This afternoon in P2B we had lots of fun using stop motion. We had to make a story board to plan what our video would be about, before using the tablets to make our videos. Everyone took it in turns being a photographer and moving the props around. We had lots of fun and will definitely be making more videos in the future!
On Friday, primary 2a had great fun developing their coding skills. The boys and girls were able to create and program their own interactive stories. I was very impressed!
Mrs Beattie
21.02.20
Primary 2a thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the fitness activities organised by the Ruthven House Captains.
No unaccompanied children please.
Baking donations & raffle prizes greatly received. Baking donations to be brought along on the day or handed into the office on Fri 28th February. Raffle prizes can be handed into the office anytime.
If you can’t make it but want raffle tickets, please put your name and phone number and money into an envelope clearly marked for the Beetle Drive and hand into the office. (Tickets £1 a strip).
In our short week we have been very busy! Our class have been doing their bit for the environment by litter picking, in our house groups.
Class Talks
Class talks have been amazing! Thank you so much to everyone who has helped the children prepare. We have made a wall display you can see on the the next open morning.
Special thanks to Mrs Urquhart, Hollie’s mum, who took a virtual reality headset in to show us around Rome. It took all morning for 30 of us to have a shot.
Fun! Amazing! Fantastic! are some of the comments the children made. I was blown away by the experience….maybe we could fundraise for a set or ask Santa?!
Finally, on Friday Duntechaig house captains held a health and wellbeing day for us. It was indoors as the weather didn’t hold up. Everyone had fun and some exercise followed by a Time to Talk back in class.
What a fun time we had taking part in all the activities that Ruthven House planned for us today. Our favourite activities were… ALL of them!
Thankyou Team Ruthven!
Although Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) is not until Tuesday, February 25th, we decided to make our pancakes yesterday! We had lots of fun measuring out the ingredients, mixing them all in the bowl, spooning the mix onto the pancake maker to cook and then, the best part – eating the pancakes. YUM YUM!
We had a great afternoon with some fitness fun activities.
Remember to wear your sports clothes tomorrow (footlball strips are included)!
Ruthven House Captains and Vice Captains have planned a whole school event to focus on wellbeing (including both physical and mental wellness.
“We are trying to promote that everybody has the right to their own interests and should be free to their own opinions. Everyone should be treated the same despite their race, gender, religion, beliefs etc. Every child has the right to play and exercise and to take part in activities.”
Unfortunately due to the weather our trip with Spokes for Folks was cancelled so all the children stayed at the care home to participate in a Valentine’s Day craft activity. The residents and children spent time decorating love hearts with tissue paper and a selection of buttons. The children kindly gifted some of their love hearts to the residents. We then had story time and songs in the lounge which was lovely as more residents could join us. Some of children demonstrated increasing confidence as they sang independently in the lounge.
Children had fun taking part in balloon and baking soda science experiment. First we filled the container (plastic bottle) with vinegar, then we used the funnel and teaspoon to add baking soda to the balloon.
Then we attached balloon to container making sure we had a good seal. Afterwards we lifted up the balloon to dump the baking soda into the container of vinegar and we watched the balloon filling up.
The science, behind this balloon baking soda experiment, is the chemical reaction between the base {baking soda} and the acid {vinegar}. When the two ingredients mix together the balloon gets it’s lift! That lift is the result of the gas produced from two ingredients – carbon dioxide or CO2. As the gas tries to leave the plastic container, it goes up into the balloon because of the tight seal. As the gas has nowhere to go and is pushing against the balloon it inflates it! Similarly, we exhale carbon dioxide when we blow up balloons.
Some children celebrated Valentine’s Day with fun craft activity – creating their own Valentine’s cards.
As every week children enjoyed our usual activities like drawing, colouring in, playing with dolls, cars and creating amazing constructions from plus plus blocks.
A reminder that we are closed Monday 17th, Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th of February. We hope you enjoy your long weekend ?
As the children are off school until Thursday the 20th, there will be no homework next week. If you do wish to, please practise the 2, 5 and 10 times table with your child. There will also be no new reading book for Finding Nemo or Monsters Inc. next week.
I hop you have a lovely long weekend!
We were played a cone target game, went on a scavenger hunt and enjoyed hot chocolate.
We are choosing our next class novel based on book recommendations.
