Category: Room 8

Room 8 Staff Team

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Room 8 Pupils Make a Difference on National Environmental Day

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The pupils of Room 8 showed their dedication to the environment by actively participating in the celebration of National Environmental Day. They took part in a unique activity held in nature, focusing on collecting plastic waste littered around their surroundings. With bags in hand, the pupils scoured the area, picking up every piece of plastic they could find.

Their efforts were rewarded with a delightful treat—a well-deserved 20 minutes of playtime in the nearby park. After their diligent cleanup, the pupils happily embraced the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, playing games, running around, and simply reveling in the beauty of nature.

By engaging in this littering activity, the pupils contributed to a cleaner environment and learned about the importance of responsible waste disposal. They gained firsthand experience in understanding the impact of plastic pollution on our planet and how small actions can make a significant difference.

The Room 8 pupils demonstrated their commitment to creating a better world and setting an inspiring example for others. Their active participation and enthusiasm made National Environmental Day a memorable and impactful event.

A Wander Through Aberdeen With Room 8

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The built environment is an integral part of our lives. Buildings and houses not only provide shelter, but they also have a significant impact on our physical and mental well-being. Recently, our group had the opportunity to visit some places around Aberdeen to observe the houses and buildings in the area.

One of the highlights of our visit was the David Welch Winter Gardens at Duthie Park, one of Europe’s most extensive indoor gardens and Scotland’s third most visited gardens. The garden spans over 11 acres and is home to a vast collection of plants worldwide. It is a popular destination for locals and tourists alike, who enjoy the garden’s beauty and tranquility.

The David Welch Winter Gardens is a prime example of how buildings can enhance our lives. The glass walls and ceiling allow natural light to flood the space, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere. The plants and flowers provide a sense of serenity and calm, making it an ideal spot for relaxation and contemplation.

We also visited Footdee, an area in Aberdeen that was once known as ‘Fish Town.’ Footdee refers to the housing squares built in the mid-19th century to house local fishermen and their families. Over time, the name ‘Footdee’ was used to refer specifically to the housing squares, and the name ‘Fish Town’ was forgotten.

The houses in Footdee are unique and charming, with small gardens and colourful doors and windows. The area has a distinctly village-like feel, with narrow streets and alleyways adding charm. The houses are built close together, creating community and neighborliness.

The visit to Footdee reminded us of the importance of community in building design. The layout of the houses and streets creates a sense of togetherness and belonging, which is crucial for a healthy and happy community. The small gardens and bright colours of the houses also add to the importance of pride and ownership that residents have for their homes.

In conclusion, our visit to different areas of Aberdeen highlighted the importance of buildings, homes, and houses. From the David Welch Winter Gardens to Footdee, we observed how well-designed buildings could enhance our well-being and foster community. As we continue to build and design our environments, it is essential to keep in mind the impact that buildings can have on our physical and mental health and the importance of creating spaces that foster a sense of community and belonging.

Giving and Receiving with Room 8

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Giving and Receiving

Why are these concepts important?

Giving and receiving become synonymous with presents. 

Giving and receiving are partners. To do both gracefully is a beautiful balance to achieve at any age. When you receive, you are giving the gift of receiving. The internal feeling of genuine giving of oneself and proper receiving are particularly kindling for peace of heart and mind. When ulterior motives enter into either domain – of giving or receiving – the precious purity and resource of both are diminished. If children can come to know through experience that there is an internal glow present with pure giving and receiving, they will develop a heritage of warmth and closeness which will be priceless in their life journeys.

Usually, we like to connect when giving and receiving with direct eye contact and heart-to-heart connection. We want to thank you so much for our gift from Shell – our great green sofa that is loved and valuable in Room 8. Thanks a lot, Alison, for making this happen. 

We managed to send them a card having this in our mind: “What comes from the Heart goes to the Heart…. What comes from the Heart goes to the Heart.”

It encapsulates the most powerful lesson with SUPERKID POWER skills today for the Easter season. Giving and receiving from the Heart. It’s not just with presents, but giving the gift of being a good listener and commenting for acknowledgement, giving and receiving a hug, being there for someone… So many ways to give and receive. Definitely, we are going to practise more of these beautiful skills. 

