Week beginning May 25th 2009…

Apologies for the lack of ELP diaries over the last two weeks. This is due to Mrs Binnie being appointed Acting Principal Teacher Pastoral until the summer holidays to cover for Mr Main, who is now Acting Deputy Head.

However, there are some important dates we would still like to take the very quick opportunity of reminding you of…

May 27th 2009 - last day of the extra sports at Moray House

May 28th 2009 – school concert in the evening (if your child is involved you will already have had the letter home)

June 1st 2009 – provisional date for change of timetable but this is still provisional – we will keep you up to date

June 5th-7th – rewards weekend for outstanding effort by winning S2 pupils – those involved have already been contacted. Well done!

June 22-26th 2009 – Activities Week. More details will be sent to you in due course about the planned trips. Parents should be aware that there has been no booking form this year as the format of Activities Week has changed.

ELP Diaries will recommence after the summer holidays – thanks!

We don’t poo poo our dinosaur lesson!

This is how some scientists, who specialise in studying dinosaurs, think prehistoric turtles would have looked like. They are quite similar to modern turtles in many ways but perhaps have more protection on their bodies to save them from the vicious predators that roamed the planet millions of years ago…

One of these creatures left clues to its life for us to find, all these years later when it deposited THIS on a beach or riverbank a long time ago…

 

It may look like something your friendly neighbourhood pooch has left on a pavement somewhere – but it is different in so many ways!

This poo is as hard as stone, in fact in so many ways it IS a stone. If you touch it, it is hard and cold. It has no smell. It cannot be compressed. It is the fossil of a turtle dropping from the time of the dinosaurs – and from it the scientists can find out a lot. Mr Kiernan brought one of these turtle fossils into class for us to look at. He also brought a number of other interesting remains that had been turned into fossils at the bottom of the sea, rivers or deserts…

We had the opportunity to look and touch fossils including:

• fossilised iguanadon egg shells
• prehistoric shark teeth (from megalodons)
• hairy mammoth tusk
• dinosaur back bone discs
• fossilised anenomes
• fossilised ammonites – which look like big swirly snail shells and belonged to animals who lived in the sea
• trilobites – which were like giant woodlice!

It was amazing to think that these things were around in the times of the dinosaur – how amazing to think that we were seeing and touching some of the things they saw, did and had.

Would you fancy finding one of these things under a stone in your garden though?

Week beginning May 11th 2009…

This week we will be working hard in the build up to Open Day! Our dinosaur project is coming along well and this morning we had a special visitor to our science class…

ELP Science

In ELP Science this morning, we were visited by Mr Kiernan, who is something of an expert in fossils! He brought with him his boxes and bags of goodies – full of fossilised remains from dinosaurs, their eggs and even their fossilised poo!

ELP Gardening

We are moving our ELP Veggie Deliveries to a Thursday from this week onwards. Expect to see our smiling faces bringing lovely summer fruits and veg to your classroom doors during Period 2.

ELP Maths

We are continuing to work on our number, money and time. This week we will practise finding the missing number or predicting the missing number in a simple sequence. We will be working really hard on our quarter pasts and quarter tos. We may be taking a lovely stroll to see Robyn in her new job – and practise spending some money (on juice!)

ELP Social Studies

Dinosaurs rule again this week as we continue our work for Open Day – making book covers for our own Lost World exhibition, finishing off our Mrs T Rex model and making a start on our dinosaur landscape. Mr Kiernan has offered to lend us some of his fossils for Open Day so that we can put on a Fossil Exhibition…

ELP PE

This week the children will be out of school twice for extra PE. On Wednesday they will be going to Edinburgh fo extra swimming with the PE teacher students at Moray House and on Thursday they will be going up to Meadowmill to take part in their annual SPORTS DAY!

 

AUM/OM or ॐ ?

Over the past couple of weeks in RME some strange chantings have been emanating from the soft underbelly of the learning zone.

We have been looking at Hindusim, its origins, symbols, beliefs, art and sounds.

Mrs Kazimoglu from the art department has been an inspiration in helping us make life-size paintings which shall be revealed at the One Scotland event.

Om Shanti! (peace)

Week beginning April 20th 2009…

Welcome back to school after your Easter break – everyone in the Learning Zone hopes you return fresh and rested in preparation for the coming term.

This first week back will be one of consolidation in many subjects. What can we recall from before the break? Which things do we need to re-visit or practise?

In Maths this will mean looking at money, number and time.

In Social Studies this will involve remembering lots of interesting things about dinosaurs, prehistoric times and the plot of our special book, The Lost World.

In Gardening we will be making our “Fruit and Vegetable Alphabet”…

  

In Science we will be starting a new topic! We will spend this term exploring the world of the dinosaur from a scientific perspective. We will look at lots of different ideas about how dinosaurs may have died out. We will consider which dinosaurs are similar to animals that may still be around today. (Have you ever thought how primitive a crocodile looks? Could an elephant be a Hairy Mammoth without its fur coat on? Are some birds (or bats or even flying squirrels) a teeny weeny bit like a pterodactyl?) We will be doing some work investigating all of these ideas over the coming weeks…

 An elephant in a fur coat?

We will also be looking at how animals change sometimes to suit their environment. What animals do or have done this?

