Primary 1 have been busy out and about in the village on a mission – as 2d shape hunters!
Armed with clipboards and their special “shape hunter” hats, the young team headed out and about to find a trail of 2d shapes which Mrs Smith had set out for them in the village and Wetlands. Once all the trail was recovered the young Shape hunters set about their second mission of locating 2d shapes in the environment. Look at our photographs to see what they found.
The younger class had another afternoon of outdoor learning at Aldouran Wetland gardens.
They were busy learning about life cycles and had fun as they learned in the natural environment.
Primary 1-4 are still busy developing the school grounds by painting, tidying and planting. Have a look at our photos to see what they got up to this week.
What a gorgeous day to head to the beach! Ok we were there for some serious beach cleaning but we had so much fun doing this in the sunshine! The minibuses dropped us off at the farm and we all trooped down towards the shore. Once there we were, we were met by Venetia (the lady who organises this) and, once equipped with disposable gloves and litter pickers and sorted into small groups, we set to work!
Oh my what a busy time we had cleaning. From big pieces of rubbish (tyres, plastic crates) to smaller bits (bottle lids, cans) we collected them all and then gathered our cleared-up rubbish in a handy spot for it to be collected and disposed of properly.
Finlay’s dad brought along Wayne and Koda – you might have read about them in the Free Press as they are on a One Man and His Dog mission to walk around the coastline of the UK, litter-picking as they go. We sat and chatted to Wayne and asked some questions about his adventures so far. He was very impressed to meet us whilst we were doing a beach clean. We all need to do our bit to keep our beautiful countryside looking wonderful! The children of Leswalt Primary are very knowledgeable about their responsibilities for caring for their environment and P1-4 were keen to share some of what they are learning about in class as part of their topic too.
Enjoy our snaps and the recounts of some very happy litter-pickers!
Recount by Gregor P2
Yesterday we went to Larbrax Beach to do litter picking. I was with Finlay and on the bus we looked for cows. I even found a creature’s skeleton on the beach!
Recount by Chloe P2
Yesterday we went on a minibus then walked to the beach. The whole school was there to clean the beach. It was good fun. After we had an ice lolly and biscuits too. We were cleaning the beach to make it look better and help to save little animals.
Recount by Joshua P4
Yesterday we went to Larbrax Beach. We went on a minibus. We were dropped off at a farm. The we walked down to the beach – it was tiring! Eventually we made it. We saw a dog called Barley there and he was really soft to stroke. I played with him for a minute or two. Me and Logan found a lot of big bottles and some rubber tubes. We had an icecream after we had finished. We met a man called Wayne and his dog Koda. They are walking around the county and picking up litter too.
Recount by Finlay P3
Read all about our Larbrax Beach Clean!
Yesterday we went to Larbrax Beach to clean it up with litter-pickers and black bin bags. Finlay Cowan found a tyre with a bent bit, Nicole found a teddy bear with its stuffing pouring out and Aidan found a Storn Trooper with one arm (how very dare they!!) Kirstie even found a basket with no base! The organiser of the beach clean was called Venetia. She gave us an ice lolly after the beach clean. Then we formed a little circle around Wayne and his dog Koda. He told us about his walk around Britain. He is picking up litter as he goes to help to keep the country tidy. He was pleased that we are tidying up too.
Primary 1-4 went another wander to the Wetlands this week as part of their science learning and teaching. The visit today focussed on a treasure hunt to help them learn more about life cycles, as well as a sound safari, up through the glen.
Yet again they had another wonderful afternoon of outdoor learning, led by the great team of volunteers at our local gardens
Have a look at all the fun they had while learning!
Ten of our pupils were lucky enough to have a fantastic all expenses day out at Hampden football stadium in Glasgow. The Primary 1-4 class have been getting weekly football training with Garry Mc Knight an SFA coach. This input is funded by Tesco. Garry was asked to select one school which he had been visiting and take 5 boys and 5 girls with him to the National stadium in Glasgow. Leswalt Primary were delighted to be selected as the only school in Dumfries and Galloway.
On Monday 23rd May, Jenna Calderwood, Millie Smith, Iona Rickard, Kirstie Mac Donald, Charlotte Gaw, Logan Wilson, Boyd Sloan, Euan Mc Credie, Cameron Mc Cutcheon and Gregor Reid met at school at 7.30am. They headed off to Hampden accompanied by Garry Mc Knight (SFA Coach), Ewan Dodds (Leswalt Primary school football coach) and Mrs Smith from the school.
At Hampden the children had a tour of the stadium, watched the freestylers performing football tricks, trained in the indoor facility, met some premier league footballers, got their photograph taken with the Scottish cup and even got to play football on the pitch at Hampden. The children had lunch provided to them at Hampden before leaving for home with a goodie bag packed with items such as t-shirt, water bottle and football for each of them.
Logan Wilson in Primary 4 said his favourite part was “when we got to run out the tunnel and onto the pitch at Hampden with everyone cheering for us”. Euan Mc Credie and Boyd Sloan were delighted to tell the class the next day that they had scored 10 goals between them – and as Mrs Baillie the Headteacher pointed out, that will be a good story to tell their grand children when they are older …..all about the day they played football at Hampden and scored so many goals!
This afternoon P1-4 were due to head up to the wetlands again in Leswalt. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse as it became wet and windy. So instead of the children going to the wetlands, the wetlands came to the school! Jean Sheppard popped into school and spent the afternoon with the younger pupils. She brought with her some visitors in the form of minibeasts found in Aldouran wetlands. The children had a fascinating afternoon as she showed them a variety of bugs and beasties which were all found in the local environment.
As part of their continuing work on developing the school grounds, Primary 1-4 have been busy outside painting. With their old clothes on once more, they had a wonderful afternoon of fun in the sun. The tyres were given a base coat of paint before they are transformed and the mural round the back of the school was brightened up.
Have a look at the happy little gang hard at work!
As part of their work on the solar system, Primary 5-7 have been busy creating scale size paper mache planets for the classroom – it looks like it was a lot of fun…..and a lot of mess!
On Sunday 8th May the Parent council Fundraising group organised a fun afternoon and Cream Teas event at Leswalt Primary. In preparation for this the group had been baking lots of tasty treats as well as organising a bouncy castle, generous prize raffle, bottle stall, face painting, candy floss, nail bar and lots more of attractions.
This Cream teas was well supported by the local community in Leswalt as well as numerous businesses- Stena Line, Henry’s Bayhouse, Auto links, Academy vets, Central Café, Pap Rab’s pizzas, Tesco, Frasers the butchers, Simpsons the bakers, Glenhead happy eggs, Glenapp Castle to name but a few.
The combination of glorious weather and influx of visitors to the school enabled the final total of £1073 to be raised – much to the delight of all involved at Leswalt Primary.
