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Many thanks to Lauryn Steel, Principal Technician: Structures with Dumfries and Galloway Council, for joining the P4-7 class this morning to lead a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and maths) session on bridge building. She told the pupils a little about the day-to-day aspects of her job and spoke to them about the different types of bridges that you might spot when out and about across the region.

After looking at some pictures of different bridge styles; the pupils were put into groups to work on a bridge challenge. They needed to work together as a team to discuss, design, build and test a brand new bridge!

This brand-new bridge needed to be able to hold a full water bottle! Three out of four teams managed to design a bridge to meet the design brief: one team even managed to put a number of items on their bridge! It was a super design.

Well done to all the boys and girls for their teamwork and engineering skills, to Ms Whorlow from Portpatrick to organising the visit and to Lauryn for leading this STEM event. Great fun!

 

We celebrated the end of Book Week Scotland on Friday afternoon by working in small ‘Book Buddy’ groups for a bit of paired reading. P5-7 pupils had been practising their fluency and expression when reading aloud throughout the week in preparation for today, and were prepared with some reading prompts to try and engage the younger pupils in the story and encourage discussion about the book they chose to read.

P1-4 pupils were engrossed (with some even cuddling in to their older buddy!) while they listened to  some very entertaining stories (if you haven’t read “There’s a Bear on my Chair” – look it up!!).

Afterwards, we all watched the Author’s Live event on the Scottish Book Trust website, where we were entertained by James Robertson and Catriona Lexy Campbell who brought ‘The Gruffalo in Scots’ to life.

We had a fab afternoon (and week!) enjoying and sharing books, and developing our love of reading!

To launch the start of book Week Scotland (which runs from 18^th-24^th November), P1-3 parents were invited into school this afternoon as part of the Bookbug (P1) / Read, Write, Count (P2-3) initiatives. Parents spent time exploring the contents of the bags and discussing ways in which the resources could be used to develop pupils’ literacy and numeracy at home. We also had a look at the ‘Parent Club’ website which gives further examples of activities to do at home using the resources.

An excited bunch of P1-3 pupils then joined us and were gifted with their bags. Pupils were desperate to get into their bag and see what it contained! Having sat patiently, we then headed to the classroom where pupils explored the goodies they were given – some were reading books; others were playing games of rockets & meteors or top trumps; and some were using story cubes to create imaginative silly stories!

Later in the week to continue the Book Week Scotland celebrations, P4-7 pupils will be doing some paired reading with P1-3, as suggested by the Pupil Council. We are all looking forward to getting together to enjoy some stories and share in our love of reading!

Children in Need 2019

P1-3 were given the responsibility for this year’s fundraising efforts.  The main aim was to beat the previous total of £258 whilst at the same time, have lots of fun.  After much brainstorming, the children voted on their favourite fundraising activities and set to work.

The quiz proved to be an amazing success, raising a grand total of £375 alone!  Wowsers!!  The winning family, selling an astonishing £76 worth of quizzes, were the Clark Family!  The boy’s prize for being top sellers is the chance to take charge of the school for an afternoon and become Head Teacher and Depute Head – wish us luck!  The winner of the actual quiz itself was Mr Angus Brown! This lucky winner has won a Pudsey Wristband and a set of Pudsey Ears.

We also had a successful Bring and Buy Sale.  Not only did the parents get the chance to clear out old and unwanted toys before Christmas, the girls and boys got the chance to buy some new goodies!  All remaining items will now be donated to the Cancer Research shop in town.

The girls and boys also got to come into school for the day dressed in their pyjamas, and bring their favourite teddy and a pillow too.  In the afternoon we snuggled down and enjoyed cookies (kindly donated by the McGregor family) and hot chocolate.  We were also delighted to welcome Renita Boyle to school to entertain the team with a bedtime story.

Other daftness on the day included face painting (thank you P7 girls!) and a marshmallow competition for the teachers…who could fit the most in their mouth?? Some controversy there – was it Mrs McKnight? Or Mrs Baillie? In the end, Mrs Ferguson, Mrs Baillie and Mrs McKnight all rook one for the team and skipped to the shop and back (a forfeit decided by the P1-3 class!), whilst the boys and girls stood at the school fence and cheered them on!

Amazing effort from all the girls and boys and on the day we raised an incredible £568 so far – with the final total yet to be announced! Wow!  Thank you to all the parents for supporting this too!  What a team we have at Leswalt Primary!

 

 

Today we welcomed Mr Kerr back into our class to lead our Spanish lesson. We have been working on counting to 20, days of the week, months of the year, colours and food.

Every morning in class, we get our whiteboards and have a shot at writing the date in French and Spanish – and we’re getting really good at this! We’ve noticed some similarities between the two languages too; all helpful when learning different languages.

Songs are really helpful when learning – we’ve found lots to help us learn new vocabulary! They’re fun to do too!

Today we took our Maths lesson outside! We have been doing some work on finding percentages; 10% and 50% with everyone, with some people working on some even more complicated percentage work!

Mrs Ferguson had set up a quiz with 10 questions which involved using clues in the village; doing some mental calculations and working out the % required. We worked with our Talk Partners to do this; and we all started at a different question too.

We also popped into the shop to tell Kim what we were up to. She told us how percentages are used in the shop too; for special offers and ‘money off’ deals.

Back in class, we compared answers and all agreed it had been a fun and different Maths session today!

