Tag Archives: STEM

Primary 1

Primary 1’s Week of Learning-10.02.22

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We have had a super week!

In Literacy, we have been revising our sounds and balloon words and using them to write short sentences. Our teachers are very impressed that we can do this, as well as remembering to use finger spaces and full stops. Wow! We have been reading our new books at home and in school, and we are noticing our sight words in the stories. We were learning about capital letters, so we know now when to use them correctly. We also wrote an imaginative story about: ‘A visit to the vet’. We were happy to write a few sentences, using our success criteria and tried to use the connective ‘and’ – it was not very tricky for us at all!

In Numeracy, we have been learning to count forwards and backwards to 30 in 2s and up to 100 in 5s and 10s. We were practising number bonds for 10 and 20. We also continued to practise addition and subtraction using Rekenreks and Numicon, 10 frames, number tracks and, also number lines. Some of us can now do this independently. We are successful and confident learners! We started to learn about data using pictograms, which we found a ‘piece of cake’ (get it?).

We have also enjoyed some STEM as we became inventors! We were learning about Scottish inventors e.g. Alexander Graham Bell ( who invented the telephone), Charles Macintosh( who invented the raincoat) or John Logie Baird ( who invented the television). We designed our own rockets, flying cars, shelters, phones and teddies. We had lots of fun doing this all out of recycled materials!

HWB- In PE we were practising our gymnastic skills! We found it very fun and sometimes tricky! This week is called Children’s Mental Health Week, so today we had a chance to ‘dress to express’ – and we loved it! This could happen every Friday! We were learning how to be a good friend and what we need to do to improve our ‘ good friendship skills’. We now know what to do.

In RE we were learning about Jesus and his 12 disciples, we know that most of them were very good friends to Jesus!

 

Have a good long weekend everyone!

 

Primary 2, Primary 3, School News

P3/2’s busy week

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This week in P3/2 we have been very busy.  Keep reading to find out more.

In Maths, we have been  have learning about capacity and volume. We know we can measure liquids in millilitres and litres. We know there are 1,000ml in 1 litre!

In Literacy, we have written recounts of our fiction books this week. We enjoyed creating these. In handwriting, we have been using the cursive script to write the days of the week.

In RERC, we have been learning about Jesus’ miracles. We have read the stories Jesus heals Peter’s Mother in Law and Jesus heals the Blind Man. We know Jesus was able to perform miracles as He is the Son of God. The people had great faith and trust in Jesus.

In Science, we have continued our Energy topic. This week we discussed light energy and why we need to look after the environment.

In Art, we have made Fathers’ Day cards this week, we enjoyed making these and following an Art Hub for Kids video. We also created a football art work where we drew different line patterns on a football using a handwriting pen. We used lots of different patterns.

In P.E, we enjoyed our potted sports events in our Sports Day. We all had lots of fun.

In STEM, we worked as a team to create a model of the Forth Road Bridge.  WE had to make it 3D.

Some highlights from the week have been the school barbeque, watching the P1 and P2/1 Assembly and watching the Scotland game on Monday.

Primary 2

Busy week in P2 :-)

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This week in literacy, we wrote our weekend news, learned about different rhymes and practised our spelling with the well–known strategy, ‘Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check’. Also, we did our personal statements (What I am best at, what I am proud of and what I have improved on.)

This week, we were taught about angles. We know now that an acute angle is under 90 degrees, a right angle is exactly 90 degrees and an obtuse angle is over 90 degrees, but below 180. Additionally, we practised some division and we were making 26 with the most efficient strategy possible.

Our continuous topic is Health and Wellbeing, Resilience. We know that a resilient person is one, who never gives up, always tries best, knows that after a ‘down’ in life, there is always an ‘up’. We were VERY resilient too – when we were doing the ‘mile a day ’. Although it was quite hot and doing 6 whole laps around the field is quite tiresome, we managed it in the end 🙂

As you may know, Pope Francis has asked everyone to pray to the Virgin Mary to end the coronavirus pandemic, therefore, we were praying to Mary, too.

