Maths Challenge!
Ages 5 - 7
Andrew decorated 20 biscuits to take to a party.
He lined them up and put icing on every second biscuit.
Then he put a cherry on every third biscuit.
Then he put a chocolate button on every fourth biscuit.
So there was nothing on the first biscuit.
How many other biscuits had no decoration? Did any biscuits get all three decorations?
Ages 7 - 11
“Can you make square numbers by adding two prime numbers together?”
Ages 11 - 14
1 kilobyte is actually not 1000 bytes, it is 210 bytes.
1 megabyte is 210 kilobytes.
How many bytes are there in 1 megabyte?
Ages 14 - 16
Take a look at the system of equations below:
ab=1
bc=2
cd=3
de=4
ea=6
Can you find a set of values {a, b, c, d, e} that satisfy the system?
Can you find more than one?
Ages 16 - 18
Find the range of values of x for which
x√+1x√<4,where x√ is the positive root.
Looking for some more maths challenges?
Try visiting https://nrich.maths.org/covid19 - this site was created by Cambridge University with activities and games from age 3 to 18.
Or why not try…
- Board games
- Card games
- Games with counters (such as nim listed above)
- sudoku and other printable games above.
- Cooking: weighting and measuring and buying ingredients
TOP TIP FOR PARENTS: Children can explain to you what they are doing and what they were going to try to solve a problem. Avoid leaping in and solving it for them, the journey is more important than the destination.
Kilgraston Summer term 2020 - welcome back
Watch our welcome back video and see what Mrs MacGinty and her family have been up to over the Easter holidays.
Kilgraston girls win Young Enterprise Scotland regional prize
A La Mode, one of the Kilgraston teams taking part in this year’s Young Enterprise Scotland’s Company Programme, has scooped the top prize at the regional finals. The company, set up and run by Upper Sixth pupils Molly, Lola, Natasha and Flora, designed, packaged and sold locally sourced, environmentally friendly premium self care boxes. Aside from the top prize, the team also won other categories including Best Marketing and Best Trade Stand. The girls now go into the national Young Entreprise Finals, scheduled to take place in June.
Huge congratulations to A La Mode and all our Young Enterprise teams.
You can vote for A La Mode .
Guide to positive thinking
School life might be different to normal but keeping a positive mental attitude is still as important to our children’s health. Our Head of Boarding and Pastoral Care, Mrs Sonja Mueller, shares her tips on positive thinking and mental well-being in this COVID-19 period:
- Stay in touch. Keep children connected with their friends outside of school. Perhaps it might mean setting up a virtual play session, or a good old-fashioned telephone call. It will make them feel like they aren’t missing out.
- Make sure you’re taking part in physical activity. Keep to Government guidelines but get out in the garden, if the weather permits. Our fantastic PE department is also hosting daily workout sessions so join in via Instagram.
- Listen to your children. With the current COVID-19 situation, everything is different so include your child in conversations and encourage them to discuss the topic, and how they are feeling.
- Keep to your routine. If your child is at School, try to keep things as ‘normal’ as possible when it comes to on-line learning. There might also be time to do more things together such as reading, board games, doing a puzzle and dancing (another great form of exercise).
- Teaching trust. If your child is older, discuss with them the various sources and types of reporting in the media. It might be a good opportunity for them to learn about where trustworthy information comes from and to discuss this with you.
- Eat well. Even though we are in lock-down, try to keep to your usual fruit and vegetable intake and not rely on processed foods or fizzy juice. You can also get the children involved in learning about cooking and preparing food.
- Get outside. This ties into physical activity but outdoor education is a useful and valuable skill. Read Kilgraston’s Head of Geography, Dr Phillips’ tips on entertaining children outdoors.
- Be kind to each other. It’s a challenging time but it is also an opportunity to re-connect and help each other so try to be patient, encourage gestures to help around the house and pick up the phone and check in on elderly neighbours or loved ones.
There are just a few ideas. Please let us know how you are keeping your children safe and healthy in this time.
End of term round-up for Kilgraston School - Spring 2020
We packed a lot into our Spring term so here is just a taster of some of the things our wonderful Kilgraston family took part in.
Safe science experiments to try at home!