 

Our P7s wrapped up warm and headed off to the ice-rink at the North West Castle this morning, to participate in a taster session of Curling’s Cool. They learned how to glide and sweep on the ice and participated in some fun games. At the end of the morning, all of the schools took part in a competition. Leswalt made it to the final, playing against a mixed team of Glenluce and Kirkcolm pupils – and they won!! All 4 pupils had a great morning learning to play curling. Thanks to Finlay’s mum for the photos of the curlers in action!

 

OOOOOH! If you were to pop into Leswalt Primary this afternoon, you might have got a bit of a fright! From witches to Egyptians; Batgirl to Cruella de Vil, vampires to zombie brides…. there wasn’t a Leswalt Primary pupil in sight!

This party was organised by Phoebe and Auryn the House Captains – and what a wonderful job they did of it!

The costume winners were:

P1 – Colin

P2 – Ela

P3 – Kaiden

P4 – Alexander

P5 – Breagh

P6 – Andrew

P7 – Auryn

The pupils enjoyed a game of Tramp’s Tea-party, followed by ‘Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin’. There was lots of giggling as they played Pumpkin Bumps, followed by a game of Scary Corners.

Finally, everyone enjoyed some cool disco-dancing and had the chance to ‘Dook for Apples’ if they wanted a shot – there were a few wet faces!

Joshua, Kaiden and their mum Natasha had very kindly made up Halloween goody bags for every pupil, so these were handed out as everyone was leaving.

What a wonderful afternoon! Thanks Auryn and Phoebe!

 

 

Primary 7 enjoyed their first day at Stranraer Academy in the company of all the other Primary 7 pupils from the cluster.  The day had an enjoyable focus of Music, with members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra travelling down to Stranraer to conduct a workshop with all the pupils.

Our pupils were singing, dancing, playing games, composing and learning about the orchestra and their music in a fun filled day.  After lunch they were joined by older pupils from the Academy who came along to listen to the final performance from the musicians.

All returned to Primary, more familiar with Stranraer Academy and informed and entertained by the orchestra.

Erin wrote a short recount of their day.

P7 Trip to the Academy for RSNO

On the 29th of October 2019 P7 went to the Academy for a transition visit to see the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.  The P7s got there on bus with Kirkcolm P7 and Mrs Gaw.

Firstly we sang a song called Bella Mama, and then we listened to some pieces of music and discussed what it made us think about. Then we played a game called Hip Hop. Then we had break in the canteen. After break we listened to a piece called A Soldier’s Tale. We also broke up into groups and wrote our own lyrics to Forward.  Later on we had lunch and we got a bit lost! In the afternoon the S4, 5 and 6s came in and listened as well, then we played another game of Hip Hop. Finally, before we left we went to see Rachel (Mrs Baillie’s Rachel. We really enjoyed the musical experience!

I really enjoyed the visit I would definitely go again. I am really looking forward to my next transition.

Erin Jamieson

Huge thanks to Mr Drennan of Balgracie Farm and Isobel Milroy from RHET for inviting the P5/6 pupils from Kirkcolm, Portpatrick and Leswalt to the farm for a farm tour and question session on a beautifully chilly October morning.

Mr Drennan has lived/worked at Balgracie for over 46 years. The farm  is a dairy,beef, sheep and crop farm. Teamwork ensures all the jobs get done on the farm – it’s a very busy job! He works alongside two workers to keep the farm going and sometimes workers from nearby farms help one another out too. Isobel Milroy was on-hand to help us with some of the questions and guide us around. She also tested our listening skills with a ‘Million Pound Drop’ style quiz. This really got us thinking!

We saw the calves and heard about what they are fed and when. The calves must have their mother’s special colostrum milk in their first six hours of life as this contains special antibodies to help them be healthy. We saw where the cows are milked and Mr Drennan explained how this is done and where the milk is then stored. Milking is done twice daily; at 6am and 5pm and it tends to take about two and a half hours to do this. Once they are milked, the cow’s teats are dipped in a special anti-bacterial liquid which helps to kill off bacteria.The milk is collected from the cows at body temperature, cooled to about 16 degrees as it passes through the pipes then, once in the milk tank which holds 5000 litres of milk, it is cooled to below 3.5 degrees. The milk tanker collects the milk every 2nd day. At the moment, milk is sold for about 29p a litre – it is crazy to think we pay more for water! Mr Drennan’s milk is sold to Nestle and is used to make the chocolate covering for Kit Kats!

Mr Drennan talked about the animal’s passports and how important these are; they cannot be bought/sold without this paperwork. Tagging the animal gives it a unique reference number; each farm has a number too. This keeps a paper trail of every animal.

The cows have a shed where they sleep at night. Soon they will be brought in through the day too as it is becoming colder. The cows sleep in the shed between cubicle divisions on a rubber mat and sawdust. The shed is scraped and the muck falls to a cellar below. This is then pumped every two weeks to a slurry tank and then used on the fields. No waste!

We went into the shed which houses the hay, straw, cattle crush and some cows in for their ‘dry’ period before they are due to calve. Cows are brought in for this for the two months before the calf is due to be born. The scanner is actually visiting the farm tomorrow to scan 70 cows! This job will take all morning.

It was amazing to see just how much there is to do on a farm. Some of our pupils were able to talk about their own experiences too. It’s a busy time for farmers all year round. We made sure we cleaned our hands and welly boots thoroughly and the beginning and end of the visit – and again once we were back at school.

Getting a Kit Kat from Mr Drennan was an extra bonus at the end of our visit! Thank you!