Our P7’s enjoyed a social evening dining out at the Mount Stewart to mark the occasion of their moving on to Stranraer Academy. Rowan, Rhian, Livvy, Myles and Lee had the pleasures of a meal together in the sun room. They then moved on to enjoy the sunshine in the village with just one more day left at primary school.
We wish them all the very best of luck on their new adventure.
The whole school tootled off in the glorious sunshine to enjoy a day trip to the Cream of Galloway yesterday.
P1-3 participated in a farm tour to learn about the farming industry. They saw where the cows are milked and then toured the byres. The children learned that the cows have massaging brushes to keep themselves in tip-top condition. All the cows were grazing happily outdoors. Cream of Galloway pride themselves in their treatment of their livestock, allowing as much outdoor time as possible for both mothers and calves.
P4-7 learned about manufacturing and experienced a Sundae making workshop. The children selected their own flavours of ice-cream, added sauce (lots!) and toppings (lots and lots!). They then went up to the viewing gallery to look down at the factory. Here, cheese and ice-cream are made in the vats; enough to fill a swimming pool each year. We learned about packaging design to appeal to customers.
After that, it was Go Boing, where all things bouncy was the order of the day. Everyone enjoyed climbing the six story 3D maze and scooting down the slides too. There was lots to keep everyone entertained.
P1-3 enjoyed an ice-cream of their choice after their lunch. P4-7 were all ice-creamed out from their earlier treat. It was all too soon time to return to the bus for the journey home. There were a few ‘zzzzz’ to be heard from the tired, but happy crew.
Tuesday saw all 3 of our North Rhins partnership schools come together for a morning of exploration and an afternoon of inter-school sports fun. Pupils from Portpatrick and Kirkcolm travelled to Leswalt, who hosted the event for the first time. After arriving, the boys and girls made their way up to the Aldouran Wetlands for some fun in the gardens.
They then made their way back to school for a picnic lunch outside, and enjoyed getting to know and play with pupils from the other schools. Just as we were ready to head to the village park to begin our sports, the rain started – but it didn’t damped our spirits! Thankfully, the shower passed and it was a lovely warm afternoon for the boys and girls to cheer on their own schools – they were all getting very competitive and were keen for their school to be the overall winner of the afternoon!
There were various races for pupils to participate in, including sprint, skipping, sack, egg & spoon, distance and a relay. After counting up the points and working out the scores proportionately given the differing numbers of pupils in the 3 school, Portpatrick were the overall winners of the afternoon, with Leswalt in 2nd place and Kirkcolm in 3rd.
A huge thank-you must go to Lidl who supported the event for the 2nd year running, by providing water and fruit for the pupils to enjoy – they were well in need of this after the distance race! Also to the Brown family, who transported the equipment from the school to the park for us. The pupils had a wonderful afternoon mixing with other boys and girls in their year group across the 3 schools and are looking forward to our next get together already!
Tractor Tom, aka Tom McKie (Sophia’s Papa) visited the school this week to allow P1-3 to learn more about how tractors are used to help with farming.
The children learned about the different parts of the tractor and what they are used for to lessen the workload for busy farmers. Each pupil eagerly took advantage of the chance to sit in the tractor. Tractor Tom then took the tractor for a quick spin and a toot in the playground to show off its manoeuvrability.
Today, P3-6 linked up with Thornton Primary STEAM Team as part of a live SSERC Cook-Along GlowMeet session. Along with up to 100 schools throughout Scotland, we shared a video link that guided us through the science behind blasting off our home made rocket mice launchers.
The children carried out a practical science activity to explore the forces acting upon our rockets. We observed the upward thrust produced by quickly ‘clap-smacking’ our milk bottles rockets to launch our home made mice astronauts. The quick expulsion of air from the bottles created an upward propulsion system. We discussed how air resistance and gravity worked against the mouse’s upward thrust.
We recycled our unwanted milk cartons to do our bit for the environment. 🙂
You can watch a replay of the launch on the video link below.
Following on from our Careers in the Community assembly, Carolyne the veterinary nurse returned with vet Steve to share more of their experiences of working as a mixed practice in the Stranraer area; both with domestic and farm animals.
