At the school they voted to get something called a loose parts shed. This was kept in the playground. Inside the shed there are lots of different recycled objects. With the objects you can build different things!! All the classes really enjoyed it and can’t wait to play with it at break and lunch time! It’s a great way to encourage Creative Play!
On the 7th of June 2019 we found out who were awarded the FAR certificates for the fortnight!
The pupil award went to..
The teacher award went to..
The Winners of the Pupil Certificates for the 28th of March 2019 were…
The Winners of theTeacher Certificates for the 28th of March 2019 were…
Well Done to everyone !!
In Skills Academy with Miss Anderson and Mrs Sloan Primary 1-4 were doing Creativity. They made some puppets. They also did some drama games and they also made some music in groups. All of the kids really enjoyed doing this and they hoped to do something like it again in the future.
Thank you to Miss Anderson and Mrs Sloan!
In Creativity they were working on their Drama skills.
On the first week they were doing some drama games. The class learned communication skills. They used this vital skill when playing warm up drama games, writing scripts and even hot seating !
One of the other skills used was Team Player. Yet again this skill is vital in drama and a lot of other things as well. Being part of a team was very important as they all had to contribute ideas, this skill also links in with communication. They showed being a team player when writing a script and also following a script and organising who all the characters etc. were!
One of the other very important skills was Motivation. Motivation was shown when others weren’t that keen on showing and performing in front of the class. This meant that you would have to respect that they don’t want to but also make sure and motivate them and make sure they are determined.
The most important skill was CONFIDENCE !
Confidence was used when they were…
This could be really hard for some people but yet they PULLED THROUGH !
Everyone in the skills academy really enjoyed their 6 weeks and hope to have something similar to it again !
On the 14th of February Primary 4/5 had their amazing class assembly. They were doing their assembly to share all about what they learnt and their amazing experiences. The first thing they talked about was Robert the Bruce. Carrie and Macey were the ones who talked about it. They explained all about the Family Tree of Robert the Bruce. They talked about what clothes they wore in the time of Robert the Bruce.
Next they talked about the art they did which were mountains and lochs. They also used water colours to paint colour wheels and turned them into eyes.
Then they talked about maths and how the class had been learning about fractions and money.
After that a group of people did a dance which was the Simons dance.
Then they moved onto Christophe ‘s story which is a book about an African boy that moved to England.After Christophe’s story they did HOTS questions. HOTS stand for higher order thinking skills. The book they were reading and talking about was called Friend or Foe.
It was a lot of fun doing this and they really enjoyed sharing what they learned.
On the 13th of February, Primary 7 and Primary 4/5 went to meet at the White Sands at the Visit Scotland Centre for a Solway Tour. They were met by Mark and Lesley the tour instructors. The classes were also accompanied by parent helpers and Bruce the Beltie their toy cow. Mark and Lesley were there to take the classes on a tour of Dumfries to show them it’s History and help them learn more about The Scottish Wars of Independence, Robert the Bruce, William Wallace and others along the way.
The first place the classes went was The River Nith. At the River Nith Mark told us about how no one knew what William Wallace looked like and how Robert the Bruce crossed the Devorgilla bridge many times and how he was born in a town in Dumfries and Galloway. He also told us how Robert the Bruce was trained by the English to be a knight. Wallace unlike Bruce was not trained ,instead Wallace learned how to fight and taught himself.
The Suspension Bridge-
Soon afterwards we went across the Suspension Bridge. Mark and Lesley was telling us about Bonnie Prince Charlie and how he got drunk and had got kicked out a couple of times at Waterstones in the Centre of Dumfries and how he had to go to one of the oldest brick buildings in Dumfries! The Dumfries Suspension Bridge was made for only woman back in the 1700s because there were too many woman working at the mill (over 2800) and only 700+ men. Also they separated Men from women, so they couldn’t collaborate with each other.
The Devorgilla Bridge-
The bridge was made twice. It was longer because there were no cars. When it was longer the Bridge had 9 arches now it only has 6. Arches looked gigantic and there is only one original arch left. The river is actually four miles smaller than it was originally as it used to got to the Greyfriars church.
The Vennel
We then crossed the Devorgilla bridge and went to the vennel and we were told how they didn’t have sewage systems back then and people dumped their waste into a big open drain which runs down the streets and some lazy people dumped their waste out of their window. We were also told how brewery street was named after the many breweries in that street and how in the late 19th century Dumfries made lots of money from beer.
The Burns Statue-
Afterwards exhaustedly we walked up to the Burns Statue which is right in the middle of the town centre, Mark was talking to us about all the different events which occurred a very long time ago and the different castles which Robert The Bruce owned and he had one right here in Dumfries at Castle Dykes park! He also talked about the poet Robert Burns who made amazing poems which everybody loved! Next we went to Lesley who talked about the stabbing between Robert and Comyn and how no one knows what happened as John Comyn was found dead.
The Market-
Then we went to the market area and we stopped at the Santander bank. Mark told us how this bank in the late 19th century was a farmers market building and the windows used to be like big open archways into the building so horse drawn wagons could get inside. He also told us how you also got cattle and farming supplies from that building.
St Marys Church-
Back in the late 13th century and early 14th century the area now known as St Marys church used to be called hangman’s hill because if you committed a crime in Dumfries you were hanged but if you were a child and you had committed a crime you were nailed to a cross by the ear. Robert the Bruce’s sister later built the church because her husband was killed.
Then we walked back to school and everyone was tired because of the walk and overall it was great day. We really enjoyed the experience of it all and hope to take part in something like it again soon ! We learned lots!
On Thursday the 7th of February, three High School Students came in to work with classes. Their names were Megan, Morven and Lyle. They came in to talk to us about their new business called IDIOM. These three students wrote and produced a book, cards and are going on to make gift cards. Their business focuses around Bonnie the Beltie. Bonnie the Beltie is a cow from Scotland. We were all taught about how to make a business, branding, budgeting and marketing.
We did a little activity as well and it was incredibly fun but also really hard. Our task was:
Primary 6/7 and Primary 7 thought this was a great workshop and the High School pupils delivered this well. They learnt a lot about starting up a new business and creating a new product.
Primary 4’s had a slightly different activity. They had to make a Storyboard about Bonnie the Beltie. They had to go into groups of four or five. They had to choose an adventure for Bonnie. The Primary 4’s found their activity very fun! Once they had finished they got to read them out to the class. Some of the students from P4 said they used a lot of communication skills and they really enjoyed colouring the storyboard in. The pupils said that the High School students were very nice, kind and caring. The pupils would absolutely love to take part in something like this again!
This was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed having the experience of making their own product to show to the class.
IDIOM have worked really hard on their enterprise and if you would like to support them please visit
https://mystudentcompany.com/YEMarketPlaceUK/Company/Idiom