Making bread was a delicious, healthy and educational experience for Room 8

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Making bread was a delicious, healthy and educational experience for Room 8

If you fancy bringing some ‘Bake Off’ inspiration, read on – we have everything you need to get started. While fairy cakes, flapjacks and meringues have their place, do not forget how easy it is to bake bread. The comforting smell of a freshly baked loaf stays with us for a lifetime, and making bread can be a therapeutic activity for children. Regarding this aspect, we loved the baking bread moment and used cracking the eggs and the flour as a sensory play. Moreover, it was so much fun!

From a nutritional point of view, bread is excellent for children; it is packed full of long-lasting energy, B vitamins and calcium. Bread is also helpful for teaching children about other foods, such as butter, which children need to eat to build muscle and gain nutrients like iron, omega-3s and calcium. Chocolate spread, jam, and honey are tasty but very high in sugar, so they should only be used in small amounts.

If you are not a confident cook, you could be tempted to take the automated option as we did – a bread-making machine. This was a time-saver, but it produced delicious bread. 

Baking gave us lots of fun, even though it was rather messy! However, despite all the mess, we gained many benefits from the baking experience.

The children had many opportunities to develop and use both hands together in a coordinated way.

Pouring ingredients into bowls was an excellent way for them to practise their eye-hand coordination.

Whether they read the recipe themselves (in words or symbols)  and follow our verbal instructions, following a recipe boosted our pupils’ listening and sequencing skills.

Following instructions is a vital school skill, and baking gave our pupils lots of practice.

Letting our pupils bake helped them learn about real-life measuring and number concepts.

Baking gave our pupils a real sense of achievement. We were working on a task that produced a product they enjoyed and shared with others, giving them confidence.

Of course, the last benefit was the result – delicious bread! After all our hard work, we sat down and enjoyed the results. 

Thanks very much, Heathryburn School Community Cafe!

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Every Tuesday afternoon is a joy for Room 8. It’s Community Cafe time. We all are happy to visit and spend 45 minutes with our friends across the road, boys and girls from Heathryburn School. We all enjoy a warm drink, and there is a choice of different foods each week. It is easy to see that the pupils-host enjoy taking orders, serving food and getting to know other members of the local community and us. The predictable environment with structure and high level of routine along with a package of social learning and interaction help and support our boys and girls to develop their social skills and gain knowledge. Angela, the community café coordinator, is always available for 1-1 support for anyone who would like to discuss any problems. 

By accessing this venture, Room 8 was able to develop their communication skills, meet new people and friends, work as part of a team, make a decision, apply functional numeracy and literacy. 

We all agree the community café showcases an alternative model of community – where people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities spend time together – socialising, working, creating and enjoying each other’s company.

Thanks very much, Heathryburn School Community Cafe.

Life skills in Room 8

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Mug cakes are the perfect, low-mess solution for our sweet tooth and easy enough for our pupils in Room 8 to make under supervision. There was no hot oven; instead, we had a personal-sized treat ready to enjoy in mere minutes with the help of a microwave.  

Our favourite mug cake is a mug cookie. It’s got a classic chocolate-chip cookie flavour but a bit of a cakey crumble. We may have overdosed on the chocolate chips, but we weren’t sorry, especially for a Friday afternoon. 

Here are some helpful tips we used for making our mug cakes:

Mix, mix, mix! 

While most of this mug cake recipe is stirred upright in a coffee cup, we made sure we mixed everything well. 

From our experience, we suggest using a fork to whisk the ingredients and a small spatula to clean the bottom before you cook. Nothing ruins your mug cake faster than finding a glob of flour on your fork.

Take it slow. 

Microwaves vary in wattage and strength, so we had to take care not to overbake. We started at the low end of the recipe recommendation and checked, then added 15-30 second bursts until the cake was puffed and looked dry.

We enjoyed it! 

Room 8 class project ‘What makes someone a superhero?’

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Did you know there are SUPERHEROES all around us? 

Superheroes are ordinary people who do EXTRAORDINARY jobs.

Absolutely anyone can be a SUPERHERO if they want to. All you need is imagination, hard work and lots of kindness.

