Author: Mrs Clark

On Monday 19th of April Port Ellen Primary p4/5 and p6/7 went to see the traveling art gallery bus in Bowmore. The art exhibition inside was made by Rachel McClean, all of the paintings were made by her and even the paint design was made by her on the inside of the bus’ wall. We watched  one of her movies The Lion and the Unicorn, it was based on Scottish Independence.  She used a green screen to take her pictures, all of the people in the  paintings were her.   The paintings were very strange but did show us what the artists views were and were very clever.

By Nicholas and David

On the 30th April Bowmore P7 came to visit us to find out about our Endeavour projects.  We were partnered with people from Bowmore and met new people.  Before they left they got to try out our Endeavour projects and we answered their questions.  We had great fun.

On Thursday 20th March the Islay High school band and the Primary band went on the ferry to set off for the trip.  Once we got to Kennacraig we got a bus to Inveraray, we had our lunch there afterwards.  Then we travelled into Glasgow and checked in at the Euro Hostel and put our bags in our rooms, later we got to watch a magician.  They next day we met some professional instrument players and they told us all about them and gave us some tips.  On Saturday it was the day of the competition, we went shopping and then we went to get ready.  We went into the school and played our songs on the stage, then we found out our results.  The primary band won the cup.  It was fun and a new experience for people who hadn’t been on a trip before.

P6/7 have been learning about rounding decimals, converting decimals, dividing decimals and multiplying decimals.

Rounding decimals is the same as rounding tens or hundreds etc. If you were rounding  tenths,  you would look at the hundredths and if the hundredth is five or over, the tenth would be one unit higher, like; 1.48=1.5 You take away the zero because it has no use to you at all any more.

Multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000 with decimals is the same as multiplying any digits.  All you do is move the digits to the left. If you were multiplying by 10, you move the digits 1 place to the left, with 100 you move the digits 2 places to the left and with 1000 you move the digits 3 places to the left. It is the same with diving but with dividing, you move the digits the right.

Converting decimals is easy as well.  Zero point four equals four tenths. The four is in the tenth column so in the denominator of the fraction is a tenth and in the numerator of the fraction is four because that is how many tenths there are. The same would happen if there is a digit in the hundredth column, but instead of the tenth it would be a hundredth and the digit on top would be the number in the hundredths column.

By Anwen and Elizabeth

When we started doing our Endeavour, I decided that I would do mine on quilt making.  The first time, I set myself up and wrote a letter to one of the Islay Quilters.  A few weeks after I got a reply from someone called Rae Woodrow, she was one of the Islay Quilters that said she would help me with my project.  I phoned her to say when it would be available for her to come over and she said on a Tuesday at 2, oclock, I was excited!  On the first visit I showed my design and picked the materials to suit my quilt.  I have learned a lot throughout the weeks and I have now got the basics of making a quilt.  I was so interested in making one that I have got four squares finished and two ready to attach them all together.  From now on I  hope to get my quilt finished and I will be entering the Grand Exhibition, it’s for people who have made a quilt or something to do with quilting.

By Danni Barker

Today at the school P6/7 and P4/5 were visited by two Ladies who were from Edinburgh International Science Festival.  The two ladies called Amanda and Charlene came to talk to us about electricity and how it flows. We did many exciting activities, one of the experiments was we had to generate electricity, measured by an ammeter, though our own body energy. Then we charged Hex-bugs by using the energy from our arms and body, we had a race with the charged Hex-bugs. My Hex-bug came second and  his name was Steve the turquoise Hex-bug.

By Eleanor and Beth 😉

On the 19th of March Primary 7 went to Islay high as part of our electricity topic. We took part in lots of different experiments throughout the day. At the start of the day when we arrived we were split into three groups with schools from all over Islay and Jura. There were three different laboratories we were working in, each room had a different focus; one was circuits, one was how electricity travels and the last one was sensors. In the first room there were lots of different ways to wire a circuit and we were looking at many ways to do so we tested series and parallel circuits and even ones that are in computers. In room two we were focusing on how electricity travels. Some of the experiments were making a clock work using a orange and my favorite of the day was lighting fire with our fingers to do this we got a metal dome and charged it up by rubbing a comb on wool while this was happening someone would have their left hand on the dome then we would let gas out of a pipe and the person that was charged would touch the pipe and a fire would start. The last room was exploring different sensors and what they would be used for.  It was great fun.

by Robbie

In class we have been learning how batteries work. Here is a description of how a battery works.

Electrons have a negative charge so they are attracted to the positive end of the battery but there is a electrolyte in their way. The electrons want to go to the Cathode because they are attracted to the positive charge. The only way to get the electrons to the Cathode is when you connect the circuit with a wire and when the electrons pass through the wire they light up the lamp. When the battery runs out of chemicals that create a difference in the electrical charge that means the battery is dead and cannot be used.

by Abbie

On the 19th of Februrary p6/7 went a walk round the village to take pictures of old and inspiring buildings.  I took several pictures of building, landscapes with old houses with natural features to them.  We all got to enter one picture into the competition, my picture was of an old shed with lots of different lines and angles.  The reason I took that picture was because it looks old and interesting to whoever looks at it.  I took the picture at a side view so that it gives the viewer more of a real life look at it through a picture.  I was really pleased to hear I was a runner up in the My Place Photography competition run by the Scottish Civic Trust.