They were accompanied by the ever popular Dougal the Cockapoo. Dougal kindly volunteered to let the children give him a medical assessment. They listened to his heartbeat through stethoscopes and inspected his ears to check they were clean and healthy. The boys and girls proved excellent vets, taking gentle care of Dougal. He was more than happy to be groomed and pampered during his visit. He was the star of the show!
Primary 1-3 received a visit from the local Spinners & Weavers group today. The ladies kindly gave up their time to show the children traditional methods of working with wool after it has been gathered from sheep.
The session included looking at different types of wool from Jacob’s to Blue faced Leicester. The boys and girls then had a demonstration of the different methods of spinning and had a chance to use a range of equipment such as an authentic spinning wheel.
Everyone had a chance to prepare the wool by brushing it to remove any knots and debris, ready to then spin.
The boys and girls have learned more about traditional cottage industries linking to their ongoing farming topic.
Portpatrick Primary held yet another successful sports day on Friday 7th of June. Many friends and family members came along to cheer the boys and girls on in their sporting efforts.
The children competed in the following events:
Sprint – Class winners: Carter, Scott, Sophia, Ava Lily, Finlay & Rowan
Skipping – Class winners: Erin, Cameron, Rose, Ava Lily, Finlay & Rowan
Sack – Class winners: Carter, Cameron, Sophia, Ruby, Robin & Rowan
Egg and Spoon – Class winners: Erin & Carter, Atticus, Rose, Ruby, Finlay and Rowan
Distance – Class winners: Holly, Cameron, Sophia, Ava Lily, Finlay & Rowan
Obstacle – Class winners; Erin, Cameron, Liam, Isabella, Alfie and Myles
The winning didn’t stop there. In pole position, in the highly competitive mum’s and dad’s races, were Kerry and Steve. In the nursery race, Adam just pipped Ivy at the finish line.
Everyone demonstrated great determination and team spirit.
P1-3 donned their wellies for a visit to High Airyolland as part of their learning about the farming industry.
Mr and Mrs McQuistin kindly took the children of a tour of their farmstead to give the children a sense of land use. They all went up to the top of the hill to view the layout and different usage of the areas such as grazing and a wind turbine.
Dallas the sheepdog was a big hit as he demonstrated herding the sheep under the commands of Mr McQuistin.
The boys and girls observed Highland cows in the fields and learned from Mrs McQuistin that the shorter the horns, the younger the animal. One old girl was 16 years old!
Back down at the main farm area, Mr McQuistin explained the different breeds of sheep – Beltex and Blue Faced Leicester. They also have cross bred sheep from the two which has the lovely name of a Bluebell cross. Mr McQuistin then gave a sheep sheering demonstration. He told the children about how the wool is used. This will link in with the upcoming visit from weavers into the classroom.
Environmental responsibility was discussed as it was explained to the children how any plastic waste on the farm is responsibly disposed of.
No farm visit is complete without seeing a tractor up close. The boys and girls were able to explore it. Mrs McQuistin explained that because farms are so mechanised, you don’t have to be strong to be a farmer and that it can be a career choice for anyone.
The day was a great success, with just about everyone now wishing to become a farmer!
P4 -7 became geologists today by modelling the rock cycle. The natural rock cycle can take millions of years to achieve. We simulated this entire process in an afternoon using chocolate.
Sedimentary Rock
We started off by making sedimentary rock that had been broken down into smaller pieces by the elements. To do this, we:
Grated milk and white chocolate into flakes to represent different rock types
We built up our sediment in a pile on tin foil
It was then compressed by pressing down on the flakes wrapped in the foil
The resultant sedimentary rock sample can be seen in photographs below
The separate sediment deposits can be observed as white and dark sections.
Sedimentary Changing To Metamorphic Rock
We then simulated high pressure and heat being applied to our sedimentary rock sample. We achieved this by:
Putting our sample in a bag along with whole chunks of chocolate.
We squashed and squeezed the sample and let our body heat do the work
The results can be seen below. A harder, grainy texture is achieved as a result of changing from sedimentary to metamorphic rock.
Metamorphic rock changing to Igneous Rock
To model the change from metamorphic rock to igneous rock, we:
Melted the chocolate over a Bain Marie.
The metamorphic rock melted as if it was exposed to extreme heat under the crust of the earth, becoming magma.
The melted sample was then cooled and formed in a flow, just like lava erupted from a volcano.
The cycle will start all over again with igneous rock breaking down to form sedimentary rock and so on…
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