did happen to Lord Darnley ? There was an awkward silence until Mary explained, in her beautiful French accent, that she was rather annoyed with Lord Darnley as he did murder her friend, David Rizzio.

Do you think that this was a confession ?

P5 Trip to Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace

This week P5 went on their trip to Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace. We all really enjoyed learning more about Mary Queen of Scots.

‘My favourite part was when we went to the real Mary Queen of Scots bedroom and saw her real bed.’ – Anna

‘My favourite part of Holyrood Palace was seeing David Rizzio’s blood stains.’ – Rhys

‘I liked the Palace because we got to do little challenges and to see lots of the rooms.’- Maya

‘I enjoyed going to Holyrood Palace and seeing the different room and paintings.’ – Ruby

‘I just loved when Mary Queen of Scots told us how to bow and curtsy.’ – Agata

I loved the part when we made pomanders from oranges and cloves’. – Eve

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Deacon Brodie and Greyfriars Bobby

This week Primary 5 have been learning about the masked robber, Deacon Brodie and the loyal dog of Edinburgh, Greyfriars Bobby. Here are some facts the children found interesting about both Deacon Brodie and Greyfriars Bobby.

Greyfriars Bobby died in 1872, 14 years after his owner. – Sean

Greyfriars Bobby was a loyal dog. – Eve

Bobby was a Skye Terrier. – Taylor

Deacon Brodie was hanged because he stole things from people’s houses. – Josh

Deacon Brodie used to rob houses by making his own copy of people’s keys. – Dominik

Greyfriars Bobby was a happy dog until his owner passed away. – Anna

Before Greyfriars Bobby’s owner died he followed him everywhere. – Owen

Deacon Brodie tried to escape on a boat but a couple read his letters and he was arrested. – Holly

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh paid for Bobby’s licence after his owner died. –Hollie

When Bobby heard the 1 o’clock gun he would go to Mr Traill’s café for food. – Lilli

When his owner died Bobby lay by his grave. – Ruby

Primary 5 are now looking forward to our trip to Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace on Thursday.

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Super Spanish in Primary 1.

 

Image result for spanish flag clipartToday we had great fun learning alongside our primary 7 buddies when we played a game in Spanish called ‘ Un, dos tres  Calabaza’, (One, two, three pumpkin) in celebration of ‘International Day of Languages’.  We had lots of fun playing  this game  as it helped us to learn how to count in Spanish.  We also played number games that our p7 buddies made especially for us.  We love learning Spanish in Primary 1. We can say hello, goodbye, good morning, how are you and are learning the names of colours and numbers.

Muchas Gracias to Senorita Alvarez por ayundarnos and our lovely friends in P7 for helping us to learn how to count in Spanish.

 

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Primary 5 create Old Edinburgh artwork

Primary 5 have been learning about Old Edinburgh for the past fortnight. We have been learning lots of interesting facts about Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Mary,Queen of Scots.

We have also been using mixed media to create these fantastic sunset silhouettes of the Edinburgh skyline.

Please click on the link below for a short video explaining the process.

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Fantastic Mr Fox!

We’re all just back from a fantastic afternoon, watching a travelling theatre company perform ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’.  In celebration of one of our children’s favourite authors, Roald Dahl, all our boys and girls from Nursery to P7, watched the production.  At St Nicholas Primary, we love Roald Dahl because there are always morals in his stories and great characterisation, making them suitable for young and old.

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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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!

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!

 

 

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.

Christmas Around the World

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There was much excitement in Primary 5b this morning when a parcel arrived from The Netherlands. It contained several beautifully wrapped gifts linked to the recent Sinterklass celebration on the 5th December. Through these gifts we were able to learn more about the Christmas traditions followed in The Netherlands and about our patron saint, St Nicholas. We are looking forward to using these gifts to make some Christmas crafts tomorrow. ‘Zalig Kerstfeest’ from Primary 5.

Primary 5 and 6 Building Bridges

Today the primary 5 classes and some of the primary 6 classes worked together to complete a “Build a Bridge” challenge.  Together we learned about different types of bridges and then used our knowledge to create a load-bearing bridge of our own – Some designs worked well and others collapsed.  However, even if we didn’t succeed this time we learned a lot about our designs which will help us succeed next time.  Well done everyone – A fantastic collaborative effort!

