Primary 6 2011-2012

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Primary 6 2011-2012

Welcome to the P6 blog pages!

As we "blog" about our work in class, the articles will appear below; along with any photos we have uploaded to our class gallery, which you can view here.

J.A.S.S. – Junior Award Scheme Scotland

Primary 6 have spent the year setting and attaining targets and trying to improve skills in 4 different areas as they work towards their bronze award.
Between October and December they completed 8 hours of a sport for the ‘Get Active, Stay Active' section. This included football, Gaelic football, swimming, diving, trampolining, walking, tap dancing, basketball, tennis, fencing, netball, hockey and roller-skating.
During the winter they followed a hobby or interest for 8 hours and many examples of art and craft were brought in and shared with the class. Caitlin and Dana created cushions. Others did baking and cooking and Murray created his own recipe book complete with finished pictures of the food he had cooked. Ben and Ellen also developed their culinary skills - lucky families! The food looked delicious. Annis played piano and Moy played the guitar, a few chose to read while Joseph and Oliver managed football teams on the computer. I believe Joseph even applied for a job!

On Monday as part of the adventure the class spent 3 hours at Hillend participating in skiing and snowboarding lessons. These were greatly enjoyed by them all! Leon has a natural talent and could be a racer with his speed and balance.

The final part of the award is a section called 'Me and My World' which involves doing something for the community or helping to improve the environment. A group of children have been learning sign language and raised funds for Down’s Syndrome by holding a bake sale. This inspired Holly, Natalie and Caitlin to ask the Nursery if they could bake with their buddies to raise funds for their climbing frame. This project is to go ahead at the end of May. Other activities involved Eco- work, Junior Road Safety Officers, Pupil Council, gardening and 'Friends of Roseburn Park'. Jack spent his 8 hours rehearsing and performing in the Gang Show.

Whilst being fun these activities are also teaching the children the importance of being responsible citizens, effective contributors, successful learners and confident individuals. Primary 6 have certainly followed a Curriculum for Excellence this year.

P6 January-March 2012

January has been a busy month for Primary 6. After the success of our Christmas Show we have been finding out about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites. We have used our research skills to understand the relationships between the monarchs and the reasons for the rebellion at that time.

We have been using this information to write an imagined personal response adopting the roles of Jacobites or Government Troops to write diary entries, letters and personal opinions and recounts of the battles fought and life as a soldier. Although there has been a lot of reading for information involved we are also reading adventure stories.
In art we have been studying pattern and looked at designs for tartans. Everyone is now busily trying to weave our own tartan from wool. We drew Jacobites and painted portraits of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

In maths this term we have been learning about percentages and are comparing them to fractions and decimals. We have also been studying banking and learning about the financial services which banks provide; how to use pay in and withdrawal machines; write a cheque; understand credit and debit cards; internet banking and bank statements. We are looking forward to visiting the Bank Museum on the Mound later this term.
We have been lucky to have Mrs Guthrie from Bible Alive visiting us on a Thursday and she has been explaining the stories from the Old Testament to us. We have enjoyed watching them, acting them out and are looking forward to hearing some of the New Testament stories later. It is interesting to hear how they all link together.

p6 Christmas Show

Rehearsals for our Christmas show started in November. We had auditions with Mr Mitchell and Miss McRae. We were all pleased with the parts we got and started to rehearse. There was quite a lot to learn but we did it!

The cellists entertained us with 'Good King Wenceslas' and 'The First Noel'

Education correspondant Caitlin interviews Mrs Donaldson

'Heavenly News'

Owen adds a little 'rap' to the show!

There was a mixture of emotions when show day finally arrived. Some of us were nervous, others felt very confident. We were excited to see our friends and family arrive in the church.

We felt the show went very smoothly and we all felt calmer as the show went on! People said that they enjoyed our singing and acting and that the solos were amazing!


The three tenor shepherds!	p6 present the final scene

Thank you to Mr Mitchell, Ms Gardner and Miss McRae who helped us all the way!

We hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did!

Annis and Jack p6

December 2011

Global Children’s Challenge
It was great to see so many children participating throughout the whole 50 days of the challenge. Everyone in the class continued to walk, run, jump and stay as active as possible from the middle of September right through until the last day on the 3rd November. Primary 6 particularly enjoyed the competition with other classes. The children were eager to learn about the interesting countries which they travelled through on the journey and their maths skills have also improved working with large numbers, addition, averages, temperatures and time. They completed their journey at the Merido Sinkholes in Mexico. Well done to the entire class and staff for their efforts and keep stepping.

J.A.S.S.
This is the Junior Award Scheme Scotland which encourages children from P6, P7 and S1 to take part in challenges at bronze, silver and gold levels respectively. The challenges are Get Active Stay Active, My Interests, My World and Adventure. For Bronze level at P6 the children have to take part in 8 hours of activity for the first 3 challenges and 3 hours for an adventure which we hope to arrange as a class later in the year. All children have now identified a physical activity, sport or game that they would like to improve this term and are working with parents, mentors and staff to improve their skills.

Sex Education
Our topic for the first few weeks of this term is Sex Education. We have been discussing families, friendships and positive features of relationships. We are discussing body changes experienced by both boys and girls during puberty and are learning about the male and female reproductive systems, the growth and development of a baby. Caring for a baby and the responsibilities of looking after another person are also covered.
As part of our topic Edinburgh Zoo run an excellent programme in their education centre aimed at P6 called ‘Cycle of Life’ which examines reproduction, growth and development of animals augmenting what the children have been taught in class. Last week the class visited the zoo and was able to view some of the baby animals, discuss their behaviour and were most impressed to see a film of a baby elephant being born.

Art
The children have been focussing on drawing portraits this term and there are some very talented artists who pay close attention to detail and make good use of colour and shade as the following examples show.

Sports
The class is coming to the end of a 13 week course of swimming lessons at Dalry Swimming Baths. On Thursday afternoons they have been improving their skills and this week they will practise life saving skills using their clothes as floats. The class have also had taster sessions of Street Hockey, Fencing and Tae Kwan Do.

Get Set for the Olympics
Primary 6 have been lucky to be selected as one of only 50 classes in Edinburgh to take part in an Olympic Games at Meadowbank on 25^th June 2012. Running alongside this we are teamed with an International student from Heriot Watt University who comes from Kazakhstan and this is the country we will represent on the day. We are hoping they will be able to share information about their country and culture with us this year.

Christmas Show
Just to give advance warning Primary 6 will perform the Christmas Show in Murrayfield Parish Church on the afternoon of Wednesday 21^st December. The title of this show is C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S spells Christmas. The class are busily learning songs and auditioning for roles at the moment.