P5 are our bridge to the future!

What an amazing Technology Week.  It started off with a super trip to see the Three Bridges at South Queensferry.  During this trip we learned some amazing facts about the Bridges.  It was explained to us how a bridge is constructed and the reasons behind the designs and features of a bridge.  We even saw a new section of the motorway on the Queensferry Crossing being put in place!  I won’t tire of telling people from now on that I was there when it was built.  Ask your child to tell you which of these three bridge designs, suspension, cantilever and cable stay, each bridge is an example of.

This trip allowed us to develop our teamwork skills as we were split into groups and a group manager was appointed, a great responsibility comes with wearing the High Vis Vest!

The first task allowed us hands on experience of how important Health and Safety is in a work place, through investigating different pieces of safety clothing, we now know the reason why each of these items are essential for the workers.

Our next group challenge was to use our knowledge of construction from the discussion and to build the highest tower possible using the least amount of bricks.  Here are some of our examples.

When we got back to class we continued our group challenges by using technology to help us complete bridge research and then prepare a talk which we delivered to the class.  There was some super group efforts, you could see collaborative skills in action with everyone managing to be successful individuals as well as effective contributors!

We used the theme of Technology Week to link with as many areas of the curriculum as possible this week, so in Maths we completed some practical work on measuring.  We discovered during our Bridges trip and our group research how important it is for the engineers to use accurate measurements when designing and constructing a bridge, so from this real life Maths context we set about estimating and then measuring in millimetres, centimetres and metres.  If you would like to impress your parents at home use our estimating trick of using our fingers to measure in cms and then check how close you were.

Our Social Studies homework presentations also took place this week.  There was a lot of independent skills on display during these as well as a lot of technology being used too, here are just some examples of the work that was produced.

Well done P5 you have out done yourselves this week with work and effort.

Have a lovely long weekend.

Mrs Currie