Well it has been another incredibly busy week at St Nicholas!

In maths, we studied all about measurement. We have looked at distance / length, weight / mass, volume / capacity and how to calculate the perimeter of a regular or irregular shape. We also looked at how to convert from one unit of measure to another. This can be tricky, but we have rules to follow and these help us e.g. there are 100 metres in a kilometre. In Number Talks, we revised our addition strategies, for example Partitioning, Adding-Up and Compensation. We always name the strategies that we use and we explain what strategy worked best for us.

In Literacy, we looked at procedural writing. This can be quite tricky, but we now know the proper layout, so that helps a lot. In handwriting, we continue to practice our cursive joins. In grammar, we revised synonyms; we can see that they can be useful to us.

We researched all about genetics in Science; we discovered that our physical characteristics are inherited from our parents and their ancestors. We also looked into our topic ‘Our Democracy’. We discussed the different types of governments around the world and then we focussed on the differences between a dictatorship and a democratic system of government.

In Art, we have used our design skills to make a card for our Buddies, as we will be meeting them quite soon. We continued with our topic, ‘God’s Loving Plan’, we are learning that as we grow older, we change physically and emotionally and that this is all of God’s plan for us.

It was a great week for learning and fun too with our Silent Disco.

This was a short week for us, but we still managed to do so much. In our Math’s lessons we continued to look at budgeting, it can be tricky, but we feel that we are able to work on a budget now. We also did Number Talks, focussing on subtraction strategies, for example Re-ordering, Adding Up and Adjusting for Easier Numbers. We name the strategies used and we explain what strategy worked best for us. Problem Solving with Mrs Heather was fun; we did some IZAC 9 activities.

In Literacy, we looked at Facts or Opinions. This could be quite tricky until we came up with a definition to help us. We decided that for a statement to be a fact then it needed evidence and proof, otherwise it was just someone’s opinion. In handwriting, we practiced our cursive joins.

We studied the different parts of a plant and their functions in science and then we looked into our new topic ‘Our Democracy’. We stared to write a glossary for this, as there are a lot of specific vocabulary to this subject. It will be very interesting to find out how the Scottish Parliament works and what powers Westminster holds. We are interested to find out what all the different roles are and how we vote; some of us might even become politicians one day!

We continued to look at the technique of ‘One Point Perspective’ in Art. This week we captured a city scene. It took a lot of effort to capture the illusion of a city scene disappearing into a horizon point! PE was fun too, we were running, throwing and jumping within various athletic tasks.

In P6 this week, we started another new topic, ‘God’s Loving Plan’, this involved a lot of discussion and we have some homework to do too. It will be interesting to find out what we were like as babies; to remind ourselves of what we liked and did not like when we were really young.

All in all, it was a great week for learning.

The P6 Blog  (written by P6 pupils)

Throughout this week, we have been doing all our assessments. The first assessment we did was our maths assessment. We just took our time and made sure we understood what the question was asking us, before we worked out a solution to it. In maths and numeracy we did our daily Number Talks tasks (we had to use and name 3 or 4 different subtraction strategies to work out the subtraction problem). We also looked at budgeting this week. We had to make choices for spending money in a budget. One of the tasks was to use a budget of £2000 to design a bedroom; it was tricky, another task, was to buy groceries with a budget of £20, £10 and then £5. This became really quite difficult when we had a smaller budget, as we could not afford everything; we had to decide what groceries would be more useful.

 It was lovely to see Mrs Alvarez and she helped us to revise our Spanish Numbers, up to 30, and she introduced some brilliant Spanish counting games for us to play. 

 In PE we looked at Athletics, we focussed on throwing skills. There were different stations and there was a different activity at each station. It was exciting too, because we got a point for every time we scored. Later in the week, we stayed focussed on Athletics, but this time it was to practise our running skills. 

 In Health and Wellbeing, we watched a video and then we discussed our emotions. We concluded that sometimes it is better to take a step back, calm down and get into the right zone before speaking to others; this can mean that we have better communication with each other, rather than speaking in anger.

We finished our topic, Biological Systems, and discussed our knowledge of the life cycle of mammals, plants and birds. We learned about the differences and similarities between them all. 

