Learning for Life!

P6/7 have continued their World War II topic this term and are currently working in teams to produce a class spitfire plane. Today Gemma, Nicole and Kareena worked on the plane, what do you think of our plane so far? Keep checking back here for more photos.

Team Spitfire on PhotoPeach

This week P6/7 have been learning about different parts of a circle and how to draw circles using different techniques. In class we have been measuring the radius and diameter of a circle and have used a compass to draw circles of different sizes. We have also been talking about the artist Kandinsky and how he used circles in his art work. We took our learning outside and drew circles using only string and chalk to create our own picture and then used paint to bring our art work to life!

Going Around In Circles on PhotoPeach

Yesterday we experienced what life might have been like for evacuees during the Second World War. Everyone came to school dressed as an evacuee – we looked great! Miss Reilly had set the classroom up as a train and we discussed how children might have entertained themselves on their long journey to the countryside. We played a game called Beetle and moved around our carriages to meet other evacuees.
After break Miss Reilly took us to the hall where we had swiss roll and milk, next Lady Dunbar and Miss MacGregor visited us as evacuee selectors and chose some of us to go home with them! The children who were left were going to live at Belhaven boarding school. We talked about what it felt like to be chosen or not chosen and whether we were missing home yet.
Next we talked about rationing and propaganda campaigns – we looked at the Dr Carrot posters and learned that the government convinced people that carrots would help them see in the dark and that would be helpful during the blackout. We also made carrot cookies in small groups.
In the afternoon we wrote letters home telling our parents about our evacuee experience and we are really excited to actually be posting these letters. We were focusing on writing a letter with a clear introduction and conclusion whilst also including thoughts, feelings and descriptions of our experiences.
At the end of the day we ate our carrot cookies – some of us thought they were going to be disgusting but we were all pleasantly surprised! Here is the recipe below if anyone fancies making a fresh batch at home!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of margarine
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
6 tablespoons of self-raising flour
4 tablespoons of raw grated carrot
1 tablespoon of water

1. Cream the margarine and the sugar together with the vanilla essence.
2. Mix in the grated carrot.
3. Fold in the flour adding water as it gets dry.
4. Drop spoonfuls onto a greased tray and press down a little.
5. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with some extra sugar.
6. Pre-heat oven to 200C and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Back to 1939 on PhotoPeach

Tomorrow we are having an evacuee day in school as part of our World War II topic. We will be in role as evacuees all day to try and find out what life might have been like for evacuees during the war. Here are some pictures below to help you with ideas for your outfit!

From Monday the 11^th of June to Friday the 15^th of June was a West Barns Primary School held a health week including activities like zumba, Rugby, Karate, a Whole school sleep, Jazz dance, Get going, a visit from a chiropractor, potted sports and Dental health.

We also set up a tuck shop, which sold apples, bananas, peaches, oranges and grapes to all the pupils during break time. It proved to be quite popular, there were only a few satsumas left by the end of break.

Health week was supported all the pupils in the school who thoroughly enjoyed themselves throughout the week.

The potted sports was one of the favourites during the week. It was an activity involving the whole school and consisted of relay, welly throwing, egg and spoon race, sack race, obstacle course, football dribble, water rush, bouncy hopper, hockey dribble and throwing bean bags into boxes.

Iain and Andrew

Meadowbank Athletics event 2012

 On Wednesday the 30^th of June 2012 West Barns were taking part in an athletics event at Meadowbank. The participants: Alistair Fell, Joseph Flower, Heather Cameron, Iain Goldie, Zosia Kuczok, Freya Holmes, Seonaid Holmes, Hayley Jade, Fraser Davey, Callum Harding, Malcolm Kelly-McGregor, Ebony Bruce, Cameron Fogo, Anne Dallas Burt and Danny Morroco. We arrived at Meddowbank at 1.00. The first event was the girls 150 metres which Heather Cameron took part in and came 3^rd and in the second heat 5^th. The 2^nd event was the boys 150 which Alistair Fell took part in and came 5^th. High jump was the 3^rd event and Joseph Flower represented West Barns for that event. Alistair Fell at the same time was taking part in the long jump and came 3^rd. The tug of war which six pupils took part in,  Callum, Ebony, Fraser, Malcolm, Fraya and Seonaid took part in but unfortunately lost. The next event was the cricket ball which Hayley Jade and Cameron Fogo were doing. Callum Harding came 4^th in the 80 metres first heat for boys and in the girls Danny Morroco was in the 80 metres for the girls. The last race was the really which got double points if you win. Unfortunately we came 5^th. Overall it was good fun and a good laugh.

