A spooky story from Kathryn

The Haunted House

I was lying on my bed at 7.30 pm when the doorbell rang.  I shouted to my mum that I would get the door.  It was my friend. I was wondering why she was here at this time but I had no time to think about that because she had already started talking excitedly, “Guess what??  We have been invited to Stephanie’s party!”  Stephanie was the most popular girl in the school and I was so amazed that we were invited.  It was a Halloween party.  She has a Halloween party every year and it was normally only cool kids who were invited.  I didn’t consider myself really that cool but I didn’t care about that.  I told my fiend to wait one minute and I ran to my mum and told her the whole story.  She said I could go, so with a quick goodbye I ran out of the house, my friend behind me.

We knew Stephanie’s address but we still got lost.  I had brought a torch with us because it was so dark, but it ran out of battery.  We finally got to a driveway…a massive one!  We thought it was Stephanie’s driveway because her house is huge and so probably has a big driveway, but the further we walked the, more unsure we became.  It was a long and windy road and the trees creaked and every time one of us stepped on a twig we got a fright.  I was now shivering and so was my friend.  I didn’t know if we were shivering with the cold or with fright.  Maybe it was both. When we finally got to the top of the hill, we saw a big house that looked more like a castle.  It had towers and turrets and a big main entrance.  At that moment we realised it wasn’t Stephanie’s house but it was Harrison Manor.  The creepiest house ever!  People told us stories about how all the Harrisons were very pale and peaky people with the most unusual eyes…a deep dark crimson red…devils eyes some people said!  I wanted to scream and run back down the road but the hedges and trees seemed to be closing in on us.  Then the door creaked slowly open.

BANG!  The door hit the wall and we screamed and came close to each other. There was no escape!  Now we could have tried to get through the hedge but the curiosity inside me was urging me to go  in and take a quick look and then come straight back out.  My friend seemed to have the same idea and we took a couple of steps forward and entered the house.

The room we stepped into was a big, old fashioned, derelict hallway.  The door suddenly slammed shut behind us.  BANG!  We were trapped!  The hallway was big with a black and white tiled floor.  There was a massive old stone fireplace with two rusty, dusty suits of armour standing next to it.  There was a great big chandelier hanging from the ceiling glowing bright.  A great big staircase that looked old and creaky lead up to a big viewing gallery over the hall.  It looked like a room from a scary movie, but there was something odd though.  There were two potted plants that were a nice olive green, but everyone knew that nobody had lived here for thousands of years, so how come the plants were still alive?  Another odd thing was that the candles were lit.  Who could have lit them?

We tried to open the door again and again, but it wouldn’t budge.  I decided we would scout around to try and find a way out.  I didn’t want to go upstairs because it was so yucky, dusty and creaky, so instead I started to walk downstairs.  My friend stopped me though.  “Where are you going?” she exclaimed.  “Going to find a way out, Dumbo!” I said.  (Though I don’t know why I had to, it was kind of obvious.)  She started blabbering, “Well I’m going upstairs!  It looks much safer than down there!”  She pointed to a door which lead downstairs.  I didn’t know what to do, but before I had any time to think I had blurted out, “Fine!  See if I care!”  My friend walked upstairs and I started to walk to the door that lead downstairs.  I couldn’t turn back now, I had to keep moving forward.  If I chickened out and went running back to my friend I would look pathetic.  I would show her that I was brave and bold!  The door squeaked loudly.  SCREEEEEECH!  A shiver ran down my spine.  I walked down a hard cement staircase and every now and again I heard a crunch.  I realise it was bones!  But I kept going.  It smelled damp and musty but once again I kept going.  There might be treasure or something down here.  Suddenly I heard a scream!  At that moment I realised my friend was dead!

I didn’t know what to do.  Run?  Hide?  Instead I just cried.  It was all my fault!  I left her.  Why didn’t I go with her?  Follow her?  I knew I was just blaming myself like everyone did when it wasn’t really their fault…but I actually think it was my fault. Then I heard footsteps.  Pit pat, pit pat.  At least they sounded like footsteps.  Plip plop, plip plop.  I had to hide!  I looked around desperately in the cellar even though it was pitch black.  Luckily I found a coal hole that would probably lead outside, but I wasn’t quick enough!  A glowing, white figure was coming.  It was almost here…

I closed the second door down to the cellar, locked it and looked through the keyhole.  I saw a bright, glowing figure carrying my friend.  She was dripping blood…that was the sound I had heard, not footsteps.  I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds trying to hold back my tears.  When I had pulled myself together, I looked through the keyhole again.  I saw bright red and at that moment I knew what I was looking at.  I was looking at a ghost of the Harrison family and his red eye!  That was the last thing I remember seeing before I died.