 In R.E we studied the The Wedding Feast Of Cana, we watched a short video of Jesus’ first miracle. We discussed that Our Lady played a big part in helping the family at the wedding. Later in the week, we discussed how we can ask Our Lady to intervene on our behalf, all we have to do is pray the Hail Mary and Our Lady will help us.

 We also did many literacy tasks, some of these were assessments; we did a spelling, reading and writing assessment.

At the end of the week, we all took part in our Learning Participation Groups, we continued to look at the different tasks that we have chosen to undertake. We also, all brought in a book to ‘Donate for a Doughnut’, we thanked the Parent Council for the lovely treat.

It was a very busy week, but we have enjoyed our learning. Thank you for reading all about our week at Saint Nicholas, we hope you all have a lovely, long weekend.

This week’s blog was written by the P6 pupils!

Welcome to P6 Blog  

We have been busy doing our tasks this week:

Maths

This week in Number Talks we continued to practise our subtraction strategies. We also looked at equivalent fractions, this is where fractions look very different, with different numerators and denominators, but they actually represent exactly the same amount. We played fraction  games and did a maths colouring/matching task, to improve our fractions knowledge.

Reading

For reading, our groups had Literacy Circle tasks to do, these tasks are to be carried out using our reading books. We read with the teacher and then discuss what the author has written and why certain styles have been used to describe characters and locations. We also did a Reflective Reading task, this was a Blankety Blank activity and was all about Edinburgh. In this task, we have to fill in missing words to make the text make sense.

Literacy

During literacy, we have been learning the correct way to use apostrophes for the contraction of words. When we put two words together to form a shortened version, we use the apostrophe to replace the missing letter.

Art

In art we learned about a popular artist called Paul Cezanne . He was known for doing still life art.

So we tried his style of art we used props like a flower, a hat, an orange and an apple it was very exciting trying this style of art.

Topic

We did some research on our Europe Topic, we also did a quiz with a whopping 75 questions all about Europe. This quiz will also help our Euro Quiz Team, who will represent us in the West Lothian European school quiz.

Mass

We went to mass this week at our local parish and sang some hymns and listened to Cannon Jeremy  talk about the Holy Spirit. We also had a good little walk over to the church and back which was really enjoyable.

Science

For science this week we learned about Newton’s disc. We learned that if you spin Newton’s disc in a fast frequency the Colours will become white to the human eye because the frequency of the disc is fast.

P.E

One of our P.E activities was the bleep test which is a fitness test to see how long you can run.

We also did gymnastics, which was very good. We revised some ball skills too, shoulder and chest passes.

Music

In music we went to the music room and played Instruments including maracas, drums and other instruments.

Problem-solving

In problem solving each group got 9 cubes and we were asked questions to solve with the cubes which we were given.

Thank you for reading this week’s P6 blog!

Have a lovely long weekend everyone and see you all next Wednesday!

This week’s Blog was written by the P6 pupils, well done to the group who focussed on the recount of this week’s activities.

Welcome to the P6 Blog we’re going to inform you about what we have been doing this week. We have been doing presentations, this is for our new topic, which is learning all about Europe. We had to develop a presentation about travelling to a country in Europe. It had to include a lot of details; capital cities, currency, landmarks (man made and natural), languages, famous people from that country and how we would travel to get there. It was very exciting to watch everyone present their work and it has helped us all learn lots about the countries of Europe. We have also learned, that France is really popular!

In maths we have been learning about mixed numbers and improper fractions more specifically how to convert from one to the other, yet again we have realised how important it is to know our times tables.

For writing, we looked at developing our own poems. The type of poem we looked at was Bio Poems. This is where we write about ourselves, using adjectives and figurative language to describe how we think and feel about things.

We continued to do literacy circles all week and we followed our rota, this meant that we did different activities every day, using our homework reading chapters.  It’s fun discussing our novels in our reading circle.

We also celebrated Mass this week with Canon Jeremy. On February the 2nd, it was Candlemas Day, this is where we celebrate that Jesus was presented at the Temple. During the Mass, Canon Jeremy blessed all of the candles.