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Powerful Presentations

Primary Five are showing a great interest in their new mini-topic:- Inventors and Scientists.  We have been fascinated learning about the early years of some famous figures such as Albert Einstein who couldn’t speak until he was the age of four and whose Grandmother thought was stupid!  Here we are putting together some powerful presentations to present the key facts…

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Friendship Spot

Mrs Hesketh has very kindly been busy making a new friendship spot for our playgrounds.

This lovely sign is already up in the infant playground and will soon be introduced into the other playgrounds too.

Children whose friends are off school, or are still eating lunch, can go to the spot, and can find new people to play with.

The primary 1’s have particularly loved this. They have all been keen to share stories of finding new friends or playing with someone who didn’t have anyone.

We are looking forward to hearing many more lovely stories.

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Step Back In Time With Primary 5…

A great visit to Broxburn Library today for Primary 5 A and B.  We learned that a lot of things were MUCH cheaper in the 1960s than they are today, but that many people didn’t have very much money to spare.  We learned that most houses would only have one black and white television and the whole family would gather around it in the living room where it would be warm from the fire to watch favourite programmes such as Coronation Street!  Here we are at the library and here are some of our fantastic 1960s costumes!

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What P5b thought of this week…

We looked back at our week and these are our weekly reflections …

I enjoyed the big maths beat that challenge this week because I noticed that I have to try hard to beat my score (Finn).

In PE, I learned that you have to learn the basics of a game rather than dive straight in to the full game (Abbie).

Even if you have answered all the questions in BMBT, you still have to revisit and check them because you might have got some wrong (Piotr).

In Maths, I learned that you can’t always just add on a zero when multiplying by 10, 100, 1000 because it won’t work when you multiply with decimals (Alex).

It doesn’t matter who does what in a group as long as it get done to the best quality (Rosie).

I like PE because I scored 4 goals and learned that you can shoot from lots of different angles and work with my team to get closer (Molly).

We linked our literacy using persuasive writing to our social subjects because we had to write an advert to persuade people to buy clothes from us (Ieuan).

 

Primary 5 Create Sets of Seven

Today Primary 5 worked on understanding their seven times table by getting very messy!  Their task was to quickly show the meaning of several seven times table sums by creating an array of dots using a variety of media (the clock was ticking!). This also helped us demonstrate exactly how multiplication sums could be turned around so that 3 x 7 became 7 x 3 and 6 x 7 became 7 x 6 and so on. Speedy work Primary 5!

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A week in the life of P5

Article 28 – we have a right to an education

What a busy week we’ve had in p5b.  We have been using our artistic skills and knowledge to design a logo for our fashion house (huge thanks to Mr Gorman for converting them into stickers for us :-))  creating mood boards to show off our 1960s clothing designs, using persuasive language to make adverts, learning all about the Great Wall of China, the Cold War and Vietnam War and much, much more.

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– We were learning about religious symbols and looked at the Celtic Cross and Pictish Stones. They were hand carved with pictures of animals to do with the creation and patterns of shapes. No-one really knows what they all stood for. Next week we are going to design our own using our God given talents as symbols. Some places in Scotland are named after religious saints or things to do with the Bible.

Social Studies

– This started in the 1950s. Vietnam split into 2 (North and South) and began to fight each other. China and Russia were friends with the North and America thought this was dangerous because of the Cold War between them and Russia so they sent soldiers to help South Vietnam. They dropped lots of chemicals on innocent people and woman and children were forced to fight in North Vietnam. Mohammed Ali, the boxer, refused to go to war.

Maths

– We have been learning about place value and multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000. We are organising a 1960s music festival and had to work within a budget to find 7 acts that would perform at a choice of venue. We are now going to see how much profit we make with ticket sales but had to know how to multiply by units of 10 first. You can’t just add a zero!!! You have to move ALL the digits 1 place (x10), 2 places (x100) or 3 places (x1000) to the left and then put zeros in to hold the value of the place. We think to divide, you do the same but move to the right…

Wonderous Wednesday

– all about the Great Wall of China. An Emperor in China forced people (including prisoners) to build a wall around his land to protect them from invaders. A lot of them died and were just left to rot in the fields. The wall is about 20ft high and is over 1300 miles long – it looks like a snake on the map and you can walk along with wall. It has towers quite often so there was always a view or place for the soldiers to see and fight oncoming invaders.

Literacy

– We have been trying to use descriptive language, rhetorical questions, strong verbs and play on words to write an advert for our fashion houses. AFOREST helped us to remember what to include and became our success criteria for this task.

Here’s what some of us enjoyed the most..

Finlay – “The war in Vietnam was really interesting, I didn’t know America and Russia were against each other at the time”.

