What an exciting and busy day we had yesterday!  In the morning, we went to the Xcite swimming pool in Broxburn for our swimming assessment.  Some of us were really looking forward to this and some of us felt quite nervous.  We were split into two groups, and took part in different assessments – including swimming backwards, floating, putting our face in the water, swimming front crawl and collecting sinkers from the bottom of the pool.  Everyone joined in, which was excellent!  Well done, P5!

In the afternoon, we had our first full class Taiko drumming session.  This was very noisy!  We learned the rules of using the drums, some Japanese phrases to start and end the session, completed a warm up and learned some of the rhythms.  These were quite tricky, and we will work on practising chanting these for next week.

Here’s what we thought of this week:

Emily-Louise – When I went swimming, I was really nervous at the start but once I got in the water I felt like I’d done well.

Molly – I really enjoyed the swimming and my first session of Taiko drumming.

Amy C – I thought the Taiko drumming was very exciting and I think I am learning to use the Japanese drums, but it is very noisy and I could actually feel the sound vibrations.  When I went swimming I was scared, and when I was trying to get my face underwater I got it wet and it kind of stung.

Lewis H – The Taiko drumming was absolutely amazing and I am learning to do the rhythms (and I am kind of good at it!)

Matthew – I liked the Taiko when we did ‘Don ha Don ha Dodo ki  Kodon Ha!’

Justin – When I went in the water I felt cold, but I managed it!

Emilie – I was really nervous for swimming, and I tried to get the hoop thing with my foot but the instructor told me to get it with my hand.  So I did!  I really enjoyed the drumming – it was kind of hard to do because it was really fast.

Emma – I really liked the swimming assessment, when we had to get out the water at the end we all said, “Aw, is that it over?”

Alexander – Taiko drumming was really fun and I really enjoyed it.

Murray – I enjoyed doing the air drumming at Taiko to practise our moves.

Lewis – I liked how we had to go underwater to get the sinkers and we had to drop it again.

Ruby – I liked the swimming assessment because I like getting in the water and getting wet.  I enjoyed the drumming because it’s fast, it’s challenging and it’s hard.