We are now starting clubs for the summer term since P567 have had training in leadership skills. A club will run every day lunch break. On Monday is football run by Ross, Ronan and Darren, on Tuesday is rounders run by Ruaridh, Bronagh and Matthew, Wednesday is fitness club run by Struan, Katie and Taylor, Thursday is art club run by Mirren, Sophie and Joe, Friday is book club run by Eva, Ellie and Kaitlyn. All of these clubs will be starting next week on Monday 25th april 2016. The clubs will be enjoyed by every single person in the school.
Respect Value
Port Ellen Primary School has 4 values they are respect, resilience, honesty and success. We have been talking about respect. We have come up with different ideas of how to show respect here are some of our ideas. Be kind and caring to everyone around you, remember your manners, Don’t be cheeky to adults. We have been talking about this at our early assembly’s on a Monday morning. We are going to have a character for respect value and all the other values. We always get told on assembly’s on a Friday to always respect one another. Every week we will pick a new value and we will discuss that one until the next week.
The Scottish Mathematical Challenge
This year pupils at Port Ellen primary school took part in the Scottish Mathematical Challenge where they had to answer problem solving questions 3 times over the year showing their working out. To get a bronze award you couldn’t lose more than 10 points, to get a silver award you couldn’t lose more than 6 points and to get a gold award you couldn’t lose more than 3 points. Rebecca, Katie, Ross and Matthew got a bronze award and I got a silver award missing out on a gold award by only one point! I feel happy because I got a silver I am also very surprised because I didn’t think my problem solving was that good. One of the questions was “Maureen, Alice and Siobhan are three young sisters, in that order of age. Alice is two years older than Siobhan. Each year, their wealthy aunt gives each of them, for each year of her age, as many pounds as she is years old. For example, on her first birthday a girl would receive one pound and on her third birthday nine pounds. The aunt has promised to continue this family custom with each girl until her twelth birthday. This year Maureen received as much as Alice and Siobhan put together.
How much will Siobhan receive next year?” I found this quite tricky. There was also a question about a diagram that represents a rectangular net, which is made from string notted together at different points. Another one was about a diving competition where there are 5 judges that each awards a whole-number from 1-10 and you had to work out all the possible scores awarded. It was really challenging but helped me get better at my maths problem solving. There is an award ceremony in June in Glasgow. Next year I will try to get a gold.
Easter Assembly
P3/4 put on a fantastic Easter Assembly and Daffodil Tea for parents afterwards. The audience enjoyed the performance and great singing. We even made our own stained glass window backdrop for our assembly, which told the Easter story.
Investigating Microclimate
P3/4 have been investigating the microclimate in the school grounds. They used digital thermometers on loan from the Royal Meteorological Society to record the temperatures at different places in the school grounds. It was a great way to consolidate all they had learned about maps as part of their orienteering. They then worked in the group to produce a scientific report complete with prediction, method, results, bar chart and explanation. A great piece of work!
Waste Week
Last week the Eco group decided to do a waste week and try to find out how much packaging gets wasted at lunchtime in school.
We collected it for only three days. There was quite a lot and I don’t think that it was very good. I think we should do the waste week again because on Tuesday 15th we collected 650 grams and to me that is very wasteful. On Wednesday it got a little better and then on Thursday it was the same as Monday, terrible. Hopefully we might be able to do it again and try to improve and have less packaging that gets wasted.
by Rowan
The Rock Cycle
P567 at Port Ellen Primary have been doing Geology. This includes learning about rocks. So, we learned about how all the rocks are formed. They are formed by a cycle which is the Rock Cycle. There are 3 types of rock groups: Sedimentary rock, Metamorphic rock and Igneous rock. First, little broken up pieces of rocks, called Sediments cement and compact together to make Sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock then heats up and gets lots of pressure building up on it. Then it turns into a Metamorphic rock. Next the Metamorphic rock travels to the core of the Earth and melts into magma. When magma crystallizes, it makes Igneous rock. Finally, Igneous rock then experiences Weathering, Erosion and Depostition. Then the Igneous rock turn back into Sediments. Then, It starts again. The process of the rock cycle takes millions of years to complete. When we were learning about the Rock Cycle, we all made A3 posters and we drew a diagram on the Rock Cycle. I thought learning about The Rock Cycle was really fun.
The Great Day of Sport Relief
On Friday the 19 of March all of Port Ellen primary walked down the streets collecting money for Sport Relief, even the nursery. The places they went to ask for money was the park, the Cyber, the Islay Hotel, Lennox Street, the Columba Hall, the whole village streets and the doctors. But before that long walk we sold lots of cake to everyone in the school. The amount of money we raised was £405.17. Well done and thanks.
Science Club
Mrs Clark has started a club called science club on Wednesdays from 3:30am to 4:30pm. We have done it for 2 weeks; the 1st week we did it we were doing looking for worms for citizen science. The next week we did balloon rockets and the boys won by 2 meters with 1 balloon because we put more air in it for the pressure.
Scottish Country Dancing
For the Day of Dance, which is when children from other schools come to Bowmore hall and we all do different dances, we have been practicing different dances in partners. We have learned the Dashing White Sergeant and much more. It has improved our level of fitness and we have learned to work together in groups and partners better. We have also improved our listening skills because we have to listen to the teachers so we know how to do the dances.
It is energetic and you can meet your friends and maybe new friends when we practice the dances and go to the day of dance and we will learn and get better at Scottish country dancing.
