Author: Mrs Clark

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Anti-bullying Week 2024- RESPECT!

We have been writing essays on what respect means to us.  Here is Brody’s:

Respect is a very important thing. It shows that you care for others. Respect is important to me and many others, and you can show respect daily. It can be helping someone up or holding the door for people. It can be easy as saying please and thank you! Anti bullying week is very important, and it is from 10th November – 17th November.

Respect matters. The reason is that people will feel happy and pleased that you have treated them in the right way and might help you bond with one another and help you make more friends. When you show respect, you will be respected back. Respect always stops bullying when you stand up for one another. As proud as an owl. That’s what you will feel if you show respect to one another.

Disrespect is a very serious thing and should not be used in any situation even though it can be used. It could be violence like punching or kicking, or making fun of people for their appearance or accent etc. Bullying is serious and respect is very kind and humble.

I pledge to not Disrespect or bully anyone because that would be mean and disrespectful.

YouTube player

 

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Invisible Fiends Review

Barry Hutchison, is the author of many books! He was born in 1978 in Ireland and right now is 46! He made his first book in 2010; INVISIBLE FIENDS and then started making more series and books. In total he made 70 books, for children and teens!

I Have just finished the book INVISBLE FIENDS’ MR MUMBLES by Barry Hutchison; to be honest I thought it was called Invisible friends but anyways! It was AMAZING! I loved every single bit! It starts off with the main character that is named Kyle properly about 11 who thinks he has an imaginary friend and turns out he is right! But his once friendly friend wants to unleash mayhem on the WORLD! With his new friend’s help called Ameena they will work together to survive!

This book’s theme is a spooky scary monster type of theme, and I just love it! The author had exceptionally good descriptions about the main character, but at the same time I feel that he could have added more description about the other character’s but here is an example of one is my favorite quote: “He had had jolly, rosy cheeks, but now they were paled and wrinkled” It describes one of the main characters which I love! Because it reminds me of how once a character was but is not anymore and Mr. mumbles is one of my favorite characters, I really recommend this to people who love to read spooky stories especially on Halloween month! It makes it even better, in my opinion of course! But in the end, I really enjoyed this book, it just lives rent free in my head and properly always will. So overall I am going to give this book… Drumroll! 5/5!!!

Hannah P7

Mr Mumbles: Book 1 (Invisible Fiends): Amazon.co.uk: Hutchison, Barry: 9780007315154: Books

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Book Review Of Marcus Rashford Breakfast Club

This book is an adventure book. This is written by Alex Falase Koya. This book was inspired by Marcus Rashford for kids to like books and football. My favorite quote from the book is “Now, that deserves an investigation.”  I chose this quote because I liked it, and it sounded cool.

This book is good for people because it’s about an adventure and football and monsters. This book is set in a high school of a couple of kids who are in a club. They made they investigate strange characters and the mystery of the treasure hunt. Marcus Rashford is a brave person who is always destined to find out what is going on and he likes football. He finds the mystery with his friends. The theme of the book is Marcus working together with his friends.

Children would enjoy this book because it is about finding a monster and at the end it is a person or a dog. I liked this book because it reminded me of a comic because it is easy to read. This book should be recommended for 8-year-old’s because it a bit tricky. I really liked the fonts of the books. I think the author done an excellent job to make kids read this book really remind me of planet Omar. Both are funny and cool. I would recommend this to kids who like adventure books and mystery. I would give this 5/5.

By Alfie P7

The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Treasure Hunt Monster

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Book Review of Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox is an adventure book written by Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl is a world-famous author, and he wrote 37 books. My favourite quote from the book is “One fat, one short, one lean” as it describes the three main characters.

This book is like other Roald Dahl books because it is funny and has got all sorts of different characters. The setting of this book is the three poultry farms, and the tree where the fox lives. The story is about a fox how steels from the three poultry farms to feed his growing family, but they are not happy. Mr. Fox is very brave because he goes to the three poultry farms without getting Cotte.

The theme of this book is looking out for family. Children would like this book because it makes you laugh out loud, like when Mr. fox went out of the tree and the tree farmers are hind a bush and shot of his tail. I enjoyed when Mr. fox and the Littel foxes went on an advencher to get out of the tree because it was getting dug up because it was exiting. I liked that the writing was funny and interesting. The dinner scene in the book reminds me of the Mad Hatters Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland.

