On Thursday Janet Watersworth came in to our school to tell us about dog training and she gave me a booklet on how to train your dog and she brought in her dog to show us some tricks. I learned how to train your dog what age you have to be and what skills you need.
By Ellie
ECO Green Flag Assesment
Today Paula from Eco schools Scotland came to see if our we could keep all four of our green flags. She said our school is very tidy and she would like to come again. The committee gave Paula a tour of our school grounds. In the hall we had stuff set up for Paula we showed Paula our Eco power point, some of our old endeavour files and some of our new endeavour files, we also showed her primary one and two homemade paper that they made all by their selves. During play time we had healthy soup and we also had a book swap. We have now found out we have our 5th green flag! Well done Port Ellen!
By Annie and Ciara 🙂
Beach Clean
On Friday we all went down to the beach for a beach clean. The storms last week had uncovered lots of plastic bags down near the water line but within an hour the beach was looking good again.
Eco Update
1. Oliver welcomed us all.
2. Mirren was off.
3. our progress- w have made our signs. We have done our spot checks in the classes. We have got our litter police set up an will be changing them every week. we thought about fair trade and we might set up a sample week to see who like what the best.
4. Action plan- litter police problem- sign on the pitch almost one- Start a new action point which is reduce the amount of water waste in water bottles.
5. Go out side and plan what we are going to say.
6. next meeting to be discussed.
7. itinerary for lady coming on monday
meet her
action plan
tour round school
go in to classes
break
book swap
soup
display
By Annie May Farrell- Secretary
P1/2 Litter Survey
P1/2 went round and picked up all the litter from the playground and they made a survey about what they found.
- 2 Cans
- 1 Cole Bag
- 2 Co-op Bags
- 31 sweets and crisp packets
- 15 Bottles
- 1 Lighter
Now the playground is nice and clean. We should all start picking up litter like P1/2. They used some of the litter to make bird feeders
By Elizabeth Macmillan
P1/2 Bird Feeders
Primary 1/2 from Port Ellen Primary school made bird food and feeders for the birds as a Christmas present. To make the bird food that they used Lard, seeds, dried pineapple, raisins, mix, the then used pine cone hanging with string to put the bird food mix on it. They then made bird feeders for their food using bottles that were found on their litter pick one day. They made them by putting a hole in the top where they threaded through some string to hang it up. They then decorated it by wrapping a piece of paper around the bottle which let them draw christmas picture using felt tip. It was GREAT FUN! 🙂
Gardening and making soup
On Wednesday 19th November our class, (p7) went down to the front of the school where they cleared and tidied the raised beds ready for Winter. During
the digging we pulled up lots of lovely parsnips which Emma will make into soup. Yum Yum!
ECO Update
1. Oliver welcomed us all.
2. Scott and jasmine were off
3. Our progress- We have done our pitch posters, chosen our litter police for the week then we will change it every week and we have also started doing spot checks in the class to see if the classes are putting their rubbish in the right bins.
4. At our next meeting we will discuss what we have done and say what we did.
5. We have written our ideas down for the green flag assessment and all the classes have a job to do.
6.We are thinking of doing some fund raising to make money. We are thinking of buying bags to sell and do some fair trade tuck.
7. All of the classes are taking part in getting the school ready for the assessment.
8. The date of our next meeting is Thursday 20th November.
9. At our next meeting we are going to get ready for the assessment.
By Annie- secretary
Litter Police on the beat
The Litter Police have just got their new grabbers and gloves and are patrolling the grounds looking for litter. Ideally they should find none….so remember to use the bins properly!
Transient Art
At their Joint Sessions, the Pre-5 unit and P1/2 have been learning about the 3rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They enjoyed making fabulous pictures using their unusual art materials – straws, pompoms, beads, lolly sticks….but no glue! This means that the material is not wasted but reused each time. Children took pictures of their art instead.
Eco superheroes
The Pre-5 unit and P1/2 made their own Eco Superheroes that are going to save the world. They discovered that they can be eco-heroes too and decided what they could do to help the planet. Check out their ideas on the noticeboard….and add your own. Look out for the Green Eco Hero in nursery!
