Kirkcolm Primary School

…Sadly the bad weather kept us all inside today but we all still managed to find ways to celebrate maths!

P1-4 

P1-4 got very arty and practised symmetry. The P1s and P2s were using different shapes and colours to create symmetrical patterns on some very lovely butterflies which they then folded over to replicate the pattern on the other half.

Where as the P3/4s practised their symmetry by creating mosaic patterns on the floor and copying them on the other side! It was some very colourful arty maths as you can see from the photos to follow soon! 

P4-7

P4-7 used the time to see how Maths impacts us daily and how many of us end up using Math in our jobs every day!  We thought of as many different jobs as we could that involved Math in some way and as you can see.. it was most of them! 

We then engaged with the STEM Ambassadors from all around Scotland who had kindly uploaded videos of themselves online describing their jobs and how they use Math on a day to day basis. This was very interesting and we have the opportunity to ask them questions directly so we eagerly await their replies! 

P1-4 

P1-4 picked a much nicer day than the upper class to venture outside where they took part in a variety of different Math games! P1’s were continuing on their shape exploration by finding different natural materials of different shapes and using natural materials to create shapes! P2’s were having a great time with some active addition with beanbags and chalk! P3/4 had a measure exploration and then they had a wee round of bowling outside – practising their addition of 3 digit numbers! You can see all the fun they had in the photos to follow soon!

P4-7

Well today saw us using Math in Context. To do this P4-7 took their ‘Island Paradise’ they made early in the term and used a gridlock on them. They then plotted out where they would have some secret buried treasure and challenged their partners to follow their (very elaborate at times!) instructions to uncover the treasure! The older boys and girls got quite adventurous – some of them even having about 10 different steps to follow! Check out their hard work in the photos below; 

P1-4

For day 1 of Math Week Scotland the P1-4 class got down to some very creative math work this morning! This included some lovely shape dinosaurs from the P1’s and I heard they all did a very good job talking about their dinosaurs and identifying and counting the different shapes in each others. P2 made lovely rainbow clouds showing off their number bonds to 10 and finally, P3/4 made some tasty looking fraction pizzas! As you can see from the photos – the results were fabulous and everyone was very hard at work!

P4-7

The upper class got stuck into fractions and looked at some equivalent fractions outdoors for the first day. Pupils were challenge to find a whole ‘something’ that they could break into halves and then into quarters and discuss how two quarters were equal to one half. We then extending this even further and set off in pairs to build our very own fraction walls to demonstrate equivalence! The boys and girls got their hands stuck in and made a very good job as you can see in the photos! (despite the drizzle..!) 

On Friday we bid farewell to the Townend family who have been with us since Jane first started Nursery until now in when she is a big P3! We wished them all the best of their new ventures in Edinburgh and send them off with a scrapbook to remember us all!

Visit us whenever you can Team Townend!

As part of their topic ‘When Gran was Wee’, P1-4 have been looking at all things related to life long ago and exploring what life was like for children their age decades ago.

Part of this has been looking at the type of playground games boys and girls used to do to amuse themselves so they headed off outside today to take part in some hopscotch and marbles… There was not a bit of climbing or play equipment in sight. Just some good ole marbles and chalk!

As you can see from the photos – they looked like they had some good, old-fashioned fun! This might be a new trend we see in playground…?

In a bold effort by the upper primary pupils, we have banded together outside in an effort to tidy up the lovely but ever so overgrown gardens that span Kirkcolm Primary. Linking to our topic of Improving Our Local Community once again. 

The boys and girls got stuck in, tackling nettles armed with gardening gloves, taking down dead branches and barbed stems everywhere and disposing of it as best we can. 

We managed a fair dent before the bin started to get pretty full and we decided to call it a day before the skies opened again! Overall a successful mission but there still seems to be a lot of work ahead of us! 

Well done to P4-7 who showed once again today how hard working they can be! 

#Responsible Citizens and #Effective Contributors 

Lots of pupils having been busy filling in applications and/or interviewing for various positions of responsibility in school over the last week. Today, all of the positions were announced – much to the delight of pupils who were desperate to find out!!

In our Pupil Council for this session, we have: Callum, Arran, Archie, Jack, Taylor, Luke and Arla (Arran and Taylor were absent today, so this may be news to them!!!)

Hopefully, helping to gain our second Eco Schools Green Flag in the Eco committee, we have: Emilie, Lyle, Danny, George, Emma, Alexander and Ruth

Our new monitors until January are:

Head librarians – Olivia T. and Olivia J.

Front door – Jane

Dinner hall – James

And finally, our House Captains (who had to prepare a speech explaining why they were the best person for the job) are: Zack for Loch Connell and Daniel for Corsewall. The boys did an amazing job at their speeches and everyone was impressed at how much thought and effort went into these.

Well done to everyone who applied for a position – it was a very difficult choice!!

Today P1-4 make good use of the nice weather that appeared out of nowhere (!) and headed outside with Miss Gibson for some outdoor maths! Their topic has been measure so they were tasked with going about the playground trying to find natural items or objects that were approximately 1cm long, 10cm long and a whopping 1 whole metre long! 

They boys and girls worked very hard at this and were very focused and seemed to enjoy their does of fresh air!

Here you can see them very hard at work..!

As part of P4-7’s topic this term looking at ways to improve our local community we had a look at our very own grounds and realised that through Lockdown and the holidays they had fell into a bit of a disarray!

We set together in our groups armed with litter pickers and bin bags and tried to fix this problem and did an absolutely smashing job collecting 7 bags of rubbish (some fuller than others – it wasn’t quite that bad!) but still making a huge difference and now our playground is looking fresh and lovely and sparkling once again!

(At least until we finally brave shifting that sand pit…!)

Here are some photos of the pupils in action being eco-effective!

Stay posted for phase 2 in our mission… Gardening!

So after almost 4 years of working with us, we have sadly had to bid farewell to Mrs Jardine as she moves on to pastures new! Mrs Jardine has been working very hard over the past few years to work towards her qualification in childcare (hopefully inspired by how lovely the pupils are at Kirkcolm!) and she has now found a position working at Rephad giving all the boys and girls of their nursery all the attention and help they need! It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to her and wish her the best of luck!