Leswalt Primary School

Today P4-7 were lucky enough to welcome John from Computer Xplorers. He spent a whole day with the class jam-packed with fun hands-on activities to investigate energy and renewable energy sources.

We started by looking at the transfer of energy through thermal imaging. Maisie left her hand print on the desk transferring the heat from her hand to the desk, Phoebe left her toasty footprints on the floor – we couldn’t see the handprints of footprints with our eyes but we could with the thermal imaging camera! Cool!

Throughout the day, the children worked in 2s and 3s to build Lego Educational models. John organised a competition – to design and create a model which could produce the most voltage. The small groups tested out their designs and then tried to improve on the voltage they could produce by altering their design slightly. Chloe and Euan won having produced a voltage of 14.94v!

The boys and girls also built wind or water turbines and tested these out. Then found out more about solar energy by building (and racing!) solar cell cars.

John spoke to the class about the desperate need for renewable energy sources for the future of planet Earth. The boys and girls had already done some work on fossil fuels; how they were created and the finality of their supply and so were aware of the importance of renewable energy sources.

The second challenge faced by the pupils was to build a wind or water turbine. John talked to them about wind and water power first and how this would work on a grand scale.All groups worked together so well on this. I overhead snippets of chat, “this is well cool!” and “I’m getting the hang of this” to “you want a shot doing the next bit” – so good to observe children working in this way.

In the afternoon, the children were set the task of building a solar panel car which they powered with a lamp (unfortunately weather was against us today).

So – three renewable energy sources covered in a day and awareness raised within our adults of the future and all whilst having lots of fun! Win win!

 

Today Lisa from NHS D&G Quit your Way popped in to chat to us all about the negative , and very yucky, effects of smoking on your health. The pupils were involved in lots of experiments; from Dr Finlay and Dr Joshua investigating just some of the chemical concoctions that make up a cigarette ( in actual fact there are over 4000 chemicals!), to our fresh-faced and gorgeous Charlotte and Robin being transferred (by the powers of technology) to being ‘not so fresh faced looking ‘ after many years of smoking – you wouldn’t have recognised them!

The boys and girls tried out some fitness tests too. Not too healthy if you were a smoker and the cost?! So expensive – who would want to waste their money on something which is bad for you, affect your health and appearance? Crazy!

The class also considered the dangers involved in passive smoking – second-hand smoke. NHS Scotland has a bid to be smoke-free by 2034! Let’s work together to do this!!

P4-7 were lucky enough to meet Prof Lockhart from the University of the West of Scotland yesterday and hear all about COPD (and its links to smoking) in our area. This presentation is designed to teach primary pupils about the dangers associated with smoking and hopefully, completely put them off trying it out in the future!

The children learnt some shocking facts and got to work around 4 activity stations; the peak flow meter, identifying the healthy model lung, COPD keywords word search and re-creating a model lung using a bottle and balloons. Time was a little against us, but I know all would agree it was a fun afternoon tackling a very serious subject. The pupils will continue to do some work on the ‘No Smoking’ message this week.

 

On Monday the 24^th of September P4-7 went on a bus with Kirkcolm to Wigtown Book Festival. We went to see an Author called Gareth P.Jones who sang us songs about Death or Ice-cream and The twins who kept on trying to kill each other! He also talked about his new book-The Daily Joker. The Daily Joker has a joke for every single day of the entire year! He also had some of his other books on sale like Class of the Robot, Beards from Outer Space and the Ninja Meerkat series. Everyone laughed very much at his jokes and songs – and we’re more than sure to say that everyone enjoyed their trip to Wigtown Book Festival!

 

Reporters – Millie and Eva

 

 

Last week primary 4/7 had Miss Creighton in to show them how to use the green screen.

Miss Creighton taught us how to use Serif Movie Plus a computer program and the green screen kit the school had received. We learnt how to build up the green screen then used Serif Movie Plus to do our slide show. The slide show was like magic because you were at the school but on the computer it looked as if you in Scotland somewhere else! We took each other’s photos, uploaded them to the computer and imported them into the program. Miss Creighton is a Stem advisor. A big thank you to Miss Creighton for coming in to show us how to use this cool piece of equipment!

Reporter – Kirstie P7

As part of Maths Week Scotland, the Clark, Millar, McHallum, Adam, Drummond and Agnew families created these amazing collages! Look at the work that went into these. From farming matters to baking, maths around the world to maths and our toys and in our homes – the boys and girls (and their helpful families) had thought of so many examples of maths being everywhere around us!

