To Bits at Artspace

On Wednesday 25th we headed to Artspace to take part in To Bits which was a follow up to a show that we took part in during P5. The concept behind it is that we take things to bits to create something new and that's exactly what we did.

 

'Doreen' and 'Maureen'helped to set the scene with spaghetti pasta draped from the ceiling all over the performance area. Doreen began to break it all and then we were asked up to continue. It was then up the children to let their creative and slightly rebellious side out. Stamping on pasta, breaking it up to tiny pieces, filling shoes full of it to pour over friends heads, letting it shower over them were a only a few ways that the children explored ways to break the pasta further.

 

They had lots of fun in doing so and here are some pictures as proof.

 

 

Orienteering

This week we have been learning how to use a compass and have started to navigate our playground, drawing maps and following routes. Once we had learned how to do it and practiced we wrote out the instructions and are in the process of making interactive instructionsmanuals using Explain Everything on the iPads. We hope to take this learning further outside, developing routes for others to follow.

Camouflage Art

To finish off learning about camouflage and mimicry we created camouflage pictures. First we designed the background and then had to choose an animal and make it blend in to the background. We did a good job of this and some of our animals are very hard to find.

 

Here is a sample of our work.

 

Camouflage and Mimicry

We have been learning about Camouflage and mimicry through our Language over the last two weeks. It has led us to identiyfing animals on Explain Everything that use camouflage and mimicry to help protect themselves from predators or help them to sneak up on their prey. We have also been creating posters using Pic Collage and Strip Designer again to further show what we now know. Below is a sample of the children's work.

Green Scene - let's recap!

After our day at Newhailes we were all inspired to write about our day. Our writing has been displayed for all to enjoy.

 

 

Green Scene

On Wednesday 11th Septmber we went to Newhailes to take part in Green Scene, a day of different acitivities to help us appreciate, protect and enjoy the environment more. We were in two groups and each group got to di different activities. 

Group 1


A wasps nest

We first worked with Hopetoun House Rangers to learn about Animal Shelters. We had to match animals to their homes, got to see what wasp nests can look like and then we had to build shelters in the forest for homeless animals, making sure they were warm, dry and protected from predators.





 


Holding a nest and building a snakes shelter!

 




The boys explain their shelter

        A new home for an eagle!


Next we worked with Isle of Erin Rangers to practice our Bush Craft Skills. First we used compasses to help guide us to different pictures of birds. We ended up at a rope that helped us to climb up a small hill. Finally we worked in two teams to build shelters for us to keep warm and dry in. Miss McArthur was really impressed with how well the teams worked together to build their shelters and one even ended up with seating inside and a welcome sign.

 

Shelby guides her group using the compass

 

 

Shelter building fully underway

 



The last activity for group 1 was working with rangers from Ben Lawers. We were learning about the importance of flowers. We found our more about the different parts and their purpose, we looked closely at flowers through magnifying glasses and then we played a game where we had to collect the parts of the flower and build it in the correct order.

 

Using the magnifying glass to look at flowers even more closely!

 

 

Plant game - who can put their's together the quickest?

 

Group 2
Our first activity was Plastics are Fantastic where we got to use old plastic bottles and other  resources to make windmills, rockets, spiders and flowers. This was a good way to show us how we can resuse plastics instead of throwing them away.

Next we were with the Scottish Seabird Centre at Sealy good time. This was fun, learning about Seals, how big they grow, what they eat and how they survive in their food chain. Did you know that a baby seal is a pup, a daddy seal is a bull and a mummy seal is a pup.

Finally we worked with the East Lothian Rangers to follow some tracks and trails. We looked around the forest to find different things that might show an animal has been there e.g. scratches on a tree, footprints and pooh on the ground. We even got to smell badger pooh.

P6 Class Charter

As a class we had a discussion about about what we have the right to when we are in school. In groups we then discussed what our pupil responsibility was and also what the responsibility of the teacher was to make sure we all uphold the rights.

 

We then used Pic Collage to create posters to show our charter and to share it with others.

Battleships

We have been learning about direction and co-ordinates in class so decided to play battleships using what we had learned. We took it outside and had to use our measuring skills to draw grids on the ground with chalk. Then with our battlegrid charts that we had made in pairs, we played against another pair to see who would be the first to take out each others ships. We used stones collected to mark the items that had been taken out by guessing the correct co-ordinates.