A huge well done to Ollie in P6 who came first place in a street dance competition at the weekend. Ollie spoke to the whole school today at assembly as he shared the secret of his success – practising every night! At St Nicholas we know that the key to mastering anything is to practise and persevere and keep that positive growth mindset at all times. Well done Ollie – everyone is very proud of you. A great achiev
ement!
Category Archives: Primary 6
Probability in Primary 6
A few weeks ago Primary 6 revised their prior learning about probability. They then learned a handy formula to calculate probability as a fraction and applied their new knowledge to mathematical word problems. Our formula was :-
Probability = Number of desired outcomes
___________________________
Number of possible outcomes
We answered some tricky questions on probability in our homework last week:- Can anyone work this problem out now?
Mindfulness in Primary 6
Last week we started a new Class Dojo series based on how to deal with difficult situations and mindfulness. We also watched some special BBC Newsround clips of the author and poet Micheal Rosen talking about how he dealt with sadness in his life and discussed ways we might attempt to deal with difficult emotions. Next week we will link our breathing and calmness to our prayers.
Fantastic Reading Skills in P6
Primary 6 are really enjoying their novel study ‘The Runaways’ by Ruth Thomas. Today we studied the ambitious vocabulary used throughout the novel. The children are demonstrating an excellent understanding of the author’s craft.
P6’s week
This week we have been busy with our Oliver rehearsals which are already looking fantastic. Thursday’s maths was revising fractions, using RUCSAC to solve word problems and we also had a go at some maths challenges. We have also been learning about the health issues associated with smoking and the benefits of not smoking. We have learnt about Las Meninas, a famous painting by Diego Velazquez and we did our own modern versions of the painting. Check them out!
Primary 6 In Perspective
Primary 6 looked at single point perspective in order to up-level their landscape art work. We were pleased with the results!
Triangle Tuesday in Primary 6
Today primary 6 have been learning how to find the area of a triangle. We saw how the L X B formula worked for rectangles and then how it applied to parallelograms. Finally, we saw how the formula could be adapted for triangles. We calculated some areas and even made some problems up for our friends to work out too…well done P6!
This week we have also been working on our novel study. The novel is “The Runaways” by Ruth Thomas. We have been using our literacy ‘sleuthing’ skills to make predictions about what might happen and will also be creating a character study for each of the main characters.
We have started a new topic on Europe. At the moment we are learning facts about the continent and making fact files to use later when we choose our own country to study in depth.
Maths in Proportion in Primary 6
This week primary 6 have been looking at ratio and proportion in maths. We used what we knew about simplifying fractions to help us reach the simplest ratio too. In number talks we broke down large numbers into easily divisible chunks to make mental division easier. In art we looked at pattern and created some optical illusions, some of which are shown below. In language we have been learning how to use clues in texts and film to write predictions about storylines. We hope that this will help us to create clues in our own writing to ‘draw the reader in’ to our stories!
Author Visit – David Goutcher
Today, Second level children (P5-P7) enjoyed a visit from David Goutcher, who writes spy novels for children. David spoke about his life and previous careers as a policeman, secret agent and games developer. The novels we looked at were very interactive – with layers of technology
embedded within them – and the boys and girls were engrossed. P5 children said:
“I was shocked when he told us that he was an agent, and all the things that he had done like going undercover and trying out lots of different gadgets.” Hollie
“The visit made me think more about how technology is developing and all the things we can do with it – how things can come alive”. Owen
“I thought that all the technology used in the book was really interesting because you can see a lot more than just looking at a book.” Dominik
Percentages, Probability and Peer Assessment in P 6
This week Primary 6 have been learning about the probability of an event occurring. We looked at the formula used to calculate probability and linked this to the fractions and decimals work that we have recently completed in maths. Did you know that if you ask 35 random people what day and month their birthday is on, you have an 80 percent chance of two people having their birthday on the same day?
In language we learned about non- chronological reports and completed peer assessments using the success criteria to guide us. We were excellent at grouping our facts and using descriptive language and our next steps are to use causal language more confidently in our report writing.
Eco Team aka Park Designers.
Today, some of our Eco Team met with Christine Lee from Sutcliffe Play as a new park is going to be built in the Badger’s Brook area of Broxburn. She gave us free reign to design what we think the park should look like. As you can imagine, this was very exciting, after all, it is not every day that you get to do this.
To do this, we worked in groups to choose themes for the park. Popular themes included, animals, the zoo and nature. We drew a plan of the park and then used our imaginations to draw what we think the park should look like. Our designs are fantastic ! Christine will now take these away and will choose the best parts from each in her final design. We will keep you all posted as to what the park will look like when we see the final plan.
Netball, Oliver, perimeter…
This week in Maths P6 have applied their knowledge of how to calculate perimeter and area to design a zoo. They had to design the enclosures for each species, making sure all the animals had enough space to live and it was within the budget.
Primary 6 is working hard on their mental maths: excellent effort with this week’s tables challenge! We have also been working on multiply decimals in Number Talks.
