P1F have had a busy term settling in to school and have been working very hard! Here’s a snapshot of what we have been getting up to including painting, interviewing Mrs Widdowson our janitor, playing with our friends, enjoying a story with our P7 reading buddies, learning some yoga moves, a visit from PC Blacklock and many more!
Our first two sponsored walks from the new learning campus were a great success on Friday 5th of October . Well done to everyone who took part in the walks. We will provide an update on funds raised in due course.
Sponsored Walks tomorrow.
P5/6 Owl Pellet Investigations
Henry Hoare – “Today we were making rodent skeletons by finding bones from owl pellets! My next target if I ever do it again will be to complete a whole skeleton. I only managed to make the head but it was still fun. I found a river vole and rat skull. I’ve now decided when I grow up I want to be an archaeologist. I enjoyed today!”
Holly Glendinning – “Our topic is birds so we have been learning about owls. We had to use tweezers to poke and pull out bones and fur from the owl pellets. It was a bit disgusting but also quite cool. We found 4 skulls and 27 ribs which was quite weird! It was quite creepy because all of the ribs looked the exact same! We had a lot of fun!”
Archie Gilmour – “This afternoon P5/6 investigated owl pellets. We were hunting for bones and it was really interesting. Myself and my best friend Brennan found loads of mysterious bones and skulls. We found 8-9 skulls and a tonne of bones and teeth. We pulled apart 3 different owl pellets. It was really fun and I really really enjoyed it so I hope we can do it again some time soon.”
Jack Neaves – “My class dissected owl pellets and we found ribs and skulls and lots more. It was so much fun! I took pictures instead of touching the pellets.”
Nicholas Need – “The gloves and pellets smelled bad but looking through it was good fun. I found a skull. My favourite part was looking at the bones through the microscope.”
Eve McCall – “This afternoon P5/6 took apart owl pellets. We did it in partners. Me and Megan found 6 skulls in two pellets and loads of tiny bones like claws, shins, skulls and ribs. The bones were from animals such as mice and voles.”
Liam Bourhill – “This afternoon my class and I were dissecting owl pellets. It was good fun. I was partners with Henry. He was really good at using the analysis sheet to find out what animal the owl ate. We found 3 skulls!”.
Dougal Leslie – “This afternoon P5/6 were pulling apart owl pellets and finding bones of the animals they had eaten like mice, shrews and voles.”
Logan Murray – “We have been investigating owl pellets. We found loads of bones. There was even some blood on the bones. The pellets were quite big and we found skulls with teeth in them.”
Brennan Henry – “I enjoyed hunting for bones and skulls and beaks in the owl pellets. I was partners with Archie. It was really fun. We found loads of rib bones and 4 skulls.”
Lexie Sanderson – “In our owl pellets we found fur, bones and other strange stuff. I found loads of cool bones and skulls. I was investigating with Lily. We used tweezers and a magnifying tub. We found ribs, teeth and claws too.”
Eva Miller – “This afternoon we had to search through owl pellets and find bones. We were trying to decide what animals the owl had eaten. It was fun and gross. We thought our owl had been eating mice.”
Grace Hurley – “Today I investigated owl pellets. There was bones and fur in them like skulls, lower jaw bones, upper jaw bones, black leg bones etc. We had to use tweezers to pull apart the pellets.”
Lily Davidson – “This afternoon P5/6 investigated owl pellets. At first I felt nervous to see what they looked like. My partner was Lexie. We found loads of bones and fur. We found three skulls which looked very weird! We used tweezers and a magnifying glass to see what we had found. There were lots of small bones like ribs as well as teeth. After we found them all we tried to lay them all out together like a skeleton. I had a good time and I think everybody enjoyed it.”
Jake Henderson – “In our owl pellet investigation, we found tiny skulls which were really hard not to break. My partner used the microscope and we saw a bigger version of the bones. It was so fun. I enjoyed the beginning of the lesson best when we had to break the pellets apart.”
Amber Pitkeathly – “Owl pellets are brown and hard. The most common bones we found in the pellets were ribs but we also found skulls and teeth. The tools we used were gloves and tweezers. I preferred to just rip it apart. I think our bones came from a vole.”
Congratulations to the Primary 7 football team who represented Dalbeattie Primary School today in the DGSFA Concept Soccer 7’s Tournament at Palmerstone Arena in Dumfries. The team were the winners within their league and will progress to the next round of the tournament. The team demonstrated skill on the pitch and a high standards of sporting behaviour. Mrs Duncan and Thomas McMurtrie were both very proud to have taken the team to the event today. The team are now looking forward to hearing where the next round of the tournament will take place.
This week saw lots of busy diggers in the grounds of Dalbeattie Primary School thanks to a bunch of hardworking volunteers who helped complete the final part of a project which was started in the spring. Dalbeattie Primary has fantastic areas for outdoor learning but the task of filling our 11 very large planters with plant stock for the first time was no little task. As the school also has a large allotment area with raised beds and a polytunnel for growing vegetables, it was decided to stock the 11 class planters with herbaceous plants which the children can weed and tend to over the years to come. However, such plants can be expensive so Dalbeattie Rotary Club of Dalbeattie came to the rescue with a fund of £750 to finance an initial order after the club was contacted by the school’s Eco Group. Also crucial to the project’s success has been the generous help and advice of Dumfries and Galloway Grounds staff Caroline McLachlan and Brian McAvennie. Brian very kindly offered to take delivery of our plants back in April and, with his dedicated team, has potted them up and cared for them all summer so that they would be better established for us to plant out in the autumn. Last Monday, the plants arrived back. It was amazing to see the size they had grown to; we are so grateful because with the summer we had, we would surely have lost the majority of the young plants without Brian’s help. Meanwhile, parent volunteers carried out the heavy work of weeding and digging over the planters before progressing to planting out. We are also very grateful to Wilkos in Castle Douglas for 10 bags of free compost and to BSW Timber who will be supplying us with bark. It’s been a busy week but the school is so grateful to our team of trusty volunteers: Andy Kalotka, Mr McMorran, Alison Houston, Simon Mein, Susan Robertson, Fiona Anderson, Ruaridh Benson, Laura Dickie, John Boynton, Fran Drummond, Lee Maxwell, Emma McGuire, Pamela Caldow, Victoria Cameron and Gayle Cooper. Thank you all!
Parents and Carers may be aware that Mr Brockett, Head Teacher of Dalbeattie High School is retiring at the October holidays. Dumfries and Galloway Council have appointed a temporary Head Teacher until August 2019 with a view to reviewing the overall Leadership in Dalbeattie Learning Campus. To this end Dalbeattie Primary Parent Council are inviting the Education Authority to meet with the Parent Council and the wider parent body. More details will follow after finalising arrangements.
Thank you
Dalbeattie Primary Parent Council
Katie Robison from ibike hosted a bike breakfast at Dalbeattie Primary School today. Pupils who signed up to cycle or scoot to school today were able to come into school for breakfast and enjoy some morning social time with others. Within Dalbeattie Primary School we aim to promote the positive benefits of active travel to school.