Grace – “I really enjoyed Maths this week because I had to challenge myself”.

Cole – “Watching the video about the Great Wall of China was good because it had loads of interesting information in it. It was sad that so many people died and were just left to rot in a field”.

Shaelyn – “I liked using lots of descriptive words in our writing this week”.

Alex – “I can’t believe that the Celtic Crosses were all hand carved – that’s awesome!”

 

Reflection Time

Primary 5b evaluated their learning from the week.  This is what they had to say…

We had a great time learning all about 1960s fashion this week. We know that there were 3 periods (early, mid & late) and that there were mods and rockers. We are working in groups to design our own clothing line and make a mood board to show our ideas. Our group are looking at early/mid clothes where the men had no collars on their jackets and woman wore woolen suits with matching hats. (Molly)

Our Thinking Thursday challenge this week was really good fun and a great laugh. We were connected to a partner with a piece of string and had to get disconnected – it took ages! We were going through each other’s legs, arms and wrapped up in some very unusual positions. Mrs B-C eventually showed us how to escape by putting a loop of string from our partner through our opposite wrist and twiddling it out. I had to help Grace because she couldn’t get it – she did eventually. (Shaelyn)

We were practicing our passing skills in handball this week. We were in teams and had to play against each other to score a goal. Finlay, Piotr and Blake were great goalies for us! I found it great fun and fairly easy, but if you didn’t spread out and pass quickly, the other team would block you. (Adrian)

 

International Languages Day 2015

Primaries 2 and 2/1 had a fantastic day on Friday. We celebrated International Languages Day, with a focus on Spanish, as we are learning this language in our school. We were lucky enough to have a visit from P5b, who taught us the ‘Hokey Cokey’ in Spanish! Primary 2 sang their Spanish number song to the nursery boys and girls and Primary 2/1 sang their number song to Primary 5b. We were FANTASTICO! 🙂

Meanwhile, the super Primary 1 boys and girls were taking part in their Macmillan coffee morning. A huge well done to boys, girls, mums and dads for raising money for this great cause.

 

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What have we been up to???

Article 28

We have a right to an education

Today, P5 have been revisiting the spelling rules that have been taught over the last couple of weeks.  We tried to make words with the suffix -ing or -ed on the end or plural words in lots of different ways, including blind spelling, dot words, word searches, playdough, squiggle spelling and writing the words in silly sentences.

We have also been looking at other patterns – in Maths. We became spies and tried to crack a secret code! It was really complicated and took a few of us a while to work it out. Tommorow we have big maths that challenges to conquer before watching a theatre production of Matilda by Roald Dahl. Busy, busy busy…

 

Congratulations Isla in P5!

On Saturday Isla was highland dancing at the Bathgate Highland Games.  In the fling dance she came in 3rd place, in the sword dance she came in 6th place, in the sean tribuhas she came in 1st place, in the hullachan reel she came in 4th place and in the special fling she came in 3rd place.  Well done Isla!  What an amazing achievement.  We are all so proud of you.  Congratulations.  Isla was presented with the overal West Lothian Beginner Trophy!  You are a STAR!

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Glasgow Science Centre

On Monday 1st June, P4, P5/4 and P5 went to the Science Centre in Glasgow.   When we arrived some of us went to the first floor, some of us went to the second floor and the rest of us went to the top floor.  It was a great trip and we all enjoyed the activities, experiments and science theatre show!  We got the chance to have a browse in the shop and buy souvenirs and had our lunch in the large atrium.

Isobel – I enjoyed the large scale hamster wheel on the third floor and it wasn’t as easy as it looked!

Nicole – I enjoyed when we got the chance  to pump the blood to the heart and it increased the heart beat.

Niamh – I liked watching Francesco and Isla trying to eat the cream crackers quickly.

Ehlana – I learned that the body needs to let gas release or you could explode!

Adrian – I liked the challenge where I had to use the air gun to manouver the beach ball through the hoop.

Alea – When watching the show I learned that the amount of blood your heart beats every day can fill 125 bath tubs!

Alex – I liked looking at the real life tornado that re-formed itself.

Madison – I enjoyed holding onto the high bar and timed how long I could do this for.

Ben – The sprint challenge was great!  I got a best time of 1:63.

Lukas – I liked when I had to spin the wheel, whilst standing on the platform and turn the wheel at the same time.  Astronaut use this in space to control the shuttle.

We would defintiely recommend the trip to another class.  It was a great day out, we learned lots and had fun!  A special thanks to our wonderful parent helpers for keeping us safe.

