Portpatrick Primary

P5 – 7 have linked with the Glasgow Science Centre to participate in their Body Works programme to learn how key body systems work.  Today, we explored the digestive process.

To simulate digestion, we filled the mouth (a snack bag) with food (bananas and crackers) and stomach acid (orange juice + water).  We mashed up the food to simulate our stomach muscles contracting and expanding to break down the food into smaller pieces.  We then put the contents into our intestines (tights).  The liquid nutrients passed through the small intestines (tights) into the body’s bloodstream (bowl).  Water was reabsorbed back into the body through the large intestines. The waste food was then passed to the rectum (foot of the tights) and was excreted as faeces through the anus with our hands working as a muscle to aid the excretion of waste (hole in the toe of the tights).

It was a ‘guddly’ mess,  but it certainly let us understand the process better.

Just look at Katie’s face! 😉

UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 29: Aims of Education

Primary 1 – 4 combined wildlife observation with maths today as part of outdoor learning.  The boys and girls went down to our village beach and to the park to create tally charts on the mini-beasts they could spot in our local environment. The children learned how to use the conventions of tallies to record how many of each species of mini-beast they spotted.

In addition, as part of our RSPB Wild Challenges they carried out a Spot It! activity to see how many tracks and signs they could see around them. There were snail trails, cobwebs, animal droppings and feathers.  The children managed to spot shells and a live crab too.

UNCRC Rights of the Child:

Article 24 – Health, Water, Food & Environment

Article 29 – Aims of Education

Sustainable Development Goal 15 – Life on Land

Portpatrick pupils have been busy this week celebrating the coronation of King Charles III.

Earlier in the week, pupils learned all about the coronation of a monarch – from the very first coronation taking place in Bath in 973AD, to what will happen during the ceremony tomorrow.

Today, pupils came to school looking very patriotic, dressed in red, white and blue. Some even came with Union Jack capes, hats, hair braids and head boppers on! In the morning, we put our maths skills into action and baked some delicious scones,  which we enjoyed later in the day with jam and cream.

After we had enjoyed our delicious buffet lunch kindly prepared by Kim, we made some dazzling crowns and Union Jack flags. We coronated our very our King and Queen of Portpatrick Primary (Jack and Katie!). After they both gave an oath to look after everyone in Portpatrick, the Archbishop of Canterbury (AKA Lacey) anointed the King and Queen with some Portpatrick holy water; they were given the sceptre and the orb; and then they were crowned. The whole school then headed through the village in a procession, waving at locals and visitors as we went!

To end the day, parents were invited to pop into the hall to watch our special performance of “I Just Can’t Wait to be King!”

We had a brilliant day full of Coronation fun!

The lovely ladies from Lighthouse Musicians, Gillian and Helen, popped back to Portpatrick this morning to work with pupils in P1-4.

The boys and girls had a great time playing games that involved being a conductor and singing songs. They then learned about rhythm through the use of beanbags, hoops and cones which were given various values and pupils had to clap out the correct rhythm in time. Gillian taught pupils the names of some musical notes and pupils started reading music to clap out a basic rhythm involving 1 and 4-beat notes and rests.

We then got the musical bells out and played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – this took lots of concentration but we managed to play all 6 lines successfully!

Finally, we recapped some Italian musical terms describing the dynamics of music and played a game to help us remember these.

Thank you to both of the ladies for coming into school today – we had a great morning of music and can’t wait for your next visit!

 

As it was such a beautiful day, we went outdoors for our assembly time today, focussing on Eco Schools and Learning for Sustainability.

Aiming to complete some RSPB wild challenges, we set about repurposing some materials to create a birdbath and a mini pond to make our school grounds a more wildlife friendly habitat.

Mini Pond

A hole was dug in the nature area.  We then levelled a basin into the hole. We filled the basin with water and created islands to ensure that insects and creatures have a route to get out if required.

Bird Bath

We set a basin in the base of the tree support and created a perch point and an escape ramp from used bricks.  This is supported by its own weight so we can change the water regularly.

Habitat Hunt

Our eager pupils worked in pairs to identify all the habitat zones we have created and have naturally in our school.  Using and applying our maths skills we worked together  to add up how many points we have scored for habitats on the RSPB recording sheet.  We are proud to report we had an impressive score 155/173.  We calculated this to be a score of 90%.

# Effective Contributors

UNCRC Rights of the Child Article 24 – Health, Water, Food & Environment

Sustainable Development Goal 15 – Life on Land

Our Primary 4 pupils were invited to participate in an Earth Day workshop at the Ryan Centre.  Along with pupils from our cluster schools, the children watched videos to learn more about alternative energies from wind turbines. They learned how blades are manufacturing, the role of blade technicians and how this all links to more sustainable energy sources.

The chidren then took part in a team exercise to build a model wind turbine from paper.  They also connected a motor powered by our breaths to light an led as a clean energy source.

# Responsible Citizens

UNCRC Rights of the Child  Article 29- Aims of Education

Sustainable Development Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption & Production

Sustainable Development Goal 13 – Climate Action

The DG Schools STEM Showcase for 2023 is now live.

We are proud to say that the North Rhins Partnership has been highlighted for our excellent learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

 

 

 

 

Click here or scan the QR code below to access a Thinklink to view our good work.  All you need to then do is click on the red hotspots for our school locations to access the content. You can also explore what has been happening in schools across the region in all things STEM.

# Rights of the Child 29 – Aims of Education

It was a gloriously sunny day, albeit a bit windy, for this year’s annual school cross country event at Green Valley.

While we were waiting for all schools to arrive, we squeezed in some Octopus Tig and Sprint practice games.

Our Primary 5-7 pupils gave a great performance of grit and stamina as they all ran either the half mile or full mile course.

The boys and girls gave a very respectable innings and everyone was very proud of their efforts. Well done to all!

UNCRC Rights of the Child:

15 (setting up and joining groups)

24 (Health, water, food, environment)

It was time to take full advantage of the beautiful weather for a spot of outdoor activities this week as part of celebrating Earth Day.

We gave our outdoor space a spring clean in the sunshine.  Our responsible Eco Committee got stuck in to carrying out a litter survey in our school grounds.  Once the results were in, we were able to see that the most common item of litter were food wrappers.

With the help of willing volunteers our Eco members organised a litter pick to make our school grounds spick and span.  We then had in-class discussions on the problems litter can cause to wildlife and the environment.  Everyone has pledged to do their bit to pop litter in the bin to help our planet.

Working towards our RSPB Gold Award challenges, P1 – 4 constructed a hedgehog home as part of the Helping Nature activities.  The children converted a cardboard box into a snug home fit for a new resident.  It was covered with a waterproof liner and made cosy inside with dried grasses.  The children located this in the nature area to create a safe and quiet space for a lucky  hedgehog. They also built habitat homes for insects by creating log and rock piles with lots of nooks and crannies for critters.

If you’d like to build a hedgehog home for yourself, here are two design options:

Wooden home

Cardboard home.

P5 – 7 carried out a bug hunt, linking their learning to Data Handling in Maths where they created tally charts.  They aim to repeat the observational exercise in 4 weeks to see if our new habitats have encouraged our insect population.

# Responsible Citizens

UNCRC Rights of the Child - 15: Setting up and joining groups

Sustainable Development Goal:

12 - Responsible Consumption

14 - Life below water

15 - Life on Land

 

Yet again our very thoughtful friends and neighbours have been so generous to our boys and girls.

Mrs Wilma Hoad popped up to the school with a HUGE sweetie bouquet gift for the children, kindly donated by her friend Willie Hamilton.

There was much delight and excitement as the treats were shared out.

Thank you very much!