Scottish maths week challenges started today in p7b. 
Scottish Maths Week
Primary 7 have been working collaboratively explaining their strategies for number talks.
Primary 5 – Apple Science
Primary 5 have been investigating Chemical Changes using apples.
We used various liquids to try and prevent the oxidisation of the apples. We discovered that lemon juice was the best liquid to use to prevent the process due to the citric acid, however vinegar escalated the process. We created a grid to show our predictions for each solution.
We also discussed the life cycle of an apple and harvested a few seeds so that we could grow our own apple trees. We watched a time lapse video of the process and now wait with bated breath to see if we will have any success with our green fingers.
We watched the chemical changes that happened when we created ‘apple volcanoes’ using vinegar and bicarbonate of soda.
We had fantastic fun with our group challenge to build a strong tower to support an apple. One group was so successful with their design that it actually supported seven apples !!
Our buddies came to visit!
Today our Primary 7 buddies came to our classroom. Some of us listened to our buddies read a story that we chose from our library. We then had a chat about what happened in the story. Our buddies were fantastic readers!
Some of the buddies played number games with us too. We enjoyed learning about dot patterns and playing dominoes. We played other number games using ten frames, numicon and number lines. It was great fun! Here are some photos of our afternoon…
Apple-canos in Primary 5
We have been really busy in Primary 5. We have continued to explore chemical reactions with our apples topic – this time we made an apple volcano using only apples, food colouring, vinegar and baking soda!
We have also started our new topic (old Edinburgh) and learnt about some of its landmarks.
In Maths we have been looking at Place Value: how to read, write and order numbers up to 5 digits while continuing to work on our mental strategies with our daily Number Talks.
We have also discussed and practised using a wide range of connectives to improve our writing and wrote a letter to Willy Wonka telling him about our inventions.
Budding Artists in P2 !
Primary 2 will be learning all about lots of famous artists over the course of the year and will make their own representations of the chosen artist’s work. Our first artist of the month is Piet Mondrian.
What did we learn today ?
Tyler – ‘His dad was a painter and then he grew up to be painter’.
Patryk – ‘His job was a teacher’.
Lennox – ‘After he taught his children at school he went back home and painted.
Andrew – ‘He was born on the 7th of March’.
Dermott – To start with he didn’t paint what we did today, he painted fields and things’.
Shahzaib – ‘When he first started painting he painted houses’.
Sofia – ‘He decided to make different pictures’.
Ava – ‘He started to paint squares and rectangles’.
Justyna – ‘They were red, yellow, white, black and blue’.
Thomas – ‘He used five colours altogether’.
Piper – ‘He never mixed the colours in his paintings, he only used those colours.’
Chloe – ‘He was very famous’.
(Pictures of our art work to follow soon).
Library adventure
Primary 3 were very lucky to have a visit over to Broxburn library to listen to an Egyptian story read by Dianne the librarian. However, Dianne was in character when we popped over and was dressed as a pharaoh! She read us a story about Charlie Stinky Socks who was searching for gold in the desert. He came across different Egyptian things on his travels. Dianne let us borrow some books to learn even more about Ancient Egypt. So far we have learned:
Matthew – Ancient Egyptians used a tool called a shaduf to bring water out from the River Nile.
Niamh/Tavia – Pharaoh is what we call their kings and it means house/palace.
Santiago – The most popular drink in Ancient Egyptian times was beer!
Grady – There are wooden boats called ‘felucca’s’ that travel along the Nile.
Zofia – Only boys who had a lot of money got to go to school.
We have loved learning about Ancient Egypt so far and can’t wait to learn more!
A Historic Day – P2.
Today the boys and girls in P2 were super excited to be given the opportunity to watch the official opening of the Queensferry Crossing. We saw the Queen cutting a ribbon and we also saw the Red Arrows flying over the bridge. How cool !
What did we learnt today ?
Lovisa – It took 6 years to build the bridge.
Joshua – 15,000 thousand people worked on the bridge.
Lucas – I learnt that the bridge is called the Queensferry Crossing.
Haziq – We saw three bridges on the TV.
Sofia- A new bridge was built because the other one is getting old.
First school lunch!
Our new P1s have really enjoyed staying at school for lunch this week. Here they are having their very first school lunch!
Fantastic First Week!