Bye and we hope you enjoyed reading all about our week.

This week’s Blog was written by some of our pupils. Well done to you, you have written a really good recount of our week.

The Blog

In maths we learned about Factors and Prime Numbers. We did this using a ‘Maths Through Story’ activity. It was based on the book ‘Bean Thirteen’ by Matthew McEiligott  and following the story we saw that some numbers can only be divided into equal parts by themselves or the number one, this makes them a Prime Number. We also learned that if a number has more than two factors, then we can call it a composite number We also did our maths assessments this week. In number-talks we did subtraction strategies.

We did literacy circles and did our writing assessment. Our assessment was to write a recount of something that had happened to us. We had to make sure we used the proper layout for a recount story.

In P..E. with Mr Muldoon we did fitness circuits and skipping. In P.E. with our teachers we made up our own dance routines. We had to make a pattern of movements to a count of 16.

In Grammar we learned about different types of conjunctions ( for coordinating conjunctions we learned to use the acronym for them which is FANBOYS – For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet and So).

We also were learning about Europe, and we also learned more about the countries in Europe and their capital cities. We also did a Kahoot challenge.

We did a collaborative art project in Art, the portraits were of Billy Connolly and Robert Burns, this was in the style of the Artist Chuck Close.

In Science, we learned about light (light sources), and had a discussion on how rainbows are made.

Finally, we had a workshop from ‘Shoogalie Road Productions’ all about  Robert Burns and, together, we all developed a Poem, Wee Jeanie helped us to do this, she was Robert Burns’ wife.

This week’s Blog has been written by our pupils. Well done, a great report everyone.

In P6 we did Maths, it involved playing 3 games and it was all about pie charts. One of the games was making pie charts and the other games were using pie charts to solve problems. We played all 3 games and really enjoyed them. We also found out about how pie charts work and how they help us store useful information and gather information.

During the week, after our breaks, we have milk, snack and watch News- Round, it’s fun, as we then discuss the issues we have just heard about.

In literacy we did Literacy Circles, in our groups, and worked on certain skills of reading and understanding.

Later in the week did PE, then we had science with Mrs. Quinn.  We attended Mass for the Feast of St. Nicholas. It was really lovely because we were in the Chapel and we were singing beautiful hymns. We also practiced our cursive handwriting this week.

Throughout the week, we have practised the Carols for our Christmas concert. At first we found them quite tricky, but now we can really enjoy them as we are more confident. The Carols are,  C is for Christmas, Christmas Calypso and All the Angels in Heaven Rejoice.

We also did some Reflective Reading and this really helped us with identifying good adjectives. Our writing this week was an information report on someone that we admire and are inspired by. We had to remember to use the proper layout and include lots of facts.

This week was so fun.

This week’s Blog has been written by some of our pupils, well done for a wonderful report.

P6 St.Nicholas Blog

In p6 we had a very busy week.

Maths

We played three different math games like Dice Predictions, Lucky Numbers and Football Data. In all of these games we were learning to sort and handle data using Tally and Frequency charts( (.

Number Talks

In Number Talks we had 3 options (Hot, Spicy or Mild) and we had to pick one and work it out showing 3 to 4 different subtraction strategies.

Literacy

We did Guided Reading, Literacy Circle Roles, Independent Reading and Discussion Group work .

We continued to look at writing an informative report. We were looking at using the proper structure, Then we planned and wrote a report about Saint Nicholas.

Health and Wellbeing

P6 had P.E with Mr. Muldoon, we were continuing to learn about the game of badminton and we practised these tactics in games.  We are also starting to learn Scottish Country Dancing. We continued to practise ‘Strip the Willow’ and our next dance to learn will be ‘ The Gay Gordons’.

We also continued to work on our Zones of Regulation program.

We had Science with Mrs Quinn and we had Problem Solving with Mrs Heather (we used the IZAK 9 cubes – they are so much fun).

In Art, we looked at shading to create a 3D object. We did a pencil drawing in our Snapshot Jotters and then we did an oil pastel still-life of the Advent Wreath.

