Author: Ms Whorlow

P4-7 received specialist Green Screen and movie making input from Miss Karen Creighton today.  She is one of our very skilled D & G RAISE team members (Raising Aspirations in Science and Technology).

The pupils were guided through green screen technology.  We then used Serif Movie Plus to overlay and edit our green screen images over volcanoes from around the world.  The children applied sequencing, ‘chroma-key’ functions and credits etc. to inform and entertain with their animated videos.  We are using digital skills in creative ways to enhance our learning across the curriculum.

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P5 -7 participated in the cluster’s annual cross country event at Green Valley today.  The children gave it their all to run either a full mile or half a mile over soft ground.  They also took part in a series of relay races of mixed ages.  Everyone demonstrated resilience and determination by completing their individual and team challenges with ‘puffed out’ smiles 🙂

Our digital leaders captured action using a digital camera.

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Our partnership schools are always pleased to celebrate the achievements of our pupils in developing their digital skills for learning and life.

P4-7 at Portpatrick have been working hard to learn about creating and using digital images;  saving and retrieving them for a purpose.  The children have also been sharing their knowledge using software such as Movie Maker.  We are a sharing team!

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Portpatricks trip to Logan Botanic Gardens 

Blog excerpt written by Digital Leader Findlay Thorburn 

On the 30th of April 2019, Portpatrick school went to Logan Botanic Gardens.

P4-7 were learning about how to take digital photos of nature and P1-3 were learning about animals as part of a Teddy Bear’s Picnic.

The older children were learning about the different ways to take a digital picture and what they should do to get a perfect picture by using what we can see around us.

The little class were learning what animals need to survive in the outdoors.  They had to make a little place for their animal to survive with natural items that they found around the garden.  They took their teddy bears along with them.

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Photographs from P1-3 to follow

 

Our boys and girls were treated to a visit from our local Stranraer Coastal Rowing Team today.  The team members proudly displayed their hand built skiff, The Lady Bay, and explained the construction process to the children.  We were all surprised to learn that not a single nail had been used.

During the building phase, members of the local community volunteered their help with no previous knowledge of boat building.  We all agreed it was a fine craft, painted in the colours of our local Stranraer Academy.

The children were invited to sit in the skiff and try their hand at ‘on-land’ rowing. Lewis, Ruby and Maya took up position as coxswains to guide proceedings.

Wendy Cuff explained that the week long Stranraer SkiffieWorlds rowing festival in July (7th – 13th) will see competition entrants from around the globe come to Loch Ryan. There will be up to 1500 competitors and as many as 70+ skiffs are expected to participate in the World Championships for the St Ayles Skiff class of Coastal Rowing Boats. There will be a wide range of family based events on offer during the week.  It is definitely an event not to miss!

The children took the opportunity to get their design heads by designing and decorating their own skiff back at school.  These are to be displayed around Stranraer during the festival.

The whole school put on their community spirits today as part of their Eco School responsibilities.  We all carried out a litter pick in the village with the support of family and friends.  The children got stuck in making the place spike and span.  They used their eagle eyes to spot and safely collect litter using the litter pickers provided by Kelly Monteith of the local council.

The boys and girls then applied their maths skills to calculate the weight of litter collected.  We problem solved by weighing a willing pupil before and whilst holding the litter collected.  The children then found the ‘difference’ by taking away.  We found we had gathered 5kg of litter on our clean up.  We talked about what fraction the litter weight was in relation to the pupil’s weight and converted the figure to a percentage.

This clean up is part of a wider trio litter action event organised by Mrs McHarg.

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Parents and pupils were treated to a musical recital by the P4-7 class yesterday.  Over the term, they have been working hard on their Scot’s musical compositions with Claire Mann from Feis Rois. The children have learned songs in Scots and Gaelic and have composed their own instrumental arrangements to accompany their singing.  We were all delighted to listen to a wide range of instruments that the children played independently.  They showcased their talents on violins, flutes, tin whistles, a guitar, African drums and Xylophones!

Everyone agreed that it was a very entertaining morning.  Our thanks go to Claire and to the pupils for all their musical efforts, and also to the parents who came along to share the experience.

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P1 – 3 have been beavering away in the outdoor environment as part of their farming topic this term.  They have been working collaboratively to prepare and plant a selection of vegetables in our  vegetable patch.  The children will nurture and care for potatoes, carrots, turnip, onions and beetroot. Ewan Little and Barsolus kindly donated the potatoes, carrots and turnips.  The children are all looking forward to harvesting their crop and tasting the ‘fruits’ of their efforts.

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The pupils of P4-7 have rose to the challenge of producing a WWII related resource of their own choosing.  The children made models, posters, podcasts, rationing recipes and more!

A range of STEM skills were utilised in the tasks.  Here are just a few of the applied skills they have used:

• measuring
• weighing
• cutting
• sawing
• sticking
• combining
• decorating
• researching
• Using IT sofware

The standard was so high that Barbara had a hard time judging the winner.  She selected:

3rd Place – Maya McNeill for her Anderson Shelter

2nd Place – Isabella White for her Anderson Shelter cake

1st Place – Lee Gaunt for his dug out battle scene.

Everyone received ‘highly commended’ recognition for their sterling efforts.  Thanks go to willing family members who helped, supported and encouraged the children to be independent learners.

As a class, we used Papier Mache to produce our own Anderson shelter model.  We also worked with Balsa wood and cardboard to produce our fleet of WWII fighter planes.

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As part of P1-3’s topic of Ancient Egypt, the class have been learning about the diet of the Egyptian people.  They discovered that they, in the main, had a very healthy diet and that the most important food staple was bread.

The boys and girls decided to make some using a traditional recipe to see for themselves how good it was.  They had a discussion on why yeast was needed.  The skills they used to complete this task were:

• Following a pictorial instruction recipe
• Weighing and measuring
• Mixing
• Cooperating
• Food hygiene
• Tasting
• Evaluating

The bread was deemed a resounding success by everyone!

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