Newsletter term 3 2023

Primary 5 recently went to the Robert Burns Centre to take part in a ‘Remembering Rabbie’ workshop.  This included learning about Burns’ life in Dumfries, visiting Burns House and finishing the day with a walk to the Mausoleum to lay a wreath – as our visit coincided with Burn’s birthday – 25th January.

During the day we were listening about his life, told to us by his friend John Syme as well as Jessie Lewars who was a family friend and nursed Robert Burns in his final months.

We sang songs, learned some Scot’s language and also acted out the well known poem – Tam O’ Shanter.

This is some of us acting out Tam O’ Shanter.  Abigail Reilly played the part of Kate, Tam’s wife.  Abigail Ross played the part of Tam.  Callan played the part of Tam’s friend Soutar Johnnie.  Olly played the part of the deil (devil).  Connor played the part of Nannie (Cutty-sark).

Soutar Johnnie and Tam O’ Shanter were at the bar and Tam stayed too long – Joe M

Tam O’ Shanter shouted out ‘Weel done, Cutty-sark!’ Nannie began to chase Tam on his horse, Meg. He knew if he crossed the bridge then the witch wouldn’t be able to chase after him.  But, Nannie managed to catch Meg’s tail and pulled it off – Callan

My favourite part of the story was Callan (aka Soutar Johnnie) drinking beer in the bar – Evan

Here we are at Burn’s House.

We got to see Robert Burns’ kitchen and how they made their washing smell better whilst washing it using water from the River Nith.  They would use dried rose petals. – Abigail Ross

There were seven knitted dolls around Burns’ House to represent the seven children who lived there – Abbie

In one of the rooms upstairs, which Burns called his ‘closet’ where he wrote many of his songs and poems, Burns scratched his signature onto a pane of glass in the window. – Joe A

The family would cut up old tea-towels and fabric and tie it together to make a rug – Thea

Finally we visited the Mausoleum.

Inside the Mausoleum we looked around to find the mouse from the poem ‘To a Mouse.’ We managed to find it!  Will

While we were in St. Michael’s churchyard and at the Mausoleum there were photographers and videographers taking pictures and videos of them.  This was because our visit was on Burns Day.  Noel

Just before we went to the Mausoleum, we were looking out for grave stones with a blue plaque on them.  This showed us that these people had been friends of Burns.  Jessica

We enjoyed our day out of school.

Heathhall Primary Handbook 2022.23

On Wednesday 1st February the Royal Navy came to carry out STEM challenges with different classes. There were 3 different activities for us to try. – Iona

For one of the activities we used iPads to programme little mechanical balls called Spheros. We made them move in different directions and spin really quickly! They also lit up with animations we could choose.  This helped us develop our programming skills. It was really interesting.- Moaz

Another activity involved us working with hydraulics. We worked in pairs to see how quickly we could build a sequence of pipes for air to pass through. This then powered a pump. We had to see were stronger than air! We developed our teamwork skills. I thought it was really fun and challenging! – Leah

The final activity was to create a circuit. This was to allow electricity to pass through in order to make a propeller fly.  The bigger the circuit had the lower the propeller would fly and the smaller the circuit was the higher the propeller would fly. We developed our problem solving and creativity skills. I thought it was hard but also really fun! – Jailyn

P4/5 have been working very hard! As part of Burns Day they have been creating Scottish Pop Art! Don’t they look great!?

P2/3 have been drawing bears because their new topic is Living Things. Don’t they look great?! P2/3 have been been working very hard!

Primary 1/2 were learning how use the iPads. They all had so much fun.  Some people were geniuses at the iPads and didn’t need as much help.  We learned how to take photos for the P1s and for the P2s they got to do Sumdog as well.

Zander said “the iPads were cool!”

In Primary 4 they have been using the iPads and they were all so happy to use them. They were all super at it! They all knew how to work them like little experts.

Harry said” They were amazing.”

We created currency converters using Purple Mash on the iPads. We were then able to use these to complete our maths work on converting foreign currencies!

It was very fun to make the currency converter and it made maths a lot easier! – Reuben

I enjoyed changing pounds into different currencies. – Ava