Here are P3/4 just kitted out in the newly arrived waterproof gear. Of course they had to go outside to test it! The maps got a bit soggy!
Weather
Primary 34 topic this term is weather. They have been finding out which clouds are which, facts about storm Henry and they have been making graphs on excel about how high wind speeds are. We have made rain gauges and anonometers to measure the wind speed. We have also made an animation of the water cycle. It was very interesting to learn about.
Bird Facts with the Nursery by the Eco Group
The nursery are doing a topic on birds and they have a bag of bird seed that will last a whole year.
Also they made bird food balls and this is how you make them you get: bird seed, bread crumbs, bread crusts and water. The crows try to steal the food but they can’t because the birdhouse that they made it too small for the crows to fit in. They have also bought new bird feeders.
At Joint Sessions with P1/2 David Wood from the RSPB has been working with the children and he came into the school to tell them about birds and went bird watching around the school grounds with the children.
Since the weather has been horrible they weren’t as many as they had hoped. They saw lots of geese in the field and lots of Black Hoods Crows.
Beach Clean! :)
Last year on Friday 9TH October we did a beach clean.We each slit up into different groups.Each group got a bag to put all the rubbish in, grabbers and gloves so we don’t get germs on our hands.We had Rejig to provide us with the equipment as they do every time we have a beach clean. After we tidied the beach we got biscuits. Then we headed back up to the school knowing that when we go down to the beach it will be nice and clean.
By Joseph Hamilton and Mirren Brown
The Brilliant Book Group
The book group, which is one of our citizenship groups, is starting again. We are planning to run a library club, decorate the library, do some book swaps, buy new books, and do something very exciting for world book day which is on the Thursday 3rd March. We are going to dress up as our favourite book character, we are also going to organise a lending library. We are going to make a suggestion box for the library as well.
Media Group Is Back With A Bang !!!!!!
The new and improved media group has new and improved ideas about how to improve our community and school. We have some great new ideas – News letters for parent, different sorts of blogs like internet safety and Port Ellen school movie.
The new media group will continue until the end of term and by the end of term we want t be successful by showing what we have achieved. We do this every Friday afternoon.
This media group is trying to get the community to know whats going in the school. We hope you enjoy seeing what the media group have achieved.
Crofting Group
One of our Citizenship Groups is Crofting. As crofters we are planning to grow trees, flowers and vegetables like potatoes, carrots, pumpkins and a few other things. We have five raised beds that we are going to use. We will need to prepare the beds before we start to plant our seeds. We are going to dig up the croft and plant lots of veggies. It is going to take a lot of work.
ENTERPRISE GROUP
The enterprise group are going to be making soaps this term to sell to places on Islay. In our group is Murray, Jack, Darren, Freya, Ruaraidh, Alexander and Charlie. Our slogan is we are soaptastic. We have a logo with a world on it. We want to experiment making different kinds of soaps. We will have our notice board completed. We will research and type up 5 key facts for our notice board. We will have a group photo.
Global Citizens
This is the Global Citizens. We are trying to make the world better to live in and trying to support Fair-trade and other charities. We will be trying to make money to donate to special charities that really need our help.We will be also be having a tea and coffee morning with Fair-trade food.
Fair-trade means trade between companies in developed countries and fair prices are paid to the producers.
By The Great Global Citizens:)
The Fantastic Eco Group
On Friday afternoons Port Ellen primary all do citizenships and one of the groups are called the Eco Group and the people that are in the Eco group are Holly, Abi, Kaya, Katie, Matthew, Rowan, Sophie and Harmony. What the Eco group do is we try and do litter picking to keep Port Ellen playground tidy. On some of the afternoons we do beach cleans to keep the beach clean and we are hoping to clean the pond, have an Eco day, plant flowers, tidy the round house, clean up the weeds and plant trees. Also our slogan is SAVE THE PLANET!
By The Fantastic Eco Group.
Swimming School Nationals
On Saturday 30th January I went to the swimming nationals in Tollcross. It was double the size of the local pool because Tollcross is 50 meters long and Bowmore is 25. Tollcross was built for the commonwealth games. There was about 1,500 people including spectators and swimmers. There was 10 lanes in the pool so it was 10 people in a race. I was swimming backstroke and the person in my race broke the Scottish record. I came 30th out of the whole of Scotland. We also got a swimming cap, a t shirt and a jumper as souvenirs.