We were delighted to welcome Angela from Heartstart/Save a Life for Scotland who showed us what to do in a medical emergency.  Depending on our age, we learned what to do in various scenarios including phoning 999, serious bleeding, choking, heart attacks and cardiac arrest.

Embracing a challenge set via a social media post by Bute artist, Ruth Slater, the children in P5-7 each created a piece of writing inspired by photographs of pieces of china Ruth had collected from the beaches of Bute.  Ruth was so delighted to hear that we were engaging with her challenge that she sent us a package containing the pieces of china to fuel our creativity.  Here are a few examples of our writing.

Broken by Skye Rose

I was once a piece of pottery. I was formed by clay and cooked in an oven to become a vase, my flowers spreading across my body. I sat by a window watching the world move around me and I found it exciting to see people staring at me (though sometimes it was a bit creepy). One day I was doing the same things I always did, I sat and I looked amazing whilst people looked down and admired me. When the crowds had calmed down another vase was gently popped down beside me, it looked exactly like me. I knew that this vase was a copy of me but I stayed calm and started talking to it.  My twin was kind and calm (just like me) and it was always fun to have a little chat about where all the other pieces of pottery were going.

A few weeks later someone came over to me and my twin, and called over a guy that I had never seen before, they started squeaking about something (probably me) and before I knew it, I had been picked up and covered in tiny bubbles (that popped if you squeezed one) and put into a brown box. I sat in the box wondering what was happening around me but the box was so dark and cosy I closed my eyes for the very first time.

When I woke up I was on top of a table with a strange liquid inside me, I soon saw the same person that had been looking at me, they came over and placed some colourful flowers in my vase. They felt tickly at first but I soon got used to it. When dinner came along I saw the whole family sit down around me but when I saw the little one I got nervous. I had heard of stories of these little people from my friends before they went missing but I had never actually met one before.

My good friend dog plate said that so many pieces of pottery smash because of them, and when pottery smashes it goes in the bin forever! I had always thought that tiny people didn’t exist, that only large people existed. I was going to be smashed and thrown into that monstrous bin soon I just knew it, I would never see dog plate or my twin ever again!

Dinner had finished and I was still a full vase. (Phew.)  After a few weeks later I had gotten used to the tiny person and started to not worry so much about getting crushed by the bin so I wasn’t expecting what was going to happen next. The family sat down at the dinner table and placed down plates of food on the cloth that was covering the old oak. They started to eat and talk to each other like they always did sharp pointy things in their hands, the little one stretched over to grab a red sauce and CRASH! All of a sudden someone was crying, water was everywhere and that’s the last thing I remember of that night.

When I woke up I had no idea where I was. It was dark and disgusting there and I felt like I had been broken into a thousand pieces and at that second I knew I was in the bin. I was so scared. I didn’t know what would become of me, now that I was just a broken vase. Nobody could possibly want a useless broken piece of pottery like me. No one. I hid away my emotions and tried to forget my life with dog plate, my twin, and the family that I had grown to like.

I fell asleep. Nothing on earth could wake me up. So I didn’t wake up when the bin I was in was being emptied, or when the dump truck took me away, not even me sailing off into the sea away from land woke me up. I was going into the unknown.

If I had been awake I would have seen all the wonders of the sea, I would have seen the colours of the ocean and the shooting stars at night, but I didn’t. The seals would bounce me along my way and the dolphins would nudge me across the great blue abyss but I missed all of it, my mind deep covered by a clay shell. I don’t know how long I was in the ocean. I didn’t know what my future held. All I knew was the voices in my head telling me to wake up, “Wake up,” they would say, “Wake up.”  They would get louder and louder and finally I had had enough!

I slowly opened my eyes. I slowly opened them, not knowing what I would open my eyes too. I saw a woman. She looked down at me with eyes of wonder. She slowly lent down and picked me up carefully. I felt the warmth of her hand and the touch of love.  I knew, at that second, that I was going to go to a new home.  I knew that I was wrong about these creatures. I knew someone could love a broken piece of pottery like me.

My life with this creature was a good one. I had new friends that had stories just like mine, they always were free to have a chat about out worries and when new ones came we welcomed them with open arms.

I never saw dog plate or my twin again. I never saw my first and best friends again, but in my heart I knew that they too had found good homes. I knew that I would never see them again because they would never have the same fate as me. Of course, they would have new friends, and they would never forget about me. But they had their own lives now and they would never come in contact with mine again but…

I was happy.

