P7 Pencaitland Primary School

P7 have been very busy all week. The main theme was making a business in a “Dragon’s Den” type competition. The winning business is going to win one million (pretend) pounds which we could use to buy treats – like being first in the dinner line for a whole week which costs £350,000!  First we made TV and Radio adverts and then we worked out the business income, outgoings and finally our profit for the first year. We added some finishing touches to our posters, website design and company logos and then practiced our business pitch for Mrs Macartney. Mrs Maccartney was really scary, just like in the TV show, and she asked us lots of difficult questions about our business and product. We will find out which group won next week. Also this week some S5`s came from Ross High and did a great presentation on healthy eating. They also let us put on some hand gel and rub it in following the steps on how to wash your hands properly. After their presentation they let us try some fruit – mango, pineapple, pomegranate, kiwi and watermelon. Yummy yummy! Mr Cain had a meeting on Wednesday so we had a very nice supply teacher called Miss Cook. We did some maths and language with her. We had a great week this week and we hope that next week is just as good.                                          By the Mayster!

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We have been busy this week with the first part our new project – The Dragon’s Den. We have started to make businesses which will have to make a pitch to Mrs McCartney next week. The big thing this week was our group presentations. We did these on Thursday and they were all very good. They weren’t just powerpoints but had loads of props, drama, quizzes and one even had some baking in it! We have been working hard on our p7 show (can’t tell you too much about that) by making props and and things.  We also had the second part of the Shakespeare’s Stories with Shona the drama specialist on Monday which was a lot of fun. The photos from the presentations are below if you want a look. Ellis & Katie.

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This has been a great week. Firstly it has been our turn to be responsible for litter pick-up around the school and each day a group of us has gone out to pick up rubbish from around the school and the woods. On Monday the drama specialist came in and we have started a workshop on “Shakespeare Stories”. This should help us with our P7 show too. Talking of that, the Script Writing team have completed the script and we have begun to talk through it as a whole cast. The Costume department and Staging & Prop department have made lists of what we will need. We just need to find the things or we will have to make them! We have started algebra in maths and are continuing our Monsters Feast stories for P1. We are also working on group presentations that we will be doing next week. The Baldy Bane Theatre group came in on Thursday to put on a show called “Better Late Than Dead On Time”. Although it was meant for the adults in the audience we all thought it was funny. The actors were very good too. The best bit of the week though was our genetics lessons. We learned about alleles by looking at Harry Potter characters and their possible children! We also did some breeding and made little plasticene monsters that all ended up looking different because of their genetic code. That was great fun.

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Cole & Finlay

This week went past so quick I can’t actually remember everything we did! Well here’s what I can remember – wrote chapter 2 of our stories for P1 (Monster’s Feast), did a web quest to learn more about genetics,  we were the audience in the P6 class assembly dress rehearsal, Mr Harris came in to class to tell us all about earthquakes (jumping up and down to make the seismograph jiggle up and down was cool), the SSPCA came in to talk about animals and how to care for them and we went to Meadowmill for a P7 transition event with P7 classes from other primary classes. Oh and we have started getting things done for our P7 show – the scriptwriter team are busy getting the script ready and the art team have made a start on painting one of the 4 backdrops we will need. Phew – what a week.

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Alister

It’s been a really good week (especially with the holidays now). We have finished our Brazil topic and we made huts like the Amerindians live in. It was a lot of fun but the the cleaners weren’t happy with all the straw left on the floor. We also had visitors this week. Africa In Motion came in and showed us two films, made by Africans, and about Africa. Even though they had subtitles they were really good and we learned  about Africa. They also came with a real African storyteller who got some of us (even Mr Cain) to help play parts in her story. She was great. Before they came we did some work on Africa so we knew a little bit about Africa before we watched the films. In writing we completed the next page of our story that we are writing for the P1′s, and in problem solving we had to make 2min radio adverts advertising our P7 show. We also had our elections for new P7 responsible jobs like house captains, JRSO’s etc. The Eco Reps showed us how to make gift boxes out of old Christmas cards.

