Here are some photos of some of the activities the pupils have been doing this term, including:
The Primary 5 and Primary 4/5 classes hosted a Medieval Festival where pupils gave an invited guest a tour around twelve different activities. Wattle wall making; creating gargoyles out of new clay; weaving; spinning and carding; signing into a register with a quill pen and ink, reading posters, personal projects and letters written on the eve of the the Battle of Bannockburn; doing a quiz on the Wars of Independence; feasting on Medieval bread and Robert the Bruce stew; having a go at the clarsach or the mandolin; looking at/talking through models of the Battle of Stirling Bridge; admiring the work on the castle models; operating a miniature catapult and trebuchet; and looking at PowerPoint presentations–these were the activities the pupils shared with their invited guests.
Many thanks to all the people who gave their time to make the day so enjoyable for everyone.
Here is a collection of photos showing some of the learning that has taken place over the last few months. Amongst many he pupils have been learning to make change from £10.00 and £20.00. They have also been learning how to round to the nearest 10 and 100. There are photos of P5s learning how to use commas. After a lesson on three ways commas are used in sentences, the P5s walked from sentence station to sentence station in our classroom, putting commas in the correct places. The sentences were self-correcting, with the answers on the back.
We had our first go at classifying vertebrates. We read information about vertebrates and had to think about the features of birds, reptiles, mammals, amphibians and fish in order to categorize animals . We tried to place the cards on the correct mat. We did this in table groups. Next time, we will try this with a partner.
We had a fun day on Halloween. We told Mr MacKay our story–an exercise of writing and performance. We tried to give him a real scare!
Then we worked in cooperative table groups to make a jack-o-lantern out of a pumpkin. We had to agree on a design then work together, taking turns and helping each other, while we carved the pumpkin.
Next, we all took part in a doughnut race and a mummy race. Afterwards,we had a party during which time, some of the children went dunking for apples. After a short guessing game, one of us from each table got to take the pumpkin home.
This story was written by all the pupils in P5 in a co-operative way. The pupils came up with the ideas. I “chunked” their story into parts and they worked in pairs to write. I highlighted all their best lines and put them together to create this most creepy story. Everyone contributed to writing this story. The vocabulary and turn of phrase comes from them.
The class performed this to—or rather on– Mr MacKay, who was a great victim. To add to the suspense and tension, the children used expressive and scary voices, sound effects and the tactile sensations of lots of gooey, overcooked food and awful offal.
We were learning to build suspense and atmosphere in a story by writing details.
Mr MacKay’s Halloween
Mr MacKay was sleeping on a plane. It was half way to America over the ocean. The lights started to flicker…He heard the pilot say Mayday! Mayday! Save yourselves! There was a bash! A clang! And a boom! The plane was going to crash, so Mr MacKay had no other option than to jump off the plane. His parachute was empty; his back up parachute was ripped. Spinning out of control, he fell through trees and landed on hard ground. He was knocked out.
When he awoke, he started to crawl away. He was traumatised and in agony. He picked shards of glass out of his hand. It was very dark and he was blinded by smoke. The smell of fiery corpses rented the air, making him cough. He crawled over the hill, into the black, dowdy sky.
He looked down on the wreckage. Someone was running inside the wrecked plane, trying to get out. There were dead bodies and smashed glass lying everywhere in the sand. He was on an island. Shadows were walking around the plane though it was obvious that everyone was dead. Just then a fireball from the plane exploded into the black night, forming pink and red clouds.
Suddenly it started to rain. But it wasn’t normal rain… It was red blood rain! The rain was heavy, bucketing down, pelting him as it soaked him to the bone. He felt soggy, wet and cold. Rain dripped off the trees like terrifying waterfalls. It bounced like basketballs off the ground and left red pools in the sand. He was covered in blood.
The wind began to whistle. Louder and more powerful it grew. Like 1,000 howling wolves, it roared through the trees, taking some down. It blew a dead body onto Mr MacKay’s face, which he pushed off, crying in horror! Then slowly, the ferocious wind began to push the wreckage of the plane into the water. Mr MacKay crawled back into the forest for shelter.