Primary 1s have had a fantastic first week of school. They have been very busy exploring their new environment, taking part in different activities, learning new routines and making lots of new friends. Here we are in action…
Welcome to our new P1s
Our new boys and girls in primary 1 have settled in so well. Here we are on our very first day of school!
Exciting mail
Primary 3 were intrigued when Mrs McGuire asked if she could have a word with them this afternoon. She had received a letter from the National Museum of Scotland saying that they had had a leak and some of their Egyptian artefacts had been damaged. They were asking if she knew of any children who would be up to the job in helping them out.
Primary 3 were very excited when they realised that she that thought that they were up to the job and they were happy to accept the challenge!
P3 Dojo reward afternoon!
Well done to P3 for meeting their dojo points target! They had a great afternoon celebrating watching a film in their pyjamas. 🎥
Hip, hip, hooray for St Nicholas’ Sports Day!
A great time was had by all today, and the sun shone to make it perfect! Thank you to all our children for being such great sports, their families who came to spectate (and take part in the races), staff for their hard work and to our PE teacher, Mrs Smith, for putting such a big effort in to a very well organised, fun day for the whole community.
St Nicholas Sports Day Tomorrow
Everyone is very welcome to join our St Nicholas Sports Day tomorrow. Please remember to put sun screen on yourselves and your children and keep fingers crossed for a nice sunny day. A copy of the letter going home with children tonight is attached.
ts Day LetterWider Achievements in P1b.
Well done to Isla and Matthew for their super sporting achievements outside of school.
Isla was recently awarded a medal for her great skills in gymnastics , whilst , Matthew was awarded not one , but, three medals for his wonderful skills in Tae Kwondo. Great stuff Isla and Matthew!
A Grand Day Out!
What a great day we had at Glasgow Science Centre! We saw so much, including displays about renewable energy, our senses, organs of the body, optical illusions, aerodynamics, air pressure, electricity, light and sound to name a few! We also raced our own cars to see which were the most aerodynamic and with a complete circuit. An amazing experience! We’ll put pictures on Class Dojo.
Destination Science in Primary Six
Primary 6 are off to Glasgow Science Centre today to take part in a “Car-azy” Workshop. We will be learning about circuits, recycling and problem-solving.
Fitness Fun in P1!
We have had a fantastic fitness fortnight! Here are some of the things we have enjoyed:
James H – I liked when we made a healthy snack using a cone and fruit and chocolate.
Keilidh – I liked when we made fruit kebabs with P7.
Thomas – I liked doing our daily mile.
Haziq – I liked doing Zumba. I liked the music.
Lovisa – I liked Judo because I was Marv’s helper. I go to the Judo club.
Matthew – I liked doing fencing because I liked holding the cutlass sword.
Jie-Rui – I liked when we went to the Sports Centre. I liked doing the running races.
Daniella – I liked when we did dancing because we did a dancing competition.
Megan – I enjoyed playing football.
Today we finished off our fitness fortnight by enjoying a chocolate milkshake at story time. It was delicious!
We have worked so hard by taking part in different activities, working as part of a team and learning about how to stay fit and healthy. We all received a certificate today to celebrate our learning
. 
More updates on Primary 6
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!
Origami Master in P7
Thank you so much Calvin for helping us with our origami models this week. We have had lots of fun.
P3 Giuseppe Arcimboldo Art
P6 request- raffle items
Hi there,
Primary 6 will be staging their performance of the musical “Oliver!” on the afternoon of Monday 19th June and the evening of Tuesday 20th June. Tickets will be offered to parents of classes other than Primary 6 next Tuesday. We are hoping to raise some money for school funds.
We would like to draw a raffle after our Oliver Twist Show on Tuesday 20th June. We will have a children’s hamper filled with sweets/chocolates and an adults’ hamper filled with pamper items, food items, wine, etc.
We would be grateful for any donations of these items. Please give these to your child so they can hand them to the P6 teachers. If you would like to donate any bottles, please hand these in in person to the school office (marked for P6 raffle).
Thank you for all your support!
Kind regards,
Primary 6 staff
Fitness Fortnight – Fencing and Zumba !
Today , the P1s were veeeeeeeery busy as part of ‘Fitness Fortnight’ In the morning, the boys and girls learnt all about fencing. It was so much fun! We learnt that long ago everyone was taught how to fight using swords as there were no police officers to keep us safe from harm so when people fought they used to do so using swords ! We were shown lots of different kinds of swords that were used long ago including a knight’s sword, a pirate’s sword and a long sword. We even got to have a shot of holding them. They were might heavy !
