Author: Mrs Ferguson

We have had a MEGA Maths Week!

On Monday-

P7- we were learning about scale and we were building a Lego HOUSE and measured what scale it had we also made a bird with glue stick lids, calculators and rubber dinosaurs.

P6-they were doing measuring in millimetres so they measured small things like ;glue sticks, scissors and water bottles stuff like that.

P5-we were learning about width and height we went through with a metre stick in pairs of 2 and measured stuff like the door or computer cabinet then we had to get skipping ropes and made a snake in a certain way then we had to put blocks in it to decorate it.

On Tuesday-

Today we all went outside to do some negative numbers work. We used a skipping rope and our whiteboards to write our numbers then peg them in order. We worked as a group, estimated the positions of numbers on our number lines and set Mrs F a number sequence challenge to solve.

We also had some compass work to do which linked to our map work. We used the ipads and Google maps to find North.

On Wednesday –

It was Riddle Wednesday today – with a Maths twist!

Why not challenge your family to the tasks! There is a photo of them below in case you’re needing a reminder!

We also watched a STEM Ambassador video clip. Alex works for Scottish Water and explained what her job entailed and how it linked to the wonderful world of Maths!

Some number digit puzzles got us scratching our heads too! We needed to reset the numbers but could only move on place left, right, up or down at a time. It wasn’t easy!

And of course, we had the every popular, super competitive BIG MATHS to do too!

On Thursday-

Well this was a busy day as we were visiting a film-set at Dunskey (as you do!) but we did enjoy High 5 Thursday with a distinctly maths flavour and cracked on with some collaborative problem solving – two brains really are better then one!

On Friday –

It was a MUST to get outside and enjoy the Autumn sunshine again!This time we had a measure and STEM challenge. Firstly, we measured the height and arm span of each other and then had to draw a ‘mini-me’ to a measurement of 10% or to a set scale of our actual height. – we did this in the school hall. Then we then headed to the Wetlands and had a timed challenge to build a ‘mini den’ with three walls and a roof to cover our mini-me! Great fun!

Check out our photos of the great week we’ve had…

 

Not your average Thursday morning for the lucky pupils of P4-7 at Leswalt Primary – as today they got to visit a real film-set and chat to the cast and crew of upcoming movie Kingslayer!

This film is being shot at Dunskey – home of the Orr-Ewing family who very kindly invited our trio of schools to visit and absorb the film-set experience!

Malcolm and Noah wrote up this blog report once we got back to class!

On Thursday the 1^st of October P4-7 had an amazing experience visiting the cast and crew of a film called Kingslayer. Each pupil got to meet Paul Boyce the Head of Makeup and Prosthetics, Jessica who was a member of the production crew and Stuart Brennan who played King Richard and wrote and directed the film! The Head of Makeup and Prosthetics had previously worked on Captain America and spent two years on the Harry Potter set – amazing!

The pupils each got a signed part of the script and got to see a scene of the movie being filmed and they got to say 3, 2, 1 Action! It was a lot of fun seeing the props and costumes.  We also got to see the main character King Richard Lionheart. He is called King Lion Heart because he fought like a lion in war. The children asked questions like: When will the movie be out? Or like what’s the difference between a Producer and a Director? The answer is that a Producer gets all the right characters and all the right props ready for the film and then the Director tells them where to aim the camera and what to do. P1-3 will have this amazing experience too on Wednesday the 7^th of October for their own eyes. The movie will hopefully be released in Spring 2021.

We had a great morning learning lots about the film-world!

Report by Noah and Malcolm

In a bid to make the most of the late Summer and early Autumn sunshine, P5-7 have been enjoying their Fresh Air Friday sessions.

It’s a chance for us to be outside and learn together; using our playground and village surroundings as a real-life context for our activities.

From mini den-building to circuit training, storytime sessions to whole school rounders, place value maths game to chalk symmetry, village quiz walk  to number games – it’s been a fabulous way to enjoy outside learning!

Fun, fresh air and learning – what’s not to love!

And next week marks the start of Maths Week Scotland – keep your eyes peeled for more outdoor activities featuring on this blog!

Well done to this bunch of super workers! Usually we would have an end of term assembly to celebrate success, but unfortunately Lockdown meant this couldn’t happen. Still, we wanted to give a big ‘high five’ to these fabulous readers and to those who achieved their Gold Star award too.

This happy gang of readers were STAR readers within their year group. What brilliant bookworms we have! Keep up the fantastic work.

P2 – Ela and Hamish

P3 – Faye

P4 – Struan

P5 – Aidan (also a Word Millionaire!)

P6 – Luke and Gregor

P7 – Finlay (another Word Millionaire and not in the photo above as he’s now in S1)

Ela, Hamish, Faye, Struan, Aidan and Finlay were also our winners in our inter-schools challenge. We had a super exciting trio partnership competition to aim to be the STAR reader across each stage in all 3 schools and, amazingly, 5 out of 6 of those pupils were from Leswalt Primary! Whoop whoop!

Star Awards are home/school activities which pupils work on throughout the year. There are Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates to achieve and two of Leswalt Primary’s pupils worked super hard to reach Gold last session.

Well done to the Gaw team of Phoebe and Noah – fantastic work! Phoebe has headed on to pastures new (S1 at Academy!) but Noah is pictured below.

 

We can’t tell you how good it was today to see all the smiling faces of the pupils of Leswalt Primary! We had the most wonderful day – check out our photos below to see for yourselves….

Mark and Rachael have been very busy whilst school has been closed! Mrs McKnight had set her task a weekly maths topic based around money.  Team Drummond decided the very best way to learn lots about money was by using it in a real-life situation, so they decided to set up a little shop next to the road at their farm.  They started selling crisps and rolls to passers-by. I am sure their winning smiles drew would-be customers in! They then decided to make cakes and biscuits to add to their stock. Their very kind Grandpa offered to match the money they made – and they contacted Mrs McKnight last week to say they had a fantastic £300 to donate to the school!

What a lovely thing to do and such super teamwork! A huge thank you from Leswalt Primary staff and pupils.

‘Get arty and create a rainbow of hope’  was the challenge set down to the pupils of Leswalt Primary by Mrs Copeland our Art Specialist. Well, neither she, or any of us, were quite prepared for the multitude of colourful rainbow designs which came flooding in. They certainly raise a smile to all who spot them in windows; at road-ends, pony jumps or even on a pony’s rear! Pens, paint techniques, chalk, fruit, vegetables, Hot Wheels cars, science experiments, salt dough, pony rosettes –  there really is no limit to the creativity of our pupils. Our tech-savvy pupils then emailed and uploaded their photos and pictures in to be added to our Rainbow blog to be enjoyed by all.

We absolutely love them! Most of all, we love the wee community spirit of Leswalt Primary.

Thank you! You have all made us very proud.

Sun shining? Tick! Smiling, happy pupils? Tick! All the ingredients for fabulous fun outside for Fresh Air Friday!

We looked out the playground games and enjoyed one another’s company. From skipping games to dominoes, hula hoops to draughts, balance boards to Connect 4 – there were plenty of laughs to be had.

I hope these photos make you smile. Hopefully we’ll all be back together soon to plan some more fun times.

Here is a handy ‘how to’ guide on how to access your child’s Glow account at home.  This gives access to email and shared resources could be uploaded to Microsoft Teams here too. Your child’s Glow login will be in their homework diaries.  They have all been checked as working today.

Some pupils tried sending emails to one another today, after being reminded about responsible internet use. They seemed to really enjoy doing this!