#effective contributors    #successful learners    #maths is indeed everywhere!

Today kicked off our ‘Maths Week Scotland’ fun – Leswalt style! The boys and girls had a get-together this morning and chatted about the fact that Maths really is Everywhere – from Mrs F’s morning routine of the buzzing alarm clock to how many spoons of coffee and sugar she needed, to the shapes, time and numbers they could spot all around them in school.

Maths in Art was our first theme; with the infants looking at the shapes and patterns of the artist Paul Klee and P4-7 investigating parabolic curves and hearing about the free-hand line work of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian.

Maths in Computing had the P1-3 pupils using online sites Sum Dog and Education City (use those Sum dog log-ins at home as part of the national competition too!) The P4-7 class were busy coding using Scratch . Their challenge was to try and write a program to spell the word LESWALT. They used the sheets with the instructions as a starter but we’re hoping to try and code our own instructions as a next step.

Maths Outside had P4-7 heading off to tackle Mrs Ferguson’s Maths Challenge. Working in pairs the pupils needed to identify lots of examples of shapes, angles, measuring and number tasks. It was good fun!

Family members were invited in for some baking fun! Yum yum – using our counting and weighing skills we enjoyed making some delicious tray bakes with our classmates and family. P1-3 made ‘Fifteens’ and P4-7 made Rocky Road!

Don’t forget our optional Maths Homework Challenge of creating a collage on the theme ‘Maths is Everywhere’.

. Keep your eye on our blog to find out what we’ve been up to – photos of P1-3 have been added too!

 

 

What a wonderful musical experience P4-7 enjoyed today with a visit from Sean and Paul from Feis Rois. They will be joining us every Tuesday for most of term 1 and 2. The pupils loved listening to them playing Scottish music on their guitar and whistle/flute. Lots of foot-tapping! We then joined in singing a Gaelic name song together and a Matt McGinn song ‘Coorie Doon’. We talked about the meanings of the Scots words and learnt the song melody as Paul accompanied us on his guitar. What great fun – it certainly put a smile on all of our faces! Happy Tuesday – roll on next week!

The Community Safety Team popped into Leswalt on Thursday afternoon as part of our ongoing Eco Schools work, to discuss with the children the importance of putting our litter in the bin and keeping Leswalt lovely looking! Andrew explained to pupils about the different types of litter that we can find outside and why it is dangerous to wildlife.

At this point, the sun was shining so we headed outside to conduct a litter survey of our playground. We then split into 2 groups, with half carrying out a litter pick of the playground and the other half looking at the Council’s street cleaner. Despite having to shelter from the rain half way through, we had an enjoyable afternoon outside!

The North Rhins Partnership schools came together at Kirkcolm on Tuesday for a day of fun in the sun – and what a glorious day it was! After the boys and girls of Leswalt and Portpatrick arrived, Leswalt showcased their singing in preparation for the end of term ceremony.

After break time, we got our sun cream and hats on and headed down to the beach, where we all did our bit for the environment by participating in the Great Plastic Pick-up for Scotland. Pupils collected lots of plastic, string and metal from the beach to help keep it clean. This will help in all 3 schools’ bid to achieve their Eco-Schools Green flag. Kerry Monteith from Dumfries & Galloway Council kindly brought along litter pickers and organised for the bags of rubbish to be uplifted. Whilst at the beach, some pupils got creative and made some beach art using seaweed and stones, such as castles, mermaids and fish.

We then made our way back to Kirkcolm Primary for a picnic lunch outside in the sun to re-fuel in preparation for the Partnership sports afternoon to come.

At 12.30pm we started our Inter-Schools sports, with lots of parents and families from the 3 schools cheering everyone along. We had a variety of races including sprint, egg and spoon, sack, skipping, distance and relay. Throughout the afternoon, pupils enjoyed water and a selection of fruit which was kindly provided by Lidl, who sponsored our afternoon. In the middle of our races, we stopped to catch our breath and say goodbye to our janitor at Kirkcolm, Mr Dougie Brawls, who was retiring from his post. Mr Brawls has worked at Kirkcolm Primary for many years and was loved by all in the school community for his cheery good nature. He was presented with gifts from staff, pupils and the Parent Council to show our appreciation for all his hard-work over the years.

To finish off our fun-filled afternoon, we had a beach ball race between the 3 schools where pupils had to pass the ball over their head to the next person using their feet! After some very close competition throughout the afternoon, Kirkcolm Primary was victorious with a total of 283 points. All the boys and girls had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to mix with the pupils from the other schools.