Next week, we are attending Mass, celebrating the Feast Day of St. Nicholas, so this week we have been learning all about him. We have also been participating in some hymn practice.

In Spanish we worked in groups to make a movie about Spanish classroom instructions. We then posted our movies into the P6 TEAMS.

Miss McCormack and Mrs Kilpatrick wish you all a lovely weekend.

This week, two of our P6 pupils have written the Blog, here is their report.

P6 A Busy Week!

This week we have been very busy with our work and activities.

We did a STEM activity with Mrs Quinn. It was planning and carrying out an egg drop. The idea was to design a safe way to drop an egg, so that it would not be damaged. Most of the eggs did not crack, so we were very pleased with our results. Also in science we revised the Water Cycle and then we used our knowledge of this subject to debug some programs, using SCRATCH, that were showing the Water Cycle process.

In maths we moved onto a new subject. We started to look at surveys and making up good questionnaires to gather information. We continued to look at using addition strategies in Number Talks.

In Spanish we were learning new vocabulary for classroom instructions and we played a game of Simon Dice (Simon Says).

We looked at the Zones of Regulation in Health and Wellbeing. With Mr Muldoon we played badminton and we were learning new skills and tactics. We also stated to learn a Scottish Country dance with our class teachers. It was Strip the Willow and we were warned that it was a bit tricky but lots of fun. We will be practising this and learning other traditional dances.

For literacy, we did a verb task, we had to recognise and underline the verbs in a sentence. We also continued with our Literacy Circles, were we focus on our reading skills.

We designed a Christmas card, an entry will be chosen from each class to go into a big national competition. Very exciting.

On Friday we started our Pope Francis Faith Award program, we looked at the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and then we looked more closely at the Gift of Knowledge .

Well done you two! A very informative report.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

This week’s Blog was written by two of our P6 pupils, well done you two!

Blog about our week

On Monday we did science we learned about air resistance and we made a parachute we also learnt about Saints. A particular Saint can become special to us and when we need guidance or help we can pray to that Saint and ask them for their help. We also did some grammar too, we were looking at prepositions. We started looking at divisibility tests in maths. We carried out tasks that required us to test a number to see if it could be divided by 2, 4 and 8.

On Tuesday we did tennis in P.E. it was so much fun. We also did literacy circles, this is where we take a close look at the text in our novels. We then do activities that help us create, evaluate, analyse, apply, understand and remember, this really helps us in our own writing too. We did maths, again we used the divisibility tests to see if a number could be divided by 5 or 10.

On Wednesday we looked at the divisibility tests for dividing by 3, 6 and 9 and then played some games to try out the new tests we had just learned. Then it was time for handwriting, this is where we get to practise writing in cursive. Later, we had a musical appreciation activity. We listened to music and then we drew an art piece, our art was inspired from the music.

On Thursday we played games in maths that used our divisibility tests knowledge. We also made posters that will be put together to make a booklet, so that we can always check on the divisibility tests when we need to use them. In writing, we looked at writing a recount and once again we studied the proper layout that we should use. We know that a recount should have a title, orientation, sequenced events and a personal statement at the end. Finally we looked at numbers in Spanish and then went outside to play some P.E games, it was very fun.

On Friday we looked at the pilgrimage of St. Columbus and then we tried to locate important parts of St Columbus’ journey on a map of Scotland. We had Build-Up Time and then we settled to listen to our School Assembly, it was all about catholic week, which is next week.

Thank you for reading about our week.

This week’s Blog was written by two of our P6 pupils. They collected all the information and then using their ICT skills they developed their report and sent it to the Blog. Well done P6!!

Hello this is what we did this week.

Maths

In maths we learnt how to use brackets and the strategy of re-ordering digits to make calculations easier. We where playing maths games – Race to 100, and games using our new re-ordering digits and using bracket skills.

PE

We got put into teams and played basketball against other teams.  Later in the week, we played games to do with hockey, we are getting better!

Topic

We researched star constellations, we choose a constellation to model with marshmellows and straws then wrote facts about that constellation around it.

Class Assembly

In groups we all were  doing the Story of Moses timeline.  We finished this task off and then we displayed it in class, this will help us while we are preparing for our Class Assembly.