 Alistair Fell and Callum Harding

Yesterday 15 P5s, 6s and 7s went to Meadowbank sports stadium in Edinburgh. There was tug of war, 80m, 150m, high jump, long jump, relay, cricket ball and 600m. Ebony, Seonaid, Freya, Callum, Fraser and Malcolm did the tug of war and put in lots of effort. Cameron and Hayley did the cricket ball, with lots of effort too. Heather and Alistair did the 150m and long jump; Heather got through to the final in the 150m, after getting 3^rd place in the heats, but Alistair got put out in the heats. In the long jump they both got 3^rd place in the boys and girls. Iain got about 6^th place in the 600m, and Annie came about 6^th too, out of 14. Dani and Callum did the 80m, and Dani tried hard but didn’t get through the heats. Callum got through the heats in 3^rd or 4^th place, into the final. Joseph and Zosia did the high jump, and got about 3^rd or 4^th. Joseph got 5^th or 6^th. In the relay the team was Callum, Alistair, Zosia and Heather. We came about 5^th place.

Meadowbank was really fun, and a good experience. It’s a shame that they don’t do it in the Grammar!

Heather Cameron

Today we went to Meadow Bank for a sports day. We competed with other schools from around Edinburgh and East Lothian; there were lots of events such as cricket ball, high jump, long jump, different races and tug of war (which Callum, Fraser, Malcolm, Ebony, Freya and I were in).

We went on an EVE bus to get there, I felt car sick because I was sitting at the back, I will not be sitting there again! The trip was fun but I wanted to do more tug of war (West Barns got put out on the first go because the other team had an adult).

Seonaid and Freya Holmes

When we arrived at Meadow Bank the bigger schools competition was still going on. They were finishing off with the relay races and the schools were making a load of noise. When they were finished the noise died down a bit and the big schools left.

 We were left to chat for about twenty minutes while the officials sorted things out and waited for the last schools to arrive.

They soon kicked the competition of with the heats for the 150m race. First the two girl’s heats went followed by the boys ones. Heather, competing for West Barns got through to the final, but Ali got put out in the heats.

Then they organised the high jump and the long jump, we had competitors in both of those. Our boy high jumper (Joseph) was about in the middle in the placings and our girl (Zosia) came 4thand in the long jump both Heather and Ali came 3^rd.

Haley and Cameron went off to the cricket ball and our tug of war team got put out straight away.

After all of this was finished they started the track events again with the 80m. Callum and Danni represented us, but unfortunately only Callum got through to the finals.

Now they started with the 150m finals, which Heather made it through to. Out of the 8 finalists Heather came 5^th, quite a good score.

Now it was the 600m with about fourteen contestants for both the girls and boys races. Annie was about 8^th out of the girls for West Barns and I came about 6^th.

 Now they went onto the 80m finals where Callum was competing and came around 6^th out of the 8 finalists.

They went onto the relays now where Callum, Heather, Zosia and Ali were running and finished in about 6^th position. That was all the races over, and I’d say we did quite well.

Iain Goldie

On Wednesday the 30^th of May a few primary 5’s, 6’s and 7’s went to meadow bank athletics centre to compete in the annual sports event for schools. We left at 12 o’clock to arrive at 1 o’clock.

When we arrived the big schools competition was just finishing up with relay. Everyone was very nervous as we watched the big schools cheering on their teams.

First was the 150m sprint, everyone cheered on their own team and we all fell into that competitive air. We came 3^rd in the girl’s heat 150 and 5^th in the boy’s heat.