It’s fun learning another language! This week we were still revising our knowledge of how to say numbers, colours and simple greetings in Spanish.

Lastly, we painted our very own pictures of the Eiffel Tower painting by George Seurat using paint and cotton swabs. Our paintings were very good, not as good as his!

 

Have a lovely weekend – and remember; we have Monday off! 🙂

Kind Regards,

Anna Koziel

Primary 2, Primary 3

First week back in P3/2

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P3/2 have had a busy first week back at school after the Easter holidays. We have been busy learning lots of new things.

In numeracy, we have been learning all about Area. We know that area is the space a shape covers. We have used counters and cubes to measure the area.  We have also counted squares to measure the area.

In Writing, we have been looking at writing a Narrative story. We know the structure of a narrative and we have used this to help us write a plan for our story. We had a go at writing a story about a lost pet. We have been learning all about fact and opinion and we know the difference between them. A fact is something that is true and can evidence to back it up.  An opinion is something you think and can change from one person to another.  We also continued to learn more about cursive script.

In Health and Wellbeing, we have been learning about self-regulation and coming up with our own calm down strategies when our emotions don’t feel so good.

In RERC, we have been learning about Jesus’ Resurrection. We listened to the story from the Bible and discussed it.

We started our new topic ‘Climate Zones’ and completed a KWL grid about what we already know, what we want to learn and how we would like to learn about climate zones.

We have learned an artist called Romero Britto. He used bright colours and patterns in his work. We enjoyed recreating his style in a lovely Spring picture of tulips.

We also looked at internet safety and why being safe on line is a right that we have and why it is important. We know it links to our right to privacy and safety.

In STEM, we created a new transport vehicle to move people or things around.  We thought about the problem, identified solutions and materials and then designed our model.

Primary 2, Primary 3

P3/2 hard at work

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P3/2 have had a busy term both at home and in school.  We have been working very hard since we returned to school.  Keep reading to find out what we have been doing.

In Numeracy and Mathematics, we have been learning about time over the last few weeks.  We have been reading the time on digital and analogue clocks. We took our learning outside and played times outdoors as well as indoors.  In number talks we have been trying to think of the most efficient strategy for addition problems.

In Literacy, we had been learning about poetry and the features in a poem.  We even managed to write our own poems about sounds. This week we worked with Mrs Scott to learn about Narrative story writing.  We know that you need a title, orientation, complication and resolution.  We created our own stories about a Little Hippo. We also learned more about self assessing our writing.  We know that we should check our writing targets and re-read our work to ensure we have covered all of our targets.

We have revised our class charter and discussed our rights as a child.  We know that we have rights and can list these rights. As a class we discussed Sustainable Development Goals and we decided that we would look at the Goal of Life on Land (number 15). We are going to try and make sure that we reduce litter in the playground. We thought if we continue to eat our snacks indoors that will reduce litter and we could organise a litter pick in the playground to keep the litter from building up in the playground.

We have been learning about the Egyptians this term.  We know why the River Nile is important, who Egyptian Pharaohs are, how they built pyramids and lived.  We also created a model of a pyramid and a shaduf as STEM challenges.  We have been reading books about Egyptians and mummies. We created beautiful art work of the pyramids and pharaohs.  We also learned to write our names in hieroglyphics.

In our RERC lesson we have been learning about choices, forgiveness and saying sorry.  The children in our class who are preparing for Reconciliation have been learning more about forgiveness and learning the Act of Sorrow prayer.

In Health and Wellbeing we have been learning about friendship.  We know the good qualities friends should have and what good friendships look like.  We discussed the importance of eye contact, turn taking and listening.  We played different games to help us with turn taking.

 

 

Primary 2

We had a lovely week!

