Today, P2T and P2R sampled some delicious morning treats as part of their “Farmhouse Breakfast” . We enjoyed toast with lime marmalade, porridge with honey, banana and yoghurt muesli, eggy muffins and a gorgeous fruit cocktail. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
On Tuesday Primary 3T and 3M battled the weather and visited the capital city to bring their topic to life.
They had a very busy day visiting parts of the castle, taking a walk down the Royal Mile whilst playing I Spy. P3T then visited Chambers Street Museum and spotted an example of a croft and Scottish life. They also looked at the gold necklaces found in Stirling dating back to the Bronze Age. Meanwhile, P3M visited Greyfriars Cemetry and discovered the head stones of ‘Old Jock’ and the Scottish legend himself Greyfriars Bobby. After a quick lunch at the museum everyone made a quick dash down to The Waverly Bridge to catch an open topped tour bus. This was enjoyed by all despite some children believing we were in the Arctic!
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On Wednesday 27th of January P7V and P7S went to Holyrood to visit the Scottish Parliament. We saw demonstrators outside inside the parliament. They were protesting about cuts to teacher training places. There were loads of MSPs. We had a little debate at the start about homework and other subjects, it was good. Then we went in to watch a real debate by the MSPs. They were voting about whether cigarettes should be moved from shop shelves. All the MSPs were there because it was a Stage 3 debate. There were cameras everywere. I still do not know if we were on tv. We all got a little tour around the building. Some MSPs from different political parties came down to talk to us and we found out how the parliament works. We looked at display dowstairs which shows how many MSPs from each party are at the parliament. Then we went outside and did a little survey about the building and thje architecture. We walked up the Royal Mile and saw the Queens Gallery. Then it was time to go back to Cockenzie. I think we all had a very good time and we had a safe journey back home.
Last week MSP Iain Gray came into school to tell us about the Scottish Parliament and what its like being an MSP. We got the chance to ask him about his job and his opinions. We have his photo and signature on the wall !
Here are some of the questions we asked him: 1. Primary 7: Is the power station going to be knocked down?
Iain Gray: It needs to be decommissioned by 2015 but if you feel strongly about this why don’t you write to Scottish Power and tell them .
2. Primary 7: What are the worst bits about your job ?
Iain Gray: Lots of people come to me with problems and sometimes there is nothing I can do to help them. It is quite hard to send people away.
3. Primary 7: Do you enjoy the debates at the parliament?
Iain Gray: I like the debates but sometimes they can be a bit boring if its not about something you’re interested in. Sometimes MSPs do fall asleep!
P1M went outside today to learn more about water.
We looked at a puddle in the grass. The grass was all soggy because the rain had fallen on the grass and made the soil wet.
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Then we went to the Quiet Garden and found bulbs growing under a tree. Bulbs need water to grow.
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We know that plants need water to grow because when we grew cress, the seeds without water did not grow.
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We looked at the roots of some grass. A plant takes water in from the soil through it’s roots and the water travels through the rest of the plant.
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We found a twig that had fallen from a tree. When we looked inside it was dry. The twig had no roots so there was no water inside.
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Then we went to the Outdoor Classroom and found a pond. We know that some animals live in a pond and tried to think of as many as we could……frogs, ducks, fish, snails.
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The tap at the sink reminded us that water is taken by pipes from a reservoir to homes and schools, so that we can turn on a tap to get water.
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We found a water butt too and we worked out how water falls from the clouds onto the roof, then the pipes take the water to a big barrel where it is collected so that it can be used to water plants. It’s very important not to waste water and we are going to think about this more next week.
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We had lots of fun this afternoon and our photographs will help us remember what we have learned.
We have been learning about some Old Testament stories. We have sung songs about Noah’s Ark and made Lego animals, roared like lions in drama for Daniel in the Lions’ den and made collages of Jonah and the Whale.
This morning P4/5 were pleased to have a visitor. Marjory Sweeney works in East Lothian schools supporting and encouraging drama. She came in to run a workshop for the children on the life of John Muir. We explored different incidents in John’s life:
The inventions proved particularly motivating: we had a Knickerbocker Glory machine, a Cuckoo Clock, a chocolate manufacturing device and a musical box.
It helped the children to think about John Muir in new ways: we already knew he was a biologist, husband, father, son, geologist, farmer, inventor, writer and environmentalist – this morning we realised he might have been a bit of a pest to live with!
It was interesting to see the children experiencing the workshop after the topic, when they already knew the subject quite well. Last year’s class came into the workshop fresher, with less knowledge. This class knew the whole life story beforehand. This may have lessened the wow factor, but it meant that there were hardly any explanations needed, and we perhaps got through more activities.
Our next visitor is dancer Beth Noble, who comes into school on February 25th for a workshop exploring more of John Muir.
The pufferfish reading group in P4M have been hard at work today. First they listened very carefully to the story of the Gruffalo and then they listened again following the words in the book as the story was read. Ms Manson then asked them lots of questions about the story and they showed they had listened well because they were able to give fantastic answers.
The children then used finger puppets that they cut out to tell the story to each other, this was great fun!
They then had a discussion about the Gruffalo and the words that were used to describe him, they learned that these words are called adjectives.
The Gruffalo has purple prickles all over his back, orange eyes, knobbly knees, terrible teeth and a black tongue. The children then had to draw their own Gruffalo and use the adjectives in the book to make sure that they drew him properly.
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Our Italian teacher Simonetta talked about carnivals and we made masks using card, glitter, straws and feathers. On the 9th of February were are having a carnival party with games, food and dancing. We are allowed to dress up if we want but we must wear our masks!!
KEEP WATCHING for photos from the event!
Nikola and Carmen (P5/6)
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What a week P2R have had! Our topic is The Senses and our classroom was full of strange smells and noises. We have a feely box which we check every day to see if we can guess what’s in it just by using our sense of touch. The water in the water tray kept changing colour and getting glittery and the sand went all weird and gloopy – we could even make shapes with it. It started out smelling of apples but now it’s kind of stinky. We went a bit mad on Wednesday – we escaped through our magic door and ran around outside exploring what we could see then wrote poems entitled ‘I See’ using some great describing words. We were learning about time too and one member of class took over from Mrs Connarty and did a grand job! We loved the visit from Daisy the cow at assembly and next week we will be investigating our sense of taste so all that talk of healthy breakfasts has made us quite hungry for more!
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