Today P6/7 went to The Curling Academy at Stirling Sports Village.

We love doing curling in PE lessons at school but for most of us, this was our first time trying it on ice!

After a quick warm up, we were split into groups, grabbed a brush and had a go at sweeping.  Then we were taught how to slide the stones with both clockwise and anti-clockwise spins.

We ended our session with a few games of short curling.  It was a very enjoyable experience.

As we have been learning about Scotland’s history and culture through studying Scottish myths and legends, we thought it would be fitting to go and see some mythical creatures, so yesterday we went on a trip to Helix Park in Falkirk to see the Kelpies.

Firstly, we had some time to look around the exhibition area of the visitors centre.  There was a Lego Station, a colouring station, a cinema area and scale models of famous sculptures from around the world.

“My favourite part was the Lego Kelpie.  It was cool and amazing!”  Ethan

“My favourite part was when we all went to the Lego station.  I learned that the Kelpies are more than 30 metres tall.”  Shannon

We were then met by our tour guide, Susan, who was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot of interesting facts from her during our tour.

“I liked learning all the different facts.  My favourite fact was that the Kelpies are the biggest horse sculptures in the world.”  Sophie-Lee

“It was fun and I learned a lot.  I learned that the Kelpies are each made out of 400 pieces of metal.”  Alex

“The Kelpies were modelled after real horses called Duke and Barron.”  Jamie

Our tour guide took us inside one of the Kelpies, which was a highlight for lots of us.

“My favourite part was going inside the Kelpie called Duke because it looks really cool inside.”  Finlay S

“My favourite part was when we went in Duke’s head because it was interesting to learn about how it was made and how long it took to build.”  Logan

“I like how we went in the Kelpie called Duke.  It was fun.”  Caitlin

“My favourite part of the tour was when we went inside Duke.  Apparently it is 30 metres high and 35 metres under the concrete.”  Ella

“I liked going inside the Kelpies.”  Callum

“I liked when we went inside Duke and I learned lots of new things about the Kelpies.”  Katie

“I enjoyed when we went into the Kelpie called Duke.”  Kelsie

After the tour we went back to the exhibition area in the Visitor Centre to get creative.  Inspired by the kelpies, we had to work with a partner to create our own mythical creature.  Afterwards, we presented our creatures to the rest of the class.  Here are some pictures of our creations – as you see, we have some wonderful imaginations!

“I liked creating our own creatures because you got to use your imagination.”  – Lola

“I enjoyed creating my own mythical creature.  I worked with Logan and we created a Shabalaba.”  – Cameron

“My favourite part was creating our own mythical creature.  I did mine with Lola, it was called Bunny Fluffy Tail.” – Meghan M

“I made a mythical creature with Finlay S and we made a Repcap – half Redcap and half reptile.  It breathes fire and when it walks, the ground turns to fire.” – Finlay A

Unfortunately, the weather was very wet and windy which meant we were unable to spend some time at the park after our tour.  Nevertheless, we had a fantastic time and everyone enjoyed themselves.

“I liked the Kelpies because they are famous and fun!”  Lily

“I really enjoyed the trip.  It was amazing!  I had so much fun and I learned that the Kelpies took 8 years to build.”   Megan B

The World Book Day celebrations have continued this week, after snow day delays courtesy of the Beast from the East!  This week we have been busy researching information about our favourite authors for our personal projects and preparing to share what we have learned with the rest of the class.

Today we were excited to come to school with our favourite books.  Some of us dressed up as book characters and authors, and some of us came to school in our pyjamas and onesies – perfect attire for getting cosied up with a good book! Some of our parents even popped in and read with us in school.

Here’s a picture of us in our outfits:

Well, this is certainly not how we were expecting to spend World Book Day!  I feel like I’ve been transported to Narnia!

Earlier this week our class was lucky enough to partake in both a Book Swap (organised by P3M) and a trip to the local library in Broxburn. Hopefully this has equipped you all with plenty of literature to read!

We’re not in school today, but that doesn’t mean we cannot celebrate World Book Day!  Here is a list of activities that you could try out to join in the fun:

• Get cosied up with a book
• Create a book character from snow
• Re-create the setting or an event from a book (you could use snow, lego… your imagination is the limit!)
• Re-tell your favourite book as a comic strip (you could use this Comic Strip Book Task or create your own)
• Design a front cover and blurb for your favourite book
• Watch a film adaptation of a book you have read and compare and contrast it to the book
• Prepare for the book character ‘Hot Seat’ challenge (see homework Task 1 for more details)

If you can take pictures of your snow characters or book scenes, I would love to see them, and I’m sure your classmates would too.  You could bring them in to school or upload them to your Student Story on Class Dojo.

Enjoy the snow and please stay safe and warm,

Mrs Hare 🙂