Ready to party!
Two wise men?
Enjoying party games!
We had our Christmas party for the P4-7s yesterday afternoon and it went very well, with the children all enjoying a variety of games and dances. Here are some photos!
Dec 212011
We had our Christmas party for the P4-7s yesterday afternoon and it went very well, with the children all enjoying a variety of games and dances. Here are some photos!
Dec 162011
Having won the school around £1000 in ICT software a couple of weeks ago, our Chain Reaction for 2012 is nearly complete! Many weeks ago now, we filmed the majority of our technical chain reaction, and we will complete it next week, by using our lift and the stairs to finish it off with a flourish! I will then edit it over the Christmas holidays, as it needs to be uploaded to the project blog by Friday 13th January.
Meanwhile, all teams in the contest this year have been asked to introduce themselves to each other by creating a shorter, “Human Chain Reaction”. We filmed ours yesterday, and you can see it below, as well as the others which have already been uploaded to the European Chain Reaction 2012 blog.
I can present a bit about Christmas in other European countries, showing the differences that exist in different cultures.
Well done to the class themselves, who did all the planning and presenting, with only a tiny bit of help from me!
Dec 062011
For the past few weeks in gym, we have been working with Mr Johnstone to improve our gymnastic abilities and skills. Today, we split into groups, and worked our way around a variety of tasks.
Have a look at the results!
Dec 022011
Today in Maths, we looked at a very interesting maths website, called Murderous Maths.
There, we explored various amazing calculations and games, and the children might already have asked if you would like to play some of the games, or see their amazing ability to make calculations more quickly than even you can with a calculator! Use the calculator here if you want to test your child!
Dec 022011
Each day this week, we have been visited by the different parties from P7, who have each given a presentation to the class, in advance of their polling day, which will be on Tuesday morning next week. Each party has outlined their policies, in most cases extremely competently, and we have enjoyed asking a range of (sometimes challenging!) questions at the end of each presentation. Who will win? We’ll find out next week!
Dec 022011
As part of our St Andrew’s Day celebrations, we welcomed piper Chris Armstrong, from the Scottish Power Pipeband, to the school on Monday, and he gave a 30 minute demonstration of various tunes, before answering a wide range of questions from the children.
Piper, Chris Armstrong plays to the pupils in the hall.
Back in early 2011, I created the European Chain Reaction science project with Belgian teacher, Dave Schrauwen, and it was a very popular project undertaken by P6/7 last year. We were joined by primary schools from 11 other European countries, who all undertook to create their very own chain reactions. The project was the focus of a visit by HMIe in March 2011, and after speaking to some of the children involved at the time, the inspector described it as one of the best collaborative pieces of work he had seen produced by any school in the four years he had been looking at International Education across Scotland.
Yesterday, in Brussels, the project won 1st prize in the category of best example of Cross Border European Collaboration, at the 2011 MEDEA Awards!
As a result, Yester Primary wins a software package suite valued at more than £1000! Fantastic news!
As you know, we worked on creating our 2012 Chain Reaction a few weeks back, and we hope to finish it shortly, allowing me plenty of time to edit the footage for our entry into the 2012 European Chain Reaction.
You can read a bit about the entry to the MEDEA Awards here.
Nov 242011
This afternoon, the whole school enjoyed the pantomime, Mother Goose. Here is a short clip, to give you a flavour of what it was like!
Nov 182011
I can work with a partner in the gym in a safe manner.
Nov 172011
I can convert a fraction to a percentage.
Back in class, we discussed what we had found, making our own tables to show what we had discovered. As we have been working on fractions in maths, we showed our results as a fraction, tried to simplify the fractions where possible, then finally converted the results into percentage form, which made it easier to compare each set of results.
I’m not sure if every set of results is truly accurate, but (if they are!) we can see that some households are very far along the road towards reducing their enery consumption in terms of lighting, which is really great news for the environment!
Nov 172011
I can compare and order a variety of fractions.
Nov 112011
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- Warm up
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- Time to move a bit faster!