In language we have learnt about colons and semi-colons and we also helped our buddies to spell common words correctly.
We learnt to tell the time in Spanish. You can practise at home using this website
P6 have also been busy auditioning for Oliver and rehearsing the songs. We are so excited about our production!
It was also an important week for our Language Ambassadors Ieuan and Shaelyn; who have been teaching the children in St Nicholas the feelings in Spanish. You did a fantsatic job. Well done!
Finally, we had a delicious Cake and Candy on Friday and a pupil v. teachers netball. Well done pupils for winning most matches!
Thinking Outside The Cube In Primary 6
This week, primary 6 have been revising the properties of a variety of 3D shapes. We tried to make as many as possible using the building sticks. We then counted the vertices, faces and edges. The dodecahedron has an awful lot! We also learned a catchy song about the properties of different triangles… ask a primary 6 pupil to sing it to you tomorrow!
Primary 7 Cake and Candy Friday 24th March 2017
Primary 7 Cake and Candy. Friday 24th March 2017 in P7 area from 9-10am. Any donations would be gratefully received. Proceeds going to our Lenten Fund. Many thanks for your continued support.
P6b’s fun week
This week we started learning about orienteering. We have learned how to use a compass and understanding scale on maps.
In Literacy we have revised how to use full stops and commas and designed an activity for our buddies on capital letters.
In Spanish we are designing a healthy lunch meal to learn the names of different foods. We also learned how to say ‘it’s healthy’ (es sano) and ‘it’s not healthy’ (no es sano).
We have done some Helping hands artwork because Lent isn’t just about giving up things, it’s also about helping others.
Finally, congratulations to the St Nicholas dance club girls that performed at Deans Community High School. Everyone was very impressed with your choreography!
Here’s a picture of the girls dancing for the school and a picture of our mad hair styles!
“Stickman Production”
****Video will follow soon!!! (Problems uploading)
Primary 6a worked really hard to produce their “Stickman” puppet show to perform to the younger classes during book week. Every child had a part to play in this show whether it was narration, puppet mastery, lights or ICT. Primaries 1, 2 and 3 thoroughly enjoyed the show. Excellent work Primary 6, a great example of creative, independent work!
Primary 6b will be completing and performing their performance very soon. We are very excited to see it!
Primary 6’s busy week
This week we have continued with data handling in Maths. This time we carried out surveys to find out what people’s favourite holiday was and we did this in Spanish! In maths we also did a carousel where we go into groups and do some activities. This week we focused on Venn Diagrams and decimals.
In Language we have practised using a wide range of openers and played a game to practise this.
We have had a really busy week with our lent activities and celebrating Book week too! Well done Grace for winning the ‘Book Worm Competition’, Finlay for winning the Easter bonnet competition and also Sophie Reid for winning the costume competition. It was so hard to choose a winner!
Today we took part in a few activities for book week: we dressed up , played a fun game of Cluedo, decorated our door as if it was a book and also went to an assembly to announce the winners. Yesterday we got to come to school in our onesies and Miss Mckeown came into our classroom and read us Harry Potter!
Finally, thank you very much for your donations and your effort with the costumes, activities, etc!
STEM at University
Yesterday, Primary 6 received a visitor from Edinburgh University who is studying Biomedical Sciences. Ms Johnstone came in to ask us some questions about our experience at the zoo. We also got the opportunity to put her in the “hot seat” and ask questions about studying science at university such as what subjects we would need to study at high school and what lectures are like! It was really interesting!
We can handle it…
This week Primary 6 have been working in handling data in a variety of ways. We used, bar graphs, pictograms, line graphs, pie charts, Venn diagrams and ,Carroll Diagrams to record data that we had obtained from class mates and other sources. We realised that the way you display information can be misleading.
Contemporary Art at St Nicholas
Today, Primaries 4 to 7 enjoyed a fantastic visit from the travelling art gallery. The exhibits were all about work and routine which made us think about our own routines in a new way. We loved the people-sized sculptures dressed in bright prints and the ‘workers’ happiness’ graphs. Thank you once again to the travelling gallery for giving us the opportunity to think differently about things!
P6’s big litter pick and more!
In Maths we have continued to practise our number with lots concrete-visual-abstract games and activities.
As part of our P6 Eco responsibilities we have carried out a litter pick and recorded everything. Then, we used the data to make graphs in Excel and interpreted our results. We will continue to encourage everyone to pick up their rubbish, be eco-friendly and we will do more litter picks and see if the litter decreases!
Primary 6 have also been working collaboratively to practise using connectives and some children have even made up their own connectives questions to test a friend. We also worked collaborately with our P2 buddies helping them to adjectives to describe a character.
In Spanish we have been learning how to tell the time (o’clock)
– ¿Qué hora es? – What time is it?
– Son las (dos) – It’s two o’clock
– Es la una – It’s one o’clock
On Friday we had our Number talks assessment on multiplying decimals and we also made a prayer chain with links for people that need God’s help. Also thank you so much for your lent donations on Friday!