Always make sure experiments are carried outwith the help of an adult
- Rainbow wizard’s brew
- The will teach your child about chemical reactions between acid and baking soda which react to produce carbon dioxide.
- You will need:
Baking Soda
Water colours or food colouring
Glitter
Dishsoap
Vinegar
Glass jar
Small plastic containers
Tray
Step 1: Fill the jar halfway with vinegar
Step 2: Add a few drops of one colour of watercolour paint or food colouring and some glitter.
Step 3: Squeeze in some dish soap, stir, and place the jar on a tray. Step 4: Add in a heaped teaspoon of baking soda, stir again, and watch the foaming begin!
The soap makes it foam rather than fizz. To keep the reaction going continue adding baking soda and vinegar when the foam starts to slow. To make it change colours, add a tablespoon of vinegar mixed with one color of liquid watercolor/food coloring every so often. Make sure to dump the coloured vinegar into the center of the brew.
Source: babbledabbledo.com/20-science-projects-for-preschoolers/
- Magic an egg in a bottle
- This will teach your child how temperature affects pressure, with the match heating the bottle so it expands and the contracting when heat supply disappears.
- You will need:
Peeled hard-boiled egg (or soft-boiled, if a yolky mess interests you)
Flask or jar with an opening slightly smaller than the diameter of the egg
Paper and match
Don’t forget the adult help
Step 1: Set a piece of paper on fire and drop it into the bottle.
Step 2: Set the egg on top of the bottle (small side pointed downward). When the flame goes out, the egg will get pushed into the bottle.
You can also get the egg out. Please see thought.co.com for more info on this experiment: www.thoughtco.com/egg-in-a-bottle-demonstration-604249
- Grow your own lettuce
- This will teach your child about plant propagation.
- You will need:
Stumpy of any lettuce you have.
Step 1: Place the lettuce hearts in a shallow container of water. Make sure the water does not cover the lettuce.
Step 2: Change the water each day.
Make sure your give your lettuce a daily dose of sunshine and within a week you should have lettuce for lunch!
Source: www.littlebinsforlittlehands.com/growing-lettuce-from-stumps-kitchen-science/
- Make your own lava lamp–
- This will teach your child about density and buoyancy experiment.
- You will need
A clean Transparent PET bottle.
Oil, as an experiment you can try different types of oils and see how this affects you lava lamp.
Water
Alka-Seltzer tablets
Food colouring
Step 1: Fill the bottle about half full of water and add a few drops of food colouring
Step 2: Fill the rest of the bottle with cooking oil,and allow the components to settle and separate
Step 3: Break an Alka-Seltzer tablet into quarters, and drop one piece into the bottle.
Step 4: Watch as the bottle swirls and churns like a real lava lamp!
- Magic milk
- This will teach your child about creating, mixing and testing amongst other things.
- You will need:
Milk – any kind
A bowl or casserole dish
Food Colouring or liquid water colours
Glitter (optional)
Liquid dish soap (don’t use antibacterial or it won’t work well)
Toothpick
Step 1: Pour a small amount of milk in a dish, just a thin film that covers the bottom of the dish.
Step 2: Squeeze a few drops of food colouring or liquid water colours into the milk. Add glitter, if desired.
Step 3: Dip the end of the toothpick into the dish soap and then into the centre of one drop of coloured milk. Don’t stir it, just watch the colour explode.
Source - https://sciencekiddo.com/magic-milk-science-for-kids/
“At a time of enforced separation, Kilgraston School is very much together.”
Hyperbole is frequently misused. On this occasion, I feel justified in saying that the speed of unfolding events has been almost incomprehensible for each and every member of our community.
However, I am extremely proud to report that, at the end of our first week of the new working arrangement, every part of Kilgraston has more than risen to the challenge.
Plato said: ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. Never before has there been a need to reinvent working practice so rapidly.
Every member of our close Kilgraston community has changed their routine, embracing new and unfamiliar arrangements. But despite this, a full roll-call has been maintained.
This is an extremely difficult time; for our community and the entire world. Like never before, working as a collegiate is vital and I feel immensely honoured – and humble – at the way in which pupils, staff, parents, guardians, everybody, have embraced the ‘TEAMS’ technology, enabling us to carry on.