by Ross Thompson
Writing Competition
P567 entered a writing competition around Argyll And Bute. We had to write a story based on a piece of art. The people who came 1st, 2nd and 3rd got books for a prize. After we wrote our essay, the people in our class voted to see whose essay was the best in our class. The people who had the most votes in our class got entered to the competition. I got entered to the competition and when the results for the competition got announced, I came joint second! I had so much fun writing it and I look forward to other writing competitions throughout the year! Read my story here https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ab/SAL/files/2016/01/JASMINE-MIDDLETON.pdf
The Fabulous Burns Day
On Monday 25th January 2016 all of Port Ellen Primary School had a wonderful ceilidh and Burns dinner. At 12 O’clock everybody in the school had a lovely Burns dinner and on the menu was mince and tatties or haggis, turnip and mashed potatoes. After the lovely lunch at 1.30 we had a Burns day ceilidh. At the ceilidh they had poem competitions, highland dancing, chanters, accordions, bagpipes and lots of Scottish dancing. For primary 1 the winner was Mya, for primary 2 the winner was Ciara, for primary 3 was Dearbhla, for primary 4 it was Ellen, primary 5 it was Rowan, for primary 6 it was Kaya and for primary 7 it was Bronagh. Everybody had a brilliant day and wished it had never ended.
5/6/7 TOPIC POETRY AND ABSTRACT ART
P567 have been doing a topic on Poetry and Abstract art. First, we looked at some abstract art online by famous artists. We said how we felt about them. Then, our teacher said that we could make our own abstract print and a poem to go with it. We all planned our poems and our print. I did Nightmares as my poem and I made a print with it. Afterwards, we planned a poem with at least 3 verses. We also learned about Kennings, Hakius and a few other poem sorts. We all made our own Kennings. We really enjoyed our topic very much. 
P5/6/7 Swimming Lessons
P5/6/7 go swimming on Tuesday mornings to get ourselves ready for our swimming gala. We learn how to do front crawl and how you take a breath. You do three strokes and tilt your head to the side and take a breath. We also learned how to float; you take a deep breath in and then go onto your front or your back. We also learned how to sink you take a deep breath and when you are under water let it all out and then close your mouth. That is what we do at swimming lessons.
Endeavour
This term is the time our class is really starting going with Endeavour. Endeavour is when you choose a topic to do by yourself and our class have written a letter to someone who could give us advice on our topic. Here is an example of our topics; Book writing, Card making, SSPCA, RAF and baking.
The Fabulous Panto
The children of Port Ellen Primary School had a panto and P5/6/7 and part of P4 had most of the main parts but all the classes were on the stage at the end. The panto was called What a Knight and it was about the legend of King Aurthur. The main characters are Kitty and Watt Cobblers they are mother and son. They were played by Ruaraidh Macdonald And Eva Munro. It was on the 10th and the 11th of December 2015. There was also bad guys in it and they were the Black Knight and Ernie and Bernie Blackhead and they were evil. Then we had Princesses Alberta, Alfreda and Alice. Two of them dressed like princesses and the other one was like a peasant. And at the end we were singing with the audience Winter Wonderland and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. I really enjoyed it.
Muffins P5/6/7
P5/6/7 of Port Ellen primary school have been making muffins in their table groups. The table with the most profit wins. Here is what they made. One table made a mint icing Christmas tree with a chocolate sponge. The next table made Santa feet sticking out of the snow with an apple and cinnaman sponge. The next table made a snowman face with a red and vanilla sponge. And the final table used a star design with a chocolate orange flavoured sponge. Some tables spent more than others on there cakes and some tables can’t make a profit on how much they have spent. We did a taste test; first was the snow man, second was the tree, third was the star, and 
fourth was Santa feet.
Written by
Ross Thompson
The Amazing Christmas Fair
The whole of Port Ellen Primary School will all help to setup the Christmas Fair on the 5th of December. There will be loads of cool creations to buy. P1/2 will be baking for the Christmas Fair, P3/4 will be making sweets and selling them and P5/6/7 will sell sock monsters, homeade calenders, mugs with hot chocolate,marshmallows,candy canes and also cans made into lanterns with holes that make constellations. There is a hamper with lots of biscuits, wine, chocolates, mince pies and lots of other brilliant things. Santa will also be there in his grotto and everybody is looking forward to buying loads of things. Come Along
Space
This week p5/6/7 have started on their topic space. We have learnt about our solar system and that Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system. We know that here is a moon or two around a planet and there is also 8 planets in our solar system. We can’t wait to learn more!
We also made constellations from spaghetti and marshmallows. Here is a Chatterpix of the constellation Cancer:
The National Mod
We went to the national mod in Oban. Two choirs went and they were the boys choir and the mixed choir. I was in the mixed choir with lots of other people. There was only 3 boys in the choir. Everybody stayed in a hotel but there was so many people that there had to be people in the Corran House and people in a different place. The mixed choir got two firsts and either a second or a third. We had a great time and there was even enough time for shopping!
