To finish off our learning about life in Islay through time we made a feast of things that might have been eaten two hundred years ago. We made bannocks, oatcakes, potato soup, stovies and our own butter. Everyone agreed that the food was not too bad long ago!
Yesterday P4/5 went to Port Charlotte. First we went to Port Mor swing park to have a play and then we went to see the chambered cairn that is in the field. I thought that it was pretty amazing that it is still there even after thousands of years.
Then we went to the museum and it was fun because we got to hold all the flint and stone hammers. There was a bit deer antler that was used as a hammer. I quite liked that we got to see the other things like the big huge lightbulb and the things from World War 2. Mara told the museum about her Grandpa Hector’s stone that he donated to the museum and they printed her off a copy of the Object Report. It said it was a flat stone with a carved cross.
After the museum we went to Port Charlotte school and we had lunch and a wee play the students showed us some Mesolithic bones and sheep hair from the past and broken pieces of pot .
By Mara and Ellen
On our trip we went to Finlaggan and it was so nice. When we got there, there was a little cottage. It was a light brown and it looked brilliant. Me, Orla and Dearbhla got out of the car and hid next to another car to hide from the people in the mini bus. Everyone went in to the cottage and we met Mr Bell and Mr McCowan. We talked about Finlaggan and then we went to the islands.
At the little island there was once a big grey house and a Great Hall. It was amazing and cool because people where living there 1,000’s of years ago. We were put in to two groups, we went around the little Island there were lots of signs around the Island that told us lots of facts. Our group leader was Mr. McCowan. We saw old ruins and the old graveslabs. We saw where the well was and where the kitchen would have been.
After we had had the tour we got put into three groups to do some investigating of our own. We had to do measuring, maps and art. It was soon time for lunch which we had in the cottage. We also had a chance to look at some of the things that had been found during digs at Finlaggan. The most interesting thing I saw was the Lord of the Isles home.
I rely enjoyed that we got to go and see the stuff on Finlaggan
Before we headed back to school Mr McCowan and Mr Bell gave us some crunchy M and M’s – a tasty end to a great day!
Freya Porter P5
Port Ellen Primary School have just got some colourful, outdoor drums for our playground. The drums have been put in beside our stage which has just been done up. They look good together as they are both bright and beautiful. Ellen and Morgan think they are loud, popular and FUN! There are five sizes of drums and they all make different sounds. All the pupils and staff are very happy with them.
The school got a grant of £500 from the Fourteen Fund and the same from Diageo. The drums cost £1600 so the rest of the money came from the Parent Council. The school paid for the stage to be fixed. The pupils and staff would like to say a huge “Thank You” to everyone who helped to make it possible.
The drums are a great addition to the playground and the pupils think they are amazing.
Aiden Munro (P4) said “The drums are really good to play with because they make different sounds”. Mrs Campbell (Treasurer from the Parent Council) said “The drums look and sound fantastic”.
By Rhuraidh Blair (P4) and Aiden Munro (P4)
120 Children from across Islay and Jura took part in the Active Schools Primary Rugby Festival. Having already taken part in a series of coaching sessions with Allan Wright Rugby Development Officer over a series of weeks the children were looking forward to the festival. Children from P4/5 and P5/6/7 from Port Ellen took part.
During the day the children took part in several drill’s and games to develop their skills. These sessions were refereed by nine of the Islay High School Sports Leaders. The Children’s skills noticeably improved as the day progressed. A special thanks goes to the Islay Rugby club for organising some of the travel and snacks for the Children who attended.
P4/5 have been learning how, during the Neolithic, people started to move away from being hunter-gatherers and started farming. They began to build permanent homes. They worked in groups to build models of Skara Brae as well as Iron Age hillforts, roundhouses and crannogs.
P4/5 have been finding out about the work of archeologists and how they go about finding evidence of the past. They took part in a mini dig, tried to reassemble bits of old pottery and dissected a Stone age poo to find out what people ate long ago.
As part of their learning about Islay Prehistory P4/5 went up to see the standing stone outside Port Ellen. They were amazed at it’s height up close and how people long ago managed to get such a big piece of rock into a stand
P3/4 have been conducting lots of different plant experiments using fair testing techniques. They have chosen one variable and kept all other conditions the same, testing for heat, water, light, soil and plant food. One group was amazed to see a broad bean growing in sand! The beans in the boiler house germinated and grew really quickly but the leaves were very pale and the plants did not look too healthy so we decided that a combination of heat, light and water works best! They worked in groups to produce a scientific report using powerpoints. Some of the plants will be used in the Pocket Picnic garden.
P3/4 have been learning about parts of a plant and what each part does. They have also learned about photosynthesis – the process where plants make energy for carbon dioxide and water using energy from the sun and chlorophyll in leaves. They used a new app on the ipads called Explain Everything to show what they had learned.
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