St Kevin's Primary and Nursery

Hello from Primary Two

This is week our Primary Two class has been learning about the effects of weather on a Scottish Island through the context of the Katie Morag and the Tiresome Ted storyline. We have been reading the beautiful illustrated story which is both funny and clever. In this story Kate Morag is in a bad mood when the weather is stormy and the sea has “choppy waves”. One particular double page illustration of the dark, stormy night provided a very effective medium in which to explore new vocabulary.

In the area of Expressive Arts, we have been able to use voices, movement and percussion instruments as well as our body to explore the different ways that music can be used to explore sounds of thunder,wind and rain effects. We have used chant with actions and vocal storm effects in a drama activity. Through ICT we have explored Scottish weather conditions and recorded our findings.

This week we also visited the local showcase cinema to watch Snoopy and Charlie Brown which the children throughly enjoyed.

We have been doing lots of investigating using a range of media. We used books and the iPads. We have been learning lots of new facts about insects and reptiles. We used malleable materials to make snakes and caterpillars. We used paint and art materials to design insects such as ladybirds, bees, butterflies and ants. Whilst making butterflies with paint we learned all about symmetry. The jigsaws of insects were a bit tricky but we had lots of fun helping each other to complete them.

As our Topic is Reptiles and Insects, some of the children went on a nature walk around the campus looking for insects. They gathered leaves and looked at these under a microscope.

Hello from Primary 6/7 

As today is Remembrance Day or its also known as Armistice Day we have been learning about the significance of this day in history. We know that on the 11th day of the 11th month, World War I ended. Poppies were the only flower that could grow in the damaged soil of the battlefields and this is why we wear poppies today, to remind us of the fallen soldiers of WWI. We have began to create silhouette pictures with a background of the poppy fields we have learned about in France and Belgium. We will share the finished pieces of artwork on here next week. We have also been learning about the work of John McCrae, who wrote the famous poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’ whilst serving as an  doctor during WWI at the battle of Ypres. It was said to be inspired by a friend who was killed on the battlefield in 1915.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1915)

We have been continuing this week with our preparation for our Christmas show, Joseph. The children have been working very hard and this is shown during our rehearsals where many children have been remembering their lines without the need for a script! We are all looking forward to the stage being erected in the next few weeks.

This week all groups started new novels within Literacy and we have been coming to the end of our clock of division within numeracy. There are also many children within the class who have chosen to put themselves forward to carry out the work to be awarded the Pope Francis Faith Award. We have been learning about the first gift, Knowledge and what actions we can take in our school, parish and at home to help us move closer to receiving this important gift. We have decided to create a foodbank where children undertaking this award will organise to collect food in school to send to a community foodback. This is important during the time of Advent, which is a times for charity and giving to those less fortunate than ourselves.

The lead up to Christmas is also a very busy time in St Kevin’s and one in which we are looking forward to as there are many exciting opportunities. The upper school will be attending the cinema next Friday for Golden Time where we will have the opportunity to brush up on our French by watching a French film. Nous attendons avec impatience le film!

Hope you have a lovely and relaxing weekend.

Miss Jackson and Primary 6/7

The boys and girls from Primary 4/5 really enjoyed their trip to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.  They listened carefully when being taught about the study of Scottish colourists and had great fun drawing still life art.  A big thanks to Ms McGoldrick for being a great helper and model!

Yesterday was a fantastic day in Primary Three!
We went on our class trip to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to learn more about our Scotland topic.

Our day started with a tour around The Scottish Colourists gallery where we impressed our tour guide with our knowledge of the artists. We had some discussions about the paintings and we were all keen to share our thoughts and opinions. Next we were set some quick drawing challenges which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We did some chalk sketches and pencil drawings first using the hand that we write with, and then using our other hand! We learned that artists often to do this when they want to change their drawing style.

We finished our workshop by creating two different oil pastel works in the style of The Scottish Colourists. One group worked on a still life that was set up in the middle of the gallery while the other created a portrait of Miss McFadyen!

Once the workshop was over we visited all of the other rooms in the gallery. We had a great time looking at all the paintings from different countries, and especially enjoyed the Charles Rennie Mackintosh room and the Ancient Egypt room where we even got to have a go at wrapping a mummy! We were also lucky enough to listen to some lovely music from the gigantic organ on the balcony, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Overall we had a really fantastic day and would like to say a big thank you to Mrs. Sharp for accompanying us.
We feel like we have learned so much about our Topic and can’t wait to try out our new art skills in class!

Today at school we had a special party for the birthday of one of our lovely pupils. We hope he has a great time celebrating this weekend, and thank you to his parents for providing us with cake and sweeties!

Miss McFadyen and Primary Three

Hello

In Primary 2 this week we have been involved in some Autumn /Fireworks activities which have extended our vocabulary and developed our knowledge.

The activities have included Art work where we produced colourful Firework displays, pencil drawings and pastel sparklers. We have drawn some awesome Autumn pumpkins. We have  also worked on Firework Word Searches and Firework poems. We have used ICT  and a Power Point Presentation to support learning.

The change of the seasons is also a marking of the passage of time. We have also been involved in using calendars to understand the grouping of months into seasons.