I really enjoyed this book, and I give it a four out of five.

Bonnie P7

Fantastic Mr. Fox

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Book Review Of Cherry Tree Farm

Cherry tree farm was written by Enid Blyton. Enid Blyton has written 762 books but she sadly died in 1968. This book is an adventure book. My favorite quote out of cherry tree farm is “We’re going to go wild, we’re going to go wild.” This my favorite because it shows that they are going to have fun. Books that have kids in them make you feels that you are in it.

The setting of the book is on a farm surrounded by countryside and woods. This is a story that tells you to look after wildlife and it tells you about different animals. Tamilan is a wild man who lives in the wild and meets lots of animals and loves watching animals.

The theme of Cherry tree farm is a farming and the countryside. Children would like this book because it shows you lots of animals and lots of facts too. I enjoyed it when the kids thought that it was raining frogs in a thunderstorm. I think that this book is for people who like wildlife and I think that this book is for people over 8 years old. I think this book is a wee bit funny. This book reminds me of Mr Galeano’s circus because there is animals in both books. I really enjoyed this book because I can learn about different animals so I give this book 5/5 rating from me.

Kirsty P6

The Cherry Tree Farm Story Collection (Bumper Short Story Collections)

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BOOK REVIEW OF SKELLIG

Skellig is a fantasy book written by David Almond. Skellig was written in 1968. My Favorite quote from the book was,

‘I was sure I saw for a second the ghostly image of her wings’,

because I thought it was a good quote for an ending because wings reminded me of Skellig having wings.

This book has many different meanings. Skellig was based in a new house where Micheal and his family moved, with a shed where a strange person lived with wings called the Skellig. This book is a story about a mythical creature called the Skellig that Micheal found in his abandoned shed. Michael gets Skellig something called number 27 and 53 from the Chinese’s menu. Skellig is dying but Michal needs him to save and help his baby sister.

Michal was a boy who had a mum and a dad that were really stressed because they had a baby with a disease and had a new house to work in. The theme of the Skellig is overcoming stress and fears. Children would enjoy this book because it has a lot of twist and turns and is weird in a way that makes it fun to read. I enjoyed it because it was a weird fantasy that has a beast creature person that is funny, and I liked how Skellig memorized his order 27 and 53 and the fact it was full of mysteries.

Skellig was full of emotions from happy to sad it made me laugh when Skellig tripped other the stone on the way to new hideout and I was sad when I read that the baby was in hospital. I think David Almond achieved making this sort of strange book. This book also reminded me of the enchanted woods because of the wondering what comes next and all sorts of mythical creatures. I rate it 4/5.

Neil P6

Skellig

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No Ballet Shoes In Syria Book Review

This book is written by Catherine Bruton. The characters are Aya the main character, Aya’s mum and Aya’s little brother Moosa! It all started with an eleven-year-old girl named Aya having to flee her home in Syria with her family.

You might enjoy the book from how relatable it is to you or how interesting and spreads awareness for refugees! Personally, I enjoy how interesting it is and how it’s based on real things that could be happening in other people’s lives. As it has war, injuries and death people (people as teachers and parents) might not want a young child reading it, personally I recommend it for either nine or ten plus! Parts of the book were a bit upsetting knowing that Aya knows she’ll never see her friend’s little sister, and her mum and her think they’ll never see Aya’s dad again, this made me sad for Aya and her mum even though it’s just a book.

There was nothing I really disliked about the writing except from when the author wrote a bit too much about the exact same thing. I think Catherine Bruton did a fantastic job at writing this, not only making an awesome book she is spreading awareness about the refugees and the wars.

My Favorite quote from the book is “A mother’s fountain of tears flows forever”-Mrs. Massoud. Compared to all the books I’ve read this is one of my favorites!

By Scarlett P6

No Ballet Shoes in Syria : Catherine Bruton: Amazon.co.uk: Books

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Citizenship Group Nave- Nurture and Rights Respecting

Nave house have been working last term on Rights and Nurture in our school.  We made a plan in our floorbook and then we actioned some of the ideas.  We made a positive pants display for the school, we designed nurture boxes to go around the school with fidget toys in so people can access them when they are worried or anxious, and we planned and sourced a friendship bench for the playground which we are going to paint like a rainbow. Looking after our mental health supports our right to relax and play and to be healthy.

