Hi Primary 6,

I hope you’re all having a lovely day in the snow.  If you’re looking for something to do I’ve suggested a few activities below:

Literacy: My Snow Day Recount

Write a recount about what you have been doing on your snow day today. Remember the features we looked at in the football match recount and wrote in our Blackridge Walk recounts. You can write it on paper, Microsoft Word or even Sway!

To make your recount even better, make sure you’ve been out to enjoy the snow and then you can tell me all about it!

You should include:

• A title – grab the reader’s attention
• First paragraph – introduce your recount and give the reader an idea of what it’s about. Maybe include an opinion. Make the reader want to read on!
• Main part of text – write it in chronological order (the order it happened). Remember all the important details. Include your opinions and feelings, maybe even a quote (what someone said – remember speech marks!)
• Conclusion – summarise your recount.
• Use headings to separate your paragraphs.
• Include pictures or photos if you want to engage your reader even more.

Maths : Snowy Volume

Keep up your skills in measuring volume.

• You could estimate how much snow is in a container, a handful or even a snowball. Then measure it to see if you were right. Let it melt – does the volume change? Why or why not?
• Make some 3D shapes with the snow then calculate their volume – measure their length, breadth and height then multiply them.

You could practise some other areas of measure too, for example:

• Measure the height of your snowman
• Calculate the area of your snow-covered garden
• Weigh your snowball. Does the weight change when it melts? (Don’t let it melt all over the house!)

Can you come up with some other measuring activities? Let me know!

Of course, a bit of times tables practice never goes amiss.

Naturecam competition

We need to start getting organised with our video. Without giving too much away in public before the final production (!) you could be having a think about the following:

• A to do list. What do we need to get organised? What do we need to think about? What tasks need done? What jobs could people take on?
• The video. What do you think the end project should look like? A lot will depend on what the camera catches but can you come up with a rough idea of what order it will go in and how we can put it all together? What will it contain?
• Research task – can you find out about the habitats of the animals we’ve seen so far (or hope to see) and how they have adapted? How will they cope in the snow?

Enjoy your day, make sure you get some time out in the snow and keep warm!

See you tomorrow,

Miss Reid

Primary 6 visited Blawhorn Moss with Beechbrae and Scottish National Heritage to find out about the plants that live there. This is what they had to say:

We arrived at Blawhorn Moss on Tuesday 24^th October.  Sammy, David and Amy took us up there.  When we arrived Sammy went through the rules and then we walked through the puddles to the bog!  A Labrador even tried to eat us!  (Miss Reid says this isn’t quite true!)  We got clipboards and some sheets and we had to identify as many plants as we could.  We did a bounce test on the solid ground and then on the peat bog to compare.  When we were doing it on the peat bog it was vibrating like jelly because it soaks up so much water.  When we were on the bog we were talking about what different plants were used for.  The plants were heather, sphagnum moss, star moss, sundew and cranberry.  We learned that the plants can only grow on the moss because they have adapted to the environment to get all the nutrients they need.  The sphagnum moss helps the other plants because it soaks up all the water and gives them the amount of water they need and soaks up the rest.  We had to try to identify the plants we had seen to see if we remembered them.  Soon after when we went on the bog David got a handful of sphagnum moss and showed us how much water was in it.  We measured how far down the peat goes and it was 3 metres.  That means the bog had been there for 3000 years!  We saw that there used to be a farm and we saw a ruined house.  David told us that there was a part of the ground where it went up and down and that was where the farm was.  The furrows were where the farmer watered and the ridges were where they planted the crops.  We did a game at the end called Bats and Moths, we were blindfolded and tried to catch the moth using echolocation.

We loved our day at Blawhorn Moss. Thanks David, Amy and Sammy!

Since we came back we have been learning about how plants stay alive in the rainforest and how they have adapted to their habitat. We have been linking our learning to plants on Blawhorn Moss!

We’ll be back next week so look out for a further update and some photos!

Today Primary 6 enjoyed a history re-enactment workshop about life as a Jacobite.  Costumes Interpreter Hugh reminded us about the Jacobite campaign and then showed us some objects from the 18^th century.  We certainly had some interesting ideas working out what they were!  Then we dressed each other up in a féileadh-mór – a great kilt, which was a lot harder to put on that you might think!

To celebrate World Book Day, Primary 6 have been enjoying reading Dracula, an Usborne Classics Retold novel.  We have been looking at some of the themes in the novel, such as the Victorians’ concerns about modern medicine and science and the superstitions and folklore around vampires.

We have also been using our Higher Order Thinking Skills to analyse some of Bram Stoker’s original text.  We have been reading Bram Stoker’s descriptions of Dracula and his castle and then showing our understanding by creating our own castle and life-size Draculas.  The classroom is starting to get pretty spooky!

Primary 6 went around Blackridge to investigate the physical landscape of the area.  We used maps to find out where we were, to read grid references and to look at the contour lines.  Contour lines show you how steep a hill is and we compared the maps with the landscape.  We saw the quarry and Westrigg park. We went to Westcraigs hill and looked at it from different angles.  We saw the old water filter station on the hill.  We went to the burn and talked about how erosion and deposition change the shape of rivers.  We found a strange We tried to go to the museum but it was closed, we’ll have to go another day.  We took photos and drew sketches of the landscape.  Miss Reid let the class lead the way even though she didn’t always trust where we were going!  Miss Reid was very proud of the behaviour of the class when they were representing the school in the community.

Primary 6 have been assigned by Mrs Ross to hold an event for Children In Need. We have started to sell Pudsey ears for £2.50 at the tuck shop. You are also invited to dress up in spotty clothes on Friday for a £1 donation to Children In Need. On the day we will be doing a spotty treasure hunt for 20p. We will also be doing a spot the goalie for 20p. In the staff room we will put up a poster for spot the cake. We will come round the classes on Friday or Monday to tell you how much we raise.

Sophie, Keira and Chloe
Primary 6

Primary 6 showed what a talented bunch they are today when they used their assembly to present their learning in science. We have been learning about various inventors and how they have made our lives safer, easier or more fun with their inventions. Then we created our own inventions to help to solve a problem we had identified. Today, Ant (Ellie) and Dec (Thomas), with the help of the rest of Primary 6, introduced their new show Inventors Have Talent, to tell the rest of the school community all about what we have learnt. Well done Primary 6!

Primary 6 have received a letter from William Wallace. He’s worried Edward I is about to invade Scotland and is looking for our help. We’ve been working in our ‘clans’ to research life in the Middle Ages, to prepare to join William Wallace in the event of an invasion!