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- This is cool!
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- The instructor shows the way!
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- You really need to concentrate here!
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- Watch and follow!
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- We’re mastering the moves now!
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- What great fun!
Most classes experienced a dance workshop in school today, and we certainly had fun during our half hour in the hall with the dance instructors! After warming up and losing any inhibitions, we learned various moves during the first fifteen or twenty minutes. Then, we amazed ourselves as we linked all the various moves together, creating a very high energy dance at the end!
You can view each photo in the gallery individually by clicking on the first, then scrolling through them all.
Nov 112011
We were visited by pupils from P7 this morning, who were keen to quiz P5/6 about their thoughts ahead of the election that Mr Devereux and his class will be organising shortly. The parties spent time canvassing each individual pupil, and taking close note of what answers were given. We look forward to seeing the results of the election in due course!
Each party asked a series of questions relating to their own manifesto.
Nov 112011
This presentation about football also included a practical demonstration of skills!
Over the course of the past week, P5/6 have been making presentations on a very wide range of topics to the rest of the class. There have been a variety of ways of presenting as well, which has been great to see. The remaining few presentations will be heard on Monday and thereafter, I will give individual feedback to everyone. Well done P5/6!
Asking questions to our friends in Finland
We had a really wonderful webcam conference with our link school in Finland this morning, asking and answering lots of questions that we wanted to find out about each other. Winter has finally arrived there, with the temperature last night getting down to -5C, though there is no snow yet.
Remember, if you wish to view the replay of this at home, ask your child to give you the url of the meeting.
..and receiving the replies from our Finnish friends.
Nov 082011
This morning, we headed down to Haddington to the Corn Exchange, where we met up with American-based author Michael Dahl for an extremely entertaining hour. Michael told us all about the books he has written, in a way that ensured that the hour there passed very quickly indeed!
As had been mentioned beforehand, the children now have the chance to purchase some of his books. As a piece of advice, one of the most popular ones that pupils wanted (The Horizontal Man) was not on the list of available books to buy at £4.00, so if your child really wanted to buy this book, I would advise searching for it on the net- it’s available for around £8.00, post free on Amazon’s site.
Nov 082011
Last Friday, P5/6 worked on a passage about the Braer oil disaster which occurred in January 1993. We were concentrating on trying to write fluently and quickly, as well as finding out a bit about what actually happened.
This led us nicely into drama, where we set out in small groups to discuss how we could recreate the disaster through mime alone, without using any words!
Finally we gave a demonstration of each group’s work to the class.
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- Before the ship runs aground, the crew sleep!
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- What’s happening?
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- Goodness, that sea is rough!
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- Is that water coming in?
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- Are you OK?
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- I’m trying desperately to control the ship here, but it’s no use!
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- Help!
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- Hang on!
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- Are you OK? Can you phone for help?
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- Can anyone hear us? We are adrift, losing power fast!
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- Oh no, she’s hurt!
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- Is that a helicopter?
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- We’re over here! Help!
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- I’m still trying to get through to someone!
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- Hang on- this is getting really serious!
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- The crew are injured!
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- Will we ever get out of this?
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- These seas are mountainous!
Nov 032011
One of the activities we have done this week in spelling has been to create our own graffiti walls, using our own spelling words, as can be seen here!
Nov 032011
Preparations for our FlashMeeting webcam conference with our Finnish link school.
We took a photo of the whole class this morning, to email to Finland, along with lots of questions that we plan to ask during the webcam conference next week.
Although I won’t be able to post the actual link here, I will be delighted to send the url home to parents who wish to watch the recording of the event afterwards. All the FlashMeetings we have hosted over the past three years have been recorded, and they always make great viewing afterwards! Let me know if you wish to watch the event at home!
Nov 032011
While the workshop in preparation for the Space Invaders concert was taking place, the rest of the class were in the hall, enjoying a game of benchball.
I can participate in a Space Invaders workshop!