 

Miss Lily and Her Pottery by Catriona

Miss Lily lived in a cottage by the beach.

For fun she made pottery – plates, vases and all.

So one day she was inspired by her little flowery cottage, she embedded an imprint of her cottage and flowers in a china tea set and a vase.

So happy she was and had tea with her cat, a bowl for the cat and a cup and saucer for her resting on her lap.

They had a splendid time just her, her cat and her flowery china.

Her flowers were so delicate –

Primroses with heart shaped ends,

Roses surrounded by buzzing bees, bluebells the colour of the deep blue sea, ivy curling, twirling and whirling, Winding itself round the cottage until it covered

All of the sandy, pearly wall and her poppies – scarlet and tall, meaningful to all.

Then she picked some poppies and placed them in the vase.

And displayed it outside, then Lily retreated back inside.

One night the waves grew reckless and rough, and a storm blew up some terrible gusts.

Lily’s poor flowers were battered and blown – no more primroses with heart shaped ends,

or roses with their sweet smell, no bluebells with their deep blue sea colours, no more of

her favourite poppies all scarlet and tall and barely any ivy – all stripped from the wall,

showing the pearly white wall behind it. All the petals fell like confetti. Lily woke up with the spattering against her window. She rushed outside to retrieve her favourite vase but to her great surprise, the vase had taken a crushing demise.

It had fallen down, down, down onto the beach and

was swept far, far, far out into the ocean.

by the tide. She adored that vase and never used that tea set again for one piece will always

be missing … her beloved vase.

So now I sit with Miss old Lily in a care home showing her my beach art. She exclaims with

delight and then tears roll down her cheeks with sadness and she thanks me.  She says I have

found a piece of her treasure.  Her most precious possession.  I have found a piece of her

Beloved Vase.

 

 

At Nursery our topic is Our Community. We have been exploring the community of Glendaruel and learning all about our environment, our Neighbours and people connected to  our daily lives while out in our community. We have been exploring occupations in our community and learning about people who help us.
We decided to explore  the next village closest to Glendaruel,  which was Colintraive.

We were very excited to have a day out . Colintraive has lots to explore. We visited the Community Garden and saw lots of flowers. We explored the wooden hut, ate our snack outdoors, found lots of wildlife posters,  saw the exciting waterfalls and searched for tadpoles in the pond.
While walking in the community, we saw the shop, the hotel, the poly tunnel,  bowling green, the hall,the heritage centre, the beach and the ferry.  There was lots to explore.  We will return to spend more time in Colintraive to continue learning about Our Community.

While  covering the topic Our Community we have been learning about

SOC0-16a: By exploring my local community, I have discovered roles people play and how they can help.

SOC0-07a: I explore and discover the interesting features of my local environment to develop an awareness of the world around me.

SOC 0-08a: I explore and appreciate the wonder of nature within different environments and have played a part in caring for the environment.

Kilmodan Primary P5-7 Children’s Book Project

BLOG Part 1 by Catriona

Literacy: Learning and Planning

At Kilmodan Primary School, the P5-7 have had a wonderful opportunity to write their own picture books for children, thanks to their teachers Miss Shaw and Mr Semple.  There were many things they had to learn before actually creating their story – settings, sentence types, characters, different writing techniques and others things that I will mention throughout this.

Primary 5-7 did a lot of work on punctuation, sentence types and direct speech.  They covered how you would use it, when you should use it and when it is not needed.

Characters and settings took a bit longer but all the children came up with great ideas. One of the activities that P5-7 played to help them with creating ideas with a particular setting worked so well that some of the children went on to develop those ideas to make them their actual story.

One of the other things P5-7 did was read other popular picture books to P1-4 of Kilmodan.  P5-7 did it with partners and the audience particularly enjoyed their expressive and interactive story telling.

BLOG Part 2 by James

Storyboard: Writing and Illustrating

Next it was time to do the storyboard and put the plan into words and pictures. Everyone doing the project got to work and now knew what their story was going to be about. For example, somebody did a story about a pirate school. Another person did a story about a boy who was very clumsy and somebody else did a story about an old couple on an extraordinary trip. Those are just a few of the stories that were written – there are seven more to enjoy!

Doing the storyboard was a lot of fun.   The storyboard format meant that we had to write what would be on each page and do a rough illustration for it. It helped us to organise our writing and clarify the storyline.

When everyone had finished the storyboard, it was then time to actually type the story on a laptop. Everyone was working away at that very well, choosing a font and then using other different fonts and sizes to make their writing more interesting.  Once done with the typing, everyone was buzzing about doing the illustrations next.