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Texa Citizenship- Eco Group

Last term we were in the citizenship group dealing with Eco matters in the school.  We carried out a beach clean with P1-7, we put up labels around the school to remind people to be eco friendly, for example switch off the light when it is bright and we did a survey of the school grounds to see what improvements could be made.  Our next steps as a group will to be make bird houses and bird food for the animals as we come into winter.

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Blytheswood Boxes

Every year one of the school houses organises an event to raise money for the Blytheswood shoebox appeal.  In this way children are supporting the rights of people around the world by providing them with extra resources they may not have. This year it was the turn of Texa house and then organised a fun sports afternoon.  Lots of money was raised thanks to kind donations from parents and items were purchased to fill shoeboxes- we managed to fill 35 in total!  Well done everybody.

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Citizenship- Orsay Reading Group Term 1

We came up with lots of ideas about how to improve engagement of our Reading Culture within our community.  We then had a vote on our ideas and we chose to put story stones in the woods.  Unfortunately our original plan backfired due to lack of permission from a land owner and so we contacted Mr MacTaggart who is the new owner of Cairnmore Woods.  He is currently in discussion with his insurance company to check if  this is possible.  In the meantime we have been creating our story stones with a partner by drawing a picture of a character from our favourite books and then doing a recording of what we think about the book.  This will then be put on a QR code for the back of the stone so that our community can hear about our favourite books.  We have been working with the Ileach to share our reading news too and also been working with the This is Islay Podcast team to share our learning to a different audience.

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Harvest Topic

P45 have been doing an IDL this term on harvest.  We looked at harvest from the land and the sea.  We made mini carrot cakes using local carrots, we used the graters and peelers safely and responsibly. 🥕 🥕🧅We are learning to use different cooking skills, and we explored two different methods of cutting using a knife. We made soup using a lot of local produce, grown in Port Ellen.

The children met Fiona from Islay Natural Heritage Trust who helped us forage for seaweed in our local environment. We found lots of seaweed and used a key to identify the species. We then learnt that you can cook using lots of different types of seaweed and we made Carrageen pudding, the seaweed made it go really thick, like jelly! lots of use tried our pudding and some fried seaweed, there were mixed reviews!

🤿 Gordon visited us to talk to use about diving around Islay and Jura for scallops. We learnt about what we can harvest from the Sea. Gordon showed us his diving equipment and even allowed us to have a shot of his goggles!🦞We also tasted a range of produce that is harvested from the sea around Islay. We tasted mackerel pate, scallops and lobster. Laurie’s Dad kindly allowed us to see a lobster that he caught in his fishing boat. Laurie showed the class and talked about what his Dad catches and how the boat catches different shellfish. 🦞After tasting we voted on our favourite food and created bar charts to display our findings.

The children worked hard to create lovely invitations inviting parents to our Harvest Lunch on Wednesday 2nd October and we even wrote our own prayer.  Our invited guests, which included the OAP lunch club, came along to eat the lovely soup and crumble we had prepared with local ingredients.  All the classes performed for them and a great time was had by all!

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Beach Clean

We spent the afternoon cleaning the Co-op beach as part of our Eco citizenship groups plan leaning this term.  The children worked as a team to gather all the rubbish and make our beach a safer and cleaner environment for all.

🌎 SDG 6- Access to Clean Water  14- Life Below Water

✨ UNCRC 24 Good health and clean water

 

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Titanic!

P5 have been learning about the Titanic for their topic this term.  We went to the beach to observe boats by the peer. As we study the Titanic, we tried looking at how we might use perspective to help us draw a boat.  Then we went back in time to try and get a better understanding of what it would have been like to be a passenger on the Titanic.  We listened to a survivors story… it is so interesting! Finally the children braved the weather to set their Titanic models free into the sea. Some were slightly more successful at sailing than others… Everyone got soaked but it was so much fun!

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Easyfundraising

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for Port Ellen Primary School with easyfundraising? There are over 8,000 retailers on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis & Partners, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds. All you need to do is:

1. Go to link  and join for free.

2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to Port Ellen Primary School at no extra cost to you whatsoever!

There are no catches or hidden charges and Port Ellen Primary School will be really grateful for your donations. Thank you for your support.