Why is Orienteering Fun?
We think orienteering is fun because you can get to increase your fitness and stamina which can make you more healthy. It can also help you improve your teamwork with others which will get you more involved in other activities.
The National Mod
On the 6/10/15 Port Ellen Primary School went to the National Mod and I was in the boys choir and it was our very first MOD and we came 2nd in our competition. We were in all the newspapers the ileach the Oban times. We stayed in 2 hostels then the mixed choir came in 1st and they were even on TV in the recording studios. I really enjoyed it.
ICycle Tests
On Thursday 29th October the whole of p7 did their cycling proficiency tests after practising for a term. Everybody passed the practical with an A or B, and no one got a C. Once p7 got back up to Port Ellen they did the written test and everybody passed so it was a success for p7. We also completed road safety posters as part of our learning. Well done everyone for all your hard work.
HALLOWEEN PARTY
Port Ellen Primary School had a Halloween party.We all got dressed up in our costumes and danced to spooky music in the lunch hall. First was the best costume competition. Rowan and Rebecca won for the p5’s, Murray won for the P6’s and Katie won for the P7’s. We all played Statues (when you have to stay still when the music stops) and Corners (a game when you have 4 corners and when the music stops you have to run to a corner) and finally we played musical bumps (it is the same as Statues but you have to sit down) Soon after we played Cat & Mouse. Soon after, we had a little snack and after we finished our snack. Soon after, we went dunking for apples and we ate them when we got back to the hall. We were crestfallen when we had to go home!
Our Solar System
For our topic we have been working on the solar system. So far we have learned what is the closest planet to the sun which is Mercury. In school we have been working on the eight planets they are all surrounding the sun.
We have also been learning about the rocky and the giant planets. We are going to tell you about the rocky planets. They are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Now we are going to tell you about the giant planets. They are Saturn, Jupiter , Uranus and Neptune. Neptune is the furthest away from the sun it is 4.5 billion km away. Neptune has 165 years to complete orbit. We are learning lots.
Port Ellen Harvest Tea
We invited some pensioners from Port Ellen village to come and have a little afternoon tea. We normally have a harvest assembly and hand out bags, but now we only have three classes we decided to have an afternoon tea. The choir sang some of their songs for the national mod in Oban. We also had some other people in classes doing some performances, P1/2 did a prayer, P3/4 did a song and dance and P5/6/7 set the hall up and handed out the cakes and if they wanted any more tea we would get it for them. I really liked the chocolate cupcakes!
Book Review
In September P567 started reciprocal reading groups. My group was Joe,Eva and Kaya we were reading Vivian French’s book The Robe Of Skulls. It was about a lady called Lady Lamorna and she was a woman who was buying a dress with skulls on it. She did not have enough money to buy it so she grabbed her assistant Gubble, he is a troll. She told him to get two donkeys for a journey for getting gold from castles. Eventually they introduce a girl who gets locked in a basement because of her step father Mange. Gracie’s mother had died so she lived her whole life also with her step sister except the whole story changes. They go on a quest and everyone has fun. I enjoyed reading this horror style fairytale.
The Amazing Black Tide.
Black Tide is a book by the author Caroline Clough and had lots of adventure. The main character is Toby and in the book he had to try to rescue his little sister Sylvie and his dad. They had been captured by invaders and held captive. All the people who are invaders had a NC tattoo on their wrist and Toby used that to tell who to stay away from because the invaders were after Toby as well.
At the beginning Toby had been captured but managed to escape but he didn’t manage to save his family so all through the book he was making up plans to save Sylvie and his dad. He met a girl called Natasha but all her friends call her Tash. In the middle of the book there are dogs and Toby called the biggest, fluffiest, blackest dog Cerberus after Greek mythology.
The author is Caroline Clough and she came to our class for the book fair. It was amazing when she came in and she told us about her family and her childhood and how she became an author. She said there will be another book called Silver Seas and I am really excited about it coming out!
Police And Fireman Visit
On Wednesday 28th October a policeman and a fireman came to our school to talk to us about firework safety. They told us what to do when you were finished with a sparkler which was to dunk it into a bucket of water and to wear gloves to protect your hands. They also told us what to do if an adult lit a firework and it didn’t set off, which was to stay away from it and tell an adult.
The fireman told us that they have to attend to bonfires set off by kids and since they have to attend to this, they can’t attend house fires because they will be busy putting out the bonfire. They also told us that to keep your pets inside like cats, dogs etc. They can either get frightened or hurt. So remember this information and stay safe during firework night!