We also learned many things about Fair trade by watching the P2 assembly. Well done to all the P2s for their hard work!
JRSO Update by Grace and Hana
On Wednesday we went to Broxburn and we took a survey of different vehicles we saw around us. Most people drove cars around and only two people were on their bikes. Now we are going to talk about how many different vehicles we saw. We saw over 100 cars and only 9 lorries, 6 buses, 20 vans, 7 motercycles, 2 bicycles, 1 emergency vehicles, 5 taxis and no farm vehicles. We are going to study our results and think of ways to minimise traffic around our school and make sure the public are slowing down near schools.
We have seen people wearing headphones while crossing the road twice! At Broxburn Primary school they have double yellow lines, which is good. We also seen a slowdown sign made by children at the entry of JHM dance!
Remember Stop Look Listen Think !!!!
P6 Litter Pick
It is our responsibility to minimise litter in our playground. Please support us by not dropping any litter boys and girls. Let’s take care of our school! We managed to collected 8 black bags yesterday!!!
JRSO Photographs
JRSO UPDATE- Ben and Ollie
Hello, the JRSO’s have been on a traffic survey around Broxburn and we tally marked every Car, Lorrie, Bus, Van, Motorcycle, Bicycle, Emergency Vehicle, Farm Vehicles and Other .We calculated the traffic. We would also thank everyone for not parking on the yellow zig zag lines. Here the traffic results. We are going to be studying these and finding ways of minimising traffic around our school.
BODMAS, Carnival and more!
This week in Maths we have been learning about the order of operations in calculations – BODMAS and BIDMAS. We practised this with our usual carousel of activities using concrete & visual resources, ICT games, etc. We have done our daily number talks too!
In GLP we have been looking at the emotional changes during puberty and we have discussed how we can develop positive attitudes to our own feelings and other people’s feelings.
In Spanish we have been learning about Carnival in the Canary Islands, which is taking place right now. We learned a carnival song and we are also making posters to promote the event.
We also designed an activity for our P2 buddies to practise WOW words. Our buddies worked really hard and are learning so much! Another one of our P6 responsibilities within the school is to keep our school grounds litter free. We have been learning some interesting facts about litter and we will soon carry our our litter audit for the school.
Fantastic learning at the zoo!
Zoo, Fitness measuring and Abacus
On Thursday we learned about an ancient calculating tool- The abacus. We built on our place value knowledge and learned how to solve sums using the abacus.
We also wrote a letter to thank the Zoo’s Education Officer for the lovely trip. We learned so many things about lots of different animals and the Cycle of Life.
As part of GLP we have talked about growing healthy, both physically and mentally. We have shared different ways in which we take care of our bodies and we discussed our life milestones with our families.
The highlight of our Friday was our fitness measuring activity (understanding & ordering decimals, using different tools for measuring). We went outside and measured our reaction time, long jump, height, etc.
Zoo-m!
A great day was had by all at the zoo for all of Primary 6 today. We saw pelicans, flamingos, a panda, rhinos, chimpanzees, penguins, monkeys and even a fox roaming around! Did you know that the male Gentoo penguin tries to find the best pebble possible to impress the female penguin? We all learned so much and the sun even shone for a while!
We’re All Going To The Zoo!
Primary 6 are very excited to be going to the zoo today. We’re learning about life cycles and also getting to see the pandas!
Wildlife Sleuths
Today we were lucky enough to have a zoo employee in to teach us about Scottish wildlife and habitats. We had to solve clues to work out which species lived where in Scotland. We got to hold a badger’s skull and a fox pelt and thought about ways in which the animals had developed in order to survive in their environments. We really enjoyed learning this!
Figure Me Out, Division and Malawi
This week in Maths we have been learning about division and divisibility rules. We made posters to show number talks strategies for division and had lots of fun making these “Figure Me Out” posters too. Can you guess who this one belongs to?
Primary 6 also presented their RERC Power Points on the 7 sacraments and reflected about what makes a good oral presentation (body language, voice, using the visuals effectively, etc.)
In Spanish we have talked and written about our favourite/least favourite school subjects and learned to how to say why we like them or not. E.g. Me gusta la educación física porque es divertida (I like P.E because it’s fun).
Our Language focus this week was ‘Vocabulary’ so we have been using the Thesaurus to upgrade our writing with WOW words. We have also continued painting our Picasso-inspired portraits.
Our Language Ambassadors Alex and Adrian have been teaching the numbers to every class in the school with some very fun games. Outstanding pronunciation and great confidence. MUY BIEN!!!
On Friday we had an Assembly in which pupils from St Margaret’s Academy told us how they are helping to build schools in Malawi. St Nicholas will also be contributing by filling bags with supplies and raising money to buy chairs for the school.
Busy week and lots of hard work from everyone in P6b.
Buen fin de semana!
This Week In Primary Six
This week Primary 6 have been revising division and the divisibility rules. We have become really good at these. Our Number Talks have certainly been paying off as we have lots of division strategies to use now!