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Trip to Bridgend Woods

P12 from across the island had a literacy filled trip to Bridgend Woods. What an adventure they had! We loved our trip on the big bus, even if it was a little cosy, meeting all our new friends from across the island and having our yummy packed lunches too! Our focus today was ‘Room on the Broom’ and we began by listening to the story in English and Gaelic. We had a witches cauldron to make s’mores, we had to help find all the characters in the story using a map, scavenge for things in a hunt and even made magic wands too!

 

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Nature Wands and Sycamores

ELC have been enjoying exploring the different seasons and are beginning to identify the different features of Autumn time as we move in to a new season. We are aware of the different features of Autumn and has enjoyed looking at sycamores and making them fly. We enjoyed going a wee walk this morning to collect some autumn materials we can use to make pictures !🌸 We have also been enjoying learning a song about sycamores.⭐️ ⭐️ I am aware of the different seasons. ⭐️ I am beginning to identify features of Autumn. ⭐️ I can be creative using a range of different materials. 👣We will continue to learn about the different seasons and explore Autumn further over the next term.

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Snail Fun!

P12 have been doing a Julia Donaldson topic and we went on a snail hunt! This week we have been reading Snail and the Whale and wanted to do some snail investigation. We also were kindly given some snail shells from Miss Clark who told us some super facts about them. You can see our Snail floorbook is full of questions.

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Our Floorbooks

Floorbooks are used to record the children’s thoughts and ideas. They can mark make, draw pictures and we scribe their learning. This term we have been learning about ourselves- what age we are and what our favourite thing to do in nursery is.

⭐️ ⭐️I am learning to mark make.

⭐️I can share my thoughts and ideas.

👣 The children wanted to draw and talk about their families. Please can you send us a family photo. This could also be airdropped in the morning if you are unable to post it to seesaw.⭐️

✨I have the right to a name. (Article 7)

✨I have the right to an identity. (Article 8)

✨I have the right to an education. (Article 28)

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Endeavour Competition with Kew Gardens

During the holidays we received great news, that Port Ellen were a commended school in the Kew Gardens Endeavour competition!  The competition was to find out about the secret life of trees in your local area and write about them.  P67 had learned about how Islay has actual rainforests! They are some of the last temperate Rainforests in the UK. They visited one of the places at Olistaidh, where they did observational drawings of the trees.  They then researched them and created presentation fact files about the rainforests and where they are.  One of these files are featured on the winners page on the Kew Gardens website.

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Leavers Assembly

We said an emotional farewell to our P7 pupils on Wednesday with our leavers and achievement assembly.  After a great musical introduction from Mr McDermid’s musicians, Rachel, Evie, Freddy, Brody, Ayla and Ella, we watched the P7 memory videos.  We had a lip dub in the middle and then the final song.

After it was the achievements:

  • Ayla and Thomas were sport champions
  • Evie won the Drew Brown Memorial trophy for maths
  • Hugh won the Endeavour Shield for his Hydraulics project
  • Rachel won the citizenship trophy

Good luck P7!

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SILVER AWARD WINNERS

On May 21st we had a virtual online visit from a UNICEF education advisor, Jenny Price and another teacher from the Borders. They had a busy morning, meeting lots of children, staff and parents online and talking about our Rights journey. She spent lots of time looking at our evidence and discussing with the rights steering group how Port Ellen Primary were rights aware. She said children were able to talk about their rights and were able to expand on their knowledge and understanding, talking about how they were safe in school and how they learned to be healthy.

We are proud to announce that we have been successful in achieving our Silver Award and are now Rights Aware. The award is granted by UNICEF UK to schools that show good progress towards embedding children’s rights in the school’s policy, practice and ethos. Our children and staff feel rightly proud.

Thanks to all who have supported this journey so far – we are now going to take the next steps towards being a Gold Rights Respecting School.

 

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Islay’s Chough; An endangered species

Mrs Clark’s P6/7 Class have been learning about Chough. The Topic, suggested and designed by Evie Wood with help from her Dad David Wood from the RSPB has seen the class learning all about one of Islay’s most endangered species – The Chough.

Chough are members of the Corvid family, along with Crows, Ravens and Jackdaws. There are less than 50 pairs in the whole of Scotland, occurring in only two places in the country, Islay and Colonsay. They are predicted to become extinct in less than 50 years.

An iconic species with their curved red beak and matching red legs – they are a culturally significant species on our rugged west coast landscape.

The children learnt that the Chough are at risk because of habitat change, lack of food, inbreeding, destocking and possibly climate change.

