P1/2/3 and Mrs. Porteous have been very lucky to have Miss Parker, who is training to be a teacher, in their class for the last four weeks. She has carried out many activities with the class, including this wonderful moon display, which all the children were involved in. She also taught the children about Candlemas and you can see her pictured with the children after they had made their candles. Miss Parker will be missed very much and we wish her well in her teaching career. We all think she will make a brilliant teacher!

At least the children (and janitors) enjoyed the snow!!

This year’s Coffee Morning was very well attended and supported and the school is very appreciative of all the people who donated baking, raffle prizes etc. and helped out on the day. Over £500 was raised for school funds, so thanks to everyone who helped to make it such a success. P3 made the Shortbread Stars for the baking stall and also helped to serve at the stalls. Joseph was one of the many children who loved the chocolate covered marshmallows!

As part of this term’s ‘Mail Delivery’ topic, we visited Dalry Post Office, where Florence very kindly showed the children what happens to the mail and answered their questions. The children can be seen posting their letters to Santa which they had written before the visit. We also looked at the very old post box in the wall at the top of the street.

Many thanks to Primary 6 and 7 who helped Mr Carmichael with P1/2/3 to practise some Scottish Dances. They have been learning the Canadian Barn Dance, the Military Two Step and the St Bernard’s Waltz.

Once again the children entertained the Tuesday Club with a selection of Christmas songs and carols. Mrs Hamilton gave the vote of thanks and was very appreciative of the effort that the children and staff had made towards a most enjoyable afternoon. Afterwards the children enjoyed tucking into the lovely refreshments which the Tuesday Club provided.

P1/2/3 had their annual talk from the Road Safety Officer. She told them about the importance of taking care when playing near roads and then they watched a DVD to reinforce the road safety rules.

Despite many pupils and teachers not making it to school because of the floods, those who did, enjoyed dressing up for Children in Need. There was  a competition for the best ‘Pudsey’ and many other children wore non uniform and contributed to the fund too. Cameron, Drife and Eleanor were the ‘Pudsey’ winners and thanks go to Mrs Splaine, who kindly judged the competition, and all the mums who weren’t given  a lot of time to create the costumes! Well done to Dalry Playgroup who brought over their cakes to sell and made lots of money for Children in Need too. They were yummy!

As part of our Mail Delivery topic, Mr Goodwin, who is the school’s IT technician, kindly offered to talk to P1/2/3 about the first stamp and how the postage system started. We learnt that James Chambers, who was Scottish, introduced the idea of the first adhesive stamp. Mr Goodwin showed us his stamp album, including three Penny Black stamps. The children have also been designing some of their own stamps.

Mr Murray came to tell us about the day in the life of  a shopkeeper. The children looked at photos on the interactive whiteboard of his Organic Body Care Shop and were able to get an insight into how a shop runs. They were told about the different types of products and how cutomers can buy them on line too. Mr Murray has a very busy day, so we are very grateful that he took time to come to Dalry School.