In language we have completed the 5 dojo countdown for spelling and written a biography of our feature author, Jeremy Strong. He was a headmaster once and he’s hilarious!
We looked at landscape painting and perspective in art and were delighted with the results! In addition we created presentations about staying safe online- we really know our stuff now.
Cubism, Division and More!
We have been very busy in Maths this week. We have finished with our angles topic and started focusing on division. We have learned to solve division sums using number talks strategies and using the standard written method.
We have applied our knowledge of paragraphs and practised using more ambitious connectives to create flow in our writing.
We have learned the names of different subjects in Spanish and we are hoping to start using this as part of our 1+2 routines.
We discovered the amazing work of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and learned a little bit about his life too. We have made our own cubist portraits inspired by his art!
Chris Riddell, Maths challenges and Spanish Ambassadors!
Primary 6 has had a lot of fun this week!
On Thursday we watched a live interview with author and illustrator Chris Riddell who gave us some advice on how to doodle with confidence.
In Maths we have been learning about angles and we have also reinforced number concepts by using concrete and visual materials a lot. We have challenged ourselves by doing some tricky problem solving in Maths too!
In Language we revised when to use paragraphs- and also understanding the main idea of each paragraph.
In Spanish we learned about the objects of the classroom (lapiz, mesa, lista…) and classroom instructions (Mira, escucha, formad una fila…).
Finally, a special mention for Piotr and Grace, who have been Language Ambassadors for the school this week. You did a great job teaching the colours to all the pupils of St Nicks. Well done!
Time, Road safety, Tenses
This week we have been busy learning about so many things!
In Language, we have learned about when to use different tenses (past, present and future.
We have continued learning about time (telling time on digital and analogue clocks, duration of activities) and we are definitely becoming more confident.
We have done a lot of Number Discussions this week. In Number talks we have focused on the strategy of breaking numbers into smaller factors (multiplication) and we also made posters to show all the strategies we can come up with to solve a given sum.
In RERC we have been learning about the 7 Sacraments and we are making a Power Point to show our learning.
In Spanish we focused on improving our spelling and reading. We have also done some revision of the days of the week, months, weather and seasons. We have also learned how to say “can I go to the toilet” in Spanish with this song
Finally, we organised a short assembly in which we found out who the winners of the JRSO competition were.
Well done to the Junior Road Safety Officers for Organising everything and well done to the two winners of the competition. Summer (P4a) and Adrian (P6b) your mascots were fantastic!!
JRSO UPDATE!
Please hand your Junior Road Safety Competition entry by tomorrow morning at the very latest!!!! Ben, Ollie, Hana, Grace
Brilliant buddies in P2 and P6!
Primaries 2 and 6 enjoyed their paired literacy work today. We have missed our buddies after the long holiday!
P6 are looking forward to preparing more challenging work for their buddies this term and P2 are looking forward to completing their tasks and reading confidently!
Mannequins in P6
“Christmassy” Spanish phrase of the week
¡Hola!
Only 6 sleeps left until Christmas 🙂
Our Spanish phrase of the week is
¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero año Nuevo!
This means Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Christmas and more!
This week in Maths we have continued with our fractions topic (expanding and simplifying) and in Language we have done work on antonyms and synonyms.
We have been doing lots of “Christmassy” activities too. For example, we have done some Christmas Art, practised for our school Christmas concert and learned about Christmas and New Year in Spain.
On Friday we had an Assembly to celebrate the achievements of the children attending after school clubs (Zumba and Football). WELL DONE! Also well done to our Junior Road Safety Officers for giving the children of St Nicks lots of tips on how to stay safe.
We finished our Friday by celebrating New year like people do in Spain. We had grapes with the 12 chimes and wished everyone a happy new year by saying “¡Feliz año nuevo!”
Eggxperimenting With Physics In P6!
Primary 6 had an EGGciting end to their engineering topic today when they completed a egg drop challenge. They gathered in groups and designed an egg carrier which would absorb or deflect the forces on the egg when the egg was dropped from a height. When they tested the carriers only 3 eggs out of 11 tested broke! Some budding physicists in P6!
Christmas Pudding Mystery
Primary 6 have been using their maths skills to work out which elf stole the Christmas Pudding… we had 5 clues and had to use a process of elimination to find the naughty elf!
Percentage Patterns
Here are some of P6 with mathematical patterns we created using a specified percentage of each colour. We also calculated the fraction and decimal value for each colour we chose. Working hard on maths Primary 6!
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?
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.
PFFA
Congratulations to the P6 pupils who were enrolled in the Pope Francis Faith Award at mass on Sunday. The pupils taking part in this award will work in partnership with the school, the parish and their homes. We wish them all the best in this fantastic endeavour.
Happy 40th Jubilee St.Nicholas Primary!
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
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.
Winter Poems and Mathematical Shapes in P6
Primary 6 were looking at using similes in our writing this week and then using our knowledge to create interesting IMAGERY in our poetry. We worked as a class to think of as many nouns and adjectives relating to Winter and then created our own simile poems about Winter. The cold weather this week really helped us to think about what it felt like!
