Our Weekly School News – Sharing our learning with the School Community.
New School App
The school has subscribed to a new app which is free for all families (and family members) to download. Whether your smartphone or tablet is Apple or Android go to your online App store and search for PSA and look for Primary School App. Download the App and then to finish setup please search for Castle Douglas Primary.
Once the App is opened the Home page has a news summary and forthcoming events page. There is also
– a Dates tab which has the school calendar on it (which works!)
– a News Tab which lists news feeds from our website (including the Weekly News), school Twitter feeds and video clips.
We hope you will find the new App an improvement from the old one which will no longer be updated.
Please search for PSA and have a look at our new App.
School Dinners Spring/Summer terms
Your child has been given a new menu home this week for use after the Easter holidays. Please note that the cost of a school meal will then be £1.90.
We try our very best to upload a weekly post for each class but this is sometimes not always possible. Please have a read and a chat about what some of our classes have been up to this week.
Primary 1a
This week we have been working hard on writing independently about our trip to the Doach Woods. We loved looking through the photographs taken on the day to inspire our ideas. In our writing, we’ve been focussing on using our sounds to help us blend and using our tricky words – ‘the’, ‘was’, he’, ‘she’ etc. We wrote about what we liked doing on the trip:
Ayla: I liked going on the bus.
Lola: Ted was in the tree!
Amelia: I saw Ben too!
We all feel very proud of our writing!
This week we have also been learning about different types of bears. So far we have learned about brown, black, polar, panda and moon bears. We learned about their habitats, where they are from and what they like to eat.
Finlay: Polar bears don’t hibernate.
Jillie: We can’t wait to learn more about other types of bears! We are also really looking forward to seeing everyone’s bear den designs next week.
Reminders
‘Create a Bear Den’ homework challenge is due on Monday. We are looking forward to seeing and hearing about all the different dens. We will open the classroom at 2:45pm on Thursday 4th April – parents and families are invited to come and look at the bear dens.
Primary 1b
We have been learning about different bears and their native habitats. The children drew a world map, labelled the continents/countries and put the pictures of the bears on the correct part of the map. Well done to Conall, Max, Charlotte and Ziya for their hard work drawing the map.
Elliot: “Polar bears live in the ice.”
Ziya: “Brown bear – they live in a cave and eat meat.”
Brodie: “Sloth bear and a sun bear.”
Zach: “Pandas like bamboo.”
We have done some super writing about our trip to the Doach woods. Eryithsyai said her favourite part was making a den for Ben and Mya liked climbing the rope. We are working hard to blend our sounds to build words and incorporating some ‘tricky’ words in our writing – ‘I’, ‘the’ and ‘was’.
Tiffany and her family have made Ben a tag so that if he ever gets lost again, someone can phone the school and let us know – what a fantastic idea!
We are continuing to work on our adding, with a little help from Tiny Tim! We are working on using the correct vocabulary and using concrete materials to help work out the sums.
*photographs taken by Ziya and Ellie
Reminders
‘Create a Bear Den’ homework challenge is due on Monday. We are looking forward to seeing and hearing about all the different dens. We will open the classroom at 2:45pm on Thursday 4th April – parents and families are invited to come and look at the bear dens.
Primary 2
We have been learning to tell the time- half past and o’clock.
‘We played half past and o’clock bingo’- Evie
‘We knew about analogue and digital clocks.
Miss Newall read the chapter Dark Is Fascinating in the Owl Who Is Afraid Of The Dark. We wrote describing words about Plop.
‘Silly’ – Floyd
‘Funny’- Indie
‘Happy’- Nell
‘Frightened’- Mason
‘Fluffy’- Frankie
We went outside to look for signs of Spring and drew then painted a tree in detail.
Primary 3
We have been very busy rehearsing for our Spring Singalong Show and we are so excited to share it with you all next week! Please see below to check the times of the performances and should you have any questions regarding outfits etc, please do not hesitate to ask.
This week, we have been creating beautiful Spring artwork to decorate the school hall. We used watercolours to blend warm and cool colours and we used magazine pages to create a collage.
We have also been developing our skills in working with clay this week. We have created a beautiful Spring decoration – it will be coming home soon!
Reminders
Spring Singalong Shows
Tuesday 2nd April – 1.45pm
Wednesday 3rd April – 6pm
Primary 4
We have been very busy rehearsing for our Spring Singalong Show and we are so excited to share it with you all next week! Please check the times of the performances. Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. We have been creating lots of bright Easter egg art work, look out for it in the hall!
We have finished off our information handling learning in maths. We’ve been taking part in lots of activities throughout the week where we have had to use our skills in new contexts. Emily–Rose and Lexi made a Carroll diagram for their favourite sweets then made a Venn diagram for their favourite games. Saffron sorted letters into two different criteria. Outside we used different criteria to organise numbers, this meant we had to use our number skills too!
Well done to Kacie, Ria, Ben W, Isla McC and Rylan who all achieved their reading targets this week.
Wider Achievement
Riley went up a level at swimming club, he shared his certificates and badges with the class.