You may have seen this on Facebook, Future communications have a post to win a 65″ clever touch screen for a school.
The link is below, If you have facebook PLEASE log in and vote for us. Share with your friends too.
A quick reminder that Show and Tell tomorrow will be for Group 3.
Miss Cockburn 🙂
We used the chrome books to look at different tartans. We then had a go designing our own tartans. Lots of lovely straight lines with the rulers to help create our unique patterns.
We would like to inform all parents and carers that we have been informed of a number of cases of Slapped Cheek. There is no exclusion period for this illness; however Slapped Cheek is rare in adults but can be very serious in adults especially if you are pregnant.
In numeracy this week we have moved on to learning our 5 times table. All the children are trying very hard with their times tables and they are enjoying learning them. ‘Hit the Button’ is a great game to help practise them at home.
In literacy, our sound this week is ‘bl’. We are also having a big focus on letter formation in the class and spelling our common words. Continue to practise these at home also.
Our topic is well under way and over the past 2 weeks we have been learning all about different types of houses and maps. We created a giant map of the school in our classroom too!
Finally, a huge well done to Indi, Phoebe and their team who won these amazing trophies at a competition last weekend!
This week we have started to explore weather reports and looking outside and discussing what the weather is doing. At circle time we have had a lot of discussions on ice and was able to investigate ice in the water tray finding out how it is made and how it melts.
What a wild day it was for our workshop but we managed some outdoor learning before the weather became too bad. The children were learning about climate change and enjoyed making a timeline to show how scientists think our planet has evolved changes from the beginning of time. Then we came indoors and pretended to be carbon atoms. Rachael and Kelly played a game where we discovered what happened to us with different events.
Today Keri and Rachel from the Aigas Field Centre came to do a workshop with us on climate change. We enjoyed playing games that helped us understand a bit more about what climate change is. We all planted a conker which hopefully will grow into a horse chestnut tree as trees help to reduce climate change .
P3 are very excited because Rosalind is back for another 4 week block of Kodaly. We have been singing songs with actions and playing lots of fun games.
Baby Isla is now 17 months old. She was excited to visit the class again.
We are on the second week of our latest Kodaly block with Rosalind. Lots of clapping patterns to warm up cold hands on a frosty morning!
We have a lot of lunch boxes that are being left behind everyday. Can you please collect these before the Feb break as whatever is leftover will be recycled elsewhere.
Enrolment for Early Learning & Childcare for Session 2020-21 takes place week beginning 10th February.
Parents of children with birth dates between 01.03.16 – 28.02.17 (4 year olds) or 01.03.17 – 28.02.018 (3 year olds) should complete an enrolment on the HIghland Council website https://www.highland.gov.uk/enrol
If you are unable to enrol on line please contact the chool office to request an enrolment form.
We designed our own unique Coat of Arms.
We enjoyed our second outdoor learning session today. We wrote the story of an ant’s journey along a piece of string, played a listening game and enjoyed hot chocolate!
Just a quick reminder that all P6 pupils will be swimming this afternoon. It costs each child £20 for the 10 weeks. If your child has not yet paid, money can be given to the class teacher .
Miss MacDonald
spellingcity.com is a great website where words can be entered to help your child learn to spell, through fun games. Have a go and see what you think!
This week Miss MacLeod headed out on the Spokes for Folks bikes with three residents, Bethan, Eliza, Ella and Liam on an exciting trip to Whin Park. The children were delighted to share what they had been up to when they returned. Miss Kelman spent time playing ‘Winter Picture Bingo’ and ‘Ice Cream Pairs’ with Amelia, Sophie, Koen, Louis Py and some of the residents. We then played a game that Koen introduced us to- ‘Guess the Food’ where the children were developing their descriptive skills. We ended the session back together reading ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’. Next week Miss Kelman will head out on the bikes with her group.
Last week to follow on from our Scottish theme we made tartan pictures with the residents. We decorated strips of paper and threaded them through to create a tartan effect. We then spent some time playing with some table top games. One group played ‘ice cream pairs’ and the others played the ‘shopping list game’. The children were great at helping and reminding the residents when it was their turn in the game.
We had a week full of fun in Out of School Club this week! We got the Hamma Beads out and the children were concentrating hard to make these lovely bead pictures.
