Portpatrick Primary

Last Night, the The NASA InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) probes successfully reached the surface of Mars.   This will be the first probe to dedicate its investigations to understanding Mars’ interior. Scientists want to know how this world is constructed – from its core to its crust.

The pupils of Portpatrick Primary have had a long wait for this mission to reach its destination, which was originally scheduled for May 2018.  Last October, the boys and girls took advantage of the opportunity to participate in the mission by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard NASA’s InSight Mars lander. More than 2.4 million names from around the world were added to the microchip, which has now safely reached the surface of the Red Planet.  Parents may recall the children coming home with their individual printed boarding passes for the mission.

Our connection to the mission has encouraged pupils to take a keen interest in this scientific event.  The children are enthusiastically discussing the space mission in school, which aligns perfectly with this term’s Solar System science topic for P4-7.

# Successful Learners

 

 

P.C. Wilson joined P5-7 today to give them some wise input on the subject of alcohol.  This relates directly to our Health and Wellbeing topic this term.  She and the children discussed many aspects such as the law on age and drink driving limits.  dangers to health and how to approach peer pressure and emergency situations.  The pupils engaged maturely and sensibly with the session, asking many interesting questions.

# Responsible Citizens

All pupils  were treated to a ‘Let’s Get Sporty’ session today as part of a partner initiative with Dumfries & Galloway council.  The pupils practised cooperation, coordination, spatial awareness and team work as part of a series of sporting challenges which they all thoroughly enjoyed!

# Successful Learners

Primary 1-3 pupils were very excited this morning to receive their Bookbug (P1)/ Read, Write, Count (P2-3) gift bags. Parents were invited in as part of our launch of this Scottish Government initiative which aims to inspire a lifelong love of reading, writing and counting, and strengthen links between home and school learning by supporting parents in taking an active role in their child’s learning to give them the best start in life. They were shown the contents of the bags and given suggestions for helping to develop literacy and numeracy at home using these resources. After presenting the boys and girls with their bags, everyone headed down to the classroom where we spent some time exploring our new books and games. The pupils are really looking forward to using the contents of their bags at home!

Portpatrick Primary pupils rallied the troops for Children In Need 2018.  The boys and girls made a ‘spotacular’ effort to dress to impress  in support of Pudsey and Blush.  The spottiest, dottiest pupils were judged to be Scott and Jack who were wearing too many spots to count. Pupils made a voluntary donation for this non-uniform day.

The pupil council came up with the creative idea of guessing the bear’s birthday to raise funds.  The cuddly bear, kindly donated by Mrs McHarg’s family, was won by Olivia Cumming.  The children spent the week building up to the day by selling official bear ears and wrist bands.

The boys and girls engaged in learning challenges, such as mental and written maths problem solving tasks, on the theme of Children In Need.  We also had a chat about why supporting Children In Need makes such a difference to the lives of so many children.

A big thank you to all of our wonderful families who supported the event today.

# Effective Contributors

Portpatrick Primary were given a cinematic treat today.  We all travelled to the Ryan Centre to watch the INTO Film release of The Little Vampire.  Schools throughout the area were given the opportunity to attend.  This film, whilst entertaining, also carried a moral message against discrimination and stereotyping.  The children sat with rapt attention throughout the screening.

P1-3 enjoyed sharing and discussing their  favourite part of the film when they came back to school.  They then wrote and illustrated their preferred scene, explaining why it appealed to them.

# Effective Learners

The whole school had a ‘spooktacular’  time at our annual Halloween party organised by our very able P7 pupils.  The children arranged decorations, planned an itinerary of ghoulish games and hosted the event for the entertainment of all.  The boys and girls turned out in haunting style with an impressive array of costumes and outfits.  Parents and family kindly donated lots of goodies for the children to enjoy.  The children all went home happy, looking forward to an evening of Trick or Treating fun after a quick chat about staying safe!  Thank you to all who supported the event.

# Effective Contributors

 

 

P4 – 7 went on an outdoor literacy lesson as part of our poetry learning. We went to the woods to seek out spooky ingredients to create our Witch’s Brew poetry. The children used their imaginations to give natural woodland materials a sinister twist e.g. pretending black seed pods were blackened wings of bats or lungs of slugs.

The children gathered their ingredients and brought them back to school to use to write their own poetry. These were added to the cauldron to create our foul spells.

#Successful Learners

Two members of the Fire Brigade service came along today to give all the children a safety talk for Bonfire Night.  They discussed the fun that can be had with bonfires and fireworks.  The children were given advice on the law relating to fireworks i.e. only those 18 and over can purchase them.  The pupils were told what to do if clothing catches fire and how to handle & dispose of fireworks such sparklers etc.  The officers recommended attending an organised event to enjoy displays without risk.  Everyone listened carefully and contributed to a sensible discussion on keeping ourselves safe.

#Responsible Citizens

P4-7 put on their scientific ‘Xplorers’ heads to design and experiment with energy.  The children discussed forms and conservation of energy.  Even though some forms of energy are not visible to the naked eye, we used a specialist thermal imaging camera to see sources of heat energy in the classroom.  Lee is all aglow, as you can see and Alba’s glasses are insulators that don’t generate heat.

The children then moved on to a construction task to follow schematic diagrams to build a dynamo to generate electricity to light a bulb.  They used a multimeter to measure the voltage generated when they turned the wheel.  The highest consistent reading was 6V by Rhian.

Next, the boys and girls worked with gears and pulleys to enhance their dynamos and increase their turning speed.  There were many designs that were modified in light of experience.  Rhian came up with a simple, 2 cog design that proved very effective.  Isabella and Ruby used this design to generate 17.9V when they turned the larger wheel cog handle.  Some used batteries and toothed gears to turn their cogs automatically.

The lesson moved on to the children undertaking a complex construction challenge of assembling either a wind or water turbine.  They had to work hard using their soft skills of sharing, cooperation, discussion and review to complete the model.  Once the working models were completed the pupils tested them to see how much electricity they would generate.  A hairdryer was used to turn the wind turbine sails and a running tap was used to spin the water buckets on the water turbine.  The water turbines generated more electricity because of the stronger force of the running water; approx 7V whilst the wind turbines generated approximately 3V.

The final challenge of the day was to build a solar powered vehicle.  Everyone worked together to follow the instructions. We held solar car races to see which vehicle travelled the fastest with a light source.

The children had a fantastic learning day exploring renewable sources of energy through engineering challenges.

Computer Xplorers sessions recognise the four capacities identified in the Curriculum for Excellence and aims to help children become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.  Our thanks to John for delivering a wonderfully educational workshop.