Welcome home!

Return of the campers!

The P7 campers have had a fantastic time at Lagganlia and arrived back safe and sound at lunchtime today (although maybe slightly grubbier than when they left on Monday) and we can’t wait to hear all about it next week. Activities have ranged from bouldering and canoeing and everyone took the opportunity to throw themselves into new experiences. Thank you to Mr Hamilton, Mr Martin, Miss McCourt and Miss Graves for taking them once again.

 

Halloween

Now that autumn is well and truly upon us, you may have seen the posters up for the Parent Council Halloween Party on 1^st November. Posters will be going up in school next week so expect to hear a lot more about it from your children! As always there will be a separate quiet area with drawing and crafts for anyone who gets a little overwhelmed by the spookiness! Thank you to the Parent Council who lead this very successful event every year.

Spotlight on…P6 with Miss Stamati 

Following our outdoor activities and visits in September, P6 have expressed their love for nature, and curiosity as to how various natural systems operate. Our first step into Science found us discussing the crucial role of water in our environment, as well as our bodies.

Did you know that about 71% of the Earth’s surface is water (lakes, rivers, oceans, ice)? And that up to 75% of our body as young people (up to 60% for adults) is also water? We were so impressed when we found that out!

The water on Earth is found in three different states: gas, liquid and solid. Can you think of any examples?

We decided to conduct scientific experiments to explore the “Water Cycle”; How are clouds formed? Why do we get rain? What are the droplets of water that are created on a mirror when we take a hot shower?  – These were only some of the questions that led us to this experiment and to the creation of our Scientific Hypothesis: The cycle would not be possible without the sun!

Sun is our natural source of light and heat, through Solar Radiation. The warmer and brighter the sun, the more water will evaporate in the form of gas from the sea, lakes and rivers, and will transpire from the leaves of trees. When the gas reaches the colder temperatures in the atmosphere, it creates clouds through a process called condensation. Too much condensation in the clouds makes them really heavy, which results in precipitation, or else, rain! This rain reaches different parts of the Earth’s surface, and eventually will run off to the sea, or infiltrate in the soil.

We call it the water cycle, as the process begins again and it keeps repeating itself, like going around in circles!   

To conduct the experiment:

1. Draw your version of the water cycle on a clear sandwich bag or bottle.
2. Fill up with ¼ cup of water. Seal well.
3. Place your water cycle model on a window and record your observations over time! To gather more information through our experiment, P6 also placed water cycle models in dark places to observe what happens when solar radiation is missing.

Keep an eye out for our observations and conclusions to the experiment!

Some strong homework efforts!

 

Parents’ Evening

Next week we will send out the link so that you can book your Parents’ Evening appointments for the end of the month. It’s so worthwhile to take the opportunity to discuss your child’s academic progress but if you can’t make either of the dates, please feel welcome to contact your child’s teacher to make an alternative appointment.

Holiday reminder

Remember that next Friday (11^th) we break up for the October holidays. School and Nursery resumes for children on Wednesday 23^rd October.

Drowning in plastic!

(Yes, we did have lots of fun creating this photo!)

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that we were inspired as a school to start challenging the amount of plastic straws that we were getting through on a daily basis following our ‘Make a Difference’ assembly topic back in September. You may remember that it all started when P4 brought a small pot of straws to our sharing assembly and told everyone that the way that they had decided to make a difference  was for the 6 children who took milk each day to pour it out into a cup, rather than use the cartons and straws. They then collected the straws in the pot (below). Those 6 straws per day added up surprisingly quickly and we were all shocked by how many they had collected in such a small space of time, from so few children.

This is what 6 straws per day over just a few weeks looks like

We did some calculations and worked out that we could save arund 1,600 straws by the end of October (5 weeks) if we all followed P4’s example. So, each child who took milk was provided with a cup, cup washeruppers* were duly appointed in each class and we all began the challenge enthusiasically. By the end of the 5 weeks, we had in fact collected 2,312 straws (as we had forgotten to factor lunchtime milk into the original calculation) and we vowed not to go back to our old ways. It took a few weeks after that but I am delighted to announce that Abbeyhill is MAKING A DIFFERENCE to the environment as we have now got an agreement with the dairy who supply our milk (Muller) that they will give us large 6 pint jugs of milk, exactly as you would buy at the supermarket, instead of the little cartons. In the time it took to make that arrangement, the straws kept piling up and we had over 4,000 which helped us create our ‘Drowning in Plastic’ photo at the top of the page. Don’t worry, they are certainly not going to landfill as one of our artists-in-residence has grand plans for them. Come and see them as part of the Colony of Artists festival in September 2019!

We only have 70 children across the school who take milk every day and look how much plastic we’re stopping getting to landfill.  If you’re an Edinburgh school being supplied by Muller, why don’t you take up the Abbeyhill challenge and see if you can make a difference too?

Sally Ketchin, Head Teacher

*Mrs Ketchin’s made up word of the day