We also enjoyed playing Twister!
Some of the boys also enjoyed building some impressive race tracks for the cars.
Well done Eliza for receiving the pupil of the month certificate form Mrs Kellachar for being kind, helpful and caring in nursery. We are super proud of you ?
Apologies, we haven’t managed to update you on what we have been busy with the past two weeks as the Blog system has been down. We have been super busy continuing discussions on hibernation and matched each animal to their correct habitat when playing our sorting and matching maths game. This week we are looking at why animals come out of hibernation, inviting children to discuss the changes in weather and season. Last week we explored Robert Burns and we were given the opportunity to try haggis neeps and tatties. We also tried on a kilt, discussing tartan and then we practiced some Scottish dancing.
The children have been busy making their castles. It has involved a lot of problem solving and perseverance but they have worked well and their models are looking brilliant.
Thursday 6 February is Inside out for mental health day. The idea is that you wear your clothes inside out to make people stop and consider that others may look OK on the outside despite feeling distressed or upset on the inside.
We were delighted to welcome Mrs Russell (Mrs Fraser’s mum) to share her childhood World War 2 experiences. She was evacuated with her sister and brother to Kinross from Glasgow. She took in tea, sugar, butter, sweets, cheese and an egg to show us the rationed amounts they were allowed. Her experiences were so interesting. We appreciated her input to our topic.
A small group went to Ach An Eas to interview some of the residents there too. We recorded their responses to our questions. We can share these with the rest of the class.
What a way to start a morning with super fitness activities!
Unfortunately Mrs Prentice is not in school today, so parent appointments for tonight have been cancelled. These will be rearranged on her return.
A reminder that we start the first of our 3 Woodland Sessions on Friday 31st January. We will be heading out after breaktime so please remember to wear warm waterproof clothing and suitable footwear.
Check out the blog for photos of our P3/4 adventures! Thank you
We were thinking of ways to be supportive and value each other today at Resilent KIds. We reflected on our strengths and what we are good at. We played a game giving each other compliments. We stuck them on our desks as a reminder of how great we all are!
We are writing imaginative stories about “The Magic Door”
On Friday we set the scene for our stories and the appearance of a magic door in a tree trunk. Today we came up with a list of exciting phrases to describe how we would feel going through the door.
This week we began our Robert Burn’s Day celebrations and made our own shortbread. This tied in nicely with the care home as they had set up a Robert Burn’s themed interest table in the dining room. We had a super busy but fun session as ten residents joined us. The children and residents took turns to add the ingredients, mix them together and cut out their own shortbread shapes. It was lovely to hear the residents talking so fondly about when they used to bake with their families.
We would like to introduce our new Out of School Axillary – Miss Watson. Big and warm welcome.
Weather was really nice this week so we used this opportunity to spend more time outside. Children had lots of fun playing football, running about, drawing with the chalk, bouncing on the bouncy hoopers, just enjoying the warmth.
Some children celebrated Burns Night with fun craft activity – creating their own tartan patterns; you can see them on our Art Wall.
Children had fun making cornflower messy play-dough (sorry parents 😉 ) Creativity is messy and we are very creative in the Lochardil After School Club :))
As every week children enjoyed our usual activities like drawing, colouring in, playing with dolls and cars, dressing up and creating amazing constructions from plus plus blocks.
These three boys have worked their socks off to improve their writing. Keep up that hard work!
Please find below a copy of this term’s learning overview.
We have had a busy week exploring different animals that hibernate and role playing different animals and hibernating ourselves in our new den. We have also done lots of number work this week, reading and organising the numbers into the correct order 0-10. Also this Friday we discussed chinese new year and we got to taste prawn crackers, “Tasted like fish” Ella.
Today P6B worked with Miss Munro to create this amazing picture for our hall way. Inspired by the work of Steven Brown and in honour of Robert Burns.
We registered to take part in the RSPB Big Birdwatch campaign. The event takes place over the next 2 days but we took part in school time.
It was a bit disappointing as we didn’t see very much!
This week we have been lucky to have two teachers come to visit our class; Miss O’Boyle from the English and Guidance departments, and Mrs Kish from the Geography department. These are great opportunities to help give us a taster of things to come when we move up to the IRA in August.