Reminders
Spring Singalong Shows:
Tuesday 2nd April: 1.45pm.
Wednesday 3rd April: 6pm, performers arrive at 5.40pm in costume.
Primary 5
In class we have been busy finishing off our Mary Queen of Scots story boards and imagining what it would be like to go back to that time. We also had our Big Writing assessment and have completed STAR assessments on Accelerated Reader.
We have been continuing our work on fractions and time in numeracy. We have carried out surveys in class asking each other our favourite Easter treat and created bar charts.
Mr Tyson has also been in class to speak about grid referencing in preparation for our hill walk trip on Wednesday.
We have had another visit from Feis Rois where we learned about a new instrument with lots of strings. We enjoyed watching the P3, P3/4 and P4 assembly on Friday morning.
Wider Achievement
Well done to Alper who is continuing to excel at his boxing classes. He has asked if anyone would like to join his boxing club could they let him or Miss Mackintosh know and he will pass on information on how to join if you would be interested.
Anna brought in some home learning she has done this week where she has listed all the countries in the world in alphabetical order! She discovered that there are no countries beginning with the letter ‘X’.
Reminders
Hillwalk: Wednesday 3rd of April, please can letters and money be returned by Tuesday 2nd April.
Feis Rois music concert: Thursday 4th April, please can you let us know how many people we can expect to be coming to watch your child perform as soon as possible. Any members of family or friends are welcome.
Primary 5/6
Please see our Twitter feed for our class news
Primary 6
In maths this week we have been investigating scales and also map work. We have learned how to grid reference to find a position on a map.
In ICT we animated planet orbits to show how fast they orbit the sun compared to each other. Have a look at the short video of one of our animations.
The class has enjoyed the Feis Rois singing sessions this term. Eilidh has liked learning Gaelic words and Tommy has been interested in the history of the songs. We have learned weaving songs and also a song sung by slaves as they tramped bricks in to the ground when making roads. A Scots person living in USA saw this and created a song. The movement of the slaves’ feet led to the Charleston dance!
Next week we are looking forward to sharing our Feis Rois songs that we have been learning this term.
In PE this week we were linking with our symmetry skills by creating a symmetry dance.
We have been also been learning the key features of writing a Science report. Next week will be making rockets and having a competition to see how far they can travel using the information we learned about nose cones and air resistance.
Wider Achievement
Seren travelled to Fife to take part in floor and vault gymnastic competition.
This weekend Fraser is playing rugby against a team from Glasgow on Saturday and then Dumfries on Sunday.
Reminders
If you have time over the weekend please decorate a hard boiled egg in a space theme e.g. an alien or astronaut who will be travelling on your rocket on Monday!
Primary 6/7
In P6/7 we are really enjoying learning about WW2.
Lexie W ” We learned about the different types of protection uses during the Blitz in WW2.”
Melissa ” We learned about coordinates in maths plotting our own vegetable garden for the Dig for Victory propaganda campaign.”
Abbey s ” We have been designing our own propaganda posters. Each poster had to have a catchy slogan, bright pictures and be informative.”
Hughie ” On my propaganda poster I used the slogan ‘ We Need your Hand to Work The Land.”
Mati ” We learned about safe shelters called Anderson shelters that people went in during Air Raids.”
Harris ” We learned that a Morrison Shelter was similar to an Anderson shelter but was kept indoors.”
Holly ” We learned about the role of the Night Wardens during The Blitz.”
Leland “In R.M.E. we are learning about Judaism. We have learned about kosher foods and next week we will start to study the Holocaust.”
Wider Achievement
Mya danced at the JDRF ball last weekend.
Brooke has been learning My Land on this Chanter this week.
Leland is learning to play The Eye of The Tiger on the guitar.
Reminders
Remember your outdoor P.E. Kit next Friday for football.
In P6/7 we will have a decorated Egg Competition next Friday. Please bring in an entry if desired.
Make sure that the egg is hard boiled before transportation!!
Primary 7
We finished off our drawings of the Taj Mahal on Monday. We added a lot of shading. – Morven.
I am proud of getting my Accelerated Reading target this week – Hannah, Rory L, Isla A, Andrew A, Rory T, Bob, Deacon, Tiana, Chloe and Ryan S.
I really enjoyed our Indian elephant art this week. – Deacon.
We found out that Indian elephants have the largest brain of any land animal. – Katherine.
Indian elephants are a symbol of strength and everlasting. – Hayden.
In P.E we focused on rolls in gymnastics. The hardest was the backwards roll and the easiest one was the teddy bear roll. – Bob.
In Samson maths we have learned all the strategies for all four calculations now. I am best at addition. – Sam.
We have been working with fractions, decimals and percentages this week. I enjoyed using the calculator. – Chloe.
Wider Achievement
On Friday I am going shark diving at Deep Sea World. I am nervous but excited. – Daniel P
Good luck to the boys playing in the Threave Rovers team in their game against Greystone Black this weekend.
Reminders
Slips for our Rowing and Cycling event are due in by Tuesday.