We also got a shot at sparring with the practise swords. We learnt how to stand properly, how to hold the sword in safe mode and how to keep ourselves safe whilst wearing the protective equipment. A special thanks to Gordon from ‘Fencing is Fun’
In the afternoon, we welcomed Nina from ‘Zumba Kids Nina’. She showed us some cool moves and we danced the afternoon away with a dance off and other dances. It was fantastico! Thankyou to Nina for coming along to help us. Dancing certainly keeps you fit !
Hooray for the Galaday!
Our last winning float ! First Prize !
We are really looking forward to entering a float for Broxburn ‘s Galaday, ( Saturday, 26th of August) . This year’s theme is ‘Gaming/Board Games’. Having put a few options to the vote in each class we have a clear winner , ( all will be revealed very soon !).
We are looking for :
Emulsion paint of any colour.
If you can help with this please contact the office and ask for Mrs Macdonald/ Mrs Evans. Alternatively, Mrs Swinney, Mrs Skeldon or Mrs Neilson should be contacted. These ladies have very kindly volunteered to be the parent representatives on our school’s ‘Galaday Committee.
As always, we will be needing children to sit on the float and lots of walkers to accompany our float. Your child will receive a letter in the next day with more details. If you wish your child to be involved in any way, please return the slip before the cut off date.
Fitness Fortnight – Week 2.
Today we travelled to Craigswood Xcite in Livingston for more fun fitness. We practised our throwing , catching , jumping and running whilst working at different stations. It was so enjoyable ! Massive thanks to the staff at Craigswood for organising today and to our helpers for accompanying us.
Spelling Carousel
Today Primary 5 were completing a carousel for their spelling words. Their tasks were:
Make the word with playdoh
Make the word with string
Write the word in chalk
Trace the word on your partner’s back.
We are now confident that everyone will achieve 12/12 on their spelling check up on Friday !
First Holy Communion
Well done to all the children from Primary 4 who made their First Holy Communion on Saturday. Miss Slattery and Miss O’Neill were really proud of how well you remembered each part of the mass.
Fitness Fortnight Day 4!
Today we had a football session with James Pegg and a younger volunteer, Ethan from Broxburn Colts. We warmed up by running in and out of spaces and by following a leader. Next we had a go at dribbling with a football and scoring into the goals! We were very good at celebrating our goals!!
We finished our session by playing a mini game of football with our friends. We had great fun!
Here are our thoughts :
Thomas – ‘We had two players against each other’.
James F – ‘We played a game and you had to jump over hurdles and score a goal and get a point’.
Keilidh – ‘You had to get the ball off your partner’.
Lucas – ‘First of all we were put into teams and had to score a goal’.
Isabella A – ‘We had to do some exercises before we played’
Daniella – ‘These excercises are called a warm up’.
Jie – Rui – ‘We had to get the ball to the goal’.
Piper – ‘I liked the bit when I scored a goal’.
Buddy time!!
Today Primary 1 children went to the Primary 7 classrooms and paired up with their buddies to develop their ICT skills. We practised switching the laptops on and off properly and then played some maths games. Primary 7 boys and girls were excellent digital leaders!
Political Parties in Primary 7
This week Primary 7B have been developing their knowledge of political parties in the UK and the 2017 General Election. They have used evidence selectively to research current, social, political and economic issues. They can describe what a manifesto is and its purpose.
We are looking forward to tomorrows Election Day in Primary 7 where we will all be given the opportunity to cast our votes.
Fitness Fortnight – Day 3 !
- Smoothie Tasting !
Today we spent time learning more about fruits, why it is important to eat them and what they do to help keep our bodies healthy. We then got to try two different smoothies that were made from strawberries and bananas and mangoes and passion fruits. We got a mixed reaction. Some of the boys and girls loved them, some didn’t. One thing that we did all agree on was how important it is to eat healthily.
What did we think about the smoothies ?
Isla – ‘I liked the smell’.
Max C – ‘I really liked the mango and passion fruit one’.
Matthew P – ‘I liked both of them but I didn’t like the smell’.
Brooke – ‘I liked the strawberry one’.
Joshua – ‘I liked the smell and the taste’.
