Month: February 2020

Huge thank you to the boys and girls of P4-7 for helping to make my Grandad Fred’s 100th birthday super special today by entertaining him, and other residents, of Thorneycroft in Stranraer!

This meant a great deal to him – and to me! For his 99th last year, we phoned him to sing Happy Birthday but this year, to celebrate his centenary, we decided to take the bus in to pay him a visit.

We had done some research into the year 1920 in the morning; marvelling at the fashions and music, and finding out about new inventions of the time and the reign of King George V. Things have changed quite a bit in the last century!

The children sang Happy Birthday, gave him a card from them and then regaled the room with their Scots songs Caledonia and the fun Daphne Cochrane! In addition,  Alexander. Breagh, Gregor and Phoebe recited their Scots poems. All very much enjoyed by our audience.

Grandad Fred then showed us a very special card he had received in the post this morning; from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

Happy 100th birthday Grandad Fred!

 

This morning we welcomed Mr Cameron back to support us in the development of our very own podcasts. Working in pairs or individually, we have used our fabulous imaginative writing skills to pen stories with the title ‘Enchanted Lands’. Doing this pulled together all of our VCOP techniques to make our stories sparkle, then peer evaluation helped us to edit our stories to make them even better!

Next stage was to record our stories onto the Soundtrap website, then use sound effects and music beats, rhythm and phrases to created the finished podcast piece. Everyone is loving using this technology!

Mr Cameron will be with us for one more session in a fortnight’s time.

Then our next stop will be Moat Brae in Dumfries where our podcasts will be available for all to listen to at the National Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling! Check us out – podcasters of the future!

This term, P4-7 have tried to make it their mission to go outside and enjoy Fresh Air Friday outdoor learning! They have managed this almost every week (Storm Ciara put a spanner in the works!) and they have enjoyed lots of activities. Traditional playground games, gardening, finding area and perimeter, circuits and story sessions to name just a few. Lots more fun is planned for the second half of the term with spring planting, making bird cakes, a trip to the shop to find out about money in the real-life situations, using a bus timetable and creating natural maths equations!

Pupils headed up to the village hall on Thursday afternoon to entertain the members of the Thursday Club. They recited their Scots poems and sang some Scots songs – the audience loved Leswalt’s version of ‘Ye Cannae Shove yer Grannie off a Bus,’ there was great laughter at the ‘slevery kisses’ and ‘cheeky wee gin’ verses!! They also enjoyed Daphne Cochrane and joined in with some of the actions describing her ‘reekin’ oxters’ and ‘badly heed’!!!

The Eco committee went on to explain what we have done to gain our first green flag, and our plans for hopefully achieving our next one. Finally, P4-7 took to the stage to perform 2 songs on the tin whistle that they have been learning with Feis Ros.

The Thursday Club thoroughly enjoyed our entertainment and commended the pupils and the school on their work.

Today we had the privilege of welcoming Mr Alan Cameron to work with us for an introductory session on podcasting.

The pupils of our North Rhins primaries have been given the fabulous opportunity of being invited to create their own ‘Enchanted Land’ story to produce as a podcast; with accompanying music and sound effects!

These podcasts will then be on show in Moat Brae Dumfries – a National Centre for Children’s Literature and Story-telling and the adventure garden enjoyed by J.M Barrie author of Peter Pan!

These will be shared at a very special launch this Summer – which we are hoping to attend!

Today was session 1 – with two more to follow. The pupils absorbed the information given and worked fabulously! We have started on our story-writing and are raring to go.

Watch this space…