Harry and Alexander: The P4s and P5s have been swimming at Dunbar Leisure Pool. We were showing how we could swim to the teacher. We’ve been doing our reading challenge and the whole school has been doing it.

Keira, Joe and Olivia: We heard the Wee Bannock story. We also listened to a story called Assipattle and the Stoor Worm. We have been listening to these because our new project is Scottish Stories.

Ben and Charlie: We have been marbling which means you put special ink into a tray of water and you mix it together. Then you put a piece of paper onto it and you wait about ten seconds. Next you pick up a corner of the paper and you will see patterns on the piece of paper from the ink. In writing we were writing about how to tell Zog the alien about Earth and our earthly ways.

Sam and Serena: We were silhouetting- which is drawing black shapes of things. In talking and listening with Mrs Williams we are planning to do a book talk and so we need to  bring in our book. We need to talk about the characters and plot and why we recommend it.

Jake and Darwin: At gym we played Taxis and its the game where there are seven mats out and you have to run around and when they say stop and a number you have to  get onto a mat with that exact number. In maths we were finding the number before and after. We picked a number up to 1000 then rolled the dice to see what number you got, whatever that number was you found the number after and the number before.

Carlo and Emma: In maths we were doing problem solving. Problems are where sums are written in words. In the Fractions for maths we learned how to measure liquid in measuring jugs and there was a game where you had to estimate how much water a container would hold. You had to try to get it right.

Peggy and James: In the afternoon we keep reading at ERIC time by being quiet when we are reading.

We went to the pantomime! It was Sleeping Beauty. The Queen decided to play tricks on Keira who  enjoyed it very much! Keira finally got a sweet from the Queen. It was funny because Chuckles the Jester kept shouting ‘Hiya Gang!’ and we had to reply ‘Hiya Chuckles!” Sleeping Beauty and the Prince fell in love and it had a happy ending. It was funny when the witch got cooked.

We went to the church for our first Nativity practise. The practise was very good because we got 8 and a half out of ten from Mrs Legge. We want to get 10 out of 10 next Tuesday at the real thing. We will achieve this if we remember to smile and sing and speak loudly. We like the bit where the shepherds sing Three Tenor Shepherds and move their arms like real opera singers.

We did Christmas crafts. We made pompoms, baubles, willow stars and salt dough decorations. To make the pompoms we wound wool around a fork and then tied it. We used another colour of wool to tie it all together and then we slid it off the fork. We snipped the loops. It was tricky!

We had a Christmas quiz in teams and we had questions about The Grinch (What was his dog called?) and Santa’s reindeer (How many reindeer did Santa have?)

We did dancing in gym and we did the Flying Scotsman and the Virginia Reel. (Jake) In dancing you have to use your memory to remember what to do next. (Sam) You have to be aware of what’s happening to know when it’s your shot to go. (Serena) We have learnt how to do the Circassian Circle and the Dashing White Sergeant. (Ben)

In the Squares maths group we have been learning about acute angles (smaller than a right angle) and obtuse angles (bigger than 90 degrees). (Alex) An obtuse angle is bigger than 90 degrees and smaller than 360 degrees. (Darwin)

In the Circles we have been learning about symmetrical shapes and patterns. (Emma)We traced a person’s face and we flipped over the face and pressed hard onto the tracing to make a symmetrical picture.  We went onto the computer and we controlled the beebot to make shapes. (Harry) The Circles have been learning how to count in 3s and 4s. (James)

On Thursday we put some actions into the songs from our Nativity and some of the songs were The Three Tenor Shepherds, Hey Mr Innkeeper and The Marvellous, Magnificent, Magical Magi. (Peggy) I have been learning how to sing tricky words in the Nativity. (Keira)

We made the front and back cover, the glossary, index and contents for our P4 non-fiction book. (Joe) P2-4 did a report about our Energy and Electricity project. We were showing how much we have learned about energy and electricity. (Charlie)

In our Nativity we are singing 9 different songs and we have been learning our actions. We have nine people who are the letters of the word Christmas.

In gym we learned the Flying Scotsman, Virginia Reel and the Circassian Circle dances.  We also did some jogging to warm up!

The Squares group learned what an angle is and what a right angle is. We also learned how many degrees there are in a right angle turn- 90! We got our next badge for Together We Count. We played some games to practise counting forwards and backwards. In maths the Circles have been learning how to count in 5s, 4s, 3s and 2s.

The P4s have been writing a two-page spread on different types of energy that they have researched. They are going to make them into a book next week.

We have been learning how to make a switch with a block of wood, a paper clip and some drawing pins. We had to use our learning about circuits and conductors to be able to make a switch.

In the Chess Club we are onto the second round of the league. Those who are not through to the next round in the league are playing friendly games.

On Monday we tested objects to see if they were conductors or insulators. James found out that an orange was a conductor and Keira found out that a plastic ruler was an insulator. We found out that some  different coloured chalks were conductors and some were insulators- but we don’t know why!!!

On Tuesday the P2s and P3s were learning how to use the dictionary. We looked up the meanings of words and used them to answer questions. The P4s made up their own dictionary quizzes.