We were working hard on our Class Assembly tasks, we all put forward our ideas of what should be included and then we decided in our groups how we are going to show our information.

We then started to plan our work by using  storyboarding techniques and then we started to capture our ideas in the ways that our group had decided.

Literacy circles

We got new chapters for our books. We read through our pages and discussed any vocabulary that we weren’t sure of.

We read through our novels and then answered Bloom’s Questions to show we had a good understanding of our stories.

Well done P6 a very good report. Have a wonderful October break everyone!

The P6 Blog was written by two of our pupils! Great job you two!

Hello this is the p6 blog on what we have done this week!

Wednesday

In the morning we were finishing unfinished work when we entered class.

Next we were writing our spelling words three times and writing three sentences with our words in the sentences.

On Wednesday we had a template of a line graph based on a story called Less than zero. The graph was called saving clams for a scooter and we had to follow what the penguin had on his graph

We had break milk, story and Newsround. The story was based on the book called wonder and that is linked to our kindness topic for literacy.

We did a comprehension on the song A Cover is Not a Book which really meant not to judge somebody of how they look. P6 were discussing about questions on a comprehension sheet.

After lunch we did self-portraits and we drew lines around it to decorate in between the lines and add precepts. ( precepts really are sayings and rules of life)

And then it was home time.

Thursday

We come in school and finish more of our unfinished work.

After that we did an apostrophes work sheet where you had to put the apostrophe in the correct place.

After that it was break and we had milk, story and Newsround.

Then we make our own line graphs and follow how many clams ( which is really money ) Perry penguin had.

After lunch we did a bit of bible studies on Moses.

We played some P.E games with the other class like grannies and Grandads,shark attack and saucers and tea cups.

Friday

We did unfinished work, we had a bit of build up time!

We also wrote our own prayers on paper stars and put them on our prayer wall.

Then we have break, milk and Newsround

We have assembly and more build up time then it is home time.

That was our short week thank you for reading our Blog!

The Blog, this week, was written by two P6 pupils. They asked their peers what they wanted included, and then they wrote their report. They did a wonderful job, well done!

P6 school blog 

 On Monday to start the day of we had some teamwork games with Ross (Active Schools). It was extremely fun. We also listened to the audiobook of wonder, we got to quite an interesting part. We all went to P.E. and played some basketball. We were focused on dribbling and shooting. At the end of the day some people passed bike ability and they are now on level 2!  

On Tuesday we did our targets for numeracy, literacy and growth mindsets then we stuck them up on the wall. We started literacy circles. We also then did S.T.E.M.  We did the plastic cup telephone and found out it works but only if it is taut.  

On Wednesday we created our own superheroes! We had to write a paragraph about our superheroes and why they do good and how they became a superhero. We listened to wonder again and finished our S.T.E.M. We also did more literacy circles. 

On Thursday we had P.E. with our teachers we played shark attack, grannies and grandads and pirates. We finished of our superheroes and did number talks. We also got told we were great at literacy circles. 

On Friday we did a worksheet on kindness, courage, friendship and courageous we had assembly and then had build-up-time.

A lovely week for Primary 6 where they met and spent quality time reading stories to their buddies who are about to start school in August.  We also planned a healthy lunch for our buddy as part of Fitness Fortnight. We had to think very carefully about the nutrition and the flavours that would appeal to our new friends.

Lots of new skills were introduced this week too. In Numeracy we were learning how to work out percentages and how they relate to fractions and decimals. We made our own compass and then used them to follow directions to discover treasure that had been hidden in the classroom !

In Literacy we were developing the skills of skimming and scanning to discover facts about Stonehenge. We also used a picture cue to write mystery story about a creature with huge tentacles! We also created a discussion piece of writing debating the arguments for and against shorter lunchtimes. The outcome ? The majority decided to opt for lunchtimes that had no changes.  We looked at the AR results and had two AR Rockstars for the month of May. Our first Rockstar had a pass average of 97% and our second Rockstar passed 32 tests.

In outdoor learning we tried out the ‘Shake a Tree’ method to find some tree dwelling mini-beasts and identify them using our ID sheets. Our first creature found was a weevil.

