This week has been a busy and exciting, we have been learning about how Robinson Crusoe may have spent his time on the island. We went outdoors each afternoon and only using scrap materials and things we could find around the playground made kites, pictures and tall structures.

For each activity we had to work in teams; we had to cooperate with all members of our teams as Mr Reed was looking at how well we worked in groups. All groups made and flew their kites, some managed to fly really high others not quite so high. The art activity allowed us to make pictures or structures that required lots of imagination. The competition to make the tallest structure was great fun but difficult as they kept falling down.

On Friday we all went outside to fly our kites together this was great fun although the wind was so strong it kept snapping the strings. All the kites flew really well today. Mr Reed was impressed at our finished kites and how well we had made bits of rubbish fly!!

Our kites were definitely better than any that Robinson made.

It is safe to say that Mr Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory has certainly been opened to our class. We went to Gooey Events in Livingston as we had won a visit thanks to Rachel’s mum who had entered our class into a competition that they were running. We all clambered into the coach excited about what delicious delights lay ahead.

When we arrived at the ‘factory’ we were met by Alison who showed us to where we could leave our coats before heading into the ‘inventing’ room. We spent some time learning about the different types of chocolate which of course we all had to try to taste for ourselves the differences and also about Fairtrade a topic which we really impressed Alison with our knowledge about.

After a short break it was back to the ‘inventing’ room where we were given a chocolate ‘pizza’ base and some sweets that we used to create a face. This was a very sticky, fun and tasty session as most of us tested some of the sweets we were using.

We then had to use our entrepreneurial skills to create a sweet and an advert for it, we worked in small groups to demonstrate our group work before presenting our idea to the rest of the class. This was great fun and the sweets all sounded amazing.

We finished our visit with a quiz about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a book we all know very well having just read it. We all scored so well Alison then continued the quiz about sweets that are available in shops today.

The whole day was great fun and we are looking forward to eating our chocolate pizzas tonight when we get home.

Our thanks again to Rachel’s mum for winning us the trip.

Primary 5

The day had finally arrived for us to say goodbye to the brown trout. Over the last six weeks we had grown fond of our class pets and enjoyed seeing them grow and become frys, an incredible transformation from the eggs that were given to us all those weeks ago.

Amy split the fish into bags to allow each of us to take responsibility for a few fish as we walked them down to a local river which we were later told was a nursery river for brown trout.

We dressed in waterproof jackets and trousers as the weather was very changeable and no one wanted to get wet or cold. We then set off with mixed emotions.

Arriving at the river, we were met by several members of the fishing club who had created a learning space next to the river. Mr Reed split us into three groups and we went off to our stations.

Station 1 was an opportunity to see close up some of the insects that live in the river, we saw lots of freshwater shrimps, caddis fly larva, stonefly nymphs, mayfly nymphs and even a leach.

Station 2 was an area to learn a little more about the river and the work that goes on to keep it healthy, we were upset to see the amount of litter that the guys had cleared in just ten minutes.

Station 3 was where our fish were to be released into the river. Amy took charge of this station and we said our goodbyes and carefully put them into a large container which was then slowly emptied into the river.

Our project has ensured that over 120 young brown trout have been given the best start in life and hopefully will grow and have many more young.

Primary 5

This has been a fantastic week for us in Primary 5, we have had such fun in our learning.

Monday we went to the Loch to meet Rosie and Melissa who are both rangers and teach children about wildlife. They played games with us to help us understand more about the food chains that are in the Loch. We played bird bingo using binoculars, we had to spot particular birds that live around the Loch, some of them were really hard to spot but we tried our best. We learnt more about the water cycle and also considered how many different ways our Loch gets polluted.

We began writing our version of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe this week which we have been preparing for over the past few weeks, this was great fun as we are able to make the story our own but keeping to the ‘bones’ of the story.

World book day was amazing in Primary 5; Mr Reed encouraged us to lose ourselves in a book of our choice. We were able to chill out and enjoy reading, something Mr Reed often encourages us to do.

This week we are making arrangements to say goodbye to our fish, they are growing so fast that it is time to release them into a local stream. Amy had to come to our class to provide us with special food as the fish have lost their yolk sacks now so need feeding daily. When we release them on Tuesday we will be meeting some volunteers who will teach us more about the water and life around the stream.

Next week we also have a trip to a chocolate experience where we will be learning more about our topic of sustainability.

Primary 5

As we approach the end of another busy week, we are reminded about all of the fun learning that has taken place through the week.

Our week has had a data focus and we have been finding out different ways to collect and display data. We even created human block graphs to show our favourite foods (Mr Reed is obsessed with food). We carried out surveys in class as well as a whole school survey about St. Joseph’s favourite pets. We then used this data to create a block graph. We had to think about the scale we would use as there were lots of responses to take into consideration.

We enjoyed our Futsal session and through the games we played, it was clear that we have learnt lots of new skills.

The alevins have changed lots over the week and are developing markings and fins. They have begun to lose their yolk sack so will soon be needing to be released into the river for the next stage of their life.

We are looking forward to our educational visit to the Loch on Monday and are excited to see Rosie again and learn from her more about life around the loch.

Mr Reed keeps dropping hints about another school trip that will be happening very soon, although he still has not told us exactly where we are going. All we know is that it is somewhere Charlie would like to go!!!