 

 

 

 

Science Centre

Yesterday Primary 5, 5/4 and 4 went to the Glasgow Science Centre.

It was great fun! Look at us completing some experiments.

We also went to a show called Blood, Bile and Body bits. It was great and we even witnessed an explosion!

Saoirse – I learned that magnets are powerful and when playing a game the magnets made the route of a ball different.

Fraser – I learned that a tornado starts from the sky and goes all the way down to the ground.

Finlay – my favourite part was when the man put the flour and sugar
into a tube then lit a blow torch and blew some the flour and sugar and it make an explosion!

Megan L – my favourite part was the show.

Callum – my favourite part was the energy machine as you had to run around to make it go!

Sophie R – my favourite part was the whirlpool when it swirled in the water.

Ollie – I learned that if there is wheel and you put bolts int eh outside it goes slower than if the bolts are in the inside of the wheel.

Oscar – I learned how electricity worked by turning three handles to create power.

Charlee-Marie – my favourite part was when Isla and Francesco had to do the cream cracker challenge.

Maria-Victoria – I learned how our legs move when we are on a bike.

Ieuan – I found out that if a sound is loud enough it can make water move.

Piotr – I tried to make a bubble wall – it was quite hard.

Ethan – I learned that when you touch the electric ball and then touch someone else you give them an electric shock.

We had a good day and would like to go again!

Super Smoothies!

As part of our learning about Healthy Living, P5/4 and P5 enjoyed making and tasting different flavoured smoothies.  We prepared the fruit and enjoyed tasting the different flavours.  They were so easy to make and the combination of flavours were delicious!

Grace – I enjoyed blending different fruits, some of which I haven’t tasted before.  I liked the mixed berries and apple smoothy.

Nicole – My favourite smoothy was mixed berries with mango and pineapple.  It tasted sweet and tangy and I want to make one at home!

Aiden – I enjoyed the banana, pineapple and mango smoothy.  It was good to prepare the fruit in class.

Jaime – I liked the frozen berries  smoothy with apple and orange.  It tatsed delicious and was very sweet and I liked my smotthy with the tropical juice.

 

AMAZING ANIMAL ANTICS!

Last week, Primary 5 and Primary 5/4 were lucky to have lots of furry, four legged visitors to their class!  Tegan’s mum organised for Animal Antics to come in to school and it was an amazing experience.  The children were all very brave and got the opportunity to handle and touch a range of animals and learned lots about how these animals live.  Thanks to Sean who bringing them in to class.  It was a brilliant and memorable experience and Miss Crease was probably the most scared out of all of us!

SUPER SKY SKILLS!

We all really enjoyed our morning at Sky Skills Studios in Livingston.  It gave us an experience that took us behind the scenes at Sky where we worked in groups to create our very own TV news report.

Each of us had an important role to play including: producer, director, scriptwriter, camera operator, presenter/reporter, eye witness, expert and editor.  It was a brilliant experience and helped us devlop many important skills including communication, self management, team work, problem solving and creativity.  We were all given a certificate and USB wrist band which contained the news report.

Anna – I loved being a Director because I got to make suggestions and gave people directions.

Logan – I liked being the editor because I changed the background screens and decided which clips to use.

Niamh – I was the reporter and I got to talk in front of the camera and dress up!

Ben – I was the director and I enjoyed showing the reporters what to do in order to make the scenes look professional.

P4, P5 and P6 Homework Club!

Today we started the homework club in Miss Crease and Mrs Quin’s classrooms.  We gathered together and came up with some important rules!  We made a good start to our homework and enjoyed listening to music in the background too.

Ollie P4 – It’s fun because we got to listen to music and get our homework started.  I got help from the teacher and I worked well at the table.

Lukas P5/4 – I worked with my partner and we helped each other do our maths homework.

Kirsten P5 – It’s fun because you get to talk to your friends and do your homework too.

Faith P6 – It’s good to do homework in school rather than panic about it at the end of the week!

Rachael P6 – I got some of my homework finished and then played games on the netbook.

 

Sky Skills Academy Primary 5/4

Today Primary 5/4 visited the Sky Skills Academy in Livingston to film their very own news report!

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We split into four groups to plan, script, film, direct and edit our section of the news report all about Healthy Living. Have a look at the pictures below to see how we got on.

Molly- I was a camera operator. I had to film the report using a £60,000 camera. As the camera operator I had to find the perfect shot by lining up the screens so as not to show the black lines at the side. I also had to zoom in and out depending on the actors movements.