The class visited the RSPB Oa Reserve one afternoon in early June. There they met the Site Manager David Wood. The children were shocked to find out what the main features of a Chough diet are.

One of the main food stuffs they were surprised by, were dung beetles, which can be found in cow pats and other nutritious poo!

All the children were given gloves and a tray, they proceeded to go to David to get their trays filled with cow poo! They had to search through the poo to find as many dung beetles as they could. In one cow pat, there was over 20 beetles!

The children found 4 species of Dung Beetle: Geotrupes stercorosus, Aphodius rufipes, Aphodius pedellus, Teuchestes fosser. As well as Clown Beetles, Rove Beetles and all sorts of beetle larvae.

The children learnt that to help the Chough we should support nature friendly farming, provide them with nest sites, in old barns and caves, reduce the use of veterinary medicines in livestock, grace the right habitats and closely monitor the population.

The children were lucky enough to see Chough flying to and from their nest site through telescopes and binoculars during their visit.

David Wood travelled to Somerset to the Yeo Valley Farm to speak at a conference with leading experts from the Dung Beetle World – he will be sharing details of his work with Port Ellen Primary School for all to hear.

By Evie Wood

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Zero Waste Fashion Show P34

 

Recycled Couture at Port Ellen

P3/4 in Port Ellen Primary recently put on a fashion show to highlight the issue of clothes waste. They have been learning about where their clothes come from and what happens to them after they are outgrown.  The children were shocked to learn how much clothing goes to landfill each year and how some designer labels end up being burned. They watched an inspiring video about a New York design label called Zero Waste Daniel that reuses left over scraps from the fashion industry to make unique items. The children brought in lots of old clothes and they designed and made new items of clothing that they modelled brilliantly at the Green Ninja Fashion Show, to parents and members of the community who had helped out teaching sewing skills.

Niamh Dunn, P3, writes..

Have you ever thought about the clothes you throw away? Did you know that 300,000 tonnes goes to landfill every year! Some people just bin their clothes when one button falls off and don’t bother to repair them! That is horrible so we need to do something about it!

It is bad for the environment because it releases toxic gas and can get into the water and harm the wildlife and the world. It also uses lots of the world’s resources.

Everyone can try to stop wasting beautiful clothes. Everyone can help. You could recycle your old clothes or repair broken ones, don’t just bin them!

Finn Shakespeare, P3, writes..

Have you ever through about the clothes that go to landfill? The average person in the UK spends £980 every year on clothes but 7kg of clothes waste per year goes to landfill! That is crazy so we need to do something to stop this!

It is bad for the environment because it releases bad gas and uses lots of resources. Some clothes get burned or get buried. Is that all we can do! We can do better.

Don’t just bin your jumper if one button falls off. Repair it! Another thing you can so is recycle at the clothes bank.

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Signs of Spring in ELC

ELC have been looking for signs of spring.  They visited the Cherry blossom trees and they met a baby lamb.

🌸 Cherry Blossom Tree day today and what a day for it ☀️ the children had great fun explored the secret garden. We had snack under the blossoms, swung in the hammock and did some beautiful blossom tree art. Amazing Spring day 🌸

We had a lovely wee visitor in our garden today, Willows mummy and daddy brought a little lamb 🐑 in to see us, she was very cute and a big hit with all the boys and girls 🐑☺️ ⭐️I am learning about sheep and how to care for them 👣👣we would love to have a trip to a farm to see lots more animals

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P12 are Pirates for the Day

Well me hearties, what a day we did have!! Today we learnt to be pirates, we dressed the part, found buried messages in bottles, used maps, followed and created instructions and problems solved to find the hidden treasure! Well done boys and girls, we hope you had a super day! A special thank you to The Copper Still Coffee for being awesome and providing us with our treasure! All part of our explorers topic!

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Solar Punk Outdoors

P67 have been involved in an Education IDL pilot called Solar Punk this term. THE PROJECT-A challenge to design and brand your unique neighbourhood on an island that is based on the principles of the 15 minute neighbourhood rules and Solarpunk movement.

The children became passengers on a shipwrecked boat and had to work together to create Solar Punk Island, turning a section of the island into their own habitat based on ideas of sustainability.

They created designs for architecture, built renewable devices, learned to filter water, made gardens and spent a day practicing skills in the woods and the beach.  See the video:

 

 

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