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  • At literacy, we were learning about recount stories using First, Then, Next, Lastly. We tried to include all our success criteria: capital letters, finger spaces, full stops and wow words. We were practising our handwriting and now we know a new sound: ‘ph’ e.g. pharmacy, elephant, Sophie or photograph.
  • At maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes properties: faces, vertices and edges.
  • For RE, we have been learning about St Ruth and St Jude Thaddeus, we know how good these people were and that they listened to God.
  • In Spanish, we were reviewing our knowledge and we were learning how to say: ‘Can I go to the toilet, please?’ ‘Puedo ir al bano?’
  • In Science we were learning about senses, the first sense which we were learning about was hearing.
  • We also had a chance to do some experiments this week. We know that hand gel with alcohol is flammable so after using it we should not go too close to a fire. Next, we have drawn spiders on a tin foil, poured a little bit of water over it and our spiders became alive. J The most interesting was the experiment where we created a vacuum inside the upside-down glass with the help of a little candle.
  • We also did lots of activities with Mr Muldoon. PE was great!
  • We were learning about emotions. We know that we have lots of different emotions and that our bodies can react differently when we feel in a certain way.
  • Today we came dressed up in Halloween costumes – it was good fun. We decorated pumpkins and talked about how we celebrated Halloween last year as well as how it is going to look like tomorrow.

Have a good weekend everyone.

 

Mrs Koziel

 

Primary 2

Last week of the term…

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  • We have been practising our spelling with the sounds ‘oy’ and ‘oi’ with words like: toy, boy, avoid coin. We know now that the most ‘oy’ sounds are at the end of words and the most ‘oi’ sounds are in the middle of words
  • We were designing our houses as part of our topic, we were writing descriptions about the materials we need to build the house. We know that we need cement, bricks, sand, metal, glass etc.
  • We had outdoor learning where we made houses from natural materials we found or brought to school from parks. It was good fun.
  • In Science, we were learning about sliding and friction, which we found very interesting.
  • In maths, we were practising ‘double’ and ‘near double’ strategies and also ‘double add one’.
  • We were talking about Autumn – the current season – and we were writing Autumn poems.
  • In RE we were praying to Mary on the Rosary.
  • In Art, we were expressing ourselves painting the Monet’s Sunset. Well, we tried to.
  • We also practiced Spanish, we know now basic words such as; asi asi – so so, mal – bad, por favour – please, gracias – thank you, sentaos – sit down, silencio- silence and more.

Have a lovely holiday everyone,

Mrs Koziel

Primary 4

P4’s great week (28.9.2020)

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This is what our Primary 4s thought about their learning this week:

We were learning about Venn Diagrams. I think it was fun because it was fun go outside. I think learning about this was not tricky but not easy either.

We’ve been learning about silent texts as part of the West Lothian INspire challenge. It was fun because in writing we had to pretend that we were one of the birds in the story.

I enjoyed writing the recount about the birds because I liked the story.

I liked doing the internet safety poster.

I enjoyed logging onto Glow and exploring the different things like the mail and Sway. Our next steps are to remembering how to log onto Glow without any help.

I liked the STEM challenge – making paper aeroplanes and adding paperclips but still managing to make it fly. It was fun!

Primary 2, Primary 3

Our week in P3/2

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In P3/2:

  • This week we have been learning about Moses and the ten commandments. We know these are important rules that God gave to Moses to share with his people.
  • This week in STEM our challenge was to build a house. We discussed what a house would need and then we worked together to try and build a house using either lego or art straws.
  • We have been learning about fact families. We know that from one addition sum we can find 2 subtraction sums and another addition fact. We have been dice to play a game and a game on the laptops.
  • We have been practising our handwriting this week and practising the letters b and p.
  • We have been counting forwards and backwards in numeracy in 2s, 5s, and 10s.
  • We been looking at a picture and writing sentences about what we thought was happening in the picture. We had to use capital letters and full stops.
  • We have been making numbers  using our rekenreks and trying to calculate sums.
  • We created our own character and then wrote sentences to describe them.  we know we use adjectives  to describe a character in more detail.
  • The P3s were outside on Monday doing a science experiment with musical instruments. We had to think about when we could hear the noise.  We discovered the further away you are from the instrument the less you hear.
  • The p2s we were learning about forces and we were learning about twisting, pushing and pulling. we were using hula hoops to learn about forces.
  • This week we have also been raising money for Macmillan.  We have been guessing the number of sprinkles on a caterpillar cake, dressing down and designing a cup or cupcake.
  • This week we also learned about road safety and that we should be safe by following the rules – stop, look, listen and think.
Primary 6

