We celebrated World Book Day by bringing in our favourite books to read and talk about with a partner. In class we voted for our favourite Fab Five books of all time and we enjoyed playing on the Winnie the Witch website doing literacy puzzles and games.

P1-4 investigated the Chinese new year traditions and celebrations – we interviewed a Chinese lady to find out what special decorations are put up and what foods are traditionally eaten at this time. We were particularly interested in the Animal Zodiac and enjoyed the story about the big race to see what order the animals came in to the finish line. This was the year of the Snake. We invited parents in to our special Chinese Open Afternoon, where we enjoyed telling the story of the Animal Zodiac, doing a Dragon Dance and tasting noodles, prawn crackers, fortune cookies and other Chinese delicacies. We had a Chinese Take Away to play in in our classroom too. Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Everyone was delighted when Hutton Primary was awarded the 3rd Green Flag in February 2013.  We are now working towards a 4th green flag.  Here are some of the activities we have been busy with:

• GRAND GREEN IDEA – with the grant from W.W.F, seeds, planters and tools were purchased for our veg growing project.  Families ordered seeds and plants and these were sent out with instructions on how to plant and care for them.  We planted our own veg in school, along with fruit trees.  We plan to sell these to community members and to obtain funds for next year’s stock.

• OUTDOOR TAP TO BE FITTED/WATER BUTT AND HOSE PURCHASED – in order to prevent plants from drying out and dying off in the Summer holiday.  Thank you to Karen and Shona for the continual watering of the plants out of school hours.

• WORMERIES SET UP – worms to be fed fruit/veg scraps in order to make compost and worm juice.  Worm Juice (fertiliser liquid) to be sold at future enterprise events.

• DUNG donated by Mr John Galt was spread over our soil before we planted out our vegetables.  Thank you very much to all involved in this operation.

• SUMMER BEDDING PLANTS have been put in flower pots to encourage wildlife.  Wildflower area created in playground too.

• WALK TO SCHOOL WEEK was well-supported with pupils meeting at the Village Hall each morning and being escorted to school by a member of staff.  This contributed to our eco work by reducing the number of cars on the road for the school run and eased parking congestion at the school gates.  Well done to all pupils for helping reduce the carbon footprint!

FUTURE PLANS INCLUDE

:

• Playground Development – what else can we do to enhance our school grounds for learning and wildlife?
• Forest Classroom – more news soon…
• Possible Travel Plan
• Litter Pick Walk
• Energy &  Water Work
• Fairtrade Work/Global Issues continued…

On 17 May 2013 two people from Farrans came to do a talk about safety on construction sites. The motto is “PLAY SAFE, STAY SAFE”.  Their mascot was called Safety Sam: he was a cone! The reason we received this talk was because there was a lot of work being done outside the school and they wanted to ensure we were safe.  We got a high visibility vest to take home and a rubber, pencil and a ruler.

Aarron (P5)

On 19 of June 2013 the whole school went to Edinburgh for the day. We got the bus at 8am and we were all excited; especially to find out what the P7 surprise was. When we arrived we met a lady called Carol who gave us a tour round the Royal Mile. First of all we went to see Greyfriars Bobby. She explained the story; a police officer called John Gray was lonely so he got a dog and called it Bobby. When John died Bobby stayed loyal and went to the church and slept on John’s grave every night. The church was called Greyfriars church and that is how Bobby got his name.
We then walked down the Royal Mile and saw lots of different things. Carol told us lots of interesting stories and she even told us a ghost story! Next, we went to the Scottish Parliament. When we arrived we had to go through a scanner and get our bags checked. A lady showed us round the building, it was amazing and had lots of funky designs. We even got to sit in the MSP chairs!
After that we had our lunch and then we found out our surprise: we were going to Dynamic Earth! When we were inside we saw a movie (on the ceiling) about aliens and whether there is life on other planets. There was a time machine and we went back in time. We saw a movie about a volcano and the floor shook and red steam came out of the lava. There was a real ice berg in one of the rooms! We also got to watch a 3D movie and things kept jumping out at us. It was a lot of fun. We got home at 5pm and we were all exhausted but it was a brilliant trip.