Looking at plastics for recycling
Have you ever noticed the little triangles on the bottom of plastics for recycling? The Pre-5 children and P1/2 have been investigating a recycling bag to see which numbers were in the greatest number. Here are their results.
Eco minutes 9.10.14
This was our first eco meeting with the new committee.
1. Welcome
2. We met everyone and found out about our roles.
3. Action Plan – We went over the action plan. For the next meeting we have to decide what we want to start with. We will start with 3 action points.
4. Green Flag – Our assessment is on 24.11.14. We will decide what we need to do at the next meeting.
5. Getting the whole school involved – we talked about ways to get everyone involved. New noticeboard. Eco-assembly. New eco-code in all classes.
6. Action to be taken
Eco-committee to decide action points.
Anwen to come up with fundraising ideas.
Mrs Harrison to arrange date of eco assembly.
Media group to make eco code posters.
Secretary to arrange photos of everyone for the wall.
7. Next meeting 23.10.14
Eco update
On the 5TH of November Mrs Harrison received a big box. When she opened it, it turned out to be the grabbers and gloves that we ordered.
That afternoon when we were having a meeting, the new paper bins arrived!
We are all very happy with the things that we got.
Eco minutes 23.10.14
1. Oliver opened the meeting.
2.All there except Jasmine.
3. Progress – Mirren is making posters for the class with the ECO code on it, we got reports from the classes
4. Action Plan –
Litter – We will be getting new litter police from each class and they will only be it for the week then it will change.
We will be getting a new sign at the pitch about eco matters- Rebecca and Ciara
We might be starting a fair trade tuck – Anwen and Eva will look at it.
5. we made a list of Jobs for assessment.
Pond plan for future
Planting
Croft
6. Who needs to do things
Mrs Harrison – order recycling bins
Organise litter police
Anwen – prices
Prepare for eco assembly
7. Next Meeting – 6.11.14
By Annie
Recyled paper Mark II
Our second attempt at making recycled paper, at the Pre 5 and P1/2 joint session, produced a much nicer looking paper! And the wee ones loved sloshing about in the paper pulp!
Learning about recycling
At the Pre-5 and P1/2 joint session the children were learning about recycling. They sorted materials and decided which could be recycled. They looked for the triangular recycling marks on the plastics and discovered lots of different numbers – because there are lots of different types of plastics. These can all go in our pink recycling bags at home!
Eco Assembly
The new eco committee held their first eco assembly. Eco monitors from each class reported to the school what had been happening in their classes – even our Pre-5 eco monitor who closes the door, switches off the light and helps take the fruit peelings to the worms! The committee shared their ideas for the coming year with the school.
Sunflowers battered by the wind
Our fantastic sunflowers, planted by P3/4 last session have finally collapsed in the wind…..but the Pre-5 unit have saved the heads and the birds are now enjoying sunflower seeds for lunch!
Paper making in P1/2
P1/2 have been learning that paper comes from trees. They found out all about the process that turns trees into paper and thought about what this meant for the planet. They think that we should not waste paper, that we should recycle more paper and reuse our scrap paper, and that people should plant a tree for every tree that is cut down. Here we are turning old newspaper into paper pulp – we enjoyed using the zapper! Our first recycled paper turned out a bit grey but we are going to try and refine our technique.
Bookswap
P1/2 held their first book swap of the year. One of their customers was so keen to get some new reading material that she brought 5 books to swap! Swapping books is great fun. It lets you get new books, which don’t cost anything and you can get rid of books that are too young for you. It is also good for the environment – reducing paper being used, and reusing books. The book swap will run every two weeks but remember to fill in a swapping form first!
The Cheeky Chicks
Mrs Clark brought 5 chicks to the school and a mum called Kracken.
The chicks are all yellow orange and are so cute. The mum’s feathers are crazy and are everywhere but don’t tell her that she is ugly because that will upset her, (she thinks that she is beautiful!) Sadly the little black chick, Smudge, has died due to bad weather and is no longer with us.
The chicks have water food and little crumb things around the outside of their chicken coop that Alicia made for her Endeavor last year and looks beautiful.
The chicks have to go home for the holiday to Mrs Clark’s house in case their food runs low and in case of bad weather.
Hope the chicks have a lovely holiday.
