The pupils in Room 9 all enjoy taking part in mark making activities, in fact, the messier the better!
Last week, everyone participated actively in some Firework Fun by creating their own firework pictures.
One of the learning aims we are exploring this term is building our resilience to changes in routine – this time of year has plenty of them! – as we use the symbol for “special activity” to reassure our learners that the changes are planned and can be something to look forward to.
We had a celebration of our class achievements at the end of term, with each of our learners choosing photographs to go into a presentation of what they have done. Everyone took home a certificate and some of our learners were very proud of theirs! A special mention must also go out to our class member who won the secondary department star of the month for her fabulous signing – well done!
Since returning from the October holidays we have been as busy as ever!
We have worked hard on our ASDANs, exploring team work and group work skills. We worked in teams to build towers, and created a beautiful Halloween collaborative art project. We had lots of fun decorating our pumpkin for Halloween as well as Halloween themed bucket time activities.
This week we have had lots of firework related activities – we made cheese straw bonfires in home economics, focused for lots of fireworks activities for bucket time, a cola mentos firework for our ASDAN science (causing a change) and for outdoor education we went out to search for sticks to build our own bonfire before watching fireworks. As we build our familiarity with seasonal events we also build our resilience to routine variations and our capacity to communicate about them.
We’re looking forward to lots more “special activity” events this term!
Remember, remember, the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
We see no reason
Why Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot….
This week in school Room 5 have been learning about Guy Fawkes.
To mark this celebration we watched a short animated video about Guy Fawkes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJ5G4UNFJI
We also created our own firework pictures. We think our night sky guy Fawkes picture are really effective.
In England, in 1605 during the reign of James I, an act of treason was planned that could have changed the course of our history. At the last moment, the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, and now we commemorate the traitors – and in particular, the scapegoat Guy Fawkes – every year with Bonfire Night!
Guy Fawkes (1570 to 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, was one of a group of Catholic plotters who planned, but failed, to blow up Parliament – now known as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
At the time, King James I was on the throne. England had broken away from the Catholic faith and the Church of Rome in Henry VIII’s reign (by 1536), but there were still many Catholics in the country. Guy Fawkes joined up with a group of thirteen Catholic plotters, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to overthrow the King and put a Catholic monarch back on the throne.
The plotters rented space in the cellars of the House of Lords and filled it with gunpowder. Guy Fawkes was put in charge. They planned to set off the gunpowder during the opening of Parliament, on 5th November 1605. One or more of the plotters, however, were worried that some of their fellow Catholics and friends would be at the opening and get caught in the explosion, and wrote to warn them not to be there that day. We know that a certain Lord Monteagle received a letter warning him to go to the country because Paliament would “receive a terrible blow”. Lord Monteagle showed the letter to the King, and the cellars were thoroughly searched and Guy Fawkes caught.
After several days of horrible torture, Guy Fawkes gave up the names of his fellow plotters and eight of them went to trial in January 1606. All were found guilty and executed in the terrible fashion of the times.
On 5th November 1605 Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King’s escape from assassination by lighting bonfires, provided that “this testemonye of joy be carefull done without any danger or disorder” – and indeed an Act of Parliament soon followed, declaring 5th November as a day of thanksgiving throughout the country for “the joyful day of deliverance“.
When we celebrate Bonfire Night now, it seems very far removed from the events of four hundred years ago! For centuries since then, communities have come together to build a big bonfire and make an effigy – a model – of Guy Fawkes using old clothes stuffed with newspaper, to burn on the bonfire (see Penny for the Guy).
Fun fact: When you use the word “guy” in your sentences, have you thought where it comes from? The “guy” tradition of Bonfire Night gradually found it’s way into our language, and by the 19th century the word “guy” was used to refer to a strangely dressed man. From there it was adopted into American English to refer to any man, and is of course still commonly used today!
There’s an old saying: what goes up must come down. This activity is a perfect chance to challenge that idea, shooting a rocket high into the air by rapidly squashing a plastic bottle launcher. We’ll never get this rocket into space, but some real rockets do go fast enough to prove the saying wrong.
What’s the science?
The bottle we used as the rocket launcher is not really empty: there is air inside it. Air is elastic (squashy), and when we compressed it, it pushed back and the pressure inside increased. In the activity, the sudden increase in air pressure inside the bottle pushed hard on the bottom of the rocket, sending it flying high into the air.
We challenge you to make your very own rocket mouse and launcher – see how high your bat can fly!
We needed:
We followed these steps:
Science in our world
Just as increasing the air pressure in the bottle sends the rocket flying, we use air pressure when we squeeze shampoo or ketchup from a plastic bottle.
For our SQA National 1 in Food Hygiene we chose to make Christmas mincemeat. We had to wear appropriate clothing (gloves, aprons and hairnets), keep our work areas clean and clean any equipment we used. We are looking forward to using the mincemeat in a few weeks – yum!
There’s definitely something spooky going on at Orchard Brae this week.
Classes have been busy carving and decorating pumpkins to display in our pumpkin patch.
There was even a pumpkin hunt around the school.
And today, some pupils (and staff) were dressed up in their Halloween outfits. We thought they all looked fang-tastic!!
The video below from Singing Hands has lots of spooky Halloween Makaton signs for you to have a go at!
If you are celebrating Halloween this weekend, have a wonderfully spooky and fun-filled time!
We all know how much COVID-19 has had an impact on everyone and PAMIS family carers and staff are also very aware of how COVID-19 has had an even greater impact on people with PMLD.
PAMIS would like to hear from parents and carers of those with PMLD aged 16 and above, as you and the person you care for are living the experience and it is critical that they know what that reality is.
Participating in this survey will ensure that you and your son’s or daughter’s reality is seen and not hidden.
The survey is conducted online, asking highly relevant questions related to your reality of living in ‘COVID-19’ Scotland. Completing this survey will help document you and your son or daughters experience over the months since March 2020. The survey will enable you to tell those who make defining decisions, around how support and care for people with PMLD and their family carers is approached, in this changed and ever-changing COVID-19 landscape.
To register your interest now please email Brenda Garrard b.garrard@dundee.ac.uk.
If an online survey is not something you are comfortable doing please get in touch with PAMIS and they can arrange a different way of responding.
The Aberdeen Endowments Trust Secondary School Bursary is available to low income families with a child attending secondary school from S1-S4 and is normally awarded as £100 per year. It can be applied for at any time from S1-S4 but cannot be granted retrospectively.
Aberdeen Endowment Trust Secondary School Bursary Application
The completed application should be sent to the Clerk, Aberdeen Endowments Trust, 19 Albert Street, Aberdeen, AB25 1QF or please email aet1909@btinternet.com.
This week we have been settling back into school and getting ready for Halloween this weekend. Some of us have dressed up in Halloween outifts and we have carved a pumpkin ready for the school pumpkin patch. This year, L chose to carve a scary face into the pumpkin, it was a bit tricky but with a little help he managed. G did a great job separating out the seeds from the pulp. A put the pulp into the bug hotel we are making in the playground. In cooking we will be roasting the seeds to eat them. Once we are finished with the pumpkin we will fill it with bird food and put it out in the garden to feed the animals and birds.
Happy Halloween!
Please find below an updated version of the Orchard Brae Covid-19 Risk Assessment which reflects further advice and guidance received from Health Protection Scotland and Aberdeen City Council. All updates have been highlighted in green.
Aberdeen City Council have also published a ventilation flowchart for schools.
Both of these documents can also be found on the Covid-19 website page.