On Friday 21st March we did some fund raising for Sports Relief. We all dressed up in red and the teachers did a bake off to raise some money for Sports Relief. When we tasted some of the cakes they all tasted different and delicious  our two favourite cakes were the rainbow cake and the dragon cake. We had some leftover cakes so we went a walk around the village selling them to raise some more money. For the cake competition in first place was Mrs Clark with her dragon cake and in second place was Mrs Logan with the rainbow cake. We all had a really fun day and we raised £311  for Sports Relief.

By Emily and Eleanor

My Endeavour this year is horse riding instructors and for this I took a pupil horse riding. We went to a horse riding school and I was teaching Emily how to tack up a horse. She was riding a horse called Fiona. Emily said ” I was quite scared at first when I got on the horse but after a while I got used to it and was not scared.” I really enjoyed taking Emily horse riding and now I know what it feels like to take somebody horse riding and take responsibility. I now hope Emily knows more about horse riding and not as scared anymore.

By Jodie Jamieson

On Wednesday 19th March Port Charlotte P6/7 came to Port Ellen Primary school to do some science with p6/7.  We did lots of fun things like building football robots, lego wedo, lemon batteries, lemonade batteries, potato clocks, soldering, scratch, and making video games and making circuits. To make a lemon battery get a lemon chop it in half get a zinc nail and a copper coin and get two crocodile clips put the zinc nail in the lemon and get the copper coin and put it in the lemon then get an L.E.D light get one crocodile clip then attach it to the zinc nail and the other end on the L.E.D light then get the copper coin and get the crocodile clip and attach it to the copper coin and the other one on the L.E.D light and it should work if it doesn’t work that doesn’t matter sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I enjoyed most when Port Charlotte came over was meeting new people and making new friends <3

By Ciara

alicia’s and camerons fractions podcast

A fun way to teach people fractions.

We are taking part in a quiz for P6 in Scotland that is called the Euro Quiz. The Euro Quiz is a quiz that tests you on your knowledge of Europe and the EU.  It was set up by the Scottish Parliament to encourage children to learn about the EU and Europe.  I now know about the EU, when Europe day is, the EU flag,  the EU anthem and the EU motto.

by Anwen Baker and Oliver Muirhead

On the 24th of January, Port Ellen Primary had their annual Robert Burns ceilidh and poem competition. Rowan Morris in p3, won her competition. Here she is saying ‘Dino’s Cafe’.

Rowan poem

The Junior Saltire award is a competition for schools around Scotland to come up with the best idea for a hydro kinetic generator (water power device). This year Port Ellen is entering the competition, if  they get through to the final they get to go to Edinburough University to test it.  Last year Port Ellen made it the finals. This year the power has to be gathered from the strength of the tide, P6/7 have decided to design their devices on tidal  turbines. They have made KNEX models  and power point about their design in our groups and hope to get in this year. A quote from Torin “I think it is really fun and hope to get to the final!” Hopefully at least one design will get through to the finals!

We did an Essay on what sustainability living mean’s to us.   Sustainable living is using resources properly and only use them if you need them.  Everyone had to write about what it meant to them. Other people had different feelings about what sustainability means to them, some people went against the fact of being sustainable and some people agreed. Now they are going to get it entered in the international competition and they have over 900 entries. When we did our Essay we about walking to places instead of taking the car.We also included how we grown fresh vegetables and crops on crofts instead of buying them at the shops.

By Eleanor and Jodie

P2/3 went on a trip to the high school to ask Miss Fuery about what geography and history there is in Scotland.  They asked lots of questions about the geography on Islay and Scotland. They found out about what sand was made of.   Matthew Campbell said that sand is made of diamonds, crystals, shells and tiny stones! People used to come to Islay to climb up a big rock, write their name in a piece of paper and put it in a plastic box. If you got stuck in the middle of that rock you wouldn’t manage to get help because there is no mobile phone signal.

By Emily and Annie

P6/7 entered a photography competition called Scottish Civic Trust My Place Photo Competition. They had to take a photo of architecture. P6/7 walked down the streets of Port Ellen trying to find architecture to photograph. Reflections of puddles and just taking photos normal, old buildings to the modern builds, p6/7 took hundreds of photos of architecture. When P6/7 got back to the school they looked at all the photos and decided which ones to enter in the competition. My favourite  photo was one of the old police station.

We have been doing something called Endeavour and I have chosen my Endeavour to be on puppets. Endeavour is like a personal topic but it isn’t as short as a class topic, we do it all year long until the Summer holidays or the end of the year at school.  What I have done so far  for my Endeavour is I have been making puppets and I have named them Richard and Zoey. Richard is a sock puppet and Zoey is a sock Zebra. I have started on my third puppets head and I am thinking on making him a king to guard a sandwich of magic powers. I am thinking of calling him King Sandwich. Now I know lots about puppet making and puppetry.

On Tuesday afternoon it started to snow, so it was an inside break.  We all looked outside the window to see the snow.  After a while it started to snow really heavily outside.  When it stopped snowing we looked outside and it was all white outside.  But sadly it all melted away. We all wanted to play in the snow.  We were all sad that the snow melted away.  By Emma and Ciara