James H – ‘I didn’t like the smell or the taste of them’.
Shahzaib – ‘The orange one was delicious’.
Haziq – ‘The mango and passion fruit was sweet’.
Thomas – ‘They were scrumptious’.
Cheers everyone !
Nice and Simple!
This week, Primary 6 have been revising some more mathematical concepts. We started yesterday with both classes discussing the best methods we could use to simplify fractions. We found that we liked this method:-
Divide both the top and bottom of the fraction by the Greatest Common Factor (you have to work it out first!).
Example: Simplify the fraction 8/12 :
The largest number that goes exactly into both 8 and 12 is 4, so the Greatest Common Factor is 4.
Divide both top and bottom by 4:
÷ 4
right over arrow
8/12 = 2/3
right under arrow
÷ 4
That is as far as we can go. The fraction simplifies to 2 /3.
We practised these together and are going to create our own this week in our home learning.
Today, we completed our revision of written methods for solving division calculations and challenged ourselves to solve some particularly difficult calculations with decimals too! We found that some of our methods for solving multiplication calculations helped us.
We also learned about the General Election in Newsround and heard some pupils from St Margaret’s singing songs from their “Little Shop of Horrors” production. They were really talented!
Fitness Fortnight – Day 2.
Today we did judo, walked our daily mile and tried lots of different fruits including, pineapple, watermelon, oranges, blueberries and raspberries. They looked delicious ! We also listened to the story, ‘Keep Running Gingerbread Man’. We particularly enjoyed this as this story was a twist on the original fairytale and helped us to learn about the importance of a healthy lifestyle.
P1 Fitness Fortnight
Our ‘Fitness Fortnight’ got off to a great start today! We did our daily mile walk and then took part in some team building activities. We had great fun.
A Puppet Show in P1!!
This week Primary 1 created their very own puppet shows based on The Three Little Pigs. The boys and girls made fantastic sock puppets and other props so that they could retell the story. We then presented our shows to our Primary 7 buddies and the boys and girls from the nursery. We really enjoyed showing off all our hard work!! The nursery children enjoyed visiting our classroom!
Run, run as fast as you can !
What a lovely surprise we got this this morning ! Another letter from our friendly dragon and a clue for the next fairtale that he wanted us to read. What did he leave us ? Well, he left us a little gingerbread men so we listened to the fairtyale ‘The Gingerbread Man’ . We then decorated our own little gingerbread men with sweeties and icing, (we can’t wait to eat them) and retold the stories in our castle books.
Caught reading !
We read to our P7 buddies today. They were very impressed us, especially as we can now read lots of big words!
Algebra, Dramatic conventions and Ascension Mass in P6!
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
Oliver Preparations
Oliver preparations are well underway in P6 this week. We have been rehearsing well. The children are making us very proud!
We have also been looking at the areas we felt needed some work in maths and started revising some of our mathematical knowledge and strategies.
Fairyland in Primary 1.
Once upon a time …
The boys and girls have been super busy these past few weeks ! Well, we have turned our classrooms into Fairyland ! You may ask yourself why ? What has been going on ? Well, sit back and we will tell you.
First of all we returned one day from lunch to a trail of glitter, a burnt out letter and a ‘D- Mail’ box. Upon investigation, we soon realised that we had been visited by a Friendly Dragon. He left us a letter telling us how sad he felt and left us with a challenge. He asked us to rebuild Fairyland, (as the real Fairyland has disappeared leaving our favourite fairytale characters with nowhere to go) and read lots and lots of fairytales. As you can imagine, we said ‘YES’ straight away. And so, we have been spending time making beanstalks, a giant castle, making little castles in groups, reading fairytales including: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, ‘The Three Little Pigs’, ‘The Princess and the Pea’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood, ‘Chicken Licken’, and ‘The Ugly Duckling’. We have rewritten these stories in our special castle books and cannot wait to see if the dragon returns with more letters for us.
Street dance champion!
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!
Primary 3 breathe easy!
As part of our Health and Wellbeing, Primary 3 have been learning about different strategies that we can use to help us deal with our worries. We were very lucky to have a visit from Ellie’s Auntie Trish who is a mindfulness instructor. She showed us how to breathe properly and gave us a couple of strategies to use when we are feeling particularly worried about something. We know that there are lots of people we can talk to and that a problem shared is a problem halved!
