The children in Primary 3 have been studying the seashore zones and the creatures that are found there. They have also compared the seaside and what happens there and how it looks now to 100 years ago. They were excited to find lots of things that are the same but also the large number of differences.
The children participated in activities covering curricular areas of Science, Technology and Art related to our topic.
Designing and building seaside activitiesCameron is checking the swings
Boat buildersMaking jellyfishWatch out it doesn't sting you Emma!Fun in the sand Pointillism Starfish Research groupEnterprising homework3D lighthouses
Inspired by the Bell Rock lighthouse
Well done children and their helpers
The Primary 3’s went on trip to Culzean where they did rock pool and beach art activities.
Fun in the sunWhat have you found?After lunch siesta
Then a week later it was off to visit the RNLI at Troon who were super but unfortunately the weather was anything but as the rain came down and the 3s got very wet.
Ooops that's a bit big for you SarahRadio operator CaitlinAny more ???This is what we wear when we go to save someone.Hang on we will save you!
Thanks to funding secured by the school to support our Games Legacy for the future during the Olympic and Commonwealth games run up and events Primary 5 and Primary 5/6 pupils have already started their Judo P.E. sessions. These are being led by trainers from Cluarankwai Judo Club. The club are also encouraging the pupils to attend the after school class and we are thrilled to say the class is full and some of the pupils are keen to join the trainers at the clubs own training sessions in the future.
Keep moving - looking good Callum.
Jodi and Rachel seem to be getting the hang of it.That's how to do it!
The Primary 2 pupils are currently studying ” The Circus.” They have been talking about all the different circus animals, people and equipment that is used. They enjoyed hearing the story about “Dumbo the Flying Elephant.” If anyone has anything that relates to the circus can they please bring it into school. Enterprising homework will follow soon!
Primary Two’s Big Top
Which people, animals and equipment is used at the circus?
The Junior Road Safety Officers work hard to promote Health Well Being in the school and community with a variety of schemes to tackle road and traffic safety issues.
New Recruits!!Doesn't ***look good!Looking good!
Our Wall Display
Our Junior Road Safety Officers continued on with their duties to improve school safety and travel. They also updated their display wall and submitted it into a competition being run by Travel and Roads safety Management. The updated wall encourages alternative travel methods to school and we hope to develop the next level of skills training in the Nursery with Scooter Skills. This wall earned them a runners up prize across East Ayrshire.
Sustran – Scotland’s Big Newsletter Story Competition
The J.R.S.O.s visited one of our Nursery feeder schools along with ‘Kirky’ our transition monkey to find out from the pupils of Riccarton if scooter to school would be of any interest to them. They surveyed 27 pupils and 19 scootered to nursery and would scooter to school, if allowed. However worryingly – more than half of them thought that pedestrians should move out the way to allow them to scoot on the pavements. I think the J.R.S.O.s have their work cut out for them.
Kilmarnock Academy pupils helped design and make a scooter rack which will be located beside the bike shed to allow storage and also we hope to encourage this as a playtime activity.
One of East Ayrshire’s Road Safety Team entered Kirkstyle into a competition to promote an ‘Active School Travel’ story for a Newsletter competition. The reason from submitting the article was because the school had an ongoing parking congestion and wished to promote sustainable active travel to try and offer alternative ways to get to school. The school developed a scooter skills programme using the expertise and skills of the J.R.S.O.s and used scooters purchased from Parent Council fundraising. The officers delivered the programme using Sustran’s scooter skills lessons; the pre training before cycling proficencey and also one part of the Ready, Steady Bike initiatives.
SCOOTER SKILLS WORKSHOPS
Kirkstyle Primary School in Kilmarnock organised and delivered basic scooter skills activity workshops at Primary 1 /Nursery induction days in June. The Parent Council raised funds to purchase scooters to promote scooting to school as one solution to help reduce the ongoing parking congestion at the school.
A member of staff and the two J.R.S.O.s in the school led the workshops. Small groups of nursery children, some of whom had never been on a scooter before, eagerly took on the challenge. None of the 25 children refused to take part and all the children received a certificate.
Great Driving.
The workshops consisted of short discussions and hands on activities so that the children developed an understanding of the need to ride safely and not cause a nuisance to others while scooting. We hope it might be a winner and get some goodies as prizes range from puncture repair kits and Frisbees to bike lights and slap bands.
The Big Pedal – March 2012
The pupils have registered for the BIG PEDAL from the 5th – 23rd March 2012 the school will participate in this event. In March 2011, over 800 schools helped to pedal 600, 00 school journeys by bike in just 15 days. In 2012 we want Kirkstyle to be one of those schools. But will you be one of the riders? Can you help us top one million bike trips? Once again, every trip to school by bike will count towards a “virtual “stage race round the U.K. We’ll keep you posted on how you can take part nearer the time.