On Wednesday in gym we did Scottish dancing. We did The Virginia Reel.  It was a lot of fun. We learned about the different features of a non-fiction text like captions, headings ,bold key words, index, glossary and coloured print.

On Thursday the Circles practised their ordering of numbers to 1000. In the Circles we were using the Beebot to give other people instructions on where to go on a grid. In the Squares group we learned about right angles and we learned that an angle is where two straight lines meet. We wrote about our superheroes and made a story of their day. We tried hard to use good punctuation and adverbs and interesting openers!

On Wednesday the 13th of Novemder 2013 Joanne Bloomfield came in to teach us about circuits. We were all given a box containing: 3 bulbs, a switch, lots of wires and 3 batteries. Always we listened because there were lots of dangers when you are doing this sort of thing. Afterwards she told us a story about a time about when she got an electric shock, it sounded horrible. Never had anyone (almost) got an electric shock in the school. She showed us a power point on the computer. Next we were given the task of building a simple circuit. That was a circuit that had two wires that connected a battery and light bulb.  This was probably the easiest and we did it quiet quite quickly. Joanne asked if we wanted the light brighter. “Yes” We said. Then she showed us an example of another circuit, it was a circuit with two batteries. After a while we got to make it. So for this one, it had to have a wire between the two batteries to complete the circuit other wise it wouldn’t be a complete circle, never ending. Another thing was that there wasn’t a wire before another reached the bulbs because electricity always goes the easiest way. We did another circuit too. But this was the first time we noticed we could join a wire onto another wire. All the circuits we made were simple circuit, series circuit and the parrerel circuit.

Fist we stepped in the mini bus then we drove to pressmenan wood. Next we got some equipment so we could do it. After that we got peard up then we felt exsited. We stomped through the muddy wood.We stuck are plastic fingers in all the posts. Finily we reached the holy posty. Then we tried again. After that we got shown another map it was of the same place but different. We got in the mini bus again then drove back to school.

I have learned how to write and read three digit numbers in the hundreds.

(James)

I have learned how to count up to 50. (Keira)

We learned about badminton and we learned how to flip an object onto our

opponent’s racquet. (Alex)

I learned about the journey of electricity from the power station to a city or a

house. (Darwin)

I’ve learned how to make a water turbine. (Charlie)

We were learning how to count up to 1000. (Olivia)

I learned how to order numbers up to 10,000 from the smallest to the biggest.

(Jake)

I learned how to make a turbine using water. (Carlo)

I learned this week that in draughts the black always goes first but in chess the

white goes first. (Joe)

I learned about Kung Fu punctuation. (Ben)

I have learned how to play chess. (Kyle)

I’ve learned how to play draughts. (Peggy)

The p4s did some research on wind power and coal power. (Emma)

We wrote sentences with connectives in them. (Harry)

We played a game where we went around the classroom and filled in a ladder to

write more interesting vocabulary. (Sam)

In gym we had a partner and we got to practise throwing things over the

badminton net. We also had to copy what our partner was doing and make

a mirror image. (Serena)

We launched our Together We Count project on Monday. We were split up into groups and went around 7 stations all involving the 7 different number skills we are going to be focusing on such as ordering numbers. Serena enjoyed ‘turtle tennis-rackets’ which involved using multiplication and division! Lots of the children’s Mums and Dads came and joined in with our activities.

We went to Torness on Tuesday because we were learning about energy and electricity. We wanted to know how they made electricity. There was two big green machines which were reactors and these were like ‘batteries’ for the power station. It smelt a bit like a petrol station and was very warm. We learned lots and the guides were excellent at teaching us about nuclear power.

On Wednesday the wind power people came to talk about wind energy and they showed us a video on how to build a wind turbine. When the people were in we built a model of a wind turbine, which was exactly to scale.

In phonics we learned how to read ‘dge’ and Kyle read words like ‘nudge’ and ‘hedgehog’.

In writing we were practising our VCOP skills and we focused on punctuation and connectives. Serena managed to use ‘otherwise’ to join her ideas in writing. Joe had suggested this would be a good joining word.

On Thursday we drew and painted our new role play which is a power station.

The children’s names show which child contributed each idea to our blog post this week.

We began our new project this week about Energy and Electricity. We learned that leaves turned into coal (Peggy) and that wood is a source of energy (Ben). We learned that sun makes energy and makes things grow (Harry). We did some drama to help us understand how coal was formed (Sam). We learned that coal is used to make electricity (Joe and Carlo). We learned that coal is running out and that’s why we are making electricity more and more from wind turbines (Alexander).

In gym we used fluffballs to aim at a target with an overarm throw (Charlie) and we practised scoring goals with our feet (Olivia).

In Maths the Circles, Stars and Squares started learning about tally charts and bar graphs. Jake made a tally chart at home. Serena and Darwin enjoyed using the computers to make a block graph.

The P3s learned how to join ‘i’ to ‘n’ and ‘m’ (Emma and James).

We enjoyed a visit from Leigh who works for the SSPCA and she helped us to learn about the job that she does and how to look after our pets properly (Keira and Kyle).