Miss O’Boyle visited us on Thursday and was helping to continue our learning about PEAR paragraphs, the format used to write critical essays in secondary school. We looked at a short poem about a cat and analyse it by looking at the similes, metaphors and alliteration that the author used. We learnt about connotations of words to help us understand the meaning of the poem.
This morning Mrs Kish visited our class and we were using maps to identify symbols. We also learnt how to read and write grid references. We really enjoyed our morning!
Please click on the attachment to view this term’s Learning Overview
We have had lots of success outside of school in P5a. Brooklyn and Cameron have been selected for Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s under 11 team and Ryan has been selected for Ross County’s under 11 team. Lily had passed her Grade 1 exam and Tyla has had huge success with swimming.
Well done to all of you!
As the sun has set on 2019 and we discuss new beginnings at the start of a new decade, we used paint and charcoal to create these sunset paintings.
We looked at Paul Klee’s painting ‘Separation in the Evening’ to learn about tone before we created the background.
Today we used the ipads in our French lesson. First, the children thought up some rules for using the equipment safely and carefully. Then we used an app that could record our voice as we spoke French and make it sound very squeaky. It was hilarious playing it back.
P1A had a great afternoon at our Burns Supper! The girls and boys tasted haggis, neaps and tatties with an oatcake and they also ate the shortbread that we made yesterday!
Our topic this term is China and this weekend marks the start of the new lunar year on the Chinese Calendar. This year will be the year of the rat. On the same day, here in Scotland, we will be celebrating Burns night.
This afternoon we joined with Miss MacArthur’s P5 class to have a cross cultural food tasting afternoon. We tried a selection of foods from Chinese and Scottish culture and like real food critics we rated and analysed each dish. Some people were surprised to find something new that they like. Most of us loved the Scottish Teacakes and the Chinese prawn crackers.
We have been learning about Money in maths. Today we put our skills to the test with monopoly. We identified many life skills and lessons that we learned from playing monopoly including:
cash handling and money management
luck and acceptance – staying positive and making the most of the opportunities you get.
building and maintaining relationships – monopoly can get very heated ?
negotiation skills
accepting change and taking risks
Here is the P5a Curriculum Overview for Term 3.
PLease get in touch if you have any questions or concerns.
P1A had a busy morning making shortbread for our Burns Supper tomorrow.
A quick reminder that pupils are welcome to come to school wearing something tartan or something blue!
We now have some of our Australia work displayed. We have some pictures to finish off and articles to print but we have all worked so hard on this. You can read our articles on our chrome-books. Some people still have to finish off. This topic of work has enabled us to incorporate and develop : reading, writing, research, digital, creative, emotional and social skills, to name just a few. We will share our final display soon.
Please find below a copy of this term’s learning overview.
We look forward to sharing learning experiences with you here.
Today we were finding out about a trebuchet. We learned it was a medieval weapon used to sling stones to break down walls and to sling other things, such as the corpses of diseased animals over the castle walls .Then we used lollipop sticks and elastic bands to make a catapult. It was tricky but everyone had a go.
Parent’s evening slips were handed out yesterday confirming the date and time of your appointment. Hopefully you all got the slip, but if not, please double check your child’s bag. Anyone who can not find their slip, feel free to get in touch to confirm.
Our focus sound for spelling this week is ‘ph’.
In Maths, we are continuing to learn multiplication with a focus on the 2 times table before moving on to the 10 times table in the coming week.
We have also been learning all about Chinese New Year, why it is celebrated and how it is celebrated. We are making some brilliant dragon art – pictures to follow later this week!
Discovery Bags and Story Bags have started to go out. If you could please remember to return on the return date given and please make sure all items are taken back the same way they are given to you. Thank you!
A letter has been put in each child’s tray with details on our Books and Buns Session.
We will be hosting a family learning session for you and your child from 1:15pm – 2:15pm in room 12 next to the ELC Building. we will be providing parents and carers with an insight on how we conduct Book reading and story time with our children here at lochardil ELC. We will share with you how Books and Storytelling has many wonderful benefits such as building their confidence in speech, language and social skills. During the session you will have the opportunity to read with you child and enjoy some refreshments in an informal setting.
This week we have begun to discuss hibernation in more detail looking at different animals that hibernate and how they hibernate. We have created our own nests at the art area and have covered our climbing frame to make our own hibernation area. We have been role playing animals that hibernate by using puppets and dressing up costumes, knowing that “they sleep for a long time” Arran.
