James Watt Watercolours

 Take a look at P7b’s beautiful watercolours inspired by James Watt.

What talented artists they are.

Take a look at some of the works they were inspired by here:

James Watt, Scottish Art

Johanna Basford Glow Project

Yesterday we took part in an exciting Glow meet over the Internet as part of a four-week project called ‘Look, Capture, Create’. Over the next four weeks we will be exploring and developing our understanding of Scottish plants and animals through art and design and science! In particular, we will be exploring the works of illustrator Johanna Basford.

 We have been learning about Johanna’s career and her works in class. We found out that she studied Printed Textiles at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee and shortly after set up her own creative studio. In class we looked at her inky art works and were inspired to create our own ‘inky wee me’ illustrations.

 We took part in a virtual visit of Johanna’s current exhibition which is on display Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre (3 May – 21 June 2013). There was a great storyteller who created a story about one of Johanna’s pieces. We all had a good time seeing Johanna’s artwork and listening to the storyteller. We are looking forward to creating out own ‘wondertales’ inspired by Johanna’s illustrations. We can’t wait until the next Glow Meet we will get the chance to meet Johanna via Glow TV and learn about her art techniques, what inspires her designs.

Here is one of my favourite illustrations:

‘The Fox is Black’ by Johanna Basford

Take a look at more magnificent monochrome designs here:

Johanna Basford Website

Reporter & blog featured illustration: Jodie D.

Take a look at our ‘inky wee me’ gallery

 

Blue Tit Bird Cam

Photo courtesy of Mrs McManus

In school we have been learning about birds and have been watching a webcam video about a pair of Blue Tits in Mrs. McManus’ garden. The camera is hidden inside a nest box which the birds (whom we have named Bella & Simon) are nesting in. We are really enjoying seeing the  Bella Blue Tit make her nest it is fascinating! We can”t wait for the eggs to hatch. You too can share in the fun,  click our live web link below:

Link: Live Bird Cam

Blue Tit Information   

The Blue Tit is a common garden visitor. It is a very colourful bird with a brightly coloured with bright blue head, wings and tail, yellow under parts with a black streak in the middle. The legs are dark grey-blue and the beak is black. Adult Blue Tits are similarly coloured with the female being slightly paler and younger birds are duller and greener in colour.

Blue Tits will nest in any hole in a tree, wall or nest box. They are well known for nesting in more unusual places, such as letter boxes, pipes, etc. The nest is a cup made by the female from moss, wool, dead leaves, spiders’ webs, and lined with feathers. They typically lay 10 to 12 eggs. The eggs are laid at such a time that green caterpillars will be about for the chicks to eat when they hatch. The eggs are smooth and glossy, and white with purplish-red or reddish-brown spots. They are about 16 mm by 12 mm. The female incubates the eggs by herself. After the young hatch, they are fed by both parents.

By Kyle and Cairn

For more information on Blue Tits or other interesting local garden wildlife take look at Mrs McManus’ website:

Mrs McManus’ Garden Wildlife Website

 

Photo courtesy of Mrs McManus

*NEWS FLASH*

Bella has laid a clutch of eggs!

Global Open Day

We held our class global open day on the topic of Micro-Organisms! We shared all our scientific learning with our families and invited teachers from the high school and our friendly scientists from Glasgow University. We had lots of different workshops for our visitors to take part in and handmade goods on sale – including designer mosquitoes, microbe muffins and pet plasmodium. Workshops included  making your own edible plant and animal cells, looking at microbes under the microscope, interactive Malaria games and the chance to play our very own parasite board games. We Raised Over 40 Pounds and will use the money to buy mosquito nets to help children like ourselves protect themselves from the bite of the anopheles mosquito.

By Lisa & Chloe

Science Comes to School

We spent Science and Engineering Week this year exploring microorganisms with scientists from Glasgow University. Scientists visited us in school and told us about infectious diseases and explained the effects of these diseases on people.  We got to measure the length of a tapeworm and the chance to swab our classroom to find out what bacteria and fungi were lurking there.  The scientists  streaked our swabs onto agar plates took them away to incubate.

We were lucky to then visit Glasgow University and look around a real lab, as well as learning lots of new things and meeting different scientists at various workshops. We got to look at our swabs we had taken in the classroom the previous week under microscopes. The results were not pretty, we will wash our hands more often. One of the workshops we went to was about worms! We got to see loads of different types of worms and the scientist told us more about them, don’t worry though they weren’t alive! We also went to workshops about bacteria, illnesses, Malaria and more! One of our favourites was where we made animal cells with sweeties and jelly! We got to eat them the next day, yum!

