Our Learning Blog

On Monday the 19th of june 2017 port Ellen Primary held their sports day. It had been canceled 3 times before and then it finally managed to get it on. There was lots of fun events for the little and older children. But the most important event was the decider for the sports championships, it was the hundred metre sprint. It was the decider for the boys but it wasnt the decider for girls. Sports day is always a fantastic fun day. This year it was really close for the boys championships. There was only 25 points in it and when it came down to the sprint Ruaridh beat the leader by hardly anything and they tied overall. All the little ones love sports day they have a blast every year and they will always have fun then it came the prize giving. For boys it was 3rd Andre Cruz Second Darren Hamilton 1st Ruaraidh Macdonald and Struan Colthart. For the girls 3rd Lauren Macdonald 2nd Natalie Logan and Eva Munro 1st Sophie Macdonald. Now they sat down and everyone will have a blast next year.

On Wednesday 21^st of June Primary 7’s from all round Islay and Jura went for their very first induction day to Islay High School. We had to get the bus over to Bowmore at 8:18. We had to go into the hall to find out our houses. The McBeans from Port Ellen Primary are Natalie Logan, Ruaraidh Macdonald and Eva Munro. The Bryce’s from Port Ellen Primary are Struan Coltart, Darren Hamilton and Kaya Middleton. The Winnards from Port Ellen Primary are Kaitlyn Clarke, André Cruz and Ellie Mackie.

After that we got to write out our timetable. This year our classes have been split so there is a 1BM class, which is half of McBean and the whole of Bryce. There is also 1WM class, which is the rest of McBean and the whole of Winnard. We had the senior children help us around the high school to take us to our classes. We got showed what classes we would be tacking after the summer, and we also got a little taster of what we would be doing after the summer. 1MB get different teachers form 1WM, which was quite different because we always got to have the same teachers.

I really enjoyed High School and was quite sad to have to come back to Primary School but I am really looking forward to going to Islay High School after the summer.

By Eva Munro

On Tuesday 27th we had a picnic lunch to celebrate us winning the STEM awards, we got told there would be a surprise at the end so we were all very excited. When everyone got downstairs there was music playing and everyone was dancing around, they all looked very happy. There was cakes and sandwiches. We all then got told to look out the door and listen. We then seen and heard the ice cream van, we were all very surprised. Everybody got a free ice cream. We went outside for a break and to eat our ice cream, when the bell rang everyone went into the hall and we watched Sing the movie. At the end of the day everyone was really happy.

By Ellie M

On Tuesday 20th June all of the p7’s and S1’s joined together to do a problem solving morning in the high school. We had to go round to different stations and complete lots of different challenges. After we have completed the challenges we have to get a mark form the older people that were at each station. We had to get either a mark of 0,5 or 10. You got a 10 if you figured out the answer to the problem and got it right. You got a 5 if you nearly got it and had good teamwork and talking and you got a 0 if you didn’t work together and didn’t get the answer. I enjoyed doing this because it made us think about lots of different types of questions and how to work them out. It was also good fun because it was like an early induction day and we got to meet and talk to lots of people who we will go to high school with. Doing this challenge we did numeracy and literacy. My team won the numeracy and the overall points. I think everyone enjoyed those tasks and had lots of fun.

Every Wednesday afternoon we do Endeavour, Endeavour is a personal topic that we learn about or a year. at the end of the year we have an Endeavour fair to show what we have achieved in the year, different Endeavour topics in our class are:

Holly-birds                                             Sophie-animations                                             Lauren-bath and beauty

Ellie-toys from the past                       Kaitlyn-cake decorating                                    Abi-photography

Sarah-giant pandas                              Natalie-horse care/riding                                 Eva-beauty and skin care

Struan-the body                                    Darren-golf history                                            Andre-graphic novel

Aaron-art                                                Rhys-kodu                                                           Taylor-sports

Matthew-comics                                   Jack-golf                                                               Charlie-the Cal mac boats

Aidan- deforestation                          Ruaraidh-book making                                      Rowan-magic tricks

Rebecca-Islay kids website                  Kaya-poetry                                                          Ciaran-engineering

On Thursday 8th June sports day will be held at Port Ellen Primary School.  For the sports championships we have/will be doing cross country, distance throw, football dribble, long jump, baskets, obstacle course, high jump, hurdles and on the day of sports day we will be doing 100m sprint. We are doing sports championships because we like to have fun, enjoy ourselves and to play sports to get fitter. We also have trophy’s and medals that people win for coming 1st, 2nd or 3rd. When you do the activities you get points, 1st=100 points, 2nd=75 points, 3rd=50 taking part=25 points.

On Thursday 18th May Port Ellen primary made a timeline out of tapestries. It was right from the Mesolithic times to WWII.  Some of the timelines we made were The Battle of Trigh Guniart, Port Ellen in 1820s, Kildalton Cross, Finlaggan, Higland Clearenses, WW11 Boat Planes, Tuscania and Kilbride Chapel. Everyone in the school took part, with help from the Islay Quilters and other members of the local community and some people made a banner for the Feis as well. A lot of the tapestries are for monuments in the past and the timeline will help us remember our history.

The primary 7s at Port Ellen Primary will be going to High School soon and every year when primary sevens leave the class P5/6/7 help make a video to show on the last week of school about the Primary sevens. This year we have included animations to go with the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. Everyone in the class created a short animation to go with a line from the poem. To create an animation we used IMotion. We had to make sure that the animations went with the line of the poem we had picked. The animations took a long time because you take a photo of something then you have to move it a little bit more then it keeps going like that.  We hope you like the finished movie.

On Friday 26th may in port Ellen at the co-op beach there was a community festival. They were selling cakes, drinks and toys. Up to a certain time the burgers and drinks were free however eventually the burgers and drinks were £2.50. All the stores were giant tents and they were constantly crowded.

Most of the people from the school were there and people from all over Islay where there too. More than one hundred people were just wandering around, either playing on the beach or talking. There was about 5 people running each store and they were constantly busy.

Some people were sitting down on the beach however no one went too close too the water as everyone wanted to buy something when the lines went down. The toy store shut down at about half seven however most other stores were still running.

Most people started leaving at around about eight to either go to their home or just to have a walk around the beach. The stores started to close and go out of stock so people shut down their store which made people leave.