This week has been an interesting time, with only 16 pupils in the class! We waved the P6 and P7 pupils off to camp and wished them well. The smaller class hasn’t stopped the learning and we have been very busy.

In Maths, we have been learning to locate and plot specific co-ordinate points on a grid.  Many of the children discovered how maths is included in aspects of real life contexts, by playing against each other in Battleships.  The learning was fun but very competitive!

We began creating items for our Make It Grow fund.  Further details will follow so please watch out for blog updates.

We watched an entertaining drama on the Gunpowder plot and linked it to today’s events that surround an opening ceremony in the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Parliament also helped inspire art work. We focused on the Scottish elements used in the building design and have started creating our own stain glass windows.

On Friday, Bathgate Fire Service visited the class to talk to us about the dangers of bonfires & fireworks. The fire service are encouraging everyone to attend organised Firework displays and avoid situations where inexperienced adults and teenagers are setting them off. Please encourage your child to wear gloves if handling sparklers, stand back behind barriers at organised displays and report any misuse of fireworks to an adult.  Please have fun everyone and stay safe at any Guy Fawkes celebrations this weekend 🙂

Welcome back after the October holidays.  Our week began with the pupils sharing their adventures and news. It was lovely to have them all come back to school safely after a week off.

The School Value for November

The word in school is RESPECT!

The class has been discussing the value of respect and what it means to us. We know respect means to be polite, show kindness and care about others, but agreed we now need to work on considering the words we say, the tone of voice we use and behaviour we demonstrate in the classroom and in all areas of the school.

Topic for the Term

We reflected on learning about the rainforest. We were all amazed about the knowledge and skills we have gained.

Our new topic for this term is going to be The Scottish Parliament. Together the class planned a list of questions to investigate over the term. We would be delighted if parents and carers could talk more with us about the Scottish Parliament and how it works for Scotland.

Go Green, Go Wild

On Friday we held our Go Green , Go Wild dress up day.  We are pleased to announce we have raised £139.71 to help our great cause of saving and replanting trees in the rainforest.  The children in the school looked absolutely fantastic! Thank you to all the parents and carers for donating money and helping us play our part in being eco friendly.  We will up date the blog with information on the chosen charity very soon.

Have a great weekend!

Thank you to all the parents and carers who were able to make our Rainforest assembly on Friday 14th October.  I’m sure you’ll agree, the children were fantastic!  Well done everyone!

This week the children have been focusing on up level their writing, by using a wider range of connectives.  The children used some connectives when they wrote letters to persuade loggers to stop chopping down the trees. They are also looking forward to having a dress down day on Friday 28th October, themed GO GREEN, GO WILD DAY to raise money to help go towards saving and replanting trees in the rainforest.  Pupils can donate £1 and come to school dressed up like an animal or wear green to represent the trees and plants of the forests. A fun way to help the pupils of the school become more eco-friendly and make contributions to saving Planet Earth.

This week’s skill was ‘Remember’.

Our Skillionaires of the week: Katie Wilson and Caitlin McInytre.

We also had Callum Gibbs sharing a wider achievement at assembly.  Callum recently climbed Ben Nevis!  What an amazing achievement!

P5 children will be attending a Handball tournament on Wednesday 26th October.  Please ensure that all EE2 forms and permission slips are returned on the first day back after the holidays.

Have a great holiday 🙂

What a busy week we’ve had for the end of term! We started the week by receiving a homework challenge – we were asked to design an underwater vehicle.  We had to make sure it met the criteria we were given – not an easy task!  The results were fantastic…

We also used the skills we have been learning in reading (skimming and scanning) to locate relevant information on the internet.  We used this information to create fact files on a sea animal.  We did this in pairs so also had to take turns using the computer and taking notes.  We all really enjoyed this activity and are really proud of our fact files.  Why not have a read to learn something new!

As this was the last week of our Oceans and Fishing topic, we had lots that we wanted to fit in before the end of term.  We found out about the effect of pollution by plastic on sea animals and decided to create posters to try and stop this from happening.  Our posters aew going to be on display throughout the school.

At assembly this week, Mrs Turnbull set the whole school a challenge… to be caught somewhere unusual reading!  If you get caught reading, make sure someone takes a photo and emails it to the school!