Finlay – I was the editor. It was fun because I got to pick the backgrounds and add headings to the news.

Caitlin- I was an expert. I had to answer questions on our topic. I enjoyed being on camera and using the Auto-queue to read my lines.

Grace – I was a reporter. I thought it was really fun because we got to dress up and read the news. I was doing the introduction so I was in the studio giving the headlines.

Sami – I was the director. I started by checking with the producer if they were happy with the news that was to be reported on.  I also had to direct the scenes and called actions and cut.

Blake – I was a producer. I was the group leader and had the final say on the script and outfits.

Haidyn – I was also the producer so I had to over see the filming and make sure everyone was doing their jobs.

Nicole – I enjoyed putting all the clips together and making the headlines. I also really enjoyed seeing the final news report on the big screens.

 

 

Sink or Float!

Today primary 5/4 tried out their models of the Titanic in the waters of St Nicholas. Lots of the models were successful and stayed afloat however we did have a few disasters!

Molly – I first tried to fill my model with a swimming armband to help it float but it didn’t work. Next I filled a milk carton with lentils and this helped balance the weight of the model so it could float.

Finlay – I used reindeer dust to help my boat float but when I tried it out it tipped over. I tried it again with a rock at the side that needed extra weight and it worked.

Titanic – The unsinkable ship

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Titanic “THE UNSINKABLE SHIP”

P5/4 and P5 learned lots of interesting facts about the Titanic, during this term.  Here are some of the activities we did:

– Created a large scale display of the ship in class.

– Wrote questions we wanted to find out about the Titanic.

– Visited the local library to find out more.

– Did observational drawings of the Titanic.

– Created a timeline of events from when the ice berg was first spotted by Frederick Fleet, to the investaigation following the disaster.

– Designed a new flag for the ship.

– Investgated the construction of the ship.

– Listened to survivors stories.

– Designed and built a Titanic ship or a first class cabin / third class cabin.

– Wrote a factfile.

– Read newspaper articles about the disaster.

– Used netbooks and library books to carry out personal research.

– Created a Titanic quiz.

– Wrote newspaper articales about the sinking of the ship.

– Created a class book about our learning of the Titanic.

– Created a bar chart displaying the number of survivors.

– Made psoters of the White Star Line.

– Watched Discovery DVDs about the ship and took notes about what we learned.

– Painted large scale first class and third class passengers along with facts about these groups of people.

– Looked at a variety of photgraphs, pictures and diagrams of the inside and outside of the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annie – a memorable performance

 Article 29

Our education allows us to share our talents.

This week the school has been ringing out with music, as the stars of the school production of ‘Annie’ were able to share their hard work with their friends and family. The cast, who have been working hard on the show for only seven weeks, performed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week to packed audiences.

Set in 1930s New York, Annie tells the story of an eleven-year-old girl, who has been living in the horrid Miss Hannigan’s orphanage for girls her whole life. She has the dream that one day she will be reunited with the parents who left her a letter and a locket so many years ago. Annie’s quest to find her real parents and the adoption by the billionaire businessman Oliver Warbucks is what provides dramatic plot for this spectacular and heart-warming musical.

We would like to thank all the parents, grandparents and friends who have donated their time, props, costumes, and for supporting learners in their learning of lines and dance routines.

Every single performer gave everything they had, helping to make this production so successful.

Thanks are due to all the staff who helped with auditions, rehearsals and backstage. Of course, the entire performance could not have happened if it were not for all the brilliantly talented actors, actresses and chorus who helped to make the event so memorable. Well done everyone!

Here’s just a few photos with lots more to come. Please leave a comment about your thoughts on the production…

Absolutely Amazing “Annie”

Primary 5/4 and Primary 5 thoughts about “Annie”
Lukas: “I had a fantastic time being Officer Ward in “Annie”.  I liked the part when Miss Hannigan pulled at my tie and all the audience laughed!  I’m sad it’s now over and can’t wait to see the DVD.
Nicole: “I enjoyed being an orphan in the show, but it was hard work because every time Miss Hannigan appeared she shouted at us!  My favourite part was when all the orphans ran onto the stage at Mr Warbucks mansion.  My mum, dad, gran and grandpa all came to see the show and they loved it!”
Caitlin: “I liked doing the dance for the song “It’s a hard knock life”.  I had some lines to say and I’m glad I remembered them!  My best part was when we got the presents at the end and we all took a bow.  The audience gave us a big clap and cheered really loudly!” 
Iona: “I loved being Miss Hannigan in the show and I’m proud of myself for learning all my lines and I’m glad I made the audience laugh.  My favourite part was when I sang ‘Little Girls’ and I liked acting alongside Amy and Georgia.  My mum, dad and sister came to the show and they were so proud of me!  I wish we could do it all over again”.
Erin: “I was a back stage helper and I enjoyed doing this job because being responsible for the props is important”.
Aaron: “I loved playing the part of Drake in the show and I enjoyed serving Mr Warbucks.  I knew my lines off by heart and I enjoyed dancing.  The audience were really good at clapping and laughing and I think they all enjoyed the shows!  I will miss the after school club on Wednesdays”. 