We liked this poem by N.M. Bodecker
When Skies are Low and Days Are Dark
When skies are low
and days are dark,
and frost bites
like a hungry shark,
when mufflers muffle
ears and nose,
and puffy sparrows
huddle close –
how nice to know
that February
is something purely
temporary.
N.M. Bodecker
In maths we have challenged ourselves to calculate the area of compound shapes (those made up of more than one other shape) and investigated shape patterns and tilings, here is one of our tilings, which was created using a variety of 2D shapes.
We also had the opportunity to visit the travelling art gallery which complemented the STEM work that we have been doing on bridges and engineering. The virtual reality tower block was the most popular!
Junior Road Safety Officer (JRSO) Blogpost
Hello, We are the Junior Road Safety Officers !!! (JRSO).
We protect St. Nicholas children from not getting hurt from any kind of vehicles. We also hold completions.
We went to a meeting at Broxburn Primary school.
We got taught how to plan for assemblies. After that we learned how to not have nerves on the day of the assembly and also got sneaky tips.
We got a JRSO Safety book, Badge and a goodie bag to go with the job. The goodie bag contains a torch, Bookmark, Pencil, Pen and reflectors for crossing the road So vehicles can see you.
We have a Notice board at the school main entrance. It will also contain Posters, completions and news. The winner of the completions will be displayed on the board.
(By Ben)
Hello we are here to say that we enjoyed ourselves at the JRSO(junior road safety officers) magic show and presentation.
We learnt the four special magic words which are STOP LOOK LISTEN and most special before you do anything THINK!
There was policemen all around some from Aberdeen,Broxburn and Linlithgow it was awesome!
Then the magic started a girl called Lois went up on the stage and there was a gray copy of stop look listen think and then she had to say the magic words then they turned colourful!
We will let you into a secret you only have to glue to big envelopes together and put a grey one in one and a colourful one in the other and secretly change the side.
Then Grace had to be a mind reader and choose one number out of 6 people and she got it right at the end all of them took there paper out of there envelope and the other 5 people had things that you should not do
and the one that I chose had the magic words on it!
At the end we got a goodie bag with all sorts of things in it and we also got a notebook as well .
(By Grace)
From , Ollie, Ben , Grace and Hana
Travelling Art Gallery!
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!
Awesome end of the week
This week Primary 6 have practised distinguishing fact from opinion so we can critically discuss what we read or watch. We have explored 3D shapes and their properties in maths and continued to research the work of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund in RERC.
We have also been very busy rehearsing the song we will be performing in the school’s Jubilee show and we have discussed different types of art. Finally, we had an awesome Hibernian assembly on Friday and we were lucky enough to take a picture with the real cup!
¡Buen fin de semana!
It’s our 40th birthday!
And to celebrate we’d like to invite all parents and friends of St Nicholas to come to our Jubilee Celebration on Wednesday the 30th of November at 1.30pm. The children will sing a variety of songs from the decades that show St Nicholas’ journey from 1976 to the present day. To see your invitation click below:
Spanish phrase of the week
¡Hola!
This week our Spanish phrase is
¡Hasta luego! which means See you later.
Did you notice the exclamation marks facing down? This is because in Spanish, whenever you want to use an exclamation mark or a question mark, you need to place that symbol in front of the sentence as well as at the end of it.
¡Hasta luego amigos!
Remembrance Sunday
A time of reflection yesterday as St Nicholas Primary School took part in Broxburn’s Remembrance Sunday Service.
Final Camp Reflection
We liked…
The leap of faith and the trail bikes (Ollie)
The inflatables because it was good for practising your balance (Kornelia)
Doing the camp fire and the mystery because it was interesting to see the teachers acting out. It was great to make fire with few things (Saoirse)
Everything. It was an amazing experience (Molly)
The food was the tasty. I loved the leek and potato soup! (Rosie)
What we would change/do differently…
I would have liked to make a better rocket for the launch (Sophie R)
I would have liked to stay longer so we could try other activities too, like the bungee trampoline (Adrian)
I would have loved to try archery (Brandon)
In the leap of faith I would have liked to have jumped to the trapeze! (Abbie)
We learnt…
To light a fire (Reyan)
How to make my bed quickly (Oscar)
To face my fears with the leap of faith (Charlee-Marie)
Lots of cycling skills on the bike (Grace)
We felt…
Excited and nervous (Aayan)
Scared and happy that I was there (Abbie)
Nervous to do the leap of faith (Megan)
Excited and scared at the same time (Natasha)
Good (Artur)
The challenge was challenging and very fun (Jazib)
Relieved after the leap of faith (Cole)
Excited, happy and really tired (Molly)
It changed me because
I am prouder of myself for all the things I did (Alex)
I am more confident (Wiktoria)
Yes because I have a phobia of heights and I did the leap of faith (Callum)
Would we like to go to camp again?