BLOG Part 3 by Kathryn

Illustrating and Publishing

The final part of the Kilmodan Primary School Book Project was moving on to illustrating our books.  First of all we watched some ‘how to draw videos’ to help us see how easy it is to do simple drawings. Then our task was to start illustrating our own books.

It became clear that being consistent with your illustrations was very important.  To help, some people used a light box (this is a flat piece of plastic which lights up so that you can trace) and others used the window to trace.  Others were able to draw their own characters and scenes using their own artistic skills.  We helped each other as we came across problems.

We got some help from various people such as Morag Hood, Paul Bristow and Miss Shaw who organised this whole book project, alongside Mr Semple.

Morag Hood is a very talented author who has published lots of great books. We had a Google Meet with her and she helped us with illustrations and also to understand the process of actually creating a children’s book.  Paul Bristow also had a Google Meet with us and he covered more of the illustrating. He writes comics and he told us that it is useful to use your own environment to get inspiration from.  Their tips and advice have been very useful.

The Wind Farm Trust have kindly given us a donation to publish our books and our class are so excited to see them printed. The Wind Farm Trust have also given us a little extra money to have a book launch, which we hope will not be spoiled by COVID restrictions.

We are very thankful for all the help to get where we are now, as we await a delivery from the printing company.

Watch this space…

 

P5-7 were thrilled that one of their questions was answered live on air on BBC Authors Live.  We submitted three questions for author Gill Lewis and were fortunate to have one question answered.  We said, “Our class have just finished writing and illustrating our own Children’s Picture Books.  What do you find the most difficult aspect of writing a children’s book?”    Both Janice Forsyth and Gill Lewis were impressed that we had written our own books.  Gill Lewis told us that she finds the actual writing the most difficult part.  She said she loves coming up with ideas and planning a story but that she often finds putting it down on paper to be a bit of a task.  Some of us can relate to this!  If you want to hear Kilmodan’s moment of fame, the link is https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/authors-live-on-demand/gill-lewis

 

The children in the Nursery  have been enjoying  interacting with their favourite books . We have been combining their love of books and stories with exploring different tastes and textures using the food items from the stories. We used the stories The Hungry Caterpillar and Handa’s Surprise. Both stories  feature animals/ creatures  and  food.

The children were encouraged to try all the different foods  from each story and use props to  bring the story to life.
We  covered the  outcomes: LIT0-31a I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts and I use what I learn to invent my own, sharing these with others in imaginative ways.
HWB0-30a Together we enjoy handling, tasting, talking  about and learning about different foods.

During the activity with the story, Handa’s Surprise, the children enjoyed revisiting the story using  animals and food from the house corner. We explored  trying to balance baskets on our head, just like Handa did in the story.

 

P5-7 are enjoying reading the novel ‘Wonder’ by R. J. Palacio.  The story is about August Pullman, a ten-year-old boy who suffers from severe birth defects, as he navigates school life.  Critical essays on the text will follow soon.  For this artwork we used watercolours and ink to make our own Wonder-inspired self portraits.

The nursery children love to recreate the story “ We’re Going On A Bear Hunt” whenever we are out on walks in the community, so we decided to set up an activity in the  nursery garden to explore and extend our involvement further.

We used a variety of natural resources to try to create the  grass, the river, mud, a forest, snow and a cave.The wooden house was turned into a cave with camouflage netting and black materials inside to create the  deep, dark cave.

The boys are able to  recall the story word for word without needing to look at the book.

The boys had great fun exploring the sensory areas with their shoes on and were then very brave to explore the story in their bare feet. This activity not only focused on language and literacy, the  activity promoted imaginative play, turn taking, team work, confidence building, gross motor skills, problem solving skills, risk awareness and sensory engagement.

Luckily the Bears were very friendly and joined us  on our adventures for the rest of the day.

This week there was great excitement in the nursery when the boys discovered that pirates had visited the garden through the night.  Inside a bottle from the bottom of the ocean the boys found a letter and a map, which had been left by the pirates.

The map gave us visual clues that led us to familiar landmarks in our environment.  The pirates had left numbers at each of the landmarks and those numbers led us into the school forest.

We were so excited to finally find an ‘X’ marked on the ground with cutlasses.  The boys worked hard to dig and dig and they eventually found a treasure box buried underground.  To our surprise, the pirates had left the boys some treasure to take home.

This was part of our pirate topic this term.  We have been learning about numbers, our environment, expressive languages, drama, problem solving, teamwork and being safe in our community.