I understand that there are many challenges to having children at home: trying to help teach, trying to work, trying to maintain a routine. I understand the worries of pupils thrown into disarray with exam changes, the possible influences on future education and the ensuing anxiety that this will cause parents and carers.
But please remember that you are not alone.
At a time of enforced separation and distance, we are very much together. From Mexico to Spain, France to Kurdistan, Dingwall to Dorset, we’re still a family and very much there for one another.
There is no ‘I’ in either team nor TEAMS. There is only a collective effort. These changes have been hard for everyone but, together, we will get through this and emerge stronger and more resilient.
Every individual has played their vital part, ensuring our Kilgraston School will continue to be the unique and precious community with which we are all so familiar.
Despite these extenuating circumstances, many, many parents and guardians have taken time out of their busy day to write and thank staff for the dedication and ingenuity demonstrated this week, thus ensuring a fulfilling curriculum for their children.
If you will permit, I would like to sign-off with their words, not mine. At the end of this extraordinary week, thank you so much for your assistance and consideration.”
Dorothy MacGinty, Headmistress
from parents & guardians…
- “Can we just say how impressed we have been by the level of support the girls have received this week - much more direct involvement by teaching staff compared with schools in the west. Well done Kilgraston.”
- “From our perspective, the virtual teaching has been going very well indeed. Not unexpectedly, (my daughter’s) have risen to the occasion and fully embraced the new ways of learning. A big thank you to all staff for their creativity and commitment to continuing to provide learning and routine for the girls. A brilliant demonstration of how young people can be supported to cope, even thrive, in the face of adversity. True resilience-building.”
- “Thank you for all your communication and organisation at this difficult time. The ‘Teams’ seems to have worked well and all the teachers continue to provide fantastic support. It is much appreciated at what is a difficult time for the girls with their exams being cancelled. Stay safe and many thanks.”
- “As I sit at my dining table working through this morning’s emails, I am listening to an U3 English class being delivered by Mrs Ramsay on Zoom. The girls are excited by the whole experience and interacting well. I have always had respect for teachers but Mrs Ramsay has gone up a further notch. Great stuff – making me smile and feeling proud to be part of it in some small way!”
- “I just wanted to send a quick email to thank you and your team for implementing an efficient and effective changeover for the girls to continue their learning. Daughter (Upper Fourth) has been really diligent in making sure that she is doing her work and keeping up to date. Thank you, as it cannot have been easy to put everything together in a short period of time and under a situation that was changing every day. Best wishes”
- “A well balanced and pragmatic risk-based approach from Mrs MacGinty. I am sure I speak for many of the parents - if you need any support (as many of us are now working from home) do reach out. More than happy to help out maintain some sort of normality for the girls, brawn or brain offered. Pass on my support.”
- “I just wanted to say thank you for all the excellent communication you have given parents. I feel that in a crazy situation you have led from the front and maintained a real contact with us parents and kept us up-to-date as you have been able. I am so sorry that we have not been able to stay open and I think you and your staff have really kept calm in this crazy time. I am thinking of you all in these difficult days and send my very best to you and your staff.”
- “Thank you so very much for all your communication and I look forward to getting the girls back to school as soon as possible. In the mean time we shall buckle down and keep healthy!! Best wishes, please all take care of yourselves and thank you for what I consider an amazing job that you are all doing.”
I Talk To The Trees: Distance Learning Outside
As we face the prospect of watching one of Scotland’s famous long, hot summers pass by while at a safe social distance of at least two metres from each other, we have started to witness some unforeseen, though not entirely unwelcome, effects of our communal lockdown on the natural world. The European Space Agency reports decreased nitrous oxide levels of up to 80% over northern Italy. The waters of Venice lagoon are now so clear that fish are once again visible (though, sadly, the dolphin pictures appear to be fake). Deer are wandering through empty streets and subway stations in Nara, Japan, and boar have been strolling with impunity through the city of Barcelona.