I would definitely go again (Alex)
It was a really really good experience (Ieuan)
Yes, you were never bored (Piotr)
Yes, the instructors were really nice (Fraser)
Our Happy Campers!
Epic Experience in Camp!
Here are some of our thoughts…
We had been looking forward to the leap of faith and we did really well! – Maria-Victoria
I enjoyed the team challenge – Jazib
The murder mystery was very funny – Oscar
I liked climbing the leap of faith – Artur
I was excited and surprised when they brought me the birthday cake – Blake
I hate heights and faced my fears with the leap of faith – Cole
I did my very best at everything – Olivia
Primary 6 Are High Flyers!
P6 Happy Campers Update
Quick update to parents: St Nicholas P6 boys and girls are having a great time at camp. 
Mystery Message in Maths
Yesterday, primary 6 started a new measure, perimeter and shape topic in maths. We were set a challenge to use accurate measuring to find the answers to some clues in the playground. We then had to decipher the clues to find a secret message … great measuring P6!
Human Cantilever Experiment in P6
Primary 6 were learning about the forces on bridges and performed a few experiments to see how weight distribution affected stability. Here we are making human cantilever bridges!
Spanish phrase of the week
¡Hola!
The phrase of the week is ¡Buen provecho! which means Bon appétit!
Primary 6 – Personification, decimals, buddies and more!
In Maths this week we have been working on solving word problems, understanding place value including decimals and multiplying decimals.
We have also practised our spelling words in Language & Literacy and learnt about personification.
As part of our Health&Wellbeing, we shared challenging situations we have been through and we talked about good and bad solutions to cope with them.
We spoke about the call of Jesus in RERC: What would he say? What would you tell him? Is it hard to follow Him? How do you do this?
In Spanish we learnt about El Dia de Todos los Santos (The Day of all Saints) and celebrated this special day by making flowers containing a prayer in Spanish for our loved ones that have passed away. Check them out!
We also made paper helicopters in technologies and finished the week by helping our P2 buddies with their reading.
Customers and Staff at a Spanish Cafe
Primary 1 and Primary 6 got together for language learning on Wednesday by creating a Spanish cafe in class. We learned how to ask what a customer would like and how to reply with our food choices – all in Spanish! Mrs Baty and I were delighted with our children’s confidence and their ability to have a short conversation in Spanish – we were also delighted that we all got to eat fruit, cake, cheese and chocolate!
Doubling Decimals in Primary 6
This week Primary 6 have been learning about decimals, place value and negative numbers. We looked specifically at these outcomes in the Curriculum:-
I have extended the range of whole numbers I can work
with and having explored how decimal fractions are constructed, can explain the link between a digit, its place
and its value.
MNU 2-02a
and
I can show my understanding of how the number line extends to include numbers less than zero and have investigated how these numbers occur and are used.
MNU 2-04a
We watched tutorials, looked at the ways the numbers were laid out, ordered numbers according to their value and learned how to add and subtract them. We played games like this one to consolidate our knowledge:-
Last week in P6 by Daisie and Aayan
**We have been having ICT problems but we seem to have resolved these issues!***
Last week our number talks strategy was place value and negative numbers. This strategy involved us breaking the numbers down, to subtract them. We didn’t find this strategy the most efficient because it involved many steps. We preferred using the number line strategy and the friendly number strategy to help us with subtraction problems!
We also made adverts for the tuck shop! We are now going to be responsible for the profit and loss made in the tuck shop this year. We looked at persuasive language and we realised how effective this could be in encouraging our pupils to buy the less popular items such as yogurt and kiwi!!
Can you guess our new topic?
Hint 1: Suspension, cable-stayed, cantilever…
Hint 2: There are three of these over the Forth, one built in the 19th century, one built in the 20th century and one built in the 21st century….
Hint 3: They use compression and tension to stay upright…
Hint 4: It is a science and technology topic…
Word of the week
Our first word of the week is ‘bienvenido’ or ‘bienvenidos’ if we’re saying welcome to more than one person.
This means WELCOME! You can click on this link to check the pronunciation http://es.forvo.com/word/bienvenido/
Try practising with your child at home!
Primary 6
In RERC Primary 6 has been learning about the parable of the Rich Young Man: who or why do we make sacrifices?
In Language, we have explored figures of speech by looking at the similes and metaphors in pop songs and practised making our own ones too.
We have made posters to advertise our Tuck Shop products in order to maximise profits and promote a healthy lifestyle. We have used persuasive language and included some nutritional facts of the fruits we sell in our shop.
In Spanish we learnt about El Dia de los Muertos, a hispanic celebration to honour our loved ones that have passed away. We learnt some useful vocabulary like papel, tijeras, corta and dobla by making Papel Picado.
The end of the week was really fun! Some of us dressed up for Halloween and we had a small celebration in which we made decorations and ghost-treats like these.
Finally, congratulations to Grace, Ollie, Hana and Ben for their new road safety jobs in the school. Well done!
