Outdoor Learning

Primary 5 have been outside calculating the age of the trees in the playground. They were surprised to discover that many of the trees were over 70 years old. They used a mathematical formula to calculate the age of each tree. 
Step 1 Measure 1m from the ground against the tree trunk using a metre stick.
Step 2 Then, measure the circumference of the trunk (measuring to the nearest cm!)
Step 3 Divide the circumference by 2.5 
 Roughly, every 2.5cm of the circumference of the tree represents about one year’s growth.

  So to estimate the age of a living tree, divide the circumference by 2.5.

  For example a tree with a circumference of 40cm will be sixteen years old.

  40cm ÷ 2.5 = 16 years old.

Try it in your garden!

February News

Battery Hunt

The Big Battery Hunt is on! We've almost filled our first battery bin already so keep bringing in your unused batteries (AA, AAA C and D) so we can make sure they are disposed of safely. The challenge is on until the end of term.

 

Clear Out Your Closet

We're looking for donations of mens, ladies and children's clothes in wearable condition, pairs of shoes, handbags and belts for our next Rag bag collection. All of the funds raised go towards Eco projects.

January News

Solar Lamps

 

Last year Houston Primary School donated £400 to purchase solar lamps for pupils in Zambia. They are now on their way to a school in Mwandi and should arrive by February.

This means that there is now sufficient lighting for each pupil in years 9 and 12 to study. We aim to support this worth while cause again this year.

December News

Switch off Fortnight

Houston Primary School has partnered with EDF Energy’s education programme The Pod to celebrate Switch Off Fortnight this November. More than 1,700 schools across the UK are joining in the action too. Our P7 Eco Representatives prepared a PowerPoint for the upper Assembly to spread the news. They had some fantastic energy saving ideas, such as 'Gadget Free Friday', and 'Turn off Tuesday'.

Eco Cluster Visit

Andrew Hay of Gryffe High School, contacted Mrs McPherson to invite the Eco Representatives to their very first joint Eco meeting. This was a great opportunity to share ideas and expertise. We now plan to work in partnership with Houston's Bee Happy group to develop a community garden and support with litter picking in the village. The Bee Happy group have made Houston a beautiful place to live with all the lovely flower beds and litter free streets.

Gardening club

The Gardening Club shared their Harvest success telling their story from sowing the seeds to harvesting their crop. The potato crop was particularly successful this year and so Mrs Morrison and her team decided that the children should enter the GYOP competition and they won £100 worth of garden centre vouchers. The children were delighted and are now planning what to buy. 

Field to Fork

The 2017 gardening club members met to cook some of their produce on 23rd January.
We learned how to clean the leeks that we grew and that were dug from the ground that morning. Then, once we had cleaned them, we chopped them up and cooked them in butter for a few minutes.
We peeled and chopped the potatoes we had harvested in October. They were kept in a cool, dark, dry garage over the winter. The chopped potatoes were added to the leeks for a few more minutes, then stock cubes and pepper and finally, lots of water. We cooked the soup, stirring it off and on for about 45 minutes. There was enought for a tub for each of us to take home, and enought left over to give some to our class teachers, Mrs McPherson and Mrs Murray and the Janitor.
While the soup was cooking, we got the sprout stalks that were lifted that morning, took the sprouts off the stalks, cleaned them and then chopped each one in half. We put the sprouts into boiling salted water and cooked them for 5 minutes. We chopped up some bacon slices and fried them. Then we drained off the boiling water, added butter and pepper to the sprouts and mixed that up, then tipped in the bacon. Yum! We all got a tub to take home.
Mrs Scott said she had taught hundreds of school pupils how to cook and we had done better than some of her high school students. And Mrs Morrison said we should be proud of all the growing we had done last year - and our sprouts were better than the ones in her garden!

 

 

 

October News

Grow Your Own Potatoes

Houston Primary School won the West of Scotland section of the Grow Your Own Potatoes Competition by growing their very own Saffiyah potatoes weighing in at 1474g. Well done to the Gardening Club and the wonderful grandparents who support the children.

http://growyourownpotatoes.org.uk/pc192/About-the-project/Competition-Winners/Competition-Winners-2017