Fluttering Beauties
Today Primary 2 went outside to release our butterflies. We were very excited!
Anna – My favourite part was when we let them go.
Lucia – My favourite part was when they landed on flowers to drink the pollen.
Brooke – My favourite part was when a butterfly landed on me.
Martyna – I liked when the butterfly went on Miss Boyd’s finger.
Matthew – I liked it when I learned that the butterfly ate nectar.
Luca – The butterflies had to open their wings a few times to warm up before they flew away.
Michael – When the butterfly opened its wings I saw orange white and black.
Mya – When the wings were closed it looked grey and white.
Alicia – Some of them didn’t want to come out.
Umaima – The last butterfly flew really high to the trees.
Butterfly Cycle Song
As our caterpillars continue to grow, this week we decided to write songs explaining the butterfly life cycle.
We then had a ‘Eurovision’ style song contest and the winning song was penned by Cameron. He set his words to the tune of Jingle Bells.
Butterfly Cycle Song
Caterpillar, caterpillar in the tiny egg.
Soon there’ll be a tiny caterpillar, all ready!
To gobble up the milkweed and create a chrysalis,
And he’ll be in that state for weeks, and weeks and weeks.
Then hatching through the chrysalis will be a beautiful butterfly,
It will fly off to go and feeeeeed and lay eggs again and again.
The cycle starts again x 2.
Numeracy… it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3
We’d like to invite all our parents to a Numeracy Workshop run by Peter Valentine on Wednesday the 24th of May. Click here to view the letter that will be in your child’s bag tomorrow: 2017_05_19 Numeracy Parental Workshop
We look forward to seeing you next week.
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.
Community Art Trail
P4-7 Eco and Pupil council reps have been busy today contributing to a community art trail that is being created for Broxburn and Uphall! In the morning we went out to speak to some local people and shopkeepers to get their ideas on what could be created to benefit the community. We then collated these ideas and fed them back to the designers. In the afternoon we took part in a design workshop and created some lovely bags. 
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.
Spin – Tastic Fun in P7B
This afternoon we have enjoyed creating our own mental maths games using our Fidget Spinners. We especially enjoyed the estimating time competition at the end of the afternoon. 
The Very Hungry Caterpillars!
In Primary 2 we’ve been learning all about the life of a caterpillar and the process of its transformation into a butterfly. Today, we transferred the chrysalides into the special butterfly nets. We are very excited for them turning into butterflies. We are looking forward to learning even more!
into the special butterfly nets. We are very excited for them turning into butterflies. We are looking forward to learning even more!
Kyle – We have learned about it’s life cycle.
Lara- It is called a life cycle because it goes on and on.
Martyna – First, the butterfly lays some eggs.
Mya – Then, a little caterpillar comes out of the egg.
Flynn – Then, it eats and eats and eats.
Freyja – The caterpillar makes a J.
Luca – After that we know it is going to form a chrisyllis.
Lucas Cook – The chrisyllis gets hard.
Tavia – It gets hard to protect itself.
Umaima – Then it breaks out of the chrisyllis and turns into a butterfly.
Lucia – I liked seeing them in their chrisyllis.
Matthew – I liked learning all the facts about caterpillars.
Catherine – I liked when we did the information booklets.
Anna – I liked when the caterpillars arrived.
Santiago – I liked watching them grow.
Niamh – I liked learning about and seeing the caterpillar food.
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!
Angles not Angels !
This morning Primary 5 were using our school environment to look for angles. We also tried to form a perfect circle using a compass.
We were able to find acute, obtuse and right angles and experienced using a protractor to try and measure them accurately.
Maths outdoors for Primary 3
Primary 3 were keen to take advantage of the sunny weather and take their maths learning outdoors! We have been learning to add and subtract 2 digit numbers using different strategies. These include empty number lines and using the 100 square to find the correct path. Outside, we were chalking empty number lines on the path, we were making 100 squares and we were using string to make empty number lines for us to jump through. By doing this, we got some fresh air and sunshine whilst learning! Here are some photographs of us in action.
New Recruits !
On Monday a surprise package arrived in the post. We were not sure what it was but we got a big surprise when we opened the box because inside was a tub with five, tiny adorable caterpillars.