As you may know, raffle tickets are awarded in our class for a range of different things.  We have a raffle draw every Friday and everyone keeps their fingers crossed that they are one of the lucky winners.  This weeks winners are:

Prize from Mrs Vince’s prize box – Neve and Jay

Sitting in the pink chair – Rachael

Sitting in the teacher’s chair for one lesson – Robbie

Sitting beside the teacher at assembly – Rachael

Sitting beside a friend for one lesson – Harry

Well done to all our winners and especially Rachael who managed to win two prizes this week as she had won more than one raffle ticket!

A reminder to parents that all gym kits have been sent home today so that they can be washed over the holidays.  Please ensure that these are returned on the first day of term.  Children should have an indoor kit as well as an outdoor kit.  The outdoor kit should have trousers/leggings and a long sleeved top as it is getting colder and colder outside.  Please make sure that all kits are in a bag and all items are labelled so nothing gets lost or mistaken for another child’s.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY!

Our class assembly will take place on Friday 11th November and will be based around remembrance. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

P5 children will be attending a Handball tournament on Wed 26th Oct.  Please ensure that all EE2 forms and permission slips are returned on the first day back after the holidays.

Have a great holiday

Mrs Vince

This week the class worked in problem solving partners to tackle more challenges using the strategies draw it out or trial and error. In the plenary we discussed the importance of reading and understanding the instructions.

In art we have been using pencil to draw Rainforest animals to add to our classroom display.

As part of our Rainforest topic we investigated food chains and discussed deforestation. We discovered positive and negative effects of deforestation; and are hoping to write about our own views. The children became quite passionate about the subject and had great ideas about working towards saving the rainforest. We hope you can make our assembly next week, where we are looking forward to sharing our knowledge about the rainforest.

We found many different food chains like:  leaf – worm – Toucan – Anaconda

In cursive handwriting we focused on capital I and J. We supported each other by peer assessing and recording two stars and a wish.  Next week we’re hoping to focus on capital K and L.

In Drama with Mr Richards, we played some fun games, which involved listening to clapping sounds.

The children have been interested in Hurricane Matthew this week and we have been watching the news to learn about the destruction it has caused.

Please come to our assembly on Friday 14th October.

Dean, Harris and Khizar helped contribute to this week’s class blog entry.

This week’s learning has been challenging and interesting.

We began the week by learning how to write capital G and F in cursive.

On Wednesday Mrs Harrison was missing in action from the classroom (actually she was at a course all day :)) and Mrs Waugh took over to teach the class about living creatures in the rainforest.  The pupils work in groups to learn about the Rhinoceros Beetle, Toucan, Spider Monkey, and Jaguars.

Zac learnt that Toucans have a body length of 66.95cm approx (22 inches).  Their beak can be 19 centimetres long!

Callum McM learnt that the Jaguar is the third biggest cat in the feline family.  It stalks it prey in the rainforest.

In Maths the pupils participated in a mild, spicy and hot challenge based on following clues to find the right seat for Willy Wonka, James, Matilda, Sophie, Danny and Mrs Twit. The idea was to develop the use of the strategies: Act It Out or Draw it or Trial and Error. The problem solving was enjoyed by all and we are hoping to tackle more problems to be come more confidence.

In art, we looked at the body shapes of animals to learn how to draw detailed illustrations. Each person in the class drew an amazing pencil drawing of a toucan.  Next we are hoping to learn how to use tone and texture to shade our illustrations.

We also have a pupil in our class, who we are enjoying getting to know.

Mrs Harrison was helped by Zac Wilson, Callum McMillan and Caitlin McIntyre to complete P6/5’s blog entry this week.

The class have been learning about the riches of the Rainforest through reading. In pairs we had to read the text and find tricky vocabulary and information.

In class we have a challenge to Beat The Teacher. As a class we are working together to develop good listening skills.  Every time we are asked to listen and remain quiet, we earn point against the teacher.

Rookie Rockstars have been in school all week.  We have learnt songs about friendship and anti-bullying. In between songs, we had challenge time and question time. We liked watching Mrs Stewart sing with marshmallows in her mouth; and Mr Richards and Miss Moir rapping nursery rhymes. We are proud of our super star teachers 🙂 We are looking forward to listening to our CD and performing next Thursday in our school concert.

Our homework challenge was to find numbers in our local environment. We surprised at how many numbers we found. Lara, Katie W, Ellie and Nathan all earned a head teacher’s award for their amazing homework.  Well done!  I’m looking forward to this standard every week!

We hope you had a chance to look at our previous blog entries and like our class charter.

Please remember Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th September are holidays.

On Wednesday we are looking forward to taking part in careers masterclasses.