Category Archives: Social Studies

Primary 4a, Primary 4b, Scottish Culture, Social Studies, Uncategorised

P4’s Exciting Week!

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What an exciting week we have had in P4! We went on our trip to Holyrood Park and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. At the park, we did a workshop with the Rangers all about the local area around the park and Arthur’s Seat related to kings and queens of the past. We heard stories, designed a banquet and drew pictures of the palace using charcoal. It was very interesting and great fun but very, very cold! We also visited the palace where we took part in a costume workshop to learn about clothes in the time of Mary Queen of Scots. Four of us even got to dress up! We then went on a tour of the palace with our guide and learned more about what it would have been like to live there in the past. The highlight was going into Mary Queen of Scots’ private rooms including her bedroom.

We also met a new teacher this week, Miss Wang who is from Beijing in China. She will be teaching us Mandarin for a few weeks. This week we learned how to say hello, numbers 1 to 10 and thank you.

Our P4 show is going to be Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies, a comical pantomime based on the legend of Robin Hood. We will be auditioning for parts soon. More details to follow soon.

In maths, we have been learning how to tell the time in 5 minute intervals using analogue and digital clocks. We have also been learning how to divide bigger numbers by 10 and 100. We have been revising data-handling using bar graphs and tally marks. Another focus has been answering maths questions and solving little problems. In language, we have been researching Mary Queen of Scots using different texts and using the information to create timelines and quizzes. We are busy writing reports on our school trip.

We have started to present our homework on a famous/important Scottish person from the past. It will take us a while to hear all these wonderful presentations – a few weeks at least – but we will all get a turn eventually!

 

Primary 6a, Primary 6b, Social Studies, Working with others

P6 visit Hopetoun House

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On Wednesday 30 November primary 6 went to Hopetoun house we all had lots of fun. When we got there we were welcomed by two ladies who were wearing Victorian maid dresses. When we went into the classroom we had our snacks then p6a became servants,for the first half of the day and p6b played Victorian street games and explored the history of Hopetoun House. Some street games we played were skipping rope, skittles,jack in the box, tiddly winks. We were then shown around the house, which was so amazing! Back in the classroom we tried quill writing where we wrote our names using the pheasant feather and ink. The ladies told us that Victorian children would be punished for smudging the ink or if they were left handed they would be forced to write with their right hand. Then after lunch we swapped round and p6b became servants and p6a. It was great fun dressing up and getting into the roles of servants. The best role was butler as he was the boss of all the servants. The worst job to have was the scullery maid who were never allowed to leave the kitchen, they even had to sleep under the kitchen table! It must have been hard work during the Victorian era!
By Alix and Eilidh

ICT, Literacy, Primary 7a, Primary 7b, Problem Solving, Social Studies, Technologies, Thinking Skills, Working with others

JYHS – ‘German Adventure’

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Both the P7 classes really enjoyed themselves this morning at JYHS. They engaged in a modern languages event called ‘The German Adventure’. There, they were able to work with S1 pupils and P7 pupils from another school.

 

Please enjoy looking at our photographs on Twitter!

 

P7 classes 🙂

Health and Wellbeing, Social Studies, Technologies

P4 Trip to Tesco

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In P4 we enjoyed a great trip to Tesco in Bathgate recently. This really helped us with our learning in the areas of healthy eating, Scottish foods and brands and food technology. Activities included: making a roll from dough, tasting fruit and vegetables, learning about types of fish and seafood and tasting some fish and going on a fruit and vegetable treasure hunt to find out which countries they were grown in. We also had the chance to explore the storerooms, fridge and freezer – brrrrrr – the freezer was cold! Thanks to Tracey and her team at Tesco Bathgate.

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Scottish Culture, Social Studies

P4 trip to Edinburgh

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We had our big trip to Edinburgh recently as part of our Scotland topic and we had a fantastic day! We visited Edinburgh Castle where we met Mary Queen of Scots herself! She taught us how to walk and dance like a Royal Court member. We learned about the food that would have been eaten at banquets and the armour that would have been worn. We made pomanders from oranges and cloves and we all dressed up in fancy clothes. At the Palace of Holyroodhouse we went on an investigation around the rooms of Mary Queen of Scots, making notes on our clipboards as we went along. It was fascinating to see where she would have lived and see some of her belongings. The walk up/down the Royal Mile was very exciting with lots to see! Thank you to all who supported this very special outing.

 

P3, Social Studies

Roman Day

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Primary 3a, 3b and 3/2 had a wonderful time yesterday, spending the day as Romans.

We had a very special visitor in school!  Decimus Gaius, a genuine Roman solider came to see us and seriously put us through our paces!  He spent a lot of time telling us about life as a Roman (even including visits to the public Roman Toilets) and had lots of Roman artefacts with him that we were lucky enough to handle.  We were then dressed up as Roman soldiers and were taught how to march in formation and in time with each other.  We were also taught how to form “The Tortoise” – which is a special formation that protected us from incoming arrows (our classmates were throwing balls at us!).  We absolutely loved our visit from the soldier.  It brought our topic to life and our teachers noticed how much we enjoyed learning.

The other half of our day was spent in a little more luxury than when we were soldiers – we were rich Romans, feasting in a triclinium.  We were served by slaves and lounged around the floor of the classrooms, eating with our fingers.  We tried lots of foods that were eaten in Roman times, including cheese, grapes, dates, bread and dormice (of the chocolate variety!).  We also enjoyed some red wine (apple and blackcurrant flavour!).  At the end of our meal we ate some lettuce and went for a snooze!

A fantastic day was had by all and we shall remember this for years to come.

 

Scottish Culture, Social Studies

P4 Burns Party

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The P4 Burns Party was a great success! We enjoyed our Scotch broth and haggis, neeps and tatties, specially prepared for us – thank you to the school kitchen. Thank you also to the parents who helped us bring in a Scottish themed packed lunch. And the shortbread we made was delicious!

We all wore something tartan or Scottish. The actual party was a showcase of P4 talent – with poem recitals, songs, highland dancing and even a band playing! The speeches and toasts were really funny! We ended the afternoon with some ceilidh dancing and with singing “Auld Lang Syne”. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Robert Burns and our Scottish culture and heritage.

Health and Wellbeing, Scottish Culture, Social Studies

P4 learn more about Scottish Foods and Brands

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100_8191In P4 we were delighted to welcome Tracey from Tesco who gave a very informative talk on Scottish foods and brands. We learned more about foods that are grown and made in Scotland. We could recognise a lot of Scottish brands from their logos. It was also interesting to hear about how the Tesco company actually works and we had lots of questions. We are looking forward to our trip to Tesco in April, where we will be learning more about Scottish produce. Thanks to Tracey and Tesco!

P3, Social Studies

P3a, P3b and P3/2 visit the National Museum of Scotland

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We visited the Museum in Edinburgh last Thursday as part of our Romans topic. We learned about what a Roman soldier wore and the names he gave to his weapons. Did you know that the Romans wanted their horses to look good in battle so they gave them necklaces and decorated harnesses?

We also enjoyed looking at and handling artefacts including an oil lamp, maille (an armoured shirt), sandals and knucklebones (a Roman game).

We are now looking forward to the visit from the Roman soldier and our Roman Feast (both on Wednesday 24th February). Our teachers would like us to bring a pillowcase (white if possible) into school by Monday 22nd February. We will use the pillowcases to make togas.

Some photos of our trip……… more to follow……….