Primary 3/2 went out this morning to investigate the frost!

Jack frost had visited our playground over night and we were lucky to be able to go out and see all the changes the weather had left us.

We used all of our senses to come up with amazing WOW words for the frost! Then using our magic pens, we wrote them in the frost!

Well done p3/2.

Just a little reminder that the Christmas Post Box will be open from Monday 3rd December until Wednesday 19th December.  If you choose to post your Christmas Cards, please remember to put your friends’ names and class on the front of the envelope so that they get delivered to the correct person.

The Nurture Group have made a brand new, shiny, Christmassy Post Box for your cards and it will be placed in the front foyer as usual. 

Happy Posting!

P3/2 were over the moon today when they received a very special piece of post.

Many months ago the class had written to Edinburgh author Alexander McCall-Smith, after we had read his novel  ‘Calculator Annie’. The children loved the story and were very excited to be able to share this by letter with the author.

This morning a magical letter arrived, along with a signed copy of his new book.

Thank you so much to Dr McCall-Smith for his kinds words, and we look forward to reading this new adventure in class.

As our topic “The world in my shopping basket” came to an end, we decided to try some of the items from around the world that we had been talking about. We made fruit kebabs! It was fun tasting lots of different fruits, some which some of us had never tried before, and we all made sure that we got lots of different tastes!!! (Some were more successful than others). Not that we have put our hand to ‘cold’ cookery, all that awaits us is the ‘hot’ type….roll on banana loaf!!!

Today saw the launch of the Nurture Group’s very own Blog page.  The page will be updated regularly by the pupils involved to share their learning with you.  You can access the blog by clicking on ‘Nurture Group Blog’ at the side of this post.  The blog URL was also on the Nurture Group newsletter that was sent home as a family letter today.

This morning at Community Time, we had a very lively and interactive start to Road Safety Week. As well as discussing ways to keep safe this winter on the roads (and on bikes and in cars), we measured out stopping distances in the hall. Did you know a car at 30 mph takes 23 metres to stop? That’s the same as 6 car lengths!
We also met our new JRSO team – Tanya, Jordan, Demi, Baley, Kerry and Ellie. They enthusiastically introduced themselves and spoke about some of the things they are planning to do in their role.

This week’s target is to ‘show road sense’ and as well as the JRSOs keeping an eye our for this, we have enlisted Belle our lollipop lady to catch good road sense all week, to celebrate on Friday.

More fun and info @ www.jrso.com/

Stoneyburn Primary’s Nurture Group got up and running only four weeks ago, but already the boys and girls involved have been doing some fantastic work and are working so hard to develop strategies and skills in preparation for their move to the Academy.

A lot of work over the past few weeks has been done on setting up the Nurture Group so that it is a happy environment for all and so that the time spent in the group is purposeful and meaningful. The boys and girls have all worked hard to identify good choices that have to be made whilst at the group.

Currently, the group are working on a ‘Nurture Group Newsletter’ which will be sent home next week with the aim of giving you all a better understanding of the work of the Nurture Group. Please look out for this important newsletter and have a read so that you can see all the important work being carried out.

A page will be added to our school blog also, which the children will be responsible for updating regularly. More info to follow.

Thank you to everyone so far that has offered kind words of support and encouragement to the children involved; it means a lot to them and helps to keep them motivated and confident about the work they are doing.

Something very exciting happened in P3/2 and p2/1 last term. One very rainy afternoon, while the children were at assembly, a dragon visited the playroom. A scroll was left for the children, asking them to help the friendly dragon to rebuild fairyland so that all the fairytale characters would have a new home. This is where the magic began…..

The children worked extremely hard to bring the fairytales back to life and in doing so have developed skills and achieved success in literacy, numeracy and expressive art.

To showcase their work two events were held at the school. On Monday 8^th September, Fairyland was officially opened by Mr McDermott (HT) and parents were invited for a “champagne” reception followed by an array of activities to enjoy with their child.

The children showed their parents all of their work, and participated in lots of activities like castle building, making gingerbread men and putting on a puppet show. The afternoon was a great success and the children recieved lots of positive feedback.

During the October break, the children all received an invitation from the friendly dragon, to attend ‘Cinderella’s Royal Ball’. The children arrived at school in the evening dressed as their favourite fairytale character, and were amazed at the transformation of their dining hall and gym hall. The children performed a royal ballroom dance for their parents and guests and there was not a dry eye in the house.

Last week saw all pupils learning about money and finance at Stoneyburn Primary School as part of West Lothian’s Money Week. All pupils had a busy week with a range of activities aimed at developing pupils’ awareness of how money is spent or saved.

Primary 2/1 and Primary 3/2

Primary 2/1 and 3/2 had a focus on developing their awareness of the types of coins available, what they look like and how much they are worth. They played a variety of games and participated in activities that allowed them to use coins.

Primary 4/3

Primary 4/3 were also learning about different types of coins and how to use them through a range of game based activities. They also played an online game where they had to earn and spend money ( www.moneyville.co.uk)

Primary 5/4

Primary 5/4 were learning about money through a family called The Sterlings. They found out about how the family earns and spends money and participated in activities helping the family to spend and save their money wisely. Primary 5/4 also participated in games to develop their awareness of pounds and pence.

The Sterling Family

Primary 6/5

Primary 6/5 discussed the difference between necessities and luxuries and identified where money should be spent first. They were learning about how money was used before coins were developed and saw some strange money, such as beaver pelts, eggs, shell money and tea bricks. Primary 6/5 then investigated how notes were made and what security features are present on modern British notes. They then had the opportunity to design their own range of coins and notes for the future. Finally they were learning about budgeting and had to plan a holiday which involved choosing flights, accommodation, food, leisure activities and insurance all on a budget.

Primary 7

Primary 7 focussed for a lot of the week on the saving of money. They had visits from a Credit Union representative who shared how the Credit Union is run. Primary 7 then used this information to design a range of posters and to make an assembly which was shared with the whole school. Primary 7 also were learning about how coins are designed and made and the features of modern British notes. They also had the opportunity to design coins and notes.

Yesterday, all the children at Stoneyburn Primary School had an opportunity to participate in the Zoo Lab experience.  A representative from the company brought some exciting creatures to show our children and giving them the opportunity to hold or touch them if they wanted too.

The event was a great success and the children really enjoyed holding the animals and learning some interesting fact about each animal.  We had many brave children who wanted to hold all the animals, including a giant millipede, cockroach, milk snake and toad.  A tarantula and a scorpion were also shown to the children but kept in their boxes for safety reasons.