Kenya is a country in East Africa. We have in previous lessons discovered that food such as bananas and coffee beans are grown there. In this lesson we will be looking at this in more detail and investigating what other food supplies may originate in Kenya - and what they need to grow healthily.

The linked file at the top of the page contains our introduction to the investigation. We check prior knowledge retention by revisiting the previous lesson on food sources. We can then expand the discussion, looking at Kenya specifically.

We can look at specific aspects of growing crops in Kenya - tapping into the work we did last year in Science on plant growth and habitats. We can ask the very important questions…

• What do plants need to grow well?
• What sort of habitats do certain plants grow in?
• What kind of care do these plants require?

This in turn leads us on to discussing the climate in Kenya and questions such as…

• How much sunshine is there in Kenya?
• What are the temperatures like throughout the year?
• What amount of rain falls in East Africa?
• What problems might any of the above pose for farmers?

In ELP Science in S1 our pupils also studied the weather. Tapping into this prior understanding of how to access meteorological data from a variety of sources (printed, web, media) and how to simply interpret it, the pupils will be encouraged to do the same for Kenya - working as independently as possible.

Resources will undoubtedly include :-

• BBC website
• Met Office website
• Google
• The newspapers
• Books

In this series of lessons we will be looking at where our food comes from. The children were introduced to the idea that food stuffs come from different places (and often more than one place) on the planet using the attached worksheet.

Examples of the food stuffs were brought in for them to look at, smell and touch. In addition, small pictures of each food and a large classroom globe were used to “map out” all the places you might get the specific foods from. For example, having discussed where coffee comes from (and deciding on Kenya, Brazil and Ethiopia as our examples) we put a small picture of a coffee cup on our classroom globe in each of these places.

By the end of the lesson we had a classroom globe covered in pictures of tea, rice, coffee beans, lamb, bananas and bread. We could identify places that produced things that needed sunshine to grow (or even rain in the case of rice). We could see that lamb was produced in countries as far apart as Scotland and New Zealand. We could see clearly understand that countries such as Kenya produce a lot of our goods - from bananas to coffee.

In the next few lessons we will concentrate on one country that produces a number of different foodstuffs - Kenya.

This year in Social Studies the pupils will be undertaking a project called The Garden for Life. In this project we will be covering a wide range of issues and will be tying them back in to the work we did last year in Science (The life of plants) and our Gardening lessons this year.

We will be looking at the following -

• Where does food come from?
• The Kenyan (and global) food crisis
• Sustainable food
• Organic food
• Food transport and the environment
• Food and the garden
• Food and health

You will find information about these lessons in the Social Studies part of the ELP website

This is going to be a very busy week on the ELP programme - so many things to do and see!

Maths

In maths we will be continuing to recap the things we hope to remember from last year - 7 weeks holiday is a long time and it takes a few lessons to get back up to full steam. Some of our pupils will be working on reinforcing their understanding of money and time, others will be working on angles and simple “equations” using like terms (eg 1a + 2a = 3a) as they work towards Level C maths.

Health

In Health we will be looking at the senses - especially the ability to smell things (and due to our good fortune, taste things too!). The sort of things we will be smelling and tasting include chocolate, garlic and other herbs and spices…

Science

We will be continuing to look at our bodies and this week will be helped by our favourite classmate, Bill!

Meet Bill!

Bill has 206 bones and that makes him very helpful. He can show us where we can find David Beckham’s metatarsal - or any other bone in our body. We can’t see our own skeletons because they are covered up by skin and muscle…so old Bill is rather useful indeed.

Asdan

In our Asdan modules we have been completing our personal profiles for our folder. We had to remember a lot of important information such as our address and our birthday. We also got a chance to tell everyone what our favourite things are and made clay models of our favourite dinners! Can you guess who chose fish and chips? Or curry? Or even macaroni cheese?

Home Economics

In Home Ec this week we will be working with Miss Angus in the kitchen. Mr Cruickshank will also be coming into the kitchens with us on Thursday mornings for an extra period of cooking, once a fortnight. He is seemingly a good cake maker…so we look forward to that!

Gardening

In Gardening this week we went on a Garden Treasure Hunt. Mrs Binnie had made up lots of clues that were to do with our work in the garden and had placed them round the school (but mainly in our two gardens) for us to find. We were allowed the help of Mr Cruickshank and Mrs Cullen -but to be honest, we really didn’t need their input. We were superb at working out the cryptic clues ourselves (because we know the garden better than anyone!). The treasure was a cranberry cake and juice served in our special room in Home Ec…and made by none other than Mr C!

See ELP Gardening to find out what we did!

Social Studies

This week we planned our small mini projects looking at how food gets from its country of origin to our favourite supermarkets. We decided that Amy would find out how sweetcorn would get from America to Asda…Dale would find out how coffee gets from Brazil to Asda…Melissa would find out how tea gets from China to Lidl…and Steven would find out how lambs get from Scottish fields to Somerfields!

(Any excuse for a cute lamb picture!)

the-garden-treasure-hunt

This week we are going on a Treasure Hunt!

On returning to school last week, we spent our Gardening lessons getting the Science Garden back into shape by weeding the flower beds and trimming the bushes. It was hard work! (However, Ms Angus kindly donated some fruit juice and healthy flapjacks for the workers - it was a very hot day, you understand!).

This week we are going to refamiliarise ourselves with both our gardens. Part of this activity will involve a Treasure Hunt…

Attached you will find the introductory materials used to remind pupils of some of the things we learned about and worked with last session. You will also find the clues used to lead them on their Treasure Hunt. If you run through them with your child at home, see how many clues they can recall and whether they can describe to you the actual location that provided the solution. The answers are all important places in the gardens they work in on a weekly basis.

the-thigh-bone-is-connected-to-the-hip-bone

This year in Science the ELP pupils will be looking at The Body!

