P6 Pencaitland

After starting the book week by reading to the P1’s the week got better and better.
On Tuesday a councillor called Mrs Currie came in and listened to people reading. She said that she really liked listening to us and said she really would like to come back again. We were reading our group Novel and she said we were really good.
Also on Tuesday a local author called Mr Paulin read us his famous story called Voytek The Bear. He showed us a slideshow showing pages of the book (with sounds), and real photographs of the bear and the people in the story. It was really good finding out about how to write a book.

On Wednesday, James Granny came in and read us some of Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitch and a book called The Skull Robe. She read really well (and we listened well too !). In the afternoon Declans mum came in and listened to two other groups reading their group novels. She said we were really good too. During the book we had a chance to bring in books and swap them in the school swapshop bookshop. It was very popular.

Euan & Arran (blogging team for the week)

To start our Literacy Week we began by reading our fairy stories to the P1s. We had been writing our stories the week before and we had designed castle shaped books to make them even more interesting for the P1’s. My story was about a  king called Jack. I think my P1 enjoyed my story because the king who lived in a castle heard a noise and he found a little girl and she had a sore knee. So he took the girl to the nearest house. But an evil witch answered the door and turned him into a frog. They had to find a magical necklace to break the curse and the witch turned into a beautiful princess and they lived happily ever after.

All the P1’s really enjoyed our stories (their teacher said so) and we all enjoyed reading them. It was great fun.

On Thursday after break we played some victorian games like marbles where we had to hit a certain marble with five others. It is harder than you think ! Another game was running with a hoop, trying to keep it rolling along by pushing it with your hand. It was hard to do as well because the hoop would start to wobble as you ran along. Donkey was another game and this time it used a ball. Instead of kicking the ball you had to bounce it across to each otheer. If you couldn’t catch it when it came to you , you were called D. This kept going until someone was the DONKEY. It was real fun. The last game was an older version of hopscotch. You had to throw the stone (we used a beanbag) into a section and hop or jump into it, turn round, pick up the bean bag and hop/jump back. I (Isla) loved to play with the hoop with Eilidh. I (Glen) liked playing donkey and marbles.
Despite not being modern we all thought the victorian games were really good fun.
Glen & Isla P6 blogging team for the week.

Yesterday we continued our Victorian topic. We have finished doing victorian schools and we have moved onto games Victorian children played and what thery did in their spare time. In drama, we were pretending to throw snowball’sin the victorian times.  We had to practice picking up the snow and rolling it together in our hands before pretending to throw it at our partners. Our partners had to pretend to dodge the snowballs by moving from right to left as well as by ducking. After that we had to show Mr Cain how to play spinning games and we also made up a dance with a partner.   

This Friday we did an assembly on what we have been learning in class (Victorians)

To make it more entertaining we had Dr.What, Rosie and the brother of Martha Jones going back in time to visit famous Victorians and to see what a Victorian school was like. It went well and the parents seemed to enjoy it. They also thought it was funny.

The cast was good at acting and i thought we all played our parts well. First Dr.What and his 2 companions went to see the birth of Queen Victoria in 1819. Then they went to meet Charles Dickens and his cleaner. They had quite a social chat (even though there was no tea and biscuits) but soon they moved on to see doctor Barnardo and talked about the poor lives of victorian children. The main part of the show was the school scene and fortunately it went well. We showed how the children lined up, what lessons they learned, how they were punished and what school meals were like (they’ve not improved much !). At the end of the assembly Mr.Cain and all the parents said it was great goodbye!

George & Haanah (P6 bloggers for the week)

As some of you may know P6 have been learning about the Victorians.

So on Tuesday the 4th we went to New Lanark ( an old victorian village). It was a long journey so evreyone brought their games consoles and Ipods. When we finally got there we went in to a Victorian school. It was quite hard and also very strict. When we had an answer we had to stand up and say mam. We did some handwriting on slates, some maths and geography. After that we did some scottish country dancing and a few lucky (!) boys got to dance with the teachers.

After that we had lunch. Soon after that we went to a typical New Lanark mill house which was just a single room. The whole family had to live their. Their bed was full of straw with beasties and right next to the fire (their kitchen) and a bucket (their toilet). It would have ben disgusting. Then we went to the next room which was completly different and about 3o years later. There was electricity, a toilet, another bedroom and a typewriter. Next was the first ever co-op in the whole world. The guide told us a lot about it. It was very interesting finding out about what the food was like. The man who owned new lanark (Robert Owen) had a study and in the study was his desk but they had moved the desk to a different house. We visited this house and saw the desk it loked really old.

Then we went on a ride - you could go in 2’s or 3’s. It was good. It took you back in time to see what life was like in those days. When we came out we got to go to the gift shop which was huge. We enjoyed spending our money on the stuff in the gift shop. Some people bought special stones and also paints and toys.

Everyone loved the day and the journey back was fun because we all played on our DS’s and stuff. We hope to go again soon. We certainly enjoyed it maybe you will enjoy it too. Goodbye! 

George and Hannah P6 (blogging team).

On Thursday the whole school went to see the panto Dick Whitington in our very own school hall! It was really funny. It had a lot of songs we knew and we were singing along to them (2 from HSM, 1 from hairspray and 1 from McFly). Euan’s favourite part was NA NA NA NA NA SPACE PIRATES!!! Catherine’s favourite was when Alice hugged Mr.Kingsbury!!!  Other good bits were the “Freezen” cow and the “Past your eyes” milk !  Oh and don’t forget the “He’s behind you” and “Oh no he isn’t”

blogging team for the week p.6 Catherine and Euan!

On Thursday we were learning more about the Victorians. We started by seeing how many countries were in the British Empire. We had a map that showed the countries coloured in and worked in small groups (and an atlas) to find out what the names of the countries were. There were lots of them!  Then we had to organise lots of facts like famous people, inventions events into a proper timeline - our favourite was the first vaccum cleaner was invented during the Victorian era.

blogging team for the week p.6 Euan and Catherine!!!

Monday the 20th October the planing for our victorian play begins. We thought out our play and came up with lots of ideas to put in it. Pupils brought in props and costumes. We have started to rehearse and practise our lines and hopefully we will be word perfect when we reach the big day.
Here are some photos. If you want any more information you will need to come to our assembly !

Euan & Catherine - P6 blogging team for the week (with help from Dec !!)

Well, P6 thoroughly enjoyed their hockey festival today at Ross High. Was that partly because they got to miss some maths and writing ?  Whatever the reason, the class approached the festival in high spirits and performed admirably with lots of good individual and team performances. Generally the sportsmanship was of the highest standard and some of their hockey was simply excellent - well done Mrs Jones for teaching them all their skills. The bracing (!) wind certainly made the conditions tricky but all the pupils coped really well.

Thanks especially to Natasha’s and Catherine’s mum for helping me out - it wouldn’t have been possible without you. To all the P6 parents. I hope you enjoy the photos below.

Mr Cain (windswept & cold and co-opted onto the P6 Blogging team this week).