We created a lovely new habitat for them and named it Caterpillar Corner. We are responsible to make sure that they are safe and cared for. That night was going to be chilly so we decided to wrap the tub with a cloth to keep the caterpillars warm until we returned the following morning.
We have to be considerate classmates and make sure that it is not too noisy as they are very delicate creatures.
If we take good care of them they will transform into Painted Lady Butterflies. At the moment they are very hungry and are enjoying the nutritious food in their tub. We hope to see them create a chrysalis very soon.
As we observe the life cycle of a butterfly in our classroom we will continue to develop our knowledge and skills relating to our STEM work.
We have had a class vote and have named our caterpillars:
Lloyd, Bananas, Bebe, Mimi and Cerys.
We shall update you with any changes as they occur.
P5 Presentations
Everyone in Primary 5 has now given a presentation to the class on a topic of their choice. The children selected a diverse range of subjects to share with their friends and we had the opportunity to learn many interesting and amazing new facts.
The children were able to peer assess each other so that everyone has a target to improve their performance for the next presentation.
Well done to everyone and thank you for your hard work.
Fun Start Fitness in P3
As part of our Keeping Healthy topic, Primary 3 are lucky to have 5 weeks of Fun Start Fitness with James Pegg. Each week we will learn about how to keep our mind and body healthy and then will participate in fun activities which will keep us fit. We know the importance of encouraging each other!
Minibeast Adventure
Primary 2 have been enjoying the lovely weather. We took our learning outside as part of our ‘Living Things’ topic. We went on a minibeast adventure and searched for any living things. We used our skills in technology to take pictures using the iPad. We even learned how to zoom in and out.
We are looking forward to learning even more this week!
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.
Today’s Curriculum Cafe
Another successful curriculum cafe today. Our cafes – facilitated by parents – provide an opportunity for parents to talk about their child’s learning and see some of their latest and best work. Comments from today’s cafe include:
“Children can talk openly about their work. Better than parents’ night.”
“Really good idea to hold these sessions. I find my daughter actually talks to me about what she finds difficult without moaning as she would at home. Basically, she’s willing to talk in a more mature manner. Great to see her work at school.”
“Nice to chat with my child in an informal manner over a cuppa and see school progress.”
“I like spending time with my mum looking at school work together”.
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
Invitation – St Nicholas Curriculum Cafe – Friday 5th of May
You are warmly invited to another of our curriculum cafes on Friday 5th of May (drop in from 10.45am until 12 noon). The purpose of this cafe is to encourage children to talk with parents – in an informal way over tea and a biscuit – about their school work. This gives our children the opportunity to talk about their learning and achievements so that they can be challenged, motivated and supported. Research shows that children being able to talk about their learning – and identify their next steps – is one of the biggest factors in educational success. Comments from parents at our previous cafe include:
“A great way to take time to have this discussion with your child – I never seem to get much time to do this normally.”
“It was a good opportunity to have a 1-1 with my child. It was a good in depth conversation!”
“Great to be involved so you can keep up with child’s development as they progress through the school.”
” It was useful for me to know where to help my child to improve.”
“Great idea. Nice to calmly discuss learning with children and see their work. Thank you.”
We look forward to seeing you on Friday.
Nursery Transition
The Preschool children have been enjoying visiting the Primary 1 classrooms as part of their transition into Primary 1. They have been visiting in groups and have been listening to lots of exciting stories!
The children have loved visiting the classrooms and are looking forward to doing some activities in their new classrooms over the next few weeks. The current Primary 1 will also be joining our Preschoolers during some of their activities to assist with transition.
Take a look at some of our pictures 🙂
P2’s Very Hungry Caterpillars
P2 got some very exciting post at the beginning of the week. We received some Painted Lady caterpillars! We were very surprised and happy.
We are keeping the caterpillars in our cupboard because they can’t be in direct sunlight and they need to be somewhere warm.
We have been checking on our caterpillars everyday and they have been getting bigger and bigger! We are looking forward to seeing how big they are when we come back on Tuesday. Some might even have formed their chrysalis!
Here are some facts that we have learned about caterpillars so far:
Anna- a mother butterfly lays an egg and then a caterpillar hatches out of it.
Freyja- a caterpillar sheds it’s skin.
Michael- Painted Lady caterpillars are black and yellow and a little bit grey.
Liam- the caterpillars form a chrysalis.
Zofia- the caterpillar has 6 true legs at the front of their body.
