Primary 1 had a fantastic trip to Dirleton Castle today. It was so exciting to see a real castle and spot all the things we have been learning about. We saw where a moat and a drawbridge might have been, and identified towers, thin windows for shooting arrows, a dungeon, fire places, a great hall, kitchens, ovens and many more things. We saw that the castle was built on a hill so that the people inside had a good view all around. It was also built on a rock to stop the enemy tunnelling underneath the walls.

We made shields with our own coats of arms and decorated crowns. We pretended to be Kings, Queens & Knights for the day. We also had fun playing some parachute games and in the play park just before we got the bus back to school.

Congratulations to all our boys and girls who received the Sacrament of Confirmation on the evening of Tuesday 21st April. We were all delighted to meet Archbishop Leo Cushley.It was the first time we have celebrated a joint Confirmation with St Gabriel’s  and St Martin’s schools and boys and girls from Musselburgh, Prestonpans and Tranent altogether. Lots of thanks to all our parents, families, sponsors and teachers who helped us learn about living our beliefs each day and for their support. Thanks to Fr Basil too for helping us and arranging the service and to our friends in the parish for the wee party afterwards.  We are looking forward to continuing our faith journey and are now preparing for our First Holy Communion.

Today Primary 1 were doing lots of outdoor learning. In our number work, we are learning how to count in twos, so we collected objects to count, created number lines and played “counting in 2’s hopscotch”.

We are also learning all about the Seasons, so we went outside to look for the signs of Spring. We found lots of things in our playground that told us that Spring was here; blossom, buds, leaves, catkins, tulips, daffodils and a very exotic insect.

Primary 1 & Primary 7 ended the term with a fun Easter treasure hunt in the school woods. The P7’s had hidden pictures of Easter eggs around the woods and helped their buddies to find as many as possible. It was great fun and the sun was shining.

We hope everyone has a very happy Easter holiday!

Today Primary 1 took advantage of the sunshine and went outdoors for our numeracy work. We are learning about counting backwards to help us take away. We made number lines from 1-20 using chalk. We started at 20 and jumped down to 1, calling out the numbers with each jump. Then we challenged each other to start and stop at different numbers. We had great fun and learned lots!

Our Primary 4 pupils along with those from across East Lothian went to visit Archbishop Cushley in Edinburgh on the 12th of March to renew their baptismal promises as part of a Lenten Retreat Day at the Gillis Centre. Here is a link to the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh Facebook page which has a video of them singing together.

https://www.facebook.com/EdinburghRCdiocese?fref=nf

We have been exploring the properties of 3D shapes. We sorted the shapes by the types of sides that they have. Some shapes have flat sides, some have curved sides and some have both.

We sorted the shapes into those with sides that are the same size and shape and those with sides that are different.

We played a great puzzle bead game. One person makes a string of beads and describes them to their partner. Their partner has to make the exact same string – without looking.

We are fantastic at describing shapes and colours.

We also had lots of fun making our own 3D cubes, cuboids and pyramids.

This week, we had a special assembly to say goodbye to Canon McMullen. Each class prepared something special for Canon, songs, prayers, letters and readings. In Primary 1, we have been learning about Noah’s Ark and about God’s promise to us all. We decided to paint rainbows.

Goodbye Canon McMullen. We hope you will be very happy in your new parish.

From Primary 1

Primary 1 are taking part in the Scottish Children’s Book Awards. We are reading the three nominated books and voting for our favourite.

Today we read Robot Rumpus by Sean Taylor and Ross Collins.

We created our own robots and labelled the different parts. Some of us made models of our robots using blocks, mobilo and K’nex.

Primary 1 were invited to perform the story of The Little Red Hen at Musselburgh Library as part of the Artworks for Libraries Launch Event. A new public artwork was unveiled and the children got to meet the artist. The artwork can be viewed here http://scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-week-scotland/artworks-for-libraries/musselburgh-library

We performed our story outside and everyone was very impressed that the children remembered every word and action and could be heard even over the traffic. Primary 1, you were fantastic.

Many thanks to Evie’s dad for the photos.

The children also received their Bookbug Packs which contained the three stories that are shortlisted for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards  – Lost For Words by Natalie Russell, Princess Penelope and the Runaway Kitten by Alison Murray, Robot Rumpus by Ross Collins.