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Kaitlin (P7 blog reporter)

This week we finally finished off our Brazilian lion masks – finishing off the mane, adding detail around the face and decorating them with glitter and sequins to make them look like carnival masks. In our hall slots we played dodgeball (if you can dodge a cold you can dodge a ball!). In language we started writing stories for the P1′s called “The Monsters Feast” which we hope the P1′s will love. we designed the 3D effect cover and the “friendly” monsters. We also looked at how authors write horror stories and made an emotion graph for one of the characters. When some of the class were at brass the rest had to design a display board for 10 postcards which could then be folded up. It was harder than it looked. In singing practice we were singing citizenship songs and Mr Cain chose – “I’d like to teach the world to sing” by The New Seekers, “We all stand together” by Nickleback and our favourite “Rocking all over the world” (it started Live Aid) by Status Quo because we got to do our air guitar. It has been a great week.

Alex M.

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It’s Robert reporting on behalf of P7. This week at school our study of Brazil has been going on and we have started making masks out of news paper. We are doing these in a similar way to the carnival masks worn by the performers in the Rio carnival. The masks are made to look like lions (they’re not quite finished yet though because we are waiting for the paper mache to dry before we can decorate them).  An other thing that we have been doing is writing stories called Angel Boy. It is a story told with pictures about a boy that is being bullied, we have had to make up our own angel boy stories using those pictures.  At 11:35 on Thursday the nursery came round and did a Chinese dragon parade that we all enjoyed.  We have made some fact sheets about Brazil and here are just some of the facts that we have learned: Brazil produces a  fuel called ethanol from sugar cane, Jaguars are top of the food chain in the rainforest, 8.2% of land in Brazil is farmland, Brazil has 32 major airports, State run colleges and universities are free, Brazil banned slavery in 1888,  90% of Brazil is Christian, Brazils main exports are coffee and sugar and the population of the largest city is 18.8 million people. Today we watched a very enjoyable P4 class assembly. That’s it for this week. Robert – over and out!

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P7 are right back into the swing of things with loads going on this week. We started of the week with a visit to the Risk Factory where we learned lots about potential hazards and what we should do if faced with them. Our Brazil topic is gathering pace and we have been looking at the where Brazil is located, its population and its climate. We have also created some stunning artwork inspired by Brazilian artists. We had an assembly about zero waste and how we could cut down on food being left after school (or packed) lunches. In maths we have been studying money and in writing we composed thank you letters which will be sent to the Risk Factory. In our responsibility time the house captains, Eco reps, JRSO’s and Pupil Council reps all went about their normal business while the rest of us worked on such diverse topics as choosing Accelerated Reader books for the school, creating posters for the new library and working on a presentation to be given to the Parent Council.

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Mr Cain

It’s been a really busy week. Our main theme for this week was learning about movie storyboards and animated storybooks but we also had to squeeze in organising the Christmas lunch for the whole school and providing an audience for the infant nativity show dress rehearsal. On Monday Mr Cain started to explain all about animated storybooks and how important storyboarding was in making movies. We then had to make loads of decorations to brighten up the school dinner hall for Tuesday’s Christmas lunch. On the Tuesday we had to serve the WHOLE school !!! to their Christmas dinner before we got ours. We were STARVING. On Wednesday morning we got to watch the infant natavity show which was really good (it was called Whoops-a-Daisy Angel). Inbetween times we practised writing storyboards and made a kind of storyboard/comic on the laptops with comiclife. On Thursday we finished of our final storyboards which we are entering into the Poppy Scotland movie competition. We also read an animated storyboard on the interactive whiteboard called Angel Boy. We have started to make up our own stories to go with the animated pictures and we will finish these next week. Hopefully next week there won’t be much work and lots of fun Christmas stuff to do.

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Findlay.

We wanted to show the school how hard it was for children during WW2. Clothes were rationed so they couldn’t just go out and buy new clothes if their old one’s got damaged or too small. Instead they had to borrow hand me downs from parents or older brother or sisters, repair old clothes as best they could or try to make new clothes out of other materials such as curtains or bed-clothes. We made up costumes and organised a make do and mend fashion show for the rest of the school. Sorry some of the photos are a bit blurry but the camera wasn’t very good at action shots.

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Patrick & Alister