Author: Mrs Ferguson

This week is Sign Language week and so Leswalt P5-7, always up for a challenge, signed up for a live lesson after Faye’s mum tipped us off about ti.

What a valuable session this was. In the first instance, the entire live lesson was presented without any speaking or sound – this got a discussion going within the class as to what daily life must be like if you suffer from hearing impairment. At times, the lady leading the lesson signed but we didn’t know what she was saying – the result? Frustration – and again this sparked discussion about situations in which the hearing impaired must often find themselves.

Following the BSL teacher’s lead, we learnt how to sign hello, how are you, Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, please, thank you, lots of colours AND animals! It was an information-packed session. We also learnt to finger-spell the alphabet and each one of us managed to finger spell our name using this! What an achievement!

We really enjoyed this opportunity today. It is so important to have that awareness and be able to communicate with all.

UNCRC Article 2, 12, 13, 23 and 29.

No Discrimination, Respect for Children’s Views, Sharing Thoughts Freely, Children with Disabilities and Aims of Education.

UNCRC Article 29 AND 31 Aims of Education and Rest, Play, Culture and Arts

Today P5-7 headed to the Ryan Centre to join Kirkcolm, Sandhead, Drummore and Portpatrick Primaries to stage a performance of Vikings The Quest for the Dragon’s Treasure with the support of Scottish Opera!

What an amazing experience! For the last few weeks, we have been working on the songs and moves in class, using the fabulous online materials created by Scottish Opera, in readiness to come together this morning and pull the whole show together and present it to our audience of friends ad family this afternoon. The story told of the Quest for the Dragon’s Treasure with the villagers (Kirkcolm and Drummore pupils) and Vikings (Sandhead pupils) needing to show the sneaky sorcerors (us!) the right way to behave! To look after one another and the planet – no over-farming, ensuring animals are kept in their natural habitat and showing respect for Earth.

We LOVED being the evil sorcerors – you should have heard our spine-chilling chuckles! As a cast, we listened to the Scottish Opera members and followed their lead to sing and dance the story for all.

We even got to wear costumes which really helped us get into character!

What a fantastic experience. Huge thanks to the Scottish Opera staff, Creative Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway Council for supporting this venture for us all to enjoy!

Books are BIG news at Leswalt Primary – we LOVE to share stories together, curl up with a good book and use what we read to help us learn more about the world around us. Last Thursday was a chance to celebrate all of this 🙂

P5-7 signed up to join a World Book Day event with none other than the award-winning author Terry Deary – he of the Horrible Histories fame! This fitted in perfectly with our class project as we have been learning all about the Romans and Terry was holding a quiz about the Rotten Romans! Oh my, they truly were rotten!

Library Monitors Ben Gill and Ellie Bennewith led a lunchtime Book Club for P1-3 which was extremely popular! They used Bookflix to listen to some fabulous stories as pupils cuddled up on the blankets and cushions – staff quite liked the look of this club too! They wrote up this short report up too…

On World Book Day, we (Ellie and Ben) held a lunchtime reading club with P1-3.  We listened to and read stories like The Gingerbread Man. We brought through cosy blankets and cushions from the big class so that we could snuggle down. One of the stories had a song and a dance to go with it so we enjoyed a little dance too! It was lots of fun!

In the afternoon, P1-3 donned their jackets and, armed with a WBD scavenger sheet on a clipboard, headed out into the Spring sunshine on the hunt for some book-ish clues. P5-7 ended their afternoon with a ‘Book and a Biscuit’ session – taking the chance to enjoy some chilled out reading time whilst enjoying a tasty treat!

Hope you’ve all had a chance to use those WBD vouchers! These give a £1 off a book or can be used in exchange for any specially produced WBD £1 books.

Curl up with a good book and let your imagination grow!

Friday 8th March saw the start of British Science Week – a ten day celebration of all things Science-y!

Last night, Cara, Colin and Hamish represented Leswalt Primary at the Stranraer and District Burns Club. Such Confident Individuals who did so well!

Hamish sang ‘The Lewis Bridal Song’ and was awarded 3rd equal place in the P6/7 singing category. Colin recited ‘The Kirk Moose’ by Lavinia Derwent in the P3-5 Recitation category, and did so with great gusto! Cara performed ‘Address to a Haggis’ by Robert Burns and was also awarded 3rd equal in the P6/7 recitation category.