Alicia- they have hooks on their true legs.
Niamh- they have false legs at the back but they still use them to move around.
Lucia- they breath through spiracles. They are circles and they look like holes all over their body.
Lara- they have spikey hair called setae which protects them from birds and spiders.
Catherine- they eat a lot.
Thomas- they have a big mouth.
Matthew- they form a J shape when they are ready to make a chrysalis.
Here are some pictures of our caterpillars :).
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.
P7 Happy Campers
Hi everyone,
Another fantastic day with abseiling, 3G swings, den building and the leap of faith. All children are having a blast and are looking forward to their last night with a choice of a movie or disco. We’re back tomorrow and will be in touch tomorrow morning – through the school office – with details of our estimated arrival time back at St Nicholas. Pictures of children not featured here to follow…
See you all tomorrow.
P5 STEM- Volcano Experiment
Primary 5 have been learning all about Volcanoes as part of our Natural Disaster topic. We designed our own volcanoes to help us carry out our experiment.
Eve- “It was fun and I liked the explosions.”
Owen- “Destruction!”
Jack- “I really liked making the volcanoes.”
Ava- “Me, Taylor and Niamh had great fun making the volcanoes.”
Charlotte- “It was a nice and fun experience.”
Filip- “It was fantastic to see the explosions.”
Anna- “I had so much fun watching the volcanoes explode.”
P7 Broxburn Academy Camp Update
Hi everyone,
Just to let you know that our P7s have settled well into life at camp. We’re getting plenty of fresh air, exercise and sleep. They are all having fun and enjoying meeting new friends. As usual, they are a credit to their parents, their teachers and their school. We’re very busy here with activities timetabled constantly with very little down time – from first thing in the morning until last thing at night – but we’ll try and give you another update tomorrow.
Bye for now!
St Nicholas Has Got Talent
Thank you to the boys and girls of St Nicholas for showcasing their talent with us today. What a wonderful way to end the term! Have a lovely Easter everyone and see you all back bright eyed and bushy tailed on Tuesday the 18th of April!
P6b’s Got Talent
Well done Molly and Shaelyn for your outstanding singing in the school’s talent show.
We really enjoyed it! 🙂
DOJO prizes in p2b
Well done to the children who chose Lunch with the Teacher this week. Thank you for working hard and earning lots of DOJO points. Miss Miller is very proud of you. We had a lovely lunch!
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.
Fantastic Football Tournament
Well done to the St Nics school football team for another fantastic tournament! You all played very well and did our school proud. Great effort everyone. 🏅⚽️😄
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!
P1’s Adventures at Edinburgh Castle.
P1 had a fantastic time at Edinburgh Castle earlier on today . We saw lots of the things that we have been learning all about including , the ‘Crown Jewels’ , ‘Mons Meg’ and the ‘One o’ clock Gun. We also looked at ‘The Great Hall’ , the ‘Castle Jail’, ( this was a favourite) and spent some quiet time in ‘St Margaret’s Chapel’. Special thanks to our lovely helpers who came along today. We hope that you all had as much fun as we did!
P3 Dynamic Earth Trip! 🌏
P3 have had a fantastic day at Dynamic Earth! We really enjoyed the tour, showdome and workshop and we learned lots of interesting new facts about our planet. Big thanks to all our adult helpers who came along too!
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!
Broxburn Cluster P7 Football Festival
Primary 7 spent a very wet and windy morning at the Broxburn Cluster Football Festival.
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.
St Nicholas in the news
See the latest press coverage of Archbishop Leo Cushley’s recent visit to P4. The article appeared in the Catholic Observer 17.3.17
P3 Class Party
On Friday, P3a enjoyed a class party as they had earned a whopping 6000 class Dojo points! They enjoyed some party games, music, dancing and tasty treats!
Well done P3!
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!
Malawi, Malawi, Malawi!
This week Primary 2 have been very busy! We were lucky enough to visit the library for a talk about Malawi, have a talk about Mrs Renshaw’s trip to Malawi and began to sort all of the items for our Malawi Appeal.
Primary 2 want to share what they have learned:
Lara – the water in lake Malawi is dirty and if you swam in it it could make you ill.
Liam – Moni means hello in Chichewa.
Flynn – Bambo means father in Chichewa.
Catherine – Mayi means mother in Chichewa.
Leon – The weather is boiling hot!