Next Tuesday, 8th November, we will be visiting Haddington, where we will meet up with well-known children’s author, Michael Dahl, for a creative writing workshop.
One of Michael Dahl's books.
The class were given letters today about the visit, so please try to return them as soon as possible. There is no charge for the trip, but there will be an opportunity to buy some of Michael Dahl’s books- please see the letter for details of this.
Nov 012011
In spelling today, we worked collaboratively with a partner in our own group. Our task was to find our spelling list words in a dictionary together, then write the meaning of each word in our jotters.
I can find the meaning of my list words by using a dictionary.
Earlier today, the whole class worked collaboratively to produce a short and very scary story… Click the link to listen to it and see if you can work out which piece your child contributed to the overall story! 
On Wednesday p5/6 created a whole class spooky Halloween story. We did it in our tables making different sentences. We all had to think of one or two sentences to add in to the story. Once we had thought of our sentences Mr Purves recorded them. Once all the tables finished their part of the story we got to listen to the class story. We all thought that our class story was very good and would scare adults easily! All the class thought that this challenge was very good fun and would love to do it near Hallowe’en again!
Lauren A & Lauren T
Spooky Halloween class story
I can use an ICT program such as Excel to create a spreadsheet.
I can use MS Excel to create a spreadsheet about Europe.
We made great use of the new 2010 version of Microsoft Excel this week in ICT, when we worked collaboratively to create and save our own spreadsheets. The “European passports” that the Global Citizenship group recently obtained for all the upper classes provided the perfect stimulus for this set of lessons, as they are packed full of great information that the class could transfer to their own spreadsheets.
Oct 282011
If you’re thinking of the German manufacturer of household appliances such as washing machines, you’re barking up the wrong tree! No, we looked at some pieces of work by the Dutch artist, Hieronymous Bosch who was a surrealist painter in the 15th and 16th centuries. He explored the extremes of good and bad in human nature, so we decided to create our own extreme pictures, as you can see here!
The theme for the pictures, which I hope is obvious, is beauty and ugliness!
In language this week, we created our own comic strips which showed some of the things we had done during the October holiday week.
Oct 272011
Earlier today, the whole class worked collaboratively to produce a short and very scary story… Click the link to listen to it and see if you can work out which piece your child contributed to the overall story!
Spooky Halloween class story
On Wednesday p5/6 created a whole class spooky Halloween story. We did it in our tables making different sentences. We all had to think of one or two sentences to add in to the story. Once we had thought of our sentences Mr Purves recorded them. Once all the tables finished their part of the story we got to listen to the class story. We all thought that our class story was very good and would scare adults easily! All the class thought that this challenge was very good fun and would love to do it near Hallowe’en again!
Lauren A & Lauren T
Spooky Halloween class story 2
We started work again this morning after the October break, and heard lots of interesting stories about what everyone had been up to during the holiday week!
Looking ahead, we plan to continue to concentrate on various types of writing this term, allowing the class to develop their own styles of writing as they tackle a variety of genres. We will also be looking closely at grammar and punctuation on a weekly basis, and revising some things we have come across before, as well as having a more in-depth look at how we are punctuating our work.
In maths, we will be moving on to a period of working on fractions and decimals, and linking this in to percentages. In addition, we will spend some time looking at co-ordinates.
During the final week of last term, we spent some time creating a huge class “chain reaction”, as part of our project work. We filmed the bits we had made, but a good number of the children now have ideas to further enhance it, so we will continue to work on this and when the filming is finished, I will need to edit the whole film ready for it to be uploaded to this year’s European Chain Reaction website which is an exciting science based competition that we will take part in against countries from all over Europe! In addition this term, we will be looking at two other projects, Going Green and Mapping.
Can I please remind everyone that we have gym each week on a Tuesday and a Thursday, so everyone needs to have their P.E. kit on these days. Miss Traill will continue to work with the class on Wednesdays- do have a look at the great drumming work P5/6 did last term (below) and Miss Turbayne will continue with the violinists on Thursday afternoons.
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