World Book Day Bookshop Visit

P5, P6 and P7 pupils visited the Edinburgh Bookshop today to see the FANTASTIC World Book Day display they had created. We created ‘Book Monsters’ which were reading hand drawn copies of our favourite books.

Marie was kind enough to talk to us about her love of reading and to share an extract from Spellchasers: The Beginner’s Guide to Curses. We exchanged our World Book Day tokens for an exciting new book and received some expert advice on choosing our next read. Thank you to Marie & Kate for making us feel so welcome.

A huge well done to all the pupils involved in creating the window display. You did a tremendous job!

Author Visit!

In St. Catherine’s we love books and authors! We are delighted to announce that Primary 4 -Primary 7 will be receiving a visit from the award winning author Mark Smith in October. Yay!

Pop Quiz!

Q: What do the following pictures have in common?

A: Well they are all connected to Mark’s brilliant new book titled ‘Slug Boy Saves the World’. Read on for more information:

Thanks to an unfortunately tasty-looking radioactive garden slug, eleven-year-old Murdo McLeod is now the world’s worst superhero. His two powers are pretty unique: the first is sliding up walls. Quite slowly. The second is secreting slippery slime from his skin. (Yes, just as disgusting as it sounds.) 
Now, Slugboy has to use his not-so-super and oh-so-gross abilities to save the world. Let’s hope he doesn’t slip up.

Sounds interesting doesn’t it? More details about Slug Boy and Mark’s visit to follow.

 

P5 Rainforest Topic

This term Primary 5 have been exploring the rainforest.  We have been learning about the different layers of the rainforest and the different animals that can be found there.  We have written some acrostic poems with interesting facts about the rainforest – we hope you enjoy reading them!

Working out Percentages

Last week in Mrs Northcott’s Maths set, the Purple group were working on working out percentages of a quantity.

We used money to help us understand.

First, we used our dividing skills to calculate the percentage of a quantity.

Then we took it a step further- we asked ourselves “How much does it cost now?”

We used take away sums to find the answer.

We decided to put this into a real life context by making adverts for an imaginary shop. These imaginary shops were all having sales! We incorporated our ICT skills to display our learning.

Take a look at some of our really great adverts! Do you think they are offering good deals?

Scottish Book Trust – Author Event

http://www.chickenhousebooks.com/books/beetle-boy/   – Book Information

On Wednesday 27^th April we were lucky enough to have a visit from M. G. Leonard, author of the fantastic new book Beetle Boy. Maya talked us through her love of beetles and entertained us with her incredible beetle facts and anecdotes.

Maya also read us entertaining extracts from Beetle Boy and answered all of the pupils’ fantastic and thoughtful questions. We were also pleased to hear that Beetle Boy will be part of a trilogy, so there will be plenty more great reading material on its way.

Please see below for some of the amazing junk model beetles created by P5, P6 and P7 as part of the ‘Beetle Boy Homework Challenge’. As you can see a huge amount of effort and care has gone into these models so a massive WELL DONE to all involved!

https://twitter.com/MGLnrd/status/725299595811627009 – Tweet from the author!

 

P5 Rainforest Adventure

Last week Primary Five enjoyed a visit to Our Dynamic Earth to attend a Rainforest workshop. In the rainforest we studied which plants and animals were found in each layer. We experienced a heavy rainstorm and saw the impact of the rain on the environment.
In our workshop we looked in more detail at the orang-utan, an endangered species that is dependent on the rainforest habitat in the Asian rainforest which is under threat through deforestation. We debated many issues including zoos, pets, hunting, farming, transport and the use of products grown in the region. It was interesting to look at these important issues from different points of view and to explore possible solutions to safeguard a future for this beautiful animal.

Here are some photos from our trip.

  

  
  

Battle Of Bannockburn

At the start of term 3 Primary 5 visited the new Battle of Bannockburn Visitor Centre. Here’s what the children thought of their day.

“When we got off the bus we were excitedly welcomed into a large workshop full of different armour and weaponry. Very soon we had learned all about the events running up to the battle and we were ready to go outside and see where Robert the Bruce himself stood.”

“Outside we saw where the different sides camped overnight between day 1 and 2 of the great battle. We learned how to form a schiltron which is an army strategy that includes three rows of infantry soldiers all pointing long spears in different directions. This formation was key to RObert the Bruce’s army’s success.”

“I learned that Robert the Bruce was a murderer and he killed John Comyn in a church so that he could become king of Scotland.”

“Robert the Bruce had half the number of soldiers than King Edward of England. Robert had 9,500 men and Edward had 20,000 men.

“I learned about the three different types of soldiers in Robert’s army. There were knights, known as cavalry, archers and infantry soldiers. I learned that the chainmail they wore was very heavy!”

“I learned that the battle lasted 2 days and they were fighting over Stirling Castle. The Scottish won the battle and the English King and Queen escaped back to England on a boat from Dunbar.”

“Robert the Bruce won so he got Stirling Castle.”

“My favourite part was when we were dressing up.”

“My favourite part was when we got to see a 3D interactive battle becasue when we were in the middle of it, it was epic!”

“My favourite part of the visit was when we recreated the battle becasue I could listen to other people’s ideas on what I should do before I decided.”

Contributions from Anna, FInlay, David, Leah, Naba, Flynn, Kaitlin, Nicola A, Aiden and Erin R