Author: Jo Clark

Recently we have been having lots and lots and lots of snow and wind making power lines to snap and fall over, some of us were without power for over 24 hours. The isle of Arran are STILL without power and might not have power until Friday, workers and electricians are working hard trying to get power back on the road for everyone. Port Ellen Primary School’s internet is routed through Arran and since Arran is down the Port Ellen Primary has no internet, which means we missed our second Glow meet with India. There was a weekend with cold dinners and no toast and tea but thankfully everything (apart from Arran) is back to normal.

By Emily & Cameron

On Wednesday 6th of March it was World Maths Day. This is when we go onto World Education Games and play maths games against people from all over the world. You can collect medals and try to get into the hall of fame. It’s really fun looking at peoples avatars because some have blue hair or are in the sea! Everybody loves seeing who they’re going to play against and we try to play a game against eachother.
By Elinor

This years World book day started on the morning of Thursday 7th March and Port Ellen started by dressing up as your favourite book character and bringing in your favourite book. I dressed up as Tanya from bad Girls by Jacqueline Wilson. Elinor was  Miss Marple from Agatha Christie, Ellen was Tracy Beaker from the Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson and Danni was Miss Bat, the chanting mistress from The Worst Witch Strikes Again by Jill Murphy. Lots more people were also dressed up as their favourite character. Port Ellen had a great day and we all stayed in character up until school ended.

By Emily

For the the last few weeks P6/7 at Port Ellen Primary School have been doing Scottish Country Dancing. They have been learning lots of dances for a big dance up at Bowmore. At Bowmore they will be meeting lots of people from other schools and they will dance with them at the big dance off. They will be dancing the Bampkin, CircleWaltz, Flying Scotsman, Canadian Barn Dance, Strip The Willow,Virgina Reel, Gay Gordon, Saint Bernands Waltz and Miss Macloud.  Dancing is fun.

By Asher and Danni

Our new topic in science is electricity and how it is created. During the February Holidays we had homework! It was to design on paper a new wave machine device (to create electricity). When we got back to school we put our ideas together into one big one. So far we have made a power point on our own device and lots of different devices we learnt about. We have also made a big version of our new device on paper and a prototype made out of K-Nex. The 4 designs are called: The Dunlly, The Doghnut Device, The ERCEE and The Super Sweeper! We are entering the designs into the Saltire Awards JR.

By Emily Logan

On Wednesday 23rd January Claire and Ciara came to our school. They taught us a gaelic song and put it together with some instruments. Emily,Elinor and Eilidh played their accordians, some people played the tin whistle and the rest of us played percussion instruments. When we had finished we put it together and it sounded really good!

By Emily

Our topic is Rivers In The Classroom. Two weeks ago Mr Brazier came to set up our tank for our topic. In class we made a giant river display with mountains and trees on the wall. We also made a floor book to record things that we learn. Today Mr Brazier came in to give us our salmon eggs and we were so excited about it. Mr Brazier showed us a power point to show us how to look after our salmon eggs and what to do. He told us about the water they live in. Then we all got to see the eggs. I felt so happy. Then Mr Brazier went away. By Ciara.

Today we had a visit from Mr Brazier. He showed us a presentation he had made on rivers. There was lots of interesting facts. One of the facts that I thought was very intresting was that it isn’t good to plant trees commercially near a river because it means that the river will be shaded and plants won’t be able to grow and that also means the fish won’t get all the food they need and they might die. We got our eggs and we are all very excited there are lots of them and they are very small!

By Emily

P5 are learning a new topic about rivers. We are going to be getting salmon eggs to hatch in our class. We are all excited about it. Last week Mr.Brazier came and put our tank in for us and next week he is coming to put the salmon eggs in the tank. Everyone in the class is looking forward to having the salmon eggs in the class.

By Annie

Welcome to our quadblogging partners from Bidston Avenue Primary in Birkenhead, Woodston Primary in Peterborough and Plympton Primary in Adelaide Australia.  We have started off by writing a few blogs telling you what life is like living on Islay and we hope you enjoy reading them.  Thank you for leaving a comment, and we we will reply to any questions left.

On Islay there are 8 working distilleries and 1 non working distillery in total.  The distilleries are called Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Coal Ila, Bunnabhain, Kilchoman.  Islay is the best island known for producing its whiskey. Islay distilleries produce lots of bottles a year and thousands of liters.  Mundells deliver the barley to all the Distilleries except for Laphroaig who make their own like only 6 other distilleries in Scotland.  Every year the distilleries hold an open day to represent their new bottle of whiskey and Ardbeg have there own theme.  They all have it towards the end of Spring.

MRS CLARK ADDS: I think Bruichladdich may grow their own barley as well.

