Author: Mrs Kerr

Today in P4, the children were set an Energy Challenge!  They had to use their imaginations and develop their problem solving and team working skills, to build a Solar Powered boat, an air powered car, design and build their own 3D wind turbine using k’nex, and test a hydro turbine to see if it could power a light! All on the last day of school too!!

Huge thanks to Mr Earle, Mr Sharp, Mr Orr and Mr Valentine, really appreciate you help!  Continue reading “P4 Energy Challenge!!”

I can’t thank say thank you enough to Fiona from RHET and Mrs Kirkwood, for bringing their three beautiful piglets to visit my P4 class.
The children have been enjoying reading the class novel, Charlotte’s Web, and were beyond excited when they heard they would have the chance to meet some ‘real life’ Wilburs!”

I think it’s opportunities like these that really bring literacy to life for the children.  They have been enjoying reading about Wilbur’s life on the farm, and writing character descriptions about him, however, after meeting with the piglets today, they produced some terrific writing describing how “his snout felt as smooth as pebble” , and that piglets make ‘perfect playground pals’.

Many thanks again!

P4 and P5 enjoyed a fun filled afternoon at Park Farm last Friday, as they applied some of rugby skills they have been learning during a mini rugby festival. After a week where the weather put a stop to many outdoor activities, it was great to see the children outside having fun! Big thanks to Ryan for being photographer  for the afternoon!

Do you think P4 had fun at the Cocoa Bean Factory on Tuesday?

“It’s just like the factory in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!”

It was a pleasure to visit with such well behaved children 🙂

What a busy time the P4 class have been having lately, amongst other activities they managed to squeeze in a two week cricket session with representatives from St Michael’s Cricket Club. The sessions were extremely well organised, and lots of fun with the children honing their hand/eye co-ordination skills as they improved their batting and fielding skills. The South African coaches were most impressed!  More photographs to follow!

The P5 class had a surprise visit this afternoon from Mark Booker, Schools Education Officer for SCIAF.

Mark is based in Glasgow, but had heard about the class donation to SCIAF Real Gifts and wanted to come in personally to say thank you to the children for their kindness.

Thank you Miss Griffin for letting me borrow the P5’s for half an hour, and to Steven for taking the photograph.  Mrs Kerr

There was an abundance of happy faces in the P5 classroom as they presented their donations to representatives from the Children’s Ward at Dumfries and Galloway Hospital, M.O.O.L and S.C.I.A.F Real Gifts.

The children were absolutely delighted to hear that their money will help with the purchase of new outdoor play equipment at the new hospital.

They were ecstatic when they discovered that M.O.O.L have organised 100 SNUG bundles, which comprise of socks, neckwarmers, underwear and gloves which were scheduled to be transported to France last week.

They could barely contain their excitement when it was revealed that their donation to SCIAF has purchased –

A chicken, a clean water supply, a goat, 2 packs of school books, warm blankets and a vegetable garden.

One of the children summed the afternoon up most succinctly, I felt –

“Mrs Kerr, it feels good to give”

Enough said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children of Primary 5 have absolutely blown our socks off with their creative, enterprising, team working skills.

I have been up till the wee hours counting, and recounting the money that the children have made from the Virgin money “Make a £5 Grow” Challenge.

The children are pictured with Christmas cards that they have made for the children staying in Ward 15 over Christmas.

EVERY SINGLE CHILD SUCCEEDED IN THE CHALLENGE!

As part of our data handling maths focus we collated our profits, made an enormous bar chart and analysed our results.

“The most popular profit made was between £11 and £20, as 8 people succeeded in making that.” Alister noticed

“5 people have made more than £100 profit Mrs Kerr!!” Ruby declared

“There is money in every single box Mrs Kerr, EVERYONE has grown their £5!!”  announced Argyle.

So, without further ado, the final results are in ……….

The P5 have raised in total ….drum roll please……£1,094.23!!!!!!!!

WHAT A FANTASTIC ACHIEVEMENT!!!

However, what I am MOST impressed by, is the compassion these children have shown, as they asked if they could donate some of their profits to charity, to help those less fortunate than themselves.  The children then researched and voted on the charities they wanted to donate money to.

They have decided that 35% of their profits will go to the following charities :

The Children’s ward at DGRI

SCIAF Real Gifts

MOOL

We will be donating £128 to each charity in the New Year. Watch this space for more photographs.

The remaining £710.23 will go towards a P5 class trip, which will occur next year.

Big thanks are due to Mrs Graham, Mrs Woods, and Miss Griffin for all their help in assisting me in the running of this project, and to the children and their family members who helped them achieve these fantastic results!

Have a good Christmas!

Mrs Kerr

 

 

 

WOW, WOW,WOW!!! So impressed with the pleasant, polite shopkeepers in P5, who knew all about their products, and served their customers with a smile!

Thank you also to the P6 and P7 classes for their generosity, one customer’s feedback was “I give the Enterprise Afternoon 29 stars, one for every child in the class!”

Many thanks again for your support, practical real life activities like this really help to underline the learning we have been doing in class about money, how to give correct change, the value of money and profit and loss…plus the fact that the children had fun!

Thank you to our resident paparazzi Thomas and C-Jay, for taking such great photos 🙂

 

The Primary 5 children have been learning about Changing Materials in their Science focus this term. Initially they tested different solids to see if they would dissolve in water, next they experimented to find out if it was possible to separate those substances again.

The children were set a “Kensuke’s Kingdom”, Desert Island Dilemma, where, just like Michael in the novel, they found themselves stranded with only sandy or salty sea water to drink – could the children plan ways to clean the water so that it was safe to drink?

We called on the expertise of 10 science ambassadors from St Joseph’s College, and last Wednesday, transformed our classroom into a science laboratory to test out the children’s theories.  Here’s a snapshot of what they discovered…