Primary 5

As we arrived at school on Monday, we were eager to see how many of our two hundred eggs had hatched into alevins. We couldn’t believe that almost all of them had hatched over the weekend. They are each about 2 cm long and can swim at speed already. We had the opportunity to observe them closely using magnifying glasses and a plastic science dish. Observing them we were able to see their spines and even see their hearts beating. This was amazing; the heart was beating so fast. We used this time to attempt to draw the alevin at this stage of its development, a task we will be doing each week to see the changes week by week.

We have been busy writers this week and have been learning how to include the feelings felt by our characters at specific times in a story. We now have all the skills for our story writing which will be to write our own version of Robinson Crusoe.

During our maths work this week we have been trying to work out the missing digit by using our knowledge of addition and subtraction, this has been tricky but we are proving we are all great mathematicians.

It has been a great few weeks but we are ready for a long weekend, we think that Mr Reed is as well.

Primary 5

It was a disappointing start to the week as we had hoped to arrive at school to find our fish tank full of little fish swimming about in the tank, but we were reminded that it should take about a week until we see the eggs begin to hatch. We still need to take great care controlling the temperature of the water and need to replace the ice bottles every few hours.

Tuesday was safer internet day 2019 and as a class we spent the day discussing and sharing our ideas about how to keep ourselves safe when using the internet. To show our learning we each created a poster to inform the rest of the school about what we had learnt. Ms Redican created a fantastic display outside our classroom using all of the posters. We hope that they help others know more about internet safety.

On Thursday we spotted that two of the eggs had hatched and it was clear to everyone that the eggs had changed and you could clearly see the shape of the alevin inside the eggs. Mr Reed placed two eggs into a science dish and using magnifying glasses we had a close look at the alevin inside the egg. This was amazing as you could clearly see its spine, eyes and even the outline of its body. We have been able to keep the water temperature constant all week with only the slightest of change, our reading of thermometers has improved significantly.

On Friday morning several more of the eggs had hatched although we did find a few eggs that had died. We understand that this was likely to happen and discussed the purpose of so many eggs being laid at any one time.

We are excited to see how many will have hatched by Monday morning.

Primary 5

At long last we took delivery of the fish eggs that we have been waiting for since the tank was delivered just over a week ago. The team delivered just shy of 200 eggs which looked a lot less than we had anticipated. We impressed the team with our knowledge about the fish and how constant we had been keeping the water in the tank. We check the temperature every couple of hours and add ice if the temperature is getting above 10C. Occasionally the temperature is about 5C and we are having to remove the ice to raise the temperature.

As the eggs were being delivered we could see clearly that two of the eggs had changed in colour and needed to  be removed as they had died, we understand that we are likely to lose quite a few as the weeks go on, this is nature and we know that this happens in the wild as well as in a tank.

Our knowledge of temperature has impressed Mr Reed; he has been testing our reading of thermometers and can now rely on us to do the temperature checks. We have also been learning about negative numbers and how to find the difference between two different temperatures.

As part of our Literacy we mapped out our very own island similar to the one Robinson Crusoe found himself stranded on, we added key features and begun to explain why each of the features was important to the survival of Robinson.

We said goodbye to Doris our class Tattie Bogle, she was a great member of the class but it was felt she needed to go and join other Tattie Bogles. We will not forget the poem we learnt to celebrate Scottish poetry.

The Singin Tattie Bogle.

Primary 5

It is lovely to have the children back after their Christmas break; I have enjoyed listening to their tales about time spent with their families and all the amazing memories that have been made.

We have launched straight into our new topic about sustainability and are studying Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and how he survived through reusing and recycling what was available to him. We have enjoyed the story so far and we have had many great discussions about what items would help us survive on the island.

Our topic introduced us to the ‘Forth Rivers Trust’ and we had some visitors who taught us about the project that they run to raise the number of brown trout in our local rivers. To help the project we are going to have about 200 trout eggs in our classroom. These we hope will hatch and will grow to a size that can be released back into a local river. We have to take responsibility for the fish, ensuring the water is kept at the correct temperature, remove any dead eggs and complete tasks about the life cycle of a trout. The fish are due soon and we will keep everyone up to date with their progress.

We have begun FUTSAL on a Monday afternoon with Scot, he is great fun and is teaching us lots of new skills which will improve all aspects of our ball control not just how to score goals.

On Tuesday, we went to the Academy to take part in a handball tournament, it was great fun and we did very well.

We are currently learning a poem ready to perform on Friday as part of our Robert Burns celebrations.

Primary 5

We have had the best week ever; we have partied hard, become teachers for the day, danced, taken part in tournaments and had a visit from ‘Rookie Rock Stars’.

It truly has been a wonderful end to the term. This week we had the opportunity to share some work that we had been doing in class over the past few weeks with the children in Primary one. As part of our learning, we had been designing a board game that could be played by others; we had to be able to explain the rules to new players as well as show that we can play games fairly. We had lots of fun designing our games, but even more fun playing them. We were very proud when Mr Reed said that we could share our games with the children in Primary one. It was fun to play against them even though they did seem to win all the time.

Our Christmas party was amazing; we played games, danced and enjoyed some lovely party food. The traditional dances that we had been learning during our PE sessions were performed. We impressed Mr Reed with our dances.

To end the week Rookie Rock Stars came to do a reunion session, this was an opportunity to sing the songs we learnt at the end of the summer term as well as a few Christmas songs. It was lovely to see Glynn again and sing and dance to some familiar songs.

Mr Reed has really enjoyed the term with us and has given us a clue about our theme next term. We will be looking at sustainability with a focus on one of Mr Reed’s favourite stories, Robinson Crusoe. Mr Reed thinks says we will have fun learning about the original Bear Grylls.

Have a lovely Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Primary Five.