Finally, we planned our outdoor learning day for next week together. We are looking forward to learning some new skills using nature, water and fire !!

Last week Primary 6 had quite a few new learning experiences. We tried out making some sculptures using model magic for the first time. It was a strange texture but we quickly used our skills in creativity to make a snail sculpture and a textured tile landscape scene. After a couple of days drying out we could then add colour to our creations.  We had also been learning the names for collective nouns and had a few guesses at the correct name for a group of snails. We discovered that the correct name is a rout of snails.

Outdoor learning provided two tasks. Exploring a method to measure the height of the tree in our playground. Our estimates were too low as the correct height was 57 metres. We also used twigs to create 3D shape creations which were very challenging but we managed it.

Our exposition writing topic this week was about the process of making bubble gum. It was very enlightening and put some people off eating it again ! Using Languagenut on our ipads and computers to learn more phrases in Spanish and French has become very popular. It is a fabulous resource.

We began our studies in God’s Loving Plan and thought about the changes we have already experienced in our lives and our gifts and talents. We also read passages from the Bible to help us understand about the journey of Paul as he spread the good news about Jesus.

We started our week sharing our experiences whilst taking part in Earth Hour on Saturday evening. Some pupils enjoyed family time, others played board games or had a candle lit indoor picnic.  We enjoyed learning about Holy week and created some Easter crafts and cards with a peace dove.

Outdoor learning was based upon Spring. We created an artistic expression of ‘Spring’ by Vivaldi after listening to the music in class. We also went on a scavenger hunt to find signs of Spring within our school grounds.

We ended our week reviewing our learning within term two to create a learning across the four contexts display board and also thinking about our personal improvements and next steps for term three.

We ended our week with a few April Fools pranks which included researching the endangered tree octopus !!!

What a fantastic week of learning in Primary 6. So many facts and skills covered in only a few days.

• Using grid references
• Spelling using ‘ly’ at the end of words
• Grammar using contractions
• An introduction to the Scottish Wars of Independence
•  Fairtrade Fortnight
• Books from other cultures
• How to cope with challenges
• Creating a Crazy Golf Course
• Exploring being nurtured
• Using brackets in numeracy
• Writing a recount of a school trip
• Telling the time in Spanish
• Problem solving within a maths escape room
• Learning about St Bernadette and St Therese of Lisieux
• Daily Mindfulness

Thank goodness it is the weekend and time to charge our batteries.

Primary 6 have been super busy completing all the fitness fortnight challenges this week.

We have been busy calculating all our numeracy facts linked to sports events. Designing banners and posters to promote a healthy lifestyle and to support our house during our virtual Sports Day.

We created an acrostic poem and a healthy eating plan for our new P1 buddies next session. We tried new mindfulness activities to relax our mind and promote well-being and gave Mr Muldoon a helping hand creating some fun sporting events for the virtual Sports Day.

We can’t wait for Fitness Fortnight Week 2 !

This week P6 have been working on their comprehension skills; interpreting and inferring from a text. They have been learning about Father’s Day and worked on decimals in our daily number talks.

In Spanish we have been learning to describe someone’s appearance. P6 made powerpoints describing  their favourite celebrities or characters and presented them to the class.

Primary 6 have also worked hard with their P2 buddies this week. They have been teaching them how to use a search engine and write in Microsoft Word.

We are looking forward to next year and preparing for it already. We will soon be meeting our new buddies (P1 next year) and we have been making a poster so they can know some things about us 😀

We are also making excellent progress with the Oliver production and would like to thank Mr McCallum and Mrs Denholm for their work on the stage and costumes respectively. We really appreciate your effort. Thanks!

This week Primary 6 have been learning about Dramatic conventions. We have used the script of the Lion King to understand what are the features of a playscript (cast, stage directions, scenes, etc) and why they are important.
In Maths we have been looking at algebra: how letters are used in Maths and solving algebraic expressions with a missing number.
P6 have done their daily number talks to practise adding decimals, learned about the feast of the ascension and had our school mass with Fr Jeremy.
Here are some pictures of P6b playing some algebra games