As part of an extensive project exploring concepts in physiology, health and fitness, they will be investigating and learning about some of the following:

• body structure and the skeleton
• major organs
• sight and sound
• teeth
• digestion
• respiration
• movement
• health
• fitness
• growth
• reproduction

In providing an overview and investigating pupils’ prior knowledge we will be undertaking a series of lessons that will create our very own “Classroom Body”!  This will be a wall presentation of a skeleton/body that will allow us to add information as we progress through the course of the year - and remind us of all the interesting and important things we will have learned!

 Please follow the link at the top of this page to our introductory lesson “The thigh bone is connected to the hipbone”. In this lesson, the song “Dem bones, dem bones” ( a well-known traditional spiritual song, often used to teach basic anatomy to children) is used as the starting point. Follow the internet link to the lyrics and music  -  in our class this is linked up to an overhead projector. The children can sing along to the tune and hopefully following some of the lyrics on the projector screen.

The worksheet provides a basis for some open questioning and other prior knowledge activities that allow us to determine what the children already know.

The second linked sheet (Name that body part) allows us to continue our introduction to the overall project - continuing to assess prior knowledge as we progress.

Again the use of an internet resource allows opportunity for pupils to interact and practise their ICT skills - once more, we project the website onto the big classroom overhead projector screen.

This week it is back to school time! Amy, Steven and Dale will continue their S2 journey joined by our new S1 pupil, Melissa. We all welcome Melissa into our group and hope she is going to enjoy her time at Preston Lodge!

New timetables are being negotiated, new teachers are to be met and some new classes are in our curriculum but we have much to look forward to this week and in the weeks to come.

Miss Strachan has joined the Learning Support teaching staff and will be working with us on a Monday and Tuesday in RE and when we work on our Asdan projects. Welcome to Miss Strachan!

Elsewhere this week we will be…

Maths

Consolidating what we can remember from last term - 7 weeks is such a long time away from the classroom and we need to find out what we can remember, what we have retained and how we can use it. To this end there we will be revisiting a number of concepts to assess where we are before moving on.

Science

In science we will be making a start on our new topic The Body. We want to know if the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone connected to the hip bone or the neck bone connected to the “head bone”! We will be finding out how our body works, what it can do, how to look after it and reproduction of life. It is certain to be great fun!

Our sunflowers from last session’s PL Plants project in Science are now so tall that they have reached Dr Voge’s window sill - and we have had great fun measuring them with our metre sticks!

Gardening

In the garden we will be very busy! So many weeds have grown in our plot, there are bushes to be tended, nutrients to be applied and planning of our new wishing well construction to be made. Oh…and there will also be Mr Cruickshank’s inpromptu auditions for X Factor to be endu…enjoyed :o)

Proposed Industrial Action on Wednesday August 20th

All parents have been contacted by Mrs Hoban to inform you of the Learning Support department plans for the day. Any changes will be updated by telephone, letter and on the website.

Welcome back to Preston Lodge - we hope that you all had a great summer doing fun things and relaxing! The summer holidays always seem to pass quickly but we are sure that we will all be looking forward to catching up with one another again on Monday morning.

Everyone should report to their register teacher on Monday morning (S2 register teacher is still Miss Cleland…but who is now called Mrs Allan!). You will spend Period One in registration as your teacher needs time to issue planners, timetables and other information about the new session.

Have a good time in what is left of your holidays - and we look forward to seeing you at 8.39am on Monday morning! (Set your alarms!)

The pupils have spent much of their science time since Easter learning how to grow plants. We have discovered what things a plant needs to survive and flourish, we have learned how to plant seeds and help them develop into adult plants and we have produced flowers and vegetables for staff, pupils and the community to buy. We have conscientiously looked after the school garden, planting some new sunflowers outside Dr Voge’s window, making and monitoring our PL Weather Station, growing everything from chilis to tomatoes in the glasshouse and keeping an eye on Mr Stewart’s new tree saplings.

Today as a thank you and as one final pleasant visit to the garden, we had a picnic with Mrs Binnie and Miss Cleland. We sat at the wooden benches and tables with very civilised cups of tea and raspberry cream cakes.

What a lovely way to end our science year!

On Monday at Edinburgh Zoo we had a fabulous time. The weather was excellent and the new facilities and attractions in the park are first rate. The children had a wonderful experience in Rainbow Landings, were they could feed the above featured parikeets with nectar - with one landing on our own PL naturalist, Jade!

On the Budongo Trail the kids were delighted (and that was just The A Team!) by the fantastic new chimpanzee house. It really was a remarkable experience for them - and what an innovative way to give these animals a home from home. The chimps that is, not the A Team!

We took our own video of the trip and hope to shortly have this on the website for all to see.

Another highlight had to be our encounter with a Bagheera-esque black panther - we were delighted that we got within 3 feet of this magnificent sunbathing regent of the jungle. It has to be said, however, that we were equally delighted that there was an inch or two of reinforced glass between us and him!

On Tuesday we visited Dalkeith Country Park - where most of the whooping and excited noises came from us and not any wildlife

The children had a ball on the various slides, flying foxes, swings and climbing frames. We went on a forest walk, looking at and smelling the wild garlic along the way. A couple of our party even went on a “Bear Hunt” with Ms Russell! There can be no denying that Mandy was the Queen of the Flying Fox - defeating all who dared challenge her to a race through the air.

A brief stop for the home made chocolate crispies that Amy, Steven, Dale and Robyn had made in the morning and there was just time for a final blast at the flying fox and daring slides.

A tired minibus full of pupils and staff made quiet but content trips home on both occasions…