Well done to our Primary 6 and 7 football teams today. The tournament was filled with success and great fun! We even got to play each other at the end! Thank you very much to everyone who came to support us.

This Thursday and Friday we have been very busy. We have done our Number Talks (breaking numbers into smaller factors), did a Maths carousel, practised our spelling words with different activities and we played the “Spanish Challenge” to practise the colours, animals, emotions, greetings, etc.

We have finished our Creation art which is now displayed on the gym hall door. Please check it out, it looks awesome!

In topic we have learned about school and childhood in the Victorian times and we made our own Victorian toy. We have also started practising our Assembly which will be next Friday.

In St Nicholas we like to celebrate diversity and value all cultures and languages. This week we have been busy learning special songs and games in Spanish, Polish and French to celebrate the European Day of Languages.

Today we shared our learning with other classes. We enjoyed this special challenge!

Primary 7 made games to teach their Primary 1 buddies the numbers in Spanish.

Primary 1 taught Primary 7 how to play “Un dos tres, Calabaza!”

Primary 6 prepared games to teach their buddies in Primary 2 the colours in Spanish.

Primary 2 learned to say Hello in different languages and sang a song to Primary 6.

Primary 3 showed Primary 4 how to say the numbers (up to 5) in Polish. The Polish children in P3 were very helpful! Thanks

Primary 4 sang a beautiful song about the colours in French to Primary 3.

WELL DONE!!!

Miss Alvarez

Primary 4 have been learning all about number processes especially where the units, tens, hundreds and thousands should go.

Primary 7 have been learning about The Blitz as part of their topic on World War 2.

On the 7th of September 1940 German Air Forces raided London. London was bombed every day and night for 11 weeks. Over 350 bombs flew across the channel from France. Nearly 2,000 were killed or wounded on the first night. 32,000 people were killed and 87,000 were seriously injured by the end of the Blitz. Most of the attacks happened at night when people were fast asleep. People were warned by booming sirens. When people heard the sirens they made a break for shelter. Other cities and towns were also badly affected including Coventry, Liverpool, Southampton and Glasgow. In November 1940 one of the most devastating and biggest air raids happened in Coventry over 4,000 homes were destroyed and 500 people were killed. People made shelters in their gardens to protect themselves and their families.
Aaron and Caitlin

On Friday our Captains and Vice Captains for our new house system were announced.  Children who wished to be nominated presented to their houses and the children of each house voted for their own captain and vice.  The captains and vice captains for 2016/2017 are: 

Spey – Eva (Captain), Rosie (Vice Captain)

Almond – Mandipa (Captain), Fraser (Vice Captain)

Esk – Aimee (Captain), Alex (Vice Captain)

Tay – Jamie (Captain), Molly (Vice Captain)

Forth – Iona (Captain), Elena (Vice Captain)

Clyde – Arran (Captain), Shaelyn (Vice Captain).

Well done everyone who put themselves forward – all presentations were excellent and you should all be very proud of yourselves.

This year at St Nicholas we have had Oyster catchers nesting on the roof. Unfortunately the baby chick fell out of the nest early and has been living in the playground ever since.

The children have been really good at watching it from a distance, so that the mum and dad can still look after it.When it fell out of the nest it was so fluffy but the baby is nearly as big as the mum now.

The Eco Club phoned the RSPB and asked for advice. The kind people from the RSPB said that the chick is being looked after very well and should be able to fly away in the next few days.

The mum and dad will look after it for 6 months before it is able to live alone. They will teach it everything it needs to know. The children have learned a lot about how to be kind to wildlife because of this and have found it very exciting. Well done everyone !

A very big well done to Maksymilian for being this week’s ‘Star Pupil of the Week’. He has tried really hard this week with his writing.  Keep it up !

Our DOJO champion this week is Haroon .Well done !

Our boys and girls had a wee treat yesterday – they went on a visit to the vets.   This was a big coincidence because we’d just been looking at the tickly ‘v’ sound.   We saw lots of animals at the vets and we even got to see where the animals were weighed.  It was a long walk there and back! We’ve been enjoyed stories about vets and have a vet area in our nursery.

Our classes were working out fractions of chocolate bars last week using the Numicon system.  We learned about different fractions and how to calculate them.  We worked out that two fifths and three fifths made a whole!

In Spanish Primary 5 have started a Restaurant project to learn about food. Each group is specializing in a different Spanish dish: paella, gazpacho, mousse de gofio, chorizo and turron. Each group researched the ingredients of their dish and gave a brief description of it to the class.

Last week we completed the Fairtrade Challenge in Primary 6 and it was great fun!

We were all in groups and represented different countries. Each country had an envelope and resources inside. The aim was to make paper shapes and trade them into the ‘bank’ for money.

But… it wasn’t very FAIR… ‘poorer’ countries didn’t have all the resources to begin with so they had to trade with the richer countries! The bankers and leaders Miss King and Miss Miller weren’t always fair either… the rich countries seemed to be making lots and lots of money!

It was all very heated and frantic as representatives from different countries tried to trade with each other as the clock ticked on.

We learned that trade between countries isn’t always fair, and that richer countries should do their best to help poorer countries to get the best deal. We agreed that we should always try to buy items that have been traded fairly. Now we understand more about how countries work!

This week Primary 6 visited Primary 3 nd 3/2 to teach them all about the History of Industries in Broxburn. The Primary 6 children created powerpoints filled with information about the Shale Oil industry and what it was like to live and work in Broxburn in the past! It was super interesting and we all learned lots! We love sharing our learning and working together! Thanks for listening Primary 3 and 3/2!