It was a fabulous night, showcasing lots of local young talent. Many thanks must go to Mrs Jane Sloan for her piano accompaniment of Hamish.

Well done Cara, Hamish and Colin – we are very proud of you!

#ConfidentIndividuals

UNCRC Article 29 and 31

This afternoon, we had the pleasure of welcoming Neve and Niamh to lead us on the first of a block of rugby sessions!

We started with some fun warm-up games to get us moving and the heart rates up. Great fun – though admittedly a little on the muddy side! Working in small groups/pairs, the class enjoyed an activity-fuelled hour of exercise.

Mrs F tried to pre-empt the inevitable mud-fest by looking out some carrier bags, laying down newspaper for muddy shoes and dishing out old football shorts for those who had no change of clothes. Apologies to those at home though as there are a number of rather mud-encrusted children coming your way! Needless to say, old clothes, spare trainers and socks and a carrier bag to stash those filthy clothes in are, without a doubt, the way forward.

On the plus side, just take a look at the smiles on the photos below as the pupils had such a good time 🙂

Session two – next Tuesday!

Old clothes, spare trainers and socks and a carrier bag

Mrs F left the 5 Primary 5s (Roman, Ben, Rachael, Murray and Colin) an assignment to complete last week whilst P6/7 were away on their Glasgow overnighter! Their mission – to research the Roman army and plan, design and make their own Roman replica shields, helmets and swords!

Were they successful? Did they complete their task?

They most definitely did! Just look at their blog reports below and the fabulous photos!

Well done P5 – any Roman emperor would have been proud to have you as part of their army!

Last week when the primary 6-7 were away, the p5 made some Roman shields helmets and swords. It was hard but fun! The hard bit was making the helmets. I really want to take the the stuff home and play with them and show everyone. It was quite tricky making them but we had some ladies helping. Thanks Mrs Kyle and Sheila!  We couldn’t do it ourselves .It was fun doing some research with our friends too!       

By Murray 

Last week we made Roman swords, shields and helmets. We made them out of cardboard, tape and pins. I loved making them! They are great! I love everything creative. It was a lovely treat to have when the p6/7 were away in Glasgow. Remember it was us p5s who made these amazing Roman shields, helmets and swords! We are going to teach P6/7 how to make them later this week!     

By Colin

Last week the p7 and p6 went to Glasgow, but the p5 stayed at school and made Roman shields then we made swords and helmets. We made them out of cardboard and it was AMAZING! So next time you want to make cardboard shields or helmets – just ask Leswalt p5’s.       

By Roman

Last week, when the P6 and P7s went to Glasgow, all of the P5s made some Roman shields! It was a little bit hard but not too bad that I couldn’t do it! Sheila and Mrs Kyle helped us. I liked doing the painting and designing the pattern. I think our shields are amazing!       

By Rachael

I had lots of fun last week creating my Roman shield, helmet and sword when the P6/7s were in Glasgow! Spray painting the helmet was one of my favourite bits! I am looking forward to taking them home. We will be showing the P6/7s how to make mini shields later this week.   

By Ben

UNCRC

Article 17  Access to Information

Article 29 Aims of Education

Article 31  Rest, Play, Culture, Arts

P7 pupils, Hamish and Faye, represented Leswalt Primary at the Rotary Lunch at the North West Castle today. They were excellent Responsible Citizens, able to chat politely to all and be superb ambassadors for our school.

They enjoyed a very interesting talk from Mr V. Plant about Robert Burns and enjoyed time talking with Rotary Club members.

Thank you Faye and Hamish for being fabulous school representatives – we are very proud of you!

Well done to Ben Gill and Ewan Clark who represented Leswalt Primary at the Rhins K’Nex competition held at Sandhead Primary this morning!

The boys were set the challenge of building a go-kart. They set to work by sketching a plan and using the pieces in their kit to build their design. Though they didn’t win the engineering task today, we are extremely proud of their efforts and delighted that they were our representatives for today.

Both boys were presented with a certificate for their participation.  We awarded them 2 merits each once they returned to school – for being Responsible Citizens and Percy Perseverance skills in being faced with a tricky task – and in finding success in their end product!

Well done Ewan and Ben!