Here’s what we thought of our scientific day out:

“I never want this day to end. I can’t wait to go to University” ‘The best part was making the cells from sweeties. I even saw a real brain!’ Kaitlyn

 ”I had a really great day and learnt lots of new things!” Lucy

“I really enjoyed myself, the live mosquitoes were the best!” Kyle

“The best part was seeing the dead rat and inside it and the tape worm!” Kiaran

Reporters: Kaitlyn and Lucy

 

Red Nose Day

For Comic Relief we were allowed to wear red clothes, hair accessories and some children even came to school with red hair. It was 50p to wear something red and all the money went to the Comic Relief charity.

On Red Nose Day, Sandra, our head dinner lady made cakes and the children could buy them for only 50p. They were lovely and all the money went towards Comic Relief.

In the afternoon, we had a competition, teachers vs pupils. There were six children from primary 7 and six teachers. There were eight competition rounds. Hula hooping, eating, singing, dancing, guess the famous person, guess the baby (teacher), and name the song and a mystery round.The team with the loudest applause won that round and they would earned a point. The singing round for the children was one direction’s Comic Relief song, ‘One Way Or An Other’. The teachers’ song was ‘This Is The Way To Amarillo’. The pupils won by 2 points. Everyone had so much fun and we really enjoyed ourselves.

By Ciara K and Sam B

World Book Day

World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, it is as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

In school we made book marks and we coloured them in, and some people did very creative things, like  robot book marks and lion book marks. Jodie did clouds with rain drops, and with Wicked witch of the West legs from the Wizard Of Oz. We also got a free book token in class which meant we got lots of  free books for the class! We got the Diamond Brothers, and Hang in There Bozo, and many more. We did a silent read for an hour it was a lot of fun!

By Jodie C and Kiaran F

Poet Visit

This afternoon we had a poetry workshop with poet Tawona Sithole. Originally from Zimbabwe,  now living in Glasgow, Tawona shared his poetry, drama and music with us. We really enjoyed dancing and moving and creating our own class poem, but the highlight was listening to Tawona play the mbira ( a traditional Zimbabwean music instrument) it was amazing! We have lots of ideas for our own poetry now, thanks for sharing your work with us Tawona!

 

Wyllie Meet Up

I met up with pupils involved in the George Wyllie art project at the Monument to Maternity giant safety pin in Glasgow. It was a lot of fun, pupils from other schools, including high school and nurseries were there. It was fun to join in and see all the work created during the George Wyllie school’s art project .

Pupils from other schools made boats from all kind of materials and  created birds like robins a girl  too. One girl from a high school had her nails painted for the Wyllie event  she had a robin, a boat and Whys man too.

We had our photos taken, take a look!

By Daria Sz and Abby C.

Chinese New Year

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

P7b are celebrating Chinese New Year by learning about Chinese culture and language. We have been learning about the history of Chinese New Year and its customs and traditions, as well creating our own Chinese lanterns, puppet dragons and having a go at writing some Chinese characters. We were very interested to find out about Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China, and his Terracotta Army which inspired us to make our own plasticine army. We have even found time to sample some Chinese green tea! See our photographs below.

Another thing we were interested in learning about was what life is like for school children in China. We watched a film about how hard students work for their final school exams called the Gaokao. We will never complain about homework again! Next week we will be  learning some basic Chinese words and Chinese numbers.

We have been using a special pack which is produced free by the British Council – which helps schools across the UK to bring the world into the classroom. The Snakes and Dragons education pack aims to encourage greater interest in Chinese culture and language – which is vital to the UK’s future prosperity. China overtook Japan to become the world’s second biggest economy in 2011 – and Mandarin Chinese is already spoken by more than 1.3 billion people worldwide.

Martin Davidson, Chief Executive of the British Council and a Chinese speaker, said: “The UK’s future prosperity depends in no small part on our ability to communicate, interact and build relationships with people from around the world. With China recently becoming the world’s second biggest economy – and set to continue that upward trajectory – there are few more important partners for us. A good understanding of Chinese culture and language will give our young people the advantage they need to live in a global society and compete in a global economy.”

Schools can find out about opportunities with China and beyond at www.britishcouncil.org/schoolsonline

News update: Congratulations P7B you were one of the winners in the British Council’s Chinese New Year competition.

“The standard of entries was exceptionally high but yours stood out for its creativity and its innovative approach to celebrating the Year of the Snake, promoting intercultural understanding at your school and really impressing the judges with the activities you undertook.”

You can see your winning entry at British Council Schools Online and find out how other schools across the UK joined in the celebrations.