Author: Miss McLaughlin

Primary 4 are fantastic French speakers, as well as English! So, this week, for our Modern Languages focus, Miss McLaughlin decided to challenge them to learn some German!

We learned how to say hello/goodbye and introduce ourselves.

We focused on learning German names for pets, to match what we had been learning in French lessons. We found that there were some similarities between English, German and French words. Did you know ‘hamster’ is the same in all three languages?

We made flashcards to teach a friend or partner about pets. We are looking forward to sharing our learning with Primary 5 on Tuesday!

Deutsch ist toll!

Auf Wiedersehen! Bis Bald!

Fraulein McLaughlin & Primary 4

 

This week, Primary 4 were let loose and embarked on their school trip to Callendar House (yes Miss McLaughlin, CALLENDAR House, not Kinneil House).

We had a fantastic Roman workshop and learned more about how the Antonine Wall was built. The ladies there were very impressed that we were building our own model in the playground!

We then got to dress up in essential Roman soldier uniform. We, of course, are citizens of Pumpherston & Uphall Station (not Rome), so we could not take on the role of a Legionary. We became Auxiliaries instead.

Have a look at some of our photos below 🙂

 

This week, Primary 4 started their fantastic Technologies challenge – to build a Roman amphitheatre!

We had looked at the design of amphitheatres (the most famous probably being the Colosseum) and noticed that they had no roof or doors, were made of stone and used lots of arches for their construction.

We are very lucky to be working with Sarah-Jane and Tom! We have enjoyed learning so far about how different materials can be used and how to work with different tools. We are currently building our structure from stones, sandbags and turf.

Have a look at our first set of photos:

Keep checking in with us to see how we are getting on!

A shout out to parents and friends of the school…

We are in need of old spades, trowels, forks, rakes… If any of our school community have any at home, we would love to be able to use them 🙂  

Many thanks,

Miss M & Primary 4

 

This afternoon, the Time Team were back out again in force! 

We were slightly concerned when we saw Miss McLaughlin and Sarah-Jane carrying into our classroom what looked like a real body! Fortunately, our skeleton friend was a plastic reconstruction.

We had to look at the skeleton, decide if it was male or female and try to build up a picture of their life. Jed and Miss McLaughlin had made a prediction (like we do in Reading) that our skeleton friend was male, older, married with 3 children and because he had been buried with a bronze armlet, that he was probably a craftworker.

We also got to look at real Iron Age artefacts, including glass beads, a javelin head, a horse bridle and many pieces of pottery and polished bone/rocks. Many thanks to Archaeology Scotland for letting us use these fantastic resources. And of course thanks to Sarah-Jane (again!).

 

 

I would also like to take the time to thank the parents and friends of the school who have left kind words on the Community Council Facebook page. We are gutted about the destruction of our beloved roundhouse.

Many thanks.

Primary 4 & Miss M 🙁

Today, Primary 4 had another amazing adventure with Tom and Sarah-Jane – we turned into archaeologists!

When we arrived today for what we thought would be another afternoon fixing up the roundhouse, we found Tom and Sarah-Jane at a miniature dig site nearby! We’d heard on the grapevine that there were lots of hidden finds in our local environment and today we had the chance to get looking.

We had to be careful on our dig site and clear the soil away to expose its different layers. We found a shale layer and a sand layer. The deeper down you go, the older the layers of soil are. We found bone, pottery, shells, charcoal and even a tooth!

Here are just a few of the snaps from today… (Thanks again Tom and Sarah-Jane)

   

Who knows what we might find next time?

Until then…

Primary 4 & Miss M 🙂

This week, Primary 4 (& 6) were let loose from school and took an adventure to Dynamic Earth!

We had a great time and learned loads about famous inventors, climate zones and space! We even got a chance to have a turn in a time travelling elevator!

Here are some snaps of our day out… Apologies for the darkness! Modern cameras must just not work in prehistoric times 😉

Other things we learned…

1. Don’t sit next to Miss McLaughlin on the bus.
2. Don’t sit next to Miss McLaughlin when snow/foam is blasted everywhere.
3. Don’t sit next to Miss McLaughlin in the Showdome.

In fact… Steer well clear!

Until next time…

Primary 4 & Miss M 🙂

PS – Many thanks to all the parents who came to see our work on Friday. It was lovely to see so many faces!

This week, Primary 4 were developing their writing skills…

They were truly terrific when tackling tricky alliteration!

We learned that alliteration is when a writer starts many of his/her words with the same sound. We made up our own alliterative sentences and then tried to write our own alliterative poems.

Here are two fantastic examples below…

The Teacher

The toy tickled the teacher,
The teacher was tiny,
The terrible tot took a tantrum and stole the toy,
The teacher’s tortoise when to sea to swim,
The teacher’s toy took so long to sell so they took it away.

Logan Wilson

Donut the Dog

The dog Donut liked Daniel’s friend,
Dave Dreary who lived in a dungeon down underground.
It was drippy, damp and dim,
Daniel did something that has never been done before,
He drank a witches potion because a big storm was doing things to Daly town.

Mya McPhail

Well done Logan and Mya. Everyone did really well! Miss McLaughlin had to put in her reading teeth to tackle some of your tantalising tongue twisters!

Until next time…

Primary 4 & Miss M 🙂

This week, Primary 4 has been turned into Dragon’s Den!

Miss McLaughlin gave us the task of designing a toy of the future. We turned from table groups to business teams!

First, we researched the different roles that would be involved in the toy design business (e.g. designer, artist, packager, advertiser, project manager and researcher) and each person was given a role in the team.

Then, our research team asked our sample (a group of Primary 1/2s – thank you Mrs Andison!) for their input and used this as criteria for our designs.

We came up with…

* It must be a type of doll/teddy/figure
* It must be soft/cuddly
* It must be colourful
* It must be suitable for both boys and girls
* It must have some special features.

Below is what we came up with! Later today we will be shooting adverts for our team pitch next week!

What do you think? Have we met our design brief?

Until next time…

Primary 4 & Miss M 🙂

This week, Primary 4 were exploring rights! Each class had been given a specific right to look at, and ours was the right to learn.

We decided to find out what school was like for different children around the world. Countries we looked at included Japan, Brazil, Canada, Spain and Poland.

Here are some of the interesting facts we found out…

• Japanese children ride to school on school buses in the shapes of different characters or animals.
• In Poland, you don’t start nursery until age 6.
• Brazilian children, get steak and chips for lunch as a special treat, but usually eat COLD acai berry soup!
• American children don’t wear school uniform.
• In Germany, children go to school on a Saturday! (No thanks!)

Ask us for other interesting facts!

Until next time,

Primary 4 & Miss M 🙂