Lady Franklin's Lament

After our explorer themed day on Tuesday, the whole school got together with Douglas and Mrs Keldie on Wednesday morning to record a song they had been working on that was written about Sir John Franklin's expedition.


Please click on the link to the right to listen - it is beautiful - well done Mrs Keldie, Douglas and pupils of St Andrews Primary!


(There is also an entirely different version of this song on the new "Saltfish Forty Live" CD which is now available to buy!)


Homeward bound one night on the deep
 On my hammock, I fell asleep.
I dreamed a dream and I thought it true
 I dreamt of Franklin and his gallant crew.

A hundred brave men did sail away
To the frozen ocean in the month of May,
To seek a passage around the Pole
Where we poor sailors do sometimes go.

Through cruel hardships they vainly strove
 Their ships on mountains of ice they drove.
 The Eskimo with his skin canoe
 The only soul that e'er came through.

In Baffin’s Bay where the whale fish blow
The fate of Franklin no man may know.
The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell
  Lord Franklin and his sailors well.

And now my burden it gives me pain
For my long-lost Franklin I would cross the main.
Ten thousand pounds I would freely give
To know on earth that my Franklin lives.

Explorer Theme Day

We had lots of fun today when we dressed up as explorers.  In Primary 4 we were learning about Leif Erikson and his adventures and discoveries in North America. 

Do you think you can guess who we are in the pictures?  If you can please leave a comment and we will let you know if you were correct or not!

Primary 4 will also hopefully leave some comments to let you know what they learned and also to explain who they dressed up as and why they chose this particular person.

Please take a look at the photos that were taken by Mrs Ruddick and Ms Rendall on the day.

Slideshow - Explorer Theme Day
 

Forces - air friction

Primary 4 are learning about forces this term and have been investigating air resistance.  You can see the effects of air resistance on a parachute - it is air resistance that slows the parachute down.  The air moves over the surface of the parachute and this slows the speed it falls.  There is also another force pulling the parachute down, which is called gravity. 

To help us learn about air resistance we were given the challenge of making our own parachute.  We had to design one that fell slowly to the ground and make a prediction about what we thought might happen, before putting it to the test.  We tested it once and then made changes to try to  make it fall slower the second time.  There were some things that we could NOT change because we had to keep the test fair - these were the weight that we tied onto the parachute and the other was the height we dropped it from.

 

We then had to write a report which explained what we had found out.  Primary 4 will hopefully add some comments on here to explain what they found out about air resistance.

 

Please have a look at our photos to see us in action!

 

Slideshow - air resistance experiment

 

Column subtraction

Primary 4 have also been learning about column subtraction and made videos to explain how you do this. Please have a look at our videos and leave us some feedback on how well we explained this!

 

 

 

 

 

Column addition

Primary 4 have been learning about column addition and made videos to explain how you do this.  Please have a look at our videos and leave us some feedback on how well we explained this!

  

 

 

Oops - look what Ms Rendall found!!

Ms Rendall has been searching everywhere for the photos she took when we were at the Science Festival last year but she couldn't find them anywhere ... until a few weeks ago, when she was using her camera in the holidays and suddenly they appeared. 

Primary 4 were at the Science Festival to help with the Viking activities.  There were a number of activities, which included:  inspecting Viking poo to try and figure out what they ate; making chocolate Thor hammars; spinning wool; carving soap to make a Viking bowl; working as a detective to figure out where different bins of rubbish had come from; making friendship bracelets.

As you have never seen them, Ms Rendall thought she should post them for you to see - even if it is a bit late. Ms Rendall can't believe how much you have all grown - no wonder the classroom seems so much smaller now! As always, please click on the link below to have a peak at our slideshow.

Slideshow - Science Festival

Children in Need

Primary 3 did a fantastic job of organising lots of activities to raise money for Children in Need on Friday.  We had lots of fun and would like to thank Mrs Kirkness and Primary 3 for all their hard work.

 

Please click on the link below to take a look at some of the photos that were taken on Friday - St Andrews School raised £613.90 altogether which is just fantastic.

 

Slideshow - Children in Need

Handwork

We are very lucky in St Andrews School to have handwork every Thursday afternoon in Term 2 and 3.  We are all busy making mats or knitting in Primary 4 and really need to concentrate to do this well!

 

We are very lucky to have so many helpers who come in especially to help us with our handwork - thank you!

 

Maths

We use lots of games and different activities to help us in our Maths, which makes the learning more fun and helps us understand better.  Last week we were learning about place value and how numbers can be written down in lots of different ways.

  

As well as helping our Maths skills, this helps us learn how to work with and help others around us.

 

It would be great if Primary 4 could add some more information about the different things we are learning in class during Maths lessons and the different activities we do to help us with this!

 

Rugby

We had our first rugby session last Wednesday, and another just today - it is lots of fun and although Ms Rendall does not agree, we never think it is cold when we are playing!

 

There are lots of skills we have to learn when playing tag rugby - for example passing and catching the ball, swerving, running, working as a team and lots more.
 

 

It is also very important that we listen to Bruce, or any of the other coaches, who give up their time to come and teach us how to play.

 

Please add any comments or more information about playing tag rugby if you would like to do so, especially Primary 4!

Visitors to Primary 4

We have had a number of special visitors to Class 4 this year already.  The first visitors we had were brought in my Niamh and they were Alvin, Jamie and Bobbie.  Everyone enjoyed having a hold of them, although we had to be very careful not to squeeze them!

 

We had another VERY special visitor to class - Lucy's little sister, Natalie!  Isn't she just beautiful?  Ms Rendall enjoyed a cuddle with Natalie!

 

Travis also brought his dog, Bob, to visit but unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of him.

 

Just last week Edith brought two visitors to the class - Squeako and Sammy.  They were very energetic and a little scared of all the noise and the big people around them!

 

 

Helping each other

In Primary 4 we think it is very important to help each other if we can, and we do this in lots of different ways.  One way we have been doing this is to work with a partner to complete a tricky reading comprehension activity and we have to work together to figure out the answers.  It can be tricky but when we work together it is much easier.

 

 

Health week in Primary 4

Last week in school all the classes had a special focus on Health and Wellbeing and we did a number of different activities in class.  Here are some of the activities Primary 4 did in class:

• we researched the different food groups and made posters to show what we learned;
• we learned about the need to have a balanced diet so we have a little bit of everything that we need to be healthy;
• we learned about how exercise helps keep our bodies healthy;
• everyone set themselves a target to try something new or something they thought they didn't like for lunch;
• we thought about the importance of keeping our minds healthy as well as our bodies i.e. thinking about the friends we have and the hobbies we do which were good for our mental health;
• we worked in groups to design and make our own circuits which would make our hearts beat faster - there are some pictures below!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Primary 4 would like to add any comments to explain more about what we were doing, this would be great - or if anyone has any questions about this please post them in the comments box and we will try to answer!