Next were all the events that didn’t involve running, high jump, long jump, cricket ball and tug o’ war. We came 4^th in the girls high jump and about 9^th in the boys. We came third in both girl’s and boy’s long jump. The cricket ball was a success for us again. The tug o’ war team put in a lot of effort. We did well in relay, 600m and 80m.

Joseph Flower

Lennox Award

The Lennox Award kicked off with Yester giving a presentation about Ali sparks. They were making news articles about one of her novels. It lasted about fifteen minutes and involved everyone that came from Yester.

Next Wallyford gave a presentation on Theresa Breslin. They used a time line to show us how far back in time Theresa wrote her books. They told us about why they thought Theresa should win and ten facts about her, including what her hobbies are.

Now it was our turn to give a presentation. We used Microsoft PowerPoint to show everyone what Johnny O’Brien’s books are about and why he should win. We had five slides about this. Joseph also read out his book review for The day of Vengeance.

The authors were now asked some questions by children and the rest of the public. Some of the questions included: “What inspired you to write,” and “what was the first book you ever wrote,” etc.

Finally it was time for the results. The three authors sat in chairs on the stage, one of them was about to be given a trophy. A lady who helped organise the Lennox Award came on stage to give the results. “And the winner of the 2012 Lennox Award is… Ali Sparks!”

During the Lennox Award I discovered that there are lots of authors that you find locally, or grew up near us that have extreme talent. Everyone that did a presentation, along with all the organisers of the award, had devoted their time and effort to making that happen. I have also found out that in writing, there is no limit when writing about history.

As Joseph won the Lennox Award book review prize, with his review of Day of the Assassin, the prize was a visit by the author Johnny O’Brien. Joseph has written his review of the visit below ….

On Thursday the 9^th of May Johnny O’Brien, the author of the wonderful Jack Christie series, came to visit P6/7. He came because Joseph, of P6/7, won a book review competition.

                The competition was part of the Lennox award, which promotes fairly obscure authors. Each year the Lennox Award has a theme, this year’s was time.

                Mr O’Brien came in in the afternoon and within 3 minutes had v everyone’s imagination like putty in his hand. He read us away to 1914’s France and the horrors of world war 1. As he read to us from his book we all saw that he really had a gift.

                After he had taken us into the world of the trenches he told us the inspiration behind the brilliance of Jack’s world. When he was younger Johnny O’Brien, who lived in Peebles, used to explore his attic, and one day he came across some fascinating artefacts. He had no idea what they were, being just a boy, but his dad explained that they were his grandfather’s belongings from the First World War.

                `A few years ago my Dad showed me my grandfather’s medals from the Great War, it got me thinking. Would I have chosen to fight?  Would I then have chosen to form a family, if he hadn’t I wouldn’t be here.’

                Johnny then showed us his grandfather’s items that had kick started his imagination. First there was a certificate from Winston Churchill, paying tribute to the braveness of Mr O’Brien. Next were some medals, 6 of them, One of them was a military cross. Then came a helmet from a German artillery gunman , there was a trade of artefacts in the trenches. There was a telescope. Then a kilt, and finally a stuffed rat, they had a weird sense of humour in the trenches.

                After that we asked him carefully prepared questions.

                Everyone enjoyed his visit

Today we were looking at equivalent fractions, what they are, why we use them and how we use them. We played games including equivalent fraction snap, jigsaw puzzles and finding equivalent fractions using coloured fraction blocks. We discussed fractions that look different but have the same value.  Our success criteria for today were:

Today primary 6/7 took part in a hockey taster. Although the end tournament is for primary 6s we all took part.

We started with a warm up of just running, around the football field. It was very cold but nobody complained.

The first hockey activity was a reaction exercise. People were split into pairs, with a cone between them, then our hockey teacher, Fiona, shouted head, shoulders, knees or toes. We had to touch that part on our body and each time she got faster. When she cried cone we had to grab the cone.
Then we learnt a dodge technique where you flick the ball over the opponent’s stick. We split into twos and tried to dodge over our opponent.

To finish we played bandit, a game where you steal balls from people’s houses. Although we were in teams of four only three people were allowed to leave the home.

It was a fun taster for all the class.