Remembrance Poems

Some of the poems P7 wrote on Remembrance Day 11.11.10.

Everyone really thought hard about what they wrote and how they wanted to put their thoughts across.

Well done all. Great effort.

Remembrance Assembly

P7 took the whole school assembly on 12th November which was Remembrance weekend. They took Nursery - P6 through the stories of remembrance they had heard and how the poppy came to be the symbol of remembrance. The pupils made the assembly very informative but pulled the heart strings of the pupils and staff with their own remembrance poems.

Well done P7. Not an easy assembly to lead but a great effort made.

Term 1 2010-11

Well it's been an exciting term in P7. We've picked the tatties we planted at the end of last term and made use of our maths skills to measure and record results for these.

World War 2 has created some great discussions and research where we really have been leading our own learning.

We've also been involved in National Poetry Day where we created our own poems based on the topic of "Home". You can see pictures of all our work and read our poems on our P7 Glow Group.

Eco Activities

Thursday was our Eco Day of Action at St Andrews Primary School.  There were lots of activities going on throughout the school (have a look on the Eco Committee's blog for more information)  but P6 got to have a go at making concrete.  We used rhubarb leaves as a pattern, and had to mix the concrete, sand and water.  Hopefully they will set and be used in Victoria's Garden as stepping stones throughout the grass.

Folk Festival Visitors

On Friday we were lucky to have visitors from Norway into school to play for us.  Their band's name was Stambordet, and they were over in Orkney to perform at the Stromness Folk Festival.   The band included a guitar, bass, banjo, fiddles, double bass and even special resonator guitars!

After the performance we were welcome to come and have a go with some of their instruments, especially the more unusual ones.  We really enjoyed playing the double bass and the resonator guitar!  What do you think, do we have a future as a folk band?

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!

The Race Is On

As the general election is 7 days time Primary six have been coming to the conclusion of their study on Local & National Government.  In our party groups of six we democratically selected a candidate to represent our party.  Each member of the group used the manifesto information to write a persuasive and exciting speech and as a group a final version was compiled.  We filmed our party political broadcasts yesterday and they are currently being edited.  We look quite convincing as prospective M.P.s don't you think?

Two members of our party were responsible for advertising.  They had a limited budget and had to cost out the materials they felt would be most useful, from crepe paper to prints of their candidates face!  Once their budget was approved they were free to create their advertising materials.  St Andrews is looking forward to watching your broadcast videos, and voting on General Election day!

Metaphor Poems

Last week were were learning about metaphors, and how they can create really nice images that add detail to characters within your stories.  After looking careful at a poem called "My Headteacher" we decided to create our own metaphor poems.

Do you think they have been successful?  Have they painted a picture of the person they are writing about? 

Heroes & Role Models

Today we have been further investigating the people we look up to and admire.  We had to bring in an image of someone who we did not know but thought was 'cool' or impressive.  We realised so many of our heroes are actually admired for their skill or talent, rather than their personality.

After creating a list of positive and negative personality traits we thought of someone we knew much better that we really admire.  Lots of different people were thought of and here are a few examples.

Thank you P6 for your very interesting discussion contributions, I can really see how much you are thinking about what kind of people you would like to grow up to be!

Bag the Bruck

Last Friday Primary Six were doing their part to help keep Orkney clean and tidy.  Every year there is a "Bag the Bruck" weekend where volunteers across the county head out to pick up litter and other waste from around the coastlines and countryside.  P6 & P3/2 (with the help of Mrs Aitken, Mr McIntosh and some other helpers) went to Dingieshowe beach, Deerness and managed to collect 40 bags of rubbish collected from the beach!

Well done for all your hard work, a clean beach not only benefits us but really helps all the wildlife that live around our shores too.  Keep up the Eco-Friendly work.