Digging up our time capsule

Way back on the 1st day of the 1st term in August, we made time capsules. You can read about it here.  This week it was time to dig them up!

Mrs MacNab tricked us - she wrote on the daily plan 'problem solving' and made us think we were doing maths! She gave us clues and told us we had to work together to solve the problem. When we realised it would lead us to the time capsule we got excited. Mrs MacNab said the noise level in the room kept getting higher and higher as we kept getting more and more excited!

Some people tried to get everyone to work together but it was difficult at first as everyone kept shouting out where they thought the time capsule was. Eventually the Mollys worked out how to solve some of the clues and James and Amy got people to take turns, and we quickly solved all the clues.

We headed out to the courtyard  and Kaitlyn showed us what pansies looked like. It didn't take us long to find them!

Then we had to solve another problem - how to dig up the time capsule without making a huge mess and killing the plants. Luckily the people in the gardening club knew where things were stored so we had the right equipment.

Back in the classroom we chose someone to open the parcel and then we all got our own time capsules to open.

It was very exciting. We couldn't believe how much we had changed! Even our writing had changed - at the start of P3/4 we didn't do joined writing and some people found it very hard to read their own writing from the start of the year.

Everyone had grown too! Look at how much taller some of us now - and how much bigger our hands and feet are.

Here's a short video of us digging up and opening the time capsules.

Almost the end of term...

We can't believe it's almost the end of the school year already. We'll soon be in P4/5! We met our new teacher this week - it was very exciting because she took us to see some chicks in her classroom. We saw one hatching, and another 2 that were eating food. They were cute.

We're still rehearsing hard for the class assembly.

We've been finding out about how different creatures develop.  We compared orcas, grey seals, bottlenose dolphins and humans.

Did you know that orca calves drink 230 litres of milk a day? We don't think even Reid could manage that!

Did you know that puffins can start having babies when they're only 3 years old?

Did you know that grey seals pups are left to look after themselves when they are only 3 weeks old?

Did you know that female orcas can live to 90 years old?

Did you know that a newborn orca calf puts on weight at rate of 4kg per hour (that’s about 10 tins of baked beans!). By the time a seal pup is 3-4 weeks old it will weigh about 3 times what it weighed when it was born. A human baby will take about a year to weigh about 3 times wat it weighed when it was born.

We found it really interesting that creatures all developed at different rates.

It was exciting at the start of the week because we received some PowerPoints from our link school in Canada. The pupils from Outma Sqilx Cultural School made them to teach us some of their language. It looked really funny and has different letters to English - we had no idea how to say the words but they had added sound files so we could hear them speaking too. Then at the end they gave all the translations.

 

Lim limpt, Outma school!

We've all learned how to say "We are Okanagan" in the Syilx language. Ask any of the pupils and they will teach you too.

We've got some more exciting news about our link with Canada - the Canadian Spirit Dancer canoe is coming to Glaitness to visit us next week. We had a competition to design a piece of artwork to go on the canoe, so that a piece of Orkney will go with the canoe wherever it goes in the world! We're going to paint it on to the canoe soon and will show you more then.

We had fun with parachute games in PE.

Here's the cat trying to catch the mice...

On Friday it was the auditions for "Glaitness Has Got Talent". It was VERY scary performing in front of the whole school. We are very proud that 2 people from our class got through to the final. There are only 8 people in the final, so they did very well. Well done Dani and Kaitlyn!

The final will be next week, so it looks like the last week of term will be another busy and exciting one!

Biodiversity and babies

As always, it's been a busy week.

In maths we're using money to solve problems and in real-life situations - like planning fictional parties.

In health we've been thinking about how we grow and change, and the different things we can do as we get older.

We spent some time discussing things that newborn babies can do, things that 10 month old babies can do, 3 year olds and what we can do now. We're also thinking about things we'll be able to do when we're older - like drive a car and vote in an election.

Mrs Wolanska brought Jan in to visit us. We were able to check whether we were correct about the things a newborn baby could do, as Jan is just 3 weeks old. Here he is with his Mum and proud big sisters.

It was sunny on Thursday, so we were able to do Show and Tell outside again. Sometimes the traffic was noisy, but everyone has got much more confident at speaking in front of an audience so we were able to hear everyone clearly.

We're still working on biodiversity. Now we're making PowerPoint slideshows about the biodiversity you find around Orkney's coasts. We're hoping to put them on the blog when they're finished and to show them to parents at the class assembly.

We're still working on the props for the class assembly - we have to work together to make things. We had our first full rehersal this week too.

Here we are in music, writing the music for our lifeboat song.

We're practising for sports day when we get the chance. The 3 legged race is hard!

Do you think we're having fun?

Under the sea ...

Under the sea is a nice play to be .... to think, or read.

This is the under the sea corner in the classroom. We have this because we are studying the coast this term. In Golden Time craft we are making things to go under the sea. What do you think we will make?

Here we are in Circle Time playing a game. Do you think we managed to pass the keys round without making a sound? We had to try it with a tambourine too.

We're doing some work with Mr Giles in drama this term. It's great fun!

We're all hoping to build our confidence at performing so that we are confident when we do our class assembly later this term.