Artist Study in P6
As our Victorians topic drew to a close we were learning about the Victorian artist and designer William Morris. His work included wallpaper design and printing, furniture design, textiles, stained glass windows, tiles and tapestries. The influence of his designs can still be seen in textiles and wallpaper prints to this day. We followed a tutorial on how to create a William Morris inspired flower and used inks to colour them. We were really pleased with the results!
Three Forth Bridges in Primary 6
Our Primary 6 topic for the next few weeks is the Forth Bridges and the engineering work that goes into designing and making a bridge. Our classes have had a look at the curriculum outcomes that we need to cover and will be thinking of experiments and activities to help us achieve them. This project is a part of our STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) work. For information on STEM, you can look at this site:- https://www.stem.org.uk/
To get us looking at different types of bridges we started our project by creating oil pastel line drawings of a suspension bridge…
Reciprocal Reading Project Starts in Primary 6
This week primary 6 started their Reciprocal Reading Project. Everyone had a specific role in their reading group with a task to complete related to their comprehension of the given text. Some of the tasks, such as the “predictor”and the “clarifier” were difficult, but everyone worked really hard to contribute to their group by concentrating on the important aspects of their role. The leaders discovered that it was difficult to be both encouraging and firm whilst ensuring that everyone was on task. However, Lord Sugar would have been proud of their efforts!
The sky is blue, the grass is green
St Nicholas is celebrating Halloween…
on Friday the 28th of October. St Nicholas pupils can, if they wish, take part in the traditional Scottish activity of ‘guising’ for Halloween on Friday of this week. Mums and dads, please be sensible and make sure that costumes aren’t too frightening – we don’t want our younger children to be scared. Thank you.
Primary 6b
This week, we have been discussing how we pray and we have created our guide to a perfect prayer. We have enjoyed designing a reading activity for our P2 buddy (this time we have focused on the “setting”). In Spanish we have learned a rap about the weather. It was really fun!
We have done grammar and punctuation work and talked about how to use the success criteria to assess our own or someone else’s work. Primary 6b knows it’s all about using mistakes to improve!
In Number Talks we have tried different strategies for multiplication and discussed the most efficient ones.
After a lot of hard work we are now ready for the October break!
All Set For The Global Market In P6
Primary 6A and B have been learning about working within a budget in money week. We applied our addition and subtraction skills in real-life situations when we had to organise the shopping from a supermarket web-site and ensuring that we bought enough ingredients to cook our weekly meals. We soon realised that buying in bulk and being careful to look for special deals (6 cans of own brand beans instead of one can of branded beans) meant that we had enough money left over for luxuries (we all like cookie dough ice- cream!). To finish off our money week learning we played the Global Market Game today. We were divided into groups to “govern” a country. Each country was given certain resources (some were rich in natural resources and some had great technology) . The aim of the game was for each government to barter, negotiate and trade what they were given to create goods and services for their population. Certain resources had to be prioritised (such as food and shelter) and others were very expensive (such as education) . We linked what we had learned during this fun activity to real life situations… running a country was hard!
Powerful Paired Reading!
Primary two were so excited today when our amazing Primary 6 buddies came to begin our paired reading journey. They even made us activities in our new jotters and decorated the front with all of our favourite things. We had an amazing time and learned lots about the characters in our stories. We can’t wait for next week already!
Life For A Child At A Victorian Cotton Mill
Primary 6 had a wonderful day at New Lanark where we learned what life could be like for children in the past. We found out about the pioneering reforms that took place at New Lanark which made life better for poorer people, including education for children, the first Co-Op for food and other provisions and protection for younger children from the more dangerous and difficult work. We took a ride on the Annie Macleod experience, participated in a Victorian school lesson and toured the New Lanark mills and houses. What a great day!
Money, money, money in P6
We started our money topic today in maths and commenced by calculating the best offers to buy goods. First, we had to calculate how much certain products would cost on an internet site (including delivery) and then we compared the cost of the same goods on another site. As a spicy challenge we worked out how we could “shop around” by buying our goods over a few sites to ensure we got the best deal….Moneysaving Expert – you have competition!
We continued to look at ways in which we could partition numbers into “partial quotients” to make them simpler to divide in our Number Talks and learned more about Queen Victoria (Empress of India – although she NEVER visited!) in our topic work.
We continued to work on our lines and songs for our assembly and prepared ourselves for our school trip tomorrow – we are very excited! Please remember to bring a packed lunch if you have not ordered a school one – thank you!
This week in P6 by Ollie and Sophie Mc
Maths
Last week we learned about BODMAS (Brackets Order Division Multiplication Addition Subtraction). It was important to do our problems in this order because otherwise we could all have different answers! In Number Talks this week our strategy was ‘Adding up in chunks’. When we break down our calculations, it makes it easier to solve difficult problems.
This week we also did rounding to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand. We also challenged ourselves by rounding to the nearest ten thousand and hundred thousand. Furthermore, we took a look at decimals. This was tricky and it is something we will work on again in our next maths focus, which is money.