On Islay there is lots of different festivals like Halloween and new year. There is a famous poet called Robert Burns and we celebrate his life every year by saying poems that he wrote.  We also eat haggis to celebrate as well. Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish that is made up of sheep brains and sheep intestines- it tastes better than it sounds. There is also some more festivals like the Islay show. The Islay show is a festival where lots of farm animals are put into a competition and can win prizes such as money. There is also a big fair, it is for the kids, there is many thing you can do that are fun like going on the bouncy castle and there is a very high rock climbing thing you can go on. Thank you for reading hope you know a bit more about Islay.

by Ewan and Robbie

Islay is a beautiful place to live. I’ll start by talking about the beaches, the beaches on Islay tend to be rocky and seaweed covered, but you can find nice sandy ones. We also have lots of peaty fields and lots of moor land that is very wet. In the center of the Island there are lots of hills. But the Oa has lots of steep clifts and is very boggy and rugged. On Islay we have eight villages, Port Ellen, Bowmore, Port Charlotte, Bruichladdich, Portnahaven, Keills, Ardbeg, Balygrant and Bridgend but only four villages have Schools. We also have 8 distillerees. Islay is known for having some of the best whiskey in Scotland. Islay has lots of cool places to visit as well.

Fishing on Islay is a way for many people to make a living normally they catch crab,lobsters and scallops. Its been around for thousand of years. Everyday people are heading down to the pier to go fishing for a living.  Around about 20 big fishing boats are at our piers on Islay.

Farms on Islay contain animals such as pigs,sheep,cows,highland cows and horses. There are many farms on Islay. Cows eat grass,silage and draff; sheep eat mainly grass. All farmers have sheepdogs to round up their sheep if they’re running wild.

by Liam and Connor

At school we learn a language called Gaelic,we know the colours and phrases like “dearg” is the colour red and “madainn mhath” means good morning we are learning the days of the week and the weather and months and the numbers. “Diluain” is Monday, “Dimaiet” is Tuesday, “Diciadain” is Wednesday, “Diardaoin” is Thusday, “Dihaoine” is Friday, “Disathirne” is Saturday and “Diclo’mhnach” is Sunday. We all enjoy learning Gaelic in school,sometimes it can be tricky pronouncing the words and phrases.

On Islay we like to play football which there is 5 teams they are called Port Ellen, Bowmore, Kilchoman, Islay wanderers, Port Charlotte there used to be two more teams called Laphroaig and Ardbeg. Although football is very popular the Scottish national sport is shinty. We too have a tournament and a after school club. Port Ellen have won the tournament several years in a row. In shinty you are trying to hit the ball into the goals with the shinty stick. Shinty is very similar to ice hockey except it is a small round ball not a puck. Shinty can be a dangerous sport so we wear helmets. We also play rounders which is a sport that is like baseball we like playing sports in our school and we have a sports day we also have a sports club that takes place at 12:00 noon in school.

On Islay people do many types of dancing such as- Highland dancing, Step dancing, Country dancing, Ballet, Hip hop and many more. Highland dancing is when diffrent people dance to the accordion or the bag pipes. Highland dancing is known for junior dancers and also grown-ups. There outfit is a short mini kilt and a silk waist coat worn  under a white blouse with black pumps. Highland dancing is one of Islays most popular and known dancing, country dancing is also very common and known in Islay. They also dance to accordion or bag pipes, they uselly dance with a female and a male together. The diffrent names of the dances are called -The Cananadian Barn dance, Flying scotts man, Gay Gordans and lots of diffrent ones. Islay is quite famous for dancing and everyone really enjoys it.

Sometimes a cinema comes to the island. It is called the Screen Machine.The Screen Machine is a portable cinema that goes round the whole of Scotland. It comes to Islay because we don’t have a proper cinema on the island. It’s a van that has a big screen and loads of seats in it so when you go in it feels like a miniature cinema! When it comes it parks outside the Ramsey Hall in Port Ellen but sometimes it parks in the school playground! That means we get to go in and watch a movie with the rest of the school. On Friday we are going to see Arthur Christmas so we’re all really happy and excited. Right now it’s showing  The Hobbit, Skyfall, Paranorman and Arthur Christmas. I really like  the Screen Machine because it feels really weird sitting in a huge van watching a movie.

By Elinor

On Wednesday 19th December 2012 there was a Nativity at Port Ellen Primary School. Primary 1/2 did the nativity with nursery, we thought it was very good they remembered all their lines. They were clear and they enjoyed doing the play, they liked singing the songs and the audience laughed, we really enjoyed it. It was really good Taylor was Joseph and Sarah was Mary and it was also known as the the lucky owl and Rebecca was the Owl.

On Tuesday 18th December in the Islay High School hall was a fantastic Christmas band concert! The primary school band performed and the High School band performed. There was some solos and duets and great Christmas carols sang by the high School choir and everyone else in the audience. There was some traditional music by a high school band.  All the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves performing and it certainly got the audience  feeling very Christmassy.

by Ellen

On Wednesday 19th December Port Ellen Primary held a carols by candle light, at Port Ellen Primary for the run up to Christmas.   There were piano players, a turkey poem, the Port Ellen Primary band and lots of readings.   We had a selection of Christmas carols and songs, Mr Barlow and Mr Macnulty, accompanied us with a few prayers.   Mrs Campbell, played for us, as well as David Baker, Asher Borthwick and Maisie Logan!   We had lots of musical duets and trios, as well as a solo, on clarinet, flute and lots more.  After our carol service there were, mince pies, shortbread, tea and juice.   Everyone enjoyed it, and overall it was a really good night!