Home Learning in Primary 6

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Primary 6 have been very busy this week with our online learning. We learned how to use brackets in numeracy to help us group numbers in order to work out the answer easily.

Our writing focus was creating a persuasive letter to the Council regarding our thoughts on graffiti. We looked at some of the debating issues around this topic and the work of the graffiti artist, Banksy.  The pupils produced very well thought out and mature opinions on the subject.

Graffiti – click this link to see our points of view.

Our Science work focused on chemical reactions as we used some household solutions to try and clean the copper oxide from some old 1p and 2p coins. The most effective solution was ketchup due to the mixture of acid and salt.

We developed our drawing skills by using a Disney animation tutorial to create portraits of Pluto and other favourite Disney characters.

In Spanish, we videoed ourselves having a conversation about our feelings and role playing two characters, it was lots of fun.

Well done Primary 6 ! We are very proud of your dedication to completing your tasks and thank you to our supportive parents too.

Primary 3, School News

P3’s week

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This week in P3 we have been:

  • We have been learning to take notes.   We know you don’t need to write full sentences with capital letters and full stops. We use bullet points.
  • We have been learning the 3 times table. The pattern in the answers is odd/even. We know that you add 3 each time.
  • We have been learning about patterns.
  • In handwriting we have been joining words like quickly, skipping and jump.
  • We had Mass on Wednesday for Ash Wednesday.  We know that we get ashes on our foreheads and it is the start of Lent. Lent is when we prepare for Easter and we try to give up something, or do more of something.
  • It was pancake day on Tuesday.
  • We learned about the 10 commandments that God gave to Moses. We know the 2 most important  rules are: love God and love your neighbour.
  • In Music, we learned about on the street music. we were learning about body percussion – clicking and clapping.
  • In Spanish, we learned about colours we love and don’t like.  We know how to say this in Spanish.
  • In P.E we were learning how to do knots and crosses. We were also playing ‘King ball’ which was a Kings and Queens game.
  • Yesterday we listened to a talk from a Robotics engineer. He has designed lots of different robots.
  • We also completed our engineering competition designs.
  • For writing we were learning how to write an opening.  we had to think of different openers and remember them.
  • We were learning about poems.  We listened to the poem and then drew pictures to go with the poem.

What a busy week! We can’t wait to see what we will learn next week.

Primary 3, School News

P3’s busy week

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This week in Art we have been making pictures and using pattern and colour to make our art work beautiful.

In numeracy we have been learning our 5 times table.  we know that it is counting in 5s and each time you add another 5 on. The pattern is that the numbers end in a zero or five.  we know that 5×10=50 and that is the same as 10×5=50.  it has an even and odd pattern.

In handwriting we have been joining m, n and s. In P3a, we were writing the word grandmother without lifting our pencil from the page. Some of us were very shocked that we could write such a  long word.

We have been looking at Broxburn for our topic. We have been learning about the features of the area. We made a map to show where things are.

We were learning to take notes in Literacy. We know that you don’t need to write proper sentences with full stops and capital letters. We use bullet points to write our notes.

We had visitors from Stantec to talk to us about engineering this week.  Sam and Gil are engineers – one is a water engineer and the other is a civil engineer. We learned that they design bridges, houses and design ways to stop flooding.  They talked to us about how long projects can take. They told us about different materials that can be used. We are now going to enter an engineering competition and we need to design something to make the world a better place.

