Connecting Scotland & Zambia
Our website uses the arts to connect schools in Scotland and Zambia.
Schools around Scotland, [particularly in Livingston New Town. West Lothian],
and schools in the town of Livingstone, Zambia, [beside Mosi-oa-Tunya, the Victoria Falls] are taking part.
We have pages about participating places in SCOTLAND, about The Bird Exchange in which pupils create and share images of birds that have never been seen before, and these wing off to pupils in the other continent.
We hope to develop our Connectng, Story Exchange and Want To Know? pages.
Our work began in 2013, the bicentenary of Scottish explorer David Livingstone. Learn more about his Scottish connections and friends at http://davidlivingstonescotland.webs.com/
Our website is edited by Ewan McVicar, with funding from our Scottish Government via National Trust Scotland.
Ewan has had much help from Belinda Hodge of Livingstone 2013 - see http://www.victoriafallslivingstone.com/
Harvest Writing
BANKTON PRIMARY 2010 HARVEST SONGS
As part of a project linking Bankton Primary, Livingston, with the children of the Kids In Need Project for ex-street homeless young people in Uganda, and the primary schools they attend [Mengo Muteesa PS and Mbiro Ntono PS] Bankton classes have been working with teacher Mrs Balfour to make poems about Harvest and Autumn to send to Uganda. In return the Uganda schools have written about Harvest in their country and their own lives.
The linkage between Bankton and K. I.N. is supported by Ewan McVicar in Scotland and Robert Ekapu in Uganda. Ewan has taken the individual poems written in Bankton, selected lines from each poem, assembled and slightly edited the lines, added tunes and recorded the songs.
ACORNS SONG P4/5 BANKTON PS
Acorns and muddy smells
Trees and jaggy conkers
Leaves and clouds
Hot chocolate and fire
Beautiful colours in the leaves above us
Noisy leaves crunching down below
They change colours, red and yellow
Pine trees sway, back and forth they go
Toys in the back garden falling over
Water on the trampoline, damp squidgy ground
The geese and the ducks go honking over us
Squirrels sleeping in the safe and sound
Gorgeous smells coming from the cooker
Amazing lentil soup to sup
Lovely chocolate with whipped cream in it
Marshmallows waiting to hop on top
The nice warm feeling of a woolly jumper
Knitted by my nana just for me
A crackling fire, that's my desire
And a crunchy apple crumble for my tea
AUTUMN SONG P5/6 BANKTON PS
Autumn rises up when summer dies
Rivers of leaves flow fast
Leaves like a colourful waterfall
Red, gold and brown fly past
High as a kite they soar
Like a kite come whooshing down
So you and me can have leaf fights
Red, gold and brown
You fly your kite as high as you can
While the cold breeze blows in your face
Noisy geese go flying south
To a warmer brighter place
Autumn sits by the open fire
Or snuggles under the duvet
Jack Frost pays us a visit
It gets spooky early every day
Autumn's the smell of warm tomato soup
Fine new colours appear
Animals hibernate and leave us lonely
In the autumn of our year
COMBINE HARVESTER SONG P5/6 BANKTON PS
Here come the combine harvesters
Cutting grains from golden sea fields
Slicing like a knife spreading butter
While birds eat the left-over yield
Juicy crunchy food is dug from the ground
For people like us to eat
Carrots in a funny shape, cabbages and peas
Onions and tatties and neeps
Epic conker battles on the tired old grass
While horses rest in their stable
Food that is Fair Trade, fruits from the trees
Laid on the church harvest table
We celebrate that God has given us food
Thank you for our blessings, we say
For the wonderful crops he gave us
Time to sing hymns and pray