Mya – There is a big mountain.
Thomas – People live until they are around 55 in Malawi.
Safaa – The ladies wear a Chitenji which is a nice dress.
Lucas Curran – The people are poor but they are very happy.
Lucia – The school in Malawi doesn’t have much stuff but they will get some stuff from our Malawi Wee Bag Appeal.
Michael – Malawi is a land locked country.
Oliver – Malawi is known as the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’.
Santiago – Zikomo means thank you.
Martyna – They don’t have walls in their schools.
Adam – The stars in Malawi are really bright.
Freyja – It took Mrs Renshaw 2 days to climb the mountain in Malawi.
Matthew – There is over 17 million people living in Malawi.
We have had lots of fun learning all about Malawi!
P3b Presentations!
Well done to P3b on their amazing climate zone presentations. Here are some pictures of us presenting!
P7 Tobacco Education Showcase
Primary 7 would like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who came along to support this event. We really enjoyed sharing our learning with you.
Special thanks to NEIL GORMAN from PIGGY PRINT who made our banner for us and MICHELLE SUTHERLAND from WLDAS for all her help. Thanks also to RAB SNEDDON who came along from NHS SCOTLAND.
Book day dress up in P3!
P3 have had lots of fun taking part in the book week activities this week! It has been great learning about one another’s favourite books. Here we are dressed as our favourite characters! 📚 
Continue reading Book day dress up in P3!
Curriculum Cafe
Our hall was packed today with families talking about learning with their children. The purpose of the cafe was to encourage children to talk with parents – in an informal way over tea and a biscuit – about their school work. This gives our children the opportunity to talk about their learning and achievements so that they can be challenged, motivated and supported.
Some comments from parents:
“A great way to take time to have this discussion with your child – I never seem to get much time to do this normally.”
“It was a good opportunity to have a 1-1 with my child. It was a good in depth conversation!”
“Great to be involved so you can keep up with child’s development as they progress through the school.”
” It was useful for me to know where to help my child to improve.”
“Great idea. Nice to calmly discuss learning with children and see their work. Thank you.”
We hope to see you at our next cafe on 21st of April (drop in between 10.40 and 12noon)
“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!
Wonderful Costumes
What a great variety of outfits today, Primary 4. I have been taking notes to give me ideas for next year.
Primary 7 visit to the Forth Bridges
Primary 7 had a fantastic day at the Forth Replacement Crossing learning lots about the Rail bridge, The Road bridge and the new Queensferry Crossing. They also took part in an engineering challenge where they built a giant tetrahedron bridge. 
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!
Special Visitor
Primary 2 were very excited to have a visitor in their classroom today. Mr Hay (Michael’s Dad) lived in Africa for a while, so came in to share his experiences with us. He took us on an amazing safari where we saw lots of different animals including; hippos, antelopes, elephants and leopards.
Mr Hay told us lots of interesting facts about the animals that he had saw on the safari. He told us that elephants walk on their tip toes, elephants in Africa have big ears to keep them cool and many many more!
P2 all loved going on our safari adventure and thought that Mr Hay was fantastic!
Primary 1’s Book Week
Primary 1 have been having a great Book Week so far.
We have been reading lots of books in class, with our teacher, with our friends, with nursery children and with our primary 7 buddies. We also took some of our favourite books outside to read in the sunshine today.
We’ve had lots of fun book related activities, including painting and other art activities related to some of our favourite stories.
We have been decorating our door like a book too – we are trying to win a ‘Dress Your Door’ competition against the rest of the school (of course, ours are by far the best!).
We helped write the first chapter of a ‘School Story’ – the rest of the school will continue and finish the story.
We have also been doing lots of fab writing related to and inspired by some of our favourite books.
We’ve also been bringing in some fab photos of our ‘extreme reading’ for the competition – the winner will be announced on Friday.
There’s still lots more to come, including a school carousel (where we will hear some stories from other teachers in the school, and finally, we are really looking forward to dressing up as our favourite book character on Friday.
Primary 4 visit to the library
Primary 4 have made good use of the fact that the library is now located in the Strathbrock. They enjoyed visiting the library today for a chat about The Rainforest.
Special Visitor
On Tuesday they had a very important visitor, Archbishop Cushley. The children made him a lovely prayer book and also had a sweet treat for him to enjoy after Lent.
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.
