Author: Kaylan

On Wednesday the 2nd of May, primary 5-7 went to Galloway Activity Centre at Lock Ken. Everyone was really excited and couldn’t wait to get there. When we arrived we hauled our luggage to our rooms and had a look around our rooms. Paul slept in the room with Hayden, Gavin and Euan. Ebony and Kaylan slept in a room with Georgia, Merissa and Mrs Queen.

Laser quest was the first activity we did. It was awesome!!! We had really good teams and it was awesome!

After Laser tag we did the slip and slide and we were introduced to wet suits. They were a nightmare to get on! Here is what some people thought of wetsuits:

Paul- When they are soaking wet they are so hard to get on but when they are dry they are easy to get on. I don’t think they keep you warm at all!

Ebony- They are really hard to get into and when they are dry they are quite easy to get on and the waterproof jumper/coats were easy to get on but hard to take of.

Kaylan- They are really hard to get on! They are really easy to get of though. On the first day they kept you warm but on the second day they didn’t.

Georgia- They were horrible and sticky.

Kye-They are tight and annoying to put on.

Dylan-They were ok to get on.

Greg-They were really horrible.

Dakota- They were so hard to get on and I didn’t like them.

Merissa- they were wet and hard to get on.

Miss Stapleton-I didn’t really mind them.

The slip and slide was very very fun! One side was faster and the other was slower. There was a lot of rocks under the slide and they hurt sometimes. But otherwise it was really fun! The next day we did water sports in the morning. Paul was with Euan, Kaylan was with Georgia and Ebony was with Miss Stapleton. You needed to put on a wetsuit to go paddle boarding and then you waded into the loch and got on the board. After paddling sitting down for a while we were allowed to try standing up. It was not that hard but it was a little hard. Then we went on the giant paddle board with Liam (our instructor) and he was singing pirates of the Caribbean. Then Sonny fell in and everyone started jumping in. Then it was sailing and Paul was with Ryan and Sonny, Kaylan was with Euan and Georgia and Ebony was with Mrs Queen and Lewis. Kaylans boat kept nearly tipping! We also did the climbing wall and archery. Paul, Sonny and Hayden all made it to the top of the climbing wall and did the zip line down.  others abseiled. Archery was really good to. On the 3rd day we did the swing again. It was 9 metres high and you have to pull the rope to swing down at the top. The only way we can describe it is being like on a rollercoaster and when you drooped you left all your organs at the top of the swing. Kaylan said it was her favourite activity and she said it was awesome. The bubble football turned into bubble war and people were rolling everywhere in their ball. We got filthy. We also did laser tag again and it was just as fun as the first time.

By Paul, Ebony and Kaylan

 

 

At long last the Holywood Reading Hub is now open!!! Everyone helped to put some books away, especially the seniors. We spend weeks putting away chapter books on shelf’s in alphabetical order by the authors last name and organising them. Miss Dale also ordered loads of new facts books in for the school to put in it. We got ones about weather, animals, poetry, art and drawing, the sea, food and nutrition, climate change and loads more cool ones! Inside the reading hub there are huge bean bag chairs and carpets and rugs and hundreds of shelf’s and drawers full to bursting level with books. It is open for break time and lunch time for reading books.

By Kaylan

Today all of the p6’s went to the Curling competition at the Dumfries ice bole. We left at 9:30 and arrived at about 9:45- 10:00. We played against a lot of different schools like Brownhall and Noblehill primary. Mrs Queen split us into 2 groups. Group one was Georgia, Ebony, Lewis and Sonny and my group was Greg, Paul, Euan and me. We won 1 match and the winners got chocolate Easter eggs. The school in 1st place got an Easter egg and a medal, but there wasn’t enough eggs, so the girl at the end got the trophy instead. I think it was really exciting and fun. In curling, you have to sweep the ice to make the curling stone go further and you had to try and get it into the target.

By Kaylan

Today we went to the Cross Country Competition at The King George Arena with p4-7. We all got on the mini buses and when we got there we went to the places we where supposed to sit. Then we all got our numbers and we sat waiting for the other schools to arrive. Euan’s number was 249, Kaylan’s number was 181 and Georgia’s number was 180.