Kieran, P3 at Kirkstyle P.S was our Autumn SHOUT builder of the month, this means that Kieran built the most SHOUT points during July, August and September combined. Kieran built his points by using his SHOUT card at his local library, Bellfield SHOUT club and to swim at the Galleon. His prize for being the Autumn SHOUT builder is a meal forKieran and his family at the Palace Theatre, followed by tickets for this year Pantomime, whichwas Cinderella. Kieran even had the chance to meet the cast!
If you would like any further information relating to the SHOUT card, please contact Cherryl on 01563 576715.
Both classes enjoyed their Science activities as part of their Birds and Beasties theme. The pupils worked together to sort objects looking for similar and different characteristics. The outcome listed below is the curriculum target within A Curriculum for Excellence:
SCN 1-01a I can distinguish between living and non living things. I can sort things into groups and explain my decisions.
The pupils work towards Learning Outcomes these are the main ideas the teacher wants the pupils to demonstrate and learn from the lessons:
Observe objects – colour, shape, size, material e.g. leaves, socks, shells, fruit, dinosaurs, minibeasts.
Sort objects into groups that are the same.
Say what is the same about objects in a group.
Say what is the same about objects in a group.
The pupils continually try to expand and build on their Science Skills these are listed for sorting as:
All of the pupils in Primaries 1 to 3 actively participated in this year’s performance of Little Angel gets her wings! The story came to life with the help of our budding actors and actresses and some superb solo singers accompanied by the choirs.
The Little Angel
The angel begins her journey without her wings and can’t get to Bethlehem in enough time for the birth of the baby Jesus. However along the way the angel stops to help others, her acts of kindness towards the donkey, the lamb and the dove earn her the most amazing set of wings you’ve ever seen.
Mary and JosephThe Wise MenThe CamelThe Shepherds and the SheepThe DonkeyThe NarratorsMary, Joseph, The Camel, The Donkey and The Dove
The Angels
Our thanks went to the parents for their support with the performances because; the costumes were purchased with the proceeds from the Rag Bag recycling clothes collections and the microphones from last year’s ticket sales. A special thanks went to all the staff who worked hard practising songs, adding movements and actions to the story and creating the scenery. But the biggest thanks had to go to the pupils who gave three outstanding performances for large audiences.
Primary 5 and 5/6 were researching the Vikings last term. They painted a Viking scene for the classroom walls, built a Viking Longship, visited Vikingar at Largs, presented in words and music Viking Life and that’s only a small part of their experiences.
The Walls
6 meters of Viking scene had to be painted on the floor - Wow!
Viking Longships
As enterprising homework the children were given 5 weeks to design and build – with adult help- a Viking Longship. The results were staggeringly good, as I’m sure those of you who were in school for parent’s evening will agree.
These pictures are just a small sample:
Vikingar the experience
If you are interested in Vikings then a trip to Vikingar in Largs is a must. The children split into 2 groups and while one was visiting the Longhouse and Halls of Valhalla the rest were meeting a Viking and dressing up as the poor and rich of the time.
Thora who took us through the LonghouseTake care that sword might be sharp!!
New Viking Warriors
They wore animal furs to keep warm.
Walls were decorated with carvings of the GodsAll dressed up!Gorgeous!Is that shield not a bit too big!!!!Our Viking teller of SagasViking artifactsP5 &P5/6 in front of the Needle
On the way home while dodging the torrential downpours we stopped off to look at the Needle. This monument marks the site of the Viking Battle of Larg which took place in 1263.
Eight schools battled it out at a basketball festival last week at Kilmarnock College’s Centre for Sporting Excellence, the first ‘finals’ event following the launch of the East Ayrshire Olympics programme.
And Onthank Primary – which goes under the banner of Brazil – emerged victorious, with Nether Robertland (Kazakhstan) second and Kirkstyle (Japan) in third place
See link below for story about the basketball festival
A local author arrived in school last week to speak to the whole school at Assembly and afterwards to Question Time in the Pr.2 Literacy groups. Primary 2 pupils had the opportunity to purchase signed copies of his books and the school have kept three copies of each for our own school library, for everyone to enjoy.
James McClelland is local to Ayrshire and his books about a young boy and his pet sabre toothed tiger are published locally in Darvel. The pupils listened to sections from his first two books; chapters involving diplodocus and the mighty T-rex after he had talked about his own childhood experience of writing. We hope that he has inspired some pupils to take the plunge and jump into stories and writing; using their imagination to take them on adventures.
