This week we have been busy continuing our learning about rock stars through different periods of time. Over the past few weeks our focussing on the Beatles and life during the 1950’s – 1960’s.

We have been looking at different album covers and trying to recreate our favourite one which is for the Yellow Submarine. We particularly liked all the colours and the how eye catching it was.

Here are a few of our own album covers.

Our learning took us to discover lots about a well-known author called Dick King Smith, we found out lots about his early life and what influenced him to become such a popular author. We have begun reading one of his books about a water horse which we will be working together to write our own version of this amazing story.

We have been using drama to help us understand how sound travels from a source to our brains which was lots of fun and we now can explain the journey to a friend.

We continue each day to observe the Osprey occasionally catching glimpses of the three eggs they are incubating. We have seen how the male bird is not as good as the female at keeping the eggs warm but is very good at providing food for them both.

Over the past few weeks we have been working in small groups to prepare and deliver a presentation about Ospreys.

We have been using ICT to locate information and have visited various websites to help us understand more about these birds and their habits. We then used power-point to prepare our presentation. We had to use teamwork throughout this task as we sometimes did not all agree on pictures, backgrounds, texts or even the transition between slides.

After our presentation we had to self assess our work and think about what worked well and what needed to be worked on if we were to repeat this type of exercise.

We all learnt lots about the topic and had lots of fun presenting to the class.

We continue to monitor the nest everyday to see how many fish are being brought to the nest as well as seeing how the birds are coping with the eggs that they have.

Time for a well-earned break.

Over the week we have been very busy, our learning has taken us back in time as well as considering the impact of modern tools such as social media.

This week we have been considering what a wonderful soldier William Wallace was and using drama to understand how other may have thought of him. We investigated the strategies used to defeat the English at the battle of Stirling Bridge. We also used art to capture some of their understanding of this important battle. We also put themselves in the midst of the battle and wrote a descriptive opening as if they were a soldier on the day of the battle.

Through our mathematics we have been developing our understanding of different ways in which we can multiply large numbers together. We are now choosing which method we prefer when answering various word problems including at times ones with decimals in.

We enjoyed our last tag rugby session this week, showed our thanks to the guys afterwards.

Through our science work, we used ICT to show our understanding and have begun to put together very impressive power points all about food chains.

We are going to enjoy having a couple of days off school!

Many thanks for your continued support

Primary 5

A week in the life of P5

What a lovely end to a spectacular week. We finished our week by giving a short but informative presentation based upon our research area that we had chosen earlier in the week. Throughout the week we had been learning about how life was different during the medieval period. Having completed our research as part of our literacy work we created a fact sheet, bursting with fun filled facts.

During our numeracy work we have been learning how to multiply two and three digit numbers; we have had lots of fun trying out different methods.

We have some budding scientist in our class who were able to explain about how animals have adapted to live in various environments, we considered lots of different animals including animals that live on land, in the sea and even animals that fly.

We spent time this week learning about William Wallace as part of our Scottish War of Independence topic, we enjoyed learning about his rise to power and his gruesome end. We have been able to recall many of the facts we have learnt as we work through this interesting and important period of history.

We enjoy the rugby sessions that we are taking part in and are beginning to show great potential in this action packed activity.

We loved our afternoon of shield making and as a result we have almost completed this project. We have been evaluating what worked well and what we would do differently next time. When all our shields are completely finished we will share our designs with you all.

Thank you again for your support

P5

A very happy Christmas to one and all.

As we reach the end of what has been another wonderful week, it is also a time to reflect on some of the lovely moments we as a class have shared together.

Throughout the week we have maintained our focus around Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. We have reached the end of the story and have enjoyed discussing and presenting our ideas as to which ghost had the biggest impact on Scrooge. We created  presentations to based upon each ghost’s point of view and tried to persuade the class it was the right one. Throughout this lesson Mr Reed’s opinions changed significantly as we put forward our reasons for our choices. We have some budding lawyers in our class!

We also found out this week the results from tour enterprise topic. We were delighted to find out that collectively we raised £392.68 profit. This is a staggering accomplishment and one that has impressed everyone in our school. We  discussed how we wanted to spend the money came up with lots o f ideas . We still have a few areas to finalise but we  will be supporting one or two charities, we will be reinvesting a percentage of the money and also purchasing some resources for our class. We look forward to sharing more with you as we reach a definitive decision.

With Christmas parties, reward afternoon and celebration assemblies it is however the end of term and with that we would like to wish each of you a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year, or in the words of Tiny Tim ‘God Bless Us, Every One!’

All this week has had a wonderful feel throughout the school, we in P5 have certainly been enjoying this wonderful time of year.

Monday saw the whole school boarding coaches to Livingston to watch a highly entertaining pantomime which all of the children thoroughly enjoyed, it was lovely to see them all participating and joining in the singing and chanting during the show.

From that point on it was all about getting set for our Christmas performance, which I can say proudly they pulled off brilliantly. Each time the children performed they really put in 100% effort and the result I am sure will agree was well worth all the effort. Throughout the week we have continued to look at ‘A Christmas Carol’ focussing particularly on the various ghosts that appear in the book as we compare and contrast them. We have been thinking about which ghost had the biggest impact on Scrooge and why. Maths this week has continued to look at number facts particularly around multiplication. We have also been enjoying learning a multiplication mash up !!!!

We were treated to a wonderful Christmas dinner on Thursday which set us all up for our evening performance, I am very grateful to everyone who braved the icy conditions and joined us at the church. It really felt very festive both inside the church and in the hall afterwards. It was lovely to meet many of the parents during this time and being able to introduce myself to you.

As we look towards next week, I know it will be a fun filled learning week with an emphasis on the Christmas story and what it means to us all.

What a Welcome!

We didn’t get a chance to update our blog last week because Glow was down so we have included some pictures of our  business enterprise Christmas Fayre event last         week.

We enjoyed selling all of the things we had made and we enjoyed working out our profit. We will let you know next week how much money our businesses made and how we intend to spend the money we made.

On Monday  we were very excited to hear about the birth of Mrs Scott’s  baby boy on Friday the 1st of December!

W were also delighted to meet our new teacher Mr Reed!

It has been a bust week on Monday we went to visit the Longcroft hall, where we were ‘Unwrapping Christmas’ by becoming involved in the Christmas story as well as participating in some lovely Christmas crafts which we were proud to take home.

With Nativity rehearsals in school and at the church it really feels like Christmas is in full swing.

In literacy we have been learning about Charles Dickens ‘Christmas Carol’ the children have been exploring different characters and the reasons why they behaved in a particular way.

In Maths we have been learning new ways to reinforce our times tables.

We have had a great week in P5 and are looking forward to our Nativity performance next week.