During this term, we had many activities where we encouraged the children to listen carefully to how that person’s job involves helping others and gave them time to ask questions about what they have heard. We used a selection of photos of ‘Superheroes – people who help us’ in activities as matching pictures/words/sentences. Also, we introduced and explained new vocabulary and encouraged them to listen to each other’s suggestions.   

One of our favourites has been the ‘People who help us’ themed role-play – ‘I’m a dentist’, inspiring the children to use the new vocabulary they learned during the topic. 

We created a class display, ‘All about our superheroes who help us.’ We had a big poster, ‘You are my superhero’, and we took pictures with all staff around the school that help us daily. We want to say a big ‘Thank you’ to all of them.

The most important activity has been with our superheroes – the parents. We spent one hour singing and dancing, having an excellent time together.

 Well done, Room 8!#


Is the Dentist Like a Superhero?

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Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes. Wonder Woman uses her superhuman strength, speed, and ability to fly to beat the bad guys, while heroes like Batman and Iron Man rely on state-of-the-art inventions to help them join the fight against evil—even though they’re just ordinary people. What if we told you a dentist has more in common with superheroes than you might think?

Room 8 organised the Project ”What makes someone a superhero?” to help our pupils to boost their enthusiasm for trips to the dentist.

We used these ways to highlight that a dentist is like a superhero.

1) The dentist role-playing taught us to protect ourselves by flossing and brushing our teeth.

2) This role helped kids fall in love with science and dentistry. Many superheroes, like The Flash and Iron Man, were scientists or inventors before they started fighting crime. They inspire kids to love science and stand up for good throughout their comic series and movies. Our fun tooth decay experiment with eggshells was all about teeth and how to keep them healthy. First, we talked about how important it is to brush our teeth every day and then chatted about foods that are good for teeth and foods that aren’t.

Sugary, sticky food is not suitable for teeth as it sticks to the surface. Bacteria then break down the sugar to make acid which can damage teeth.

3)We summarised that dentists support kids with healthy smiles they’re happy to show off.

We also learned that we don’t need special powers if we’d also like to be a superhero. Like a dentist, we can start conquering plaque by brushing and brushing and flossing our teeth regularly at home. 

At your next appointment, your dentist will see how healthy your teeth look and know that you’re a dental superhero in training!

How To Catch A Star With Room 8

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‘How To Catch A Star’ by Oliver Jeffers

Once there was a boy, and that boy loved stars very much. So much that he decided to catch one of his very own. But how? It is enough to make a boy want to give up! Yet sometimes we discover things aren’t where, or what, we expect them to be.

The pupils in Room 8 decided the boy is a superhero, followed him through the story and admired his persistence in making his dream a reality. We learned from him being inventive as him in his attempts to catch a star, waiting from sunrise to sunset for a star to appear. We all also appreciated his patience and determination.

We went further and experimented how to power a spaceship with just a drop of hand wash liquid.

So, during Science, we cut a rocket shape out of a carton with a little space for the ‘engine’. When we added a drop of soap in the hole, it pushed the water out, backwards. The water moved out the back of the rocket and pushed it forward.

Fun, fun, fun!

National Selfie Day in Room 8

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Check your hair, find your light, and strike a post — National Selfie Day was on June 21. Time to find the perfect angle. Try out that new filter! If you’re feeling yourself, wearing a new favourite outfit, or even if you’re just bored, it’s time to pull out that camera phone and proclaim, “But first, let me take a selfie.”


The most important is to ‘Be yourself’. The idea of taking a selfie is to document who you are. But remember, you’re taking a selfie to show off YOU, not to become a copy of the others. Embrace your individuality for a selfie that looks and feels like you.

Did you know?

You can let someone else take your Selfie. This kind of photography is called Posies among the millennials, and the picture is usually taken by someone else, and the person in front of the camera has to pose.

Room 8 has celebrated ‘Selfie Day’ having lots of fun.

First, everyone came and discovered the most beautiful picture with their favourite pupil in the class. We all were surprised to find that in the box it was a mirror, and everyone was the favourite. 

Second, we had a shooting with some selfie challenge prompts:

· Choose your favourite hat

· With something you love

· Six selfies with different faces

· Video selfie of you dancing

· In a mirror

· With someone else

· Upside down

· With a photo

· By a window