Author: Mrs Ferguson

The sun shone – yes really! – one morning this week and so we donned our jackets (well, it wasn’t THAT warm!) and headed outside to continue our Length, Perimeter and Area learning outside.

Working in our maths groups, we each took our set activity sheet and a clipboard and set to work. Mrs F took the handy toolkit trolley outside which was equipped with an iPad, rulers, measuring tapes, chalk, metre sticks and trundle wheels – a plethora of measuring devices!

From selecting most suitable equipment to using correct measuring unit; calculating area to working out the perimeter (think we have now cracked the difference between the two!) and converting measurements from metric to imperial measurements – we had an action-packed morning.

Here’s to many more outdoor learning sessions -even better with just a little more heat!

Take a look at the photos of us busy at work….

This week, P5-7 got the chance to explore coding using Spheros. These are small spherical ‘robots’ which can be coded to move in any direction, light up in an array of colours, talk and play music!

Ms Whorlow had introduced these cool gadgets to us at the end of term 2 and we were desperate to get our hands on them again this week and explore some more learning through coding. We enjoy using Microbits; we like investigating Scratch coding and so this was guaranteed to be great fun!

Working in pairs, armed with an iPad and our connected Sphero, we worked through the sessions. Learning to ‘drive’ was the first obstacle to overcome and we soon discovered that capping the speed and distance was a necessity as the coded Spheros zoomed off down the corridor! P1-3 were intrigued as to what we were doing, as several of them popped their heads out to have a look, and so P5 spent some time with them on Monday afternoon leading their learning. They might even have been safer drivers than us!

We soon got the hang of things and moved onwards and upwards; being able to code the Sphero to change colour, ‘draw’ shapes on the ground, ‘speak’ and play music. It has to be said that all pupils were much more adept at this than Mrs F who methodically checked each step (VERY slowly!) and showed very little originality! The pupils, on the other hand, were fabulous – demonstrating superb creativity, applying their initiative, following instructions, problem solving, working with others all whilst developing their newly learnt coding skills at the same time! Winner winner!

One pair even ‘drove’ their Sphero in to Mrs McHarg’s office and programmed it to say “Hello Mrs McHarg!” – love it!

What a great week of learning – the Spheros got a big thumbs up from all at Leswalt Primary.

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 29 Aims of Education

Hamish, Faye, Kaiden and Katie made a formidable quiz team today representing Leswalt Primary at the Annual Rotary Primary Schools’ Quiz. And, better still, they were placed 3rd receiving a certificate each and a cheque for £40 for the school!
Teamwork was key as they used their general knowledge skills to answer questions which many adults would’ve found challenging! Most importantly, the four of them were superb ambassadors for their school – mannerly, cheery and up for giving the quiz their all.

Well done to our Fab Four!

#confidentindividuals

#responsiblecitizens

UNCRC Article 29 Aims of Education and 13 Sharing Thoughts Freely

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