Category: School Updates

Health

This week we had a visit from Mark, who through our Headstrong sessions, is helping us with our mental health.

Kyle – We learnt about how other people might see us.

PE

Cameron – I enjoyed our last week of hockey. I now feel more confident in big games.

Bella – I enjoyed the hockey.

Numeracy

This week we learnt about money. In particular we learnt about the risks, costs and benefits of using cash, credit cards and debit cards.

Bailey – I liked learning about credit cards. You can spend large amounts!

Bella – But you can get a big bill! If you forget to pay you have to pay more.

Literacy – Writing

We worked with a partner to plan an exciting science fiction story. This will be written up next week.

Coding

This week we placed a timer in our coding sequence.

Outdoor Learning!

One of our favourite activities this week was Green Gym outdoor learning with Alice. It was our last session so as a special treat we had a fire and ate toasted marshmallows and popcorn!

We even had a go at starting our own fires by using flint and steel and cotton covered with vaseline.

This was really tricky!

Anton, Kyle, Hope and Emily were great fire starters!

The marshmallows were delicious.

Bella – My mouth was covered in cream!

Hope – It looked like a meteroid!

Alexis didn’t like marshmallows so Miss Stanway got hers!

The popcorn was also tasty.

Kykle – The popcorn was very good!

 

Coding

Bailey – Learning to make sounds was fun!

Participation Friday!

We are painting rocks to sell and hide in the community. They have a positive message on them.

Hope – My rock turned out better than I thought! It was a bee and it says BEE HAPPY!

As part of LGBTQ+ month we discussed the importance of respect and tolerance.

Anton used the Kepla in friendship time to spell this out:

Literacy

We learnt about how important adverbs are when writing.

As part of our narrative science-fiction writing unit we imagined a planet and practised describing in detail.

Reading – We consolidated our prediction skills in group reading.

Maths

We learnt about how to create repeating patterns using shape and made some for our partners to complete.

Bailey – I liked designing posters about triangular and square numbers.

Topic

On Thursday it was ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’.

Jaxson – I liked the video we watched about Holocaust heroes who saved so many Jewish people.

Hope – We learnt about propoganda which was persuasive posters designed to make people help win the war.

Kyle – I liked doing the propoganda posters but I was not prepared for the air raid siren this week!

Bailey – I liked the ‘Dig for Victory’ poster because it would make people healthy.

P.E.

Isabella – I am proud of my hockey skills – my passing and scoring. Also I got the star award this week!

Smart Starts – This week we have been playing Wordle every day. It is a game where you have to work out the unknown word. On Friday we solved the daily puzzle in just 4 tries! You might want to try : https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/

Numeracy

This week was Patterns and Sequences focus week. We learnt about square numbers.

Bailey – I liked making patterns using shapes for my partner to continue.

In addition we also learnt more about rounding numbers.

PE

Bella – I enjoyed hockey and learnt how to dribble and pass. Now I need to get better at scoring.

Coding with Mrs Buntin

Emily – It was fun using the Bee Bots.

Bailey – I enjoyed coding and learnt how to make my own game.

Topic

Cameron – I enjoyed finishing my PowerPoint as part of our WW2 topic. It was about the blitz.

Bud!

We had a visit from Poppy Scotland who brought a van called Bud. We even got to make our own poppies and learnt a lot!

Alexis – I enjoyed learning about the death coin which was given when people passed away.

The World War One Memorial Plaque was made from Bronze and hence it was popularly known as the “Dead Man’s Penny” among front-line troops, also becoming widely known as, the “Death Penny”, “Death Plaque” or “Widow’s Penny”.

Bailey – We have had a great week doing lots of Christmas activities and arts and crafts.

Emily – Today we are looking forward to watching Goodnight Mr Tom.

This is part of our WW2 topic.

Last week we picked 3 children – BT,IH and PJ to represent us in Deans’ Got Talent.

They did a brilliant job and we were really proud of them.

Finally, we all want to wish you :

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

See you next year!

Silent Disco

We had a great time during our silent disco.

Christmas Lunch

Emily – It was cool.

We got to wear our Christmas jumpers.

