Portpatrick Primary

On Wednesday 10th May, the whole school took part in lots of numeracy, literacy and other fun activities linked to the Buddhist festival of Wesak.  This important festival marks the Buddha’s birthday and celebrates the birth, enlightenment and death of the very first Buddha.  The children were allowed to come to school dressed in white to follow a popular Wesak tradition.

The day began with a whole school assembly about Buddhism.  The children took turns to ‘bathe the Buddha’ by pouring water over his head, to celebrate his birth.

To explore what ‘enlightenment’ meant, 2 pupils (Jenna and Mia in P6), were blindfolded and asked to stuff as many marshmallows as the could in their mouths in 30 seconds.  They thought 2 other pupils (Ava Lily and Liam) were doing this too but when they took their blindfolds off, they realised they were the only two doing it and looked particularly ridiculous with their mouths stuffed with marshmallows unable to speak!  When we explained that Ava Lily and Liam were in on the trick and did not actually eat any marshmallows, Mia went ‘Awwww, I see now!’.  This was Mia being ‘enlightened’ to what was really going on – like lifting a blindfold off and seeing the ‘bigger picture’,just like the Buddha.

The children then learned about the eightfold path and the ‘Dharma Wheel’.  Lots of numeracy and maths activities were explored with the wheel including, fractions, symmetry and angle work using a compass and protractor.

In literacy, the themes of ‘greed, hate and ignorance’ were explored as Buddhists believe you cannot try to achieve enlightenment until you stop being greedy, hateful and ignorant.  The children took part in antonym and synonym work for these terms as well as role plays to explore these. The P1’s looked at familiar stories such as Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast which show some of these themes in their books and films.  This led on to some writing on how we could all be more generous, loving and tolerant.

In the afternoon, learners took part in real celebrations of Wesak, including making gifts for the Buddha.  2D nets were turned in to fantastic 3D gift boxes, paper lanterns were made and Happy Birthday Buddha cards were written.  Some learners also painted the very colourful Buddhist flag too.

To end an exciting and wonderful day, the school got back together to share everything they had learned.  The children took turns to talk about their learning and then they presented the gifts they had made to the Buddha statue, as this is what Buddhists do during Wesak.

 

 

On Friday 28^th of May, Portpatrick and Leswalt Primary schools came together for a very special event.  We were joined by four members of the film crew for ‘The Keepers’ movie which is being made here right on our doorstep.

The boys and girls used their Higher Order Thinking Skills to create probing questions to ask our guests. This provided a unique opportunity for us to find out about the world of work in the film industry as part of our ongoing ‘Careers in the Community’ research. We were pleased to receive 2 producers (Andy Evans & Ade Shannon) and 2 scriptwriters (Celyn Jones and Joe Bone) – all with very successful careers.  The gentlemen were extremely accommodating and were delighted to answer the children’s questions enthusiastically.  We were even treated to an improvised role play to highlight the creative process of story writing.  Joe and Celyn were a Spanish beach bather and a hungry blue whale respectively.  They acted out the children’s ideas in a delightful skit.

Finally, both schools were presented with a wonderful keepsake of the occasion. We received a film promotion poster autographed by the lead actors and director.  This will be treasured as a rare memento of this fabulous event.

 

Watch Abbi teach Stewart and Finlay how to add together 3 digit numbers on an empty number line.  A great wee teacher in the making Abbi! 🙂

Check out our super rhyme for learning our number bonds to 10.  🙂

The whole school had a fabulous day at Logan Gardens on the 27th of April.  First, we all enjoyed a social picnic on the garden lawns.  We got to observe the friendly coy carp in the pond who came up to say hello to everyone.

Class 2 worked with Kath to use their observation and mapping skills to create 3D mapping of the area using natural resources.  They also  applied their maths skills to use compass points and coordinates to navigate around the gardens.  Later they were given the option of either being scientists or artists by surveying their surroundings and recording their findings on a scaled location line.

Class 1 enjoyed a nature walk with Kath before taking part in a texture treasure hunt.  The children created beautiful collages using foraged natural materials.  Then followed an experience of using magnifiers and microscopes to observe plants up close.  The group then created their own 3D map of an area of the garden using natural materials to represent the landscape, plants and flowers all around them.

The sun shone for the whole session and everyone had a great time!

 

 

 

 

Class 2 braved the biting wind to apply their measure skills for area and perimeter today.  We used our playground to undertake a range of measure challenges. Using our knowledge of shape properties, we had to draw squares, rectangles and triangles of given perimeter and areas.  We also had the option to choose our own dimensions where we then calculated the area and perimeter as appropriate.  We remembered to apply our formulae and to use the correct unit of measure.  We also developed our HOTS & soft skills by working collaboratively in pairs.  We cooperated, negotiated, listened and applied our skills.  We were successful learners.

I can explain how different methods can be used to find the perimeter and area of a simple 2D shape. MNU 2-11c

A representative team of 4 pupils from Class 2 travelled into Stranraer with Pat today for the S.P.F.L. Trusted football tournament arranged by Allan Jenkins.  The boys and girls performed well alongside their Leswalt teammates in inter-school matches.  They played 3 matches; winning 3-0 against Sandhead and drawing two with St. Joseph’s and Glenluce/Castle Kennedy.  Afterwards, they were allowed to see the S.P.F.L. trophies up close.  Major teams such as Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen vie to win such esteemed trophies.  Everyone then received a commemorative medal before returning to school.  The team then shared their experience with their classmates.

 

Yesterday, P1-4 were learning all about personal hygiene as an introduction to their dental health topic in HWB.  We learned about how easily germs can pass on to other people, particularly after sneezing and coughing.

We looked at how tiny germs were and if we don’t wash our hands regularly, the germs build up and spread easily to other people.

Mrs Henry pretended she had not washed her hands after the toilet and after sneezing! We then played ‘catch’ using pretend glitter germs.  The glitter germs went on everyone’s hands that caught the ball.  This was a really visual way of seeing how germs spread and how important it is to keep our hands clean.

We then used an ‘Airzuka’ which shoots blasts of air.  This was to simulate a cough and see how far cough germs can travel.  We were shocked that the cough still hit us up until we were over 8 steps away from each other!!

Take a look at us exploring the yuckiness of germs! 🙂

 

Mr Bennis from Scottish Water visited Class 2 today.  This supported our learning on ‘Life in our Local Area’ as part of our Social Studies this term.  We are considering how the services of our community are served. Mr Bennis gave the pupils input on where and how the water in our area is treated to be made safe for our community.  He also supported our Water Eco-Learning by advising us on how we can protect our environment and preserve our natural water resources.  The children became more aware of how to be responsible citizens.

Today the boys and girls had a fantastic last day of term 3.  After a wet and rainy start to the day, the sun came out just in time for their take away lunch.  Barbara served sausage and chips or fish and chips in take away boxes and the school had lunch in the sun outside.  Mrs Henry even joined them too 🙂

P1-4 took part in an Easter Maths Challenge Hunt too!  Unfortunately the rain did stop them doing this outside but we did it around the school instead.  Finlay and Liam P were the winners with 10/10 in the questions!

At the end of the day, the children decorated their own Easter eggs and had an egg rolling competition.  This was to remind them of why Christians celebrate Easter – to remember when Jesus rose from the dead in the empty tomb.  The eggs symbolise the rolling away of the stone!