Suddenly there was a blinding light and aloud, crack! Lightning struck the top of one of the trees beside him and set it on fire. Mr MacKay fell over and landed in a pool of blood. He crawled over to some shrubs for shelter. Two yellow eyes appeared above a bush opposite him. He shook his head, thinking he was seeing things. When he looked again, the eyes had disappeared, but the bush was rustling. The thunder was roaring like a lion and exploding through the howling of the wind. An owl swooped down just above his head and he ducked down just in time. He was cold, wet and terrified. His phone was lost, so he could not call for help. He had to find better shelter. He slowly got up and began to walk. He heard a single wolf howling at the blood red moon, which had just risen in the night sky. Bats started to fly around him and he began to run. He tripped and fell into a ditch full of blood. Lying on his back, he could see lights in the distance. He began to walk toward the lights, but he could hear footsteps behind him. Just as he started to run, he saw a path.
A blood curdling cry rang through the air, so Mr MacKay raced ahead toward the lights. He came to an abandoned farmhouse with a crooked, old porch. An old wooden windmill was working beside the farmhouse, its sails creaking in the night air. Shivering with surprise and cold, he climbed the porch steps but they were so broken. His foot got trapped in a hole, but he pulled it out.
He had to walk through spiders’ webs…and past the skeleton of a cow, which was lying on the rotting floorboards near the ancient door. The doorknob was rusty with age. At first it was the shape of a bird, but when he looked at it again, it was shaped like a spider. A green, glowing and bloody face appeared on the door handle and said, “Do not open this door or you will regret it.”
But Mr MacKay was too cold and too traumatised. He wanted to be inside. He knocked at the door. The splintered wood jabbed his knuckles like two million sewing needles. The door knob rattled as the door creaked open by itself.
It was the most beautiful house he had ever seen. As he walked inside he smiled. The door slammed behind him and he turned to look. When he looked back into the room, it had changed. He jumped with fright and CRUNCH…he had broken a skeleton’s ribs with his feet. Straight ahead of him, there was a suit of armour and some old, dusty shields and guns hanging on the walls. Spiders were crawling everywhere; their webs like fog attached to crooked chairs, old lampshades and broken shelves. Dead ivy crept along the wall. Blood was dripping onto the floor from the ceiling. He looked up to see someone’s head dangling on a rope.
Mr MacKay wanted to scream but no sound came.
He looked to the left. There was an empty rocking chair, rocking back and forth by itself.
He looked to the right. There was a large painting of a battle. Soldiers were moving. They were carrying coffins were walking towards a graveyard. In the background, men were slashing at each other with swords and horses were rearing up in the air as cannonballs crashed around them. Mr MacKay could hear the cries and shouts. He stared for a moment but soon felt that he was being watched. One of the men carrying a coffin was looking at him. Shaky voices began to echo around him saying, “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE. GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.” Mr MacKay slowly backed over to the door to escape and the eyes of the man in the painting followed him. He looked angry.
Mr MacKay tried to get outside, but there was no handle on the door. He was trapped! He looked into a mirror smeared with blood and he saw an old man staring at him. Suddenly the lights went out. He heard the old man laughing.
He felt a cold hand touch his shoulder and slide down his arm to his hand.
COME WITH ME, MY DEAR. SIT DOWN. LET’S HAVE A CHAT. ………..TIE HIM UP, MY DARLINGS!
NO ONE HAS EVER LEFT THIS ROOM ALIVE. YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE.
THESE ARE THE EYES OF ALL THE POSTMAN WHO DELIVER MY MAIL. (Put Mr M’s hands into bowl of peeled grapes…)
HERE IS THE HEART OF THE LAST PERSON WHO CAME TO MY HOUSE. (…into bowl of pheasants’ hearts….)
HERE IS THE BRAIN OF THE FARMER WHO USED TO LIVE HERE. (…into bowl of overcooked cauliflower…..)
HERE IS THE LIVER OF YOUR DOG. (…into bowl of cow’s liver…
THESE ARE THE TEETH OF ALL MY ENEMIES. (…into bowl of raw butter beans…)
THESE ARE THE FINGERS OF ALL THE TEACHERS YOU HAVBE EVER WORKED WITH. (into a plate of sausages…)
HERE ARE THE GUTS OF THE ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVER CRASH LANDED ON MY ISLAND. AIRPLANES GO MISSING OFTEN IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD. (…into a pan of overcooked, soggy spaghetti.)
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! ARE YOU HUNGRY, MY DARLINGS? UM….MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
SUPPER! WE’VE GOT YOU!
P5 were learning how to draw a bar graph from information we gathered from classes in Craighill.
Primary 5 