We had great fun playing with both dynamics and rhythm as part of Feis Rois!
Will your child be 5 before the end of February 2021? Yes? Then it’s time to enrol them for school!
Enrolment takes place next week, Monday 27th – Friday 31st January.
Children who already attend our Early Learning & childcare will receive forms this week. Please check these carefully and then return them to the school office, in person, during the days and times stated on the letter. Proof of Council Tax is required at this time.
Children who do not currently attend our ELC should complete the enrolmnent form on the Highland Council website, or telephone the school office to request a form. Birth certificate and proof of council tax are also required.
If you live outwith our catchment area and wish your child to attend Lochardil, you must enrol your child at your catchment school . A placing request form to request a place at Lochardil should also be completed and submitted to the Area Education Manager.
This week, in the run up to Burns Night, we will be learning about Robert Burns. We will celebrate Burns Night by having our very on Burns Supper on Thursday afternoon! This will give the boys and girls the chance to taste some traditional Scottish food, to hear some Burns poems and to perform the Scottish dance that we have been learning in gym. The children are invited to wear something tartan or something blue to school on Thursday.
Phonics – our sounds this week are ee and th.
Show and Tell – keep an eye out for the note in the red reading record!
Tennis – our 3rd tennis session will take place on Friday morning.
Please find attached an update of our term 3 overview including a brief overview of what we will be doing in Explore, this term.
Miss MacDonald
Thank you to everyone who has offered to help with swimming. If you are able to help on the following dates or would be willing to be on our “emergency stand in” list please get in touch with Miss MacDonald.
Friday 6th March
Friday 27th March
Friday 24th April
Thank you to everyone who has started to bring in boxes for our castle modelling. I have searched my stocks and found some spare boxes which can be used by anyone who needs a shoe box. I will provide tin foil and lollipop sticks too. All we need is smaller boxes and tubes for towers and any items they want to bring in for other features the children might want to add. I plan to start the castles on Tuesday 28th January . Happy hunting!
This term we have a focus on keeping active and respected.
Remember to look out for other opportunities like this to keep active.
This week the children have had a lot of discussions around animals that hibernate. We would be grateful if anyone has any resources relating to any animals that hibernate, for example, puppets, any material, books, toy, dvd etc.
We have also been very busy outside making bird feeders and hanging them in the nursery garden as we are aware “it’s cold for the worms to come out so birds will be hungry and we need to make them bird feeders” (Megan).
Today we created charcoal drawings inspired by our report writing on the Australian Bush fires. Don’t they look amazing?
8.1.20 The children have been very creative using the plus plus blocks to construct models, shapes and characters. They have also been very keen to make slime ( sorry parents 🙂 ) and have had lots of fun playing with it, while others have enjoyed creating a race track for their cars using pipes and guttering.
The second week in Term 3 has already finished and P6 are getting enthused about many things on their timetable. P6 are practising for the Scottish Opera event in March where they will sing songs from Warriors (The Emperor’s Incredible Army). This week P6 have complete some fabulous artwork inspired by Andy Warhol.
Homework has been handed out today and pupils know that all homework is to be handed in by Wednesday the following week.
Just a reminder that if there are any outstanding KAT artwork, could you please ask your child to return them to school as soon as possible. Also there are still many places available for Swimming which will commence in February – the cost £20.
Wishing you all a very relaxing weekend.
Mr Lallah (P6 Teacher)
Some of our 2D shape activities this week.
We have been enjoying tennis with the coaches from Bellfield.
We are learning about different Scottish Artists and have been looking at the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Our P6 pupils are due to go swimming,on Friday afternoons over 10 weeks, from the 7th February. However, unfortunately we have yet to secure any parent helpers. If we are not able to get parent helpers for each of these weeks we will be unable to take the P6 pupils swimming. If you are able to help for any of the dates, please get in touch with Miss MacDonald in P6B. Parents will not be required to swim, simply accompany and supervise the pupils.
Thank you for your support and cooperation in enabling us to provide an enhanced curriculum for our children here at Lochardil.
We were trying out a war time recipe this week. We enjoyed making and tasting our Carrot Cookies. We have been learning about rationing as a start to our topic.
