Primary 3/4 and Primary 4 Cooking with Mrs Houston
Today we weighed, measured, sieved, stirred and washed up!
Oat and Honey Breakfast Muffins were a success!
Thank you Mrs Houston for use of the HE kitchen. We are looking forward to returning next week!
Mrs Dyson was delighted to welcome back Mrs van Zwanenberg to speak to Dalbeattie Primary pupils about Fairtrade and to work with Primary 5 pupils in an interactive workshop. By studying a variety of Fairtrade products and labels, pupils became more aware of Fairtrade ingredients and their country of origin. Pupils sequenced the journey from cocoa bean to bar and discussed the issues facing the cocoa farmers. During Fairtrade Fortnight, Primary 5 pupils continued to develop their knowledge and understanding of Fairtrade and how it helps communities. Members of our class helped run the recent Fairtrade Break whilst many others made a donation to the Fairtrade Foundation through supporting this event.
Thank you to everyone who supported our Fairtrade Snack in school today. So far we have raised £122 for the Fairtrade organisation. The success of the event was due greatly to the wonderful donations we had from Tescos, Co-op and Kinnairds supermarkets.
We were also pleased to welcome Mary van Zwanenberg from the Fairtrade Organsation to our assembly, later in the day. Mary reminded us all about the important message of trying to buy Fairtrade items as this gives the farmers a fairer deal.
The High School’s S3 Producers Market was a great success and the Primary School was delighted to be involved in it too. We are very grateful to all the support for our hampers. We had such an array of wonderful donations for each of our class hampers. A super sum (TBC) was raised for school funds. It was also great to see participation from some of our classes who had made items to sell at the market. Primary 4 made bird feeders, Primary 1 /2 re-wrapped shortbread in their own gift wrap design and Primary 3 /4 made Bunny Bag Treats. (Sorry no photos from the Bunny bag stall where items sold out so soon- However pictures are in a separate blog post.) Well done to Mrs Houston and her team in Dalbeattie High School who made this event such a success. See DHS Facebook page for more pictures.
The School Eco Group and Primary 5 have enjoyed some really interesting learning experiences when they had a visit from Courtney Rowland of the Galloway Fisheries Trust. The children were learning about Sparling Fish, a very rare species which only exists in three Scottish rivers nowadays despite being in fifteen in years gone by. The children learned about the number of eggs spawned, the migration of the fish upstream from estuaries and the fact that they smell like cucumber! We also learned about the problems they face: pollution, over fishing and migration barriers. We are very grateful to Courtney who not only prepared a really interested presentation but who also came equipped with a wonderful array of resources from worksheets to activities to board games, all connected to Sparling Fish. There are no excuses now for not remembering all the key facts. Thank you Miss Rowland!
This week Primary 7 pupils visited Primary 1 and Primary 1/2 to share their learning. As part of their language and literacy work, P7 have been working on writing in Scots. They rewrote the Gruffalo in Scots and illustrated their own books. The classes then shared their work with P1 and P1/2 . Everyone had a wonderful afternoon sharing and learning together.
On Thursday 24th January, our gymnasts took part in after school competition.
Recently, many of our gymnasts, who have been working hard all year, attending after school gymnastics clubs, took part in a regional competition (see previous blog post) so it was great to see all of our gymnasts compete in a school competition to which family were invited to watch. There were prizes awarded for regional level, school competition level and special awards for those showing most improvement.
Our thanks go to Mrs Duncan, Mrs Bradbury and Abigail Simpson who have given so much of their time to develop our young people’s gymnastic skills. We are also grateful to Mrs Bradbury, Abigail and Mr Drennan for being judges for the completion held in school and to Davie Stitt for presenting the awards.
Today, we had another deserving group of award winners who received their certificates and prizes. Also in the picture are some pupils who have gained their ‘Striders’ badges for showing dedication to walking within the school grounds. Not in the picture, however (photo to follow) are the Primary 4 class who were presented with the December award for WOW Tracker.
The school has enjoyed a lovely end of term service in Dalbeattie and Kirkgunzeon Parish Church. The Primary 7 pupils performed a play entitled ‘A Super Christmas,’ directed by Mrs Duncan, where some superheroes were rather worried when they thought they would be out of a job due to a ‘new superhero’ coming to the world. Meanwhile, some shepherds had also heard the news and were on the way to find baby Jesus, following a star which the angel had told them to about. On the way, they met the superheroes and all was explained. Eventually, they all found baby Jesus and the superheroes realised they could still have a useful job but that Jesus, as Saviour of us all, was there to help us all share God’s love and to feel part of his Church. Mark Smith then shared his message about Christmas with the children before we all sang the songs we had been practising, Child in a Manger and Ding Dong.
Primary 7 have just enjoyed their evening Christmas party in the Heughan Hall, led by the Sports Leaders of Dalbeattie High School and organised by Miss Clendinning and Mrs Graham. Thanks go to Mrs Duncan, Mrs Murray and Jannie Jean who prepared the refreshments. A great time was had by all. A big thank you to Mr Drennan of DHS PE Department for helping with the whole event, including the sound system!
