A Writer's Workshop

This week we have been very interested in the craft of writing.  We watched a live webcast by Julia Donaldson where we learned about the different ways books are published and the tools we could use in our own writing such as alliteration or onomatopoeia.  

Then we were very lucky on Thursday to have a published author come in and help us plan a piece of writing!  Janis Mackay, author of Magnus Finn, worked with all the classes to talk about the skills needed to be a writer.  We then worked with P5/4 and P7 to create an imaginary character.  

It was great fun working with people from outside our own classroom, and Janis really inspired us to write our own stories.  Watch this space!

A Right Blether

On Monday Scotland's Commissioner for Children & Young People, Tam Baillie, visited St Andrews Primary School.  He is travelling the country meeting with lots of different people, to find out what's really important to them.  He met with our pupil council and the Newzone team interviewed him.

Tattie Planting

With the help of Mr McIntosh have been making good use of the dry weather by going outside to plant tatties.  We had to hunt down stones, grass and other materials for our pots, then plant our tatties.   It was all great fun, and it will be really interesting to see which team grows the most tatties.  If you would like to know how to plant your own, why not pop up to the P6 classroom, where we've also been writing instruction guides.

Supporting Structures

We have been learning about how bodies support themselves as part of our living things topic.  As a pair challenge we had to design our own imaginary animal, using either an Endoskeleton (inside the body, like our own) or an Exoskeleton (outside the body, like a lobster).  Our pairs worked very well, and were able to solve the problem, and explain why they chose their design.



We're now going to be investigating our own skeleton in more detail.

Assipattle & The Mester Stoor Worm

Previously in Primary Six we have heard the Stoor Worm story told by Tom Muir, and then with P2/1 we designed a felt wall hanging which you can see in an older story down below.  

Today, with the help of Mr Giles, we started to work on parts of the story through drama.  We had to represent elements of the story, sometimes without even using speech!  Mr Giles and Mr Gallacher were very impressed, and were able to work out what was happening in every one of our scenes!  It was great fun, and we're looking forward to working more within Drama.

Taking Learning Outdoors

Summer has arrived at St Andrews Primary School!  We are very lucky to have a large and varied outdoor space around our school and we like to make the most of it.  

Today we decided to take our Living and Growing lesson down to Victoria's garden, to make the most of the beautiful day.  In groups we worked at the 4 picnic tables, just as we would have on our tables in class.  We even came together to discuss our thoughts and learning on the grass in the sunshine.  It was a very nice space to work in, and we're looking forward to heading back out as soon as we can. 

Rainforest Adventure

 

We had some very exciting visitors at St Andrews on Friday:  Zoo Lab Uk with lots of exotic animals!  We got to get up close and experience giant land snails, giant millipedes, a corn snake, a tarantula, and other interesting creatures.  

It was a super start to our topic this term which is living things.  Already we can see the massive variety of life that is on earth, and are looking forward to doing more research! 

Our Mock Election

On the 6th May Primary Six held their mock election. The parties had broadcast their manifestos, they had placed advertising around the school and they were ready for the general public (P7-4/3) to come and vote! Have a look at the video of our day.

K'nex Challenge 2010

In Primary Six we have just taken part in the National K'nex challenge.  It is organised by STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and aims to encourage problem solving and engineering skills through the use of K'nex building materials.

The challenge this year was to design a windmill for Prince Arthur.  There were lots of design features that had to be included from doors and platforms, to even gears to help turn the sails!  Every group found success in this challenge, with lots of novel and interesting ideas. The video below shows a few of our models and the design process we followed.



Well done Primary Six, I can see some of you could have a future in architecture and engineering!