When all of the schools had arrived Mrs Byers announced the order of the races and then called up the p4-5 from the middle schools. Miss Dale was organising the p4-5 boys for the little school by taking them to the bathroom, but then Mrs Byers told Miss Dale that we were now ranked as a middle school because we had more than 50 people. Miss Dale had to tell the boys they didn’t have time to go because they were having to race so they ran to the starting line. After a while it was the p6-7 middle school race so everyone ran to line up. The race was really hard and we found it exhausting. After the race our legs felt like lead and everything hurt and we felt like giving up and we couldn’t breath and we were thirsty and tired and wanted to go back to bed, but we made it… except our insides were left behind in the middle of the field. So was our breath. So was our heart. After words we heard the scores, at fruit and had a strawberry lace. Georgia came 9th, Greg came 21st, Paul came 23rd, Ebony came 14th, Lewis came 24th, Euan came 22nd  and Kaylan came 11th. A lot of people got medals. Isla, Georgia and Kaylan got a silver medal in the team. Charlie, Ethan and Jack got a bronze and Sonny, Hayden and Gavin got a bronze.

By Euan and Kaylan

Today we watched Newsround and there are a lot of good stories.

The first story was about Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway Show where the show is cancelled this weekend because Ant is not coming. Ant won’t be on the show because he was in a car accident in London and the police have a suspicion that he was drink driving. A lot of people are disappointed because they watch the show every week.

Then there was a really cute Polar Bear cub that has emerged from its den for the first time. It was born in a wildlife park in the Highlands (The top of Scotland) and it is the first cub in the UK for 25 years!!! I would love to see the cub it looks really cute!

By Kaylan

We are currently doing an assessment on an artist. We are having an art gallery and we have to make lots of art and make a presentation about an artist of out choice. We have made mobiles and we have made a display with our own Keith Haring people. We have selected our artists and now we are working on the presentation and the research.

This is what artists people chose:

Me-I chose Jackson Pollock because he has a very different style of art than everyone else.

Ethan-I chose Cope2 because I like graffiti artists and I like his type of style.

Ebony-I chose George Birrel because he does good drawings

Greg-I chose Seen because I really like his art

By Kaylan

 

We have been lucky enough to get loads of snow for the first time in years!! Snow may be cold but it is fun and… nearly everyone loves it! Everyone has been making snowmen and throwing snowballs at each other because that is what you do with snow. You don’t sit and stare out the window screaming at it to make it go away. Some people may do that but kids don’t do that they actually play in it and have fun. Most people have been skiving off of school because they want to stay at home because it is to cold. Some people may have been of sick but most decided to skive. Snow is fun so don’t scream, shout or yell at it, go and have fun with it!!!

p4-p7 have started cross country training on a Tuesday! We all hope it is not as bad as last year’s where we were drenched and freezing (thanks a lot weather!) We are practising by running round the playground and doing small running activities. We don’t know if Miss Dale will do more with us on a Monday or not. Some people like cross country but some don’t so here are some peoples opinions on it:

Georgia: It’s tiring.

Ebony: It’s mostly cold outside when we do it, so I don’t like it that much.

Greg: I think it’s good.

Hayden: I love it!

Me: I think it’s fun when it’s not cold, but if it’s cold and wet, I don’t like it as much.

We will all need to train because it is not long until the contest.

In maths we are working on budgets. There is a game we are trying to make work on the school computers but it won’t. It is called the budget game and basically you are just trying to keep your budget for 3 months. Its a really fun game because I have played it on my laptop. It is quite hard when you play, but when you get used to it it is really easy and fun. We are roping our fractions and percentages into it so that it makes it a bit harder.

By Kaylan

This morning we talked about homework and made a PMI chart (plus, minus, interesting) about it. We found that positives and negatives were about equal but there was some interesting responses from some people. Lots of people had different opinions about homework.

Me: I think homework is good. I would like it if the teachers were more strict about it.

Greg: I would like it if the teachers were more strict about not doing your homework.

Jack: Its boring and I think that you are just wasting your time by doing it.

Some people talked about how they felt when they had finished their homework and when they had to do it. Some people with older siblings that are in high school said that they got a lot more homework there and that the teachers were very strict when you didn’t do it. They said their older brothers/sisters did the homework so they didn’t get a detention or get put in the isolation room. They also said they did it so that they would get a good grade.

Most of the positives were about moving your learning forward and about parents seeing what you are able to do, whereas the minuses were about things like not spending time with family, after school clubs and other important things and having to do more work after almost six hours at school!

By Kaylan

On the 26th of January Astronomer Royal Professor John Brown came to school! He told us a lot of different facts about the solar system and about space and the stars.

My favourite parts were when he did magic. His magic was amazing. He had a magic colouring book and there was nothing in it, then he tapped it and there was pictures in it and then he closed it again blew on it and it was full of colour!!! Then at the end of the trick he blew on it and all the pictures and all the colours were gone!!! I also liked it when he showed us the Selfie picture on Mars with the robot that could take pictures and videos. I thought that it was quite interesting. At the end people got his autograph and we got a school photo with him. I asked him a question. It was : What is the most amazing thing you have seen in space? He said the northern lights.