Miss Stanway – The macaroni cheese was delicious.

We have also been working hard too!

STEM Challenges

All week we have been completing STEM activities.

K-I liked building an igloo with marshmallows and cocktail sticks.

Art/Craft

We made a Christmas card based on a picture of the Grinch.

Debbie – I liked using the pastels.

Emily – I gave mine to someone in P7 and she said it was really cool.

Hope – Making the Christmas cards was fun.

RME

After watching the younger children perform their nativity (which was a recording) we chose to either draw a picture of the nativity scene or research Christmas traditions from around the world.

Bailey – I enjoyed the drawing.

Health

Debbie – I liked researching about Paralympians

Cameron – My Paralympian has 37 medals altogether. They are a swimmer.

Hope – We learnt they are proud, hard-working and resilient.

Emily – We researched Sam Kinghorn who was paralyzed at the age of 14 in an accident. She is a racer.

Rugby

Hope – We practised passing and this week learnt that you had to pass to the side or backwards.

Literacy

We have continued to read our group novels and practised our reciprocal reading strategies.

 

Health

We discussed why people bully and strategies to deal with bullying.

As part of this learning we role-played different situations.

Maths and Numeracy

In number talks we consolidated our addition skills.

On Tuesday we played an addition and subtraction loop game.

Jaxson and Naavah came first! They won 5 raffle tickets each.

We also experimented with chance and probability in a dice rolling experiment.

Literacy

Reading

After reading the next section of our group novel we designed our own book cover.

Bella – I drew a spaceship with a dog inside barking. There was an alien in it. The alien said ‘shut up dog!’

Digital Learning Day

On Thursday we were able to practise various skills.

Hope – I enjoyed the scratch coding activity. I learnt how to put blocks together to make things move.

Bella – I enjoyed practising my typing skills. I scored over 100 point and had 5 stars.

Emily – I was proud of my typing – I got lots of ‘Well Dones. We learnt how to type without looking at the keys.’

Topic

We have started to present our WW2 research in a PowerPoint! These are going to look great!

Rugby

Bella – It was my first time playing and I thought I was good at passing and catching.

 

Numeracy

This week we worked hard practising all of our maths and numeracy skills in a Sumdog Competition against classes in schools across West Lothian. We were able to score individually and as a whole class.

Jaxson – At one point I was in 2nd place!

On the first day of the competition we were in first place and received a certificate in recognition of all our hard work. It is a PDF document and if you click here : sumdog certificate hopefully you can see it.

Eventually when the competition finished we came fourth and Mrs Stewart gave the class ten minutes extra play as a reward. (Extra coffee for Miss Stanway!)Some of us had even been on Sumdog at home in order to help the whole class.

We alo worked on the concept of chance and probability which is the likelihood of something happening. These are some of the words we used:

Alexis : impossible  Cameron : even chance

We came up with fun examples:

Hope – It is impossible that I can fly (without equipment).

Lily E – In a set of 10 cards with the numbers 1-10 it is impossible that a 12 will be picked.

Jaxson – It is an even chance when flipping a coin that it will land on heads.

We also used more mathematical examples using numbers such as 1 in 6 and 1 in 8.

Loop Games

In our loop game this week we had to add decimals. You have to go around the room and find clues and work with your partner to complete the puzzle!

There are raffle tickets to be won for first,second and third place but we get help too if we need it!

Some of us won prizes for our work on addition this term.

Emily – I was surprised how well I did!

Alexis – I was proud of my addition score!

Literacy

Writing – We produced some great persuasive pieces about why we should save the planet.

We had our last online lesson with Mrs Cochrane and practised our summarising skills.

In group reading we consolidated our prediction skills.

Topic

We finished our WW2 timeline. Here is Callum and Emily organising their group’s dates.

This is just a part of the completed timeline!

Cameron – I enjoyed doing the WW2 timeline.

Outdoor Learning

We practised our teamwork skills and built dens!

Robbie had injured his thumb so he took the photos!

P.E. – Rugby

Piotr – I enjoyed playing rugby and improved my passing and catching skills.

Jaxson – I Was proud because I could spin the ball when throwing it.

Hope – I could spin the ball.