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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…

 

Our celebration of all things Scots this week culminated with family and friends joining us for our Scots Showcase Assembly. The handwriting, artwork and recitation winners received their certificates, the winners recited their poems and both classes entertained with Scots songs; P1-3 had some great adaptations to ‘Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff a Bus!’ and P4-7 sang Caledonia and ‘Daphne Cochrane’ – a great action song!

The winners were:

P1 – ‘Ode tae a spider’ – Recitation winners : 1. Colin McGregor; 2. Roman Haver; 3. Rachael Drummond:

Illustration winner – Ruby McMillan : Handwriting winner – Roman Haver

P2 – ‘Twa legged mice’ – Recitation winners : 1.Ela Chang; 2. Ewan Clark; 3. Ellie Bennewith :

Illustration winner –Ewan Clark : Handwriting winner – Ela Chang

P3 – ‘Sair finger’ – Recitation winners : 1.Hamish McGregor; 2.Cara Jamieson; 3.Carys McHallum:

Illustration winner –Mark Drummond : Handwriting winner – Faye Adams

P4 – ‘The Bogle’ – Recitation winners : 1. Alexander Clark; 2. Struan Scott; 3. Fraser Reid :

Illustration winner – Fraser Reid : Handwriting winner – Noah Gaw

P5 – ‘Wee Kirk moose’ – Recitation winners : 1. Breagh Kirkpatrick; 2. Aidan Adams; 3. Malcolm McGregor & Murray Williams:

Illustration winner – Murray Williams : Handwriting winner – Malcolm McGregor

P6 – ‘Wullie wastle’ – Recitation winners : 1.Gregor Reid; 2. Jack Cloy; 3. Joshua Obonyo:

Illustration winner –Luke McHallum : Handwriting winner – Chloe Kennedy

P7 – ‘Address to the haggis’ – Recitation winners : 1.Phoebe Gaw; 2.Auryn Kirkpatrick; 3. Erin Jamieson & Finlay Scott : Illustration winner – Finlay Scott : Handwriting winner – Erin Jamieson.

We’ve all had a richt guid time! And we hope you’ve enjoyed it too!

We were delighted to welcome Kathryn from History Alive to join us for some fun at Leswalt Primary this morning!

The children are enjoying lots of activities for Scottish Week. This kicked off with their Scottish poetry recitation, handwriting and artwork judging on Friday, followed by a very successful Burns Lunch – complete with Mr Gaw piping and Mr McClure offering the Immortal Memory. This week has included art and design inspired by the Kelpies and the McCoo family, traditional music-making with Feis Rois and the tin whistle, writing in Scots, a whistle-stop tour of Scottish geography and, the highlight, today’s visit from Kathryn to fill us in on Scottish history from Mary Queen of Scots to the Jacobite Rebellion and everything in between! The grand finale will be our Scots Showcase Assembly this Friday – hope to see you there!

It’s been great fun and a tremendous way for the children to learn more about Scottish traditions, culture and history. Just take a look at our photos below…

What a busy day we’ve had with Scots handwriting, artwork and poetry judging in the morning and a delicious feast of haggis, neeps and tatties for lunch!

Mrs Gillian Murdoch had the unenviable task of selecting winners for every primary in the handwriting, artwork and recitation categories. A very tough call as all pupils were fantastic! The winners will be celebrated in next week’s showcase afternoon which is open to family and friends!

And then it was time for our Burns Lunch! Many thanks to Jodie and Carole in the kitchen, Mr Gaw for piping, Mr McClure for the Immortal Memory and the P7 pupils for their organisation and participation in Leswalt Primary’s Annual Burns Lunch.

We all had a richt guid time!

Two of our Primary 7 pupils were selected to represent the school at the annual Rotary Lunch. Phoebe and Erin, accompanied by Mrs Gaw, headed to the North West Castle for a delicious lunch. They were entertained by speaker Mrs Isobel Milroy from RHET, who also held a group quiz for the pupils – the girls (along with Finlay from Portpatrick) competed against approximately 12 teams and won!! They returned to Leswalt triumphant after a great day out.

Every Thursday morning we are going to be enjoying some singing, movement, rhythm and tin whistle fun with Dickie and Wendy from Feis Rois. Today we learnt how to count in 4 beats in Gaelic, create rhythms using syllables and our bodies as percussion, enjoy an Irish action song called ‘ Rattlin Bog’, explore non-pitched percussion from all over the world as an accompaniment to Dickie playing and singing ‘Stand By Me’ and ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ and finally starting our tin whistle playing with ‘Hot Cross Buns’ – phew! A very busy and productive morning!

We had a fabulous session – roll on next week!