Month: January 2018

 

Today we were lucky enough to enjoy a Coding session using Scratch led by Karen Creighton our local RAiSE teacher.

The pupils enthusiastically logged on to the website (Mrs F had set up their logins prior to the session) and followed a set of instructions to code their sprite to do different actions! Strangely enough, the pupils seemed much more au fait with this than their teacher! Coding has become big news in technology developments and it was fabulous and that our pupils got the chanc to explore this with guidance. This is something which the class can access from home and so add to their projects. Scratch is used worldwide by schools to introduce coding to children (and beginner adults!)

The class had a great morning – thanks to Miss Creighton for her expert input!

 

 

 

 

Final event, to culminate our January focus on Scots verse and song, was this afternoon’s Showcase Assembly!

Friday

Friday brought us towards the closure of our Scots festivities with the Showcase Assembly in the afternoon. Pupils, parents and staff gathered for an afternoon packed full of winning recitations and sing-along Scots class songs.

Every class stage had been judged on their handwriting, artwork and poetry recitation on Wednesday by Mr McCracken, and those winners were presented with their certificates at this afternoon’s Showcase Assembly. The audience were entertained with very impressive poetry recitations and both classes sang their wee hearts out with their class songs; The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede and The Proclaimers’ hit ‘I’m on my Way…’

Everyone agreed it was a lovely way to spend a Friday afternoon. Well done to all the boys and girls!

 

Day two of our Scots Festivities!

Thursday

Thursday, being Rabbie’s birthday, was booked as our day for the annual Burns Lunch. We were lucky enough to have Mr Gaw as our piper and Mr Neville Wright who came along to deliver the Immortal Memory about ‘Rabbie the Rockstar!’. The P1-4 regaled their audience with ‘The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede’ and P5-7 gave a rousing rendition of The Proclaimers song ‘I’m on my way’.  That, alongside our talented recitation winners (thank you to Jenna, Phoebe, Jack, Malcolm, Alexander and Hamish!); those entertaining class songs, Primary 7 pupils with their prepared Burns Lunch speeches and a delicious feast of haggis, neeps and tatties (washed down by that Scottish stalwart of Irn Bru), meant it was an afternoon of fun, friendship and food!

Afterwards the pupils headed outside for a break. Mr Brawls particularly liked the young man in his kilt who was enjoying his game of footie! See below for the snaps.

Check out the blog tomorrow for the final event in our Scots Celebrations – The Scots Showcase Assembly!

 

Friday

Friday brought us towards the closure of our Scots festivities with the Showcase Assembly in the afternoon. Pupils, parents and staff gathered for an afternoon packed full of winning recitations and sing-along Scots class songs.

Rabbie would have been delighted! Leswalt Primary pupils, staff, parents and guests have been treated to a Scots-fest celebration over the last few days.

Pupils have been working extremely hard throughout the course of this month on a trio of homework tasks; handwriting, artwork and poetry recitation of their set poem. And what a power of work the children put in – just amazing!

Wednesday

Wednesday saw the dawning of judgement day. Mr McCracken was invited in for the unenviable task of judging each class stage – a he had quite a job! The high standards of creativity within artwork, beautifully presented handwriting and the expression and gusto with which the poems were recited meant that Mr McCracken found he had very tricky decisions to make. But make them he did – and the very worthy winners within each category are listed below!  Well done to ALL pupils for their effort – we are all very proud of you!

P1 – ‘Ode tae a spider’ – Recitation winners : 1. Hamish McGregor; 2. Cara Jamieson, Carys McHallum &

Faye Adams; 3. Brandon Millar:

Illustration winner – Hamish McGregor : Handwriting winner – Faye Adams

P2 – ‘Social dancin’ – Recitation winners : 1.Alexander Clark; 2.Noah Gaw; 3. Struan Scott :

Illustration winner –Fraser Reid : Handwriting winner – Noah Gaw

P3 – ‘Jock and Jean’ – Recitation winners : 1.Malcolm McGregor; 2.Breagh Kirkpatrick; 3.Aidan Adams, Murray Williams & Maisie Sloan:

 Illustration winner –Maisie Sloan: Handwriting winner – Malcolm McGregor

P4 – ‘Last nicht’ – Recitation winners : 1. Robin McLean; 2. Luke McHallum, Gregor Reid, Chloe Kennedy &

Jack Cloy; 3. Andrew Brown :

Illustration winner – Robin McLean : Handwriting winner – Chloe Kennedy

P5 – ‘Nae accontin for folk’ – Recitation winners : 1. Phoebe Gaw; 2. Auryn Kirkpatrick; 3. Finlay Scott &

Erin Jamieson :

Illustration winner – Auryn Kirkpatrick : Handwriting winner – Phoebe Gaw

P6 – ‘King o the midden’ – Recitation winners : 1.Jenna Calderwood; 2. Eva Ferguson; 3. Boyd Sloan & Charlotte Gaw:

 Illustration winner –Boyd Sloan: Handwriting winner – Charlotte Gaw

P7 – ‘Address to the haggis / Tae a moose’ – Recitation winners : 1.Kayleigh Williams; 2.Megan McIntyre; 3. Alistair Brown & Ethan Smith :

Illustration winner – Alistair Brown : Handwriting winner – Megan McIntyre.

Thursday brings the Burns Lunch… yum yum!

 

P1-4 got their inventing hats on this week to design and create a kite as part of a Technology challenge linked to their Weather topic. They had a range of materials to choose from and were encouraged to think about the best shape to make their kite too. Enthusiastically, the pupils got busy in the morning, working individually, to plan and make their creation. The P1 pupils buddied up with an older classmate to make theirs. Then, in the afternoon the whole class headed outside clutching their kites to test them out. The challenge wasn’t particularly to see whose kite flew furthest, but to reflect on the materials used and their properties; why did some fly further than others? why did the shape make a difference?

The results were fascinating! It’s fair to say that some pupils may have more hope as a kite inventor in the future than others (!), but everyone worked really hard and all learnt lots about their use of materials and how to reflect and improve on their initial plans from this task. What the material is made of, rather than the colour, will have more impact on how successful the end result is! Aidan and Robin really thought about the task and reflected maturely on the outcome. Well done!

Check out some of our photos below!

 

Kayleigh and Finlay’s names were selected from the hat to represent the P7s of Leswalt Primary at the annual Rotary Lunch in the North West Castle hotel today. They met Greg Drummond, a curler who won a silver medal at the Winter Olympics! They really enjoyed listening to him. Mrs Baillie was so proud that Kayleigh and Finlay were such a delight to take along to the meal. Their behaviour represented the school perfectly.

 

Our report on our trip to the North West Castle.

Yesterday me (Kayleigh) and me (Finlay) went to the North West Castle to represent the school for The Rotary lunch. We were delighted to be going – it was really nice and the food tasted lush! We heard from an Olympic curler Greg Drummond about his experience at the Winter Olympics 2012. We got a picture taken with him and his silver medal which was surprisingly heavy and thick but really cool. We really enjoyed our trip to the Rotary lunch and we are very grateful that we could get the opportunity to go!!