Examples of the basic adaptations that help animals survive:

• shape of a bird’s beak,
• the number of fingers,
• colour of the fur,
• the thickness or thinness of the fur,
• the shape of the nose or ears

Can you think which one of these adaptations a Polar Bear or Arctic Fox may have undergone to survive in the snowy north?

Have a look at this cute picture and see what you can come up with…

In PE we will be continuing with our badminton lessons.

In Art we will be making lovely paintings of fish.

And, speaking of fish, we will be making sure that our two new class pets, HB and Rainbow, have survived the rigours of their first school holiday living on feeding tablets instead of being hand fed by lovely smiley pupils with tasty fish food (as they are during term time)!

 

Week beginning March 30th 2009…

This week is the last week of term and we will finish on Friday at 12 noon for our annual Easter holidays. Everyone is excited and looking forward to their break – and hoping that the sun will shine for at least some of the time…

This week we will still be working hard in class and preparing for Parents Evening on Wednesday night. We are keen to show our Mums and Dads some of the exciting things we have done this term and show off many of our fabulous pieces of work. These will be found in the Learning Zone on the evening.

ELP Maths

This week in ELP Maths we will continue to consolidate our numbers 1-20, times (o’clock, half past, quarter past) and try out our new time (quarter to) again. We will use a variety of resources to undertake this work, including time dominoes, time card games and our number lines.

ELP Science

In ELP Science we are looking at the skin and considering how our bodies tell us there is something wrong. What signs are there that our skin is damaged or hurt? We will consider a number of ideas and terms including:

• pain
• scabs
• cuts
• sores
• burns
• itching
• spots
• rashes
• skin conditions

 Does this dog’s spots mean it is ill?

ELP Social Studies

Mrs B, Mrs T (Rex) and the dinosaurs will be exploring the scary world of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. This will include our T Rex model project – making a giant model of The Lost World for display in the front hall at Open Day in May.

ELP CDT

The rattles are painted and on display this Wednesday evening at Parents Night.

ELP PE

S2s have continued this week with a PE badminton block, whilst S1s are still having swimming lessons at the local pool

ELP Gardening

Recycling the rubbish – this week we will be looking at how we can use old Christmas and birthday cards in two ways. One will be to make a lovely garden related collage for our classroom wall, the other is to make our own papyrus for writing on…it might look a bit like this

 

The circle of life…the butterfly

This week in Gardening and Science we have taken the opportunity to look at a process that relates well to our investigations into birth, growth, puberty and reproduction (Science) but also is extremely relevant to our work in the garden to try and ensure we encourage “helpful insects” that pollinate plants (See “Be Good To Bees” post for more information)…

The life cycle of the butterfly is a process that the children were readily able to explain as simple fairytale-like stories (some even related it to the tale of the Ugly Duckling). Their obvious prior knowledge of the famous Eric Carle book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” was a huge support in tackling the concept.

We told lovely tales of how the mother butterfly lays eggs on leaves, these eggs hatch and a baby caterpillar emerges and eats the egg shell. Excitedly we spoke of how the caterpillar is something of a “gannet” and goes on to eat and eat and eat – and as it grows and grows and grows, gets too big for its “clothes”! At last, we were told, the caterpillar gets so big it wants to go to sleep and does so in a special bed. We were delighted that the children were able to confidently call this bed a cacoon. One pupil excelled, telling us they knew the correct term was a “chrysalis”. After his sleep, the caterpillar wakes up. However, during his nap he has somehow turned into a beautiful butterfly!

We made stunning model butterflies and placed them on a wall poster to show everyone else what we know about their life cycles. Please feel free to come and have a look!

Finally, we spoke about other animals who go to sleep for extended periods of time. One pupil had asked if the chrysalis stage of the cycle was like a bear hibernating and so we expanded on that lovely question to work out for ourselves if they were the same thing…or something quite different. The animals we considered as sleepy heads included:

• bears
• hedgehogs
• squirrels
• snakes
• some small rodents
• tortoises

We know what we think about whether this cute little furry friend is sleeping for the same reasons as a caterpillar in a chrysalis – but what do you think?

Congratulations to a very special young man…

 

We are delighted to be able to record the most wonderful achievement by one of our pupils, Dale.

Such is his modesty, that he has not publicised his achievement in any shape or form. This touching humility is nonetheless typical of him.

The whole school award for the Most Improved Rugby Player in 2008-09 was presented recently to Dale at the school Sport Personality of the Year Awards, is now in his possession – and we are all absolutely delighted for him. We know that his mainstream PE teacher, Mrs Pike, is rightly proud of him too.

Well done, Dale. We have always known that you are just champion – and now you have the silverware to prove it!

Maths Tracker progress…

Any ELP parent or carer wishing to find out more about the MR Maths Tracker programme the children are undertaking will have the opportunity to discuss with teachers at Parents Evening on Wednesday April 1st.

We look forward to seeing you then.

Shake, rattle and roll…

This week the children will complete their latest CDT project and will be bringing their handy work home with them. Parents may be best advised to go out and buy ear plugs in anticipation of this momentous occasion.

Each and every one of the students have made a fantastic wooden football rattle… and each and every rattle well and truly WORKS!

Good luck Mums and Dads – and well done kids!