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!
We started this project some time ago with the introduction of large concrete cylinders donated by Barhale.
The weeds grew before we could do much work but this year we started in earnest. First the pupils of Room 15 had to dig out the weeds – that was a real chore – we all got very hot and dirty.
Careful you got dirt on my face!!!Almost weeded!!!
Next the children had to plant them up. We managed to do this because MGM Garden Centre kindly donated bulbs and we ordered 2 apple trees with some of the Morrisons vouchers.
That's right, tall ones in the middle!
Then water and water and water……. till…
A colourful show
The children then decided we needed to paint the concrete and they chose to use the Olympic colours. We were able to do this at no cost because of Repaint Scotland who donate paint to projects all over Scotland.
Olympic gardens
This done one of the children pointed out we had no black ring – so the boys brought round the very large tyres from the vegetable garden and hey presto all 5 rings were there.
Great for working or just sitting watching the world go by.
The icing on the cake was the arrival of the benches bought for us by the Parent Council and a little corner of garden heaven was complete… well almost.
You know we gardeners are never satisfied – so watch this space!
Last two chicks have been moved from incubator to brooder box. We have one big happy family now. Although we’ve still had regular opportunities to observe our fluffy friends we’ve given them time to relax and get to know each other. Having our chicks has inspired us to start preparing for next Friday’s Spring Fayre. We have had some fabulous ideas all on a chicken theme! Keep checking our blog to find out what eggciting things are going to be happening at …..CHICKEN WORLD!!!
The chicks are not being left in the school for the weekend as it ‘s important that they get fresh food ,water and clean sawdust every day, so they’re off on holiday to meet Mrs Kirkwood’s family( but not the cats!)
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.
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.
The Eco Warriors & Eco Committee met with Miss. Davers during Assembly time and have undertaken some auditing tasks to get us switching off and not wasting energy on standby. They have visited classes and corridors; adding stickers and signs to remind everyone to switch off – perhaps you could try this at home!
Rag Bag
We are pleased to announce that the monies raised by this committee through the Rag Bag recycling has been sufficient to pay for the Nativity costumes last year and in addition purchase the Pantomime costumes for this year’s upper school performance. Both sets of these costumes will be used year in year out, depending on performances so well done to the pupils involved and thanks for your old clothes donations, keep them coming.
Primary 3 have started a favourite theme using the novel The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark. Owl Magic visited the school bringing some of their birds of prey to introduce to the children. Pupils in Primary 3 & Primary 3/4 got up close and personal with the smallest to the largest; a pygmy owl named Titch and an eagle owl.