Time Around the World

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This week Primary 5/4 have been carrying out some research into different time zones around the world. We found out that there are 24 different time zones.

To show off what we had learned we decided to make some clocks to display the times in different countries.

Abbie : I learned that some countries have the same time as us and some are in-front or behind us.

Haidyn: I learned that Hong Kong is 8 hours ahead of us. If it was 9.00 here it would be 5.00 in Hong Kong.

Grace: I learned that there are 24 time zones in the world.

Molly: I learned that we orbit the sun so different places in the world have sunlight at different times of the day. It can be day time here but night time in an other country.

 

 

Annie Jnr

Article 29

Our education should provide us with the opportunity to share our talents.

annie

Well,  our Annie rehearsals are really coming together.  We certainly have a fantastic bunch of enterprising entrepreneurs, creative artists and budding actors.   We will be having a full dress rehearsal on the afternoon of Monday 23rd March, in which we will invite the rest of the school to watch.

The show dates have been finalised and tickets will be on sale soon.  They are as follows:

Monday 23rd March – 6pm

Tuesday 24th March – 1pm

Thursday 26th March – 6pm

We have begun to issue costume details to individual cast members and have requested that all chorus orphans bring in dull (grey, black or brown), old, ill-fitting clothing that you wouldn’t mind being ripped or dirtied a bit.  If these could be brought in in a carrier bag with their name on it, it would make it easier to keep a track of costumes.

Further information will be issued soon, but in the meantime, if you can help with other props or costumes (listed below), please just let Mrs Buchanan-Coutts know – we would be extremely grateful.

Flat caps, trilby, waistcoats, tweed style jacket, long coats (men and woman), feather boas, pin-stripe suit (men/woman), old tattered small suitcase, old style radio, camp bed or sun-loungers. 

 

World Book Day

As today is World Book Day, lots of us came to school dressed as our favourite characters from our favourite books.  This morning in class we read our favourite stories and then listened to a story and poem by Roger McGough on BBC Autors Live.  We wrote about our favourite book and character and asked our friends what their favourite book is and why.

Mandipa – I love “Alice Miranda at School” by Jacqueline Harvey because the girl in the story is very brave as she leaves her parents and starts boarding school.

Jaime – My favourite stories are “Katie Morag” by Mairi Hedderwick.  I like them because they are based in Scotland and Katie Morag is not afraid of anything.  She goes on lots of adventures on the Isle of Struay.

Eoin – Roald Dahl is my favourite author and I really enjoy reading “Danny the champion of the World”.  In the book Danny and his dad come up with a plot against the evil Mr Victor Hazell!

 

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Time to learn about Time!

Primary 5 are learning about telling the time using analogue and digital clocks.  As part of a homework challenge, Miss Crease asked us to design and construct either an analogue or digital clock or a watch.

Aaron – I made a digital clock using lego.  It was really easy to make and my friends thought it was a good idea.

Ben – My clock is an analogue clock and I used things around the house to make it.

Erin – I made a huge watch and I used a paper fastener so that the hands can move.  It’s big enough for a giant to

wear!

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Handball Festival

This morning P5/4 and P5 went to Broxburn Academy for a Hanball Festival.  We were all spilt into different teams and played against teams from other schools in the local area.

Jamie: “I liked playing against children from other schools”.

Isobel: “It was good to compete in an event in Broxburn Acadmeny”.

Ben: “In our team, we tried hard to defend against our oppposition”.

Isla: “The game was quite difficult because at the start it was hard to get the ball from the other team”.

Caitlin: “I had so much fun and I scored lots of goals”.

Adrian: “It was a great morning and I tried to enocurage my team”.

Grace: “My teams scored lots of goals and we won most of our games”.

Haidyn: “I would love to go back again next year”.

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