Primary 34
P4/5 were challenged to design and build a coffee table out of newspaper and sellotape today. The design criteria were that it had to hold up Mrs Harrison’s cup and be a the right height for someone sitting on a chair. There were lots of innovative designs and some excellent teamwork. Here are the winning designs. Sadly the mug got broken when one table collapsed!
P4/5 have just started their new topic – all about Dynamic Earth. They have built model volcanoes using paper mache and have been learning about different types of lava. Here they are investigating different viscosities and rate of flow. Our pretend lavas were water, oil and golden syrup…..the syrup was so slow flowing that the bell went at the end of the day and everyone had to go home!!
On Saturday 4th June Port Ellen Primary School choir went to the Local mod on Islay. The mod was held in the high school in Bowmore. The choir won the unison and came 2nd in the peaurt a bheil. Also ten people from the choir won the psalm. For the unison you have two songs and in our first song Mrs Macdonald made a mistake so we thought there was no chance of us winning but with our second song, Latha Math, we did really well and we got high marks for Gaelic and music from the Judges which meant we won. Lots of individuals did well also- Rowan was covered in gold medals! The Primary 1-3 class also did a fab action song. We really enjoyed taking part and improving our Gaelic.
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.
P3/4 are now officially plant scientists. Along with lots of other schools from across the country we are taking part in a scientific experiment to find out about the effect of space on plant growth. We were given two packets of seeds from the Royal Horticultural Society – one normal rocket seeds and the other a packet that have been to the International Space Station with Tim Peake. We have learned all about fair testing and randomisation and the seeds are now sitting waiting to grow. We will keep you posted of progress and our results!
Our first rocket seed has germinated!! It was only planted 2 days ago!!
On Monday 25th April P3/4 went to see the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust boat. It is called the Silurian.
The Silurian was fancy. It had ten beds, a toilet, a shower and a galley. On deck there was a huge steering wheel and dials. A digital map was on top of the steering wheel. There was a thing that tells you how much knots the wind is going. The boat is 20m long, double the size of my dad’s boat because my dad’s is only 10m.
I learned about whales and dolphins. The biggest whale in Scotland is the minke whale and the smallest is the porpoise.
By Drew, P3
On Monday we went to visit the Silurian. It was awesome. There were ten beds. We had to search for things up on top of the deck and down below the deck. They had toilets and showers on the boat.
Then we did learning about whales and dolphins where we listened to the sounds they made under the water. I learned that sperm whales have 40 teeth in their mouth and they go deep down into the sea and use clicks to see their prey.
By Donald, P4
On Monday 25th April we went down to the pontoons at the pier to see the Silurian which is the boat of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust. We had to put on life jackets.
The Silurian was a yacht. It was very nice and fancy. First we investigated the boat. We found out that the boat had ten beds, a galley, a bathroom, a dining room, a crows nest, a steering wheel, two masts and sails. The front of the boat is the bow and the back is the stern.
I learned about basking sharks. I also learned about the sounds of dolphins and whales and that people listen for the sounds underwater using a hydrophone.
By Ciaran, P4
