Scottish Maths Challenge Success!

Every year Mrs Clark’s class take part in the Scottish Maths Challenge, a competition where you have to complete tricky maths problems that require you to think outside the box.  It is a great way to improve your maths problem solving skills and learn to apply strategies to help you work out the answers.  Children can opt to take part in the challenges, and there are three sets of questions over the year. One of the questions this year was:

Colin and Tom are on a camping holiday and, at their campsite, they make friends with Fiona. They ask her when her birthday is but, being a bit of a joker, Fiona tells them only that it is one of the following;

May 14, July 12, May 15, May 18, June 16, June 19, July 15, August 12, August 14, August 16.

She then tells Colin the month of her birthday, but not the day in the month, whilst she tells Tom the day in the month, but not the month.

Immediately, Colin Declares “Well Tom certainly cannot know for sure when Fiona’s birthday is.”
to which Tom replies “Ah, but now I do.” “And now I know when it is as well,” comes back Colin.

When is Fiona’s birthday? Explain your reasoning.

Quite tricky!

The children who took part have been very successful and should be proud of their perseverance and skills.  Ellie and Matthew have achieved a bronze medal and Eva, Ruaraidh, Rowan, Rebecca and Kaitlyn achieved a silver medal in the competition.  Kaitlyn and Rebecca missed out on the gold by one point!  Well done everyone.

Christmas Cupcake Challenge

imageAll of P567 have been working hard at the Christmas cupcake challenge making bubblegum, chocolate orange, lemon sherbet and honeycomb flavour cupcakes for their enterprise task. They all look great!

Snappy Snowmen

imageFor the Christmas fair Snappy Snowmen are making penguin light bulbs to hang on your Christmas tree and we have made 9 of them.We have also made scented candles.The pink candles are rose scented and the orange candles are orange scented and we have made 13 of the candles all together.  The last thing we have made is Christmas bugs with pine cones as the body and green Pom Poms for the neck and 2 red Pom Poms with Googly eyes stuck on top.We have all made balance sheets; Rebecca and Holly made the balance sheets for the Christmas bugs, Sarah made the balance sheet for the penguin light bulbs and Ruaraidh made the balance sheet for the candles and Kaya made the tags for our items.  I hope people buy our products.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Primary 7 have been busy decorating the Christmas Tree ready for the Christmas fair this Saturday at 2pm.  The tree was kindly donated to us by Laphroaig distillery, and we think it looks lovely.image

Archaeological Dig

p1020314On the 25th of August, Port Ellen Primary along with their teacher Mrs Clark, Mr Gairns, Mrs Logan and Struan’s dad Mr Colthart, went to a fascinating archaeological trip to the Giant’s Grave. We were going there because we really wanted to learn about Islay History. As we got onto the bus, I was filling up with excitement. We were in the bus for quite a while until we got to Nerabus. As we got off the bus, I couldn’t wait to start walking to the Giant’s Grave. Also, Professor Steven Mithin walked with us.

On the trip, we walked one hour and ten minutes to the Giant’s Grave. Before we got there, my friend Abi fell into a big stream and got soaking wet. When we were all set we started walking again. On the way, we saw loads of blood red and white mushrooms. They looked really interesting. Finally we got to the Giant’s Grave. I thought it looked amazing and very inspiring. It was as peaceful as the sun crawling up a hill. As we were strolling to the heart of the dig I gazed at the awesome rocks forming the Giant’s grave.

 

After we had our break, we got up and circled around the Grave. We listened to the archaeologists from Reading University explain about the Giant’s Grave and what they think it used to be six thousand years ago. After they told us about the Grave, we split up and got into partners to work with the archaeologists to help with the Grave. Rebecca and me went to Tom who told us that he worked in the muddiest corner to dig out the peaty mud that could be burying important artifacts. We got a shovel and started to dig the icky sticky mud.

When we were told to move we really enjoyed helping Tom with the mud and digging. When we moved over we went to a lady named Sarah who helped us take pictures of the site with her. We learned that it was a hard job getting the right angles when you take the pictures. We also took stalk photos when we creep up to the others and take pictures of them. Then, with a heavy heart, we went back to the others and sat in the gazebo. We listened to a Dendrochronologist speak about his job as a person who looks at tree rings on the trunk to see how old it is. I thought that was fascinating that you could calculate how old a tree is by looking at the lines.

 

After we had our lunch, we said goodbye to the people there and we left the Giant’s grave. I really enjoyed myself and I really hope that I could meet them again soon on a different dig. I thought that the dig was phenomenal and I really hope to go again.

By Kaya Middleton P7

WINNERS!

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Last week Joe, Bronagh, Kaya and Murray traveled with Mrs Clark and Mrs Leask to Glasgow and Edinburgh to take part in the Celebration of Science and Engineering run by @scdiYESC at the Glasgow Science Centre.  They were finalists in the Junior Saltire Awards with their Wave Islay design, made with help from Bronagh’s dad Gus, an excellent boat builder.  They tested their devices at the Flowave facility in Edinburgh along with 6 other primary schools and 5 secondary schools, before attending the event and presenting to the judges.  They also took part in STEM challenges as a team, with around 40 other schools, where they had to correct a listing oil rig, calculate pH for crops, stabilize a bridge, build a train and identify oil products.  When we got to the awards ceremony  the Imax cinema was full.  We were shocked and amazed when Heather the weather announced the winners of the primary STEM challenges as Port Ellen Primary School!  We got a great trophy and went and sat back down, only to discover we had also won the Primary Junior Saltire Awards!  What a day!  Below is a video of our Junior Saltire Journey.

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