Month: October 2018

Laura McClymont got the class together today to work on their organisation and leadership skills – the Playmakers’ Award.

Working in small groups, the pupils used  teamwork to plan and deliver a sporty activity to the rest of the class. The children thought about the personalities and skills within their group and how to ensure everyone was involved in the activity. Fabulous life skills to have! Laura was on hand to offer any nuggets of advice to the children too.

The children enjoyed their session and are already looking forward to their next two sessions.

The whole school received a safety talk from a member of the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service team, Mr Clark. Mr Clark gave pupils some tips to ensure they have a safe Bonfire Night on 5^th November.

He explained to pupils that fireworks travel at 150mph, so only adults over the age of 18 should be lighting them. Pupils were amazed to find out that the temperature of a sparkler can be 15 times hotter than boiling water – Mr Clark said it’s really important to wear gloves when handling them, and to have a metal bucket of water or sand ready to dispose of it afterwards. Pupils also learned which materials are safe to put on a bonfire – plastic and rubber give off toxic fumes so shouldn’t be burned, neither should glass or metal.

Mr Clark suggested attending an organised display if possible. All pupils are now armed with the knowledge to have a fun but safe Bonfire Night!

Today P4-7 were lucky enough to welcome John from Computer Xplorers. He spent a whole day with the class jam-packed with fun hands-on activities to investigate energy and renewable energy sources.

We started by looking at the transfer of energy through thermal imaging. Maisie left her hand print on the desk transferring the heat from her hand to the desk, Phoebe left her toasty footprints on the floor – we couldn’t see the handprints of footprints with our eyes but we could with the thermal imaging camera! Cool!

Throughout the day, the children worked in 2s and 3s to build Lego Educational models. John organised a competition – to design and create a model which could produce the most voltage. The small groups tested out their designs and then tried to improve on the voltage they could produce by altering their design slightly. Chloe and Euan won having produced a voltage of 14.94v!

The boys and girls also built wind or water turbines and tested these out. Then found out more about solar energy by building (and racing!) solar cell cars.

John spoke to the class about the desperate need for renewable energy sources for the future of planet Earth. The boys and girls had already done some work on fossil fuels; how they were created and the finality of their supply and so were aware of the importance of renewable energy sources.

The second challenge faced by the pupils was to build a wind or water turbine. John talked to them about wind and water power first and how this would work on a grand scale.All groups worked together so well on this. I overhead snippets of chat, “this is well cool!” and “I’m getting the hang of this” to “you want a shot doing the next bit” – so good to observe children working in this way.

In the afternoon, the children were set the task of building a solar panel car which they powered with a lamp (unfortunately weather was against us today).

So – three renewable energy sources covered in a day and awareness raised within our adults of the future and all whilst having lots of fun! Win win!

 

Today Lisa from NHS D&G Quit your Way popped in to chat to us all about the negative , and very yucky, effects of smoking on your health. The pupils were involved in lots of experiments; from Dr Finlay and Dr Joshua investigating just some of the chemical concoctions that make up a cigarette ( in actual fact there are over 4000 chemicals!), to our fresh-faced and gorgeous Charlotte and Robin being transferred (by the powers of technology) to being ‘not so fresh faced looking ‘ after many years of smoking – you wouldn’t have recognised them!

The boys and girls tried out some fitness tests too. Not too healthy if you were a smoker and the cost?! So expensive – who would want to waste their money on something which is bad for you, affect your health and appearance? Crazy!

The class also considered the dangers involved in passive smoking – second-hand smoke. NHS Scotland has a bid to be smoke-free by 2034! Let’s work together to do this!!