In RERC we have been learning  about the parable of the ‘Lost sheep’. The sheep are each of us and the shepherd is God. We know that God always loves us and forgives us and wants us to be happy.

 

Primary 5, School News

P5’s week

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This week we have been very busy even though we have only been at school for 3 days!

Ellie- we designed and then made a stop and go sign.  We were only allowed to use one kitchen roll tube, 4 pieces of paper or card, 1 pair of scissors and sellotape per group. After we made the sign we had to write about how we made it.

Sam – we had visitor this week to see us complete a number talks lesson.

Connor – in Numeracy we have dividing and using the chunking method and expanded method to solve sums. I like the chunking method when dividing.

Paula – we had an author visit from David McPhail. He told us about Vikings. We had the chance to buy one of his books.

Leo – we looked at Mary and coloured in some stained glass windows and thought about we think of when we think of Mary.

Ciaran – in P.E we have been doing athletics and running races.  We have been sprinting and doping sprint starts.

Marwa – this week we did some reading routes and looked at punctuation.  we looked at why it was important and rated the authors use of punctuation.

Mirin – with Mrs Baty we started to make scratch projects and made the characters communicate with each other.

 

Primary 6

Learning and making 😁

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We have been taking part in a drawing and engineering contest.

In the drawing contest we had to draw what ever we want and John Byrne  would pick and it’s a Scotland competition and there is only 1st 2nd and 3rd.

in the engineering contest you have to think of something that people mmay struggle with daily and draw that invention then write a letter to Clydesdayl University to  persuede them to make your invention and win. 👍 🏅post by Maisie and Ethan

Primary 5

STEM – Elf House

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Primary 5 have been developing lots of skills whilst designing their Elf House.

Ethan – ” We had to make a house for an elf. The house had to provide him with a place to sleep, somewhere to eat, it had to be safe and cosy with lights.”

Grace – “It had to have a Christmas theme and look like a place where an elf would stay.”

Clara – ” We had to measure our elf so that we could design and make furniture to the correct size.”

Skye – ” We had to give our elf a name. We called them: Fifi, Merlin, Nick and Ellie.”

Isla G – ” We started off sharing all our ideas on a piece of paper and then planning the design of our house.”

Hubert – “We worked as a team. We had to listen to each other and encourage each other.”

Maya – ” We used boxes, straws, pompoms, fancy paper, tinfoil, lollipop sticks, cotton wool and electric lights. We used these things to create furniture, rugs, chimneys and plants.”

Harris – “It was great fun working together to make our Elf House. Each house is unique.”

Our elves are looking forward to moving into their new homes this week.

 

Primary 5

STEM – Bridge Building

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Today P5 were designing and building bridges using strong shapes. We had investigated famous bridges from all around the world and looked very carefully at the shapes used to make them fit for purpose.

Team Straw managed to support 4 cars on their bridge. Team Paper managed to support 7 cars and Team Spaghetti supported 3 cars.

Great team work all round.

 

 

Primary 5

Primary 5 – Apple Science

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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 !!

Primary 5

Butterfly Cycle Song

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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.

Primary 5

P5 STEM- Volcano Experiment

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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.”

Primary 5

P5 STEM – Germination

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

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

  • seed coat
  • germination
  • nutrients
  • photosynthesis

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

Primary 5

Primary 5 STEM – Testing Titanic

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

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

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

Primary 5

P5 STEM – Candy Cane Science

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

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Today Primary 5 made some scientific investigations using candy canes. First of all we placed one candy cane in a cup of cold water. We made a hypothesis regarding what would happen within 5 minutes and recorded our observations during that time frame. We repeated the experiment using warm water and then again using oil. We were interested to find out if our predictions would be correct. Then we watched a short clip showing the manufacture of a candy cane. Finally we were then able to draw our conclusions based on the information about the ingredients as to why the candy cane dissolved in water.

Several children were keen to repeat this experiment at home using different solutions such as milk, fizzy juice, vinegar and fruit juice. I wonder what will happen ?