So far in the West Lothian Sumdog Competition:
Out of 33 Classes:
- 18th – Primary 5
Out of 729 students:
- 20th – Kayden C in Primary 4
- 40th – Ellie C in Primary 5
The competition runs until Thursday!
Club Wild – Trip to Almondell and Calderwood Country Park
We had a perfect day for our trip to the County Park. Blue sky and a warm breeze. Our taxi dropped us off in the north car park and we made our way down to the river with a mini scavenger hunt to complete. One of the things on our list was 1 smooth pebble and 1 flat stone so we all had a go at skimming.
The rhodedendrums were in full flower and we were amazed by all the different colours. Bright pink, purples, orange, red, peach and white. The petals made carpets for us to walk on.
Lily smelt and picked some some wild garlic and remembered the wild garlic bread that we made at school.
Sight, smell and then noise. The river was crashing over the stones at the waterfalls. We couldn’t hear each other speak it was so loud.
We spotted frogs in the pond, dragonflies and damsel flies darting about and bees and butterflies flying from flower to flower. After a wee picnic of crisps and cake we found some amazing trees to climb. What a great afternoon!
Club Wild
Club Wild- Seed Bombs Away!
Each year at Club Wild we plant flowers so that we can all enjoy the beautiful colours but also to give all our small winged friends a helping hand. Flowers attract many kinds of insects, bees and hoverflies working hard and pollinating our crops, butterflies, ladybirds and many others.
Flowers that are rich in nectar and pollen provide the most food and wildflowers are great as they usually have simple, single flowers which make it easy for the insects to get to the pollen and nectar.
One of the most fun ways of sowing wildflower seeds is making seed bombs. Here is our Club Wild Seed Bomb Recipe…
• Wild flower seed mix
• Peat-free compost
• Water
• Powdered clay (from craft shops or garden
 centre’s, or use clay soil)
• Mixing bucket
In the bucket we mix together 1 cup of seeds together with 5 chips of compost and 2-3 cups of clay powder.
Slowing mix in the water until everything sticks together, then will the mixture into firm balls.
Then the fun bit! Plant by throwing your see bombs at bare parts of soil.
We threw some into our wildflower patch in the school cat park and also found some huge patches of bare ground where all the building work has been taken place around around the school. We can’t wait to see beautiful the pinks, purples, blues, oranges and yellows of the wild flowers growing and all the happy insects enjoying them too.
Club Wild – Take that nettles!
For all the times we have been stung by nettles we at club wild like to get our revenge and turn them into an amazingingly tasty soup.
Common nettle or stinging nettles are so abundant. You can find them along the edges of paths and hedges, in woodlands and disturbed ground. It’s green leaves with deeply serrated edges and stems are covered in hollow hairs which can sting.
The nettles sting to protect the plant from predators eating and weakening the plant. We know they do it for a purpose and we know that nettles are really good for butterflies and their caterpillars but still getting stung is really, really sore!
Here is our Club Wild Nettle Soup Recipe, which just about makes up for all the stings.
Ingredients
• 50g butter/1 tbsp olive oil
• half a carrier bag of nettle tops or large leaves
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 large potatoes cut into cubes
• 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
Wearing rubber gloves we picked and sorted through the nettles. Back at school we then washed them and drained in a colander.
Method
Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the onion and cook gently for 5-7 minutes until softened. Add the stock and potato. Bring to a simmer and cook gently until the potato is soft, about 15 minutes. Add the nettles.
Remove from the heat. Using an electric hand-held stick blender, purée the soup and then season with salt and pepper.
It looks and tastes amazing, so green but also creamy and rich. Some of us were slightly worried that it would still sting but heating the leaves takes all the sting away. Katie and Kai liked it so much they had two bowls 🥣😊
Sumdog Contest
The West Lothian contest starts this Friday. Â Can anyone make it into the top 50?
Stellar Young Writer Awards Assembly
https://www.slideshare.net/PUSCPS/star-writer-awards
Thank you to our Literacy Leaders for leading the Assembly.
Congratulations to the winning entry at each stage.
Congratulations to this Primary 4 whose story will be entered to represent our school at the Stellar Awards.
You can hear the winning entries below, thank you to our Literacy Leaders and senior children for recording the stories for a surprise at the assembly.
https://vimeo.com/340488128
https://vimeo.com/340488019
https://vimeo.com/340488030
https://vimeo.com/340546095
https://vimeo.com/340547089
https://vimeo.com/340550042
https://vimeo.com/340552174
P5 Investigate Natural Disasters
We created 3D structures to represent our farms in the Scottish landscape. Then each of our farms were subjected to a terrible natural disaster. This allowed us to experience how others feel when their houses are destroyed in real natural disasters. We then wrote a newspaper article to explain what natural disaster had taken place and what the outcome of it was. Then we worked in groups to write a script for a news interview. We are currently practicing these and we will be performing them in front of the class next week.
P4 Assembly – Our Local Area
https://www.slideshare.net/PUSCPS/p4-our-local-area-assembly/PUSCPS/p4-our-local-area-assembly
https://www.slideshare.net/PUSCPS/shops-in-pumpherston-uphall-station
https://www.slideshare.net/PUSCPS/restaurants-in-pumpherston-uphall-station
https://www.slideshare.net/PUSCPS/thing-to-do-in-pumpherston-uphall-station
https://vimeo.com/339876937
Summer BBQ
Come and join us for our summer fundraising BBQ. There will be rugby games with parent Mr. Black from 6:15 pm, adult and child tug of war competitions at 7pm, along with sensory games, a treasure hunt, crafts, music and party games. All food will be cooked on the barbeque by parent Mr. Mellor, who is chef and there will be options for vegetarian and gluten free diets.
All food and games are included in the ticket price of £3 for an individual ticket or £10 for a family ticket. These can be purchased beforehand at the school office or on the day at the door. If the weather is not great, all the activities will be set up inside the school. Hopefully the sun will shine 😎
Stellar Writing Competition
All the children in P1-P7 created a piece of writing for the West Lothian Council Stellar Writing Competition (previously known as Young Writer of the Year).
Our Literacy Leaders had the difficult task of selecting the best piece of writing for each class, and then an overall winner for the school.
On Thursday 6th May at 2:30pm, we will have a special Star Writer Assembly to celebrate and announce those children who have been selected (the children don’t know). Parents/ carers of these children have been informed but everyone is invited to the assembly. We look forward to seeing you!