Language and literacy
In language and literacy we revised similes and metaphors. We also learnt about personification which is when you describe an object or thing with human characteristics. For example:
The wind whistled through the valley.
The trees whispered secrets.
Last week, we learned all about synonym and antonyms.
PSD
In PSD, we have been learning about gender inequality and we have made posters of what people think girls should like and another one that they think boys should like. We also wrote a traditional fairytale but we changed the gender! We are learning to respect each other and not to show discrimination.
Assembly
We have recently been learning about the Victorians so we are doing an assembly to show you what we have been learning and we found out that we are doing a local show and it’s Oliver Twist!
Primary 6 this week….
In Primary 6 this week Monday started with Media Monday, followed by a Number Talk using doubles and near doubles (250 + 250 followed by 248 + 249) . We saw how much quicker is was to add up to a near double first, then remove the extra RATHER than spending time on a chimney-style sum. Next, we started a new topic in maths – rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000 and applying this knowledge to word-problems that required several steps of calculation; although the task required concentration we all felt pretty confident that we could move on to the next stage which was to round bigger numbers and decimals.
We continued with our Literacy work, mostly looking at how more complex paragraphs are made by creating COHESION in our writing. We discussed the meaning of cohesion and looked at the cohesive devices used by authors to make a paragraph work well (namely, pronouns, conjunctions and determiners). Synonyms are also used to assist with cohesion in writing and therefore we subsequently completed an exercise to replace common words with interesting synonyms in a passage.
We found out some things about the Victorian Artist and designer William Morris in our topic work.
This week Primary 6 have also started their Primary 2 reading project; we met our Primary 2 buddies and found out about some of the books they like to read. Next week we’ll create some activities designed to challenge and interest our junior readers! We strengthened the connection we have with our Primary 2 friends today with our joint language learning when Primary 2 sang us a song in many languages and in return, we taught them the names for the colours in Spanish by playing games we had created with them…a great collaboration!
In 6B our Number Talk today was about how to simplify division. We found a range of strategies to answer the question 56 divided by 4. The most efficient was to split the 56 into 40 and 16 and divide each of the parts by 4 separately. Hard at work P6!
Cross Country Capers With Primary 6
Both Primary 6 classes put in a HUGE effort today at their Cross Country Running Competition, run by the Active Schools Co-ordinators at Kirkhill Primary. Despite the wet weather, there were no complaints from our competitors as they battled mud, hills, rain and slippery slopes to come in third in the competition! Well done Primary 6 we are really proud of you! We have some photos of the event, but a technical difficulty means that we will need to upload them later.
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.
Buddy Visit- Afternoon Session
Primary 6b buddies came into nursery to spend time with their new buddies. The nursery boys and girls were very excited at seeing them again and even remembered their buddies names! The children all had great fun together getting to know their new friends.
Morning Buddy Visit
Primary 6a came into nursery today to visit their buddies. The boys and girls were very excited and loved spending time with them. The primary 6 children kindly made games to play and interact with their buddies. Great fun was had by all!
Second Successful Reply for Sixes!
Today Primary 6 received our second reply from an inspirational Scot!
After our Harry Potter novel and film compassion study, Mandipa wrote to Robbie Coltrane the legendary Scottish actor who played Hagrid in the series of films!
Today the post man brought her reply and she was delighted to find a signed photo in the envelope! Well done Mandipa!
P6 Football Team Lunch!
The Primary 6 football team enjoyed a team lunch yesterday with Miss King and Miss Miller as a treat to celebrate all their hard work this year and their success in their latest tournament! Well done boys, you make us all very proud, you have worked so hard as a team and have constantly developed this year!
Primary 7 team will have their lunch after their final tournament!
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!
St Nicks in the Sunshine
Some photos of the boys and girls enjoying being out in the sunshine today!
The football team enjoying a treat on the way to training tonight!
Homework Club are working hard!
The boys and girls from the upper school ‘Homework Club’ were hard at work after school today! We loved using the schools new netbooks to complete research, do projects and practice skills!
P6 QUIZMASTERS!
Well done to our amazing p6 quiz team who came 2nd in the Rotary Primary Schools Quiz!
They tied for 1st place but missed out on the top spot in the tiebreaker question!
You all make everyone at St Nicholas very proud! Keep working hard!
Isla’s Super Highland Dancing Trophy
Congratulations to Isla Keogh who came 3rd place at her highland dancing competition at the weekend!
Super Runner!
Congratulations to Kirsten Morris on your athletics achievements!
Scout star!
Congratulations to Alea Badrane on being scout of the month!
Lunch with the Teacher
Some primary 6 children enjoying their DOJO reward!
Hearts sign one of St Nicholas best football players!
A huge congratulations to Michael Beagley on signing with Hearts!
Scottish Woodland vs South American Rainforest
Today as part of our Rainforest topic primary 6 visited the woodland area beside the canal to begin comparing the Scottish landscape with the tropical rainforests. We are so excited about this topic, we’ve planned lots of wonderful activities. The thing we want to know most about is the tribes!
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!
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!
