Author: Jack Robert

Holes which is written by Louis Sachar is about a boy getting punished for “stealing the shoes” of Clyde Livingston. Clyde is a famous basketball player. The boy in this book is called Stanley and he gets sent to Green Camp lake where he had to dig lots of holes. At the camp Stanley meets other people and starts to bond with one in particular, Zero. Zero is a boy who isn’t very smart and Stanley has to teach him to read and write. Suddenly zero tries a get away and everyone is camp tries to find him. No luck, But Stanley didn’t stop and he got his reward. He found him under a boat keeping himself alive with a gloopy juice. Stanley manages to persuade him back to camp and in no time they were back at home partying with Clyde Livingston.

The Author is trying to get a message across in this book. This message is that punishments can get as bad as this         (digging holes all the time). He has got very good description for example his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-Grandfather.” He also has lots of characters in the book ( Stanley, Squid, Clyde Livingston…) which needs to have good description. He has put two stories into one book because of when he tells the story of his Grandfather. I would say this is an adventure book because of the adventure Stanley goes on and all through the book where Stanley goes through different stages.

Personally I liked the book and I would rate it 4 1/2  out of 5. I liked this book because there was lots of description and there was never nothing interesting going on. So for example Stanley is always digging and finding something interesting. At the end of the book it is a surprise because He ends up sitting next to the person that he got accused of stealing his shoes. I would read this book again.

On the 25th of September P6/7’s from Islay and Jura went to Oban for Stramash. Stramash is lots of exiting outdoor activities made for experience and making friends. First we got on the ferry to Kennacraig then it was a long bus journey to Oban. That was when we got to meet the instructors and get told our groups and rooms. Everyday we got told our timetable and on the first day I had cannoeing but the bus was late! The next day sounded fun anyway.

I got up out of bed and was told I had Castle adventure. Once we got there everyone had to say about the sounds around you and how we felt. My group made a very fun mud slide which caused one tragedy later on in the week. Soon after lunch my group had gorge walk. Gorge walk was really cold last year so I wasn’t looking forward to it. First we scrambled into our wetsuits then headed to the gorge. Suprisingly we got to see a red squirell. We also got to float down on our backs. I WAS ABSOLUTLEY FREEZING!

On the 2nd and last full day I awoke very tired. After breakfast my group had climbing and absailing. It came to my mind that it was going to be fun. We had to have a harness and a helmet to keep us safe. Once we got there we climbed on rock then two others. For me the last one was the hardest.

Later just before lunch we got told we were doing coasteering with Adam, so once again we had to clamber into our wetsuits and bouyancy aids. I knew coasteering would be fun because I did it last year. Coasteering was all about going around the coast climbing and then swim a bit.  Last year we got to jump of a rock and I didn’t do it but this year I was determined to jump.

That night the teachers decided to take us swimming, we also went last year but it wasn’t as fun as this year. The swirly flume was amazing and I got stuck in the middle of it but thankfully I managed to get out. Noon came and because it was the last night we had a fire and lots of games at the beach.

Sadly Stramash had to come to an end.  We only had time on the last day to do one activity which was bush craft with Rich. We did bush craft in a woods and got to make a fire. WE ALSO GOT TO TOAST MARSHMALLOWS! After that we had to say goodbye and start heading back to Islay.

Overall Stramash was really fun and I would definitly go back to Oban. My favourite activity was coasteering because you got to jump of a rock.

by Jack

In the last few weeks every Thursday primary 5-7 have been going swimming to practice for the swimming gala. We have been learning how to get better at front crawl and back stroke. My favorite part is when we do lengths at the end. The swimming gala is a competition for the whole school. The races are separated into classes and the points from 1st 2nd and 3rd go to the three houses, Texa, Nave and Orsay. At the end there is a relay race. The fastest boys and girls from p6/7  race at the end. There is a house with the most points and they win the swimming gala.The swimming gala is on the 5th of march.

On Saturday 2nd of December port Ellen primary had a Christmas fair. lots of people came to buy different crafts made by the children. There was different stolls that sold different things all separated into the classes. In p6/7 everyone was giving a food to bring in for a hamper to win at the fair. The p4/5s had to bring a bottle in for the bottle stoll. The p6/7s made some jars, necklaces, fidget spinners, snowman building in a bag and stress balls. The jars were £2.50, the necklaces were 50p, the snowman building was 20p, the stress balls were 50p and the fidget spinners were 20p and also we made cupkakes to sell. The cupkace competition happens every year for the p6/7s. We get mrs macdonald and mrs leask to taste each and say who tastes the best and whos looked the best also on the day we keeped watch to see who sold out first and overall the rocking reindeer won and thier cake was salted caramel flavour and thier icing was snowflakes. Overall the whole school made £2909.15 on the Christmas.

In Port Ellen Primary there was new captains chosen for the different houses. Most houses have one captain and two vice captains but this year Nave one of the houses had three vice and one captain. All the houses are based on an Island around Islay. Orsay’s captin is Rowan Morris and their vice-captins are Matthew Campbell and Sophie Macdonald. Texas captian is Rebecca Morris and their vice csptains are Jack Shaw and Abi Logan. Naves captain is Lauren Macdonald and their vice captain are Sarah Maclenan Taylor Swanson and Mara Magilvery.All of the houses have chosen a foundraiser and a sport for each tearm.

by Matthew and Jack