Molly and Sarah (P5)

On 11 June 2013 Primary 5, 6 and 7 from Hutton and Applegarth went to Carlingwark Outdoor Centre. When we got there we were given a tour of the centre so that we knew our way around. We were shown to our dorms and just as we were beginning to unpack the fire alarm sounded, luckily it was just a test! We were not there long before we got kitted up for our first activities! Some of us started with sailing while the others were kayaking and canoeing. The outfits we had to wear were VERY tight but they had to be to keep us warm and dry. Before taking part in the water sports, we were shown how to work the equipment and how to keep safe while on the water. Then we were taken onto the loch to take part in the activity. We came inside for lunch then went straight back out for more fun. After a quick but tiring day we were sent in to get showered. There was a huge room which dried the clothes. For dinner we all enjoyed home cooked meals. After dinner we played quizzes and beetle drive. We were sent to bed at about 9 but we didn’t get straight to sleep, there were still some people up at 3am!!! The next day we swapped activities. We had so much fun and we were sad to leave. I would like to thank all the staff for helping us stay safe and have fun. I would love to go back again! Everyone was so welcoming; it felt a bit like home! (Have a look at the video that the instructors took of us during the 2 days – you will find it further down the page).

Anna (P6)

Primary 4, 5, 6 and 7 went to Lochmaben Primary to take part in the cross country. A lot of schools were there, they were very good at running the race. Hutton Primary did really well; Craig came 9th, Tamara came 10th, Daniel came 11th, Lindsay came 13th, Youcef came 18th, Anna came 34th, Sarah came 41st, Molly came 42nd and I came 50th. It was a good day and all of us enjoyed the little trip.

On the 24 of June Tamara, Sarah and Youcef went to the Athletics in Moffat. At the Athletics they took part in the javelin and the push and jump.

In Term 3 the whole school got some lessons on tennis. We did this in the village hall with Collin Dumbar. It was fun, he taught us lots of tricks. I learned a lot when we played tennis.

P3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 received 3 weeks of swimming lessons at Annan Swimming pool. I really enjoyed swimming, the pool was warm and we got to play for five minutes every day. We learned how to swim using the breast stroke, front crawl and back crawl and we also had to practice doing different floats. The swimming pool at Annan offers free swimming to children on Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm, take your children along!

Aarron (P5)

Primary 6s went to Lockerbie Academy on 31 May 2013 to have a lesson on Science. We looked at what chemicals are best to remove nail polish. We were given a little sheet of glass with three blobs of nail polish. We used three different chemicals including white spirit. The chemical that worked the best was acetone. Our next experiment was to try and get dirty water clean! We used funnels, glass pots and filter paper. We got the filter paper and folded it so it was a cone shape and put the pointy end at the bottom of the funnel. We then poured some of the dirty water on to the paper and it went down the funnel and in to the pot. It was clean!
                                                                                                                                                   Tamara (P6)

David Mundell came to our school on Wednesday 19 June 2013 and presented us with £100 for our school. This was money we were given from the travel expenses for London. He was then put on the hotspot and we asked him lots of questions about his life as an MP. Daniel asked what kind of car he had and was disappointed with the answer: Vauxhall Astra! He has two older boys. He has no pets because he has to travel to London every week. He was very interesting and we were all delighted with the £100 he gave for our school.

Lindsay (P6)

There was a competition to win iPads and our p5-7 teacher spotted the competition and thought we should enter, so we did! It said in order to win you had to create a poster to tell them how the iPads would be beneficial for your school. We had to brainstorm to come up with ideas, it was a very hard! We eventually came up with the idea of making the poster look like an iPad with writing inside saying how we would use them to improve our learning. Professor Steven Hepel then came in to talk to us all in person to see how we would use them. We even made a PowerPoint to present to him about improving our learning with iPads. Aarron, Tamara and I presented it. Anna and Chloe gave him a tour around the school. We then got an email saying we had won! We were all ecstatic about them coming. We now have our brand new iPads and at the moment we use them for maths, painting and golden time. When we eventually get the internet up and running we will also be using them to help us with projects and lots more. There are 11 iPads in total, one for each pupil in P5-7 and two for the teachers.

Lindsay (P6)