Last month, on Burns Day Primary 6 had a special celebration of Scotland and enjoyed a wonderful day of preparing Scottish foods, dancing, eating and singing! We wore our best Scottish outfits!

We prepared and tried.. marmalade sandwiches, porridge, shortbread, tablet, oatcakes with Scottish salmon and Orkney cheese. We washed it all down with some delicious Irn Bru!

Isla and Iona preformed some Highland dancing and we all enjoyed singing some traditional Scottish songs. Before the bell rang we all joined in with a wonderful rendition of Auld Lang Syne!

Primary 5 challenged themselves to create a presentation of their choosing to educate others about how to stay safe on-line.  Some performed songs, others produced detailed posters and yet others produced professional powerpoint presentations.  We learned that the 3 main internet safety rules are:

1.  Zip it (keep information private);

2.  Block it (block any communications from people you don’t know);

and 3.  Flag it (let a trusted adult know if something concerns you).

Yesterday Primary 6 had a very special surprise when Olivia came back to visit us! Olivia moved to Newcastle at Christmas time and we have really missed her since she left St Nicholas! Olivia was on holiday from school and was telling us all about her new class, teachers and friends. Please come back and visit us again Olivia!

What have we learnt this week ? 

What have we enjoyed ?

Kyle – I have learnt a new sound – oi.

I have enjoyed making the Chinese Dragon.

Santiago – I have learnt more Spanish.

I have enjoyed playing in the area.

Thomas – I have learnt that you can use lots of 1p coins to pay for things.

I have enjoyed going to gym.

Maksymilian – I have learnt that thistles are spiky.

I have enjoyed going to gym.

Grady – I have learnt that Chinese food tasteds nice.

I have enjoyed the mummies and daddies coming to our class.

Today the school football team had a very special visitor to their training session when ex Saint Nicholas pupil and current Celtic and Hibs player Liam Henderson came to see us and join in.

The team had the chance to ask the football star some questions, show him their skills and even play football with him in a game. It was a wonderful experience and something we hope they will remember for a long time. At the end of our session the boys all got their photos taken and Liam signed autographs for them.

A huge thank you to Liam Henderson for taking the time to come and visit us and creating an amazing training session for our football team. We wish him all the best for his future in football and we are very proud to say he was part of our school!

Each Thursday P5 are set different activities to develop their knowledge of the times tables. We have played ‘Beat the Teacher’ to find out who can recite their tables the quickest. Miss Morgan managed the six times table in 11 seconds !! We played multiplication bingo, made multiplication fortune tellers, solved multiplication problems and used online resources to become times tables experts. We had so much fun today with our warm up activity using Mr G’s Musical Maths website. This site provides lyrics and popular soundtracks for times table songs. As the children were keen to practise the songs at home please find the link below.

http://musicalmaths.com/category/teacher-resources/

This week Primary 5 were busy baking shortbread. They had to weigh out the ingredients and follow the recipe and then add three different flavourings. Once they were baked we then took the ‘Shortbread Taste Challenge’ with our partners. We had to identify the three favours – vanilla, lemon and strawberry. Vanilla was the most popular flavour but everyone agreed that our shortbread tasted delicious.

Primary 5 have been working hard on their Scottish Tourism project.  Last week we learned all about the wildlife in the Highlands and this week we are creating Robert Burns fact files.  Here are some of the children who learned the “Address To A Haggis” word for word as part of their homework challenges this week and others working hard on their art-work…Fantastic work!

Primary 5A and B visited the Library today to listen to “Mrs Rabbie Burns” tell us about tourist attractions in the area.  We heard about the Kelpies, Beecraigs Park, The Five Sister’s Zoo, The Falkirk Wheel, Edinburgh Castle, Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh Zoo, Greyfriar’s Bobby and much, much more!  We were surprised at how many tourist attractions were local!

Every Thursday we complete a challenge in Primary 6 where we have to be creative, use our critical thinking skills or solve a problem by working as a team.

Last Thursday we completed a creative challenge, where we learned to write a song through David Bowie’s ‘cut up’ method! We took 3 songs by the Beetles, Stevie Wonder and Queen, and changed them into completely new songs, we made them into raps, added harmonies, changed the lyrics and the backing music. When we listened to the original song we were amazed with how different our versions were, it just goes to show how amazing things can be created when we add all our ideas.

Primary 5 A and B have started to work on our “The Wonder of Scotland” tourism project.  We were reminded of our previous work on designing logos when we looked at the iconic designs on these Tunnock’s wrappers.   We were delighted with our “bonnie wee dugs” which we added to some 2016 calendars to take home. (We were also delighted when we got to eat the biscuits!)

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Christmas concert.

Here is a clip of our final song, Feed the World / You are My Brother.

Listen to the children’s clear message about living for justice and peace. For in Jesus name we stand.

Well done to everyone!

From all the staff at St. Nicholas Primary School, have a wonderful Christmas!

Link:

Watch “Christmas Concert 2015” on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/149441655

Yesterday, our morning and afternoon children were treated to a storyteller who came to visit.  Mr Menzies told the story of the Gruffalo and other stories using the Scots tongue.  The boys and girls learned the words braw (cold) dreich (damp) and bahookie (bottom!)  We had great fun and hope to see Mr Menzies again soon.  Thanks Mr Menzies.