By Izzy
Book Festival
On the 3rd and the 4th of October it was the Islay Book Festival. WE got the chance to meet different authors such as Janis McKay, Barry Huchison, Mavis Gulliver, Dannielle Sacrodotti and Badger the Mystical Mutt. It was really good and we learned top tips on how to start your own novel. We then had a chance to buy these authors books so we could read them.(we also learned that a set of three book is called a trilogy!!!) 🙂
Port Ellen Pre Mod Concert
On Wednesday 8th October Port Ellen Primary Gaelic Choir, had a Pre Mod Concert with lots of sing and poetry recitals plus lots of Gaelic and music. That evening we had fiddlers whistlers and accordionists, and best of all lovely home baking and tea, along side a big raffle with lots of Islay whiskey and prizes.
At the end we sang Fama Clamosa with a big last song sorry life, and that night =The Best Concert Ever!!!!! 🙂
Mrs Regli
A teacher from Switzerland came to Port Ellen Primary School. She has been here for 3 weeks, but sadly she is leaving on Sunday 
Mrs Regli has been so much fun and she is great when it comes to music. She helps us with everything. She came with us to the Islay Life Museum and to Port Charlotte. Mrs Regli makes sure that everyone is working hard and not chatting. For her leaving, the class has given her presents and cards made by us. When she is teaching us music, she teaches us Swiss-German songs, a french song and an English song and we play a game called Peter called Paul and an animal version of it.
The whole class is sad that she is leaving but are very happy and grateful that she came and will hopefully come back.
Bye-Bye Mrs Regli :’(
By Abbie and Izzy 
Commonwealth War Graves Commision Ceremony
On Tuesday P7 of port Ellen primary school went to an opening of the the commonwealth war graves information board at Kilnaughton. We went there because there are doing a topic on WWI and we were asked to put crosses on the graves. They put up a plaque to tell you about the people that served on the Tuscania and died in 1918. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. Heres a little fact: the Tuscania was 175 meters long, nearly the size of the Titanic.
The New Eco Committee
Last week we had some interviews to see who would be our new committee. If we wanted to become part of the committee we had to fill in an application and say what we wanted to be and why we wanted to be part of the eco committee. So now we have chosen our committee we can tell you.
Chairperson- Oliver
secretary- Annie
Media managers- Ciara and Mirren
Treasurer- Torin
Fundraiser- Anwen
P1/2 eco monitors- Katherine and Scott
P3/4 eco minitors- Rebecca and Mathew
P5/6 eco minitors- Jasmine and Eva
On the 24th of november we will be getting assessed by the green flag committee.
By Annie Farrell
My great great grandpa’s war memories.
I have been researching on my great grate grandpa because he was involed in world war one. In world war one he had sent post cards talking about how life in the trench was and what it was like training. All the post cards were sent to his wife Jenny and her children. The day that he comes home his wife and family are waiting at the door for him to come in. when he does come in hes boucing around happy that he is not dead at least that what my granny said. A few years later whilst playing golf he contracted phmonia and died. he was born in 1893 and died 1930.
By Emma and Nicholas
The Islay Museum Visit
On Thursday 2nd October we went to the Islay museum to learn about WW1 for our topic. I found out about what life was like living on Islay, there were lots of amazing artefacts to look at. While I was there I learnt about all the people from Islay who went to war, I also found out about a nurse who was sent to the Somme, it was very generous of the people at the museum to let us come I had a great day.
By Torin
P3/4 Harvest assembly
On Wedensday 8th October p3/4 held a harvest assembly for parents and the rest of the school to watch. A week before the harvest assembly we collected lots of harvest gifts for the old. We do this every year and everyone puts in a tin of food and lots of other things in. When all the food was collected they started their Harvest Assembly which was called the little black cloud. Ellen was the little black cloud. It was about a little black cloud who was trying to help by watering everything but everyone was unhappy but at the end the farmers needed the water for the plants and then the cloud was happy again. The moral of this story is that everyone has different points of view. It linked to harvest because when they watered the plants they could use the food as harvest food! We interviewed Abi and Jack they were very kind to let us do this. They both said that they were very nervous at first but they really enjoyed it in the end. Abi was a narrator which she was very good at and Jack was a builder and he was good as well.
By Emily and Jodie 🙂