So when the indoor classroom becomes too much, how else can you educate and entertain the troops. Here are some handy hints on using the nature we have on our own doorsteps:
- Birdwatching – get into your garden, or from a window in bad weather, and get birdwatching. Join in the fun via the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds social media channels and use #breakfastbirdwatch on to part of a virtual community of birdwatchers. The Society’s website also has a list of family-friendly activities, some of which – like building a bird box, planting flowers to attract bees and butterflies, and making a minipond – can be done in your own garden, as part of their ‘Wild Challenge’ award scheme.
- Live footage of animals - even on those occasional rainy days, there is no excuse for not connecting with nature. The Scottish Wildlife Trust maintains a series of webcams through which you can watch live footage from some of their reserves, including the famous osprey nest at Loch Leven; and Edinburgh Zoo has webcams in a number of their enclosures, including that of the pandas. If that’s not enough, the BBC have made nine separate Sir David Attenborough box sets available through the iPlayer, going all the way back to the classic 1979 series Life on Earth.
- Check out the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘Grown Your Own’ advice page. Amidst the global spread of the coronavirus, it has reported a recent spike in traffic to this particular advice page, as people turn to gardening as a way to guard against food shortages as a result of panic buying, and as a way to maintain their mental health.
And remember, even if you’re not of the green-fingered persuasion, you could always tune up your guitar and head outside to greet nature with three chords and the truth, like the group of musicians in Sheffield who have been playing gigs in their back gardens to maintain community spirits while people are self-isolating. And remember the Norwegian saying, ‘Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær’ - There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
Dr Phillips, Head of Geography
Links
RHS ‘Grow Your Own’ advice page: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own
RSPB ‘Wild Challenge’ activities: https://www.rspb.org.uk/fun-and-learning/for-families/family-wild-challenge/activities/
Scottish Wildlife Trust webcams: https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/watch-wildlife-online/
Happy DIY Home: https://happydiyhome.com/how-to-grow-your-own-food/
Edinburgh Zoo webcams: https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/webcams/
Sir David Attenborough box sets: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/p06m42d9
Kilgraston Moves Online
On Friday 20th March, Kilgraston, along with all other schools in Scotland, closed it’s doors to pupils (and later, staff) due to the Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe.
Staff worked tirelessly to move all learning online so that our girls were still able to continue with their ”normal” timetable via distance learning, rather than face to face in the classroom.
As usual, our girls have excelled themselves and continued learning from home without any hesitation or complaint. Teachers have set up their ‘home classrooms’ where they are delivering lessons via Microsoft Teams.
Our P.E department have launched a ‘live’ P.E lesson on their Instagram (kilgrastonpe) that is broadcast every weekday at 1pm with exercises and challenges to ensure the girls stay fit and get at least one hour of exercise everyday.
It is in times like these that we are reminded of how wonderful our Kilgraston community is, pulling together in times of crisis to ensure an world-class education, without compromising on pupil or staff health and welfare.
You can stay up to date on our social media: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
Young Musician of the Year
The Kilgraston Young Musician of the Year competition reached dizzy heights last week with fantastic performances from the girls. The standard was extremely high according to the adjudicator Peter Grant, Director of Music at Ardvreck.
Young Musician Results
Kilgraston Young Musician of the Year 2020
Emma D, L4 - Violin
Kilgraston Junior Young Musician 2020
Olivia K, L3 - Piano
Junior Years: Beginner / Grade 1 Class
Niamh S, U3 - Voice, 1st
Rebecca M, U3 - Clarsach, 2nd
Sofia IvB, L1 - Violin, Highly Commended
Junior Years: Grade 2 Class
Grace R, U3 - Voice, 1st
Chloe B, L3 - Voice, Highly Commended
Junior Years: Junior Open Class (Grade 3 or above)
Olivia K, L3 - Piano, 1st
Senior Years: Grade 2 to 4 Class
Maia B-A, L4 - Voice & Guitar, 1st
Anais C, U4 - Piano, 2nd
Laura I, U4 - Voice, Highly Commended
Senior Years: Grade 5/6 Class
Lucy H, L6 - Baritone, 1st
India H, U5 - Piano, 2nd
Mischa S, U4 - Voice, 3rd
Senior Years: Open Class
Emma D, L4 - Violin, 1st
Emily S, U5 - Double Bass, 2nd
