We have had a busy week!

In art, we have been transcribing the work of Steven Brown, and love how colourful and individual they have turned out. We chose what materials we used for them and what animal we drew.

In maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes. Firstly, we learnt the vocabulary to describe their properties; words such as edges, faces, vertices and apex. Next, we took our ipads and went outside to find shapes in the environment and talked about how they are used in nature and design. We picked our best photo and annotated it in our jotters.

This week was Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. We enjoyed going to church and getting ashes placed on our foreheads in the shape of a crosses. The ashes symbolise new life.

In writing, we are looking at news articles. Some people brought in examples of news articles and we picked out the key features. We are looking forward to writing our own next week!

We also listened to a piece of music called Zadok the Priest by a composer called Handel. As we listened, we used whatever materials we wanted to draw how it made us feel, or what it made us think of. It was interesting to see the variety of things we drew! We were shocked by how familiar it sounded, despite being nearly 300 years old, until some of us realised it is the inspiration for the Champions League song!

Finally, we started an exciting project this week. We got into groups and have been given the task of redeveloping a piece of land. In a few week’s time we will be pitching, apprentice-style, to Karren and Claude (Ms Mitchell and Miss Sinclair!), who will pick the group with the most interesting, but realistic, land use. This week we picked team names and logos, and brainstormed some land use ideas, thinking of how we could justify them.

Yesterday in P6, we had some visitors who taught us about STEM. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, and is a really important subject to learn about because it helps us to understand how the world works and these skills will be important in our future careers.

One workshop was run by Mrs Miller who is physicist. In groups, we tried to build the tallest tower out of Jenga, realising that the tower had to have a strong and stable foundation. This was challenging because we had a limited number of blocks so had to leave some to build the tower up high. We then had to build a bridge using the blocks too, including a ramp for the cars to go up. We also developed our teamwork skills, because we had to discuss our ideas and then find compromises, and we worked on problem solving too by adapting the structure.

The other workshop was about building rockets, and was organised by Andrew who is an engineer. First, we looked at different types of propellers and motors, including one which was 3D printed. Then we rolled paper round a stick to make a cylindar, then stuck on a cone on top and added fins to the bottom. This made our rockets more aerodynamic. Once we had finished our rockets, we placed them on a launcher which shot air into the rocket when we pressed the pump. This made the rockets fly through the air.

Overall, we had an amazing time! It was so interesting and we learnt lots of new things.

Thank you to Fife College and Edinburgh University for this opportunity.

P2B LOVING learning Scots songs and poems with Corrane! Singing is so much fun! We learn actions, memorise words, DANCE to the rhythm and beat! It’s awfie braw!

Primary 2B had a fun filled trip to Portobello library today! Ian the librarian read us stories that had us laughing out loud and we love our book bags!